How does silverlight compare to this technology (http://movenetworks.com/demo.html)?

Notice how fast it starts and move the time line around. They also claim 720p capability.
It's not Vista compatible, so I can't test it here.

So, one big advantage of Silverlight is Vista compatibility :).

It's not Vista compatible, so I can't test it here.

So, one big advantage of Silverlight is Vista compatibility :).

Oops. Their vista plug-in is still in beta, but you can get it here (http://www.byu.tv/#).

But don't watch those videos, please go back to the original link (http://movenetworks.com/demo.html#) as they are higher quality.

You can download the Mac wmv plugin beta at http://flipformac.com/wmv_beta.htm.
This is the release that supports WMV9 advanced playback.
Plays back ok on my MacBook pro.

Amir,
I have been reading tons of threads about the Elite (which I have ordered), and havent found any answer or question about this. Forgive me if it has been asked.

It has been said that its a benefit to keep the video signal 100% digital and HDMI allows for this. Can you please comment if MS has done any test to see if there is ANY visual difference in the 360 staying digital with HDMI vs going through a video DAC in the current 360 using component?

Maybe you can answer my question with the assumption that the display would be digital and the same in both cases.
The answer depends on the display, and not the 360. Analog input on some displays is excellent in which case, there is no difference between VGA/component and HDMI. On ohter displays, the analog input might roll off high frequencies and produces somewhat software picture assuming you have a 1080p display.

The DAC is not a problem on the 360.

To Amir or any other Microsoft/HD DVD people..

Any word AT ALL on the 360 HD DVD incompatibilities with Children of Men [HD DVD]? Is there a way to tell if my 360/HD DVD add-on will be affected? Like a manuf date range, etc? And will this be fixed in the upcoming update?
As far as I know, COM is a manufacturing issue, not a software problem. The recourse is to contact Universal to get a replacement disc.

The answer depends on the display, and not the 360. Analog input on some displays is excellent in which case, there is no difference between VGA/component and HDMI. On ohter displays, the analog input might roll off high frequencies and produces somewhat software picture assuming you have a 1080p display.

The DAC is not a problem on the 360.


thanks for the response. I understand there is a DAC in the display, but there is also one in the 360. I guess you are saying the DAC in the 360 is as good as if it was 100% digital via HDMI.

I am kind of confused about the new BD+ comming out. I have started getting a library of blu-ray movies and was planning on buying the Sony BDP-S300 blu-ray player this june. I read somewhere that a bd+ disc can only play in one player? If this is the case, I was wondering if my player should die or i upgrade my player in a year or two does that mean i have to buy the same blu-ray disc all over again just so i can watch it in a new player?

There is an article here: http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6433561.html which indicates BD+ testing was completed on all available players. It doesn't say one way or another whether any had any problems, but by implication all would have to support it for testing to take place.

Perhaps one of the Blu Ray insiders can clarify.

thanks for the response. I understand there is a DAC in the display, but there is also one in the 360. I guess you are saying the DAC in the 360 is as good as if it was 100% digital via HDMI.
Yes, it is a lot easier to build high quality DACs, and ADC (what is in your display). In addition, folks are not cheapening DACs, but using lower cost ADC is an option for folks.

Yes, it is a lot easier to build high quality DACs, and ADC (what is in your display). In addition, folks are not cheapening DACs, but using lower cost ADC is an option for folks.

I remember a few years ago in the HTPC forum it became popular to modify video cards to remove filtering from VGA output, for better DVD display. The reason was consumer equipment is I guess required to have some filtering on analog video output to avoid RF interference with other devices and some manufacturers use lesser quality components to achieve this, making an obvious difference in picture quality. Does the Xbox have some legal way around this issue for component outputs? Or is it just as much of a problem for HD DVD as it has always been for VGA and DVD players?

- Tom

As far as I know, COM is a manufacturing issue, not a software problem. The recourse is to contact Universal to get a replacement disc.
Amir,
There is a great deal of disbelief about this, but it worked for me and for others:

My top-of-the-line, second gen Toshiba would not play CoM, saying "No DVD." I washed it with Dawn dishwashing liquid and very hot water for 15 seconds.

It then loaded and played without a problem. This suggests that these discs are picking up a residue or coating during their manufacture which is washed off by this effort. Of course, it goes without saying that Universal should take steps to prevent this on future releases.

Can anyone properly explain DTS-HD codecs please??

I thought it was nailed, but I'm confused again :confused: My understanding was that you start with what is now called core which is good old DTS at up to 1.5mbps, 24 bit and 48kHz. If you use DTS-HD HR, you add HR extension packets to the core. If you use MA you add MA extension packets to the core up to insane bitrates. You cannot decode HD from MA...

However, on Fox discs marked as DTS-HD MA, PowerDVD, which only claims DTS-HD support not MA (like Panasonic are claiming with v2.0 firmware) appears to be decoding a VBR DTS-HD stream that hits some pretty big highs >5mbps, that must be taking it into lossless territory.

So, is PowerDVD actually decoding DTS-HD MA? Is DTS-HD HR a fixed bitrate codec like all other lossy codecs? Why did they have to make it so complicated?

Even the studios don't understand the differences it seems as BV in Europe have labelled their non-English DTS 1.5 mbps language tracks as DTS-HD MA... Or is it really DTS-HD MA and PowerDVD is only decoding the core? In which case have Fox got it wrong and have they actually only used DTS-HD HR which is why PowerDVD decodes it???

:confused: :confused: :confused:

Hi,

I am not 100% clear on your question, but we use true DTS DTS-HD Master Audio on all of our BD releases. For our newest release, Nature's Journey - which releases in August, we are considering using a VC1 Encode (if Micrososft ever gets back to us) with a 24mbps VBR in both HD and BD formats as well as a 96/24 DTS-HD MA for the soundtrack.

Our 96/24 DTD-HD MA encodes on CHRONOS BD run @ 6.4mbps average and 8.2mbps peak.

Can anyone properly explain DTS-HD codecs please??

I thought it was nailed, but I'm confused again :confused: My understanding was that you start with what is now called core which is good old DTS at up to 1.5mbps, 24 bit and 48kHz. If you use DTS-HD HR, you add HR extension packets to the core. If you use MA you add MA extension packets to the core up to insane bitrates. You cannot decode HD from MA...

However, on Fox discs marked as DTS-HD MA, PowerDVD, which only claims DTS-HD support not MA (like Panasonic are claiming with v2.0 firmware) appears to be decoding a VBR DTS-HD stream that hits some pretty big highs >5mbps, that must be taking it into lossless territory.

So, is PowerDVD actually decoding DTS-HD MA? Is DTS-HD HR a fixed bitrate codec like all other lossy codecs? Why did they have to make it so complicated?

Even the studios don't understand the differences it seems as BV in Europe have labelled their non-English DTS 1.5 mbps language tracks as DTS-HD MA... Or is it really DTS-HD MA and PowerDVD is only decoding the core? In which case have Fox got it wrong and have they actually only used DTS-HD HR which is why PowerDVD decodes it???

:confused: :confused: :confused:
I only have a guess to offer. It is possible that PowerDVD is reporting the source stream data rate, not the actual bits being decoded. DTS is probably embedding the lossless layer as optional payload in existing DTS track. So the player sees a data rate which includes the optional parts from disc. It sends this to the decoder which ignores the optional parts and spits out the core DTS 1.5 track.

Again, just a guess. In general, keep in mind that these programs are notorious for showing incorrect info. Dolby was lamenting last year for example that the PC players where showing incorrect rates for their codec.

hey amir,

I'd like to thank you immensely as others have for your continued and helpful responses.

I was going through the thread and although I am excited for the 7.5 IRE vs 0 VGA fix, I wasn't sure if this would only be for HD-DVD (and/or DVD) playback only, or if it will also apply to gaming and other 360 uses (dashboard, picture viewing, etc).

Thanks!

I only have a guess to offer. It is possible that PowerDVD is reporting the source stream data rate, not the actual bits being decoded. DTS is probably embedding the lossless layer as optional payload in existing DTS track. So the player sees a data rate which includes the optional parts from disc. It sends this to the decoder which ignores the optional parts and spits out the core DTS 1.5 track.

Again, just a guess. In general, keep in mind that these programs are notorious for showing incorrect info. Dolby was lamenting last year for example that the PC players where showing incorrect rates for their codec.Glad we're talking again :cool:

Does anyone have any contacts with DTS or Cyberlink to find out just what PowerDVD is doing? Unfortunately PowerDVD under Vista seems unable to control the SPDIF output so I can't switch between multi-channel analogue outs and DTS over SPDIF to compare output. Everything comes out of the PC digital outputs as DD... Is this how it's supposed to work?

RBFilms, can you comment on why you choose DTS-HD MA over Dolby TrueHD, given that there are no players able to decode the first and the PS3 can decode the second? Thanks again to all insiders for contributing, specially Amir, even though I´m a Blu-ray supporter.

Any HD-DVD insider comments on the Warner Blood Diamond situation? It seems a little odd to launch the discs on different days unless they are doing some kind of elasticity study.

Thanks,
Chris

Hi Amirm, first thanx for all your support and just one question, Do you know why Universal has decided to drop support for spanish subtitles in all new releases? Children of men, good sheppard, smokin aces, they all have subs in spanish on dvd side but none on HD, and The Game and the jerk also don't have any subtitles on them, is there a problem? are they gonna start supporting downloading of external subtitles? is a regional problem? cause one of the reason that I support HD-DVD is for the great catalog of movies that Universal Have, but spanish support is a big issue in my home, hope you can help me with this or point me in the right direction to ask, thanx in advance

Neo_Reloaded, then why have I been able to watch COM and Smokin' Aces on my 360 with no problems?

Neo_Reloaded, then why have I been able to watch COM and Smokin' Aces on my 360 with no problems?

You could have purchased your XBox 360 player in a different time frame, and have a firmware revision that isn't susceptible to whatever the problem is. A guy over at HomeTheaterForum has 2 XBox 360 HD-DVD players, each from different serial number ranges, and the same discs act differently in the two players.

That's my running theory at least. I don't pretend to be an expert on this. I just have a strong gut feeling that the problem is a lot more complicated than simple "bad batches," and Universal or whoever else really needs to get serious about both informing customers, and fixing the problem. And if it is really bad batches? Then Universal has even more fixing and explaining to do, cuz that's one heck of a big bad batch.

If that is the case, I wonder, do I have a bad one? I have The Good Shepherd from NetFlix now, what point should I test this on? The movie has started just fine, and that's usually all I do until I can watch a movie through.

I remember a few years ago in the HTPC forum it became popular to modify video cards to remove filtering from VGA output, for better DVD display. The reason was consumer equipment is I guess required to have some filtering on analog video output to avoid RF interference with other devices and some manufacturers use lesser quality components to achieve this, making an obvious difference in picture quality.
I don't recall seeing those posts. Did they remove the reconstruction filter or the EMI choke? If it is the former, then I am not surprised they thought it would look better. Without that filter, the image would look sharper but unfortunately, alias (distort) on high frequency content/textures. On probably then CRT displays, this was not an issue because of the lower resolution of the device by definition would filter the signal. But with today's 1080p displays, I don't recommend one defeat the filter.

On EMI filter, that should not have resulted in anything other than "hearing" what your PC was doing on every TV in the neighborhood :).

Does the Xbox have some legal way around this issue for component outputs? Or is it just as much of a problem for HD DVD as it has always been for VGA and DVD players?

- Tom
I don't know the design but we have run test signals through it and performs quite well. The output is usually display limited.

hey amir,

I'd like to thank you immensely as others have for your continued and helpful responses.
Thanks for the kind remarks! It is much appreciated.

I was going through the thread and although I am excited for the 7.5 IRE vs 0 VGA fix, I wasn't sure if this would only be for HD-DVD (and/or DVD) playback only, or if it will also apply to gaming and other 360 uses (dashboard, picture viewing, etc).

Thanks!
The feature is implemented in the dashboard so it works for any video source from gaming to HD DVD and marketplace content.

Hi Amirm, first thanx for all your support and just one question, Do you know why Universal has decided to drop support for spanish subtitles in all new releases? Children of men, good sheppard, smokin aces, they all have subs in spanish on dvd side but none on HD, and The Game and the jerk also don't have any subtitles on them, is there a problem? are they gonna start supporting downloading of external subtitles? is a regional problem? cause one of the reason that I support HD-DVD is for the great catalog of movies that Universal Have, but spanish support is a big issue in my home, hope you can help me with this or point me in the right direction to ask, thanx in advance
Hmmm. I did not know this. Let me see what I can figure out.

Any HD-DVD insider comments on the Warner Blood Diamond situation? It seems a little odd to launch the discs on different days unless they are doing some kind of elasticity study.

Thanks,
Chris
I don't want to speak for them. But I doubt that it has anything to do with a study being done. Instead, we have longer production/testing for the new networking feature as that has not been used to date in commercial content. The BD version lacks those (and IME) so it can be released sooner. I think Warner is making the right call. :)

Hi Amir:

As always, thanks for your continuing contributions here.

Can you (or any other HD DVD insider) confirm the Chinese article linked on this thread?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=836632

In a nutshell, the press release (in Chinese) purportedly states that Fuh Yuan has contracted to make 2 million HD DVD players for Walmart.
If so, can you provide any further information on this (very significant IMO) development such as whether these will be Fuh Yuan branded players or rather it is an OEM for another brand, whether the SoC solution developed by MS will be used, and any information regarding expected time/price (sorry for the long list)?

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide

I don't want to speak for them. But I doubt that it has anything to do with a study being done. Instead, we have longer production/testing for the new networking feature as that has not been used to date in commercial content. The BD version lacks those (and IME) so it can be released sooner. I think Warner is making the right call. :)

As a follow up to this, can all HD DVD players, especially the 360, immediately (as in right now) use internet functionality on discs? Or will this require a firmware update?

In other words, if someone were to buy a 360 add-on and never update with the upcoming update, would they be able to use all features on Blood Diamond in July?

As a follow up to this, can all HD DVD players, especially the 360, immediately (as in right now) use internet functionality on discs? Or will this require a firmware update?

In other words, if someone were to buy a 360 add-on and never update with the upcoming update, would they be able to use all features on Blood Diamond in July?
Are you trying to trick me to tell you the release date for the 360 update? :p

Yes, the are bug fixes in the udpate for such titles. Fortunately, the release will come out well before this title.

Are you trying to trick me to tell you the release date for the 360 update? :p

Yes, the are bug fixes in the udpate for such titles. Fortunately, the release will come out well before this title.

No I really wasn't trying to trick you. I guess I'm just curious. Since as far as I know, every HD DVD player is mandated to have a "network connection". What I am wondering is does that mandate just apply to hardware (having a network jack) or is it also reffering to HDi and the firmware in players enabling software out of the box.

I am really excited for the network features, which I am assuming Blood Diamond will be the first disc to use, but I am wondering if the current HD DVD firmware in the 360 can do pass-through to the internet as it sits on my shelf right now. Or will those features need an update to enable?


I guess if I understand you correctly, you are saying these internet features WILL require an update.

I don't want to speak for them. But I doubt that it has anything to do with a study being done. Instead, we have longer production/testing for the new networking feature as that has not been used to date in commercial content. The BD version lacks those (and IME) so it can be released sooner. I think Warner is making the right call. :)

Quick follow up: So, in the future, the testing period will be shorter as this will be "proven" technology and we shouldn't expect such delays? I guess at some point BD-J will be ready, but I'm not sure if other releases this year (cough Harry Potter cough) will follow a similar pattern.

Thanks,
Chris

Quick follow up: So, in the future, the testing period will be shorter as this will be "proven" technology and we shouldn't expect such delays? I guess at some point BD-J will be ready, but I'm not sure if other releases this year (cough Harry Potter cough) will follow a similar pattern.

Thanks,
Chris
Yes, this is a one-time affair. As you see, we work with our content partners to make sure the platform works before they release new features. But once there, other titles can use them without additional work.

In general, until the formats mature, there will have to be continued improvements. Then again, with the open-ended capabilities here, we may be in for continues improvements of the product well into the future. I feel bad for folks who are buying machines without mandatory networking connection for such upgrades :).

Boiling worked for my copies of Children of Men and The Good Sheppard. Before boiling neither would load correctly let alone play at all. After the first boil I had the chapter 17 issue with COM, boiled it again and do not have that issue.

I would not recommend this unless your discs were coasters like mine were. I had nothing to lose by trying it.

No I really wasn't trying to trick you. I guess I'm just curious. Since as far as I know, every HD DVD player is mandated to have a "network connection". What I am wondering is does that mandate just apply to hardware (having a network jack) or is it also reffering to HDi and the firmware in players enabling software out of the box.
The hardware is there as is the networking software. What is not there, is bug-free software :).

I am really excited for the network features, which I am assuming Blood Diamond will be the first disc to use, but I am wondering if the current HD DVD firmware in the 360 can do pass-through to the internet as it sits on my shelf right now. Or will those features need an update to enable?


I guess if I understand you correctly, you are saying these internet features WILL require an update.
No, I am not saying that any networking feature requires an update. Just that I know there are some fixes for this title.

I wonder Amirm, can you post the included fixes/updates included with the upcoming patch?

2) I don't believe it's caused by a residue on the discs. First reason for this belief is that I've tried to boil my Children of Men disc, and it had absolutely no effect on playback - all the problems I had before are still the exact same.

Hmm, Smokin Aces disk didn't read at all for me brand new out of the box, but then I wiped it clean briskly and it read and played flawlessly. (360 addon)

Amir, is there a sensitivity level that may different between the drives wrt residue on disks? If so is that something that is firmware correctable?

Amir!! May I ask? if MS is planning to release a revised version( fixed) of XBOX add on drive with new system, coming out?

Amir!! May I ask? if MS is planning to release a revised version( fixed) of XBOX add on drive with new system, coming out?
There would be nothing to fix on the drive. All the functionality is in software in the system.

Did I misunderstand your question?

You would hope that would be the case. But there is no way to be sure as people could still leave the same pipeline running as to avoid glitches and pops when they switch (of course, they could have glitchless switching also).

A PIP stream is always being decoded (when present in the evob and enabled in the playlist), even if you cannot see it: subvideo defaults to fully transparent. When a PIP window fades up, the transparency is faded from fully transparent to opaque, and you get to see it. However the pipeline/decoder is doing the same work regardless of the visibility of the stream. Therefore there should be no glitches as PIP comes and goes. Obviously a software player can make optimizations here (e.g. if it is fully transparent, don't bother to alpha-blend it over main video).

This is a question for Sigma Designs, Broadcom, and anyone else involved with creating decoders for use in Blu-ray and HD-DVD players:

With Blu-ray, video content -- like concerts and sports -- is stored on disk as 1080i60, not 1080p30 or 1080p60. In some cases, this is 1080p30 content stored 1080i60 (2:2), and in other cases, it is actual 1080i60 video.

The Sigma Designs and Broadcom decoders found in the first-generation Blu-ray players do not incorporate motion-adaptive, video deinterlace for 1080i signals, so they "bob" -- dropping half the resolution -- to output 540p on these disks. AFAIK, the only Blu-ray player to actually output full 1080p resolution on these 1080i60 disks is the Samsung BD-P1200, and it is only able to do that thanks to a separate, dedicated video processor (Silicon Optix ReonVX).

Since it becoming increasingly obvious that not all Blu-ray releases (concerts, sports, etc) will consist of a 1080p24 source on disk, do you expect to incorporate motion-adaptive, video deinterlace in next-generation or future-generation decoders? Looking to the future, do you feel that is a feature that SoC decoders will need to remain competitive in the market?

For Microsoft insiders:

How does the Xbox360 handle actual 1080i60 video stored on HD-DVD? Does it bob to output effective 540p resolution? Or does Microsoft have its own software algorithms for motion-adaptive video deinterlace?

With the current PS3 firmware, Sony doesn't even try. They simply output 1080i60 Blu-ray disks as 1080i60, even if you have 1080p output checked in setup.

This is a question for Sigma Designs, Broadcom, and anyone else involved with creating decoders for use in Blu-ray and HD-DVD players:

With Blu-ray, video content -- like concerts and sports -- is stored on disk as 1080i60, not 1080p30 or 1080p60. In some cases, this is 1080p30 content stored 1080i60 (2:2), and in other cases, it is actual 1080i60 video.

The Sigma Designs and Broadcom decoders found in the first-generation Blu-ray players do not incorporate motion-adaptive, video deinterlace for 1080i signals, so they "bob" -- dropping half the resolution -- to output 540p on these disks. AFAIK, the only Blu-ray player to actually output full 1080p resolution on these 1080i60 disks is the Samsung BD-P1200, and it is only able to do that thanks to a separate, dedicated video processor (Silicon Optix ReonVX).

Since it becoming increasingly obvious that not all Blu-ray releases (concerts, sports, etc) will consist of a 1080p24 source on disk, do you expect to incorporate motion-adaptive, video deinterlace in next-generation or future-generation decoders? Looking to the future, do you feel that is a feature that SoC decoders will need to remain competitive in the market?As a followup to this one, surely in the case of NIN for example, motion adaptive is not needed, simply detection of the fact that it is really 1080p30 and weaving the fields back together again properly??

If that's the case, could this sort of thing be easily fixed in a firmware upgrade for players that use existing chipsets?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=836787

Hi Amir

Have you tried this HD-DVD in your HD-DVD player?
Should we be waiting for the Xbox360 spring update to purchase this title?
Could this problem with new discs not be related to QA issues at all?
Could the problem be the HD-DVD add-on for Xbox360?

Any advice appreciated.

Amirm,

So the elite doesn't pass more then 2 channel pcm over HDMI, does the HDMI cable still pass 5+ channel DD, DTS, or WMA Pro? I'm not to read up on WMA Pro, but it is lossless right? If so would this allow us to play TrueHD tracks what are decoded then encoded to WMA Pro without any loss?

Thanks.

Amir,

There has been conflicting info all over the place about the "walmart places order for 2 million HD DVD players." Would you please shed some light on this, if you have any info?

The Sigma Designs and Broadcom decoders found in the first-generation Blu-ray players do not incorporate motion-adaptive, video deinterlace for 1080i signals, so they "bob" -- dropping half the resolution -- to output 540p on these disks. Our chip does support motion-adaptive deinterlacing.

Our chip does support motion-adaptive deinterlacing.
Your company and MS in January announced a reference design for HD DVD that could be used a basis for HD DVD players manufactured by 3rd parties. Has such a reference design been announced for Blu-ray players as well? IIRC, you seemed to hint elsewhere that Chinese manufacturing of Blu-ray players quickly shouldn't be a problem, but I don't recall ever seeing a public announcement about similar Blu-ray reference designs. (I fully understand that such things aren't always public of course.)

Also, did Broadcom have anything to do with the Wal-Mart, Fuh Yuan, Great Wall, TDK deal? If so (or even if not), can you confirm whether it is an HD DVD deal, a Blu-ray deal, or both?

sorry, but i did ask a question. please re-read my post. i was asking if anyone might be able to ask microsoft to please purchase back from me the add-on drive. it was a serious question, by all means.
I personally fail to see how the Industry Insiders thread is the same thing as your personal Consumer Complaint thread, even if you have managed to work in a question mark. I normally really enjoy this thread, can we get back on topic?

Our chip does support motion-adaptive deinterlacing.With 1080i signals? I know you do it with 480i signals.

The standalone Panasonic, Pioneer, and Sony players do not do motion-adaptive deinterlace with 1080i source content on Blu-ray, as Kris Deering and others have verified on this forum. Is that a fault of their implementation?

Your company and MS in January...You are confusing Sigma and Broadcom...which is a great compliment I guess. :)

You are confusing Sigma and Broadcom...which is a great compliment I guess. :)
Oops. A thousand pardons. :o

Momentary stroke.

In any case... The chips from your company can be used for either Blu-ray and HD DVD, correct? ie. One chip fits all?

How does the Xbox360 handle actual 1080i60 video stored on HD-DVD? Does it bob to output effective 540p resolution? Or does Microsoft have its own software algorithms for motion-adaptive video deinterlace?

I asked the EVR expert and he said "We use bob deinterlacing with bi-linear scaling". Hope that helps.

I started a poll here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=837153

about how long next weeks AACS key change will hold the hackers off. Any insiders willing to give insight into how long the studios or other people on the inside think this change will hold up? It would be great to hear the confidence level on that side.

Thanks,
Darin
We don't make such predictions. Which makes it even more amazing that people without all of our information, are!

...Which makes it even more amazing that people without all of our information, are!Talking about predictions: let's not forget that in the first half of 2006 DVD-Jon claimed that AACS
(that was hardly anything but an acronym at that time) will be broken by years end.
He must have a very good crystal ball.

Amir, anything you can disclose about the China-Wal-Mart-HD-DVD "triangle"?

Diogen.

Talking about predictions: let's not forget that in the first half of 2006 DVD-Jon claimed that AACS
(that was hardly anything but an acronym at that time) will be broken by years end. He must have a very good crystal ball.
Without seeing the implementation of AACS in software players, he was making a pure guess, like others.

Amir, anything you can disclose about the China-Wal-Mart-HD-DVD "triangle"?

Diogen.
Sorry, no.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=836787

Hi Amir

Have you tried this HD-DVD in your HD-DVD player?
I have not. Have only tried it in Toshiba. But the team tells me that there are some incompatibilities.

Should we be waiting for the Xbox360 spring update to purchase this title?
Well, you can purchase it before and see what parts of it work. Other parts will need the udpate.

Could this problem with new discs not be related to QA issues at all?
Could the problem be the HD-DVD add-on for Xbox360?

Any advice appreciated.
I don't recall where the problem is (the title or our implementation). Regardless, we have fixed it in the upcoming release.

Talking about predictions: let's not forget that in the first half of 2006 DVD-Jon claimed that AACS
(that was hardly anything but an acronym at that time) will be broken by years end.
He must have a very good crystal ball.

Amir, anything you can disclose about the China-Wal-Mart-HD-DVD "triangle"?

Diogen.
I thought AACS hasn't been broken yet? Just that someone found a workaround.

No, it was broken. But the size for the moves is so large, and there are no HD-DVD burners out there, I don't see the point really. Even with DVD's, I have taken some audio clips, but only be recording the audio output from a player and only for personal use. If people are not going to steal something, they don't as long as it doesnt interfere with the playback. If people are going to steal something, they care because they have to wait until someone cracks it. Personally, I don't see much of the point in the copyright protection on any digital media because I dont do anything wrong, and most people don't do anything wrong.

Without seeing the implementation of AACS in software players, he was making a pure guess, like others.


Sorry, no.

Sounds like a yes to me! If there was nothing to it, he could say so.

Insiders,
I haven't come across any HD or BD discs with basic calibration tools ala THX optimizer included on some DVD's. My DVD calibration discs are pretty useless since via component, DVD output is at 480 vs 1080 of my HD-DVD add-on, and causes variations in my display with the different input signals. I know DVE is coming, but since early adopters are pretty picky about such things I was wondering why there aren't at least some basic tools on titles. Better still would be to incorporate them into the players themselves, at least the XBox360/PS3, which would allow users to correctly configure their equipment for gaming as well. There are a lot of people who's experience is not what it should be and don't even know it. Is this something that could/should be incorporated in a dashboard/firmware update or disc bundled with their respective products?
Thanks.
Rocky

Insiders,
I haven't come across any HD or BD discs with basic calibration tools ala THX optimizer included on some DVD's. My DVD calibration discs are pretty useless since via component, DVD output is at 480 vs 1080 of my HD-DVD add-on, and causes variations in my display with the different input signals. I know DVE is coming, but since early adopters are pretty picky about such things I was wondering why there aren't at least some basic tools on titles. Better still would be to incorporate them into the players themselves, at least the XBox360/PS3, which would allow users to correctly configure their equipment for gaming as well. There are a lot of people who's experience is not what it should be and don't even know it. Is this something that could/should be incorporated in a dashboard/firmware update or disc bundled with their respective products?
Thanks.
Rocky

Sony have a test pattern, well 2 or 3 on all their disc. Just do 7669 + Enter on the remote, you'll have a Color Test Pattern with BlackLevel and a Geometry Test..

Insiders,
I haven't come across any HD or BD discs with basic calibration tools ala THX optimizer included on some DVD's. My DVD calibration discs are pretty useless since via component, DVD output is at 480 vs 1080 of my HD-DVD add-on, and causes variations in my display with the different input signals. I know DVE is coming, but since early adopters are pretty picky about such things I was wondering why there aren't at least some basic tools on titles. Better still would be to incorporate them into the players themselves, at least the XBox360/PS3, which would allow users to correctly configure their equipment for gaming as well. There are a lot of people who's experience is not what it should be and don't even know it. Is this something that could/should be incorporated in a dashboard/firmware update or disc bundled with their respective products?
Thanks.
Rocky
I agree such discs should have come out sooner. We worked with Joe to get DVE out and it still took a long time. It is not so easy to create test patterns, menus for them, etc.

On player companies putting such features in, we have them in Media Center and are thinking of some things to do for 360. But keep in mind that in general, players and displays have many faults in how they implement video. Last thing they want is one of their own test signals showing such faults, and having you return the equipment as a result of it! It is incredible how many mistakes are made in the simple task of programming an output chip to do the right thing (and the bugs in those chips themselves). It is a sad state of affairs really.

Thankfully, for nomal enjoyment of watching the movie, such things don't get in the way. But for those of us crazy about such things, it is a shame that dispay and players are not working to the specifications they were designed to operate under.

I agree such discs should have come out sooner. We worked with Joe to get DVE out and it still took a long time. It is not so easy to create test patterns, menus for them, etc.


I guess that explains why I cannot select the DVE HD DVD "Play All" for video or audio test patterns with PowerDVD 7.3. I cannot believe that no-one tried this?

Right now I cannot use this disk.

- Rich

I guess that explains why I cannot select the DVE HD DVD "Play All" for video or audio test patterns with PowerDVD 7.3. I cannot believe that no-one tried this?

Right now I cannot use this disk.

- Rich
I am not sure they did or did not test this on the software player. But my suggestion is to create a thread for any issues in the HD DVD software section. I know Joe is keen on knowing what all may need fixing. He will be able to find that info easier there, than here.

I am not sure they did or did not test this on the software player. But my suggestion is to create a thread for any issues in the HD DVD software section. I know Joe is keen on knowing what all may need fixing. He will be able to find that info easier there, than here.

OK will do.

- Rich

This is a pretty simple question. In regards to the 360 themes what is the resolution of the background images. Naturally since I've set my 360 to 720p, I assumed the best results would come with that resolution. However for some reason the 360 resizes just slightly. :confused:
Nothing fancy just a simple jpeg image...
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/6786/spiderman3theme4kp3.th.jpg (http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spiderman3theme4kp3.jpg)

I think they are 1172x720. At least that is what it says in the March OXM about adding your own pictures to the background.

paidgeek,

Could you give us an update on BD-J and BD+?

Thanks.

Say what? 1:1 pixel mapping is an issue with the receiver, not transmitter. If your display can do it, then it works with any source, 360 or otherwise.

People should always look for this feature when they buy a new display. It is called "native" mode, or "direct" mode or some such thing. If you don't see it in the menu, skip the unit and keep looking for one that does.

Without 1:1, the display will attempt to enlarge the image by 5-10%, causing the image to become softer in addition to losing picture detail on each side.
Amir, with all due respect, it IS a problem with the transmitter. Not to take the blame away from the recievers (which should all have a 1:1 pixel mode standard by the way), but Microsoft should know better. Nvidia drivers on the PC let you do 1:1 pixel mapping on the transmitter side. I select "centered output" in the Nvidia control panel and I can play games in 1600x1200 on my 1920x1200 LCD without any scaling or using any "native" or "direct" or any other special "mode" on the monitor itself. I don't see why Microsoft can't code something similar into the Xbox 360 OS, unless Nvidia knows something you all don't.

Amir, with all due respect, it IS a problem with the transmitter. Not to take the blame away from the recievers (which should all have a 1:1 pixel mode standard by the way), but Microsoft should know better. Nvidia drivers on the PC let you do 1:1 pixel mapping on the transmitter side. I select "centered output" in the Nvidia control panel and I can play games in 1600x1200 on my 1920x1200 LCD without any scaling or using any "native" or "direct" or any other special "mode" on the monitor itself.
If your TV overscans, there is not a thing in the world that the transmitter can do to avoid it. It would apply that interpolation to any signal on the way in, regardless of how you program the source. And as such, softens the video because an enlargement of 3-5% is very difficult to do well. So regardless of how you program the input, you do not have 1:1 pixel mapping.

What you are describing is something different. That is, you are avoiding a normal scaling of the source to match the display resolution. Your source in this case is 1600x1200 and your output is 1920x1200. By offsetting the pixel timing from frame buffer’s default timing, you avoid enlargement of the image which would also soften the image. Since computer monitors have awful scalars as a rule, what you are doing is a good thing. But it does not get around any overscan in the display if it existed (computer monitors do not overscan).

In case of HD DVD/BD, the resolution of the source is 1920x1080 as is the resolution of the display in question. The display is not attempting to covert one resolution to the other as was the case in your example. Rather, it wants to blow up the edges of the signal because traditionally, those pixels are not always accurate. In our case again, they are so we don’t need this scaling.

I don't see why Microsoft can't code something similar into the Xbox 360 OS, unless Nvidia knows something you all don't.
Xbox is designed to be more like a CE product, than a computer. As such, it follows more of a CE model of having fixed (ATSC) resolutions and settings. I am sure you have not seen a DVD player have the same controls you have in Nvidia drivers. Still, I have heard the feedback on supporting other odd resolutions and have provided that data to Xbox team. Hopefully they will find a way to support them. But that still doesn’t solve the problem of a CE display overscanning.

A question for any insider:

Is it possible, or in the spec, to have a new release movie contain a firmware check and update for all players that exist at the time of the movies release?

For example, putting a movie in might immediately check to see which player you have and what version it is, if it's an older version, it auto-installs the update and reboots, then playing the movie.

Is that scenario possible or even kosher on either format?

I ask because I am beginning to see how it can turn out to be a nightmare for average consumers to have to keep up to date with versions of firmware in order to play certain movies or use certain features. I'm not sure that should be the consumers responsibility.

A question for any insider:

Is it possible, or in the spec, to have a new release movie contain a firmware check and update for all players that exist at the time of the movies release?

For example, putting a movie in might immediately check to see which player you have and what version it is, if it's an older version, it auto-installs the update and reboots, then playing the movie.

Is that scenario possible or even kosher on either format?

I ask because I am beginning to see how it can turn out to be a nightmare for average consumers to have to keep up to date with versions of firmware in order to play certain movies or use certain features. I'm not sure that should be the consumers responsibility.
Yes, it is possible but not advised! Content owners would not be in a position to force an upgrade on a random player purchased by the user. If something goes wrong, who do you blame? But I am fairly certain they can get the revision number of the player. What they can do with it, per this issue, is unknown.

Having said this, what you suggest works on 360 but backwards (in a good way :)). Everytime you put a title in, if you are online, we do a quick check to see if we have an updated software to run it. If there is, we automatically load it from Live network. If not, we play the content. This should accomplish the task, while the responsibility being where it should be: with the hardware company.

Amir,

A bit off topic but I just got done setting up my 360 Media Center Extender with Vista Ultimate. Everything looks good but when I go into the 360 Media Center and gogo TV+Movies, I don't see a "play DVD" option but on the Vista PC, it's there and works great. Any help?

Thanks,
Robert.

Amirm, with the way the 360 checks for updates, does it also check firmware as well, or just the player software?

Amir,

apologies if this info is already available somewhere (haven't found anything up to date in this thread).
What is the current situation with Studio Canal HD DVD releases (and Fox Pathé as well maybe?) and the high-pitched audio that we saw on their first release(s) e.g. Total Recall?
You previously in this thread mentioned that SC take great care and pride in getting their releases to be as good as they can get them, and IIRC SC were made aware of the pitch-up problem.

Have they been ensuring that the soundtracks are correct in their subsequent releases?
Are they re-authoring their high-pitched releases with correct soundtracks?
And if so, will they replace these high-pitched (essentially faulty) releases with correctly authored discs for consumers who purchased them?


If all this is known already, I'd be happy with just a quick URL pointing to the info :D

Amir,

Are you aware of an issue with children of men being played at 720p? I posted about this in the hddvd software forum and others have experienced as well. I have a panasonic ae900 720p pj and na A1. I typically have my A1 set to 720p to match the pj and everything has looked beautiful. Children of Men, however-had pixellation, jaggies, etc....Stuff I have not seen at all on other discs with this setup. On a whim-I switched to 1080i and this went away...

What is it about this disc that makes it so ugly in 720p? Others are saying other new Universal discs are exhibiting this also, but I can't say I have seen that yet....

Amir,

apologies if this info is already available somewhere (haven't found anything up to date in this thread).
What is the current situation with Studio Canal HD DVD releases (and Fox Pathé as well maybe?) and the high-pitched audio that we saw on their first release(s) e.g. Total Recall?
You previously in this thread mentioned that SC take great care and pride in getting their releases to be as good as they can get them, and IIRC SC were made aware of the pitch-up problem.

Have they been ensuring that the soundtracks are correct in their subsequent releases?
Are they re-authoring their high-pitched releases with correct soundtracks?
And if so, will they replace these high-pitched (essentially faulty) releases with correctly authored discs for consumers who purchased them?


If all this is known already, I'd be happy with just a quick URL pointing to the info :D
As I reported a while back, the issue was that noone had done 24p production in Europe it seemed. So the process they designed was faulty, and resulting in the incorrect pitch.

Despite my strong request, I could not get anyone to want to re-issue the releases. However, they tell me the next slate coming out in May should be good. I say "should" because I have only checked the high visibility titles.

Here is the list of all the titles that I know about coming out in May. And answering an old question, these have three-position subtitles plus two sizes for each:

ARIZONA DREAM
LA GRANDE VADROUILLE (DON'T LOOK WE'RE BEING SHOT AT)
L'ARMEE DES OMBRES (ARMY IN THE SHADOW)
LE CERCLE ROUGE (THE RED CIRCLE)
LE LAUREAT (THE GRADUATE)
LEAVING LAS VEGAS
LES 3 JOURS DU CONDOR (THE 3 DAYS OF THE CONDOR)
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
MULHOLLAND DRIVE
RAN
SERPICO
TERMINATOR 2 : JUDGEMENT DAY
TRAFFIC
VOYAGE AU BOUT DE L'ENFER (THE DEER HUNTER)
NOUS ETIONS SOLDATS (WE WERE SOLDIERS)

Amir,

A bit off topic but I just got done setting up my 360 Media Center Extender with Vista Ultimate. Everything looks good but when I go into the 360 Media Center and gogo TV+Movies, I don't see a "play DVD" option but on the Vista PC, it's there and works great. Any help?

Thanks,
Robert.
Unfortunately, DVD CCA (copy protection) rules traditionally disallowed streaming of DVD content. Last year the organization did approve our "WMDRM-ND" approved for the first time to stream DVD content. But we have not yet implemented it. For this reason, you can't access DVDs remotely.

However, they tell me the next slate coming out in May should be good. I say "should" because I have only checked the high visibility titles.

Here is the list of all the titles that I know about coming out in May. And answering an old question, these have three-position subtitles plus two sizes for each
Thanks Amir, this information is greatly appreciated! :)

Unfortunately, DVD CCA (copy protection) rules traditionally disallowed streaming of DVD content. Last year the organization did approve our "WMDRM-ND" approved for the first time to stream DVD content. But we have not yet implemented it. For this reason, you can't access DVDs remotely.Do you have plans to implement "WMDRM-ND" with the Xbox360 at some point? Would it be safe to say that at some future date, it is likely that customers will be able to stream DVD content from their Vista PC to a Xbox360?

What about the possibility of doing this with HD-DVD or Blu-ray (from the disk itself)?

Amir do you have any information on Warner's release of The Prestige which is out in the UK in May? I've ordered it but still there is no art work and no details of features or anything out there.

What are HD DVD's plans for the UK in general? Is there going to be a ramp up in discs and marketing here because at the moment there is a pitiful amount of available films. I think there is a pretty big base of 360 HD DVD add-on owners and Toshiba players here. The 360 drive was completely sold out over Christmas and really hard to get hold of. At the moment we buy ALL our discs on import. HD DVD seems to be the popular choice. Despite more films, with current releases, being available on Blu-Ray.
There are 18 HD DVD's waiting to be released and 70! Blu-Ray discs. That's not good...

As I reported a while back, the issue was that noone had done 24p production in Europe it seemed. So the process they designed was faulty, and resulting in the incorrect pitch.

Despite my strong request, I could not get anyone to want to re-issue the releases.Amir, maybe you could answer this question. Is the British edition of Elephant Man different than the French edition as far as pitch error is concerned, or are they the same release? The British edition is released by Momentum Pictures Home Entertainment, while the French is a Studio Canal disc. Thanks for your time.

Amir:

Could you confirm the inclusion of an english subtitle track on Studio Canal HD release of Ran? I'm very excited to see Kurosawo in HD but my Japanese is rusty. By the way, a Casablanca-level restoration and transfer of Ikiru would make me elated.

I feel the need to thank you again for the Insider Tour this past Wednesday. The presentation and enthusiasm shown by Kevin and yourself was truly impressive.

Thanks-
Colin

Unfortunately, DVD CCA (copy protection) rules traditionally disallowed streaming of DVD content. Last year the organization did approve our "WMDRM-ND" approved for the first time to stream DVD content. But we have not yet implemented it. For this reason, you can't access DVDs remotely.


Implementing this would be much much appreciated, especially as more of us shift over to Vista and want to use our 360's to stream all media. Esp. now that it's legal :)

Amir:

Could you confirm the inclusion of an english subtitle track on Studio Canal HD release of Ran?
My data shows it to be available in a number of EU markets including UK. As such, I expect to see English there.

I feel the need to thank you again for the Insider Tour this past Wednesday. The presentation and enthusiasm shown by Kevin and yourself was truly impressive.

Thanks-
Colin
My pleasure. You all were a great crew. I think you laughed more at my jokes than any other group! :)

[...] However, they tell me the next slate coming out in May should be good. I say "should" because I have only checked the high visibility titles.

[...]
LES 3 JOURS DU CONDOR (THE 3 DAYS OF THE CONDOR)
MULHOLLAND DRIVE
TERMINATOR 2 : JUDGEMENT DAY
[...]

thanks alot for this, that's very good news ... otherwise I'd have waited buying these titles :)

And the "Traffic" HD DVD by Studio Canal is based on a "real" HD-Master or do we have to fear to get the same highly detailed and sharp :D image as seen on the US Disc? ;)

Other than differences in storage capacity, would there be any differences in video, sound, loading, etc. between Blu-ray and HD DVD for gaming purposes?

Does bandwidth capacity play a role for video games?

It does, but DVD media holds enough data that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray aren't needed just yet. With compression levels getting higher, and things being processed so much quicker and more efficient, it just works out to keep using DVD this time around for cost benefits.

And with games able to run cutscenes in real-time using the in-game engine, they no longer need space for pre-rendered cutscene videos.

One example is Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. This fit on one DVD for the Xbox 360 version. If you've ever seen/played the game, that's quite the feat. The PS3 version that came out (Blu-Ray disc) actually had to have certain data duplicated multiple times across the disc because of the seek times and loading times of the PS3's Blu-Ray drive.

Forgive me if this has been asked before, but currently are HD DVDs being replicated on presses created just for HD DVD? I know that I've heard HD DVD could potentially utilize preexisting SD presses.

The reason I ask is because I'm wondering if production on a broader scale would become cheaper faster for HD DVD than BD through the use existing equipment?

One last question. Our HD DVD and BD disks for US and Canada pressed in the US? Could they be pressed in China even if they use a different encoding, or would US studios see that as giving piracy a leg up?

Other than differences in storage capacity, would there be any differences in video, sound, loading, etc. between Blu-ray and HD DVD for gaming purposes?

Does bandwidth capacity play a role for video games?
It is probably not a good idea to discuss gaming topics here :). But for a quick reply, I have been told our 360 DVD drive actually has higher throughput than the BD drive in PS3. One has to keep in mind that PS3 is spinning its BD drive probably at its minimum spec whereas we spin the DVD at many multiples of its minimum spec. As such, we are able to get more bandwidth out of it. Thanks go to PC market for driving high-performance DVD drives, versus immature state of blue-laser drives.

Forgive me if this has been asked before, but currently are HD DVDs being replicated on presses created just for HD DVD? I know that I've heard HD DVD could potentially utilize preexisting SD presses.
I don't believe there is such an animal. All equipment that can manufacture HD DVD, can also switch over (in a matter of minutes) to replicate SD DVDs. Not sure why someone would make and market equipment that would do otherwise.

The reason I ask is because I'm wondering if production on a broader scale would become cheaper faster for HD DVD than BD through the use existing equipment?
Yes for smaller replicators. For later ones, they buy new lines routinely and those are automatically capable of producing both.

One last question. Our HD DVD and BD disks for US and Canada pressed in the US? Could they be pressed in China even if they use a different encoding, or would US studios see that as giving piracy a leg up?
HD DVD yes. Memorytec handles much of Japan. EU replicators handle demand for them.

Sony's main plant for BD is in Shizuoka (Japan). They have been working on bringing their US plant on-line. I suspect they are able to produce BD-25s here. Not sure about BD-50 (rumor is that it is all assembled in Japan).

As to China, yes, any replicator can set up HD DVD shop if they wanted to in short order. Modifications of existing lines can be made but more importantly, ready equipment exists for HD DVD production including dual layer and combo discs.

While I here, one tidbit from NAB conference. We announced that our VC-1 encodes on latest HP hardware is now able to achieve near real-time encoding at 1.5X real-time. This is probably 10X faster than other software based AVC encoders for optical encoding.

With a bit more progress on the hardware side, we should be at real-time and soon after, even faster! This will let us have faster encodes with more time allowed for optimization.

Amir, I am asking this again for fear that it might have been skipped. But can the 360's HD-DVD drive firmware be updated over live as well, or is it limited to playback software?

I don't believe there is such an animal. All equipment that can manufacture HD DVD, can also switch over (in a matter of minutes) to replicate SD DVDs. Not sure why someone would make and market equipment that would do otherwise.


Yes for smaller replicators. For later ones, they buy new lines routinely and those are automatically capable of producing both.


HD DVD yes. Memorytec handles much of Japan. EU replicators handle demand for them.

Sony's main plant for BD is in Shizuoka (Japan). They have been working on bringing their US plant on-line. I suspect they are able to produce BD-25s here. Not sure about BD-50 (rumor is that it is all assembled in Japan).

As to China, yes, any replicator can set up HD DVD shop if they wanted to in short order. Modifications of existing lines can be made but more importantly, ready equipment exists for HD DVD production including dual layer and combo discs.

Thank you much :)

While I here, one tidbit from NAB conference. We announced that our VC-1 encodes on latest HP hardware is now able to achieve near real-time encoding at 1.5X real-time. This is probably 10X faster than other software based AVC encoders for optical encoding.

With a bit more progress on the hardware side, we should be at real-time and soon after, even faster! This will let us have faster encodes with more time allowed for optimization.
Thanks for you tidbit, sounds great!

May I ask: Have you made improvements on the time needed by compressionists to tweak the encoding to be perfect? How long to you expect that a compressionist needs in average for a movie with your latest VC-1 encoder? And how does that compare to SD encoding? Do you think that your encoder will at some day be so clever, that no manual corrections whatsoever are needed, anymore, for virtually any movie? Or in other words: Will compressionists lose their job at some time in the future?

Another question: Since you're approaching 1.0X real-time encoding: Is there a chance to see this very encoder being used for broadcasting? Or is 2 pass encoding generally not useable for broadcasting at all? Here's a crazy idea: Wouldn't it be possible to store the results of the first pass together with the master? So at broadcasting time the encoder would only have to do the 2nd pass.

Thanks!

While I here, one tidbit from NAB conference. We announced that our VC-1 encodes on latest HP hardware is now able to achieve near real-time encoding at 1.5X real-time. This is probably 10X faster than other software based AVC encoders for optical encoding.

With a bit more progress on the hardware side, we should be at real-time and soon after, even faster! This will let us have faster encodes with more time allowed for optimization.
What kind of hardware is required for 1.5X real-time encoding?

Hi Amir,

I don't know if you missed my question on the Children of Men 720p issue but I am gathering this affects more than just COM..Do you know what this issue is about? Youcan see the thread on it here...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=837430

paidgeek-

Any comment on Meatballs being pulled? Is it going to be a long delay?

Thanks,
Chris

Nothing to announce on this front specifically. However, I did learn about another alternative last weekend. We had our usual AVS Forum meet where we demo'ed HD DVD on a 1080p projector, in this case, a Sony Pearl. To our surprise, we saw no motion judder. It seems that the Pearl is able to take the 1080i, perform inverse telecine, and then display the image at the proper 24fps frame rate! For example, the pans in Batman Begins were smooth as silk, matching our VP-50 processor that we use in HD DVD demos.

So kudos to Sony for doing the proper processing in their projector. If more displays do this, the whole notion of 24p output can become moot and people even with current players, can watch judder free images. And that is the beauty of 1080i in a way in that it does not lock in judder like 1080p60 might.

Amir, sorry to bring this out again, but regarding the above, it seems that no projector can do what you are suggesting above, as you can read here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=838002

So, the 24hz output for the Xbox 360 is still needed to avoid the motion judder.

Will it be available in a future firmware update?

Amir, I am asking this again for fear that it might have been skipped. But can the 360's HD-DVD drive firmware be updated over live as well, or is it limited to playback software?

Yes, the drive firmware can be updated over Live.

HD DVD insiders,

Three weeks ago I started a poll (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=828337&page=1&pp=30) to gather information about the extent and severity of the problems with this title, and also the players more afflicted by them. It was an open poll to discourage partisan contamination.

Now over five hundred fellow forum members have responded. Thank you all. I'm putting the results up on this separate thread because otherwise the analysis would be lost in the previous thread. BTW if you still have your personal experiences to describe please post them on the other thread.

These are the results as of now:

First-gen player, no problems 107 21.31%
First-gen player, slight problems 50 9.96%
First-gen player, serious problems 32 6.37%
Second-gen player, no problems 55 10.96%
Second-gen player, slight problems 27 5.38%
Second-gen player, serious problems 71 14.14%
Xbox 360 add-on, no problems 81 16.14%
Xbox 360 add-on, slight problems 20 3.98%
Xbox 360 add-on, serious problems 59 11.75%

Voters: 502


Disaggregated by problem severity

48.4% had no problems
19.3% had slight problems
32.3% had serious problems

Less than half the voters have no problems with this title. Incidence of serious problems is nearly one third overall.

Disaggregated by player tipe

First-generation players: A total of 189 members responded.
56.6% had no problems
26.5% had slight problems
16.9% had serious problems

Second-generation players: A total of 153 members responded.
46.4% had serious problems
36.0% had no problems
17.6% had slight problems

Xbox 360 add-on: A total of 160 members responded.
50.6% had no problems
36.9% had serious problems
12.5% had slight problems

So it seems that the players that were best at playing Children of Men were the first-gen ones. Not only were they the likeliest to play without any problems, but also the incidence of serious problems was the lowest (they are the only player where serious problems were less frequent than slight ones).
On the other hand, the second-gen players have been the worst, both in flawless operation (just over a third!) and in problem severity incidence. This despite the fact that the problems were first reported and publicized (http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/news/show/552) with regard to the Xbox 360 add-on, which holds a second place.

In my opinion, Universal should recall this title and issue a replacement. In this connection, it might be mentioned that it is appears on amazon as "Currently Unavailable".

The question:

Can you discuss where the fault may lie and what remedial action is being taken?

Hi Amirm, any update on the lack of spanish subtitles on all Universal HD new releases? I just look at the back of the box for Eternal Sunshine due out tomorrow and it also lack subtitles on spanish, hope you can help me, thanx

Hi Amirm, any update on the lack of spanish subtitles on all Universal HD new releases? I just look at the back of the box for Eternal Sunshine due out tomorrow and it also lack subtitles on spanish, hope you can help me, thanx
In light of this question, I would also like to ask the following. Does Universal have plans to allow the downloading of subtitles for languages that are not included with the movie?

Hi Amirm,
Here 14 days before the spring dash update on the 360? Any specific release date for the DD update for the HD DVD drive? (I still await info, so I can call family for a HD show off.. :))

Thanks in advance for sharing all your great insider knowledge & tips.

Regards
Martin Lynge - Denmark

Hi Amir,
Can you please clarify something for me? I was under the impression that all HD DVDs had to at least have Dobly Digital plus. It seems that Planet Earth is only Dolby Digital?

I could be wrong but this is the first HD DVD i have seen with DD only.

thanks

Amir,

First, I would like to thank you and the rest of the insiders here for the accessibility to your wealth of knowledge on the AVS forums. It's a real treat to be able to come "straight to the source" for questions and answers to various topics.

I picked up a HD DVD player for my Xbox 360, based on the podcast you did with Major Nelson. It was extremely informative, and probably his best podcast produced so far. Like most, I'm eagerly anticipating the release of the HD DVD update, so I can finish watching my Discovery Atlas series.

I'm debating the purchase of the Xbox 360 Elite to replace my current Xbox 360 Premium system. I'm wondering, if the copy protection "bit" is ever turned on and used with HD DVD, would the Elite still allow for playback in 1080p over it's HDMI connection? I wonder this, because of the USB connection between the HD DVD drive and the 360. It's not a real deal breaker either way for me. My second question, you might not be able to answer since it doesn't pertain directly to HD DVD. But, I was wondering if there was any word on how to obtain a 360 hard drive transfer cable, since it doesn't come in the Elite's box and only if you purchase the 120gig HD separately? That is more of the deal breaker for me than my first question. I was just a little curious about both.

Again, thanks for any answers you might be able to provide and thanks for keeping us in the loop. I hope more corporations follow Microsoft's lead in the future, and provide outlets for talking directly to the consumer (ala Major Nelson and Amir). Also, keep in mind this Microsoft praise is coming from a former "Team OS/2" member from back in the day. So, you know I mean it.

:)

Any updates on the incompatability of the Fox Pathe titles with first gen Toshibas or the delayed BCI titles?

Hi Amir,
Can you please clarify something for me? I was under the impression that all HD DVDs had to at least have Dobly Digital plus. It seems that Planet Earth is only Dolby Digital?

I could be wrong but this is the first HD DVD i have seen with DD only.

thanks


I think the requirement is that all HD DVD players need to be able to decode DD+, but all titles do not have to use DD+.

Eric

Thanks Andy. Man, that's a relief knowing that, Firmware updates on optical drives seem to be one of my favorite types of updates with hardware alone as they have the least amount of problems, and the most benefits.

Are you trying to trick me to tell you the release date for the 360 update? :p

Yes, the are bug fixes in the udpate for such titles. Fortunately, the release will come out well before this title.

How about the Matrix trilogy, then? It's the HD DVD title everyone's waiting for, and DRC issues would really ruin the experience.

I'm very hopeful that your team will come through in time....

paidgeek,

Could you give us an update on BD-J and BD+?

Thanks.

We are having a positive dialog with the CE companies about improving levels of Java performance on BD players. In the case of Pioneer, they have made big improvements through firmware updates and we hope other companies will do the same. SPE has many titles scheduled to use BD-J later this year, so we are committed to getting the features we want with it.

BD+ made some big strides forward on the business side over the last few weeks. There are still some technical hurdles to clear, but I trust the people involved to be able to get the job done. We have a test title in development and we'll know more once it is complete.

paidgeek-

Any comment on Meatballs being pulled? Is it going to be a long delay?

Thanks,
Chris

Chris,

SPE went to a lot of trouble to re-transfer this title, but the results are still not what we want. We will probably be hold it back until we have a chance to try a few more techniques to get the most out of this classic title.

Paid,

Is it true that The Da Vinci code has been postponed to 2008?

Chris,

SPE went to a lot of trouble to re-transfer this title, but the results are still not what we want. We will probably be hold it back until we have a chance to try a few more techniques to get the most out of this classic title.

Thanks for the reply. I'm glad to see Sony is trying to get the most out of the title. I hope we can get some other Bill Murray movies out instead. :)

Cheers,
Chris

For Amir

An odd question, on the 360 Elite can you still use the Xbox VGA cables for Video and Audio output or are you stuck with HDMI for video output? I may want to pick one up but do not need the HDMI connection, I have no more HDMI inputs available, and would prefer to stick with VGA output on my 360

Thanks for you tidbit, sounds great!

May I ask: Have you made improvements on the time needed by compressionists to tweak the encoding to be perfect? How long to you expect that a compressionist needs in average for a movie with your latest VC-1 encoder? And how does that compare to SD encoding?
Wow, a lot of questions :). Ben would probably be in a better position to answer how long they are taking to encode movies. I have not had clsoe touch with the post houses in this area lately. I can say that our encode is about 3X faster now than it was a year ago. That is a big difference in how long it takes to encode the movie in the initial two passes. And the time it takes to touch up things in the third pass.

Do you think that your encoder will at some day be so clever, that no manual corrections whatsoever are needed, anymore, for virtually any movie? Or in other words: Will compressionists lose their job at some time in the future?
I don't think that day will come. Automatic transmission did not cause people to drive with their eyes closed :). Niether did ABS, traction contro, etc. Having said this, it bugs the hell out of us when the compressionist has to fix something that to a naked eye, clearly is distorted. So we always go back to the drawing board, to see if we can make the 2-pass auto-encode smarter. If my memory is right, we have had three major innovations in this area in the last year or so. In other words, we have had three major improvements in the intelligence of our analysis phase.

What the above improvements do is to make it harder for the compressionist to miss something as there are fewer areas for them to fix. But I am not sure the time will ever come where we do everything perfectly.

Another question: Since you're approaching 1.0X real-time encoding: Is there a chance to see this very encoder being used for broadcasting? Or is 2 pass encoding generally not useable for broadcasting at all? Here's a crazy idea: Wouldn't it be possible to store the results of the first pass together with the master? So at broadcasting time the encoder would only have to do the 2nd pass.

Thanks!
Are you asking about movie content and not live transmission of sports and such? If so, yes, you could do this but it would upset the fixed bandwidth requirements of these systems. a 2-pass encoder by definition uses variable bit rate with large peaks that would cause "buffer underruns" in the receiver.

Amir, sorry to bring this out again, but regarding the above, it seems that no projector can do what you are suggesting above, as you can read here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=838002

So, the 24hz output for the Xbox 360 is still needed to avoid the motion judder.

Will it be available in a future firmware update?
I read that thread but I see no proof one way the other. All I can say is that we see smother motion out of Pearl on pans than other projectors that input 60i. As to fix, let's push the display guys to fix this more as if they do this right, you get effective 24p for all of your sources including broadcast, not just HD DVD.

But yes, I am always hounding the Xbox guys about such things. :) There are some tricky things about changing system timing to accomodate it. So I can't quite tell you if it will or will not be there in the future.

Can you discuss where the fault may lie and what remedial action is being taken?
I really can't. This is an issue to be handled and investigated between Uni, their replicator and drive makers. I don't want to speculate and provide incorrect answers. Yes, we do push them on resolving this problem but ultimately, it is not something that we play a role in directly. My suggestion again is to contact Uni and replace your disc with a working one.

Hi Amirm, any update on the lack of spanish subtitles on all Universal HD new releases? I just look at the back of the box for Eternal Sunshine due out tomorrow and it also lack subtitles on spanish, hope you can help me, thanx
Well, I confirmed that they did indeed remove them. Why they made the decision, I don't yet know. If I learn more, and can report it, I will do so.

Hi Amirm,
Here 14 days before the spring dash update on the 360? Any specific release date for the DD update for the HD DVD drive? (I still await info, so I can call family for a HD show off.. :))

Thanks in advance for sharing all your great insider knowledge & tips.

Regards
Martin Lynge - Denmark
Nothing specific other than a cryptic message that we are past one of our major milestones for a release like this! :p This step is usually the most important one before we glide to releasing bits...

Hi Amir,
Can you please clarify something for me? I was under the impression that all HD DVDs had to at least have Dobly Digital plus. It seems that Planet Earth is only Dolby Digital?

I could be wrong but this is the first HD DVD i have seen with DD only.

thanks
The player must have a lot of features like multiple a/v codecs. The content owners get to enjoy picking whatever they need, including the good old DD.

I believe the Microsoft DirecTV collaboration agreement was announced more than a year ago at CES2006, but AFAIK no actual satellite support yet exists on Media Center PCs from DirecTV or any other satellite provider. What is the current status of Media Center PC support by satellite TV providers? Is it still a MS priority? I am VERY disappointed with my current Cable provider and want to switch to satellite, Vista Media Center, and XBOX 360 Elite extenders.

It is a large scale collaboration agreement which includes among other things support of their service on Media Center PCs.

Chris,

SPE went to a lot of trouble to re-transfer this title, but the results are still not what we want. We will probably be hold it back until we have a chance to try a few more techniques to get the most out of this classic title.

Bravo! I think it's a great measure to hold titles until they can be presented properly and beautifully.


Paidgeek,

with the announcement of Patriot: Extended Cut only on BD. Is there any word on the poll results?

I thinks it's a major bummer to fans of the movie. From what I have heard (and from personal opinion as well) the theatrical cut is the one held most dear.

Amir,

Looks like Disney is starting to use VC-1 on some recent films. Can you comment on the recent Deja Vu encode?

Professional reviewers are saying:

This high bitrate VC-1 encoding takes the codec to heights previously unseen by my eyes. This is very possibly the best VC-1 presentation that’s been released to date on either format.

and

In fact the bitrate on this disc peaks higher than HD DVD spec even provides for.

and

the end result really jumps out in high def.

I can't wait to get my copy and check it out (tomorrow). Will we see more VC-1 encodes coming to Blu-ray?

Also I was hoping you would comment on the fact that professionals think VC-1 is best shown off at ultra-high bitrates on Blu-ray disc, at levels beyond the HD-DVD spec.

Amir,

Looks like Disney is starting to use VC-1 on some recent films.
Actually, they never stopped!
Can you comment on the recent Deja Vu encode?
Not a whole lot to say here really. The encode was done by one of the major post houses which can choose from different codecs and VC-1 was used here because it performed quite well.

Professional reviewers are saying:
Not sure how to translate such feedback: http://www.hometheaterspot.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/136887/

"While, AVC might still have an edge, it’s hard to judge when comparing films as much as codecs. In fact this one had me fooled the whole way thru. I assumed I was watching AVC (Buena Vista’s norm) and never saw anything that made me suspicious of anything else. Grain isn’t excessive in the visual design outside of some flashbacks and dark sequences. But it always looked well maintained. It was something of a surprise when I later popped the disc into the PS3 to find that it was encoded using VC-1. "

So Chad thinks AVC is better. And thought he was watching AVC 'till he found out he wasn't. But that was not enough to make him think VC-1 is as good or better than AVC given such high praise in his own words? Sometimes you can't win no matter what it seems! :(


I can't wait to get my copy and check it out (tomorrow). Will we see more VC-1 encodes coming to Blu-ray?
From some studios, yes. from others, folks have to pass into the other world before you do :p.

Also I was hoping you would comment on the fact that professionals think VC-1 is best shown off at ultra-high bitrates on Blu-ray disc, at levels beyond the HD-DVD spec.
While I have a lot of respect for reviewers who have the difficult job evaluating such content, I do not put much weight on codec statements like these as they seem non-scientific and ad-hoc. For example, Chad often claims one codec or the other could have looked better (per above) yet he is never in a position to have seen the alternative encodes. Nor has he seen any of the masters which he claims to have been softened by "low bitrate" encodes. I would love one day to put him in a double-blind test to see if he can tell the difference between HD DVD VC-1 encode and that of “high rate” BD encode. If I were him, I would not take me up on the offer :p.

For Amir

An odd question, on the 360 Elite can you still use the Xbox VGA cables for Video and Audio output or are you stuck with HDMI for video output? I may want to pick one up but do not need the HDMI connection, I have no more HDMI inputs available, and would prefer to stick with VGA output on my 360
Yes, you have the option of using either. You just can't use them at the same time.

How about the Matrix trilogy, then? It's the HD DVD title everyone's waiting for, and DRC issues would really ruin the experience.

I'm very hopeful that your team will come through in time....
Your experience won't be ruined :). Now if you hold me to this statement, I will shoot you! :D

Wow, a lot of questions :).
Yes, and thanks for your answers - much appreciated! :)

Amir, reposting this question because I think it got missed. Hopefully you might be able to answer it. Is the British edition of Elephant Man different than the French edition as far as pitch error is concerned, or are they the same release? The British edition is released by Momentum Pictures Home Entertainment, while the French is a Studio Canal disc. Thanks for your time.

Chris,

SPE went to a lot of trouble to re-transfer this title, but the results are still not what we want. We will probably be hold it back until we have a chance to try a few more techniques to get the most out of this classic title.

paid,

Low-budget comedy films from the seventies are what they are. Just have a look at Universal's National Lampoon's Animal House HD DVD.

Is Sony trying to establish a standard regarding grain size, contrast and sharpness as a requirement for hidef release?

SPE went to a lot of trouble to re-transfer this title, but the results are still not what we want. We will probably be hold it back until we have a chance to try a few more techniques to get the most out of this classic title.

Thumbs up to Sony for doing stuff like this.

On that note... Paid have you seen how Cruel Intentions looks?

Not sure how to translate such feedback: http://www.hometheaterspot.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/136887/

"While, AVC might still have an edge, it’s hard to judge when comparing films as much as codecs. In fact this one had me fooled the whole way thru. I assumed I was watching AVC (Buena Vista’s norm) and never saw anything that made me suspicious of anything else. Grain isn’t excessive in the visual design outside of some flashbacks and dark sequences. But it always looked well maintained. It was something of a surprise when I later popped the disc into the PS3 to find that it was encoded using VC-1. "

So Chad thinks AVC is better. And thought he was watching AVC 'till he found out he wasn't. But that was not enough to make him think VC-1 is as good or better than AVC given such high praise in his own words? Sometimes you can't win no matter what it seems! :(



From some studios, yes. from others, folks have to pass into the other world before you do :p.


While I have a lot of respect for reviewers who have the difficult job evaluating such content, I do not put much weight on codec statements like these as they seem non-scientific and ad-hoc. For example, Chad often claims one codec or the other could have looked better (per above) yet he is never in a position to have seen the alternative encodes. Nor has he seen any of the masters which he claims to have been softened by "low bitrate" encodes. I would love one day to put him in a double-blind test to see if he can tell the difference between HD DVD VC-1 encode and that of “high rate” BD encode. If I were him, I would not take me up on the offer :p.

Amir,

Do you know what the average bit-rate of this encode was? AFAIK, Disney uses high bit rate VC-1, above the HD DVD spec. Is it possible he was not able to see the difference between AVC and VC-1 because of the higher bit rate used?

Your experience won't be ruined :). Now if you hold me to this statement, I will shoot you! :D

I think everyone will hold you to this statement :p. However, please don't let us down this time!! We've heard numerous promises from November until now, which I think has challenged your credibility on this topic! It's been a long time coming, and everyone's patience is wearing thin. I hope you guys are on track to releasing this patch before the Matrix Trilogy on HD DVD hits the streets!

Any additional info you can provide is appreciated (even if it's a cryptic message).

Amir, reposting this question because I think it got missed. Hopefully you might be able to answer it. Is the British edition of Elephant Man different than the French edition as far as pitch error is concerned, or are they the same release? The British edition is released by Momentum Pictures Home Entertainment, while the French is a Studio Canal disc. Thanks for your time.
Let me see if I can find out.

Amir,

Why does the Elite not include any method for transferring saves from your old hard drive to the new one? Yet if you buy the standalone 120GB, it does include the cable for transferring saves.

This is incredibly stupid on Microsoft's part.

Amir,

Is the 72op Childern of men question something that you are not able to reply on? Jsut wondering as I am really curious about this issue....but I understand if it is not your domain so to speak....

Amir,

Is the 72op Childern of men question something that you are not able to reply on? Jsut wondering as I am really curious about this issue....but I understand if it is not your domain so to speak....
No, I couldn't make any sense out of it :). So ran it by someone on my team and they couldnt' figure out what was being talked about either. The disc doesn't care how the picture is output on a player. The first gen products were not so good at 720p output. The updated firmware helped a lot but still, the scalar in first gen is not in the same class as second gen.

If someone has a hypothesis that we could chase, I will do that. But given the info that thread, I am not sure there is any more explanation to be offered. Folks should just use 1080i output for that machine and have it be that.

Amir,

Why does the Elite not include any method for transferring saves from your old hard drive to the new one? Yet if you buy the standalone 120GB, it does include the cable for transferring saves.

This is incredibly stupid on Microsoft's part.
I am not clear on your question. What old drive? You mean transfer from one machine to another? And if so, are you OK with the old data being erased like it is when you migrate from smaller hard disk to larger one when you buy the drive?

I am not clear on your question. What old drive? You mean transfer from one machine to another? And if so, are you OK with the old data being erased like it is when you migrate from smaller hard disk to larger one when you buy the drive?

For those of use who already have a 360 with the 20GB harddrive and are thinking about moving upto the Elite, we have no way to transfer the files from the old HD to the new one. However, if you buy the driver separately, you get a transfer cable to do just this. This cable is not included in the elite. So basically, how does one upgrade to the elite while preserving their data without having to buy even more accessories?

For those of use who already have a 360 with the 20GB harddrive and are thinking about moving upto the Elite, we have no way to transfer the files from the old HD to the new one. However, if you buy the driver separately, you get a transfer cable to do just this. This cable is not included in the elite. So basically, how does one upgrade to the elite while preserving their data without having to buy even more accessories?
Please note that I don't know much about general Xbox business. But it seems to me, per my other question, this scenario is hard to execute on if you want to maintain everything on the old machine. As otherwise, you would own two copies of what you purchased, etc. In case of drive upgrade, we erase the old drive so this is not an issue. You have a single machine in this case. In case of two machines, I assume you don't want to lose the hard disk from it.

So can you clarify that in your upgrade scenario, you expect the old drive to keep working with all of its data intact and if so, how you deal with the business issue above? With that info, I can talk to Xbox folks to understand their policy/stance better.

No, I couldn't make any sense out of it :). So ran it by someone on my team and they couldnt' figure out what was being talked about either. The disc doesn't care how the picture is output on a player. The first gen products were not so good at 720p output. The updated firmware helped a lot but still, the scalar in first gen is not in the same class as second gen.

If someone has a hypothesis that we could chase, I will do that. But given the info that thread, I am not sure there is any more explanation to be offered. Folks should just use 1080i output for that machine and have it be that.

Hmm-thanks Amir--I will say this though-720p has been flawless for me until COM--and the issue is not a subtle case of his title doesn't luck as good as others but rather a night and day differencee---but thanks for making the attempt....

Amir;

Please forgive a slightly oblique question RE: the VC-1 encode
of the BD of "DEJA VU."

The oblique part; was the same master / encode used to derive the STANDARD DEF DVD. . . .

I have the STANDARD def dvd and the special features they say are "seamless branching" appear to have been accomplished by
encoding TWO TOTALY SEPARATE versions of the entire film -- one WITH the extras actually edited in [ to wit; not seamless branching ] and one without the extras.

Could this be a BR mastering "work around" their PIP issues that was also ported to the standard def dvd?

Further, if that was in fact the case how is a VC-1 encode transcoded to MPEG-2 . . . . and is that a good thing?

Please note that I don't know much about general Xbox business. But it seems to me, per my other question, this scenario is hard to execute on if you want to maintain everything on the old machine. As otherwise, you would own two copies of what you purchased, etc. In case of drive upgrade, we erase the old drive so this is not an issue. You have a single machine in this case. In case of two machines, I assume you don't want to lose the hard disk from it.

So can you clarify that in your upgrade scenario, you expect the old drive to keep working with all of its data intact and if so, how you deal with the business issue above? With that info, I can talk to Xbox folks to understand their policy/stance better.

I am someone who "upgraded" from a 360 with a 20 gig hard drive to an Elite (pre-ordered). I would not expect the old drive to keep any data which was paid for if it was transferred to the new drive. I will say, however, if MS is concerned with this issue then it could easily be fixed by something in the transfer software.

Perhaps MS can send a transfer cable to anyone who buys an elite and software which deletes anything on the original drive which is transferred.

While I can appreciate MS doesnt want content which is normally paid for to be transferred from drive to drive for free, I am sure MS can appreciate I would like to be able to use the content I paid for.

I would either suggest the above, OR suggest MS gives a refund in the form of points equaling the value of everything I bought so I can download it again.

Either way I feel I should get what I paid for, and not have to re-buy content simply becuase I bought anothr console.

Please note that I don't know much about general Xbox business. But it seems to me, per my other question, this scenario is hard to execute on if you want to maintain everything on the old machine. As otherwise, you would own two copies of what you purchased, etc. In case of drive upgrade, we erase the old drive so this is not an issue. You have a single machine in this case. In case of two machines, I assume you don't want to lose the hard disk from it.

So can you clarify that in your upgrade scenario, you expect the old drive to keep working with all of its data intact and if so, how you deal with the business issue above? With that info, I can talk to Xbox folks to understand their policy/stance better.

Easy scenario:
I have a Xbox Premium right now

Planning to upgrade to the Elite and then selling my premium to a friend (this is a common scenario for a LOT of the people interested in the Elite)

Once I have the Elite in my hands, use the transfer cable to copy my game data/music/etc. from the old 20GB to the new 120GB drive. In theory, I'd complete the data transfer and then sell the old Premium system

*If I don't buy the Elite but buy the 120GB drive separately, it comes with a transfer cable to accomplish the above scenario. However if I buy the Elite to replace my current one, I have no way of transferring the data.

The question to ask the Xbox team would be, "how does and existing owner who is looking to upgrade to the Elite get their data transferred over from the current sku to the Elite?"


Thanks,
Robert.

Nothing specific other than a cryptic message that we are past one of our major milestones for a release like this! :p This step is usually the most important one before we glide to releasing bits...

Firstly Amir thankyou for your very valuable input, im from the UK were there are a lot of of unhappy xbox 360 hdvd addon owners. Why so cryptic, surely Microsoft must see that this matter is affecting sales of the unit. I for one am truly fed up with the situation and I am seriously contemplating returning the unit for a refund.

Any clear information would be much appreciated :)

Firstly Amir thankyou for your very valuable input, im from the UK were there are a lot of of unhappy xbox 360 hdvd addon owners. Why so cryptic, surely Microsoft must see that this matter is affecting sales of the unit. I for one am truly fed up with the situation and I am seriously contemplating returning the unit for a refund.

Any clear information would be much appreciated :)
I provided a much more hint relative to Matrix release.

I am being cryptic because specific dates get a lot of attention and require a level of certaintity which may not be there. Nor do I want to get ten sign offs on the exact date :).

I can say that our troops are working around the clock to get this release out shortly. There simply is not a higher priority task for them than to get this done. And for me to not have to shoulder the pain here :).

Hey Amir or anyone else, since no one answered I'll ask again:

Any updates on the incompatability of the Fox Pathe titles with first gen Toshibas or the delayed BCI titles?

Please note that I don't know much about general Xbox business. But it seems to me, per my other question, this scenario is hard to execute on if you want to maintain everything on the old machine. As otherwise, you would own two copies of what you purchased, etc. In case of drive upgrade, we erase the old drive so this is not an issue. You have a single machine in this case. In case of two machines, I assume you don't want to lose the hard disk from it.

So can you clarify that in your upgrade scenario, you expect the old drive to keep working with all of its data intact and if so, how you deal with the business issue above? With that info, I can talk to Xbox folks to understand their policy/stance better.

Amir,

I'm in the same boat. I currently have a Xbox 360 Premium and I'd like to upgrade to the Elite for the HDMI and the larger hard drive. I'll probably sell my old Xbox 360 or use it as a Media Center Extender, so I don't mind if the drive is wiped clean (I prefer it in fact). I want to transfer all of my content (including my saves) that I've already bought and paid for, to my new machine. Using a memory card simply won't cut it, as I have a lot of large saves.

I can't understand why they didn't include the transfer cable with the new system. It almost seems like they've ignored those of us who already purchased a 360 and who want to replace our old machine with an Elite.

Can we purchase the cable itself from Microsoft, seperately? I don't mind paying for it. I'd be fine if we had some way of making it work.

Thanks Amir!

Your experience won't be ruined :). Now if you hold me to this statement, I will shoot you! :D
Thanks for the estimate!

Amir

Does the May 7th update include the new DTS & WMAPro outputs or is that part of the 'night mode' update?

Originally Posted by ZaZeeMan
The only downer is that you can't play any content on the new console when you are offline (you have to be signed in to Live) since your stuff is linked to the orginal console it was downloaded from. (Lots of complaints on the Xbox.com forums about this issue)

Content is generally tied to your profile, not to a machine. I use my profile on multiple 360's and get ownership of the same content anywhere I use my profile. The caveat is that a profile can only be on 1 device at a time hence why many use a memory card to hold the profile.

You can download the same content to multiple systems with no problem I know but I haven't used account management to re-download so if it's a machine tie-in there then perhaps that's where the bug is.

Perhaps you can clarify from the Xbox Team Amir?

Amir or Ben,

I mentioned earlier in this thread that the 360 does not play DVR-MS files off a disc (post #3520). Ben mentioned that he didn't realize that it didn't and that he'll check (#3525).

I was wondering if anything has come of this, and if DVR-MS playback from a disc will be supported on the 360.

OK I know that the Spring update will bring DTS 1.5 right. My question to anyone who knows the answer is if a special decoder on the receiver is needed or if the regular DTS decoder will decode this signal.

Thanks

Regular DTS decoder will work.

Regular DTS decoder will work.


Thanks

Content is generally tied to your profile, not to a machine. I use my profile on multiple 360's and get ownership of the same content anywhere I use my profile. The caveat is that a profile can only be on 1 device at a time hence why many use a memory card to hold the profile.

You can download the same content to multiple systems with no problem I know but I haven't used account management to re-download so if it's a machine tie-in there then perhaps that's where the bug is.

Perhaps you can clarify from the Xbox Team Amir?

But the machine you first downloaded your content to is the only machine where anyone can view or play that content, without having an XBL account or being logged into XBL. For the other machines you need an XBL account and also be logged into XBL to be able to play or view those downloads.

But the machine you first downloaded your content to is the only machine where anyone can view or play that content, without having an XBL account or being logged into XBL. For the other machines you need an XBL account and also be logged into XBL to be able to play or view those downloads.

My machines usually have a live account so it makes sense, but now that you mention I think I have run into that.

Thx.

But the machine you first downloaded your content to is the only machine where anyone can view or play that content, without having an XBL account or being logged into XBL. For the other machines you need an XBL account and also be logged into XBL to be able to play or view those downloads.

It sounds like the transfer cable won't resolve this issue either. It only facilitates the data t-fer so I don't need to re-download.

Is this accurate?

Will my Arcade games truly be worthless without a Live account after I upgrade?

But the machine you first downloaded your content to is the only machine where anyone can view or play that content, without having an XBL account or being logged into XBL. For the other machines you need an XBL account and also be logged into XBL to be able to play or view those downloads.

Amir,

I know this isn't HD related per say, but if you could push it to the Xbox Team, that'd be grand. This is a concern especially for those that have had to deal with the 3-Red-Lights-of-Death. A friend of mine had this exact issue, and recently moved so had no internet access for a month. During that time, he was unable to play any games or access content he had previously purchased. I realize it's just some games, but considering that good money was spent on it, it was frustrating to him that he didn't have access to what he had already paid for.

sry if this was way off topic.

paid,

Low-budget comedy films from the seventies are what they are. Just have a look at Universal's National Lampoon's Animal House HD DVD.

Is Sony trying to establish a standard regarding grain size, contrast and sharpness as a requirement for hidef release?

We do not have a defined objective standard for what qualifies as a good HD release. The decisions are subjective and are based on the age, sharpness, color, consistency, grain, film condition (dirt/scratches/weave) and so on. It has already been observed that releasing popular titles that have master issues leads to much speculation about why the studio would release the title and what might have contributed to its look. Given that the format is still young and expectations from consumers is high, we do not want to disappoint. If you are waiting on a classic title that is known to have film quality issues, you may have to wait just a bit longer.

Thumbs up to Sony for doing stuff like this.

On that note... Paid have you seen how Cruel Intentions looks?

Cruel Intentions looks good to very good. I can recommend it without hesitation.

Hi Paid,

I'm sure you hate answering these 'When is 'X' coming to Blu-ray?' questions, but 'Dark Crystal' is one of my favorite all-time movies, and I was quick to upgrade when it came out in the SuperBit format. Any news on this title for Blu-ray?

Amir,

How long do you think it will be before the new reference design for the 360 works it's way into the regular Core and Premium versions? Basically when will the core and premium get the HDMI port?

I'm not too interested right now in buying a whole new system (ala the elite), but I would consider purchasing a Core with HDMI to replace my current system. (Also since everything I own is white, it's nice to have everything matching)

Has it been suggested that we create a special "Amir answers 360 questions" thread? I certainly understand 360 owners wanting to get answers straight from the best industry source at AVS, but at times this thread seems to become a defacto X-Box 360-Q/A thread... page after page... post after post. Just offering this up as a thought for the admins.

Has it been suggested that we create a special "Amir answers 360 questions" thread? I certainly understand 360 owners wanting to get answers straight from the best industry source at AVS, but at times this thread seems to become a defacto X-Box 360-Q/A thread... page after page... post after post. Just offering this up as a thought for the admins.

I've pretty much avoided this thread because of this. Not that 360 questions are improper, but they have overwhelmed most of the discussion. I wouldn't mind this being split off myself.

Has it been suggested that we create a special "Amir answers 360 questions" thread? I certainly understand 360 owners wanting to get answers straight from the best industry source at AVS, but at times this thread seems to become a defacto X-Box 360-Q/A thread... page after page... post after post. Just offering this up as a thought for the admins.

How about we call it "Amir answers 360 questions.... daily". It would fit both the topic and the quanitity of questions he has to answer each day.

Amir,
Apologies if this has been asked before but could you please confirm that as well as the 'night' mode issue with the HD-DVD audio you are also aware of (and hopefully fixing) issues with audio being out of sync, particularly with Dolby TrueHD soundtracks?

Thanks
Andy

This is a question for Paidgeek

How can we expect Closer to look?

I didn't really care for the movie, but if the PQ made it worthwhile, I might be interested.

Based on the really excellent PQ on recent Sony releases, such as Identity, I seem to be pre-ordering a lot of upcoming Sony releases that I might not otherwise be interested in just based on the expectation of similar outstanding PQ.

Thanks for the care in selecting titles for high def that make it worthwhile.

Amir,
Apologies if this has been asked before but could you please confirm that as well as the 'night' mode issue with the HD-DVD audio you are also aware of (and hopefully fixing) issues with audio being out of sync, particularly with Dolby TrueHD soundtracks?

Thanks
Andy
Yes, we have a fixed a number of sync issues there.

Amir,

I realized after posting that my last question might have been a little awkward for you to answer, as an answer from you could be seen as Microsoft condoning piracy. Of course it's nothing of the sort, but the RIAA might not be able to make a distinction :D

Let me reformulate it:
Is there any way someone without professional/expensive authoring tools could make an audio only HDDVD, without menus or navigation, with a single stream of 6 channel 24/48 PCM sound divided in chapters (tracks)? If it IS possible, how can it be done?

And the other question, this one easier, do you have any idea of when HDDVD might be officially launching in Brazil and/or Latin America?

Thanks!!

Why did the mods again seem to delete my thread: Consolidated AVS Insider Member List without even a PM? Please pm me.

Amir and Ben,

please allow me to draw your kind attention to the following thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=840193

I would like to ask you for any comment about the severe posterization in recent high-profile VC-1 releases and your strategies in order to avoid this in the future.

Thank you very much.

This is a question for Paidgeek

How can we expect Closer to look?

I didn't really care for the movie, but if the PQ made it worthwhile, I might be interested.

Based on the really excellent PQ on recent Sony releases, such as Identity, I seem to be pre-ordering a lot of upcoming Sony releases that I might not otherwise be interested in just based on the expectation of similar outstanding PQ.

Thanks for the care in selecting titles for high def that make it worthwhile.

Thanks for the positive comments...

From my notes, "Closer" looks good, but the overall look is towards soft. The transfer is well done, but this seems to be the intended look of the film as it is consistent throughout.

My observation is that when a films has characteristics of grain, focus, color and so on that are consistent throughout the title, then it is a creative choice. When these parameters are constantly changing, even within a scene, then I think other factors are involved.

Hi Paid,

I'm sure you hate answering these 'When is 'X' coming to Blu-ray?' questions, but 'Dark Crystal' is one of my favorite all-time movies, and I was quick to upgrade when it came out in the SuperBit format. Any news on this title for Blu-ray?

This title is being discussed for release. It has been newly transferred and apart from some expected special effects shortcomings (typical for the day and genre), the results are very good. You won't be disappointed...

For Amir or Paidgeek

Does anyone have any further info on Bladrunner or A clockwork Orange on either HD-DVD or BLU-RAY?

I own both formats so which ever of these are relased on first gets my money.

Last I heard Bladerunner was going to be released sometime after the re release in the theater but that date was suppose to be in the summer and I've not heard anything else on it. The relase was suppose to contain the FINAL CUT along with the two other versions on the same sku.

On A Clockwork Orange the only thing I heard was a December release in France

Anymore insight into these two great movies?

Paidgeek,

I asked you this a few pages back (post 4122). Can you offer some comment on this?


Bravo! I think it's a great measure to hold titles until they can be presented properly and beautifully.

Paidgeek,

with the announcement of Patriot: Extended Cut only on BD. Is there any word on the poll results?

I thinks it's a major bummer to fans of the movie. From what I have heard (and from personal opinion as well) the theatrical cut is the one held most dear.

Sorry for the bump, but you answered every subsequent question

Amir,

When the DNR fix is ready to come out for the 360, how will it happen? Will you be able to post a final date in advance? Or will it just get pushed out without announcement?

I am leaving the country on the 15th for the summer and I'm hoping I can watch some of my unopened movies with the fix before that. So I just wanted to know if I should look for your announcement, or just keep booting my 360 to see if a patch downloads.

I would like to ask you for any comment about the severe posterization in recent high-profile VC-1 releases and your strategies in order to avoid this in the future.

Amir,

I'm curious about this too. I noticed some color-banding a few blue-sky shots in Happy Feet (VC1 on HD DVD and BD) and was wondering if this would have been avoidable with a higher bit-rate and merely reflects an oversight on the part of the compressionist, or are we seeing a limitation of the color-depth of HD DVD and Blu-ray? I doubt that the banding is a VC1 peculiarity (MPEG2 shows it all the time) so I won't even ask that question.

Amir and Ben,

please allow me to draw your kind attention to the following thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=840193

I would like to ask you for any comment about the severe posterization in recent high-profile VC-1 releases and your strategies in order to avoid this in the future.

Thank you very much.
You have to help me out here. Your post here is open minded and very polite. And even part of what you post in that thread follows the same. But the heading and rest of commentary doesn't fit this mold :). So I am sensing pretty strong bias to beat up VC-1 in the guise of looking neutral. Regardless, some of the answers are in front of you but being ignored it seems.

First, let's look the part of the post I agree with:

"- it is already present in the source/master

- "flawed" 4:4:4 10/12bit -> 4:2:0 8bit conversion

- unsufficient hand-tuning by the compressionist for problematic sequences. eg. proper dithering can help to hide any obvious banding/posterization artifacts"

These are all causes of banding. But the biggest one is the display itself. It is very challenging for displays to fully resolve fine graduations.

Given all of these factors, can you tell me what process you went through to eliminate the other possibilities? I mean banding is easily visible in the AVC encode (just look at the outer region). Why not note it there and propose that it could be in the source? You go right to VC-1 encode as being the cause, without even trying to think through the other causes.

Then there is the issue of loop filter in AVC. That puppy is in full force here, reducing picture resolution. The AVC image readily looks softer. That helps a ton with source banding as it filters them out. But this is not a “good thing” in anyone’s book as the same filtering screws up the image elsewhere. You can see how the starburst for example is shorter in AVC version with the end of the lines blurring into the background well before the VC-1 version does.

To add insult to injury, the AVC version also has blocking artifacts (look at four o’clock region on the right). How could you say that the AVC version shows what could be right with all of these compromises? Yes, at first blush it is a more pleasing image but it certainly is not faithful to the source.

I am also troubled that you are trying to position this title in a different light than it deserves. This is an incredible package with some of the most mind blowing HD images ever seen in anyone’s home. And it clearly blows away the broadcast version in resolution and overall fidelity: http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/planetearth.html

“Having seen portions of 'Planet Earth' during its television premiere here in the U.S. on the DiscoveryHD Channel, I already knew it boasted some fantastic shot-on-HD video, but like most broadcast HD material, the DiscoveryHD presentation was constrained by heavy compression, which results in tons of artifacts, reduced resolution, and macroblocking.
This HD DVD release of 'Planet Earth' shares an identical 1080p/VC-1 encode with the Blu-ray, and, simply put, this disc delivers the kind of breathless demo material that early adopters have been craving. Far superior to the broadcast version, both next-gen editions boast wonderfully stable video, no obvious compression noise, and certainly no pixel break-up.”

As I noted above, everything observed here for US MPEG-2 version of the broadcast, is also present in the AVC version posted, although the severity is lower I am sure.

Given the weak ground one is standing on in accusing VC-1, comments like this seem out of place:

"I hope it's not a "flaw" of VC1. I can buy "sleeping" at the wheel. But Microsoft keep telling us they have THE BEST tweak for VC1. If this is the BEST they can get, I wonder what if someone is in a coma at the wheel! "

Sleep at the wheel? If creating this kind of breathtaking material means one is in coma, then let's hope all the post houses suffer the same fate :D.

Yes, it would be nice if we had perfect sources. Would be even better if we had a 10-bit delivery system so that we didn’t have to quantize the source before using it. And would be even more ideal if we had displays that could actually show fine gradations like this. But we don’t.

If you search back comments form cjplay on this front, you see the quandary there. One can indeed try to dither away such artifacts from the source but too much dithering can also interfere with full fidelity of the image. Nothing is free I am afraid. Selective dithering in a few frames could get around this but per my earlier posts, you are not paying studios enough to make hundreds of thousands of hand tuned frames. :)

Don't get me wrong. Compression artifacts can manifes themselves as artifacts too. But that scene is very simple and would be dead simple to optimize. So to go there as the first cause, is what I don't agree with.

Amir,

When the DNR fix is ready to come out for the 360, how will it happen? Will you be able to post a final date in advance? Or will it just get pushed out without announcement?

I am leaving the country on the 15th for the summer and I'm hoping I can watch some of my unopened movies with the fix before that. So I just wanted to know if I should look for your announcement, or just keep booting my 360 to see if a patch downloads.
I hope to be able to give a head up in advance of the release but can't gurarantee it given my travel schedule as of late (typing this in Toronto).

Amir;

Please forgive a slightly oblique question RE: the VC-1 encode
of the BD of "DEJA VU."

The oblique part; was the same master / encode used to derive the STANDARD DEF DVD. . . .

I have the STANDARD def dvd and the special features they say are "seamless branching" appear to have been accomplished by
encoding TWO TOTALY SEPARATE versions of the entire film -- one WITH the extras actually edited in [ to wit; not seamless branching ] and one without the extras.

Could this be a BR mastering "work around" their PIP issues that was also ported to the standard def dvd?

Further, if that was in fact the case how is a VC-1 encode transcoded to MPEG-2 . . . . and is that a good thing?
Really? The standar version also uses dual encodes? That is pretty sad I agree.

But I am pretty sure the VC-1 encode was not used as the source for the SD encode. Can't see much justification to go that way.

Hey Amir or anyone else, since no one answered I'll ask again:

Any updates on the incompatability of the Fox Pathe titles with first gen Toshibas or the delayed BCI titles?
Let me officially give up on providing any answers for BCI. We just don't have contacts with them so we are not liable to provide any insights there.

On the Pathe, I will see what I can find out (as always, getting answers to international questions is harder and takes longer).

Amir

Does the May 7th update include the new DTS & WMAPro outputs or is that part of the 'night mode' update?
There are two updates: one for the dashboard where the VGA/Level fix is. And the other for HD DVD features you list above. The schedule is seperate for these two releases but at this point, pretty close to each other. So you will need to get the right update to get those features/fixes.

To any insider:
When will "Il Pesce Innamorato" be released on HD-DVD or Blu-ray in the UK?

To HD-DVD insiders:
1) Will the HD-E1 ever be updated to allow me to watch the region 1 dvds that I have legaly bought? I know the CSS license may prevent this but A) isn't region restriction coding illegal in places like Australia? B) Isn't region restriction morally wrong (if, say, all books written in English were suddenly un-viewable by people living in America there would be public outcry, yet when American DVDs are not viewable in England it's somehow seen as 'okay'. There are many DVDs that were released in the USA and region coded (many released years ago) that were never released in the UK so were never viewable (other than on region free dvd players of which the HD-E1 isn't one). Isn't region coding a form of discrimination? Will HD-DVD discs always remain region free?

2) Some Standard Definition DVDs (though not many) when played through HDMI to a Toshiba WLT66 TV have black bars all around. Can anything be done about this (there's no zoom button on either the TV or the HD-E1 HD-DVD player. Is this caused because they are non-anamorphic widescreen?

3) On the HD-E1 there is a display button that displays info about what codec it is and the video output etc. I think it would be good if this said more info about what was actually on the disc (eg. it may be a DVD with 720x576 and it may be anamorphic/non-anamorphic widescreen etc.

4) For an LCD TV with 768 lines is it best to set the output of the HD-E1 to 'upto 720p' or 'upto 1080i'? The TV manual says HDMI socket "works best at 1080i" yet many other places I've read say that you're supposed to set it to 'upto 720p'. Also why doesn't the Toshiba HD-E1 send the output to the Toshiba TV at the actual resolution of the TV (1366x768?). Also, mathematically, why would sending a resolution lower than the TV to the TV be better than sending the full/higher resolution to the TV and letting the TV downsample to it's native resolution?

5) Why do HD-DVDs released in the UK (eg. King Kong) have less features and interactivity than their US counterparts. Its seems we get multiple languages but little or no extra features or interactivity. I have have no interest in multiple languages *Unless the film was originally made in a language other than English - in which case it should have the original language+English or English subtitles* Otherwise it's just using too much disc space which could have been used for extra features.

6) When will there be other HD-DVD players (other than the Toshiba ones) released in the UK?

A question to the compression (Amir / Ben) and the content (paidgeek) guys:

Have you been able to check out European h264 broadcasts yet? Let me mention:

- Premiere HD, 18Mbps average
- BBC HD, constant bitrate 19Mbps
- SkyHD, some channels 10Mbps average, main channel 17Mpbs average

I'd be interested in how they compare to US broadcasts and HD-DVD/Blu-Ray in your opinion? Thanks!

FWIW, Don Eklund has recently visited a German home cinema journal. They showed him Star Wars Episode III on PremiereHD and he was quite surprised about how good the image quality was.

A question to the compression (Amir / Ben) and the content (paidgeek) guys:

Have you been able to check out European h264 broadcasts yet? Let me mention:

- Premiere HD, 18Mbps average
- BBC HD, constant bitrate 19Mbps
- SkyHD, some channels 10Mbps average, main channel 17Mpbs average

I'd be interested in how they compare to US broadcasts and HD-DVD/Blu-Ray in your opinion? Thanks!
I have not seen them yet. Hope to do so next time I am in Europe. Based on the specs above, and reports I have heard, it does seem to be quite a bit better than US broadcast. I personally cannot watch US content on big screen and sports drive me totally nuts. It is either full of blocking artifacts or resolution keeps going up and down as the MPEG-2 encoder performs real-time filtering to deal with any motion. An inefficient codec paired with fixed bandwidth at low rates is a deadly combination!

Having said this, the one screenshot shown in the BBC thread above, does show fair amount of softening and compression artifacts. And of course, there is no way to hand tune things for broadcast. So BD/HD DVD will have a lead in quality. But the gap is smaller which may mean the market for HD optical there might be smaller just the same.

FWIW, Don Eklund has recently visited a German home cinema journal. They showed him Star Wars Episode III on PremiereHD and he was quite surprised about how good the image quality was.
Good to hear that he accepts that at relatively high rate of 17-19 mbit/sec, advanced codecs outperform MPEG-2. Wonder what that says about “maturity” of advanced codecs and why they are not in full use in their titles :).

To any insider:
When will "Il Pesce Innamorato" be released on HD-DVD or Blu-ray in the UK?
I don't know unfortunately. But can try to find out.

To HD-DVD insiders:
1) Will the HD-E1 ever be updated to allow me to watch the region 1 dvds that I have legaly bought?
I can't speak to that. It is up to Toshiba to decide to be relaxed about that or not.

I know the CSS license may prevent this but A) isn't region restriction coding illegal in places like Australia? B) Isn't region restriction morally wrong (if, say, all books written in English were suddenly un-viewable by people living in America there would be public outcry, yet when American DVDs are not viewable in England it's somehow seen as 'okay'. There are many DVDs that were released in the USA and region coded (many released years ago) that were never released in the UK so were never viewable (other than on region free dvd players of which the HD-E1 isn't one). Isn't region coding a form of discrimination? Will HD-DVD discs always remain region free?
There is no region coding in HD DVD and the window closed on the last effort to get it into the spec a couple of months ago. Of course, members can propose changes to the spec but given the lukewarm reception so far, region coding seems destined to not be in HD DVD.

As to your other comments, I personally and we as a company, are not supportive of region coding for movie playback. I will give reasons below but first, you might want to see Sony’s point of view on this as posted by Don a few hundred posts back in this very thread:

“It is correct to say that the content companies have asked for region coding in order to protect their theatrical exhibition windows. That said, your local theater owner also places some value on region coding because if a BD title is being trans-shipped from the U.S. to a country that has not yet seen said title in theaters, it is not good for the their business. In the absence of region coding, staggered theatrical windows will still exist, but to manage them, BD releases may not be available in the U.S. or anywhere else until the major theatrical windows have been served. Accordingly, whereas many customers appreciate the fact that packaged media release timing is closer than ever to theatrical release date, we may end up going back to 4 or 5 month schedules before the titles are released. We know from experience, and sales results, that everyone wants the titles as soon as they can possibly be released, so please understand the need for the studios to utilize region coding.”

I have bolded the key section above which is the very reason the request is made for region coding and the very reason we and other companies are not supportive of it! We are fine if there is a genuine business need that can be met with technological measures. But such is not the case here. A movie studio is free to make whatever distribution deal they like overseas. They could give a window to Austrian distributor which is wildly different than one in China or African nation. Yet, the region coding they had in DVD, and worse yet, the one in BD, do not have anywhere close to granularity to help them back such agreements. There simply is not a region coding for every country and region in the specs to handle such situation.

Even worse, is that no company in the DVD hardware business has ever tried to do justice to region coding in that spec. They have released hardware that allows easy bypassing of the region coding. How can they in the next breath then, claim that they are trying to help out other content companies in this area? This is noted in your post where you now expect a bypass system for DVD playback.

What Sony and other studios in favor of region coding want, should be enforced through their legal/contract means. After all, why have a contract if you are going to rely on technical means?

BTW, the view above is shared by major studios now. They see region coding as being useless and hence the reason you don’t see it in HD DVD. If content owners were adamant about region coding, we should not be getting any titles published in HD DVD! Yet we are.

Yes, some studios still want it. There is no denying that. And our job is to provide a platform they want to use. But as technology companies, we must explain the limits of what technology can do. We would not be doing our job otherwise.

2) Some Standard Definition DVDs (though not many) when played through HDMI to a Toshiba WLT66 TV have black bars all around. Can anything be done about this (there's no zoom button on either the TV or the HD-E1 HD-DVD player. Is this caused because they are non-anamorphic widescreen?
I am too jetlagged to think through this :). Can you give an example of the title where this happens and the aspect ratio of your TV?

3) On the HD-E1 there is a display button that displays info about what codec it is and the video output etc. I think it would be good if this said more info about what was actually on the disc (eg. it may be a DVD with 720x576 and it may be anamorphic/non-anamorphic widescreen etc.
Good suggestion :).

4) For an LCD TV with 768 lines is it best to set the output of the HD-E1 to 'upto 720p' or 'upto 1080i'? The TV manual says HDMI socket "works best at 1080i" yet many other places I've read say that you're supposed to set it to 'upto 720p'. Also why doesn't the Toshiba HD-E1 send the output to the Toshiba TV at the actual resolution of the TV (1366x768?). Also, mathematically, why would sending a resolution lower than the TV to the TV be better than sending the full/higher resolution to the TV and letting the TV downsample to it's native resolution?
In general, 1080i should perform better for the reason you mention. That is, you don’t want to have the TV scale things up 5 to 10% because you lose that resolution and that kind of scaling rarely works without side effects. Of course, scaling down from 1080i is not a walk in the park either which is why I hate these oddball resolution display vendors have come up with. 768p is not an official output resolution in ATSC digital TV standard and hence the reason you don’t see that on CE players.

Suggestion is to buy the Digital Video Essentials and look at the resolution test pattern both ways and see which one resolves more lines and with least amount of artifacts. And use that setting.

5) Why do HD-DVDs released in the UK (eg. King Kong) have less features and interactivity than their US counterparts. Its seems we get multiple languages but little or no extra features or interactivity. I have have no interest in multiple languages *Unless the film was originally made in a language other than English - in which case it should have the original language+English or English subtitles* Otherwise it's just using too much disc space which could have been used for extra features.
As you imply, this is because they did not have those assets in other languages so they were cut. I think they worry that the general public and/or local government gets upset if subtitles, etc. are not added to those clips. And that adding those things cost too much relative to the very small market which exists today for HD optical. I hope this changes in the future.

6) When will there be other HD-DVD players (other than the Toshiba ones) released in the UK?
I can’t say. But we have one of the top home brands there, Meridian, working on an HD DVD player. You might have to sell your house to afford one :). But it will come. Hopefully there will be other lower cost players. For now, Samsung dual-format player might also be a good option when it does get released later this year. As will LG if they fix the HD DVD interactivity.

Good set of questions btw for your first post :).

Thanks for the reply Amirm.

PS: I tried using the quote feature on the board but it missed the top few questions so I did it manually.

QUOTE [Q: When will "Il Pesce Innamorato" be released on HD-DVD or Blu-ray in the UK?
A: "I don't know unfortunately. But can try to find out."]
- Thanks for any help you can give with this title :cool:

QUOTE: [1) Will the HD-E1 ever be updated to allow me to watch the region 1 dvds that I have legaly bought?
I can't speak to that. It is up to Toshiba to decide to be relaxed about that or not....[snip]

I hope Toshiba (and other High Def companies) can allow region free playback of SD-DVD. The excuse about "theatrical exhibition windows" only holds true for a few months. This window is not an excuse at all for standard def dvds that are more than a year old or have never had a theatrical release (also, the HD-DVDs that are now appearing on amazon uk are appearing many months later than those HD-DVD which were released in the states. eg. The Mummy was released 8 years ago in cinemas, the HD-DVD was released in 2006 in the USA but it still hasn't yet reached it's release date on amazon uk).

I'm thankful that your company also disagrees with region code restriction. I wish the 'other side' would also see why region coding is wrong (as in my original statement) and change their specs too. Unfortunately that's unlikely to happen. This is one of the reasons I'm mostly supporting HD-DVD.

QUOTE:
2) Q: Some Standard Definition DVDs...[snip] when played through HDMI to a Toshiba WLT66 TV have black bars all around...[snip]
A: I am too jetlagged to think through this . Can you give an example of the title where this happens and the aspect ratio of your TV?

An example of this is the main feature of the "Van Helsing: The London Assignment" Standard Def. DVD. When I first insert the DVD, the Universal logo video fills the entire 16:9 screen, and then the dvd menu fills the 16:9 screen. But when I select "Play" to play the main feature, a universal logo video appears with black bars on the LEFT, RIGHT, TOP and BOTTOM and the main feature plays with black bars all around as well.

My TV is a Toshiba 26WLT66 16:9 TV, with resolution 1366x768, connected via HDMI to the HD-E1 HD-DVD player.


QUOTE: 5) Why do HD-DVDs released in the UK (eg. King Kong) have less features and interactivity than their US counterparts........[snip]

As you imply, this is because they did not have those assets in other languages so they were cut......[snip]
---
What I was trying to say was King Kong (2005) is a USA release. The USA and the UK both speak English (mostly). In the USA (as listed in amazon usa) they get features like "U Control" interactive content picture in picture and art gallery. Yet in the UK (the version listed in amazon uk) we DON'T get "U Control" or any other interactive content. :( I think they must have taken out those extra features and given the UK release extra languages instead :(

Amir,

I'm curious about this too. I noticed some color-banding a few blue-sky shots in Happy Feet (VC1 on HD DVD and BD) and was wondering if this would have been avoidable with a higher bit-rate and merely reflects an oversight on the part of the compressionist, or are we seeing a limitation of the color-depth of HD DVD and Blu-ray? I doubt that the banding is a VC1 peculiarity (MPEG2 shows it all the time) so I won't even ask that question.

David,

Specifically looking at Happy Feet, I've worked with some clips from the movie on a disc for LG Electronics. Coming right from the D5 source, the pure blue sky had "banding". From my observation, it looks like they were trying to reflect the curvature of the earth in the sky. If that's right, it was an artist choice and therefore is properly represented. If not, it was introduced before any compressionist could have done anything about it. In either case, the encodes match the master; which is what we all want.

Jeff,

Thanks for that information. I was pretty harsh on the banding in both my HD DVD and BD reviews of Happy Feet. What about the underwater sequences? Was banding evident in the master there?

Thanks,

We added a list of Insider's approved to post in this thread: it is in the top of this thread (it is still being updated)

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9265013&&#post9265013

please note the AVS guidelines regarding Insiders in the top post

-this list is controlled by the mods: please don't post, either here or in any other forum or thread, about the selection

-remember the list is for this Insider's thread only: it does not apply to any other forum, thread, or post: we don't ask Insider's status outside of this thread and they are not required to ID themselves ouside of this thread: please don't start any threads on it

-see a mistake or want to request an edit? please PM me: list will be updated frequently

-Are you an Insider who wants to post? please PM me if you are not on the list: we would love to add more

Thank you and Thanks to all that helped put this together :)

Jeff,

Thanks for that information. I was pretty harsh on the banding in both my HD DVD and BD reviews of Happy Feet. What about the underwater sequences? Was banding evident in the master there?

Thanks,

Unfortunately, I did not have the entire feature to look through. Only certain clips were provided and none were of underwater scenes.

From my own personal experience, if there is banding in the encode it is either of 2 things:

- The conversion from 10-bit 4:2:2 to 8-bit 4:2:0 was bad.
- The master had the same issues.

The first one is fixable. The second, you pretty much have to live with.

Thanks for the response Jeff...other than the scenes of banding, the print was in fabulous shape and was a mostly reference looking title.

For any insider really. Why are hd dvd's so much more expensive to buy than blu-ray discs?

http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/graphs/price-1-1-recent30.jpg

Regards

John.

I can’t say. But we have one of the top home brands there, Meridian, working on an HD DVD player. You might have to sell your house to afford one :). But it will come. Hopefully there will be other lower cost players. For now, Samsung dual-format player might also be a good option when it does get released later this year. As will LG if they fix the HD DVD interactivity.


What about Onkyo?

Once again if you are not a insider Please DO NOT POST unless you have a question to a insider as per the thread rules,

What about Onkyo?
That's a good one too :).

For any insider really. Why are hd dvd's so much more expensive to buy than blu-ray discs?

http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/graphs/price-1-1-recent30.jpg

Regards

John.
The chart reflects the strong demand for Matrix trilogy which is a multi-disc set at $70+. Since it is not available in blu-ray, it skews the results a lot for HD DVD. So in this instance the more expensive the HD DVDs, the better! :) As that shows how many people are interested in that title...

^^^^ True but don't the combo discs also skew the average price as well?

Amir, is there any last minute changes going into the Matrix Trilogy that hasn't been released?

Have you see the transfer yet and if so, what do you think?

Amir, is there any last minute changes going into the Matrix Trilogy that hasn't been released?

Have you see the transfer yet and if so, what do you think?
I don't know of any last minute changes.

And yes, I have seen them. They look fantastic! Get a high contrast display and you are in heaven. If you have not ordered the series, well, you might as well give up your AVS Forum credentials! :D They are this good!

Hi, to any HD DVD insider


Can somebody shed somelight as to why some might be getting this trouble??? With the TOSHIBA HD-XE1 there's a problem some friends have reported to me, it seems that when selecting a True HD track, using the multichannel conection, the sound gets really bad, it sounds lower and softer than the DD+ track, all the conections have been recheck and also they've tried the digital coaxial conection and the optical with same results, is there any explination for this or maybe the player itself can be faulty or needs the lastest firmware?? (they are suing old 1.1)

Thanks

Amir -

When the Matrix release was announced, you said something to the effect that it had been hard for you to keep such a "big secret".

Do you have any other "big secrets" that you finding hard to keep? ;)

If so, can you say a general time frame you expect to be relieved of the stress (of keeping a big secret)? :p

> 5) Why do HD-DVDs released in the UK (eg. King Kong) have less features
> and interactivity than their US counterparts. Its seems we get multiple
> languages but little or no extra features or interactivity. I have have no
> interest in multiple languages *Unless the film was originally made in a
> language other than English - in which case it should have the original
> language+English or English subtitles* Otherwise it's just using too much
> disc space which could have been used for extra features.

As you imply, this is because they did not have those assets in other languages so they were cut. I think they worry that the general public and/or local government gets upset if subtitles, etc. are not added to those clips. And that adding those things cost too much relative to the very small market which exists today for HD optical. I hope this changes in the future.

Amir, does this mean the UK edition of Children of Men will not have the U-Control feature found on the US edition?

I am one of the many people who can't get Universal's latest Combo discs to function on my HD DVD player, and was hoping that the non-Combo UK release would work better.

paidgeek,

As you probably know, Onkyo recently announced that its first HDMI 1.3 receivers with built-in DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD decoding would ship within a few weeks (May), with other models to follow in June. Some retailers (J&R) are/were taking preorders.

Can you confirm whether the current firmware on the Sony PS3 is capable of passing -- rather than decoding -- the full DTS-HD MA and TrueHD bitstreams to these receivers? Originally, the PS3 was unable to do that, but do you know whether that capability was added with one of the firmwares released in the past two months? Or do you expect that is something Sony will support soon after these new A/V receivers hit the market?

If that is something you could confirm with SCEI, members would appreciate it. They've got PS3s and are looking at these new A/V receivers with DTS-HD MA and TrueHD decoding, but they want to be sure they can actually take advantage of it. New products such as these command a premium at initial release, so if the ability to pass full DTS-HD MA and TrueHD bitstreams won't be added for a few months yet, members could wait and consider alternatives from other manufacturers later this summer.

paidgeek,

As you probably know, Onkyo recently announced that its first HDMI 1.3 receivers with built-in DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD decoding would ship within a few weeks (May), with other models to follow in June. Some retailers (J&R) are/were taking preorders.

Can you confirm whether the current firmware on the Sony PS3 is capable of passing -- rather than decoding -- the full DTS-HD MA and TrueHD bitstreams to these receivers? Originally, the PS3 was unable to do that, but do you know whether that capability was added with one of the firmwares released in the past two months? Or do you expect that is something Sony will support soon after these new A/V receivers hit the market?

If that is something you could confirm with SCEI, members would appreciate it. They've got PS3s and are looking at these new A/V receivers with DTS-HD MA and TrueHD decoding, but that want to be sure they can actually take advantage of it.I've been wondering about this, too. There was a lot of talk that the big firmware update in March would add DTS-HD MA decoding, but apparently that didn't come to pass. What if what was intended for that update wasn't internal decoding at all? What it it was to allow the HD MA bitstream to be passed out to a 1.3 receiver?

The chart reflects the strong demand for Matrix trilogy which is a multi-disc set at $70+. Since it is not available in blu-ray, it skews the results a lot for HD DVD. So in this instance the more expensive the HD DVDs, the better! :) As that shows how many people are interested in that title...


One of the claimed advantages of HD-DVD over Blu-ray is that, HD-DVD can be produced on DVD production lines and hence should be a lot cheaper to produce than Blu-ray. Then why are HD-DVD selling at similar prices as Blu-ray? Why aren't HD-DVD cheaper than Blu-ray, even the non-combo HD-DVD aren't cheaper than Blu-ray? The combo discs are significantly more expensive than Blu-ray as well.

amir,

Is Animatrix in SD or HD?

I know most people are assuming SD, but AFAIK the only sources for that are:

1. Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits, and
2. Speculative interpretation of ambiguous press information

Neither of which seems particularly definitive.

Also, you indicated in this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10121269&&#post10121269) that Animatrix would at least be packaged as HD-DVD, but if I understand correctly, that doesn't guarantee HD resolution.

Any chance we can get a definitive answer?

HDMI v1.3
The Toshiba HD-XE1 has a HDMI v1.3 socket. They say this socket allows (or will allow) billions of colours. How does this work at the moment. I mean do we have to wait till HD-DVD discs are released containing billions of colours (are all current discs 8 bit 4:2:0?), or does the HD-XE1 somehow interpolate colours to generate billions of colours out of the existing 8 bit colour space on movies. Will this socket/colour space practically eliminate banding problems (assuming the banding isn't generated by the TV. PS: I get some banding during the end titles of the UK King Kong but I'm not sure if that's my TV, and the digital video essentials disc hasn't yet reached it's release date on amazon uk).

Also will standard definition TV series ever be released on HD-DVD (to save having lots of multiple discs). They could use the newer codecs and upsample them (upsampling could give better chroma resolution - ie. you could store more chroma samples on 1920x1080 than 720x576/720x480).

I've been wondering about this, too. There was a lot of talk that the big firmware update in March would add DTS-HD MA decoding, but apparently that didn't come to pass. What if what was intended for that update wasn't internal decoding at all? What it it was to allow the HD MA bitstream to be passed out to a 1.3 receiver?

Paidgeek,

I'd like some confirmation on this as well. Is DTS-HD MA decoding on the PS3 possible in software or is there an ASIC requirement the PS3 does not have?

Amir,

Early reports about the Elite have not been stellar, one thing I am curious about is the DTS and WMA-Pro encoding and output via optical, is this not available out of the box with the Elite?

Does it also require the infamous "Spring" HD DVD update that is forthcoming?

To all...

I see that the Onkyo receivers are listed as using HDMI 1.3a, and have heard that as few as a couple of weeks ago the HDMI 1.3b spec was finalized. What are the differences between a and b?

Amir,

Kevin Collins is quoted saying that Disney had asked for region coding to be added
to HD DVD's specs. Was this a recent request?



http://www.tech.co.uk/home-entertainment/video/dvd-hdd-players-and-receivers/blu-ray-and-hd-dvd/features/microsoft-why-hd-dvd-can-beat-blu-ray

Disney did bring a request to the steering committee to add region control to HD DVD, but Collins says "it hasn't gone anywhere" and he doesn't believe it ever will. Many of the other 20 companies on the steering committee actively oppose region coding, and it can't be added to players already sold.

Amir,

In this article: http://www.tech.co.uk/home-entertainment/video/dvd-hdd-players-and-receivers/blu-ray-and-hd-dvd/features/microsoft-why-hd-dvd-can-beat-blu-ray

It talks about Kevin showing off IME on "The Guardian" which is a Disney title both here in the US and UK, amongst other countries. Was this a typo by the editor?

Thanks,
Robert.

Would any insider know how/if it would be possible to invite other insiders from places there is currently no representation from? Do any of you know anyone from FOX, Lions Gate, Disney or Universal you can call to ask them to participate here at AVS?

It says and does a lot for the formats that you are here doing what you do. Why wouldnt other participate if it would only help their cause.

amirm:

I'm hoping you can give me some insight on my XBOX 360 Elite problems I have out of the box. I have a JVC HD-61FN97 (supports 1080p HDCP via HDMI) that I'm running my Elite into via HDMI. I also use the XBOX HD DVD.

Out of the box, I'm getting screen flashing and HDCP connection errors when I'm set at 1080p on the Elite. I have used my HDMI with a DirecTV HD DVR at 1080i without issue. I never saw a problem with my old 360 on component.

Any thoughts?

I would think it takes nerves of steel to participate here. I've noticed that some insiders are ridiculed in other threads, which is a cowardly thing to do, but it happens. Certain posts tend to sometimes upset others here and have occassionally led to attempted firings. I would think that wanting to participating on this forum is akin to a death wish - draw straws and the winner gets a one way ticket to a mine field and and has no choice but to walk through it.

Oh, it's not so bad, although I'm lucky in that Amir winds up drawing most of the Microsoft-targeted brickbats :). When we were working out the deal for me to join Microsoft, I made sure my continued participation on AVSForum was included, although in retrospect that's something I probably should have made them negotiate with me for...

We're buying a new house, and I'm embarking on building a from-scratch home theater in it, so I'm quite looking forward to getting a chance to be a regular AVS poster and letting others be the expert insiders for a bit.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10425543&&#post10425543

To Any HD DVD Industry Insider

What is the status on the HD DVDs which will be 17 GBs per layer?

The Triple Layer 51 GB HD DVD is clearly appearling, but I am more interested in the progress of the single layer 17 GB discs and the dual layer 34 GB discs. Do you think any movies will be using any disc which has the 17 GB capacity per layer this year?

Ok, to anyone who can know this,
With first generation players and drives for HD-DVD, will they need to be replaced to read advanced media like triple layer, or 17 GB per layer media, or will it be like CD's where they just get to end of the disk to allow just a bit more, and DVD's where a firmware update can be released to allow the drives to properly read the media?

I have not seen them yet. Hope to do so next time I am in Europe. Based on the specs above, and reports I have heard, it does seem to be quite a bit better than US broadcast. I personally cannot watch US content on big screen and sports drive me totally nuts. It is either full of blocking artifacts or resolution keeps going up and down as the MPEG-2 encoder performs real-time filtering to deal with any motion. An inefficient codec paired with fixed bandwidth at low rates is a deadly combination!

Having said this, the one screenshot shown in the BBC thread above, does show fair amount of softening and compression artifacts. And of course, there is no way to hand tune things for broadcast. So BD/HD DVD will have a lead in quality. But the gap is smaller which may mean the market for HD optical there might be smaller just the same.
I've just posted a big screenshot comparison which compares DVD, US broadcast, Europe broadcast and HD-DVD. Would you mind having a look and posting your opinion? Would love to hear especially how you'd rate the German broadcast in comparison to the HD-DVD encoding.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=841459

A related question: One MS guy (I believe it was Stacey Spears) hinted a few months ago that the European Serenity HD-DVD got a new encode. However, I've compared my (Germany) Serenity HD-DVD to the US one and the screenshots ended up being bitwise identical. So is there no new VC-1 encode for the European Serenity HD-DVD after all?

Thanks!

Dear Amir,

Thank you for the excellent information, apologies if these questions have already been answered elsewhere:

1. I have a Samsung M86 HDTV, and it does not accept the 1920x1080 output over VGA from the Xbox, do you know if this is resolved in the Spring 2007 update?

2. Why is HD DVD playback limited to 1080i via component?

3. Why is DVD playback limited to 480p via component?

4. Does the Xbox Elite provide DVD upscaling to 1080p over HDMI?

Kind Regards

Graham Laws

A related question: One MS guy (I believe it was Stacey Spears) hinted a few months ago that the European Serenity HD-DVD got a new encode. However, I've compared my (Germany) Serenity HD-DVD to the US one and the screenshots ended up being bitwise identical. So is there no new VC-1 encode for the European Serenity HD-DVD after all?

Thanks!

To add to that question, I have heard that Serenity will be recieving a two disc special edition this July on SD DVD. Any chance that this could be released on HD DVD as well equating to our first double dip on high def?

3. Why is DVD playback limited to 480p via component?
Graham Laws
Because that is what the CSS licence says. Player manufacturers have to sign that licence in order to play encrypted DVD movies (ie 99% of them).

Amir or any insider,

I am also having issues with my new Elite….please reference the xbox hardware, Elite issue in the xbox forums, sorry it would not let me link from here.

Actually there are many different topics being posted in that forum on this problem. Sometimes when I watch a video (not always) on the HDD or HD-DVD add-on or DVD the screen goes bright purple with the imagine in the background, it also does the same sometimes as green. When you go back to the dashboard the weird color stays with me as the dashboard is now washed out in green.

The quick way to resolve it is to change my Hitachi 720 LCD HDTV input to say the one Comcast is on, as soon as I switch back to the input my Elite is hooked up too, its back to normal with no issues until I watch a video again. So far it has not does this to me in gears and frankly gears looks stunning on my HDTV going though HDMI.

I am going to take my Elite back to Gamestop for a replacement, but they are already sold out. I’ve heard over in the forumns that others have having the same issues so even taking it back might not resolve anything.

Can you please bring this up with your people and please let us know the fix, will the HD-DVD update address this, etc? Many of us forked over 500 bucks yesterday and waited in line for 2 hours to get one…and now I cant even show it off cause its acting weird, lol

Any help and advise is greatly appreciated….thanks again for all you do for the community.

Isaac

There is no region coding in HD DVD and the window closed on the last effort to get it into the spec a couple of months ago. Of course, members can propose changes to the spec but given the lukewarm reception so far, region coding seems destined to not be in HD DVD.

........ There is no denying that. And our job is to provide a platform they want to use. But as technology companies, we must explain the limits of what technology can do. We would not be doing our job otherwise.
.
Is this a definitve statement ie NO REGION CODING FOR HD-DVD... I have noted before you said the possibility was remote.. but you sound more certain this time..
Do you mean its no longer technically possible to incorporate it?
Although from your last sentence it appears if say Fox or Disney change their minds and wanted to release HD-DVDs with region coding .. it could be possible?
personally i would like to see the whole region coding thing dropped and considering that Sony and Disney have released "all region" titles.. it appears Fox is the only one adamant about it,,?

Amir,

Will all xbox 360 platforms be rolling out with that 65nm this fall? Also will there be an integration of the HDMI port to all platforms or just the Elite? Thanks.

HI, to any MS insider. Can you pls comment exactly what to expect on the May 7th update?? will it brig the DTS fix also or not?
Thanks!!

Sorry for the lack of responsiveness you all. Was in Toronto visiting some of you and then spent a couple of days programming my new barbeque smoker! :) (no joke, this thing has a web interface and all so you can control it remotely. I had forgotten how much fun it was to write code!) I guess there are more fun things than spending time at AVS Forum :D.

Will try to answer as many questions as I can...

HI, to any MS insider. Can you pls comment exactly what to expect on the May 7th update?? will it brig the DTS fix also or not?
Thanks!!


/me too...

There seems to be alot of confusion regarding what is in and what has been "decoupled" from the spring update. Is there a definitive list available anywhere?

OK, so here is the full situation on Xbox 360.

There are TWO distinct updates/releases. One for the console/dashboard and another just for HD DVD. They have different release schedules although they are very, very close to each other as I type this.

The dashboard update has the support for different video levels on VGA which people have noticed with dull looking video. This fix applies to all content coming out of the 360, and not just HD DVD output.

The HD DVD update has support for better dynamic range on audio, and support for DTS, WMA Pro, etc. It also has fixes for lip sync and a number of compatibility fixes for various titles (include DVE test disc).

The Elite has NOT shipped with the spring update for the dashboard. Nor does it have the HD DVD update. So you would need to upgrade it just the same when the updates come out.

Per my hint above, we are days away from HD DVD update being ready. So let's not talk about Fall, etc. for that release :).

The HD DVD update has support for better dynamic range on audio, and support for DTS, WMA Pro, etc. It also has fixes for lip sync and a number of compatibility fixes for various titles (include DVE test disc).

Per my hint above, we are days away from HD DVD update being ready. So let's not talk about Fall, etc. for that release :).


I believe it was understood that that HD-DVD update and Dashboard were separate, alot of people seem to be, or were, under the impression that only parts of the HD-DVD update had been removed, specifically the night mode bug, with some parts still being in the spring update. This seems to clear that up, assuming of course that the night mode bug goes along with HD-DVD update, or has it been completely removed and will be a 3rd update down the line?

So "days" away means under 7 right? otherwise it would be weeks...

HI Amirm
THANKS for the update on the releases. I am glad to realize that they are finally nearby. Could "days" be this week? :) .. I am looking SO forward to get out of "night mode" - even I must "admit" that sound already is pretty good on concerts as Farewell Tour with The Eagles.
Thanks in advance for making me check this thread minimum 4 times a day.. :)
Regards Martin Lynge

HI Amirm
THANKS for the update on the releases. I am glad to realize that they are finally nearby. Could "days" be this week? :) .. I am looking SO forward to get out of "night mode" - even I must "admit" that sound already is pretty good on concerts as Farewell Tour with The Eagles.
Thanks in advance for making me check this thread minimum 4 times a day.. :)
Regards Martin Lynge
My pleasure. And no, days doesn't mean under one week :). But it is not weeks either....

Hi Amir

First of all, thanks to everybody involved in setting this one up:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Technical_Glitches/Universal/Universal_Breaks_Silence_on_HD_DVD_Playback_Issues_Announces _Disc_Replacement_Program/603
Really great work and I wish other studios/companies would follow suit.
Yes, I'm looking at you National Geographic! :p

Secondly, I am at the early stages of planning a video project and it looks like it will be filmed in HD. The intention for the video is that parts of it will be interactive and this made me think of HD-DVD and iHD technology.
I have tried downloading some iHD files from a Microsoft website previously but could never get any of the sample content to work and struggled to understand how to make my own.
Does Microsoft plan to release software allowing end users to easily create iHD content?

Amir -

When the Matrix release was announced, you said something to the effect that it had been hard for you to keep such a "big secret".

Do you have any other "big secrets" that you finding hard to keep? ;)
You should know better than to aske me questions about futures. Lest you want me throw the "L-word" at you or some "number"! :p :D

If so, can you say a general time frame you expect to be relieved of the stress (of keeping a big secret)? :p
Sorry no. In general, Warner and Universal remain the most prolific studios when it comes to publishing titles in HD (regardless of format). So you can expect a stream of goodies from time, timed to when they make sense.

QUOTE: 5) Why do HD-DVDs released in the UK (eg. King Kong) have less features and interactivity than their US counterparts........[snip]

As you imply, this is because they did not have those assets in other languages so they were cut......[snip]
---
What I was trying to say was King Kong (2005) is a USA release. The USA and the UK both speak English (mostly). In the USA (as listed in amazon usa) they get features like "U Control" interactive content picture in picture and art gallery. Yet in the UK (the version listed in amazon uk) we DON'T get "U Control" or any other interactive content. :( I think they must have taken out those extra features and given the UK release extra languages instead :(
Oh, I see. Indeed, I complained about this when the title came out. Unfortunately, I think the problem is that they like to have a single release for all of Europe. The UK market is too small at this time to merit its own matering/special release. Needless to say, if folks there really want to get these features, they can always get the US release due to lack of region coding :).

Amir, does this mean the UK edition of Children of Men will not have the U-Control feature found on the US edition?
I don't know Josh but will try to find out.

[QUOTE=amirm]You should know better than to aske me questions about futures. Lest you want me throw the "L-word" at you or some "number"! :p :D


Oh, that's VERY good, amir, very good......

One of the claimed advantages of HD-DVD over Blu-ray is that, HD-DVD can be produced on DVD production lines and hence should be a lot cheaper to produce than Blu-ray. Then why are HD-DVD selling at similar prices as Blu-ray? Why aren't HD-DVD cheaper than Blu-ray, even the non-combo HD-DVD aren't cheaper than Blu-ray? The combo discs are significantly more expensive than Blu-ray as well.
They are being priced to market, not to manufacturing cost. In other words, you all seem to scoop up expensive titles including BD ones from Fox. So folks decide that is how they should price them.

On Combos, Universal seems to be doing away with the premium.

The other thing to note is whether there are any temporary cost protection on discs and such that might be in play for some format. Once such measures expire, then retail pricing may change correspondingly.

amir,

Is Animatrix in SD or HD?
I don't know first hand as I have not played with the full disc. But if I were to guess, it would be SD.

HDMI v1.3
The Toshiba HD-XE1 has a HDMI v1.3 socket. They say this socket allows (or will allow) billions of colours. How does this work at the moment. I mean do we have to wait till HD-DVD discs are released containing billions of colours (are all current discs 8 bit 4:2:0?), or does the HD-XE1 somehow interpolate colours to generate billions of colours out of the existing 8 bit colour space on movies. Will this socket/colour space practically eliminate banding problems (assuming the banding isn't generated by the TV. PS: I get some banding during the end titles of the UK King Kong but I'm not sure if that's my TV, and the digital video essentials disc hasn't yet reached it's release date on amazon uk).
What is on the source (HD DVD/BD) does not support such large color space or resolution. So all flavors of HDMI look the same wrt to playing the video itself.

The extra capacity of HDMI 1.3 might allow for slight improvement in quality of graphics overlayed on top of video or allow a bit more accurate color space conversion. All in all, 1.3 is there more as a tool to sell things than to make things look better :).

Also keep in mind that even if one did pass all of those colors to the display over 1.3, it is very unlikely that you would see them output that way as displays have even worse resolution than what we have on the disc, than something better. They have a long way to go to become transparent to the signal on older generation of HDMI before we have aspirations of something better.

Also will standard definition TV series ever be released on HD-DVD (to save having lots of multiple discs). They could use the newer codecs and upsample them (upsampling could give better chroma resolution - ie. you could store more chroma samples on 1920x1080 than 720x576/720x480).
Studios worry a lot about having the picture not being better than current DVD at this stage of the market. So while I don't want to speak for them, I doubt that they would want to release SD quality video this way. But the potential is certainly there and at some point, I expect this to happen.

Also interesting is to think about releasing these episodes on red laser DVDs formatted as HD DVD. That way, you can us VC-1 and probably get up to 3X the capacity on the same disc with interactivity to boot!

Amir,

Kevin Collins is quoted saying that Disney had asked for region coding to be added
to HD DVD's specs. Was this a recent request?

http://www.tech.co.uk/home-entertainment/video/dvd-hdd-players-and-receivers/blu-ray-and-hd-dvd/features/microsoft-why-hd-dvd-can-beat-blu-ray
My I ask why you are curious about this?

My I ask why you are curious about this?


I thought Disney had requested it a long time ago(years?). It's just curious that
it would come out again in a recent interview. The reason for my curiosity? I
would have a hard time recommending HD DVD to my family and friends without
Disney's support. Just wishful hoping I guess. Now, are you able to answer
my question?

You should know better than to aske me questions about futures. Lest you want me throw the "L-word" at you or some "number"! :p :D


Sorry no. In general, Warner and Universal remain the most prolific studios when it comes to publishing titles in HD (regardless of format). So you can expect a stream of goodies from time, timed to when they make sense.

Amir -

By the "L-Word" are you referring to the Showtime HD series on Showtime about lesbians? I am just saying........ :)

Laters,
Jeff

This wasn't answered the first time around might have been missed


For Amir or Paidgeek

Does anyone have any further info on Bladerunner or A clockwork Orange on either HD-DVD or BLU-RAY?

I own both formats so which ever of these are released on first gets my money.

Last I heard Bladerunner was going to be released sometime after the re release in the theater but that date was suppose to be in the summer and I've not heard anything else on it. The relase was suppose to contain the FINAL CUT along with the two other versions on the same sku.

On A Clockwork Orange the only thing I heard was a December release in France

Amir -

By the "L-Word" are you referring to the Showtime HD series on Showtime about lesbians? I am just saying........ :)

Laters,
Jeff
Just how many of you would get excited about that show? ;) :p

I thought Disney had requested it a long time ago(years?). It's just curious that
it would come out again in a recent interview. The reason for my curiosity? I
would have a hard time recommending HD DVD to my family and friends without
Disney's support. Just wishful hoping I guess. Now, are you able to answer
my question?
Disney has and continues to be quite active in some matters related to HD DVD in DVD Forum. They routinely vote on issues rather than abstain and we could not have delivered the type of experience we have with HDi, without their strong efforts in DVD Forum.

Their support of region coding is just one accept of their participation there.

As to family and friends, upscaled version of Disney titles will play just fine on HD DVD players :).

Has Disney expressed any concerns regarding portable entertainment and the HD market? When I see the vast number of mini-vans and SUV's with near standard DVD players in them these days, plus all the portables, and even RV's with smaller tv's and DVD players, one knows that entertaining the offspring is a major factor. It seems they would have more to gain with a combo than any other studio.

You should know better than to aske me questions about futures. Lest you want me throw the "L-word" at you or some "number"! :p :D

"The Number 23," "Numb3rs," "The 4400,"

I know it can't be "24."

"300?" ;)

~Alan

Oh, I see. Indeed, I complained about this when the title came out. Unfortunately, I think the problem is that they like to have a single release for all of Europe. The UK market is too small at this time to merit its own matering/special release. Needless to say, if folks there really want to get these features, they can always get the US release due to lack of region coding :).
Please complain to Universal about this. We already pay more for the UK versions of their discs, and have to wait nearly half a year more than the USA, but we get less/no extra features. :( Will this be the same for other Universal titles in the near future (eg. do The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001) UK HD-DVD discs also lack the features present in the USA versions?)

Why don't Universal put a "UK" sticker on the USA version and sell that at Amazon UK for exactly the same price as the USA one? ;) (and give one with many languages to everyone else in Europe - or add a second disc with the multi-language version/extras). I'd like to see a UK disc with this U-control, PiP and all these other features that people keep talking about.

Also, with region coding, apparently the Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray disc player allows playback of standard definition DVD discs whatever the region, yet the Toshiba HD-E1 doesn't :( If I was Toshiba I'd update my player quickly so that they too can playback people's standard def region 1 & region 2 discs ;) Also, for the consumer, the fact that HD-DVD isn't region code restricted is a selling point. Why doesn't the HD-DVD group/player manufacturers advertise this fact in big letters in HD-DVD adverts as, for the consumer this is one big plus point over Blu-ray?

Disney has and continues to be quite active in some matters related to HD DVD in DVD Forum. They routinely vote on issues rather than abstain and we could not have delivered the type of experience we have with HDi, without their strong efforts in DVD Forum.

Their support of region coding is just one accept of their participation there.

As to family and friends, upscaled version of Disney titles will play just fine on HD DVD players :).

But when did Disney request region coding for HD DVD? Was it recently or is it an old quote?