Archived: Insiders Thread

[jsb_hburg]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

I'm sorry if that was a bit harsh, but I don't want a repeat of the WB hoax we had earlier in the month, and this seems like the best way to do it.

Universal are exclusive to HD DVD until they announce otherwise, and I wouldn't believe a forum poster telling me otherwise.

This is the appropriate response. I will gladly wait for the official release.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

The new XBR sets will not only display 24p as 5:5, but they will also take 60i, convert it to 24p, then display it at 120hz 5:5. The downside of the latter is that it takes a few frames to lock on the cadence of the signal, so it is better to feed 24p if possible. Be sure to check out the "theatre" viewing mode as well. SPE helped out with that and it works well. It is designed to emulate the picture on a professional display.

Does that apply to the SXRD XBR sets too?

[MerrickG]

Paidgeek,

I appreciate all that you do on this site, but I have to say that Sony has done something that has disappointed me and I need to call them out. Im hoping you will clear this up.

Anyway this article from engadget says that:

Sony sneaks BDP-S500 in before 1.1 goes mandatory

Link:
http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/10/16...oes-mandatory/

If the engadgethd report is correct, why is Sony releasing this player before the 1.1 spec?

Explain to me how it is fair to make a customer pay $700 for a player with a only a 1.0 spec?

Is this article inaccurate? Is this player 1.1 ready? All this does is give ammunition to the HD-DVD camp and make a customer mad who went out and purchased this player thinking it would play all the cool features.


I respect you like no other and I promise I am not asking this question to be a jerk or confrontational but I really have to wonder why Sony would do this and Im certain you can provide a good answer.

Thanks

[Jim]

Originally Posted by Jim

Question for Paid or any other insider who might know.

We all know about the seamless branching that Warner is doing on their Return to House on Haunted Hill. And while that is cool in pausing the movie and giving you choices so that your movie experience can be different, has anyone talked about giving you a choice of selecting 'Random' at the main menu and then just sitting back and letting the machine randomly branch at those points so that you can enjoy a real movie experience that is different each time, instead of pausing and then having to grab the remote and pick a branch.

??? anyone ???

[mwales]

Originally Posted by androvsky

A common, but understandable misconception. Linux puts no requirements on the software that runs on it whatsoever. Distribution makers are free to bundle whatever software they want, as long as they follow the licensing rules for all the software they include (GPL software must include source, software that requires license fees must have the fees paid, and so on).

I agree, I don't think the GPL is a big problem. Several companies have already had success releasing proprietary commercial software for Linux (id, Epic, Google).

The problem is the popular distributions will only deal with open-source software (not necessarily GPL), mainly so that if something goes wrong they can fix it (it helps if it's free too, but it's really not the main reason), also so it can be released on multiple platforms. It took years for there to be a linux DVD player (closed source), but since the open-source implementations were so good by that time, it never went anywhere. Linux users are used to having free software, there's no getting around it.

To get included with a distribution it would most likely need to be open source. Ubuntu Linux has bent over backwards to include proprietary NVidia and ATI software (graphics drivers), but it's definitely not the norm.

I think a more acceptable route would be to have someone offer a standalone BD player application.

Where is the money made on the licensing of computer BD software / hardware? Does the hardware manufacturer have to pay BDA? Does the BD playback software company have to pay the BDA? Wonder if it's even possible to have free (as in 0$) BD playback software regardless of OS.

Ideally, I would like to be able to buy a BD drive, pop it into my machine and be able to read/write data. To watch a movie, I could install a movie player freely downloadable from Sony's website.

So yeah, there could be a linux blu-ray player (assuming there's no requirement for kernel-level DRM "enhancements" like Vista has). Only problem is hardly anyone would buy it, and only one or two non-free distributions would ever touch it.

Amusingly enough, the first retail Toshiba HD-DVD player was a pentium 4 pc running Redhat Linux made to look like a set-top box.

It blows my mind that the Toshiba units run Linux, especially since they are partnered with Microsoft. I wonder why they chose Linux over Windows CE, and what MS thinks about it?

[WickyWoo]

Where is the money made on the licensing of computer BD software / hardware? Does the hardware manufacturer have to pay BDA? Does the BD playback software company have to pay the BDA? Wonder if it's even possible to have free (as in 0$) BD playback software regardless of OS.

You cannot have a BD Player, hardware or software without buying a license to produce them, and paying royalties on each unit as per the license (BDA, MPEG, Dolby, Microsoft etc. There is a "package" fee that's then distributed by a managing firm

[Rio]

Originally Posted by NutsAboutPS3

I wonder if you or another insider could explain why encoding is costly, as I have to admit to not understanding why it isn't effectively free. I can understand if the work is contracted out, that you would have to pay an extra fee for an extra encode, but surely the major studios do their encoding in house? If so, once you have the staff on salaries, and you own the encoding hardware and software, surely it takes just a few minutes for someone to set an encode going, and then it's basically free? Okay, if they were doing so much encoding that doing more would mean they needed more hardware and software, I can understand that costing more, but the number of titles being released each week shouldn't require more than one HD encoding machine per studio as far as I can tell. Hence I don't understand why there is a cost issue.

Almost all of major studios do not have authoring facilities inside in it. There are some exceptions, such as SPE has SDAC and WB group has GDMX, but WBHE and GDMX is a different company.

Studios outsource titles not only to the posthouse in the group, but also to outside one, and the posthouse in the studio group also takes PO from another studios. Usually, payment is hourly based, since every work occupies man hour and equipments, and those are not negligible. Therefore, encoding twice costs twice for studios.

[Rio]

Originally Posted by Proteus

It would actually only require a small nudge to put Blu-ray over the top. Ironically, this 'nudge' is already in place and the influence from other countries where Blu is totally dominating (i.e. Japan) ensures that it is here to stay and will become the de facto HDM standard. It is actually only a matter of time and I would surmise less time than many people would suspect.

Even though there seems not a slight chance for HD DVD to win in Japan, but total market size is still very small.

Hidef recorders' market share in Japan by BCN Ranking (10/8-14)

 1    0.8%  157,000  DMR-BW200 (Panasonic, released Nov.2006)
 2    0.4%  106,600  DMR-BR100 (Panasonic, released Nov.2006)
 3    0.4%  187,100  BDZ-X90   (Sony, will be available in Nov.2007 )
 4    0.3%  153,100  BDZ-V9    (Sony, released Nov.2006)
 5    0.2%  107,000  BDZ-V7    (Sony, released Nov.2006)
 6    0.0%  121,000  BDZ-T50   (Sony, will be available in Nov.2007 )
 7    0.0%  149,300  RD-A600   (Toshiba, released Jul.2007)
 8    0.0%  267,400  DMR-BW900 (Panasonic, will be available in Nov.2007 )
 9    0.0%  200,600  DMR-BW800 (Panasonic, will be available in Nov.2007 )
10    0.0%  139,300  BDZ-T70   (Sony, will be available in Nov.2007 )
11    0.0%  156,200  BDZ-L70   (Sony, will be available in Nov.2007 )
12    0.0%  119,400  RD-A300   (Toshiba, released Jul.2007)
13    0.0%  106,200  DMR-BW700 (Panasonic, will be available in Nov.2007 )

All HDM recorders' market share combined merely shares 2.1% of total recorder market in Japan in that week. There is a looong way for HDM players/recorders becoming popular...

[gand41f]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

The new XBR sets will not only display 24p as 5:5, but they will also take 60i, convert it to 24p, then display it at 120hz 5:5. The downside of the latter is that it takes a few frames to lock on the cadence of the signal, so it is better to feed 24p if possible. Be sure to check out the "theatre" viewing mode as well. SPE helped out with that and it works well. It is designed to emulate the picture on a professional display.

Yay! Paidgeek, can I quote you on this? There are many people wondering about this on this site as well as others. There even is a professional reviewer saying the exact opposite:

http://hdguru.com/?p=131

He claims he has "asked all the 120 Hz LCD vendors". Sony may want to sue this guy for making false claims, he has cost Sony some lost sales (I know it cost them mine, at least until now, as I would never buy a 120Hz TV that doesn't do 5:5 pulldown correctly -- this is the reason why I forewent the Sharp 120Hz LCDs that came out earlier this year even though I'm quite happy with the Sharp 768p LCD that I currently have).

I'm glad Sony fixed the 60i input too. According to this:

http://www.hometheatermag.com/hookmeup/1106hook/

46XBR2 failed the 3:2 film cadence test last year. I don't watch that many movies on TV (have Blu-ray for that ) but it's still nice to have this done correctly.

One more question, can the 40/46/52 XBR4/XBR5 do anything to restore 5:5 in film-based content sent as 1080p/60 (not very important) or 720p/60 (more important, as Fox and ABC broadcast movies this way)? In other words, can it detect repeated frames (AAABBCCCDD) and compensate for them (AAAaaBBbbbCCCccDDddd) (here uppercase are original frames and lowercase are repetitions of identical frames added by the TV) or will it do a 60->120 conversion by repeating each frame (AaAaAaBbBbCcCcCcDdDd) thus resulting in a 6:4 judder? (This is assuming Motion Enhancer is turned off, of course.)

Thanks so much Paidgeek. I (and others) have been searching for an answer to this question for months. I think I'm going to go buy the TV this weekend!

enjoy
gandalf

[androvsky]

Originally Posted by Rio

Even though there seems not a slight chance for HD DVD to win in Japan, but total market size is still very small.

All HDM recorders' market share combined merely shares 2.1% of total recorder market in Japan in that week. There is a looong way for HDM players/recorders becoming popular...

Expect a little more movement when Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children blu-ray is released. Speaking of which, can anyone comment on how that's going? Last I've heard Square's still working on rendering the extra footage, but that was a while ago.

[gand41f]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Sony Pictures Classics has some talented people who have been able to find some "diamonds in the rough".

Yes, not only are these movies excellent, their encodes are top-notch as well. This includes titles such as Seven Years in Tibet as well. Are you remastering them for Blu-ray or you are picking ones with recent (and good) masters?

enjoy
gandalf

[gand41f]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

This is standard practice for our titles now..

This is great. I'm sorry to tell you that I often don't see these, as I usually power on the PS3 by inserting a Blu-ray movie (by the time I also turn the TV on, the disc has already loaded) and I turn it off right after I hit the "eject" button to remove the disc while the end credits are playing. (Not much of a gamer here. )

I'll make it a point from now on to properly shut down the movie and return to the XMB before hitting the eject, so I can see these icons too.

thanks
gandalf

[Joe Cain]

Originally Posted by Rio

Even though there seems not a slight chance for HD DVD to win in Japan, but total market size is still very small.

All HDM recorders' market share combined merely shares 2.1% of total recorder market in Japan in that week. There is a looong way for HDM players/recorders becoming popular...

Not to clutter the thread, but---there's not much call for the mass market consumer to want an HDM recorder yet, is there?

What I find interesting is that HDM players made up 27% of the revenue earned from DVD players for the month of August in spite of their 5% market share. Clearly the manufacturers can't get by on $30 DVD players anymore...

[gand41f]

Originally Posted by Joe Cain

Not to clutter the thread, but---there's not much call for the mass market consumer to want an HDM recorder yet, is there?

What I find interesting is that HDM players made up 27% of the revenue earned from DVD players for the month of August in spite of their 5% market share. Clearly the manufacturers can't get by on $30 DVD players anymore...

Not an insider, but I am Japanese so I probably have some perspective. Mods feel free to move it out to unclutter the thread.

HDM recorders are a booming market in Japan. There is a "copy once" law that requires all broadcasts to be allowed to be copied off the DVR to the media of the customer's choice (the original is erased when the copy is made).

Obviously, with the popularity of high-definition broadcasts, the storage demand has expanded as well and Blu-ray recorders are the new item of choice for the affluent. With prices in the $1000-$2500 range, not too many people can afford it yet, hence the 2% unit market share. However, since these are primarily recording devices, there is virtually no chance that HD DVD can catch up due to their size disadvantage. (For people who burn their own discs, 50GB >> 30GB.)

enjoy
gandalf

[Grubert]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

I will be very careful with this.

The deal includes get-out clauses in which Viacom can leave, but neither of those events would trigger any of the clauses.

A typical get-out clause would be triggered by overall performance stats, such as sales figures for players or movies (whether overall HD DVD or HD DVD released by Paramount). This was the case when MGM got out of its distribution deal with Sony in May 2006.

Maxpower, how far off the mark am I?

[kamiller42]

paidgeek:

I have many Blu-rays I enjoy. The encodes are awesome. Nature's Journey is currently the one to beat in my collection.

Anyway, I picked up the AC/DC disc today. I have to ask one question about the video encode. What happened?

I have never seen the DVD version, but my version seems very grainy. The box says it was filmed with 26 cameras. I believe it. I can tell cameras 1-5 have a grainy level of X, 6-10 have grainy level of Y, ... Almost every camera switch has a certain level of grain.

Does the source look like it's a concert filmed in the 60s/70s using a Super 8mm too?

The audio seems fine.

Thanks.

[Grubert]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Sorry Grubert, not even a hint from me about this from now on.

I'll take that as a 'bugger off' then.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Rio

All HDM recorders' market share combined merely shares 2.1% of total recorder market in Japan in that week. There is a looong way for HDM players/recorders becoming popular...

Thanks for the stats. It would be interesting to know the revenue percentages. And from the point of view of a business, how much profit they make from those 2.1% versus slugging it out in the ultra-competitive DVD recorder market.

What is the current situation with standalones in Japan?

I know over 1.2 million PS/3 have also sold in Japan. Is it not true that the Japanese have been known to have a higher incidence of using a console as a movie disc player? The recorder assumes a multi-use scenario too.

Gary

[Frode]

Originally Posted by androvsky

Expect a little more movement when Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children blu-ray is released. Speaking of which, can anyone comment on how that's going? Last I've heard Square's still working on rendering the extra footage, but that was a while ago.

Iirc it's done. They've been showing off some of the new footage. The actual Blu-ray release is delayed however, and from what I gather Square wants to wait a while until the market is a bit more mature. Last I heard was "sometime in 2008", make of that what you will.

[Member-9711]

Paidgeek,

I'm hearing reports that many Sony titles announced are being pushed back. Titles like Life of Brian, I know who killed me, Rent and The legend of zorro. Is this true and why? I thought Sony was aiming for a big Q4 to cripple HD DVD...

Anyways, exceptional work on Spider-Man Trilogy.
Keep up the good work.