Archived: Insiders Thread

[drmpeg]

Originally Posted by richteer

Insiders (Kjack?): Does the use of PIP on a title--EVEN IF IT IS NOT BEING DISPLAYED--eat into the available video and audio bandwidth? In other words, does a title with PIP have a lower bandwidth ceiling for the main feature than one without? Or does each video/audio stream have its own dedicated bandwidth?

I ask because I'd hate to see a feature's bandiwdth availability curtailed "just" to support PIP...

Hopefully, my insider status is valid here on blu-ray.com. The answer is yes, PIP eats into the 48 Mbps of possible bandwidth if the PIP stream is on the disk.

For Profile 2.0, the PIP stream could be downloaded and played from local storage (in sync with the main feature). In that case, the PIP stream does not take away from main feature bandwidth.

Ron

[drmpeg]

Originally Posted by merrick97

PentonMan, Paidgeek or any other insider, is there any reason to be nervous about Warner speaking at tommorrows DVD Forum conference?

Warner has always been very active in HD-DVD. For example, it's rumored that they were the ones that pressured Toshiba to add 24p output to the HD-DVD specification.

Ron

[amillians]

Originally Posted by richteer

Insiders (Kjack?): Does the use of PIP on a title--EVEN IF IT IS NOT BEING DISPLAYED--eat into the available video and audio bandwidth?

Yes. As does each audio track, each subtitle track, etc. This is true for both formats.

[Rio]

Originally Posted by drmpeg

Warner has always been very active in HD-DVD. For example, it's rumored that they were the ones that pressured Toshiba to add 24p output to the HD-DVD specification.

Ron,

So, what will happen when main feature is 24p while secondary video is 60i?

[bambam1901]

Insiders,

Anyone want to weigh in on Filmmixer's AVS threads in which he says that DD+ at 1.5 mbs is indistinguishable from lossless? I can not test this theory myself as the 360 HD DVD player does not support lossless audio, but I can definitely say without any doubt that the PCM tracks on BD movies are much better than the 640 kbs DD tracks of the same movie. Even my wife can hear the difference when I do a/b testing on even our mid-level equipment. Thanks, guys.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by drmpeg

Warner has always been very active in HD-DVD. For example, it's rumored that they were the ones that pressured Toshiba to add 24p output to the HD-DVD specification.

Ron

rdjam on AVS has long been calling today "the day" I was just curious what the REAL insiders thought

[FFObsessed]

I have a question for Paidgeek

I live in the UK, and I have had a pre-order for Gattaca on BD for a while. The release date came and now it says the movie is "no longer in production"

http://www.play.com/DVD/Blu-ray/4-/1...searchsource=0

Forgive me if Im wrong, but I believe Gattaca is a Sony movie? If so can you explain why it's no longer in production? I was looking forward to it

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by FFObsessed

I have a question for Paidgeek

I live in the UK, and I have had a pre-order for Gattaca on BD for a while. The release date came and now it says the movie is "no longer in production"

http://www.play.com/DVD/Blu-ray/4-/1...searchsource=0

Forgive me if Im wrong, but I believe Gattaca is a Sony movie? If so can you explain why it's no longer in production? I was looking forward to it

Gattaca has had a new film transfer and should come back on the schedule. The new master looks good, so you won't be disappointed when it comes out.

[FFObsessed]

Thanks paidgeek, that was quick lol

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by bambam1901

Insiders,

Anyone want to weigh in on Filmmixer's AVS threads in which he says that DD+ at 1.5 mbs is indistinguishable from lossless? I can not test this theory myself as the 360 HD DVD player does not support lossless audio, but I can definitely say without any doubt that the PCM tracks on BD movies are much better than the 640 kbs DD tracks of the same movie. Even my wife can hear the difference when I do a/b testing on even our mid-level equipment. Thanks, guys.

I don't believe it, but we are going to take advantage of some Paramount titles that have both so that we can do some controlled experiments. In my opinion, there is little chance that you can slice up an audio soundrack with a perceptual coding system, then reassemble it without having at least some audible consequences. I always prefer the sound of our LPCM tracks to DD640 and I can reliably pick it out every time. I don't think 1.5Mbps DD+ will be that much better, but we will give it a fair test.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

paidgeek, can you pass a request to SCE? I wish that all PS3s from all of the regions can playback PAL and NTSC discs for those discs that were recorded as Region all. Right now only HK/TW/SG PS3s can do it. I don't know about EU/AU ones. Thanks!

paidgeek, is there a rationale behind the pricing of SPHE's BDs? Some are lower and some are higher. Is it due to the extra discs or the content itself? I look at the pricing of Blade Runner: The Final Cut and I still can't believe how cheap the price of the 5-disc set is.

(puts five dollars in the coffer) Thanks, paidgeek!


fuad

I will pass on your request about the 525/625 support for PS3.

There are no rules on pricing that I am aware of, but thankfully I am not part of that decision process. I do know that new releases are higher than catalog, but beyond that I have no details.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by fronn

Was just about to post something related to this, so I'll just add on.

Paidgeek (or Penton even?),

This trend of $40+ MSRP movies from SPHE is a little disturbing. Spiderman 3/Superbad from amazon are going to be $30 and probably closer to 40 at a brick and mortar store -- is Sony expecting them to sell at those prices? Most of the BR owners are PS3 owners -- I can't see a lot of them justifying that kind of price when they could get a full game from the same store and end up with a lot more for their money.

I know I didn't get into Blu-ray with the expectation that prices of movies would actually rise over time and I'm not very comfortable with these prices after hearing that Superbad would be a 43.95 MSRP title (just Spiderman and Close encounters being expensive could be explained by them being special releases of sorts... but a normal day and date comedy?). That may be the first time I actually go for the DVD over the hi-def version.

Is SPHE just testing the waters or is this a new pricing standard from Sony?

Thanks!

I'll pass on the comments about "Superbad". I presume the higher cost is due to the two disc set. There is also quite a bit of work going into the added value.

[bambam1901]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

I don't believe it, but we are going to take advantage of some Paramount titles that have both so that we can do some controlled experiments. In my opinion, there is little chance that you can slice up an audio soundrack with a perceptual coding system, then reassemble it without having at least some audible consequences. I always prefer the sound of our LPCM tracks to DD640 and I can reliably pick it out every time. I don't think 1.5Mbps DD+ will be that much better, but we will give it a fair test.

Thanks, Paidgeek. Pretty much what I expected. I look forward to your test results.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by merrick97

PentonMan, Paidgeek or any other insider, is there any reason to be nervous about Warner speaking at tommorrows DVD Forum conference?

I am not nervous about it. I am not expecting any surprises.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by divedeeper

Paidgeek:

I know i've seen a lot of talk that Blu-Ray discs are more expensive then HD-DVD discs to replicate. The "Cost to the studio" is higher, and thus why HD-DVD is better according to some.

I searched here to find any hint as to just how dramatic this "cost difference" is, but failed to find anything. Could you shead some light on this?

If you can't, a ballpark would be nice. Like, it costs 5% more, or between .10 and .20 per disc more.

And, I susspect this cost difference, if it exists will continue to drop as Blu-Ray manufacturing picks up.

Replication prices tend to fluctuate and I do not have pricing info for HD-DVD. That said, SPE has to pay for our discs like everyone else and the cost of replication has not been an obstacle. If I am not mistaken, the costs for a BD50 are about the same as what we have paid for UMD video discs in the past.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by BillCable

Question for the resident Sony insider:

We know we'll be getting a "big announcement" from Sony on October 12. The rumor all around is it's official confirmation of the 40-Gig PS3. They just confirmed the 40-Gig PS3 for the UK. It seems to me the UK announcement would make a 10/12 revelation of the 40-Gig US PS3 a non-event. It'd become a big "Duh!" moment. That leads to my question... should be expect anything more from the big announcement?

I don't know anything about a "big" announcement on the 12th.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by shamus

Wanted to thank whoever was responsible for the amazing AQ on the Dave Mathews release. Any chance we will see(or hear) a movie with 96/24 audio?

You can thank Sony BMG for using the audio feature to the max. Not likely to happen on a film release since the movie masters are only 48k 24bit. There are so many layers in the film mixes that it would likely be a waste.

[manikin]

To Paidgeek:

Is it possible to request addition of NTFS formatted external drive support to the PS3. currently only FAT32 formated external drives are recognized.

Thanks

[amillians]

Originally Posted by Rio

So, what will happen when main feature is 24p while secondary video is 60i?

See p. 28 for normative guidelines:

http://www.dvdforum.org/images/HD_DV...3-July2007.pdf

Basically, leave it up to the player, vs. the leave it up to the author approach of Blu-ray.

[Frode]

Originally Posted by drmpeg

For Profile 2.0, the PIP stream could be downloaded and played from local storage (in sync with the main feature). In that case, the PIP stream does not take away from main feature bandwidth.

Now that's an interesting point. Even though it doesn't take away from the main feature, you'd be still have a limited max bitrate for the substream, right? As I understand it there's limitations in place to ensure that all 1.1+ players have the processing power to actually decode it.