Ask questions to Blu-ray BD-J insider "Talkstr8t"

[jopemoro]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Doctor Sbaitso wasn't pretty back in the day but it was only a hundred KB or so. I'm sure anything may be better than the guesswork they're doing now

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Sbaitso

Oooh boy... Dr. Sbaitso, that sent me back... Came with my first SoundBlaster, a 1.5 I bough tfrom the US at the time. But I digress...

Here is a demo of text to speech in Java from IBM, they say it can be included in mobile devices, so processing power doesn't seem to be the main issue:

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/perv...emos/tts.shtml

If the text is preset, I'm sure it would be easier as well...

[Ian_S]

Originally Posted by Talkstr8t

Where's the discussion? I'm happy to debunk.

I doubt you want or need the aggravation I think the time for such 'compromises' vanished when both formats launched.

[WickyWoo]

Here is a demo of text to speech in Java from IBM, they say it can be included in mobile devices, so processing power doesn't seem to be the main issue:

Well, that does seem to work nicely, but I have to wonder if it's not parsing it server side and this is merely a client (or the client is meant to be stored in hardware on said mobile device). It sounds way too good to be just straight up in local software synth

[juanleche]

Originally Posted by jopemoro

Oooh boy... Dr. Sbaitso, that sent me back... Came with my first SoundBlaster, a 1.5 I bough tfrom the US at the time. But I digress...

Here is a demo of text to speech in Java from IBM, they say it can be included in mobile devices, so processing power doesn't seem to be the main issue:

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/perv...emos/tts.shtml

If the text is preset, I'm sure it would be easier as well...

Wow now I remember!!! "Save that talk for the locker room"
I use have good times tyoing cusses to the machine hoping it would get angry

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by jopemoro

Oooh boy... Dr. Sbaitso, that sent me back... Came with my first SoundBlaster, a 1.5 I bough tfrom the US at the time. But I digress...

Here is a demo of text to speech in Java from IBM, they say it can be included in mobile devices, so processing power doesn't seem to be the main issue:

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/perv...emos/tts.shtml

If the text is preset, I'm sure it would be easier as well...

The processing is probably done on a server (DTTS). I've work a lot with DTTS and DSR (distributed speech recognition) systems for web and mobile.

These concatenative synthesis systems have a very large database (0.5GB - 1GB commonly) of snippets of speech that are concatenated together to form the full output.

Gary

[jopemoro]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

The processing is probably done on a server (DTTS). I've work a lot with DTTS and DSR (distributed speech recognition) systems for web and mobile.

These concatenative synthesis systems have a very large database (0.5GB - 1GB commonly) of snippets of speech that are concatenated together to form the full output.

Gary

Looks like it. There is an embedded version that might work, too, for less resources:

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/perv...qs/?S_CMP=rnav

[PaulGo]

Talk what do you think of this? I think it will help bring additional resources to BD-J and also minimizes the use of HDi.

CableLabs(R) Establishes OpenCable(TM) Project on Java.net

LOUISVILLE, Colo., Feb 12, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- In order to expand resources for tru2way application developers, CableLabs has established the OpenCable Project on Sun Microsystems' Java.net site.

Cable operators are delivering on their promise to deploy tru2way interactivity to consumers' homes in the form of tru2way-enabled set-top boxes which utilize Java-based applications. Time Warner Cable already has deployed nearly 600,000 tru2way set-top boxes and Comcast has made the commitment to deploy support for tru2way devices system-wide by the end of 2008...

... The tru2way brand is the cable industry's marketing identification of interactive applications for consumers. The tru2way term succeeds OpenCable Platform which will continue as the term describing the underlying set of technical specifications that support tru2way applications. Tru2way has foundations in MHP (Multimedia Home Platform) and is similar to Blu-ray Java (BD-J) both of which are also based on Sun Microsystems' Java platform. "Having such common standards allows application developers to draw from their existing knowledge base while providing cross-platform application development opportunities going forward," stated Mark
Coblitz, Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning for Comcast....

Full article at:

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/i...476400_15.html

[Ian_S]

Hi Talk,

Just curious, people are expecting a Blu-ray drive equivalent for the 360 now Toshiba have thrown in the towel. Is that possible? Last time I remember Sun & MS weren't on the best footing with regard to Java source code, and presumably that would be what is required for MS to code a software BD player on the 360?

Would Sun prefer a 3rd party to code a BD player for 360 (if at all) so that MS do not have Java code, or is all that consigned to history?

Do you think a 360 BD option is likely even?

Regards, Ian.

[scott1256ca]

Even though the big news of the day is that Toshiba conceded, I have a question for you concerning BD+.

Last I heard, part of BD+ could be circumvented and copies made of the disc, but not decrypting for re-encodes.

I have also heard there is more work being done on BD+.

So can you tell us how this work is progressing? Is it holding anything up (like announcements)? How long before titles with the new improved BD+ show up? Do the principals involved expect this to be a never ending battle?

Thanks

[DrXym]

Would it be feasible to implement an HDi like library over BD-J for porting purposes or even as a middle ground between HDMV and raw BD-J? Seems to me that such a thing might be useful for studios who want to move their existing HD-DVD content over without the pain of rewriting everything.

[kamspy]

Will we see BD-J specific CPUs in newer BD players?

If so, how soon?

[Talkstr8t]

Whoops, sorry, missed a couple of these posts.

Originally Posted by PaulGo

Talk what do you think of this? I think it will help bring additional resources to BD-J and also minimizes the use of HDi.

CableLabs(R) Establishes OpenCable(TM) Project on Java.net

It's great - I'm seeing increasing cross-pollination between BD-J and OCAP, which benefits both formats (most BD-J publishers will have interest in making their content available to cable and vice versa). Also note the HDCookbook project also at Java.net - it's probably the best developer forum for BD-J developers, with lots of free source code, tools, and such.

- Talk

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by Ian_S

Hi Talk,

Just curious, people are expecting a Blu-ray drive equivalent for the 360 now Toshiba have thrown in the towel. Is that possible? Last time I remember Sun & MS weren't on the best footing with regard to Java source code, and presumably that would be what is required for MS to code a software BD player on the 360? Would Sun prefer a 3rd party to code a BD player for 360 (if at all) so that MS do not have Java code, or is all that consigned to history?

Sun and Microsoft have broad cross-licensing agreements put in place as part of or after the $2B settlement from MS to Sun. Access to Java source code would not be an impediment to Microsoft releasing BD support for the Xbox 360. Besides, most BD player manufacturers license their BD-J implementation from one of three or four companies and as such never touch Java source code. Processor capability might be an issue, however - at one time Microsoft said it took every bit of CPU to make HD DVD work, especially for high-bitrate AVC titles, and Blu-ray supports 60% higher bitrate than HD.

Do you think a 360 BD option is likely even?

No, I don't expect it. I don't think it fits Microsoft's market plans for the Xbox nor do I think there'd be much of a market for it.

- Talk

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by scott1256ca

Even though the big news of the day is that Toshiba conceded, I have a question for you concerning BD+.

Last I heard, part of BD+ could be circumvented and copies made of the disc, but not decrypting for re-encodes.

I have also heard there is more work being done on BD+.

So can you tell us how this work is progressing? Is it holding anything up (like announcements)? How long before titles with the new improved BD+ show up? Do the principals involved expect this to be a never ending battle?

BD+ was designed to allow for very flexible circumvention of hacks. The fact that some current BD+ titles may have been stripped of BD+ in no way guarantees that future titles will also be easily compromised.

- Talk

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by DrXym

Would it be feasible to implement an HDi like library over BD-J for porting purposes or even as a middle ground between HDMV and raw BD-J? Seems to me that such a thing might be useful for studios who want to move their existing HD-DVD content over without the pain of rewriting everything.

Sure, it'd be possible, but probably not very cost-effective. The authoring houses have built up very productive BD-J code libraries and as a result are now more efficient at producing BD-J titles than HDMV titles. It would probably be less effort to reimplement the interactivity on the old HD DVD titles than it would be to develop and test an HDi compatibility layer.

- Talk

[Ian_S]

Good to see you back!

Thanks for the answers on MS & Java.

Has the BD-J VM code optimisation for the Sigma 8634 used in many early BD players reached the end of the line? I only ask as more and more discs are using BD-J for what are functionally quite basic menus and the load times on say a Sony BDP-S300 are still rather slow, albeit improved since initial release. Somthing like Pirates of the Carribean still takes over 2 mins to get to the main menu even if you skip through the trailers.

Is this as fast as these players are ever likely to get with BD-J?

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by kamspy

Will we see BD-J specific CPUs in newer BD players?

If so, how soon?

Quite a few chipsets have hardware support for Java, and others have flexible DSP sections which can be updated to support native byte-code execution. I'd guess we'll see players based on such chips within eighteen months, perhaps much sooner.

- Talk

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by Ian_S

Good to see you back!

Thanks!

Has the BD-J VM code optimisation for the Sigma 8634 used in many early BD players reached the end of the line? I only ask as more and more discs are using BD-J for what are functionally quite basic menus and the load times on say a Sony BDP-S300 are still rather slow, albeit improved since initial release. Somthing like Pirates of the Carribean still takes over 2 mins to get to the main menu even if you skip through the trailers. Is this as fast as these players are ever likely to get with BD-J?

VM optimization continues, but it's up to the player manufacturers whether they release firmware updates for existing players solely for performance improvement.

- Talk

[lgans316]

Hi Talkstr8t,

How difficult is it to implement resume playback on BD-J discs ?

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by lgans316

How difficult is it to implement resume playback on BD-J discs ?

I believe a simple form which simply takes you to the spot in the movie where you left off could be done fairly easily, but it probably wouldn't be able to restore everything exactly as you left it (i.e. choice of overlays, etc.). To do a full resume with exact state information would require something similar to hibernate on PC's, and would take too much flash memory space to be feasible.j

- Talk