Archived: Insiders Thread

[Knight-Errant]

Originally Posted by whippersnapper

Question for Paid_Geek. I know that the release of a number of movies on blu-ray is being held up so that better security can be included on the discs. And I have no problem with that. Does this security holdup also DELAY OTHER WORK needed for transferring the video and audio of a movie to Blu-ray? I guess I'm hoping that when the necessary security work is completed we'll have a large flow of Blu-ray movies to choose from relatively QUICKLY. Is that wishful thinking?

Oh I'm sure I read here that work was still continuing apace on HD masters so I don't imagine for a second that we have anything to worry about on that score.

What's being held up is likely just the finishing touches of the discs rather than the video. Is that a fair assesment guys?

[azure_blue]

paid_geek an HD-DVD Microsoft insider over at the AVS Forum has announced that there will be no region coding for HD-DVD:

There is no region coding in HD DVD and the window closed on the last effort to get it into the spec a couple of months ago......

........A movie studio is free to make whatever distribution deal they like overseas. They could give a window to Austrian distributor which is wildly different than one in China or African nation. Yet, the region coding they had in DVD, and worse yet, the one in BD, do not have anywhere close to granularity to help them back such agreements. There simply is not a region coding for every country and region in the specs to handle such situation.

Even worse, is that no company in the DVD hardware business has ever tried to do justice to region coding in that spec. They have released hardware that allows easy bypassing of the region coding. How can they in the next breath then, claim that they are trying to help out other content companies in this area? This is noted in your post where you now expect a bypass system for DVD playback.

What Sony and other studios in favor of region coding want, should be enforced through their legal/contract means. After all, why have a contract if you are going to rely on technical means?

BTW, the view above is shared by major studios now. They see region coding as being useless and hence the reason you don’t see it in HD DVD. If content owners were adamant about region coding, we should not be getting any titles published in HD DVD! Yet we are.

Yes, some studios still want it. There is no denying that. And our job is to provide a platform they want to use. But as technology companies, we must explain the limits of what technology can do. We would not be doing our job otherwise.

post #4186
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&#post10416653

Will this put pressure on Sony (movie division) to drop "region coding" ie make them region free?

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by azure_blue

paid_geek an HD-DVD Microsoft insider over at the AVS Forum has announced that there will be no region coding for HD-DVD:


post #4186
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&#post10416653

Will this put pressure on Sony (movie division) to drop "region coding" ie make them region free?

You do KNOW that you're quoting the A-man, right?

With regards to the BDA, and according to the BD insiders, region coding is set for the format but not made mandatory. Studios can choose to use it or not; Warner BDs are not region coded while Disney and Fox are, for example.

If titles have region coding, 12 months AFTER its release, new pressings of the same titles cannot have region coding as its regarded as catalog titles. Unsold region-coded titles must be labelled as such.


fuad

[dobyblue]

HOw is the region coding in Blu-ray worse than DVD?

[MatrixS2000]

Okay, this was one of the funniest comments on that page that I read:

"What Sony and other studios in favor of region coding want, should be enforced through their legal/contract means. After all, why have a contract if you are going to rely on technical means?"


Uummm last time I remembered loading software on my pc, I had to agree to terms before the software installed....why is Vista using technology to ensure I have legal versions of software????

roflmao

[Fozziwig]

Yes, some studios still want it. There is no denying that. And our job is to provide a platform they want to use. But as technology companies, we must explain the limits of what technology can do. We would not be doing our job otherwise.

Translated: There isn't a cat in hells chance of seeing Disney or Fox or Sony release anything on HD DVD - EVER!

Thanks for confirming that Mr. A.

The vast majority of end users neither know nor care about region coding. It's an issue for early adopters but I presume the winning format will be selling beyond that microcosm eventually.

[Chris Beveridge]

Enforcing by legal/contract means...

i.e. making it illegal to import movies from one country to another.

[phloyd]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

HOw is the region coding in Blu-ray worse than DVD?

It is not worse - there are less regions so it is not as bad.

Fact is, Amir, resident spin master is just bullsh!tting as per usual.

Since half of the content companies do not release on HD DVD, it is not right to say that 'the content providers have spoken' - they haven't.

Less than half of the content providers have spoken and even on BD we see region coding used in varying fashions by the studios. Interestingly we see Fox, Disney and Sony using it - as noted by others - the non-HD DVD studios. I also see that as more proof that these studios are not satisfied with the looseness of the HD DVD spec and DRM.

[bluraykrish]

HI Paidgeek,

Its indeed gr8 to have u here! I hv a question:

I m planning to buy a Sony laptop with the latest config. (with DVD bla bla). My query is: With Blu-ray ariving on the scene, should I wait longer OR is there a way where even if I buy the latest tp-of-the-line laptop today, I wud still be able to use it after say 12months, by which time, Blu-ray wud'v becom more common n cheaper and DVD's will b on their way out?

Thanks!
Krish

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Thanks for the encouragement to join your forum. I will do my best to answer questions, but please don't feel disrespected if there is a delay. My family objects to my spending so much time online.

I am an engineer for Sony Pictures and have been with the company for about 11 years. I have had the good fortune of working with many good people across many companies on the Blu-ray movie format. That said, I am not an expert on every topic and will have to research answers from time to time.

I do think the Blu-ray format is better than HD-DVD in key areas and especially for Europe, so you can expect me to be pro BD in my comments. That said, I don't do spin well and if there is a weakness or mistake to be owned up to, I'll do so.

Sincerely,

Paidgeek

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by GTP

Paidgeek,
Any solid info on whether the PS3 will be fully upgradable for IME?
I will probably not use this much..if at all..but the hd dvd zealots are having a field day with this topic at other sites.

Sorry for the long delayed response.

Solid info? I never claim anything to be certain one way or the other because I still get surprised (usually for the better).
To my knowledge, this is in the works, but I don't know when it will be released.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by whippersnapper

Question for Paid_Geek. I know that the release of a number of movies on blu-ray is being held up so that better security can be included on the discs. And I have no problem with that. Does this security holdup also DELAY OTHER WORK needed for transferring the video and audio of a movie to Blu-ray? I guess I'm hoping that when the necessary security work is completed we'll have a large flow of Blu-ray movies to choose from relatively QUICKLY. Is that wishful thinking?

SPE is not holding back titles for security reasons. For any studio that may be, I'm sure they are continuing with the process of preparing the masters required to eventually release the titles. I'm not sure that means you will see a sudden flood at any point since distribution and retailers can only take so much so fast.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by bluraykrish

HI Paidgeek,

Its indeed gr8 to have u here! I hv a question:

I m planning to buy a Sony laptop with the latest config. (with DVD bla bla). My query is: With Blu-ray ariving on the scene, should I wait longer OR is there a way where even if I buy the latest tp-of-the-line laptop today, I wud still be able to use it after say 12months, by which time, Blu-ray wud'v becom more common n cheaper and DVD's will b on their way out?

Thanks!
Krish

I think having a Blu-ray drive in your laptop is cool, but I don't advocate watching HD on small screens. In my opinion, the best way to buy a computer is to get it configured exactly as you need it for the immediate future. If you will be hooking your laptop up with HDMI to watch movies, by all means, go for it. If you are buying it just to have it, I would spend the money on another feature you need right now.

[Josh]

Paidgeek,

You've be gone for a while. Anything cool you can clue us in on?

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by azure_blue

paid_geek an HD-DVD Microsoft insider over at the AVS Forum has announced that there will be no region coding for HD-DVD:


post #4186
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&#post10416653

Will this put pressure on Sony (movie division) to drop "region coding" ie make them region free?

You can compare this issue with the fact that HD-DVD does not require the use of encryption either. Not having this as mandatory is potentially a big long term problem for HD-DVD because it makes it an easy target for pirates to leverage.

As mentioned in the subsequent posts, it is not really an advantage to mandate a region free format if it gives the content companies pause.

SPE will continue to use region coding for titles still in their theatrical run. This helps encourage people to go to the theater to see the film. It is extremely expensive to release a movie worldwide, so the prints are re-used from market to market and this leads to the region code use.

[dobyblue]

Paidgeek can you please send someone over to Warner to give them a giant smack in the mouth from me for continuing to hose Blu-ray buyers with their shitty Dolby Digital tracks, despite their fancy HD website blathering on about what "Lossless Audio" is.

It's criminal.

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Paidgeek can you please send someone over to Warner to give them a giant smack in the mouth from me for continuing to hose Blu-ray buyers with their shitty Dolby Digital tracks, despite their fancy HD website blathering on about what "Lossless Audio" is.

It's criminal.

What he said. And smack Paramount too. Dream Girls in DD only?


fuad

[BOSS10L]

Question....

From what I understand, the PS3 currently can't process DTS MA (I guess no BD player can?), but will it be able to send the audio still in the DTS MA format via HDMI for processing by the receiver? I'm considering one of the new Onkyos.

[Heavens Downfall]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Paidgeek can you please send someone over to Warner to give them a giant smack in the mouth from me for continuing to hose Blu-ray buyers with their shitty Dolby Digital tracks, despite their fancy HD website blathering on about what "Lossless Audio" is.

It's criminal.

I agree, something should be done about this. I want the best possible quality from these movies and I feel like im just throwing money away. If they keep this up I may just stop buying Warner films.

[LeoneFan]

Originally Posted by BOSS10L

Question....

From what I understand, the PS3 currently can't process DTS MA (I guess no BD player can?), but will it be able to send the audio still in the DTS MA format via HDMI for processing by the receiver? I'm considering one of the new Onkyos.

As strange this sounds (I couldn't believe it either) but I read somewhere that the PS3 can't even output the raw DTS-HD MA bitstream to a HDMI 1.3 receiver for decoding. Maybe someone else can chime in on this.

[frenchglen]

Dear Paidgeek,

I have a question about DTS-HD Master Audio.

Is the reason why it's called Master Audio, as opposed to the High Resolution Audio variant, because it's guaranteed that it will be absolutely the same as the master from the studio? Or is it only a marketing name, to denote that it is "capable of reaching" the master's bit-rate?

If so what's the point of splitting up DTS-HD into two variants [apart from one being lossless and the other lossy], if the better of the two might often only be at a similar level as the other? Seems a waste of a fantastic codec if it isn't guaranteed to reach the highest bit-rate available from the studio. You might as well just use PCM on a BD50.

So is it in the codec's specification, or only at the discretion of the various movie studios?

Thanks,

Glen