Archived: Ask the Insiders: Judgment Day Edition

[Frode]

SDG:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...reless-hd.html

[Frode]

Seems that 1.1 on the PS3 is set for tomorrow:

http://uk.playstation.com/help-suppo...es-(ver-2-10)/

There doesn't seem to be any specific mention, but any word on whether the Bonus View playback functionality supports HD PiP? It's not like we'll have any HD PiP titles to test that any time soon, so without information from insiders there's no way to find out.

[sj001]

Originally Posted by mystiksuicide

By the way where is Penton Man? Has he gone to the "Dark Side" aka Red? Well if your not going to be on here you best be sealing the deal on Warner I am tired of not been able to buy some movies just because they're owned by studios not looking at for the majority

His last post indicated he might not be around much for a week or so, said he was reall busy, last minute X-Mas shopping.

[kjack]

Originally Posted by SDG

To anyone. With CE's starting to make HDTVs with Internet connections, Would it be possible to stream true HD audio and video from a Blu-Ray player like the PS3 using WIFI. Is there enough bandwidth. I understand that the decoding is done and expected to be sent out of the HDMI port. Is it possible to send it WIFI. Would like it if I could play the movie in my living room but watch it in my bed room. The Bluetooth remote will work through the wall.

There are several things being worked on in this area. One is to stream the A/V bitstream over wifi to the TV, so the TV decodes and displays it. Unless you use 801.11n or UWB, MPEG-2 sources won't be happy though.

Another is to encode the HDMI output of the BD player (using JPEG2000 or H.264), send over wifi/UWB to the TV, so the TV decodes and displays it. There will be products at CES that demo this capability (add-on dongles for BD players and TVs will soon be for sale).

Both scenarios assume new decoding and wifi/UWB capability inside the TV, which is just starting to happen.

The Media Center Extender (MCX) capability/interface is being added to many new TVs in design.

[Section Urbaine]

Originally Posted by SDG

To anyone. With CE's starting to make HDTVs with Internet connections, Would it be possible to stream true HD audio and video from a Blu-Ray player like the PS3 using WIFI. Is there enough bandwidth. I understand that the decoding is done and expected to be sent out of the HDMI port. Is it possible to send it WIFI. Would like it if I could play the movie in my living room but watch it in my bed room. The Bluetooth remote will work through the wall.

I don't think that the PS3's 802.11g WiFi interface would have the bandwidth.
However, hooking the PS3 up to some sort of I/O box with HDMI that supports transmitting over 802.11n to the TV should do the trick.

Read more about 802.11 here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11#Summary

[SDG]

Thanks Frode. Good information.

I have no problem with non-insiders answering my questions. If I can get good answers like this, insiders can answer what they want to and not have to deal with questions from the ignorant like me. We can ask questions in a forum like this. Knowledgeable people can answer them. Insiders can answer on a separate Thread if they feel like it and only Insiders can post there. Thanks again Frode.

Thanks Kjack and Section Urbain.
As long as Folks like You are around, I can leave the insiders alone. Thanks.

[Frode]

The Media Center Extender (MCX) capability/interface is being added to many new TVs in design.

Is that Microsoft specific, or will those work with DLNA servers like TVersity? I know the WM server itself supports DLNA, but wasn't sure if the media center extender contained additional information or functionality that would make it incompatible.

[kjack]

Originally Posted by Frode

Is that Microsoft specific, or will those work with DLNA servers like TVersity? I know the WM server itself supports DLNA, but wasn't sure if the media center extender contained additional information or functionality that would make it incompatible.

Don't know...guess I'll have to try it. Would be nice since I also have DLNA servers at home. It's designed to work with Vista Media Center PCs, and have the same GUI.

[jangofett]

About the price drops....I assume that a $200 price drop on the players won't be permanent but how long will it last?

[Josh]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Please, let's keep this thread clean, or it will force the moderators to begin moving or deleting posts.

Gary

Implemented. I have moved off all the off-topic discussion. Keep this thread clean. Repeat offenders will begin receiving infractions.

[krinkle]

Originally Posted by Josh

infractions.

Yikes! This sounds like an AVS word. I know the moderators have a tough job but I hope you can continue to keep a tolerant spirit in the running of this site.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by mystiksuicide

By the way where is Penton Man? Has he gone to the "Dark Side"

I’ve been busy making prank calls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG2l5XwLrrI

Geez, woman I can’t get it up every time you ask. You need to let these old bone(s) rest awhile.
To people inquiring about the geek, he just returned from a long business trip overseas and then there’s real world things to do, like paying the bills that have arrived in the mail, mow the lawn, decorate the tree, justify his expense account, etc.

I leaving for lunch now somewhere on Sepulveda so I can catch a look at that big Blu-ray advertisement with the PlayStation during the vertical wild thing.

Later.

[doctorD]

Originally Posted by LynxFX

That actually confused me too on the subject. Every news post and article on the subject clearly states "Toshiba plans to reduce MSRP on all HD DVD titles" with no mention of Univeral, WB or Paramount. Infact one of them actually says it is in an attempt to woo WB to the HD DVD side. More subsidies maybe?

If anything, you can bet M$ is lurking somewhere in the background on this!

[Bullseye]

Question regarding WB audio. Are WB being encouraged at all to start including HD audio on their BD releases. I know HP series has them but i just received 6 WB titles and not one has HD audio. Have they given any reason why this is the case?

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by LynxFX

That actually confused me too on the subject. Every news post and article on the subject clearly states "Toshiba plans to reduce MSRP on all HD DVD titles" with no mention of Univeral, WB or Paramount. Infact one of them actually says it is in an attempt to woo WB to the HD DVD side. More subsidies maybe?

i don't think the consumers will ever see a price cut. toshiba is going to be selling the studios hd dvds at a discount, so that the studios can make more money off hd dvd, because they aren't content with current hd dvd profits. im thinking toshiba's strategy was get low priced hardware out there and have expensive software for a quarter, b/c if both SW and HW were discounted the losses would be too great. then next quarter bump the hardware back up and sell the software cheaper to keep the studios. it is a very desperate situation over at toshiba im sure. the only victories they really have had are the ones they have had to shell out millions to get.

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by Bullseye

Question regarding WB audio. Are WB being encouraged at all to start including HD audio on their BD releases. I know HP series has them but i just received 6 WB titles and not one has HD audio. Have they given any reason why this is the case?

which movies? are they older wb blu-ray releases or possible make up titles (T3 or Polar Express) that got a port.

[shamus]

Originally Posted by Josh

Implemented. I have moved off all the off-topic discussion. Keep this thread clean. Repeat offenders will begin receiving infractions.

Why not have 2 threads... one for chat and one for strictly questions?

[fronn]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

i don't think the consumers will ever see a price cut. toshiba is going to be selling the studios hd dvds at a discount, so that the studios can make more money off hd dvd, because they aren't content with current hd dvd profits. im thinking toshiba's strategy was get low priced hardware out there and have expensive software for a quarter, b/c if both SW and HW were discounted the losses would be too great. then next quarter bump the hardware back up and sell the software cheaper to keep the studios. it is a very desperate situation over at toshiba im sure. the only victories they really have had are the ones they have had to shell out millions to get.

I'm not sure why my post correcting this rumor or whatever you call it was deleted, as it was pretty relevant in stopping senseless questions to insiders about what they are going to do about a non existent price drop from the HD DVD side.

The news that Toshiba is cutting the price of HD DVDs by $2 is a misinterpretation. I've corrected this in every thread I've seen it posted, but it seems people aren't picking up on it.

The original information states that HD DVD's SRP averages about $2 less than that of Blu-ray (average SRP of all titles released). The Average SRP for HD DVD is about 31.74... while Blu-ray's is about 33.50-33.75 (they didn't release it, but somewhere around there). It is probably caused by all the fox titles with a $39.99 MSRP. The number given of 31.74 as the SRP that Toshiba would drop the price to should have tossed up a few red flags... as 33.74 isn't the SRP of any HD DVD or Blu-ray title, so how would a $2 dollar drop make sense?

Oddly, the original information looks to be from the Business Week article -- take a look at the last paragraph on the first page.

[john_nemesh]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I’ve been busy making prank calls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG2l5XwLrrI

Geez, woman I can’t get it up every time you ask. You need to let these old bone(s) rest awhile.
To people inquiring about the geek, he just returned from a long business trip overseas and then there’s real world things to do, like paying the bills that have arrived in the mail, mow the lawn, decorate the tree, justify his expense account, etc.

I leaving for lunch now somewhere on Sepulveda so I can catch a look at that big Blu-ray advertisement with the PlayStation during the vertical wild thing.

Later.

Well, 10 out of 10 points for the most interesting way to respond to the "dark side" remark! LMAO

Makes me really glad I don't work in a call center!

[WickyWoo]

I think I finally figured out where Penton works, it's YouTube