Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[elwaylite]

Bill/Wicky,

Now that April is coming to an end, might we here something from Paramount in the coming month?

[WickyWoo]

Probably is the best answer anyone can give, and I think everyone involved wishes people would stop asking. Paramount doesn't even seem to know when they'll go public outside of "soon"

[elwaylite]

K, thats all I needed to know. I know everyones getting tired of it, I just figured/hoped now that we are moving into the next month maybe its rolling along a little more.

[SDon1969]

Originally Posted by garytma

I understand that there is a "hidden" calibration menu, on some Sony Entertainment Blu discs. Are you aware of this? And if so, do we know which discs, and how to find the hidden menu?

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...ion#post838247

[elwaylite]

Originally Posted by garytma

Hi Bill,

Typically, I would likely have posted this in Paid's thread, but since he remains occupied, I thought that I would run this by you:

I understand that there is a "hidden" calibration menu, on some Sony Entertainment Blu discs. Are you aware of this? And if so, do we know which discs, and how to find the hidden menu?

Thanks for your time.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=27000

[WickyWoo]

The menu will do you no good if you don't know how to use color bars

[Anthony P]

Warner doesn't have an aversion to lossless, they're just trying to determine what balance of features Blu-ray consumers really want - not JUST the early adopters, but everyone. Remember, not everyone has hardware that can take advantage of lossless audio yet, and most people don't appreciate the difference.

Obviously, this is still early adopters (but that is all they have now) but all they need to do is look at Happy feet and Superman returns, both those titles they gave lossless to the HD DVD while lossy for BD and the sales of those two heavily leaned to HD DVD compared to their other titles.

[varmintx]

Any chance Dark City: Director's Cut will have the theatrical version of the film via seamless branching?

[Gamma_Winstead]

Hey Bill is there a chance that Street Kings could hit Blu?

[Seretur]

Bill -- thank you SO MUCH for the hint that the His Dark Materials series will continue. That's the single piece of news I've been waiting for all this year, and I can't thank you enough for breaking it early.

The Golden Compass has been a beloved film everywhere but in the US -- yes, even in this very Catholic country where I live -- which is a fact that can get lost on the bigwigs like Penton, but it wasn't lost on you, or on Warner. Kudos to them, and cheers to you! Any further info on the state of things (and of Chris Weitz's health) would be much appreciated.

While we're on Warner, please pass them my most heartfelt thanks on the very special presentation of How the West Was Won on Blu-ray -- another innovative and creative usage of the new medium that will allow me to see this film properly for the first time ever. Joy!

And finally -- I don't know if you've seen Iron Man yet, but I caught it at a very guarded press screening today, and it's quite excellent. Exceeded my expectations and shot right to the top of my favorite superhero movies ever. Between this and KOTCS, Paramount is looking forward to some of the most stellar months in their recent history. Thank them too -- even if they're holding off any BD announcements.

[Crème Blu-ray]

Hey Bill,

Coming to America today was in stock, then out of stock, then delayed 7-12 days on Amazon. Interestingly, I bought it when the status was "In stock", and my order already says "preparing these items for shipment". This tells me that Amazon had a batch, then asked for another shipment after the first batch ran out. If they're ordering straight from Paramount, maybe the studio is clearing out its warehouse for a shipload of newly pressed stock. Can you comment or would somebody have to kill you?

[Anthony P]

I expect 1.1/2.0 features to be more appealing to younger people,

not at all, this shows you completely miss the point. People complain or ask for things "I want better audio" so added with lossless (known factor) being better then lossy, people with good taste will ask for it. You beleive that maybe someday someone will create some 2.0 or 1.1 content that is compelling, until that becomes true, if ever, no one will ask for it. Even once it becomes true people most likely won't ask about it (I am sure some watch gags or deleted scenes when available and I am sure some enjoy it, but I doubt anyone says "they should have included a gag or deleted scenes" when they are not included on any release because no one knows if there would have been interesting in the first place.

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by Geonosis

I expect 1.1/2.0 features to be more appealing to younger people, families and the masses more so than lossless.

To settle this debate, and to keep this thread on-topic, can someone create a poll on lossless vs. BonusView and BD-Live features?

~Alan

[WickyWoo]

oming to America today was in stock, then out of stock, then delayed 7-12 days on Amazon. Interestingly, I bought it when the status was "In stock", and my order already says "preparing these items for shipment". This tells me that Amazon had a batch, then asked for another shipment after the first batch ran out. If they're ordering straight from Paramount, maybe the studio is clearing out its warehouse for a shipload of newly pressed stock. Can you comment or would somebody have to kill you?

Much more likely it means that they found a box of them somewhere, seriously. Paramount is not shipping any blu-rays to anyone right now

[Jackietreehorn]

Originally Posted by Seretur

Bill -- thank you SO MUCH for the hint that the His Dark Materials series will continue. That's the single piece of news I've been waiting for all this year, and I can't thank you enough for breaking it early.

Same, I loved the books, and while I didn't love (or hate) the movie (as some obviously did), I was holding out hope that we'd get to see it completed, and hopefully get better as it progressed.

[Whytewash]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Much more likely it means that they found a box of them somewhere, seriously. Paramount is not shipping any blu-rays to anyone right now

which further solidifies their royal F*** YOU! to consumers.

[Geonosis]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Patience. Warner doesn't have an aversion to lossless, they're just trying to determine what balance of features Blu-ray consumers really want - not JUST the early adopters, but everyone. Remember, not everyone has hardware that can take advantage of lossless audio yet, and most people don't appreciate the difference. Also remember, it took a little while for all the studios to adopt anamorphic enhancement on DVD releases back in the day, because at the time hardly anyone had 16x9 displays. If you want lossless audio standard on all your Blu-rays, let the studios know. As I said above, I truly believe this is the direction the industry is headed overall, it's just going to take a little time for it to become standard.

Bill, do you know where the studios stand in relation to interactive content such as BonusView and Live? I'm hoping they focus on developing content. I read that Disnet has snatched up a few domains like DisneyBDLive.com and DisneyBlurayLive.com, which I assume is for an online consumer portal about Live. Do you think content will become a standard? Such as the upcoming virtual tea party in Sleeping Beauty? Thanks.

[Grubert]

Originally Posted by Alan Gordon

To settle this debate, and to keep this thread on-topic, can someone create a poll on lossless vs. BonusView and BD-Live features?

~Alan

False dichotomy!

To settle this debate, extra features and lossless audio are not mutually exclusive.

I don't see Walk Hard dropping TrueHD because of Live features.

And anyway, I already ran a poll on HDD asking HD DVD owners how much they used PiP and Web features.

The result: only 10% of respondents used PiP and Web 'often.' Over 26% never used any of them.

Web features were the least used - about 55% never used them. PiP fared a little better: 30% never used it.

[mel2]

Originally Posted by darkedgex

Dear Lord, yuck. If I had my way, discs would contain JUST the movie (with a lossless audio track in the films native language and a few lossy tracks in alternate languages; as well as a bevy of subtitles), all theatrical trailers (in HD) and a simple menu (preferably with the film playing automatically). Extras should be on a second disc where they won't negatively impact the PQ or AQ of the main feature. But never should Profile 1.1/2.0 content take precedence over lossy audio.

Amen. Geo doesn't get it. blu-ray is for high def enthusiasts. best picture and sound, bar none. hd dud tried it there way with special content and guess what, nobody cared. is there anyone out there that watches the special features every time they watch a movie? probably not. but we sure damn make sure the lossless track is selected, don't we. do a poll here at blu-ray.com and I bet we get 90% for lossless.

[milou6]

More 2 Cents on BD Live:

VERY soon integration of existing tech ("convergence") will be the norm -- people will EXPECT things to be networked/interactive. Think about cable/satellite menus -- how they integrate with DVRs and tivo -- you scroll through and click and get more info and set up record times, etc. The idea of a static disc that only plays a movie (which is fine by my me btw) will start to seem primitive. Downloaded movies (arg!) will have built-in "click through" features. Keep in mind people will be surfing the net on their nice new HDTVs (some of us already do). BD-Live opens the door to this, and it can be done without selling us stuff or useless "added value" -- simply keeping actor "filmographies" current via imdb, info/teaser trailers for new films (or sequels that didn't exist at the time of the disc pressing). And more that I can't even imagine, seamlessly integrated into the features of the disc. And thankfully since the 2.0 spec is optional in players no disc can require it to force things down our throats.

Sorry to take up space on your thread, Bill. I just feel like the BD-Live issue is being misconstrued as either 'lossless vs live' or 'live as a gimmick only' and as a web developer I see it as a valuable tool for future uses over the (hopefully) long life of BD.