M-peg2 codec on blu-ray

[mainman]

Why does blu-ray use M-peg2 codecs.

HD-DVD is using M-peg2 and M-peg4 codecs.

I had heard that M-peg4 is better than M-peg2.

Is Blu-ray planning in the future to use M-peg4 codecs also?

And what is iHD that HD-DVD is talking about? Is Blu-ray going to use this also?

Thanx

[James Morrow]

Blu-Ray uses MPEG2 because much of the current HD infrastructure is based around it, and because MPEG2 outperforms MPEG4 (and WMV10) on high definition material at higher bitrates (e.g. 1080p24 encoded at 24Mbps). However, like HD-DVD, BD also supports MPEG4.

MPEG4 is better than MPEG2 at low bitrates, but that is primarily because it was designed for low bitrates (such as 1080p24 at less than 10Mbps.) Some of the compromises it makes to achieve such low bitrates lead to artefacts which becomne increasingly obvious on large, high definition screens - such as a 50" 1080p screen, for example. What would be nice would be a codec optimised for 1080p24 material encoded at 24Mbps, but that doesn't currently exist (although both MPEG2 and MPEG4 are being developed all the time).

iHD is a Microsoft driven interactivity/system management software tool, support for which is going to be built in to Vista (the next version of Windows), but BluRay is currently centred around a Java-based alternative.

[mainman]

Originally Posted by James Morrow

iHD is a Microsoft driven interactivity/system management software tool, support for which is going to be built in to Vista (the next version of Windows), but BluRay is currently centred around a Java-based alternative.

If I were Sony, I would put the iHD in the Blu-ray as well as the Java-based alternative, just to make everybody happy and gain more support.

And it I think it would be easier to use Blu-ray on windows systems (since that is the standard all over the world).

[Shadowself]

Originally Posted by mainman

If I were Sony, I would put the iHD in the Blu-ray as well as the Java-based alternative, just to make everybody happy and gain more support.

And it I think it would be easier to use Blu-ray on windows systems (since that is the standard all over the world).

It is unlikely that Sony (and the rest of the Blu-ray Disk Association) really wants to pay royalties to Microsoft for each player and each disk with iHD on it for the next 10-20 years.

[Blue]

Originally Posted by Shadowself

It is unlikely that Sony (and the rest of the Blu-ray Disk Association) really wants to pay royalties to Microsoft for each player and each disk with iHD on it for the next 10-20 years.

Not to mention the potential conflicts between BRJ ang iHD. With a certain companies track record a patch will be released and woops Java no longer works - in this case it's better one or the other.

[James Morrow]

Shirley Knott... ;^>