Warner to release Terminator 3 on BD 12/4 - with In-Movie Experience (1 Viewer)

[Paul Arnette]

I suppose it is possible that there are some HD DVD encodes that, if done twice, wouldn't fit on a BD-50 along with all the other special features, etc. So, whereever possible, if Warner wants to go this route, I say do it. I don't care how it is implemented if the end result is the same.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

But if you can't turn the PIP feature on/off while watching the movie during disc-play, then it's *not* the same result.

 

[Paul Arnette]

Well, you have a point there. It may be close enough of an approximation that those who are BD only care more that they have the film available to them finally.

I'd venture a guess that between there not being enough room for two encodes on a BD-50 for some HD DVD IME discs and Profile 1.1 coming to fruition eventually, we probably won't see too many of these compromises. As far as Terminator 3 is concerned, Warner Bros. probably knows that they've got a golden HDM double-dip opportunity coming up with T4 shortly, so they might as well get this out to the BD crowd now.

 

[Cees Alons]

They originally figured they would be using BD-J soon. Or perhaps they didn't think up the trick they are using now immediately?
Or they finally got desperate waiting for the BD-J solution and decided to bring out the BD version anyway.

Anyway, it's a good decision to release all those BD versions. Holiday season, and all that.


Cees

 

[troy evans]

It's good there thinking about the customer here. After all the waiting and promises the releases seem to be on track to come out. I own this one on HD DVD allready, but, if there's Bluray exclusive features or a better transfer I may have to d-dip on this. This is definately good news. Here's to hoping more of it's kind keeps coming.

 

[ToEhrIsHuman]

The subtitle layer on BD is capable of displaying full graphics over the entire screen. They may be imbedding a long chain of JPEGs (or similar graphics files) at 24fps in order to mimic an MPEG stream. I don't know how feasible or likely this is, but in theory it is possible.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

WB has consistently ported the same video compressed/authored files for HD DVD/BD companion titles (though featureset and audio sometimes differ).

 

[Seppo]

"Warner Sets Record Straight on 'T3' Blu-ray PIP Track":

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...PIP_Track/1090

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Thanks for confirming the methodology!

This is a temporay fix and not an ideal solution in that it effectively reduces the bit-space for the feature film to 1/2 of BD's capacity (ie, a 50GB presentation is effectivly only a 25GB presentation, more or less), because it doubles the bits requried for the feature 1080p film since both versions are included as distinct video files.

Also, users cannot turn the PIP on/off during disc play as they can with a real PIP window, so the feature is not as "transparent" as WB's comments would lead one to believe.

It's an ok first-step to real PIP java 1.1 functionality. But not a long-term fix. 1.1 can't get here soon enough (slap on the wrist of the BD consortia for not having 1.1 ready and required in hardware at launch).

 

[Brandon Conway]

Second encode via seamless branching makes sense. I guess the rumor I heard about the subtitle track was wrong, but it's also not a full second encode. Interesting. (After all, the BD does have 20GB more to work with).

 

[DaViD Boulet]

My bad... you're right. I hadn't realized that they only "branch" to the 2nd video stream for the portions of the video that have PIP.

So yes, if everything works as it should, this branching-method should allow users to turn PIP on/off as with a java PIP feature.

If a film had a PIP window for the entire length, it would present a problem similar to the one I described. But if it's only for key scenes, it might work relatively seamlessly.

 

[Paul Arnette]

Interesting.

Also, another reason occurred to me while watching football this weekend why we're seing this Blu-ray Disc being released with a "compromised" IME feature even though Profile 1.1 doesn't appear ready for prime time. I saw an ad for The Sarah Conner Chronicles on Fox, and it clicked. These studios never met a tie-in they didn't love, and, as I also mentioned before, they can do a Full Metal Jacket-type double-dip on both BD and HD DVD when Terminator 4 hits the theaters or home video.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Yep.

This "branching" technique will work for titles that aren't very demanding of bit-space and that aren't very PIP "heavy". For such titles, I think it's great that WB is pushing ahead with releasing BD product with an effective "PIP" feature than no release at all (or a release sans PIP). But we'll need real 1.1 to get many interactive features out on titles that are more demanding.

 

[Grant H]

I guess that is pretty clever to re-encode only the portions of the film that have PIP info. I have no idea how many minutes that actually is. Not having a feature-length second encode frees up space for the extras and hopefully a TrueHD soundtrack.

 

[Seppo]

Looks like no Dolby TrueHD track.

 

[Jim_K]

Ugh. Then I might as well stick with my HD DVD version.

 

[Grant H]

bastards

 

[DaViD Boulet]

they killed Kenny!

(couldn't resist... )

 

[Dave H]

That's pretty bad. I thought Warner was done shafting Blu-ray on audio - I guess not.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

was there trueHD on the HD DVD?