Ask questions to Sony Pictures Entertainment insider "paidgeek"

[Cplhicks]

Padigeek-- Has there been any further developments on the possibility of downloadable subtitles? I ask because Sony seems to always leave Japanese subtitles off their US releases (while including a host of other Asian languages). My wife is Japanese and would love the Japanese subs, but the Japanese releases cost a fortune and are often released much much later, sometimes with less features. I would even gladly pay a few dollars to download Japanese subs to go with a US blu release. Is there any possibility of this? Or of including Japanese more, at least on catalog titles? WB did this recently with Harry Potter and Blade Runner, to our delight and surprise.

[MerrickG]

Hey paidgeek,

Didnt that marvelous HD-DVD superbowl ad terrify the BDA? Warner went back to HD-DVD, Disney and Fox went neutral. Oh god it was horrible.

What will the BDA ever do?


As always your time is much appreciated here.

Merrick

[elwaylite]

Whats funny is it wasnt national. Never showed in my market.

[Blu_J]

Sir Geek,

I would like to extend my gratitude and thanks to you and all involved with the work on Life of Brian. I watched on Blu for the first time last night. About a minute or two into the movie I turned to my wife and said "this looks incredible", to which she replied "yeah, it really does". The whole movie through I was amazed with how great the PQ was. I really appreciate the love put into a title that is very special to many although not a cinematic masterpiece.
I would like to know if you were pleased with the results of LOB, and if you think it could have been any better or is it at it's pinnacle.
I am not asking when/if/timeframe for M.P. and the Holy Grail, but I am curious to know if you would use the same process for Holy Grail as LOB.


I thank you again for your continued blood, sweat and tears for your work. Also for your contributions and insights to this forum, rock on sir.

[Blu_J]

One more thing...

I'm not sure if you had anything to do with the recent Three Stooges Collection Vol. 1, if so, thank you very much for this as well. I have been waiting a long time for a collection like this, and hope to be seeing the next installment ASAP.
Again, thank you for your time sir...

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by saprano

hi paidgeek this is my first time asking a question to an insider, so here i go..... can the ps3 do dts-HD hi res? i heard that it can( iv never seen a logo on the ps3 box?) and how is the compression dfferent than regular compressed dts formats?

I am not a DTS expert, but to my knowledge, the PS3 cannot currently support the HR extensions. HR allows for higher lossy bitrates than typical legacy DTS. In my opinion you should look for LPCM or lossless. Better lossy is still not as good as it can be and on Blu-ray we can afford space for the best.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Dynamic

I apologize if this technical issue is not on-topic and thank you for your time.

Has there been any common issues with the Casino Royale disc? I am using the PS3 to play my disc and during viewing there is a faint almost clear-ish white line (about 2 pixels high) near each letterbox?

I have been searching far and wide to find an answer to this but to no avail. Thank you.

When you say near each letterbox, are you referring to the area right where the active picture transitions to the matte?

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Cplhicks

Padigeek-- Has there been any further developments on the possibility of downloadable subtitles? I ask because Sony seems to always leave Japanese subtitles off their US releases (while including a host of other Asian languages). My wife is Japanese and would love the Japanese subs, but the Japanese releases cost a fortune and are often released much much later, sometimes with less features. I would even gladly pay a few dollars to download Japanese subs to go with a US blu release. Is there any possibility of this? Or of including Japanese more, at least on catalog titles? WB did this recently with Harry Potter and Blade Runner, to our delight and surprise.

Downloading Japanese fonts is possible, but more difficult than the arabic based languages because of the number of characters. This feature has not been made a high priority so far, but I am sure we will test a title with it this year, just not with Japanese. Sorry...

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Blu_J

Sir Geek,

I would like to extend my gratitude and thanks to you and all involved with the work on Life of Brian. I watched on Blu for the first time last night. About a minute or two into the movie I turned to my wife and said "this looks incredible", to which she replied "yeah, it really does". The whole movie through I was amazed with how great the PQ was. I really appreciate the love put into a title that is very special to many although not a cinematic masterpiece.
I would like to know if you were pleased with the results of LOB, and if you think it could have been any better or is it at it's pinnacle.
I am not asking when/if/timeframe for M.P. and the Holy Grail, but I am curious to know if you would use the same process for Holy Grail as LOB.


I thank you again for your continued blood, sweat and tears for your work. Also for your contributions and insights to this forum, rock on sir.

I thought the responsible group in Sony Pictures did a great job with this title. They are keep up on the latest tools for restoration and will likely use whatever is state-of-the-art when the other Python titles are brought out.

Thanks for your positive feedback.

[parisien1]

PAIDGEEK~

Thank you for your time and dedication here in the forum. Your presence is advancing the interest in the Blu-ray community in a big way.

I was wondering what you could tell me about the film "SO CLOSE" being up for a possible transfer to Blu-ray? Thanks in advance for your reply.

Parisien1

Post Script: Recently moved from Fox Hills - Culver City
: D

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by parisien1

PAIDGEEK~

Thank you for your time and dedication here in the forum. Your presence is advancing the interest in the Blu-ray community in a big way.

I was wondering what you could tell me about the film "SO CLOSE" being up for a possible transfer to Blu-ray? Thanks in advance for your reply.

Parisien1

Post Script: Recently moved from Fox Hills - Culver City
: D

Sorry but I don't know anything about this title.

[JadedRaverLA]

Great to have you back, Paidgeek!

I have a question regarding an upcoming non-Sony release (sorry), but I've not seen the issue addressed before. Basically, the title is a music title from a European production company and it was shot in 1080i50 (or 1080i25 depending on your preferred nomenclature). The Blu-ray release is supposed to be encoded this way as well. Putting aside region-coding, will 1080i25/50 titles play on U.S. players (including the PS3) and on standard U.S. HDTVs?

Thanks in advance Paidgeek

[parisien1]

[parisien1]

PAIDGEEK~

Do you know who I could contact at the Culver City office to find out more about this title?

Parisien1

[izzy2001]

hi paidgeek
i have a question
i know that sony will release a indian film called saawariya on blu ray but there were rumors that it has been postponed from the original march.11 date, do you know if this is true, if so do you know when it will come out? and i heard that it will just have dd 5.1 only, do you know why they have not put a 2nd option such as doby truehd, dta hdma, or lossy sound
thanks for your help

[hanser]

Hello paidgeek,

I have the Sharp hp20 player and it is not able to play the calibration pictures that are hidden on Sony discs. Maybe this is true also for other non-Sony-players. My request: Could you put those pictures more accessible in the menu instead of using the trick with the number? Then all players could access them.

Also, I would like to mention that all BD titles so far have played without hiccups on the Sharp, except Sony titles. On Fifth element (new US version), Spiderman, Spiderman 3 (both UK version) the player locks during the movie (film stops and player is not responding to anything) and the only way to get it going again is to remove the power cable and starting again. Yesterday during Close Encountets (German version), the movie shortly stopped but then continued.

Is there something on Sony discs that may be causing this? I never had the problem with Warner or Disney or Fox titles. One common thing about the titles concerned is that they all have a Dolby TrueHD track. Any help would be appreciated. O yes, and I have the newest firmware on the player.

Finally I want to congratulate you to the quality of Sony titles. I watched Fifth element, Hellboy, Close Encounters among others and it is relevation. Yesterday I compared the Close Encountes Laserdisc, the DVD and the BD, and I must say that the difference beween LD and DVD picture quality is insignificant compared to the leap between DVD and BD quality. Thank you!

[HDJK]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Thanks for the reminder. I have not seen much feedback on this, but will check into it. If you have a favorite widescreen title coming from our studio on Blu-ray, prod me and I will check on the possibility of making the in picture subs available.

Well, 'LOA' is an obvious candidate and also the upcoming 'Quantum of Solace'. My wife and I watch everything with the original audo track (and since I spent a couple of years in California it's not a problem to understand 99% of it), but my wife had trouble understanding Daniel Craig in CR.

Thank you very much for taking my input. I do have the feeling though that front projection is getting more and more popular and in picture subs would be appreciated by many.

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Lot's of money, time and added value going into this one. We are wringing everything out of it we can...

That is good to hear

[Azumi]

hello Paidgeek,

Good to see you back. I'm always reading your interventions with great interest.

I have a general question on Sony's general policy. Aside from the day-and-date and the FX-laden must haves, and based on the feedback from forums like Blu-ray.com and your usual channels, can we expect Sony to start releasing on Blu in 2008 some films that might appeal to broader or different audiences?

If we look at the early days of DVD, you started widening the horizons with releases like Taxi Driver (which had quite a few advanced features back then), Labyrinth, Silverado and a few select Marlon Brando and Frank Capra movies. Can we expect SPE to swim in these waters, with the intent to bring different kind of viewers to Blu-ray?

Another question. Some of us fondly remember Sony's Superbits. Could we expect one day their equivalent on BD -- with pristine 4k masters, stratosperic bitrates and DTS MA all across the board?

[Dynamic]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

When you say near each letterbox, are you referring to the area right where the active picture transitions to the matte?

Yes, right below the top letterbox into the picture and right above the bottom letterbox into the picture.

[JimPullan]

With the 'rear' projection LCD and SXRD HDTV's fading off into the sunset, and their flat panels going up to only 52", when will we see a 60" flat panel? [Jim]