Your Blu-ray questions answered (BBC)

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6069478.stm

Your Blu-ray questions answered

By Darren Waters
Technology editor, BBC News website


Blu-ray has hit the shops and HD-DVD is not far behind in the UK

The first high definition DVD sytem, Blu-ray, has gone on sale in the UK promising a revolution in home cinema.

The technology is expected to usher in the high definition era but there are many questions that pepole want answered before purchasing a player - or the rival format HD-DVD.

We answer a representative batch of questions sent to the BBC News website:

Is the time taken to retreive the data from one of these new disks any greater than what it is with current CDs and DVDs?
Steve Cassidy, Hampshire, UK

The loading time is longer than conventional DVD players for the first generation models. Read speeds on DVD players and DVD-Roms will improve over time.

Presumably, hi-def players will be backwards compatible and play all our old DVDs but will these players allow them to be "upscaled" (rendered at a higher picture quality)? Many current, standard definition machines do this so it would seem perverse if new ones did not.
Timothy Spence, Greenwich, London

The Samsung BD-P1000 we tested can upscale current DVD format movies to 1080p, offering significantly better viewing than stand alone DVD movies. But it should be remembered that upscaling to higher resolutions will not result in a picture as good as high definition. There is simply not enough picture information on an ordinary DVD.

If most film companies support Blu-ray and Blu-ray can hold far more data, what is the point of HD-DVD?
Jeff Culshaw, Liverpool, UK

A HD-DVD disk does hold less data than a Blu-ray equivalent. Supporters of the HD-DVD format say the 30GB disk has more than enough capacity for high definition movies.

Blu-ray supporters have said one disk can hold many different versions of a film including more extras but as yet few Blu-ray disks are being pushed to their limit.

HD-DVD has less supporters in the film studio world but some analysts feel the two technologies will achieve a stalemate, resulting in studios supporting both formats.

HD-DVD players are also considerably cheaper than Blu-ray players - in some cases less than half the price.

What price can we expect the players to fall to by 2012?
Rob Popay, Fetcham, Leatherhead, UK

That's a good question and one impossible to predict accurately. But I think it is fair to say that by 2012 the cost of a Blu-ray player will be much closer to the cost of an ordinary DVD player today.

I'd like to know why the Samsung player is more than twice the cost in the UK compared to America? £900.00 compared to $740.00
Mike, Torquay, UK

We asked Samsung and they told us: "The US market is a single market allowing the introduction of a single model produced, distributed, and sold in large volumes. Europe on the other hand requires the introduction of several model variants which will be produced and sold in lower volumes. There are also differences in purchases taxes between the two regions."
Does that answer your question?

Will either or both or these formats involve the farce that is region coding?
Rich, Turks and Caicos

Both Blu-ray and HD-DVD disks are expected to carry regional encoding - so that disks bought in one region will not work in another.
Hardware manufacturers lay this decision firmly at the feet of film studios and content producers.

Is HDTV required to reap the full benefits of HD-DVD/Blu-Ray's HD capabilities? If so, then what does this mean for me and other non-HDTV owners?
CyberKnight, Michigan, USA

I'm afraid you will need a HDTV to enjoy the benefits of Blu-ray or HD-DVD. So that's another considerable expense to think of.

What if neither take off, what's next?
Adeeb Ashfaq, Bradford,UK

Most analysts predict that one or both of the formats will be accepted into the mainstream.

While it is likely that in the long term films with even greater resolution will be available to buy on an as yet unspecified format, TVs too will also have to be made that can display these even higher definition pictures. But that is a long, long way off.

The other thing to consider is that high definition content will one day be widely available for download via the net to your PC or media extender box connected to your TV.

But with HD films requiring lots and lots of data, most people's broadband isn't yet equipped for the HD age.

How many times do movie studios expect us to buy the same movies in different formats?
John Dow, United Kingdom

We asked Samsung that question. They can only speak as a hardware firm and not as a film studio but they said: "It is perhaps better to look at it as blu-ray will give the consumers more choice.

Consumers will still be able to use traditional DVDs if they prefer as Samsung's Blu-Ray player allows existing DVD to be upscaled to 1080p - there will be no need to replace an entire movie library to use the Samsung BD-P1000."

Will any of these new fantastic formats iron-out the unacceptable inherent and noticable four percent speed-up problem which is currently found on every PAL DVD movie? (incured as a film transfer side -effect) Will we be able to watch films at the correct speed (i.e 24 frames ber second) as the movie director originally intended?
Graham Mcdonald, Addlestone, Surrey

That's a very technical question and one we put to Samsung. Their answer was short: "No".