Archived: Insiders Thread

[cjamescook]

KJack-

Since you are the guy with the chips as I understand it, perhaps you can shed some light on the current processing of SD DVD. Many reviews note that even SD DVD players with HDMI outputs do a better job of upscaling SD DVD to HD displays than the displays. From my limited observations, I agreed.

That said, there are a couple things that annoy me with SD play:

(1) Some reviews report problems with SD upscaling, or that a better job could be done. Have improvements been made?

(2) Instead of displaying 4:3 material with black sidebars on 16:9, we get stretch and squash of the picture. Has this improved?

I apologize if the HD players already do a better job than the SD players. I'm only quoting my experience.

Thanks,
-Jim

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by TheLion

Dear Paidgeek,

I just returned from the IBC in beautiful Amsterdam.

This event reaffirmed my expectation that RED is going "to change everything"... It is truely a remarkable achievement and literally a revolution to finally have quality that even rivals (IMHO) 70mm film "in the palm of your hand".

You should have seen this native 4k demonstration... It has a certain signature look to it that makes it different from any other digital camera system out there at the moment.

I have had the great opportunity to attend a beta-test of RED ONE a few weeks ago and rest assured - I am still in awe and constantly day dreaming about it

Now on to my question - Is Sony Pictures Entertainment considering to use RED for future projects?

Alternatively/naively - Is RED seen as direct competition to Sony's own CineAlta lineup including the new F-23 and will SPE therefor forbear from using it (as if the world was that simple )?

Would you care to share some personal thoughts about digital camera technology from a studio perspective? Do you expect/favor a slow full transition from film or do you see them remaining to complement one another?

And finally - which camera was "The Company" shot with?

As always - your insights are greatly appreciated! Thank you.

The choice of equipment to shoot with it primarily made by the Director and DP. The studio has some input based on the budget for the film, but electronic cinematography tends to be a little less expensive than film.

I am also enthusiastic about the new cameras coming out. There are issues of dynamic range, depth of field, and noise, but I there are certainly good results coming from the Genesis camera.

I am pretty sure "The Company" was shot with the Genesis.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by LynxFX

Thanks paidgeek. Do you know if Profile 1.0 players will be able to access just the PiP video and play that by itself fullscreen?

No, we don't have a means of doing this, but we could potentially include all of the PiP material as a stand alone SD encode. I think this defeats the purpose of having PiP in the first place and will look awkward if someone is making a reference back to the main program, but you can't see it.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by ra1024

Do any insiders know if WB has been approached about at least trying to give their BR releases an encode optimized for the larger capacity and bitrate? Would it be feasible for Sony to offer to do the encodes for at least some of the top WB titles like the Harry Potter series? I think it would be very telling to let Sony and MS compete on these and then see the reviews and sales numbers. I wouldn't be surprised if there were other factors that made this impractical or if there were bigger things in the works that would overshadow this. I was just curious in light of their recent willingness to be impartial if separate encodes might be a possibility.

Yes, they have been approached. They are doing their own encodes and would likely not be open to Sony providing an optimized encode, even if it was free.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by JadedRaverLA

Paid--

Any chance of Sony Pictures releasing another PDF file showing the sales numbers of all titles across both formats? The one released back in March was extremely revealing, but the data is now too old to be really useful. A September update (and then another one following Q4) would be very revealing.

Thanks in advance.

That data was a bit too revealing since it was not just Sony titles that were reported. Don't hold your breath for another of those reports to come out.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by BadAss

Paid, are Sony working on any PiP titles to be released in 2007? If so can you give any indication of how soon?

Kjack, have you sold any of these boards to venders yet?

No we are not. We should have something by early next year.

[WickyWoo]

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

Region coding is not to stop people in the US. It's to stop people from importing US discs

Look to Australia and NZ where region coding is heavily frowned upon and there are laws to protect importers.

Just remember that BR players are designed to watch for mods. There's a reason why there's no PS3 modchips yet.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by ReduxInflux

PAIDGEEK:

sony bmg. i'm assuming that's you? if i assume correctly....thank you, thank you for AC/DC! do you know what other music titles are in the works? it's so nice to have options. how many music titles does HD DVD have? none? and is there any hope of putting out anything by IRON MAIDEN? another insanely popular group that will...in my opinion...give BD a big boost! regardless, thanks for AC/DC. and for your hard work.

brian

I work for Sony Pictures, Sony BMG is a separate entity based in NY. We did the encode and authoring for this title, but Sony BMG gets the credit for the master and choosing what to release.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Jack Torrance

Paid:

Actually, is PINK FLOYD: THE WALL on the schedule anywhere? It has the makings of an awesome blu-ray title with uncompressed audio! I know it was released by MGM theatrically, but Sony released the excellent DVD.

Thanks in advance

I have heard rumors that this is being considered. We will give it the greatest care if we work on it.

[phloyd]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

I have heard rumors that this is being considered. We will give it the greatest care if we work on it.

That would make me one uber happy phloyd

[hollywoodguy]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

I work for Sony Pictures, Sony BMG is a separate entity based in NY. We did the encode and authoring for this title, but Sony BMG gets the credit for the master and choosing what to release.

Paidgeek,

did you also do the Dave Matthews Blu-ray? If so, are you planning on using VC-1 in the future, maybe even on movies?

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by hollywoodguy

Paidgeek,

did you also do the Dave Matthews Blu-ray? If so, are you planning on using VC-1 in the future, maybe even on movies?

Dave Matthews was encoded at a facility in NY that does not have a Sony encoder. The operator likes working with VC-1, and that's why the project uses it. We will keep all of our options open for encoding, but right now, the Sony AVC encoder is working very well for us and the MPEG2 encoder is as well, for the right projects.

[Josh]

Paidgeek,

While watching 'A Few Good Men' last week, I noticed that the film had some horizontal shaking. Is this from the film or a result of the mastering process?

BTW, it looks absolutely stunning.

[BTBuck1]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Dave Matthews was encoded at a facility in NY that does not have a Sony encoder. The operator likes working with VC-1, and that's why the project uses it. We will keep all of our options open for encoding, but right now, the Sony AVC encoder is working very well for us and the MPEG2 encoder is as well, for the right projects.

Paid,

How is it decided which codec will be used?

[LynxFX]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

No, we don't have a means of doing this, but we could potentially include all of the PiP material as a stand alone SD encode. I think this defeats the purpose of having PiP in the first place and will look awkward if someone is making a reference back to the main program, but you can't see it.

Thanks Paid. I was thinking mostly for PiP material like 300 where seeing the final product isn't completely necessary. For PiP commentaries of course, it would be awkward.

Oh well, I just hope the PS3 keeps getting updated to take advantage of any profile the BDA comes up with. If so, I have no worries. Just thinking about those with expensive 1st gen Profile 1 players.

[darinp2]

Can any insider give us any specifics about when the new AACS keys will show up? I know we had heard September before and then the AACS group mentioned something about countering AnyDVD soon, so I was wondering if next weeks titles will have new keys, or whether it will be soon after that. Mostly just curious, as I'm wondering whether they will work this time.

Any news on when a BD+ title might show up would be great too, if that can be shared.

Thanks,
Darin

[Uxi]

What alternative is there? Is it possible the Xbox could have it's AACS license for the 360 add-on revoked?

[LynxFX]

Can any insider give us a very layman's explanation of what BD+ is and if in reality it will have any affect at all on consumers? In other words, will consumers even know it is there? It is getting old hearing the HD fud about how BD+ is anticonsumer and a negative. If it is transparent to the consumer, then what should we care?

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

New AACS keys would be pointless at this time, the old Xbox add-on hack still works. The new keys will still get released just like the old ones did.

Sorry that I'm not really following, but it seems like the XBOX add-on thing would only apply to HD DVD and so new keys could help Blu-ray. Or is it a case where the XBOX add-on exposed something that can also be used to unlock BDs?

Here is something from just 10 days ago:

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/10968.cfm

At a conference held by the DVD Forum in Berlin, the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Authority (AACS LA) unveiled its plans to fight back specifically against SlySoft's AnyDVD HD application, which can rip content from HD DVD and Blu-ray movie discs. The group also appears to be interested in fighting CAM piracy (movies recorded by camcorders in theaters) with video watermarking technology.

Movies shown in cinemas will be given a new watermark invisible to the human eye, but easily picked up by AACS-enabled players. Once the watermark is detected, the player will stop playback completely, according to the Heise Online. Of course, this would actually require a user top be watching a cam movie in an AACS-enabled player, like a HD DVD player or Blu-ray Disc player, so the effect it would have is unknown.

Back to its main purpose, to protect HD DVD and Blu-ray movie discs from being copied, "data keys" will provide additional encryption during the transmission of data from the drive to the PC (bus encryption). The keys will be different for each drive and each movie discs. According to AACS LA, even if hackers found and posted keys, it would not enable anybody else to decrypt the discs with their equipment.

The keys currently being used by SlySoft's AnyDVD HD will soon be revoked also, meaning that the software will be incapable of decrypting newer titles and that users with HD playback software will probably soon need to update.

--Darin

[WickyWoo]

They'll just get the new keys eventually

While computer playback may be a business necessity, it's what's going to keep cracking protection systmes