Archived: Insiders Thread

[The Guardian]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

This would trigger privacy issues don't you think?

What if instead of tracking through PSN, it was done by software on the PS3 itself? In other words the PS3 will know if its ever been used as a BD player, if not it can pop up a notification that isn't obstructive (like at the bottom of the menu screen or something)...?

[gand41f]

Paidgeek,

Nice to see you're back. Sorry for keep asking questions for other companies, but do you know if there is any possibility to enable BRAVIA Theatre Sync on the PS3 via a firmware upgrade? I'd love it if the TV can turn itself on and switch to Theater mode when I insert a Blu-ray into the PS3.

This might also silence a lot of people who are complaining about the PS3's remote not being infrared. (No, I'm not one of them...I love the PS3's remote being bluetooth, I'd be happier if I can control the TV from the PS3. )

enjoy
gandalf

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by gand41f

Paidgeek,

Nice to see you're back. Sorry for keep asking questions for other companies, but do you know if there is any possibility to enable BRAVIA Theatre Sync on the PS3 via a firmware upgrade? I'd love it if the TV can turn itself on and switch to Theater mode when I insert a Blu-ray into the PS3.

This might also silence a lot of people who are complaining about the PS3's remote not being infrared. (No, I'm not one of them...I love the PS3's remote being bluetooth, I'd be happier if I can control the TV from the PS3. )

enjoy
gandalf

I'll see what I can find out...

[Beta-guy]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Question for you, do you think Sony needs to provide this? If it's a good idea, shouldn't it be developed independently?

the closest we got is http://www.ps3grid.net/ it's a BOINC client on Linux on a PS3, is it possible for the official BOINC makers to contact Sony, in terms of creating a BOINC client for the PS3 XMB that Sony would add in at a later firmware patch?

I'm not saying Sony has to make it or even have to add it into the XMB (if they don't want to), would Sony be open to putting BOINC in the XMB if the official makers of BOINC compiled a version for the PS3, I'm just not sure how or even if I should try getting BOINC on the PS3. (I don't want to be rude)

My thinking is simply that the PS3 community is growing fairly quickly, I'm still amazed and excited about the PS3's power and I like FAH I wish more projects could make use of the PS3's processing power. I hope I haven't stuck my foot in my mouth with all of this

[jsb_hburg]

Quote:
Originally Posted by paidgeek
This would trigger privacy issues don't you think?

Originally Posted by The Guardian

What if instead of tracking through PSN, it was done by software on the PS3 itself? In other words the PS3 will know if its ever been used as a BD player, if not it can pop up a notification that isn't obstructive (like at the bottom of the menu screen or something)...?

Paidgeek,

Though I am an attorney, privacy law is not my area of expertise. Further, I do not know the terms of service for the PSN. That said, The Guardian in the quoted post above captures exactly the information needed; that is, has the PS3 been used as a BD player.

In another thread today, I mentioned that I regularly receive PlayStation Underground email that announces the imminent release of games but never BD blockbuster movies. The captured information could be used to target PlayStation Underground email announcing BD blockbuster movies to PSN users who have never played a BD movie on their PS3.

Alternatively, such email could be sent to everyone opting to receive PlayStation Underground email; thus, avoiding any suggestion of intrusiveness.

[patrick99]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Well firstly, lets stop beating around the bush, the titles in question are LOTR.

Secondly, the whole damn thing was sponsored by MS last time (unless there has been one since I haven't heard about) and they played everything to HD DVD's strengths, so DD+ audio and no IME so they could achieve a very high peak video bitrate. They used the theatrical editions rather than have the EE seamlessly branched in as some people at NL would have liked (SB is not easy on HD DVD afaik, so that is hardly a surprising move by MS). If the whole thing had been played to Blu-ray's strengths, i.e. 7.1 DTS-MA 24/48 with the EE's seamlessly branched into the theatricals, well the result would have been a walkover in favour of Blu-ray.

Thanks very much for that information, Max. Judging by the consistently poor PQ on Warner releases compared to Sony, Fox, and Disney, it is very hard to believe that the poor Warner PQ is attributable to consistently inferior source material.

[Brain Sturgeon]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Well the source material for LOTR is in very good condition. The original elements are stored under lock and key and existing DI are used for making new editions of the movies. I think a new DI will be made for the eventual BD release, but I don't think the grain-haters are going to be very happy from what I have heard. PJ is keen on keeping the grain intact now that BD and HD DVD can show it, rather than DVD smudging it.

Max, will PJ be involved in the future transfers of LOTR to the various formats, given the amount of vitriol that seems to exist between him and New Line over the sharing of profits from those films? I recall one side or the other being quoted in the press that they would never work together again once the lawsuit was settled.

[Brain Sturgeon]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Well NL will need PJ on board for any future releases of LOTR, without director approval NL can't release new editions afaik. In any case, the acrimonious relationship between PJ and NL is getting much better and hopefully we will still see PJ taking the reigns for The Hobbit and other planned JRR Tolkein stories. I think NL are in the mood to settle because they risk losing the production rights to The Hobbit (they will revert back to MGM pretty soon unless they start shooting, I think) or they risk alienating all of the LOTR fans by not having PJ on the project.

Cool, thanks for the tidbit. I figured that money (revenue from future packaged media sales and The Hobbit) would overcome any bad feelings.

[ra1024]

Max, thanks for taking time to post during your planned time off. Since you're around, do you know if NL is going with an HD DVD port for Hairspray? I can't seem to find anyone who knows for certain.

[ra1024]

Thanks for the info, I guess this will be a rental for me. Just out of curiosity, are WB and NL aware that a portion of the blue crowd right now won't buy these HD DVD's put in a blue wrapper? I know we're not the majority but I'm curious if they realize their sales are lower than what they would be if they did optimized encodes.

I'm sure Sony would offer to foot the bill for an optimized encode so I just can't understand why they refuse to go that route.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by cjamescook

Will this be coming out on Blu-ray anytime soon?

We can wish upon a Blu star.

Personally, I hope that it does…… as I would appreciate seeing some of the most beautiful women in the world “above HD” as Jay Leno would say.

Plus, the pink Demo disc from the last show I attended just seems to clash with all the Blu of my Blu-ray disc collection. I always strive to be color coordinated.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Well firstly, lets stop beating around the bush...
Secondly, the whole damn thing was sponsored by MS last time

Is it really going to matter what HD DVD backers do, or will it all just prove to be an exercise in futility at the end.....except of course to hold your drink in place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH7S_Nwb8fU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvE_dONJIWU

[patrick99]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

WB would never accept an offer from Sony, it is just the way they are. Everything WB does is in-house, from mastering to encoding to disc replication (for DVD).

I heard that SPE and PHL have offered their services in the past only to be rebuffed. I am sure paidgeek knows more about this though.

I have no doubt that the people at Warner would be quite capable of producing better results, even within the HD DVD specs, if they didn't try to put too much stuff on a single disc, and if someone in authority hadn't decided that their current results with bitrates in the teens are "good enough."

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by jsb_hburg

Quote:
Originally Posted by paidgeek
This would trigger privacy issues don't you think?





Paidgeek,

Though I am an attorney, privacy law is not my area of expertise. Further, I do not know the terms of service for the PSN. That said, The Guardian in the quoted post above captures exactly the information needed; that is, has the PS3 been used as a BD player.

In another thread today, I mentioned that I regularly receive PlayStation Underground email that announces the imminent release of games but never BD blockbuster movies. The captured information could be used to target PlayStation Underground email announcing BD blockbuster movies to PSN users who have never played a BD movie on their PS3.

Alternatively, such email could be sent to everyone opting to receive PlayStation Underground email; thus, avoiding any suggestion of intrusiveness.

Thank you for your comments...


There are studies conducted, and some statistics have just been released about the Blu-ray use of PS3 owners. Because we are Sony, there is high sensitivity to anything being collected about what a user does with their PS3, even if their identity is not revealed. Moreover, the value of this kind of data collection is limited by the fact that many users (possibly the ones who watch a lot of movies) do not connect their PS3's to a network, or only do so to get a firmware update....

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Heh, no worries, I have spent the last six or so hours trying to write up a term paper, slow going.

The Hairspray BD is a HD DVD encode last I heard. I will try and get more details but it's a Sunday and I am very busy with Uni stuff for the next month, so much so that I have taken four weeks off work.

Uni stuff? As in Universal or University? Just curious

[edgebsl]

Insiders:

I'm sure noone can comment on the state of things with Warner,
but it seems to me that if the speculation is true and they are going to drop a format...then this is the last move in the format war. $99 players, BOGO's all that stuff just becomes redundant old news.

Would you be able to at least confirm that the BDA does not consider them to be "expendable"?

I would think losing the last nuetral studio would be terminal to either format.
Although a Red Death would be much, much more quick and very painful.

[Deciazulado]

Originally Posted by Kris Deering

I know they did some seperate encodes optimized for each format with some test cases (including some very high profile titles) but didn't find enough of a difference to justify the seperate encodes.

Originally Posted by Chris Beveridge

This is the sticking point. I can fully understand WB doing only one video encode, and I can agree that the visual quality of both will be very good *most of the time*. I'm sure there are areas where some extra bandwidth could be used to smooth things out. But I can live with it for what they're doing right now. The audio issue however just annoys me because it is an area where a sizeable difference can be heard, particularly by those early adopters who favor higher end gear. Gear that is continually getting priced down into the realm of affordability for the mainstream. If WB continues to use the same video encode but gave the BD releases uncompressed or TrueHD audio, I'd have zero issue with them.

At 4PH most encodes look pretty good but at 2PH I can see them lacking. Ocean's Thirteen looks pretty good at 4PH. At 2PH I can even see the grain posterizing and going in slow motion, like the effect you get when you set frame summing DNR heavily.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

I thought I would take a few minutes to catch up on questions, but I can see that I am hopelessly behind. Please be patient and I will try to get to everyone late today or over the weekend.

Thanks

Then I say………… brake earlier coming into the turn then lay-off the brakes completely and accelerate !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrLFb47QHi0&NR=1

Nice catch-up.
Hope you appreciate the above.

P.S.
Now don't go nuts on the way to work Monday morning !

[Teazle]

To those on the Inside,

In another thread --
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...=21675&page=41

-- there's a discussion of an offer consisting of a Toshiba HD-DVD player and 10 free movies for $200. The value of the movies alone has to be over $250. Doesn't this appear to be the illegal practice of dumping (at least in some states)?

If it is even a borderline case of dumping -- i.e., can at least be made out to appear to be dumping / that there's a reasonable suspicion that dumping has occurred -- why don't the affected manufacturers (Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, etc.) individually sue Toshiba and seek an injunction halting the sale until litigation is concluded?

[bajor27]

Maybe you forget the fifty movie sales that we have had the past couple of weeks and that are going on this week also.

Not that I agree with the other guy, but I really don't think these 2 for 1 sales are helping to win over new customers which is what we need to do. Although, as I was writing this post, I supposed that it could help sway some of the untapped PS3 owning society which is also what needs to be done.