Archived: Insiders Thread

[WickyWoo]

Many studios wanted to abolish region coding altogether

Several studios share rights with other companies on many of their films, and also stagger releases by months (Ratatouille comes out in Europe a few weeks before the US BR release)

In the DVD era many studios had moved to near simultaneous releases to fight piracy, thereby greatly reducing the need for region locks.

[WickyWoo]

This is for the insiders. Why is the BDA not advertising Blu-ray as a technology and I don't mean the little promo at the end of release commercial saying "also available on Blu-ray"?

Volume isn't big enough for Blu-centric commercials, and they typically buy 1 ad per title.

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by LeoneFan

This is for the insiders. Why is the BDA not advertising Blu-ray as a technology and I don't mean the little promo at the end of release commercial saying "also available on Blu-ray"? I mean a real commercial like HDDVD has with that Sopranos guy. This is becoming a disturbing trend. You would think with FOX and ABC being Blu that they would be running ads left and right. This is very disturbing because the only way to get to the average consumer is to advertise the technology as a whole. Please, can any of you insiders tell me that there are planned Blu-ray commercials for the Fall?

They are.

In fact, it was hilarious. I was watching Universal HD channel. They went to the commercial that you metnion with the Sopranos guy touting HD-DVD. Immediately following that commercial, there was a pretty cool Blu-ray commercial (which was better imo as it showed some actual short clips from BD's). I thought it was cool to see BD advertise on Universal HD, and to follow an HD-DVD commercial!

[LeoneFan]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Volume isn't big enough for Blu-centric commercials, and they typically buy 1 ad per title.

What? I'm talking about a commercial for Blu-ray as a technology and successor to DVD. This is the time now to start penetrating the average consumer and at least put it through their heads what Blu-ray is all about. How can Toshiba have commercials but the BDA with all it's size and might doesn't? That's pathetic and it shows the general complacent nature of the BDA in regards to this format war. This is very troubling for an early adopter like myself. It's as if they want the format to stay niche forever.

[LeoneFan]

Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin

They are.

In fact, it was hilarious. I was watching Universal HD channel. They went to the commercial that you metnion with the Sopranos guy touting HD-DVD. Immediately following that commercial, there was a pretty cool Blu-ray commercial (which was better imo as it showed some actual short clips from BD's). I thought it was cool to see BD advertise on Universal HD, and to follow an HD-DVD commercial!

I'm talking about primetime network TV not some obscure HD channel that less than .00001% of the population might be watching.

[WickyWoo]

They've been showing the same commercials in movie theaters

I'm talking about primetime network TV not some obscure HD channel that less than .00001% of the population might be watching.

However it IS reaching people with HDTVs, who are the most likely to BUY it

[Danno]

Originally Posted by LeoneFan

I'm talking about primetime network TV not some obscure HD channel that less than .00001% of the population might be watching.

Universal HD is included in HD packages from Cable, FiberOptic and Satellite providers to roughly 50 million US subscribers.

That's a pretty huge potential audience.

[dobyblue]

Guys - please keep the commentary in the commentary thread!!



PAIDGEEK - question to you my very good man


Is Men In Black on the horizon at all? Seems like this is a really nice looking print on the superbit and I think it would sell like hotcakes being the #2 title of 1997 behind Titanic.

Domestic: $250,690,539
+ Foreign: $338,700,000
= Worldwide: $589,390,539

[Jazar]

What I would like to know is, with all the hidden commotion going on per Bill's blog, does the chatter trend towards ending this format war or continuing? I fear it's the latter.

[kjack]

Originally Posted by gandley

Toshiba based on intel P4 in a box solution so they did not have to wait for silicon to catch up...

Going that route requires optimizing and porting the software with each hardware change, which introduces its own set of bugs and support issues. By starting with an SoC, you have a good starting point for easily switching to new chips (that are hardware and software compatible) as the become available and reduce hardware/software design required to do a new player.

[kjack]

Originally Posted by hollywoodguy

can you make an educated guess whether any standalone BD players are at all subsidized?

As far as I know, none are subsidized. They actually have decent profit margins for manufacturers and retailers.

[mattym]

Kjack

do you know of any 1.1 players that havent been announced yet that are due this year? No names required, just a yes or now will do...

[kjack]

Originally Posted by mattym

do you know of any 1.1 players that haven't been announced yet that are due this year? No names required, just a yes or no will do...

Yes.

[Hussla]

To the insiders:

Is anyone in the BDA taking TL51 seriously?

Anyone have any rumours or murmurs about what the yields and costs may be like on one of these?

Is it correct, the more layers, the greater the cost and the greater the chance of stuffups? considering that BD can do 50gb in two layers, it doesn't say much about HD-DVD.

[mattym]

Originally Posted by kjack

Yes.

thanks!....now you left me wonderign though...ohhh the anticipation.

[hollywoodguy]

Someone has to say it: HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAIDGEEK!

(Now I sure hope my info is correct.)

[David Forbes]

Originally Posted by kjack

Yes.

Excellent news!

Come on, spill. Who is it? Maybe give us a cryptic Penton-Man comment...

[jdsanko]

The following quote from the DTS web site would have one believe that if a player supports DTS-HD, by default it also supports MA:

"DTS-HD is actually the latest extension of the original DTS Coherent Acoustics technology introduced in 1996. The unique DTS-HD core + extension design allows for DTS-HD to deliver incredible performance and flexibility to both content creators and consumers. It has the ability to encode and decode three DTS formats: DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, and DTS Digital Surround."

This would lead one to believe that if a player supports DTS-HD it should at least be able to decode MA and pass it throught the analog outs or pass the bitstream if it is HDMI 1.3 compliant. Is this true?

It seems like all of the new hardware announcements support DTS-HD but do not specifically mention MA. For me, being able to hear the highest quality audio encoded on a disk is far more important that extras, interactivity or PIP. It also appears that DTS-HDMA is Fox's lossless codec of choice which makes this issue all the more important to me.

[Jamh]

Hey kjack, yes or no, do you know of any players due out this year that should retail for less than $499? Excluding price drops on current models of course.

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by scott1256ca

Do you have any reason you can provide as to why the new BD players are only announced as being able to do profile 1.0 and not profile 1.1 or 2.0?

Test suites for 1.1/2.0 are an ongoing process,and some tests are only recently available. Manufacturers may not be willing to announce 1.1/2.0 compatibility until they are sufficiently confident that they will pass all the tests.

I fully expect that some players announced as only 1.0 capable will in fact be firmware updated to 1.1 or 2.0 support.