Archived: Insiders Thread

[kjack]

Originally Posted by Охранное

Is opacity adjustable on either or both streams? Possible to overlay the PiP HD content fully on the regular video stream, but near transparent, to see pre-CGI-SFX/final film progression?

While our chip supports it, for BD content it's essentially a switch between the two sources. I tried really hard to embed alpha data into the PiP content to be more flexible, but couldn't get buy-in from the studios.

[kjack]

Originally Posted by Rob Zuber

What would an SD PiP player do with a title that only had an HD PiP feature?

You'll probably have to display the PiP full screen. There might be some clever ways to handle it, we'll see...

[blublublu]

Insiders:

What is up with Fox/MGM?

First "Amityville Horror", now "Master & Commander"?

http://forums.highdefdigest.com/show...11&postcount=7

[Spankey]

Originally Posted by blublublu

Insiders:

What is up with Fox/MGM?

First "Amityville Horror", now "Master & Commander"?

http://forums.highdefdigest.com/show...11&postcount=7

The email quoted in the thread you linked said M&C was removed from a Blu-ray "PROMOTION", not cancelled.

[Охранное]

Originally Posted by kjack

While our chip supports it, for BD content it's essentially a switch between the two sources. I tried really hard to embed alpha data into the PiP content to be more flexible, but couldn't get buy-in from the studios.

Thanks, kjack.

[dominica]

Insiders: Any word on SONY-BMG Alicia Keys Unplugged Blu Ray. This title looks almost HD on upconvert on PS3 or my Oppo. Would be a killer Title to show AQ and PQ. Many Best Buys show this title on the XBR 70 to demo DVD material on the big TV's.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by blublublu

Insiders:

What is up with Fox/MGM?

First "Amityville Horror", now "Master & Commander"?

http://forums.highdefdigest.com/show...11&postcount=7

Insiders: Please tell those who need to know..."This is starting to get REALLY annoying."

[WickyWoo]

By the wording, they have some kind of promotion going like an endcap

Otherwise, they obviously found some kind of bug that is delaying running the discs. I just hope it's not in that "motion ride" feature that no one is going to use and was obviously paid for by the company

[groovyone]

Originally Posted by thebluemax

Annoying? This is bs if true.

Amazon still lists it: Master and Commander

Everytime someone reads something on a pro HD DVD site that is anti Blu-Ray people come on here demanding the insiders answer to it. Why don't we wait until news of a delay comes from a CREDIBLE source?

[JadedRaverLA]

Dobyblue --

I appreciate the chart, but I had seen that. I was referring to the pdf Sony Pictures put out in March that showed every title on both formats with exact sales YTD and SI. That data is far more interesting in terms of seeing how individual types of films sell, and for getting good BD/HD DVD ratios across all the available dual-format titles. It also had actual POS numbers (not just ratios) for both formats for each week.

So, Paidgeek --

Any chance of getting another "Next Generation Tracking Report" released from SPHE Reasearch?

[Grubert]

kjack:

As you will know by now, one of the things I hate most of Blu-ray is the region coding, and how there are no multiregion players as of now. I understand their reasons to do so, but please understand my reasons too: I am used to buying my movies wherever I deem appropriate and I'm not going to stop.

I know that region-free playback as we know it on DVD is out of the question.

Now, what about a machine with multi-bootup? Imagine a player sold in Europe that therefore booted as region B by default but, if powered up while pressing one button, booted as the region-A (or region-C) version of the same player.

Would that be in violation of the BDA requirements?

Would such a setup be detectable by the disc?

TIA.

[Rob71]

Originally Posted by Grubert

kjack:

As you will know by now, one of the things I hate most of Blu-ray is the region coding, and how there are no multiregion players as of now. I understand their reasons to do so, but please understand my reasons too: I am used to buying my movies wherever I deem appropriate and I'm not going to stop.

I know that region-free playback as we know it on DVD is out of the question.

Now, what about a machine with multi-bootup? Imagine a player sold in Europe that therefore booted as region B by default but, if powered up while pressing one button, booted as the region-A (or region-C) version of the same player.

Would that be in violation of the BDA requirements?

Would such a setup be detectable by the disc?

TIA.

I like the way you think

[JBlacklow]

Insiders: As of today, we've had 4 discs (1/5th the total) from the Fox/MGM announcement removed or never given to retailers, and two with specs reduced. Is Fox going to pull everything yet again? If you can get word, I'd rather hear it now rather than the day before like the CES announced titles. I'm tired of Fox's tactics, and if their "response" to Paramount was never intended to actually happen, then it's time they stop deceiving us. Fox's actions this year have done little to help and a lot to hurt Blu-ray, especially in the early adopter crowd, and this needs to stop.

[WickyWoo]

Now, what about a machine with multi-bootup? Imagine a player sold in Europe that therefore booted as region B by default but, if powered up while pressing one button, booted as the region-A (or region-C) version of the same player.

Would that be in violation of the BDA requirements?

If it's anything like the DVD agreements, absolutely

If you make a deck like that, why bother region coding at all?

I'm sorry, but I can't accept that. Why drop a known quantity, well-liked (and profitable) action adventure that's actually from this decade but not, say "Edward Scissorhands" or "The Fly", which are good films but low-selling cult classics from 15-20 years ago?

Because obviously there's some kind of technical glitch, and at this time of year it's virtually impossible to book line space for ANYTHING as everyone's running full steam for Christmas. Because they don't know when they can get a spot, they don't give a new date.

Especailly at this point it time, it's easily 6-8 weeks if you miss your window till you can get another one.

If you think "The Fly" and especially Edward Scissorhands are low-selling, I'm afraid you're mistaken. ESPECIALLY Edward.

[JBlacklow]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Because obviously there's some kind of technical glitch, and at this time of year it's virtually impossible to book line space for ANYTHING as everyone's running full steam for Christmas. Because they don't know when they can get a spot, they don't give a new date.

I really hope you're right, WickyWoo, but until I hear otherwise, I'm not going to expect any Fox or MGM BDs that were announced to hit the stands. That's how bad Fox has messed up so far. And if I read anything about BD+ or even the new AACS keys on Doom9, I'm canceling my Fox preorders.

If you think "The Fly" and especially Edward Scissorhands are low-selling, I'm afraid you're mistaken. ESPECIALLY Edward.

Perhaps I should have said "relatively". But still, in terms of sales, M&C would have been big.

[ottscay]

Can any insider provide information on Master and Commander? This has been a must-buy for me for a year now, and I'm getting really irritated that it keeps getting dangled in front of me just to have it whisked away. I don't give a rat's-arse about the special feature, I want hidef M&C goodness with lossless sound in my theater, and sinc this is the second time it's been announced and dated, I f#@%ing want it now.

[cjamescook]

Originally Posted by frank_t

that's good to hear. anything monty python is a must-buy

reminds me of the old days of CDs where they used to add the codes "DDD, AAD, ADD, and DAD (which I've seen, but always thought odd), followed somewhere in the liner notes about the quality of the source material affecting the final result. used to be standard on every CD back in '82-ish.

You still see such marking and comments on CD re-issues of 1960s-era material. You can also hear it given good ears or a good stereo system.

Another more interesting were some more recent Wendy Carlos releases that were marked DDDD because the synthesized material was actually produced in the digital domain - never miked!

[cjamescook]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

The title was extremely grainy so we tried the Lowry process and liked the results. There are a couple of scenes that show artifacts of the process (shots of the sky in particular), but the overall result was a big improvement. This will be something of a test for other titles that have similar issues, so I will be interested to read any and all comments from those who see the results.

Does this foretell anything about how the BD release of "In the Shadow of the Moon" will be processed? It contains a lot of 1960s-era NASA film which is probably grainy and shot in 16mm.

FYI: The producers said they made no attempt to clean up the archival material, feeling it would detract from what they were trying to present. The archival stock is there, scratches, lense flare, and all.

[Rio]

Originally Posted by degas

Kind of funny how ever BD outsale its HD DVD counterpart by 2:1, on almost every ranking.

According to Warner, so far 300 has been sold 220K for BD and 117K for HD DVD. Yeah, 2:1

[Grubert]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

If it's anything like the DVD agreements, absolutely

If you make a deck like that, why bother region coding at all?

The same reason there is region coding on DVD: to discourage 99.9% of the population from importing. Me, I'm in the .1%.

My Pioneer DVD player became regionfree by entering some weird hex code sequence with a Pronto remote. Now how could that happen?