Archived: Insiders Thread

[BigB88]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I’m not optimistic for any rapid resolution. The consensus from people I’ve spoken with around “the town” is either a two or five months strike.

Worst case scenario, if it lasts until next June or so then you’ve probably got the actors (SAG) and the directors (DGA) getting directly involved as their contracts expire.

The only upside I can see out of this for Blu-ray forum members that are not in any business even remotely effected by this strike is that this thing will effect TV shows and their content (i.e. reruns) much more immediately in the eyes of the public than motion pictures. Rather than watching boring TV reruns, or who knows what “filler”, perhaps…… just perhaps Joe Sixpack will start to get more and more interested in renting and buying movies for his home entertainment and then by extension become more interested in the Blu-ray format with the holiday purchase of a player and discs.

If that scenario holds, maybe this whole mess will at least hasten a bit the end of the high-def format war.

Could there be an impact on BD, HD-DVD and DVD prices in the long term, since the disputes seem to revolve around home entertainment and download media more then anything else?

[spreeguy]

Originally Posted by Slapper

...I have a concern about the upcoming Panny 1.1 player and I was wondering if an insider, possibly Kjack, would be willing to help me out. I have done my research on Profile 1.1 and what that brings to the table, but I have also found (what I consider to be) a potential problem with this player, in particular. According to the specs of this DMP-BD30 Panasonic Player, this player DOES NOT have an on-board HD-audio decoder, but it can output the HD-audio via bitstream to an external decoder/receiver. The problem I see is with the PIP content's audio track. As far as what info I've been able to gather, it would seem that when outputting audio via bitstream the player WILL NOT output the secondary audio track. So, if we want to listen to the HD-audio track AND watch/listen to the PIP content (simultaneously) from a Blu-ray disc, then we would not be able to do that with this player, correct? If I am correct, then my next question is: Why would Panasonic do this?

Please don't tell me they cut corners so they could be the first company to have a 1.1 player at retail.

FWIW,

Originally Posted by kjack

...Profile 1.1 players are required to be able to simultaneously decode both the main audio and PiP audio regardless what audio codec each uses. The two resulting PCM audio streams are mixed along with PCM menu sounds, etc. The result is output as PCM over HDMI + converted to analog to drive the analog audio outputs + encoded to DTS or DD to drive the SPDIF output...

To me, that would mean that all profile 1.1 players are required to decode TrueHD. It was explained to me that 1.1 only requires the CORE of DTS-MA be decoded.

Hopefully an insider can clear this up.

[Slapper]

Originally Posted by spreeguy

FWIW,



To me, that would mean that all profile 1.1 players are required to decode TrueHD. It was explained to me that 1.1 only requires the CORE of DTS-MA be decoded.

Hopefully an insider can clear this up.

Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA are "optional" under the specification. Mandatory audio specs are PCM, Dolby Digital, and DTS (core). The Fox discs are the ones that concern me the most. Most of the other Blu studios now support PCM lossless, which this DMP-BD30 will not have an issue with.

[Longshot]

Question for Kjack. A few months ago you said that Bd players would surpass Hd DVD player sales by the end of the year. Do you still feel this is likely to happen with the recent Toshiba slash and burn firesale?

[Beta-guy]

Question for Paidgeek,
When will the PS3 2.0 Firmware be released?

[kjack]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

S.E. will be basically bundling a Blu-ray player with the purchase of some Bravia models for Xmas.

BB already has a deal where if you buy the 52XBR3, you get a free S300 BD player. But for less $$ I got the 52XBR4 since it was on sale. I asked the sales guy how the hardware sales beween the two formats were doing, and he said BD players were outselling HD DVD players not quite 2:1 until the Toshiba sale.

[Bullseye]

Paidgeek do you know if the other BD manufacturers like Sharp, Samsung, Pioneer, Philips, and Panasonic are going to follow Sonys lead on this. I think it is very important that the public know that there are multiple companies making BD players and only one making HD-DVDs.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Bullseye

Paidgeek do you know if the other BD manufacturers like Sharp, Samsung, Pioneer, Philips, and Panasonic are going to follow Sonys lead on this. I think it is very important that the public know that there are multiple companies making BD players and only one making HD-DVDs.

Excellent question, as I feel that this will absolutely crush anything that HD-DVD can respond to. Sure, Toshiba may decide to bundle HD-DVD players with their excellent Regza models, but those cant make any dent against the aforementioned manufacturers.

It would be AWESOME if they could bundle players with Vizio TVs.

[Spankey]

To me that's HD DVD thinking: cheap price, nothing else matters.

Winning at least matters to them. It is their last and only remaining talking point. The sad thing is, they have bought off one studio with cash and this talking point.

HD-DVD is cheaper only because Toshiba wants it to be.

[eat_me_cool]

Originally Posted by Beta-guy

Question for Paidgeek,
When will the PS3 2.0 Firmware be released?

Threespeech (semi-official Sony Blog) says ' next couple of weeks'

http://threespeech.com/blog/?p=689

[Ben]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Every so often, I enjoy giving people an update pic.
The pic I just posted was one I shot from last weekend.

Thanks for the update Penton! It's always great to see another person out there who actually gives a damn about the well-being of the local wildlife. We have a family of Bobcats in our neighborhood that seem to be doing just fine without any assistance, but boy, do the local squirrels look spooked!

[Amel]

penton or paid...

any chance of putting some kind of educational brochure into the PS3 box?

maybe an HDDVD and bluray comparison like we have seen on disney ads?

a piece of paper educating the consumer of how to get the most out of HD..

including detailed comparison of HD sound and picture

[Dave J]

Originally Posted by Bullseye

Paidgeek do you know if the other BD manufacturers like Sharp, Samsung, Pioneer, Philips, and Panasonic are going to follow Sonys lead on this. I think it is very important that the public know that there are multiple companies making BD players and only one making HD-DVDs.

Samsung has already started to do this with their PD-1400 at the largest Canadian electronics retailer (Futureshop). I expect Sharp will follow.

[Bullseye]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

They should be, I think there will be some good offers around the world for Blu-ray and not just in one region.

I really hope they do Max. For me they have been hanging Sony out to dry on this. They need to step up and be counted.

[hoser]

Originally Posted by Ben

We have a family of Bobcats in our neighborhood that seem to be doing just fine without any assistance, but boy, do the local squirrels look spooked!

A neighborhood?
That is interesting...most bobcats are very shy of people.

I live in Central Oregon surrounded by forest.
We see every critter imaginable on our back deck (to get to birdseed and peanuts the wife puts out every morning ) except predators.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Bullseye

I really hope they do Max. For me they have been hanging Sony out to dry on this. They need to step up and be counted.

+1

[Ben]

Originally Posted by hoser

A neighborhood?
That is interesting...most bobcats are very shy of people.

I live in Central Oregon surrounded by forest.
We see every critter imaginable on our back deck (to get to birdseed and peanuts the wife puts out every morning ) except predators.

Yep... in a neighborhood. We live in a heavily wooded area with a plethora of creeks running through to a nearby lake. They tend to stay down in the creek basin - - as a matter of fact, I've never seen one up out of this area. I'm sure there are plenty of possums and rats down there for them to feast on. The neighbors tell me that they've been around for years.

[Icemage]

To paidgeek:

Much ado has been made about how many PS3 owners are unaware of the Blu-ray capability in the PlayStation 3. I know it's not really your area, but has anyone over at Sony Computer Entertainment considered pre-loading some sort of Blu-ray tutorial directly onto the PS3 HDD into new machines, perhaps with one of those very cool DVD/Blu-ray split screen simulations?

[TauRus]

Originally Posted by Icemage

To paidgeek:

Much ado has been made about how many PS3 owners are unaware of the Blu-ray capability in the PlayStation 3. I know it's not really your area, but has anyone over at Sony Computer Entertainment considered pre-loading some sort of Blu-ray tutorial directly onto the PS3 HDD into new machines, perhaps with one of those very cool DVD/Blu-ray split screen simulations?

I was thinking about the same, something like a brief tutorial you have to go through everytime you install a Windows OS. Also, Blu-ray logo could be incorporated into the default wallpaper.

[juanleche]

Originally Posted by Icemage

To paidgeek:

Much ado has been made about how many PS3 owners are unaware of the Blu-ray capability in the PlayStation 3. I know it's not really your area, but has anyone over at Sony Computer Entertainment considered pre-loading some sort of Blu-ray tutorial directly onto the PS3 HDD into new machines, perhaps with one of those very cool DVD/Blu-ray split screen simulations?

When I got my PS3 I also got a coupon book for BluRay movies, oh and a free Taladega Nights BluRay - If I hadn't known before getting the PS3 that it played BluRay movies I think that I would have got the hint.

I find it hard to beleive that people don't know this.

Hmm maybe along with putting pictures of PS3 games on the back of the systems box how about pictures of movies it plays,

but really how can anyone not know it plays movies