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

[iceman]

This thread is dedicated to asking questions of industry insider "Talkstr8t" (Unspecified insider) who has graciously taken the time to participate here. Talkstr8t and all our insiders do this out of their free time and to try to keep us informed to their best abilities, and therefore are to be treated with respect and courtesy.

Before asking a question, please skim at least the last weeks worth of posts in order to make sure that the question hasn't already been asked or answered. Using the search function is also always a good idea. Please conduct your inquiries in a professional manner and avoid asking "chicken little" questions or asking when unannounced titles will come out.

TalkStr8t - Unspecified - Intro - Track posts

[malwa]

Talk I'm more of a sidelines kind of a guy when it came to this war. I must say though your smackdown on hddvders on avs has left me speechless. I can't believe you put up with the insinuations and questions of character you were made to put up with on there yet continued posting. Thanks for fighting the good fight lol.

What i wanted to ask was is there more movies getting the same treatment that blade runner and 2001 got. I can't believe how great br looks. I am more of a back catolog guy and can't wait for some more blu's to fill my collection.

Sony Picture classics has alot of great titles I hope to see soon on blu! I'm stoked about Run Lola Run thanks for getting one of my faves on hd!

[Banjo]

To Talkstr8t or any other Blu-ray insiders,

I'm going to talk straight with you.

Right now, digital captioning is incredibly difficult to deal with for many deaf consumers. Therefore, many Blu-ray supporters decided to go with SDH (Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing) which I really do like. However, I think it would be quite a great thing if people would take advantage of BD-Java by giving people more options on manipulating the look/style of the subtitles to make it more readable. The deaf consumers have different preferences and tastes in how subtitles should look. I noticed that such a feature is available on PS3 but it hasn't been enabled for any of the movies that I know of, so the feature is rendered useless if nobody is taking advantage of it.

You also have to remember that there are many deaf people who are slightly or legally blind but still can watch movies, but they do have a hard time reading the subtitles because some of them lack a solid background, or isn't thick enough, and the colouring of the font also can make a difference. For instance, many legally blind people prefer bright yellow markings on the stairs and yellow fonts on websites. That's why I'm suggesting that people should be able to manipulate the subtitles so they can read it better. Myself, I read them just fine. But I do know some people who find it difficult sometimes especially on smaller TVs.

Hopefully somebody will be able to do something about this. Warner Bros. is the worst when it come to their SDH style. It's the most difficult to read of all since the black stroke is rather thin and the fonts are white. So whenever they're in front of a bright scene, it's hard to read them. Sony and Fox are the best. Sony use a solid black background, while Fox use a strong black stroke (which I prefer to the solid black background).

One more thing...

I was incredibly disappointed with the PIP experience on Sony's recent release of the movie, Resident Evil: Extinction. The PIP experience was not subtitled in English and to make matters worse, the whole movie was not subtitled when the PIP was activated. I did turn SDH on (Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing) but it was disabled when I enabled the PIP experience.

As I already have asked both insiders and studios on numerous occasions to make the Blu-ray releases more accessible to the deaf consumers in the area of special features. As far I am concerned, that expectation has not been met yet. What is really ironic is that some international editions (region-free) from Sony were subtitled in English (UK) meaning they subtitled it for the Brits. Like the hearing Brits would have a hard time understanding American English. Sorry for the harsh sarcasm, but all of you need to understand that it can be frustrating for me as a deaf consumer sometimes. According to the statistics, there is a population of approximately 30 million with varying hearing loss. I wouldn't call that a small number.

Fox actually subtitled the PIP experience on Sunshine. I was surprised since they never subtitle the special features. That's one area they still need to improve in but the PIP experience is a good start.

I hope somebody's hearing me out on this because enough is enough. I am sick of asking for the same thing the past 10 years and nothing is still being done about it.

Thanks for your time.

[quetzalcoatl]

Talk since you posted this at AVS

There are detailed requirements regarding player compliance. If a given title doesn't work because a player hasn't passed all the test discs there is a process for ensuring the player is made compliant within specific time limits. If the vendor fails to do so they may face penalties and increased obligations on future player models. New test discs are released on a regular basis and the obligation to pass them generally extends to older models (depending on when the model was released).

A given disc may fail due either to a non-compliant player or due to a disc authored in a way which goes beyond what the spec guarantees. I don't know the details of the disc you mention, but in general the studios work diligently with the vendors to ensure their content will play on all players, so I would expect to see it addressed in a forthcoming firmware update.

Can you try and find out if the problem with the Samsung 1200 is that the discs are beyond the spec or if it is a player problem?
There are many discs that cannot play on this machine right now. The oldest goes back more than 2 months now which is Pixar Shorts.

[JadedRaverLA]

Talk --

It's great to see you posting here again. I tried to keep up with your posts over at the other forum... but having to read all the badgering and other drivel made it a pain. Great work over there though.

Now, my question...

Several months ago, a lot was made of the BD-RE 3.0/BD-R 2.0 spec and how it was going to effect recorders, players, PC drives, etc. What has come of all that?

Specifically...
Can all the present players play-back BDMV discs recorded on BD-RE 3.0/BD-R 2.0 discs?
Same question but for BDMV recorded on BD-RE 2.0/BD-R 1.0 discs?
My understanding is that certain "video-only" recorders would require the new discs... is that correct?
Can you write the new discs in existing PC drives... or are they only for specific devices that require them?
When are the new discs expected to be widely available... and how do you distinguish the new discs from the old?

Sorry... I know that's a ton of questions. Any light you can shine on the BD-R/RE disc revisions would be greatly appreciated though.

Thanks in advance.

[desmond]

Hi Talk,

Authoring of new control on 3:10 to Yuma is highly problematic. For example, when custom java widget that handles ff/rew/play/bookmarks pops up only way it will go away is if the red button is pressed and bookmarks use color buttons. Terrible UI design, is there anyway for BDA to establish some kind of authoring guidelines for common UI elements such as bookmarks, scene selections, language support (audio track, subtitles).... Also pressing pop-menu shrink the primary video screen.

Thanks.

[sj001]

Talk, any tidbits about what is going on in the near future you can drop us?

Anything positive from a studio or retailer standpoint?

[Icemage]

Talk, I first want to offer a belated thanks for the carefully worded reply you gave to me days before the Warner announcement in the original Insider's Thread. I was hoping the phrasing of the question was open enough to give you an opportunity to drop a major hint, and you came through in spades!


On to my new question :

There's been some buzz that Blu-ray is now shifting gears to go after DVD, in essence suggesting that HD DVD no longer poses a viable threat. I'm sure there's some posturing going on here, but as we've seen the past few months - sometimes perception becomes reality, as Blu-ray standalones did very well against their HD DVD counterparts over the holidays.

From your perspective, is the BDA taking Toshiba's grandstanding with their recently lowered player prices at all seriously, or does it seem more like a graceful exit strategy to avoid having $200 doorstops stuck in the retail channel once everyone can hear the avalanche?

[TheTenth]

Will / can the BDA do some information campaign on the format? many people - and most importantly vendors - quite don't know much about HD and Blu-ray.
For people who work in shops it's bad as they sometimes promote upscaling as being better than HD for example. Of course BDA can't oblige people to get informed but maybe an information note can be spread to retailers?

[Talkstr8t]

Hi, All,

Sorry for the belated entry to my own thread - things have been crazy (as usual)! In addition to all the great Blu-ray news over the last two weeks I also have professional responsibilities around interactivity in cable, and as those of you who followed CES may have seen there has been lots of positive activity there as well with the unveiling of cable's strong commitment to deploying "tru2way" (formerly known as OCAP), which is essentially the same software platform as BD-J. What this means is that advanced content you see on Blu-ray titles today may be available through your cable provider in the future, and forthcoming TV interactivity may be packaged up on the Blu-ray disc compilation. It also makes convergence products like high-def DVR cable boxes with Blu-ray playback and recording more likely.

At any rate, I'll try to stop in here on a regular basis and help out where I can. Note that my focus is really the advanced content area; others here are much better-connected to the studios and the business side of the format.

- Talk

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by malwa

Talk I'm more of a sidelines kind of a guy when it came to this war. I must say though your smackdown on hddvders on avs has left me speechless.

Thanks for the kind words - I'd like to think my efforts there contributed in some small way to the outcome we've all been seeking: Amir's retirement! No, no, I mean Blu-ray's victory!

What i wanted to ask was is there more movies getting the same treatment that blade runner and 2001 got. I can't believe how great br looks. I am more of a back catolog guy and can't wait for some more blu's to fill my collection.

There's no question that if sales on that type of release are promising and that as sales pick up for the format in general we'll see the studios looking to put out more extended re-releases. I'm sure there is a fairly long list of titles which have sufficient material to do justice with a high-def re-release.

- Talk

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by Banjo

Right now, digital captioning is incredibly difficult to deal with for many deaf consumers. Therefore, many Blu-ray supporters decided to go with SDH (Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing) which I really do like. However, I think it would be quite a great thing if people would take advantage of BD-Java by giving people more options on manipulating the look/style of the subtitles to make it more readable. The deaf consumers have different preferences and tastes in how subtitles should look. I noticed that such a feature is available on PS3 but it hasn't been enabled for any of the movies that I know of, so the feature is rendered useless if nobody is taking advantage of it.

You also have to remember that there are many deaf people who are slightly or legally blind but still can watch movies, but they do have a hard time reading the subtitles because some of them lack a solid background, or isn't thick enough, and the colouring of the font also can make a difference. For instance, many legally blind people prefer bright yellow markings on the stairs and yellow fonts on websites. That's why I'm suggesting that people should be able to manipulate the subtitles so they can read it better. Myself, I read them just fine. But I do know some people who find it difficult sometimes especially on smaller TVs.

Thanks for the suggestions. Blu-ray and BD-J can clearly support many techniques making the content more accessible to those with hearing and visual disabilities. The question is where the studios prioritize these efforts in relation to the many other areas they can innovate on. I'd suggest writing to the studios to let them know that this is a feature which would drive greater sales (especially since one might assume that a format which promises higher definition audio and video would be of less interest to an audience which may not be able to fully distinguish the increased quality).

Hopefully somebody will be able to do something about this. Warner Bros. is the worst when it come to their SDH style. It's the most difficult to read of all since the black stroke is rather thin and the fonts are white. So whenever they're in front of a bright scene, it's hard to read them. Sony and Fox are the best. Sony use a solid black background, while Fox use a strong black stroke (which I prefer to the solid black background).

It should be possible for the studios to eventually create a subtitle format which would provide the user some level of control over the foreground and background colors and fonts, and once created easily use this capability on all future titles. Again, making your wishes known to the studios would be the most proactive thing you could do at this point.

I was incredibly disappointed with the PIP experience on Sony's recent release of the movie, Resident Evil: Extinction. The PIP experience was not subtitled in English and to make matters worse, the whole movie was not subtitled when the PIP was activated. I did turn SDH on (Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing) but it was disabled when I enabled the PIP experience.

As Sony's first PiP title, I don't think you should read too much into the overall experience. Most of the creative energy likely went into using the new tools, designing the user interface, and ensuring compatibility with the various players. Just as current BD-J titles are far more compelling than the original titles released (Speed, Behind Enemy Lines, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), we can expect PiP titles to rapidly improve as well.

I hope somebody's hearing me out on this because enough is enough. I am sick of asking for the same thing the past 10 years and nothing is still being done about it.

Most of my father's career was spent as a rehabilitation counselor for blind people, so I appreciate the challenges they face. I think you'll see some accomodation made on the new formats, but with so many different areas the studios can choose to focus on you'll need to make your desires known..

- Talk

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by quetzalcoatl

Can you try and find out if the problem with the Samsung 1200 is that the discs are beyond the spec or if it is a player problem?
There are many discs that cannot play on this machine right now. The oldest goes back more than 2 months now which is Pixar Shorts.

It's not always black-and-white; in some cases the spec just doesn't address a particular issue, and if the player manufacturer makes one assumption while the content author makes another, you end up with an incompatibility. As these are discovered the spec gets updated to prevent the issue and, in general, players receive firmware updates to provide backward compatibility.

I'll talk with my Samsung contact to see if I can learn anything regarding progress of an update for the 1200.

- Talk

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by JadedRaverLA

Several months ago, a lot was made of the BD-RE 3.0/BD-R 2.0 spec and how it was going to effect recorders, players, PC drives, etc. What has come of all that?

Specifically...
Can all the present players play-back BDMV discs recorded on BD-RE 3.0/BD-R 2.0 discs? Same question but for BDMV recorded on BD-RE 2.0/BD-R 1.0 discs?

There's been a lot of confusion in this area, but my understanding is that all Blu-ray players (with the possible exception of the original LG combo) can playback BDMV content from BD-R/-RE discs.

I don't believe there is different physical media between BD-R/-RE 1.0/2.0 and BD-R/-RE 2.1/3.0, but that the authoring format is slightly different.

My understanding is that certain "video-only" recorders would require the new discs... is that correct?

I haven't seen any information to this effect, but I focus less on the physical media side of things. If I learn anything different I'll report back.

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by desmond

Authoring of new control on 3:10 to Yuma is highly problematic. For example, when custom java widget that handles ff/rew/play/bookmarks pops up only way it will go away is if the red button is pressed and bookmarks use color buttons. Terrible UI design, is there anyway for BDA to establish some kind of authoring guidelines for common UI elements such as bookmarks, scene selections, language support (audio track, subtitles).... Also pressing pop-menu shrink the primary video screen.

Authoring best practices are really left up to the content designers. It'll be an evolutionary process; titles which are released with poor UI's will hopefully ensure future titles don't make the same mistakes.

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by Icemage

There's been some buzz that Blu-ray is now shifting gears to go after DVD, in essence suggesting that HD DVD no longer poses a viable threat. I'm sure there's some posturing going on here, but as we've seen the past few months - sometimes perception becomes reality, as Blu-ray standalones did very well against their HD DVD counterparts over the holidays.

From your perspective, is the BDA taking Toshiba's grandstanding with their recently lowered player prices at all seriously, or does it seem more like a graceful exit strategy to avoid having $200 doorstops stuck in the retail channel once everyone can hear the avalanche?

Neither the BDA nor the individual vendors supporting Blu-ray are taking for granted that Toshiba will simply roll over. Efforts are continuing to ensure continued momentum in spite of short-term actions which the other format may take to try to reverse the current trajectory. Nonetheless, I think we're pretty much on a largely irreversible track where Blu-ray sales will greatly outnumber HD DVD sales, resulting in retailers de-emphasizing or dropping HD DVD, reinforcing the sales trend. The next hurdle is to ensure Blu-ray sales continue to grow at a healthy pace.

- Talk

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by TheTenth

Will / can the BDA do some information campaign on the format? many people - and most importantly vendors - quite don't know much about HD and Blu-ray.
For people who work in shops it's bad as they sometimes promote upscaling as being better than HD for example. Of course BDA can't oblige people to get informed but maybe an information note can be spread to retailers?

The BDA and the independent promotions efforts will definitely continue to work to educate consumers on the benefits of Blu-ray. We've seen Disney extending their mall tour and increased advertising from many vendors, there are other projects underway to continue to get the word out.

- Talk

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Talkstr8t

Efforts are continuing to ensure continued momentum in spite of short-term actions which the other format may take to try to reverse the current trajectory.

I had to post this, because I just had a "LOL". I was quickly scanning the post above, and my mind read the bolded word above as tragedy. HAHAHAHA. I guess the word my brain filled in is just as applicable as the one you used!!

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by Talkstr8t

Thanks for the kind words - I'd like to think my efforts there contributed in some small way to the outcome we've all been seeking: Amir's retirement! No, no, I mean Blu-ray's victory!

- Talk

If I "retired" twice in 6 months... I'd probably stop doing my job (ie. pushing for a dead format on internet message boards). But that's just me. I guess he enjoys doing it for free.

Great job all this time over on "that other board", BTW.

[jorg]

talk i am very curious to bd-j abilitys to run as a type of "operating system" or to host programs

such as will there be a day were a program such as browser could be programed to run on a player?