***Official Blu-Ray Discussion Thread*** (1 Viewer)

[John Milton]

There's a great thread at AVS about this Blu-ray Summit Report. Lots of good info in that article!

 

[Marc Colella]

Pretty biased reporting there.

Wonder if Sony paid them for this one-sided view.

I like this quote:

Sony has 1,500 titles ready to go for High Definition, according to Fidler. Any Sony DVD that has "Mastered in High Definition" on the back of the case means it's ready to be reissued for a Blu-ray DVD player.

This makes it sound like Sony is the only studio who has titles mastered in Hi-Def. It also leads people to assume these titles will be available in BluRay very quickly - when we know that they'll be released very slowly.

 

[Marc Colella]

Pretty biased reporting there.

Wonder if Sony paid them for this one-sided view.

I like this quote:

Sony has 1,500 titles ready to go for High Definition, according to Fidler. Any Sony DVD that has "Mastered in High Definition" on the back of the case means it's ready to be reissued for a Blu-ray DVD player.

This makes it sound like Sony is the only studio who has titles mastered in Hi-Def. It also leads people to assume these titles will be available in BluRay very quickly - when we know that they'll be released very slowly.

 

[Rachael B]

The article sounds like Sony wrote it, to me.

 

[Rachael B]

The article sounds like Sony wrote it, to me.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

I think the article appears biased to some since it was coverage of a BluRay summit which was going to be very positive to the press anyhow.

There are some very interesting facts that come up. The biggest in my mind is that Blu-Ray is still deciding on a video codec selection and will have more than MPEG2 and possibly MPEG4 and VC9. That's good news...

Cost was discussed at great length, and I won't bore you with the manufacturing process except to say that they are touting the fact it will eventually cost less than standard DVD due to needing less equipment. Initially, though, Blu-ray discs will cost around 10 percent more than standard DVD.

This is certainly positive news.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

I think the article appears biased to some since it was coverage of a BluRay summit which was going to be very positive to the press anyhow.

There are some very interesting facts that come up. The biggest in my mind is that Blu-Ray is still deciding on a video codec selection and will have more than MPEG2 and possibly MPEG4 and VC9. That's good news...

Cost was discussed at great length, and I won't bore you with the manufacturing process except to say that they are touting the fact it will eventually cost less than standard DVD due to needing less equipment. Initially, though, Blu-ray discs will cost around 10 percent more than standard DVD.

This is certainly positive news.

 

[Jesper]

Agreed Rachel..
I don't understand this
...One of the themes hammered home more than once at the meeting was that HD-DVD simply doesn't offer the capacity needed. A single-layer HD-DVD disc will hold 15GB of content and a dual layer disc holds 30GB. Blu-ray discs, by contrast hold 25/50GB in single and dual layer configurations...
As far as I know HD DVD movie will fit into single layer HD-DVD using WM9HD (or whatever the codec's names is).. But then again Blu Ray might think HD DVD is using the older codecformat Mpeg2?
John, do you have any info on this?

 

[Jesper]

Agreed Rachel..
I don't understand this
...One of the themes hammered home more than once at the meeting was that HD-DVD simply doesn't offer the capacity needed. A single-layer HD-DVD disc will hold 15GB of content and a dual layer disc holds 30GB. Blu-ray discs, by contrast hold 25/50GB in single and dual layer configurations...
As far as I know HD DVD movie will fit into single layer HD-DVD using WM9HD (or whatever the codec's names is).. But then again Blu Ray might think HD DVD is using the older codecformat Mpeg2?
John, do you have any info on this?

 

[John Kotches]

Jesper,
It's pretty easy to do the math.
12-15Mbits/second of either MPEG-4/H.264 or WM9/VC-9 is >= to 25-30 Mbits/second of MPEG-2.
So if we do the math for 3 hours, assuming a worst case scenario average bit rate:
15 x 10800, we have an aggregate requirement for 3 hours of content of 162,000 Megabits. This would equate to roughly 25-30 Megabytes once you account for format overhead.
So it works just fine, with PQ that exceeds MPEG-2 at roughly twice the bandwidth.
Killer, would be the combination of Blu-ray capacity, with the newer, better codecs.
Cheers,

 

[John Kotches]

Jesper,
It's pretty easy to do the math.
12-15Mbits/second of either MPEG-4/H.264 or WM9/VC-9 is >= to 25-30 Mbits/second of MPEG-2.
So if we do the math for 3 hours, assuming a worst case scenario average bit rate:
15 x 10800, we have an aggregate requirement for 3 hours of content of 162,000 Megabits. This would equate to roughly 25-30 Megabytes once you account for format overhead.
So it works just fine, with PQ that exceeds MPEG-2 at roughly twice the bandwidth.
Killer, would be the combination of Blu-ray capacity, with the newer, better codecs.
Cheers,

 

[John Milton]

I like this quote:

---------------------------------------------------------

Sony has 1,500 titles ready to go for High Definition, according to Fidler. Any Sony DVD that has "Mastered in High Definition" on the back of the case means it's ready to be reissued for a Blu-ray DVD player.

---------------------------------------------------------This makes it sound like Sony is the only studio who has titles mastered in Hi-Def. It also leads people to assume these titles will be available in BluRay very quickly - when we know that they'll be released very slowly.

I don't see what's so biased about this statement. Sony is speaking solely about the company they own, Columbia. This statement doesn't state anything good or bad about the other studios nor does it say other studios are more or less prepared for the transisition to HD disc. What I am reading is good news about Columbia TriStar's plans for Blu-ray. I know a lot of people at this forum don't like Sony but I'll side with them and Lee on this one... Blu-ray is going to be THE HD VIDEO FORMAT.

 

[John Milton]

I like this quote:

---------------------------------------------------------

Sony has 1,500 titles ready to go for High Definition, according to Fidler. Any Sony DVD that has "Mastered in High Definition" on the back of the case means it's ready to be reissued for a Blu-ray DVD player.

---------------------------------------------------------This makes it sound like Sony is the only studio who has titles mastered in Hi-Def. It also leads people to assume these titles will be available in BluRay very quickly - when we know that they'll be released very slowly.

I don't see what's so biased about this statement. Sony is speaking solely about the company they own, Columbia. This statement doesn't state anything good or bad about the other studios nor does it say other studios are more or less prepared for the transisition to HD disc. What I am reading is good news about Columbia TriStar's plans for Blu-ray. I know a lot of people at this forum don't like Sony but I'll side with them and Lee on this one... Blu-ray is going to be THE HD VIDEO FORMAT.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Any high-def disc could come out tomorrow and Best Buy wouldn't even stock 500 titles, let alone 1,500. It will take years for the market to build up, and software support will grow slowly with it.

Blu-ray is going to be THE HD VIDEO FORMAT.

Way too early to tell. The studios will decide which is the HD video format. If HD-DVD got Warner, Disney, Universal, Blu-Ray would become a substantial underdog.
I really don't care much about which format is the next one, as long as advanced video codecs and high-res audio are supported. For movies, the difference in storage space isn't that meaningful. And the best thing for the industry is no format war...

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Any high-def disc could come out tomorrow and Best Buy wouldn't even stock 500 titles, let alone 1,500. It will take years for the market to build up, and software support will grow slowly with it.

Blu-ray is going to be THE HD VIDEO FORMAT.

Way too early to tell. The studios will decide which is the HD video format. If HD-DVD got Warner, Disney, Universal, Blu-Ray would become a substantial underdog.
I really don't care much about which format is the next one, as long as advanced video codecs and high-res audio are supported. For movies, the difference in storage space isn't that meaningful. And the best thing for the industry is no format war...

 

[Marc Colella]

Blu-ray is going to be THE HD VIDEO FORMAT

I agree with Michael, it's too early to tell.

The quality of titles will probably make the difference.

From a Sony vs. Warner perspective - Warner wins with the titles they have under their umbrella.

And if rumors of Disney jumping aboard are true - then it's GAME OVER for BluRay.

 

[Marc Colella]

Blu-ray is going to be THE HD VIDEO FORMAT

I agree with Michael, it's too early to tell.

The quality of titles will probably make the difference.

From a Sony vs. Warner perspective - Warner wins with the titles they have under their umbrella.

And if rumors of Disney jumping aboard are true - then it's GAME OVER for BluRay.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

And if rumors of Disney jumping aboard are true - then it's GAME OVER for BluRay.

The last rumor I heard had Disney leaning to BluRay.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

And if rumors of Disney jumping aboard are true - then it's GAME OVER for BluRay.

The last rumor I heard had Disney leaning to BluRay.

 

[John Milton]

The latest rumor is indeed that Disney is considering Blu-ray. And when I have a minute I'll find the link to an article from just last week in which the guy from Warner states that they are still "firmly on the fence" about which format to support. So many people incorrectly assume that Warner has already sided with HD-DVD. You are wrong, it's their former head who now works for Toshiba, part of the HD-DVD Org who obviously supports HD-DVD. Warner haven't yet decided. I wish I could go into a thread about HD-DVD or Blu-ray on ANY forum and not have to read those misguided comments. Almost all of the hardware support is behind Blu-ray. If you take the time to read the article from the Blu-ray Summit Group you'll see near the end that it mentions several studios are in favor of Blu-ray already. Columbia isn't the only studio supporting Blu-ray. Other studios simply have yet to come forth with their choice publicly. I believe by the first half of '06 we'll all know which format is 90% likely to be the winner. I believe by then all the majors will have sided with Blu-ray. If I sound cranky it's because I believe Blu-ray is the best of the HD video formats and I feel rather passionately that they'll win the battle.