The BDA counterattacks on Frivolous HD claims

[Elandyll]

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0564270/

How High The Def?
10 September 2008
10:36 AM, PDT | From Studio Briefing

Underlining the conclusion that all high-definition television formats are not created equal, the Blu-ray Disc Association is insisting that the Dish and DirecTV home-satellite services are misleading customers when they claim that they deliver HD-quality pictures and sound equal to Blu-ray's. The association called the Dish and DirecTV ads comparing the quality of their HD video-on-demand with Blu-ray's "irresponsible and misleading to consumers." The Association maintains that HD distribution via satellite is not "technically capable of producing the quality delivered by Blu-ray players and Blu-ray discs. To that end, the Blu-ray Disc Association is exploring these claims further and will take appropriate action, as necessary, to prevent consumers seeking the ultimate in high-definition home entertainment from being misled." The Bda's remarks come as new studies indicate widespread consumer confusion over what constitutes "HDTV quality." Research by the website Strategy Analytics found that 15 percent of viewers in Europe believe they are receiving HDTV service, although the actual figure is just 2 percent.

S'about time

[Blu Titan]

Originally Posted by Elandyll

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0564270/



S'about time

Nice post. Thanks!

[Jack Torrance]

It is indeed about time...

[Scooby Blu]

Great post ! I love "will take appropriate action" line ! Sue the damn bastards that is all we need is more misleading crap to confuse the already confused masses !

[Petra_Kalbrain]

It's about time that the BDA started to stomp around with their BIG BOY BOOTS on.

[kaliraver]

Every time I see those comercials it pisses me off because they are misleading the aver jox six pack and making them think they can get away with Blu-Ray quality from satelite. If you ever seen HD from a dish it looks super compressed, yes it does look better than DVD but certainly no where near Blu-Ray quality and bit-rates for audio and video.

[Memnoch71]

Don't get me wrong, I Love watching the NFL in HD from my local Cable Company and it's a huge difference between it and the standard broadcast. However as good as it is it still does not hold a candle to watching a good Blu Ray movie.

[quexos]

After decades of ads explaining that smoking is very harmful for your health and causes cancer, still so many smoke so I'm not surprised that so many don't know what is real HD and what isn't.
It's like some messages don't get through to the masses, it's really strange when you think about it.

[owa]

I wonder if they've already had an effect on the ads. Some of the recents ones didn't mention blu-ray anymore but I thought it might just be a shorter/cut version of the ad (since that happens quite a bit).

[scott1256ca]

You should be grateful you don't get your feeds from Bell Expressvu.
All the PPV and subscription movie channels in HD are 1280x720 (last I looked). I think HDNet (not really a subscription movie channel) might have been 1920x1080. And when CTV etc. broadcast anything which should be 1920x1080 they downrez to mid-def 1280x720 as well (see note). So we don't get stuff like CSI in real HD.
They advertise their SD PPV channels as dvd quality (or they used to anyway), and most of them were crap. Some of the not-so-long movies broadcast in "HD" would fit on a dual layer dvd. This is mpegII remember, so a well done AVC encode of the same quality would fit on a single layer dvd.

Note: when CTV or the others run a show at the same time as they would on CBS/NBC etc. they get to use the ctv feed on the CBS/NBC etc. channel, so we get CDN commercials and still only 1280x720 CSI even if we tune in to CBS

[Bobby Henderson]

Oh they're still mentioning it.

Dish Network broadcast their once about every quarter "Charlie Chat" on Monday night. One thing they covered was their 1080p Video On Demand pay per view movie downloads and the $2.99 pricing special on movies like I Am Legend and 10,000 B.C..

In fairness to Dish Network, what they're selling really is 1080p/24 based HD video. But it is not broadcast over a normal satellite channel.

The content must be downloaded to a ViP 722 or ViP 622 MPEG-4 capable receiver/DVR (after your TV passes a compatibility test). OTOH, the video quality isn't "Blu-ray Quality." It's not running at the kinds of bit rates typically seen on Blu-ray and the audio is just Dolby Digital 5.1, not a lossless next-gen format like Dolby TrueHD.

Here's the thing that had me rolling my eyes. The guys on the Charlie Chat show threw out a very stupid price comparison. "You can pay $30 for a Blu-ray movie or just pay $2.99 to see 1080p video on demand from Dish Network."

Couple big problems with their price comparisons. First of all, that $2.99 isn't the regular PPV price. That's just a special price for the two movies I mentioned. HD-quality PPV movies regularly cost $5.99. And that's for a mere 24 hour rental.

Their price comparison also attempts to imply that you cannot rent Blu-ray movie discs. I can get 5-day BD rentals from Hollywood Video for $4.99. Hastings charges $5.99 for a 7-day BD rental, but will give your account a $2 credit if you return the movie after 1 night. Those are better deals. On top of that, the video stores have a better variety of movies on BD than what I see available on the PPV menus.

[owa]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

The content must be downloaded to a ViP 722 or ViP 622 MPEG-4 capable receiver/DVR (after your TV passes a compatibility test). OTOH, the video quality isn't "Blu-ray Quality." It's not running at the kinds of bit rates typically seen on Blu-ray and the audio is just Dolby Digital 5.1, not a lossless next-gen format like Dolby TrueHD.

Downloaded completely or is it some sort of streaming download? If it has to be downloaded completely first, how long does that take?

[Borris]

Originally Posted by Scooby Blu

Great post ! I love "will take appropriate action" line ! Sue the damn bastards that is all we need is more misleading crap to confuse the already confused masses !

Agreed. Every person that has ordered HD content from these guys or subscribed during the period of the misleading ads (which are still airing) should be able to get something out of the eventual class-action suit. I say go get 'em BDA!

[chnandler_bong]

I've seen some Dishnet TurboHD newspaper inserts that advertise that the PPV resolution is the same as Blu-Ray (1080p). This is at least more accurate, but will still confuse some into thinking it's the same quality as well.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by chnandler_bong

I've seen some Dishnet TurboHD newspaper inserts that advertise that the PPV resolution is the same as Blu-Ray (1080p). This is at least more accurate, but will still confuse some into thinking it's the same quality as well.

Is it true 1920x1080p?

One of the big complaints about HD cable/sat is that the providers are adjusting the temporal horizontal resolution down to as low as 1280, to make it much easier to compress.

Gary

[un4gvn94538]

hd in general has been confusing for most consumers. im glad someones taking a stand. i still read in magazines letters of people wondering why they should buy into blu ray when thier upconverting dvd players can upconvert to 1080p. one person said, "1080p is 1080p no matter what".

[chnandler_bong]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Is it true 1920x1080p?

One of the big complaints about HD cable/sat is that the providers are adjusting the temporal horizontal resolution down to as low as 1280, to make it much easier to compress.

Gary

I have no clue...I would actually be surprised if it is actual 1080p. The advert doesn't go into detail.

[kjack]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Is it true 1920x1080p?

More confusion between video resolution and video sampling grid...

[Bobby Henderson]

The downloaded 1080p video is indeed 1080p/24, 1920 X 1080 pixels of resolution. It's just not running at the typical Blu-ray bit rate -a very important factor in qualifying something as being "Blu-ray Quality."

Originally Posted by owa

Downloaded completely or is it some sort of streaming download? If it has to be downloaded completely first, how long does that take?

I'm not sure if you have to wait for the entire movie to download. At least enough of it has to be resident on the DVR to allow complete playback in 1080p/24. You certainly won't be able to begin watching immediately after selecting/purchasing the movie from the PPV menu.

[BluRay2344]

its good that there trying to put a stop to this!