Archived: Insiders Thread

[reiella]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I’m just taking a sabbatical from posting on the online forums.

In retrospect, for me, it is turning out to be a pretty good idea, as there is alot going on behind the scenes that I can’t talk about anyway.

Doesn’t mean I don’t peek my head in here every once in a while to gauge the vibe.
I’ll try to time my return with revealing some exceedingly good bleeding-edge breaking Blu news to put a smile on everyone’s face sometime in the future.

Out.

Good to see ya aren't gone then . Breaks from forums can be a good thing at times. Keep well .

[Slapper]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

well, would you be satisfied with DD+ when you have have uncompressed glory?

I just hope the films aren't squished all to hell. The first 2 will be especially problematic. Probably end up being some major "smoothies"

Another reason why I wish Warner would just go Blu and start doing some high bitrate encodes of their films instead of the "dumbed down" HD-DVD ports we keep getting. I guess it's better than nothing at all, but if you're going to support a format I think you should support ALL of the format's strengths. If the longer films in the HP series look like "smoothies" then they may try to "smooth out" the rest so that they have a uniform looking series. That will really tick me off.

I really hope they do a great job with these the first time around so I don't have to buy the REAL Blu-ray version of these films after Warner goes Blu exclusive.

[Jack Torrance]

Originally Posted by Proteus

If I read correctly in the article, then the Blu has the AE documentary about the characters and stories and all that included as well as one other thing found on only the exclusive uber DVD set. HDDVD apparently does not have these but rather has the 'meet the characters' thing (which is garbage compared to a whole A&E doc about them) and the web enabled gimmicks which are really just cover for 'buy your official harry potter merchandise here online now' garbage.

The audio differences were not mentioned in the article, unfortunately, but truly set the two versions apart, IMHO.

Edit: Guess I could have just pasted this from the article and saved some typing!

"The Blu-ray will feature two things not found on the HD DVD. A&E documentary: The Hidden Secrets of Harry Potter and Focus Points (Enjoy these fun and fascinating "making of" featurettes to discover just what is involved to create those amazing scenes and characters) both found on the two DVD special edition."

If this is true, then this should be widely touted as the blu-ray will have the superior PQ/AV specs as well as extras (with HD-DVD only getting their usual HDi crap).

[Neo65]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I’m just taking a sabbatical from posting on the online forums.

In retrospect, for me, it is turning out to be a pretty good idea, as there is alot going on behind the scenes that I can’t talk about anyway.

Doesn’t mean I don’t peek my head in here every once in a while to gauge the vibe.
I’ll try to time my return with revealing some exceedingly good bleeding-edge breaking Blu news to put a smile on everyone’s face sometime in the future.

Out.

In the rush to know what the insiders know, we sometimes forget that a lot of deals that are cooking are not cast in stone. Until the ink is dry on that contract, a lot of plans just don't become real.

In that spirit, I'd say the bigger the deal, the more likely that things will be quiet. A lot of rumors of an outlandish nature are less likely to come true the more of an impact they're supposed to be.

P-M, I suppose you'd tell the world only when the things are firm and not when they're in progress.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by phloyd

paidgeek:

Sorry if this has been asked before...

For the US release of Paprika, do you have any insight on the encode and master?

It seems that there has been some disappointment regarding the French and Japanese releases of this and I am curious if we are looking at an encoding issue or master issue with respect to this title, and if the US release is expected to be an improvement or 'more of the same'...?

I thought the master for this title was okay, but I don't know if we encoded it. I'll check.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Dave Mack

paidgeek,

Bram Stoker's Dracula just got slammed on Highdefdigest.com.

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/252/...rsdracula.html

The PQ got 2 and a 1/2 stars which unfortunately makes it rate in the bottom 12 or so of the hundreds of BD's reviewed yet. I'm sure it can't be THAT bad, maybe just in comparison to expectations. Bracke says surprisingly there are dirt and blemishes on the print, (IIRC, the Superbit DVD had lots of those as well...) Is Bracke just way off..? I remember the film being slightly soft style-wise in many scenes in the theater but this just sounds like they used a several year old master and did virtually no work.

One of my faves and I'm bummed if it really if it's this disappointing.

I think the rating from Peter is too harsh, but the master is soft. It was newly transferred, but the film elements are not at the same level as some of our other catalog titles.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

paidgeek, what's the news about using PC BD burners to burn BD9s (for those who don't know, that's DVD-9 using the BD file structure)? Is that possible yet?


fuad

I don't know. I would presume that a normal DVD burner can make these discs, but I have not tried it. I'll see what I can find out.

[Neftoon]

Paidgeek,
I don't know if the spider-man trilogy and reign over me in australia were encoded by the people in the states or not, but I must say I am very impressed I picked up both of these yesterday, reign over me is fantastic, and the spider-man doesn't disappoint either, however I noticed in the 1st movie that during the alley scene with mary-jane being chased down the alley by the 4 or 5 guys it gets quite blurry for the start of the scene, and then sharpens right I was just wondering if this was on the master or if it's an issue with the encoding? because it has been a while since I saw the film last on dvd and can't quite remember if it happened there too.

[JonasK]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

paidgeek, what's the news about using PC BD burners to burn BD9s (for those who don't know, that's DVD-9 using the BD file structure)? Is that possible yet?

fuad

Originally Posted by paidgeek

I don't know. I would presume that a normal DVD burner can make these discs, but I have not tried it. I'll see what I can find out.

I have tried the newly released Sony Vegas Pro 8 which is able to create BD images using the BDMV format. As long as the size of the BD image fits on a DVD, there is no problem burning it. However, the Playstation 3 does not recognize the disc as a BDMV disc. But it is still possible to play the video streams located in the BDMV/STREAM folder.

paidgeek, is there any special reason why the PS3 does not play DVD discs with the BDMV format? It's really too bad, since I believe the corresponding thing works on every HD DVD player.

[Iceman_II]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

paidgeek, what's the news about using PC BD burners to burn BD9s (for those who don't know, that's DVD-9 using the BD file structure)? Is that possible yet?


fuad

Nero7 has the ability to burn "AVCHD" disks, they are a BD structure using the AVC codec, burned onto a UDF 2.5 DVD9

Edit:
And yes, these disks DO play on the PS3 even if you use a DVD5... but I haven't figured out yet how to do it without letting Nero do the encode, and truth be told, the Nero encoder is not only not that great on the quality side, but it is god awful slow as well!

[ra1024]

Paid, I was curious how much weight the studios and decision makers place on the weekly Nielsen sales ratio. I think everyone here loves the fact that HD DVD hasn't won a week this year but Oct. 16 is looking like the week they'll actually do it. I was hoping we might see a sale that week, a release date moved up, or something to couteract their Transformers exclusive week. I know you couldn't comment on any strategic plans but I was just curious if this bragging point was of interest to the decision makers or if it was just something the enthusiasts loved to argue about.

[Hussla]

With Blu-Rays major technical advantage of considerably higher bit-rates over HD-DVD, is there a movie release yet that visibly demonstrates the superiority? Im really curious, because if so it might just shut the HD fanbots up for a second

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Neftoon

Paidgeek,
I don't know if the spider-man trilogy and reign over me in australia were encoded by the people in the states or not, but I must say I am very impressed I picked up both of these yesterday, reign over me is fantastic, and the spider-man doesn't disappoint either, however I noticed in the 1st movie that during the alley scene with mary-jane being chased down the alley by the 4 or 5 guys it gets quite blurry for the start of the scene, and then sharpens right I was just wondering if this was on the master or if it's an issue with the encoding? because it has been a while since I saw the film last on dvd and can't quite remember if it happened there too.

We did not apply any filtering (and we never do) as part of the encoding process, so I fully expect what you are seeing to exist in the master. The film elements on SM2 and SM3 are noticeably sharper throughout.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by JonasK

I have tried the newly released Sony Vegas Pro 8 which is able to create BD images using the BDMV format. As long as the size of the BD image fits on a DVD, there is no problem burning it. However, the Playstation 3 does not recognize the disc as a BDMV disc. But it is still possible to play the video streams located in the BDMV/STREAM folder.

paidgeek, is there any special reason why the PS3 does not play DVD discs with the BDMV format? It's really too bad, since I believe the corresponding thing works on every HD DVD player.

I have not tried this, but I will see what I can find out...

[phloyd]

Originally Posted by Hussla

is there a movie release yet that visibly demonstrates the superiority?

Pat of the problem there is that image quality is not an objective measure. So you have likes of rdjam claiming Kong is the best ever image quality even though many have noted I frame pulsing in that title...

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by ra1024

Paid, I was curious how much weight the studios and decision makers place on the weekly Nielsen sales ratio. I think everyone here loves the fact that HD DVD hasn't won a week this year but Oct. 16 is looking like the week they'll actually do it. I was hoping we might see a sale that week, a release date moved up, or something to couteract their Transformers exclusive week. I know you couldn't comment on any strategic plans but I was just curious if this bragging point was of interest to the decision makers or if it was just something the enthusiasts loved to argue about.

Attention is paid to these numbers, but as you note, the number fluctuate wildly depending on the popularity of the titles being released. Blu-ray is going to have a very big 4th quarter, so if Transformers pushes the HD-DVD sales to parity with Blu-ray for a week, I would not get too worried about that...

[WickyWoo]

With Blu-Rays major technical advantage of considerably higher bit-rates over HD-DVD, is there a movie release yet that visibly demonstrates the superiority? Im really curious, because if so it might just shut the HD fanbots up for a second

Pirates, Prestige, a lot of Disney titles

I'm sure Cars and Ratatouille willl blow minds

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Hussla

With Blu-Rays major technical advantage of considerably higher bit-rates over HD-DVD, is there a movie release yet that visibly demonstrates the superiority? Im really curious, because if so it might just shut the HD fanbots up for a second

The differences are less apparent visibly than they are audibly. There are a few titles you can directly compare from Paramount that take advantage of the higher bandwidth on Blu-ray, but what is probably more significant is the lack of lossless or uncompressed audio tracks on HD-DVD.

I happen to like music titles, and when DVD's started coming out with 2ch LPCM and 5.1ch DD, I would opt for the 2ch every time. When I listen to the uncompressed tracks, it's just a better experience.

[radagast]

"With Blu-Rays major technical advantage of considerably higher bit-rates over HD-DVD, is there a movie release yet that visibly demonstrates the superiority? Im really curious, because if so it might just shut the HD fanbots up for a second "

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Pirates, Prestige, a lot of Disney titles

I'm sure Cars and Ratatouille willl blow minds

I don't think that will do what he is asking. I think he is asking for a movie that is on both formats. So it would have to be WB or a Paramount movie before Paramount joined the dark side. Prestige might work.

[aristotles]

Originally Posted by radagast

"With Blu-Rays major technical advantage of considerably higher bit-rates over HD-DVD, is there a movie release yet that visibly demonstrates the superiority? Im really curious, because if so it might just shut the HD fanbots up for a second "




I don't think that will do what he is asking. I think he is asking for a movie that is on both formats. So it would have to be WB or a Paramount movie before Paramount joined the dark side. Prestige might work.

I don't see how that would prove anything since most of those would have been the same bloody encode on the video side with possibly better audio.

The Condemned is not released on both formats but it does show superiority of Blu-ray as the picture is pristine and the combined Bandwidth hits 47Mbit/s at points in the movie using VC-1 which would be impossible on HD DVD.