Archived: Insiders Thread

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by kjack

HD DVD uses the same luma-key technique.

Can HD DVD have a full-frame secondary?

Gary

[Rio]

Ahhh. BD and HD DVD players are just "CE" equipments. Those are not professional equipments. Requiring full capability of handling two HD streams as well as fancy editing functions which can be seen on expensive video switcher or NLE machine in a form of CE player sounds crazy to me...

[WriteSimply]

From a recent new release

Panasonic Establishes Panasonic Hollywood Blu-ray Testing Center

Tokyo, Japan, Feb 2, 2007 - (JCN Newswire) - Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. known for its leading Panasonic brand, today announced that its US subsidiary, Panasonic Corporation of North America, will establish a Panasonic Hollywood Blu-ray Testing Center (PHBTC) within the existing facilities of Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory and start testing services today.

Blu-ray Discs feature strong copyright protection technology, and conducting logical format verification of entertainment content in replicated BD-Video discs requires technical sophistication. Until now there has been no testing service available for content verification before disc replication although many in the motion picture industry expressed the need for a testing center to provide such services, especially in Hollywood area. The new Panasonic testing center, PHBTC, meets this industry's need and is expected to accelerate the release of BD-Video titles by the motion picture industry.

In addition, Panasonic is inviting the member companies of Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) to install their BD-Video playback products, including Blu-ray recorders and players in PHBTC so that content providers and authoring studios can confirm the interoperability of their titles using these playback products.

The testing services that will be provided include-

1. Format Verification Service for the logical format of BD Video/Live Discs.

2. Playback Testing Service for BD Video/Live Discs with the BD Video playback system.

3. Rental Site Service for Format Verification and Playback Testing.

In addition to the Blu-ray player and forthcoming Blu-ray products, Panasonic is a major contributor to the creation of Blu-ray pre-recorded discs. Established in 2001, Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory is a leading authoring, replication and encoding facility within the industry, as well as a driving force in the research and development of Blu-ray components.

To all insiders: How does this testing center affect the BDA and content producers who want to produce BD titles?


fuad

[onyxx]

Addressing Paidgeek:

It's great that Sony Pictures got there act together after a bumpy start and that people like you are at the forums helping out!

Could you give us the reason for all the postponed titles from Sony Pictures (9 total), I find it strange that you bump some titles while at the same time you announce others?

Is it the source prints or other technical issues, or do you feel that one title is more right for the time than another? It would be nice knowing if you guys have a prioritized list of titles that gets updated (which leads to bumping) or if you are having technical issues with some of the bumped titles?

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by onyxx

Addressing Paidgeek:

It's great that Sony Pictures got there act together after a bumpy start and that people like you are at the forums helping out!

Could you give us the reason for all the postponed titles from Sony Pictures (9 total), I find it strange that you bump some titles while at the same time you announce others?

Is it the source prints or other technical issues, or do you feel that one title is more right for the time than another? It would be nice knowing if you guys have a prioritized list of titles that gets updated (which leads to bumping) or if you are having technical issues with some of the bumped titles?

Thanks for the feedback.

Titles are delayed for a number of reasons. The marketing department may move a title to better coincide with a new release from a principle actor etcetera. We are also being guarded about what titles we release based on how well we think they look in HD. This is especially important in the new markets where the formats are just being introduced. A few of our early releases were criticized because they were not on par with the best we could do. Lesson learned...

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Thanks for the feedback.

...We are also being guarded about what titles we release based on how well we think they look in HD. This is especially important in the new markets where the formats are just being introduced. A few of our early releases were criticized because they were not on par with the best we could do. Lesson learned...

Well, this is a very encouraging statement and one that bares itself out in the plethora of high quality releases that have been coming from Sony for the past few months, so keep doing whatever it is you are doing, is what I would recommend to Sony.

[Chris Beveridge]

Originally Posted by GoldenRedux

Well, this is a very encouraging statement and one that bares itself out in the plethora of high quality releases that have been coming from Sony for the past few months, so keep doing whatever it is you are doing, is what I would recommend to Sony.

Indeed. The overall quality has gone up across the board and I'm far less hesitant to pick up a title without getting some general feedback first. All I'm looking for now is to see when we'll get some TV material out there.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Titles are delayed for a number of reasons. The marketing department may move a title to better coincide with a new release from a principle actor etcetera. We are also being guarded about what titles we release based on how well we think they look in HD. This is especially important in the new markets where the formats are just being introduced. A few of our early releases were criticized because they were not on par with the best we could do. Lesson learned...

I'm finding the Sony releases of the last 3-4 months to be an absolute joy. So whatever you guys are doing, keep up the great work! And please be sure that the entire gang there realizes how thrilled we are by their efforts.

Gary

P.S. Isn't it funny how a planned aggressive release schedule from Universal using a 3x or worse encoder is a committment to quality, but the same title count plan from Sony using an obviously high quality real-time encoder is a committment to a schedule?

[Scorxpion]

Yes aggreed with you Sony Titles are looking great this time ,Since Tears of the Sun or let me say too for a couple old releases like underworld evolution and Ultraviolet are looking gorgeous

[Chris Beveridge]

paidgeek,

Just an fyi, based off of this post on AVS (I don't post there):

I am not aware of any BD titles encoded at 720p either. The PS3 will not currently upsample from 720p to 1080i, but scaling capabilities via a future update are not out of the question.

There's at least one title out there at 720p: Project Papo released by GDH in Japan back on 11/3. I haven't put it in the PS3 yet but it worked fine on the Samsung and Panasonic decks I own. The source material for the show was web based hence it's 720p origins.

[BastiB]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

As you would expect, we think we can make something that works well on PSP as a first step. The schedule is not fixed yet, but it would be interesting to know how the members here feel about how attractive a feature this is.

That would be really great... I mean this would be a big big advantage for BD Camp if there would be a portable Version on the BD for PSP, probably Mylo (Hey Sony, why still not in Europe... and what about the Reader..?), Video I Pod and probably a long awaited Video Walkman...
But I hope that that would not run the costs to 40$ a disc...

Hey Paidgeek, is there any new information about that...?

THANX

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by BastiB

That would be really great... I mean this would be a big big advantage for BD Camp if there would be a portable Version on the BD for PSP, probably Mylo (Hey Sony, why still not in Europe... and what about the Reader..?), Video I Pod and probably a long awaited Video Walkman...
But I hope that that would not run the costs to 40$ a disc...

Hey Paidgeek, is there any new information about that...?

THANX

I believe the idea is to include an encoding tuned for the PSP on a regular BD disc (plenty of space with BD50). You'd then use a PS/3, PC with BD drive, or whatever players supported the transfer to copy the PSP version onto a MemoryStick.

This is a lot like Managed Copy, but there isn't a need to re-encode.

Gary

[Spankey]

Paid, can you or Penton explain THIS ...

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by goodstuff

The Guardian has an interactive feature on The Guardian that is listed as only compatible on the PS3 and PC players. Is it possible for future firmware updates to allow this to be played back on standalone players like my Panny?

This is theoretically possible. Upon launch the title runs an invisible benchmark to determine how fast performance is on the player it's running on. If the player is fast enough all the features will be available; if not they won't. PC's and the PS3 were fast enough at the time of title launch. If Panasonic were able to optimize their firmware enough to increase performance to the level required by the title it should run. I have no idea how far from this level the Panasonic (or other players) is now, however, so it may not be possible to optimize firmware enough to close the gap (nor is it a given that any vendor would spend the resources to do that as opposed to working on making future players better).

- Talk

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by sltmag

Paid, can you or Penton explain THIS ...

Warren supposedly made some private remarks to some studio execs based on the coming of PS3. Because the remarks were made in private conversation, it seems inappropriate to say anything more about this.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by benes

Paidgeek- What is the news on "Glory"? It was announced but seems to have been delayed. I'm really looking forward to that one.

I like this title as well. I have not seen it on the schedule and it could be that the master is being worked on.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

I believe the idea is to include an encoding tuned for the PSP on a regular BD disc (plenty of space with BD50). You'd then use a PS/3, PC with BD drive, or whatever players supported the transfer to copy the PSP version onto a MemoryStick.

This is a lot like Managed Copy, but there isn't a need to re-encode.

Gary

This feature is still in development, but moving along nicely. I'll let you know when the first title to have it is decided.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

This feature is still in development, but moving along nicely. I'll let you know when the first title to have it is decided.

Is SPHE seeing this as a supplement to UMD, or are you hoping for it to eventually replace UMD for movie distribution?

I see it as being potentially a HUGE win for BD, since the PSP buyer gets a cheaper movie disc, and effectively a free HD movie. It's staggering how huge this idea could be if it is applied to several portable music devices (e.g. iPod).

This very idea (and MS wanting to exploit it for Zune) is probably the main reason Amir is so hot for TL51.

Gary

[fragglerock585]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

This feature is still in development, but moving along nicely. I'll let you know when the first title to have it is decided.

That alone would make me buy a PSP immediately to complement my BD collection and 60GB PS3.

Blu2Go. I like it.

[goodstuff]

Wow, that's awesome. I'm not much of a gamer, but I would pick up a PSP just for that feature!