"Club Penton" - Ask questions to Hollywood insider "Penton-Man"

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Maybe when I get some time later this week or next week I’ll tell you why Michael Burns leaked to BusinessWeek that “the rumor is that Warner is coming aboard soon” …...
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...3028294846.htm

I always assumed he was just upset that you always got to leak all the good news.

[Grubert]

Penton, I asked paidgeek this but I thought you might be able to answer it as well:

Kris Deering has posted this on avs:

I don't think we'll be seeing long term support of VC-1 going forward. MS delivered the last tools for VC-1 already and has moved away from the codec in terms of future support from what I've heard.

Can you confirm that? In that case, what will the repercussions be for BD studios that use the codec?

[Mr_Bester]

Originally Posted by hollywoodguy

Make that two: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=1167.

On a side note, what a difference a year makes: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...1#post10300331 and http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post10325163.

Interesting thread all around. A window into the past in many ways. You personally seem to have taken a more active role in all of this since then, wouldn't you say?

What happened??? Penton apparently used to write entire books about the war, now we get a few select words we have to decipher. Has the Red infestation tightened Penton's pen to keep from giving away plans?

I never followed the "other" insiders thread, so all I've seen are 2-4 lines and sometimes a youtube link. Hopefully, now that this is over, he can go back to longer, less obtuse posts.

[Kris Deering]

Originally Posted by Grubert

Penton, I asked paidgeek this but I thought you might be able to answer it as well:

Kris Deering has posted this on avs:



Can you confirm that? In that case, what will the repercussions be for BD studios that use the codec?

Just to add to this, currently Warner is the only Blu-ray studio that uses VC-1 prominently (short of the Universal announcement obviously) and there is no reason they can't continue that route since they own their encoders and have their own authoring house (GDMX). Disney has used VC-1 but has favored AVC and Universal uses outside authoring houses that I'm sure could use whichever they see fit. I just don't know what we'll see now that MS has essentially wiped their hands clean of it and moved on to other avenues of interest.

[Dotpattern]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

It seems only one person here got the hint with the YouTube video that I posted last night.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=1165

As Elvis would say, "Thank ya, thank ya very much."

But Penton, seriously thanks so much for being the solid voice of reason on this site (along with Wicky).

Not sure if you've already answered this, but what happens with you now? Will you still be hanging around here answering questions? I think it's safe to say we all hope so.

[patrick99]

Originally Posted by Kris Deering

Just to add to this, currently Warner is the only Blu-ray studio that uses VC-1 prominently (short of the Universal announcement obviously) and there is no reason they can't continue that route since they own their encoders and have their own authoring house (GDMX). Disney has used VC-1 but has favored AVC and Universal uses outside authoring houses that I'm sure could use whichever they see fit. I just don't know what we'll see now that MS has essentially wiped their hands clean of it and moved on to other avenues of interest.

As I mentioned in the AVS thread, I think it is worth noting that VC-1 is used in two very recent Disney releases, Becoming Jane and Gone Baby Gone. As is the usual case with Disney releases, the identity of the company doing the authoring and compression is not made public.

[horseflesh]

Penton, a change of pace from all the Universal/Paramount talk....

Will you be attending the Academy Awards on Sunday?
I met one of the nominees the other night, a hot favourite in his category.
My location should give his identity away

[blitz6speed]

Penton

Please, PLEASE tell Universal that we want Lossless audio on every release. For movies that are borderline purchases for so many of us, knowing there is lossless audio on there makes it a MUCH safer buy because the likeliness of a double dip is much less, BD has more then enough space/bandwidth, and all the other major BD studios do the same thing. Please tell them we want their product in the appopriate mannor, Lossless on EVERY disc. Thanks.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by patrick99

Penton, I've never been good with riddles, so I generally don't even try to figure out your coded messages, and instead leave that to others with more of a talent for that sort of thing. Is this one of those?

No, there is no riddle in that at all.
It’s just that some studios and/or some spokespersons would rather not have any specifics released regarding restoration work until/if they do something like an interview for one of the more mainstream websites (such as digitalcontentproducer.com).

Because often what happens is that when another website or news outlet reads cutting edge news/info on our forum, they invariably get on the phone to the studio and ***** that “why didn’t we get this news/information first rather than blu-ray.com”. You see, there is quite a bit of competition out there for accurate cutting edge news/information amongst all the websites because that kinda stuff draws in more traffic.

In this specific case, since I believe mhafner is a valued member of our forum (and the fact that it just aired on HDNet Movies), I made a decision to offer what info I could to him about the new transfer.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by SuprSlow

Thanks for all the hard work, Penton. Your level of professionalism in the face of certain "opposition" is something for which you should be commended.



We still have title announcements to look forward to

^
More Harryhausen stuff has recently gotten new HD transfers (not just 20 Million Miles to Earth) so, it is just a matter of time now until more of his titles show up on Blu-ray…..based upon marketing decisions.

[Balian]

Originally Posted by patrick99

As I mentioned in the AVS thread, I think it is worth noting that VC-1 is used in two very recent Disney releases, Becoming Jane and Gone Baby Gone. As is the usual case with Disney releases, the identity of the company doing the authoring and compression is not made public.

Becoming Jane is in AVC, according to HDD and Gone Baby Gone is a Miramax film. Perhaps Miramax does its own encoding, independent of parent company Disney.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Grubert

Penton, I asked paidgeek this but I thought you might be able to answer it as well:

Kris Deering has posted this on avs:



Can you confirm that? In that case, what will the repercussions be for BD studios that use the codec?

I think that Kris Deering and darinp both know a helluva a lot about MS…..in more ways than one.
Regarding VC-1, I don’t much care whether it continues to be used or not, the point is, if it is used---- that it will no longer be bitstarved !
Hopefully, there will be no more emphasis on seeing how low they can go and still make the PQ "good enough".

P.S.
I really don't deal much with consumer codecs anyway. There is much more bang for your buck further on upstream in the process.

[patrick99]

Originally Posted by Balian

Becoming Jane is in AVC, according to HDD and Gone Baby Gone is a Miramax film. Perhaps Miramax does its own encoding, independent of parent company Disney.

I think they are both Miramax movies, and judging by the massive Disney promotional materials on both discs, the disc effort is Disney all the way.

According to the readout on my PS3, Becoming Jane is VC-1.

Aplologies to Penton for the OT reply.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by MrXpress

Penton-

This is probably a silly question, but I'll go ahead and ask anyway. Would you say there are bad feelings amongst Hollywood-ites aimed at Toshiba/Uni/Para/DW* or now that things are over, is it more of a "okay, forget that, let's just get to business" type of feeling?

* I excluded MS because I just assume everyone has animosity towards them

There’s already talk in the works about having a Format War Over party for all the majors to attend.
I just don’t know if it will come to fruition because the downside is that it may appear to outsiders to be gloating but, I disagree as I think it would be a great idea and I plan to attend if it happens.

P.S.
As long as it’s not this Sunday afternoon/evening.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by JadedRaverLA

I always assumed he was just upset that you always got to leak all the good news.

You are actually partly correct. (first half of your sentence)

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by horseflesh

Penton, a change of pace from all the Universal/Paramount talk....

Will you be attending the Academy Awards on Sunday?
I met one of the nominees the other night, a hot favourite in his category.
My location should give his identity away

See my post - 2 back (the P.S.)

I think that No Country For Old Men can't get enough Oscar's.
It's that good.

[phansson]

Penton, in the Kornblau statement, it doesn't actually say Blu ray exclusive. Will they continue to release in HD DVD?

BTW, whenever I see the name Kornblau, I expect some cartoon character saying "Sacrebleu!" in a heavy french accent.

[WickyWoo]

Tommy Lee Jones's assistant in that film is currently playing the evil FBI terminator on the Fox show, and was previously seen as an evil attorney on the sadly cancelled "the 4400"

Always enjoyed his performances before

Hey Penton, settle a bet for me: Was TLJ glued in place for his Will Rogers institute ad? His entire body moved and swayed, but his feet never moved (I saw that thing a lot). The best is that they needed to raise X amount of dollars before they'd give him the solvent.....

[jason_grumpy]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

You are actually partly correct. (first half of your sentence)

I'm guessing he was upset about something to do with attempting to be swayed to the HD DVD side. This could be an interesting story and I look forward to it.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

See my post - 2 back (the P.S.)

I think that No Country For Old Men can't get enough Oscar's.
It's that good.

horseflesh,
The same ^ holds for There Will Be Blood.
In that regard I voted for your countryman.