Re: Welcome Van!
Thanks for the kind words, guys!
Sam, I think you're right that a lot of the innovation can be stifled by the need to be able to QC the complexities of the format use... I know that the QC guys at Panasonic hated me for putting 432 subchapter points on the menus for ID4 because they had to check every one of them! When you multiply the amount of necessary QC with the number of players (which isn't even that many yet), it gets prohibitive when you have a complex title, but it has to be done as best it can because consumers have a reasonable expectation that the discs should work properly (player problems notwithstanding!). Studios do take into account how much trouble it is to QC a bonus feature in deciding if it is worth the hassle (and attendant cost) to do that feature at all. But I think folks are realizing that Blu-ray discs are less like DVD and more like computer software, which can have an impact on both what's possible AND how it needs to be positioned and perceived.
The bottom line is still about the main movie on the disc, which HAS to play back properly, but I do really want to see how we can push the envelope of the format, since that is really the only thing that distinguishes the format from the now-totally-accepted format of DVD. In a culture where the majority of consumers are very willing to sacrifice image and sound quality for convenience of access (witness YouTube and digital downloads), going the other direction towards high quality presentation just isn't enough to reach critical mass like DVD did. If we can't push the boundaries of the possible in a demonstrable way and engage the viewer, then BD has the potential to join laserdisc as merely a small niche market for the high-end home theatre folks. The cynical and not entirely inaccurate view is that most bonus features are there to tip the scales on someone buying one movie disc over another at the same general price point and interest level. A consumer is more likely to buy a disc with six special features they'll never watch, over a disc with only five special features they'll still never watch! ;-)
And yes, budget is ALWAYS a limiting factor. Some studios throw money at it, while others do the minimum or just wait and see what works on their rivals' products before committing funds. There's going to be --and NEEDS to be-- a lot of research and experimentation over the next few years, as the game keeps changing due to the cross-pollination of media formats (video, computer, games, web).
As for balancing the desires of those who think only presentation quality matters versus the desires of those who want to see a lot of interactive features, I believe it is possible to do both if you can afford to put the time and resources into it. It's like a good digital camera or a good piece of software like Photoshop: it should be usable at a glance for all of the basic features, but have a lot more capabilities under the hood for the die-hard professionals who want to tinker and go deeper. With both The Abyss and T2 on DVD, I tried to design it so that fans would have plenty of depth while the regular viewers could see the basics without getting overwhelmed. With Blu-ray, you now have the opportunity to embed content into the feature in new ways, but you can try to do it so that it's not visible at all if you don't want it, and with nearly 50Gb of disc space you don't necessarily have to lose presentation quality bandwidth to have it.
Of course, there are always hardcore presentation fans who feel that any additional features at all take away from disc space that could be used for the higher bit rates on the image and sound (witness SuperBit), but there is a point of diminishing returns for a mathematical issue of "absolute highest quality". Remember, the talent and skill of a compressionist is NOT just setting the encoder quality on lossless maximum and walking away --anyone can do that-- but using a skilled eye to get the best perceptible quality in the smallest amount of bits.
Geoff and Oscar, we are all hoping to be able to do a new version of The Abyss on BD one of these days... the issue has been that Jim Cameron has been so busy on Avatar that he has not had a chance to review and approve a new HD transfer of the film. We all feel the same way about the lack of an available anamorphic transfer on DVD... but hopefully, we can do something about it one of these days... it may not be until after he finishes Avatar, though!
Jeff, glad you enjoyed John Adams... I got a chance to help out on nine shots and keep my hand in VFX work doing it. I'm sure that a Blu-ray disc is in the works, since the show was broadcast in HD as well. It all comes down to whether HBO --like any other studio-- feels that the sales for such a product would outweigh the costs of manufacturing it at this juncture.
Jacob, I'm not sure why your receiver lists two different DTS settings from two different players using the same content. It may have something to do with how each player flags the streams. T2 was only 5.1, not 7.1, though. There may also be a difference between a player that reads how the stream is flagged on the disc versus one that benchmarks what the actual channel matrix is. If anyone else here is savvy on the home electronics end, please feel free to chime in...
Thanks,
V
