Ask questions to Sony Pictures Entertainment insider "paidgeek"

[gettin' bodied]

I second the Beyoncé question (about it being delayed) -- I was really looking forward to that one (I saw the actual live show 3 times this summer, lol).

[ckenisell]

Dear Paidgeek,

Now that the format war is over, can you tell us who you really are? Your name and such.

[jason_grumpy]

Paid,

Could you please pass on the word to the PS3 firmware guys to re-fix the TrueHD decoding audio preferences?

Previously on other firmware, even if you had "Dolby 5.1" selected in the PS3 audio options, the PS3 would automatically switch to internal decoding For TrueHD pass it via PCM when using HDMI. For those titles with Dolby 5.1 it would bit stream it to the receiver as normal. We never had to switch anything in the audio menu.

Somewhere along the lines, a firmware changed this. Now if you select TrueHD on a Blu Ray, and Dolby 5.1 is selected in the PS3 audio menu, the PS3 will bitstream the core of the TrueHD track as Dolby Digital instead and display Dolby Digital in the bitrate meter @ 448kbs (Across the Universe for example). To get TrueHD playback, you have to exit the movie, deselect Dolby 5.1 from the PS3 audio menu, re-enter the movie, and then the PS3 will decode TrueHD via PCM and show TrueHD on the bit rate meter.

It would be nice if this is fixed so we don't have to turn off Dolby Digital 5.1 in the audio preferences to enjoy TrueHD without the extra steps when using HDMI.

[FourToedStatue]

Originally Posted by ckenisell

Dear Paidgeek,

Now that the format war is over, can you tell us who you really are? Your name and such.

I think that would limit the amount of info he could give us.

[p1rates]

Originally Posted by gettin' bodied

I second the Beyoncé question (about it being delayed) -- I was really looking forward to that one (I saw the actual live show 3 times this summer, lol).

I saw her twice in Florida. Hopefully, paidgeek can answer our question on the subject. I'm going to keep on lurking on this thread to see if our question is answered.

[spicynacho]

Originally Posted by Grubert

paidgeek,

Kris Deering has posted this on avs:



Can you confirm that? In that case, what will the repercussions be for BD studios that use the codec?

What about XBL? What codec do they use for their content? Will they shift to h.264?

[jsb_hburg]

Originally Posted by ckenisell

Dear Paidgeek,

Now that the format war is over, can you tell us who you really are? Your name and such.

It's best we don't know, all things considered.

[DaViD Boulet]

Could you please pass on the word to the PS3 firmware guys to re-fix the TrueHD decoding audio preferences?

Previously on other firmware, even if you had "Dolby 5.1" selected in the PS3 audio options, the PS3 would automatically switch to internal decoding For TrueHD pass it via PCM when using HDMI. For those titles with Dolby 5.1 it would bit stream it to the receiver as normal. We never had to switch anything in the audio menu.

Somewhere along the lines, a firmware changed this. Now if you select TrueHD on a Blu Ray, and Dolby 5.1 is selected in the PS3 audio menu, the PS3 will bitstream the core of the TrueHD track as Dolby Digital instead and display Dolby Digital in the bitrate meter @ 448kbs (Across the Universe for example). To get TrueHD playback, you have to exit the movie, deselect Dolby 5.1 from the PS3 audio menu, re-enter the movie, and then the PS3 will decode TrueHD via PCM and show TrueHD on the bit rate meter.

It would be nice if this is fixed so we don't have to turn off Dolby Digital 5.1 in the audio preferences to enjoy TrueHD without the extra steps when using HDMI.

Paid,

every PS3 user feels this way. Please do pass that along.

[djOS]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Thanks to everyone here who has supported Blu-ray, given feedback to make it better, and told their neighbors about it.

We will do our best to thrill you with HD...

How about some quality profile 2.0 players with the ability to decode DTS-HD/MA et al to LPCM for output via HDMI?

When Sony brings one of these out, my s300 will get relegated to the family room!

[sonn]

Dear Paidgeek,

I believe you forgot to answer my question posted earlier: what happened to the release of the Beyonce blu?

[hollywoodguy]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Paid,

every PS3 user feels this way. Please do pass that along.

Don't you just have to set audio out to PCM? No reason to de-select DD 5.1 from the audio options menu. And if for whatever reason you'd rather bitstream everything but DTHD, you can switch from PCM to bitstream without exiting the movie via the on-screen (not pop-up) menu (triangle button on the remote).

[D]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Thanks to everyone here who has supported Blu-ray, given feedback to make it better, and told their neighbors about it.

We will do our best to thrill you with HD...

Many Thanks!

[JTK]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

paidgeek View Post
Thanks to everyone here who has supported Blu-ray, given feedback to make it better, and told their neighbors about it.

We will do our best to thrill you with HD...

You and all of our other insiders here, for starters, deserve much thanks.

[EricJ]

Don't know whether it's been asked earlier, since it's more of a BDA question in general. but:
Will dedicated-Blu studios like Sony and Disney continue to use AVC MPEG4 coding without Toshiba, or is there any hint that the BDA members might want to retire Toshiba off peacefully by negotiating a treaty for the patent?

(Oh, we do not "prefer the more abundant VC-1 coding", Warner, and quit making up lame bluffs to save money! )

[phloyd]

paidgeek,

It seems that Guy Ritchie's film Revolver is getting a DVD release in the USA finally. Is there any chance that a Blu-ray release of this is also in the pipeline?

Perhaps pair it up with Snatch!

In any case, thanks for the great releases so far.

Cheers!

[Penton-Man]

I’m helping paidgeek out here because I think he’s probably jetlagged.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by TheLion

After watching the recent Lawrence of Arabia airing which is supposed to be "minted" from the same master as the upcoming BD release I cannot help but to be pretty underwhelmed (borderline appalled) with the overall quality of this transfer (not talking about the encoding which will be much better with the BD).

I have done 70mm projections of this movie (IMO SP(HE)s crown jewel) myself and the level of detail and definition with this transfer (judged by the airing) is nowhere near what this particular film deserves nor what is possible.

Which brings me to my next question - WHEN can we expect SPHE to follow Warner's lead with all new 4k transfers? Bladerunner is an marvelous example of a classic transfer done right.

For home video (Blu-ray), you will not see a significant difference in the imagery if the source arises from a 2K or 4K scan due to the compression that occurs down the line.

In fact, I would say that the vast majority of people couldn’t tell any difference-- if involved in a blinded experiment. The 4K scanning aspect of the Blade Runner restoration will reap its PQ benefits in future theatrical presentations, esp. in the form of DCP (Digital Cinema Packages) as digital cinema with 4K projectors becomes more common.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by TheLion

Lots of (critical) discussion going on over at AVS (including direct screen caps):

Lots of “critical” discussion on many consumer forums is incorrect.
For instance, on AVS the comment about The Fifth Element (Remastered) being…………..
“Incorrect inverse telecine of 1080i source material causes combing” in the thread started by mhafner about EE and DNR is just plain wrong.

And I won’t even get into the “critical” discussion about Dracula again as that has already been addressed by myself (several times), Robert Harris (several times), Kim A. and paidgeek.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by sonn

Dear Paidgeek,

I believe you forgot to answer my question posted earlier: what happened to the release of the Beyonce blu?

You have to realize that it is not uncommon for titles to be scuffled around in the schedule (delayed, postponed, etc.) after an *announcement* is made regarding their debut date. This happens and will continue to happen with all studios.

This behavior has occurred since the days of DVD and is due to a multitude of reasons- those invariably being outside the realm of paidgeek’s division, which is why he prefers not to comment upon title debut dates.

[Penton-Man]

That's it geek.
I'm outa here.
You're on your own bud.
One thread is enough for me to cover.