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

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Talkstr8t

- Talk

Good to see you back.

[Icemage]

Here's an interesting question for you, Talk...

When I write code for my own applications, I always try to do so on a realistic system so that I'm not hiding programming inefficiency behind a high-end processor environment.

To the best of your knowledge, what's the slowest number of BD-j instruction cycles per second available on Blu-ray capable hardware (standalones)? The PS3 is obviously the fastest BD-J environment short of a high-end HTPC, but as with all programming it has to fit to the lowest common denominator.

Not asking for an exact number since it would depend greatly on the instructions being processed, but I assume that there must be some sort of "low end benchmark" for BD-j developers to look at to make sure their code runs in a timely manner. I'm guessing the 1st gen units like the Samsung BDP-1000 would probably be the lowest common denominator in this case?

[lgans316]

Originally Posted by Talkstr8t

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

Thanks a lot Talk for the Talk.

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by Icemage

When I write code for my own applications, I always try to do so on a realistic system so that I'm not hiding programming inefficiency behind a high-end processor environment.

To the best of your knowledge, what's the slowest number of BD-j instruction cycles per second available on Blu-ray capable hardware (standalones)? The PS3 is obviously the fastest BD-J environment short of a high-end HTPC, but as with all programming it has to fit to the lowest common denominator.

Not asking for an exact number since it would depend greatly on the instructions being processed, but I assume that there must be some sort of "low end benchmark" for BD-j developers to look at to make sure their code runs in a timely manner. I'm guessing the 1st gen units like the Samsung BDP-1000 would probably be the lowest common denominator in this case?

I believe the BD-P1000 and the similar Philips BDP9000 are generally considered the least performant BD-J environment. You might ask in the HDCookbook community for more opinions...

- Talk

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by Talkstr8t

I believe the BD-P1000 and the similar Philips BDP9000 are generally considered the least performant BD-J environment. You might ask in the HDCookbook community for more opinions...

- Talk

Thanks, Talk.

[pellucidity]

Talk -

I was rather pleased when BDs started to have a poster frame/image in the menus on the PS3—a nice nod to its abilities and popularity. I assume other players could use these images, but does this PS3-specific move mean there is a chance that the authoring houses might also test to see if a disc is playing on a PS3 or other known-fast player and bypass the load time warning screen?

Maintaining a whitelist would require relatively little extra effort, but would be a nice bonus for the legions of PS3 users. The load warnings are sometimes displayed for what seems longer than the actual load time, which is mildly irritating, though I totally understand the need for the warning on some of the slower players.

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by pellucidity

Does this PS3-specific move mean there is a chance that the authoring houses might also test to see if a disc is playing on a PS3 or other known-fast player and bypass the load time warning screen?

There are already mechanisms by which developers can determine how fast a given machine is. I suspect over time we'll see fewer warning screens as more titles are authored to take advantage of this.

- Talk

[ckenisell]

Talkstr8t,

I have a BD-J and BD-Live question:

Would it be possible, as a BD author, to write BD-J code that allowed live streaming video (via BD-Live) into a PnP box that could be shown while watching the main feature?

Applications for such a feature:

• Live & recorded commentaries.
  
  Let's say Lord of the Rings trilogy had this feature. The first weekend of its release, Peter Jackson could set a time (say 8:00pm CST on Sat. night) to "watch and comment on Fellowship of the Rings with you". Questions could be submitted in real time via a web chat client and Peter could answer those questions and be in a little window on the screen. The next weekend, same time, "watch The Two Towers" with Peter Jackson. Then, the next weekend, "watch Return of the King" with Peter Jackson. How cool would that be?
  
  It would be like sitting down with the director of the movie to watch his/her movie with them.
  
  Of course, these sessions would be recorded for playback at any time. But do you know how much this would boost sales numbers during the first weekend at retail?
  
  And this is just one example. Actor commentaries, etc. These kinds of things could keep movies "alive" for some time.
  .
• Fan-based commentaries/reviews.
  
  YouTube on crack for movie fans.

I have other applications for this type of implementation in my head, but I can't seem to remember them right now.

Thoughts?

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by ckenisell

Talkstr8t,

I have a BD-J and BD-Live question:

Would it be possible, as a BD author, to write BD-J code that allowed live streaming video (via BD-Live) into a PnP box that could be shown while watching the main feature?

Yes, this is one of the most commonly cited use-cases for BD-Live. In addition there are titles out today which use a telestrator approach (like how football plays are diagrammed by anaylsys over the game video) for the director to point things out, and this could easily be done live rather than as pre-packaged content in the future.

Do you know how much this would boost sales numbers during the first weekend at retail?

Disney has been very aggressive about promoting this sort of feature to boost sales numbers, and has committed that all titles released after Sleeping Beauty in October will be BD-Live-enabled. Sony Pictures has made a similar commitment.

- Talk

[4K2K]

Would it be possible to generate the black bars for 2.35:1 (or 2.39:1) movies using BD-J and have the black bars be as part of the graphics layer?

Like if a film was made and the CGI was all done at 1.78:1 and that version was sent for TV use, but the version shown at the cinema was a 2.35:1 crop of the 1.78:1 version, could the 1.78:1 version be encoded on Blu-ray with black bars created in the graphics layer with BD-J, allowing you to toggle via a button on the remote between the 2.35:1 and 1.78:1 versions?

If this is possible, will it ever happen?

[ckenisell]

Originally Posted by 4K2K

Would it be possible to generate the black bars for 2.35:1 (or 2.39:1) movies using BD-J and have the black bars be as part of the graphics layer?

Like if a film was made and the CGI was all done at 1.78:1 and that version was sent for TV use, but the version shown at the cinema was a 2.35:1 crop of the 1.78:1 version, could the 1.78:1 version be encoded on Blu-ray with black bars created in the graphics layer with BD-J, allowing you to toggle via a button on the remote between the 2.35:1 and 1.78:1 versions?

If this is possible, will it ever happen?

That's what I recommended for The Dark Knight, but it looks like the black area above and below the frame will be encoded into the video when the scenes come up that are not shot on the IMAX format.

[Jeff Kleist]

Like if a film was made and the CGI was all done at 1.78:1 and that version was sent for TV use, but the version shown at the cinema was a 2.35:1 crop of the 1.78:1 version, could the 1.78:1 version be encoded on Blu-ray with black bars created in the graphics layer with BD-J, allowing you to toggle via a button on the remote between the 2.35:1 and 1.78:1 versions?

If this is possible, will it ever happen?

Pioneer did this on DVD using subtitles on Re-Animator when they couldn't locate a decent print to retransfer. You don't even have to use anything other than making a mask graphic, save a TIFF and have one long subtitle run the length of the movie

[Icemage]

Just wanted to pop in and say welcome back to you Talk.

[Uxi]

Where's he at? I was reminiscing the other day about the Format War, especially the Day of Victory.

[Blu Titan]

Originally Posted by Uxi

Where's he at? I was reminiscing the other day about the Format War, especially the Day of Victory.

He was around today. I remember that at one point Talkstr8t was the lone BD insider keeping all the FUDsters in check over @ AV$.

[Talkstr8t]

I'm around, mostly lurking. Happy to pipe in when I can add something of value!

[Uxi]

Anything knew on the BD-J front that might interest us? Great to see you posting again.

[Anthony P]

Welcome back talk, nice to see you posting again.

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by Uxi

Anything knew on the BD-J front that might interest us?

Nothing earth-shattering, but we're seeing the authoring maturing nicely, to where many BD-J discs auto-resume, etc. Also lots of work on the BD-Live front, to the point that streaming is commonplace (Netflix on the PS3 is the best example of this). I expect to see lots of innovations in this area going forward.

Great to see you posting again.

Much appreciated!

[blindcat87]

Hi Talk,

I recently made my first attempt to use a digital copy with my BD of Star Trek and made a saddening discovery. The Flash interface used was completely blind inaccessible. When the app comes up in IE, I can read the portion that tells me to select iTunes or Windows format, but the buttons are not mapped/labelled in a way that makes them accessible to screen readers.

I didn't know if this really falls into your range since you are the Java guy, but I know you know a lot of the authoring community, and was hoping you might be able to get some word out on this if it is possible. It doesn't take a lot of work to make Flash or Java applications blind accessible for the PC, all of the controls just need to be properly labelled so that they can be found and recognized by the screen reader. Since the latest two generations of iPod Nanos and the new 32 and 64 Gb models of the Touch and the newest gen iPhone are blind accessible, a lot more blind users are becoming interested in things like digital copy.

Also on that note, with some BDLive features being designed to work with the iPhone, and some discussion going on about apps that allow one to control one's BD player with their iPhone or Touch, there might be some great opportunities for apps that are accessible and that could even give blind users better control over their players. The idea of an app that could turn the Touch I am planning to buy into a remote that gives me full access to the controlls and settings of my BD player is a very tantalizing concept. Something to think about.

Thanks,

Chris