Archived: Insiders Thread

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

paidgeek,
As you may know, Sony movies on BD have calibration tests when you key in 7669 from the main menu. How do we use it to calibrate our HDTVs using these screens?

Has anybody else figured this one out?


fuad

There are a few adjustment where the included test patterns can be particulary useful for getting the best possible picture. Most of our discs have at least 4 test patterns included, SMPTE bars, monoscope, ramp and cross hatch. The first adjustment I usually concern myself with is the black level or "brightness". Bring up the colorbar signal and pause your player. Turn up your monitor "brightness" and confirm that all 3 pluge chips are visible in the lower right hand corner of the screen. If all three can be seen, then you have confirmed that your player and monitor are passing signals "below black". Next, adjust the brightness control down until the right chip is just visible. You now have an optimum black level setting. Put the player back into play mode and chapter skip to the next pattern, the monoscope and pause once again. Ideally, you should see a complete image with 16:9 shown at the corners and no truncating of the triangles. If you don't see the full image, check if you monitor supports "full pixel", "dot by dot" or some other description of a mode that allows a 1:1 relationship between the incoming signal and the pixels on your display. Some displays do not allow the disabling of "overscan" so you will not be able to make this adjustment. The monoscope is also useful for checking over sharpening, or filtering of the image. Ideally the round patterns comprised of wedges should be clear, sharp with no asymetrical gray bars or ovals. Distortions in the pattern usually indicate that a scaler is being used in the display. Also check that the squares comprised of 2x2 pixel black squares are distinct. If sharpening is used, the black or white portions of these squares is often exaggerated. And finally can you read the text on the bottom of the pattern for the company that created it? If you can, you are likely getting a full 1920 x 1080 image.

Of course there are many other important settings for Contrast and color, but these settings need to be adjusted according to your average room light. I recommend turning off all of the processing that is available in todays displays such as Noise reduction, DRC (Sony) or whatever a given CE company happens to be calling their image enhancement feature. If you have a good blu-ray disc, "Black Hawk Down" for example, you should be able to see the film grain from the original master faithfully reproduced. If it looks mottled or irregular, there is a good chance your display is using noise reduction or other processing and hurting, rather than helping the picture quality.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by JBlacklow

Paidgeek: Will all SPHE titles hit Region A first, or at least the same day, as other regions?

It depends. Very often there is a several week delay or more as we collect all of the foreign subitles, dubs and other assets we need to release in other territories.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Urian

Can you tell us how is VC-1 encoding environment, what software is provided by Microsoft and how it runs?

It works in a very similar way to our AVC encoder. Sorry, but I cannot be more specific.

[JBlacklow]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

It depends. Very often there is a several week delay or more as we collect all of the foreign subitles, dubs and other assets we need to release in other territories.

So, if hypothetically speaking, one of my favorite titles is apparently being released in Europe in late March but has not yet been announced for the US, would it be a stretch to say that it must come out her on or before the EU release? This is all hypothetically speaking, of course. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge.

If you can't answer because you want to keep it a surprise, I'll understand.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by JBlacklow

So, if hypothetically speaking, one of my favorite titles is apparently being released in Europe in late March but has not yet been announced for the US, would it be a stretch to say that it must come out her on or before the EU release? This is all hypothetically speaking, of course. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge.

If you can't answer because you want to keep it a surprise, I'll understand.

For a catalog title, it is possible that we are releasing in Europe first. Which title are you thinking of?

[GoldenRedux]

paidgeek,

I have wondered why it is that DSD was never included in the Blu-ray spec. Could you shed some light on this?

[JBlacklow]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

For a catalog title, it is possible that we are releasing in Europe first. Which title are you thinking of?

ZonaDVD has this listing (translated) for Hellboy that claims a 3/27 release date. I can't tell if it's a from an official source or not. Again, if you or your superiors want to keep it a surprise in case you have to fend off some nice Universal or Weinstein titles (if they can provide any), I'd completely understand.

[phloyd]

Gattaca is scheduled for the UK also.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by GoldenRedux

paidgeek,

I have wondered why it is that DSD was never included in the Blu-ray spec. Could you shed some light on this?

Yes this is something I'm very curious about as well.
SACD is still announcing new titles, like the Depeche Mode releases that are still in the works, Pixies Sufrer Rosa and the Genesis titles. Will DSD come into play at all for Blu-ray? SACD compatability is included in the PS3, yet we haven't seen any sort of promotion about this at all.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by GoldenRedux

I have wondered why it is that DSD was never included in the Blu-ray spec. Could you shed some light on this?

A BD-50 is capable of holding over six hours of 96Khz/24-bit 7.1 LPCM. Good luck finding/affording audio equipment that could do that justice.

Why would DSD be needed? As I understand it, the fidelity of DSD for high frequencies is inferior to PCM.

Gary

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

There are a few adjustment where the included test patterns can be particulary useful for getting the best possible picture.

Thanks paidgeek! I'll be calibrating using these test screens!


fuad

[theknub]

paidgeek... not trying to clutter the space here, but thanks for the calibration info as all here im sure will be doing when they get home

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

As I understand it, the fidelity of DSD for high frequencies is inferior to PCM.

Gary

Not in my opinion it isn't. IMO, DSD is vastly superior to PCM in every way, but that's a discussion for another thread.

[JBlacklow]

Originally Posted by GoldenRedux

Not in my opinion it isn't. IMO, DSD is vastly superior to PCM in every way, but that's a discussion for another thread.

Simple explanation: There are a lot more receivers capable of handling/decoding PCM digitally, and when HDMI 1.3 components hit, they'll be ready for the new codecs.

[dobyblue]

The fidelities with which PCM at a high sampling rate is better are only done by 192/24 and it is frequencies that are well beyond our hearing range.

For everything within our hearing range DSD is more accurate.

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

The fidelities with which PCM at a high sampling rate is better are only done by 192/24 and it is frequencies that are well beyond our hearing range.

For everything within our hearing range DSD is more accurate.

I don't agree that PCM at 192/24 is better than DSD either, but, again, it's not a discussion for this thread. Perhaps we should start another thread on this topic?

EDIT:
Actually, I wonder if paidgeek has any opinion on this matter and if any of this had anything at all to do with DSD being left out of the BD spec.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

I will probably get a 52" Sony LCD. We helped develop some features for that set, so it only makes sense I should buy one. I do like the Pioneer plasma though and we have one in our office for testing.

What do you think of the SXRD sets relative to the XBR3 Bravias?

My impression is that the SXRDs still provide the best black levels of any tech short of CRT (direct/RPTV/FPTV).

Gary

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

What do you think of the SXRD sets relative to the XBR3 Bravias?

My impression is that the SXRDs still provide the best black levels of any tech short of CRT (direct/RPTV/FPTV).

Gary

The black level of the XBR2/3 LCDs are amazing, something you need to see to believe. The V2500 Bravia looks gray in comparison.

[WriteSimply]

paidgeek,
Here is a link to DVDFile's review of Discovery Atlas - Australia on BD.

Here's a choice quote:

As important as all that this picture is are the things that it isn’t. The picture isn’t marred with any edge halos. None whatsoever. I also so no obvious instances of compression noise, and most surprisingly, I noticed no line-twitter or aliasing artifacts from the interlaced source material. The image looks crystal-clear, natural, and artifact-free. It’s astonishing. While I’m sure a native 1080p60 capture would have looked even better (though neither HD DVD nor BD support 1080p60 encoding, sadly), I can’t complain given that this 1080i60 source material is producing the best looking visual I’ve seen.

note: Discovery Atlas programs are being released simultaneously on both Blu-ray and HD DVD media. My suspicion is that IMAGE entertainment is using precisely the same 1080i60 AVC video file for both formats, with identical picture quality results in both cases. Whichever HD format you may have embraced, you should be well rewarded with the Discovery Atlas series!

My questions are:

1) Can BD support 1080p60?

2) Do you know who authored this title and the rest of the series for Image Entertainment?

Thanks again! By the way, the series is recommended eye candy!


fuad

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by GoldenRedux

paidgeek,

I have wondered why it is that DSD was never included in the Blu-ray spec. Could you shed some light on this?

As you know, there are many companies in Blu-ray, many of whom compete with Sony. Part of what has made Blu-ray standardization such a long process is the fact that each key feature has to be negotiated and hopefully, approved unanimously. This was one that Sony could not throw themselves in front of the train for.