Ask questions to Sony Pictures Entertainment insider "paidgeek"

[sj001]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

See my thread, I'll comment momentarily as somebody asked me the same question a couple days? ago.

Thanks, I'll keep an eye out for it!

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by scoobiesnackarff

I am not sure if you are the one I should be asking so if not, I apologize in advance. Like many of us, I have read the multiple articles about the rise in Blu players since the defeat of Toshiba and its format. While it makes sense that this is the time of the year that product doesn't sell that well anyway, do you have any inside information if Sony and/or any other major studio is concerned about the rise in cost and the effect it will have on the consumer buying into Blu in the near future? I am just concerned that the consumer who expected the prices to at least not go up after Blu became THE format might now be second guessing a purchase in the near future.

Thanks in advance Paid.
Alan

From everything I have heard in Sony, player prices will remain about flat, but the features in the players will increase.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by tvted

paidgeek,

I apologise in advance because this likely belongs in the SCE Insider thread but there appears to be no one home.

Would it be possible in some further upgrade to the PS3 to throw those of us who utilize anamorphic lenses at home a small bone that would make the PS3 better still? Can Vertical Stretch be offered as one of the scaling options?

OPPO is adding it to their last SD upscaling player and apparently will be moving that option to their BD players. As this type of display setup is growing in the HT community and most of the current releases are 2.35, it would be wonderful to see player manufacturers add this capability to some of thier devices. I would certainly pay extra for such capability as I would pay extra for specially encoded anamorphic BD, but since that is unlikely if not impossible. how about the other option, i.e. Verical Stretch in the player?

ted

Since projectors have to support scaling, is there a reason not to do the scaling in the projector? Scaling quality is very important to get the best results, so unless the player can do it very well, it should be done elsewhere.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Squozen

I don't want a bidirectional link to a studio. I don't want to be annoyed with polls, or advertising, or rewards. I just want a good looking/sounding disc.

Okay.... the feature is optional...

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by neo_reloaded

I'm having a problem with a Sony-distributed BD title in a Sony player - Species is having some issues in the PS3.

The subtitles portion of the menu (both the main menu and the pop-up menu) causes some kind of interface freezing. The PS3 as a unit doesn't freeze - I'm able to use the remote to access the PS3 command menu, and from there jump to a chapter or something to get myself out of the disc interface freeze - but the directional buttons and the enter button become completely unresponsive. As soon as you go right from the Audio to the Subtitle column, it just gets stuck - you're totally unable to choose subtitles this way.

The actual subtitles are there and work fine - I can access them with the Subtitle button on the PS3 remote. But either the Subtitle portion of the disc's interface, or the manner in which the PS3 runs it, is broken.

I'll check on this.

[tvted]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Since projectors have to support scaling, is there a reason not to do the scaling in the projector? Scaling quality is very important to get the best results, so unless the player can do it very well, it should be done elsewhere.

Currently, the choice of 1080P devices that support vertical stretch for HD source is limited, though I'm sure it will grow as anamorphic setups become more popular. OPPO has always been innovative with their players and their mention of such facility in an upcoming player prompted my wishful enquiry since it is easier to replace a player than a display.

thanks,
ted

[GJN]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

From everything I have heard in Sony, player prices will remain about flat, but the features in the players will increase.

Paid,
Please suggest to the relevant parties at Sony that a player with built-in WiFi or, better yet, an external WiFi adapter a la TiVo, would be very welcome. I suspect that many (most of us?) don't have a network connector near our HD TVs and aren't interested in running another wire to the nearest computer.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

From everything I have heard in Sony, player prices will remain about flat, but the features in the players will increase.

Finally, we're back to those days!! It's the way things SHOULD be. But the People's Republic of Royalty Cheats ruined it for DVD.

Huzzah!

[aygie]

Paid, i have a question about scene selection on a BD menu...

Would it be hard for Sony to implement the same menu option on the PS3 as on the PSP?

On the PSP you can select scenes in the chapter selector to be 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes etc in length. Saving the time to find the right part of the movie you want. This would be great if you could do it on the PS3. Thanks

[Sir Terrence]

Mr Paidgeek sir,
I am doing the review for Life of Brian for this website and I had a few questions.

You stated the original elements had alot of grain and you used Lowrey's process to clean it up. Was it sent there just to temper the grain down, exactly what did Lowrey do to the original to make it look so much better than the DVD? Did the process caused the occassional instability that I noticed?(the picture occasionally jumped). Can you give me a little background on what was done to this release?

I think Sony did an excellent job on this release, and I wanted folks to understand the lengths that Sony went through to make sure we had a nice looking image on this classic comedy.

[blindcat87]

PG,

I posted thanks for you and the whole Sony crew for giving Gattaca the attention it deserved. I would like to double that thanks now that I have the BD in my greedy little hands. Had to watch it on my youngest brothers setup since mine is currently disassembled, but it was worth the effort of forcing non sci-fi fans to watch it with me to experience this great release. I hope all of the Superbit titles come out this well when they find their way to Blu. Great work!

Chris

[Braktastic]

paidgeek,

I just took a look at the cover art from The Devil's Own and First Knight, and they look absolutely horrendous. Sony appeared to come to their senses by replacing the awful initial Gattaca cover with the fine art we have today, so I had thought the Photoshop cover nightmare was coming to an end, but apparently it isn't.

Does marketing actually think these look good? After all, art is a matter of taste, but I can't imagine too many people think these covers are by any means exemplary. Or does marketing actually think using an older DVD release's cover art, especially if it used the original theatrical poster art, is going to confuse buyers into believing the BD is inferior? These are the only reasons I can come up with as to why we wind up with some of the ugly cover art we receive.

Sony isn't by any means alone in this, but since most of the other studios aren't thoughtful enough to give us someone to ***** at, I came to vent here. Lucky you. I do appreciate your contributions here, and I would certainly appreciate it if you could pass my displeasure with the cover art along to marketing. Thanks.

[koukikat]

Here's one for SONY:
How about some sort of incentive for people like myself who pre-ordered the s300 back in early '07 for 500$ and thought they were getting an HDMI 1.3 compliant player that decoded all new DTS formats?? Maybe offer some sort of trade in discount for those who pre-ordered the prior s300 to upgrade to the new s350 or s550, that is of course if they actually release the players with the hardware promised.
That's the only way I'll be purchasing the s550 over the Panny BD50

[Slec]

Originally Posted by koukikat

Here's one for SONY:
How about some sort of incentive for people like myself who pre-ordered the s300 back in early '07 for 500$ and thought they were getting an HDMI 1.3 compliant player that decoded all new DTS formats?? Maybe offer some sort of trade in discount for those who pre-ordered the prior s300 to upgrade to the new s350 or s550, that is of course if they actually release the players with the hardware promised.
That's the only way I'll be purchasing the s550 over the Panny BD50

SPE =/= SCE
Did you receive a discount or rebate when you upgraded your tv? These are the unfortunate pains of being an early adopter. We aren't all happy with them, but it occurs frequently with new technology and we have to grow with it.

[koukikat]

Not quite the same.
I pre-ordered a player that THEY said was HDMI 1.3 among other specs, and then they sent out ones that weren't. It's not that an updated version was released later, I simply didn't get what I paid for.

For your comparison with a HDTV, it would have been equivalent to pre-ordering a 1080p set, then receiving a 720p set instead. You think that is acceptable?

But alas, I know they aren't going to do any such thing anyway. Just blowing off steam I guess.

[Blu n Gold]

I am pretty sure that the S300 is HDMI 1.3 compliant. It is not HDMI 1.3a compliant.

[koukikat]

Originally Posted by Blu n Gold

I am pretty sure that the S300 is HDMI 1.3 compliant. It is not HDMI 1.3a compliant.

It is 1.1
It will NEVER decode or bitstream dts-ma via firmware upgrade, the chipset in it is incapable.

[The Shrike]

Paidgeek, I'm looking forward to cool BD-Live features! Please don't think we all hate extra features.

[Blu n Gold]

Originally Posted by koukikat

It is 1.1
It will NEVER decode or bitstream dts-ma via firmware upgrade, the chipset in it is incapable.

I knew it didn't do the MA at all. I thought for sure that 1.3 didn't mean DD MA. I thought 1.3a was.

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by neo_reloaded

I'm having a problem with a Sony-distributed BD title in a Sony player - Species is having some issues in the PS3.

The subtitles portion of the menu (both the main menu and the pop-up menu) causes some kind of interface freezing. The PS3 as a unit doesn't freeze - I'm able to use the remote to access the PS3 command menu, and from there jump to a chapter or something to get myself out of the disc interface freeze - but the directional buttons and the enter button become completely unresponsive. As soon as you go right from the Audio to the Subtitle column, it just gets stuck - you're totally unable to choose subtitles this way.

The actual subtitles are there and work fine - I can access them with the Subtitle button on the PS3 remote. But either the Subtitle portion of the disc's interface, or the manner in which the PS3 runs it, is broken.

As a follow-up to this question...

I exchanged my copy with Amazon just to double-check that it wasn't a random error. The replacement disc has the same issue, sure enough - but it also brought up a different, kind of odd issue. The replacement I got from Amazon was in a Fox-style BD case, with Fox distribution logos and Fox's style of artwork for the front and back of the case. The specs say DTS-MA, where the Sony release has PCM. The disc has real artwork too, whereas the Sony one was from the timespan where they were just using the generic blue swoosh with just the movie title.

The disc contents, however, are exactly identical to the Sony release. PCM, the subtitle bug, etc.

Can you shed any light on this? Did rights for this MGM movie transfer over to Fox? It seems they just put their artwork and case around Sony's disc contents. Heck, the UPC number is even the same.