Industry Insiders Master Q&A thread III: ONLY Questions to Insiders

[Meatpopsicle]

Amir,

I am an American spending the summer in Estonia (BTW, it sucks that people have to travel 40 miles to Finland still, if they want a 360, but PS3's are everywhere). I have spent a great deal of time looking at DVD's, and even stores selling imported HD DVD's/BD's. It's become clear to me that there is a vast untapped market in the world where dozens of small language groups sit around and wait for movies to get subtitled in their language.

You have mentioned multiple times that one potential feature of HD DVD is the ability to download new subtitles. The way I see it, this could easily give a massive edge to HD DVD, if this were pushed through quickly and standardized.

There are millions of people in the world, that have money in hand and HDTV's that speak an obscure language. If they were essentially guaranteed that by adopting HD DVD, they could download subtitles in their language for most, if not all, titles, it would be a no-brainer.

Individually, these nations/language groups are relatively small to big studio marketing departments. But you group a dozen Eastern european and Asian languages together, that's millions of potential customers. You don't even have to print different discs, just maintain a subtitle database.

I almost feel that it should have been apart of the HD DVD standard for studios to implement subtitle downloads. HD DVD would be selling much more world-wide if it did. This is something BD really dropped the ball on, and HD DVD should be running with it hard. This really should be a feature listed on movies and player packaging.

The fact that this is a "potential possible future feature" instead of a requirement on the horizon with a date, is a real disappointment for a lot of people.

My question(s) is, why doesn't HD DVD group realize this and push for it? Why isn't it a higher priority? Or is it? Can you shed some light on where this technology stands and how studios are or aren't realizing this? Why do HD DVD and/or studios, not want all these peoples money? Would the investment really be that high to maintain a subtitle database? ( I don't expect you to answer each question individually. But please just address this whole situation)

Edit: Adding VMK2's post to mine, since his is not a question, it will likely be deleted-

Originally Posted by vmk2

I must say I agree with meatpopsicle as I live in eastern europe, in serbia. while I would prefer much more to have subtitles available on the disc, eventually I wouldn`t mind having the option to download them. but when that will happen? croatian and slovenian subtitles are now available on some blu-ray titles. blu-ray players have arrived here, the samsung one is here. in shops here I have seen only one toshiba high end laptop. while I am fully aware eastern europe is regarded as a small market, there are people who already have hd sets and want high definition content, especially subtitled content. people in this region though even when are able to buy an hdtv set and a player rarely are able to buy a second one like people in america and western europe are. the pricing of the hd dvd players is much more interesting than the price of a blu-ray player so hd dvd should use this advantage in the region. I personally wouldn`t want to be forced to buy a blu-ray player when I prefer the hd dvd format.

[amirm]

Originally Posted by Eternal_Sunshine

Isn't the time it takes to download the program (and thus the convenience of this process) in direct correlation to the bandwith? In other words, doesn't the company delivering the content still have the incentive to use files as small as possible to make downloading fast and convenient for as many potential customers as possible?

Again, for background downloads, the person is not sitting there waiting for the prompt. Whether a download takes 20 or 30 minutes is not material. If there is demand for quality, it will be offered.

Quite the opposite, I fear the studios won't continue to publish high quality content on optical media if enough consumers settle for the "good enough" quality and higher convenience of downloads. Which may or may not be Microsoft's goal in all of this...

There is no correlation between what studios offer for download and HD optical. Today, iTunes distributes sub-DVD quality yet same studio (Disney) publishes in BD. Now, again, if consumers won't pay for something, there won't be an offer. So your fear should be about the consumer purchasing behavior, not the technology itself .

And why do you think we matter in this equation? I mean there is Apple out there. Don’t you think they are out to make downloads work? And between us, at least we invested in HD optical. Apple is a BD board member and has not done so. If you have a beef then, it should be with that BD company which has shunned the whole market.

Well, the starting point of this discussion was that Microsoft supposedly does not want HD on optical media (HDOM) to succeed, wasn't it?

No, it never was. We never said such a thing. And I explained at length the huge investment we have in HD optical.

Don't you agree that this "trouble selling" HDOM is very much a result of this format war – which Microsoft prolonged by supporting the underdog HD-DVD?

No, I don't agree that it is the major factor. We have players which until recently cost 10X of a DVD player. We have titles which cost 2X their DVD counterparts or close to it. You have consumers who happily bought ED plasma displays thinking they are "HD." And both formats have at most 1% of the number of titles that DVD has so there is not much for general consumer to select. These are the troubling things. Format war is annoying to be sure and I am not trying to make an excuse for it. But let’s step out of the world of AVS where such things are affordable and the main worry is who is going to win. In the real world, people care about value and they don’t quite see it – in either format just yet. The latest price drop from Toshiba clearly shows us that increasing the value there results in more sales, even though the format war continues.

You don't agree? What if I had HD DVD players which would retail for $50, same as a DVD player and titles retailing for $15 with bargain bins at $5. And let’s make the discs combos so that they play in every DVD player. You want to say that the market will stay small still due to format war? I bet it would not. The day the formats don't cost consumers anything extra, is the day the consumer has nothing to lose. Ask them to pay 10X more, and they rightfully ask questions. Don't ask them anything and they would come along.

Wouldn't it be very helpful for a potential provider of HD downloads to the masses, i.e. Microsoft, to paint the picture that the "value proposition [of HDOM] didn't work" like you just did?

No, it is a simple matter of not drinking one’s Kool-Aid too much . Yes, we have invest heavily in HD DVD. No doubt about it. We built hardware, we built software. We help others ship players. We help studios encode content (for both formats I might add). And we help people innovate with interactivity. We are probably in the top three companies investing in HD optical formats! But at the same time, we have our eye open on other things. And we are honest about not knowing which distribution format is going to "win" if one is indeed going to win over the other. So we are doing both, as are many people in the same industry from content owners to computer and CE companies. The fact that we come out and say it, should not be spun into gossip which is not backed by our actions.

Or asked in a more simple manner: Would Microsoft like HD downloads to be the dominant form of HD distribution? If the answer is yes – wouldn't HDOM failing make this scenario much more likely and would thus be in Microsoft's best interest?

Why would HD optical failing help downloads? The competition for downloads is DVDs. We have not matched that format in convenience and consumer preference with digital delivery. HD optical plays no role in whether digital downloads succeed or not. Because the SD version of the same has to succeed in the presence of DVD. And surely no one is claiming that we are trying make DVD fail too.

And besides, these worlds are converging anyway. We see a future where HD DVD content gets augmented with additional content you get when you need it. Want that 10th language or the 20th subtitle? Just download the darn thing. Use managed copy and put the disc on your hard disk and you mix the twp worlds even more. We are strongly supporting these scenarios. As are the HD DVD studios. So you may not see the boundaries that you think you see with HD DVD at least.

Yes, an optical word where all you do is spin a disc, is well, “so yesterday” to us . We want to modernize this field and bring the power of software, networks, and just in time delivery to it. If we are successful, maybe you get what you want. That is, consumers get best of both worlds and neither has to win or lose. So you see, if you don’t have all of your chips in one basket, you don’t mind the center moving left or right.

We'll see. I happen to love the current "version of this thing" (HDOM) and think you shouldn't underestimate neither the collector's satisfaction of owning a physical object nor the studios' desire to sell us the same movies over and over again...

Why am I underestimating the value of HD optical when I am here, at 2:14 am typing this to you? OK, so I am jetlagged and wide awake. But let’s put this aside and give me credit that as the guy running this thing, I care deeply about HD optical as does my team. I have invested 5 years of my life here. I don’t want the history to write that it was a failure. So let’s stop this partisan thing and continue to tell us how things work inside Microsoft. Look at our actions. We love this stuff. We believe in it as a valid form of distribution. We think it is good business for us and our customers. So don’t worry about us having ulterior motives. After all, as a wise man once said, “worry is an abuse of imagination!”

Good night folks.

[Vmk2]

I must say I agree with meatpopsicle as I live in eastern europe, in serbia. while I would prefer much more to have subtitles available on the disc, eventually I wouldn`t mind having the option to download them. but when that will happen? croatian and slovenian subtitles are now available on some blu-ray titles. blu-ray players have arrived here, the samsung one is here. in shops here I have seen only one toshiba high end laptop. while I am fully aware eastern europe is regarded as a small market, there are people who already have hd sets and want high definition content, especially subtitled content. people in this region though even when are able to buy an hdtv set and a player rarely are able to buy a second one like people in america and western europe are. the pricing of the hd dvd players is much more interesting than the price of a blu-ray player so hd dvd should use this advantage in the region. I personally wouldn`t want to be forced to buy a blu-ray player when I prefer the hd dvd format.

[Eternal_Sunshine]

Originally Posted by amirm

Good night folks.

Amir, thanks for your long answers, I appreciate your effort. I don't agree with some points in your second answer, but I don't want to hijack the insider's thread with an even longer discussion. It's a shame that the discussions in the other threads have become so "heated" that you don't post there anymore. Take care.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by TheLion

Dear paidgeek,

I almost forgot to report a real annoying issue/oversight with the new PS3 1.8 firmware.

Why is it that the (excellent) SD/"DVD" upscaling is not enabled while playing SD content (like 480i special features) from a BRD?

There are additional complications to upscaling interlaced material versus progressive. I don't know if this will be improved.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by woodspoon

This is a question for paidgeek:
I live in Spain, and It looks like titles like "Ghost Rider" are getting only the PCM track, not the TrueHD, and the other languages are plain DD. When does Sony plan to encode 2-3 truehd tracks in european releases? It´s one of the biggest advantages over HDDVD (sorry Amirm, it´s true) but we hardly see it used (not only Sony is to blame, and don´t get me started on Paramount, they haven´t released anything...) Thanks for your time.

This is being considered. I think we will transistion to providing DDTHD tracks as a rule in Europe, but I don't know which title we will start that practice on. I'll see what I can find out.

[Leviathin25]

PaidGeek

Do you have any info on what features Final Fantasy Advent children might have and when it may be released? Can you push for "The Last Order" anime to be included HD or otherwise?

Thank you so much!

[amirm]

Originally Posted by Meatpopsicle

....You have mentioned multiple times that one potential feature of HD DVD is the ability to download new subtitles. The way I see it, this could easily give a massive edge to HD DVD, if this were pushed through quickly and standardized.

I almost feel that it should have been apart of the HD DVD standard for studios to implement subtitle downloads. HD DVD would be selling much more world-wide if it did. This is something BD really dropped the ball on, and HD DVD should be running with it hard. This really should be a feature listed on movies and player packaging.

The fact that this is a "potential possible future feature" instead of a requirement on the horizon with a date, is a real disappointment for a lot of people.

My question(s) is, why doesn't HD DVD group realize this and push for it? Why isn't it a higher priority? Or is it? Can you shed some light on where this technology stands and how studios are or aren't realizing this? Why do HD DVD and/or studios, not want all these peoples money? Would the investment really be that high to maintain a subtitle database? ( I don't expect you to answer each question individually. But please just address this whole situation)

I am a strong proponent of this and have communicated the studios. I think the issue here is that this is a new feature and uncharted territory. And as with anything new, it takes a bit of time to guage market interest (thanks for your ), and prototype things to get them out. I think everyone agrees that our track record in getting new features into these formats is good . So this kind of thing will be offered in the future.

[Meatpopsicle]

Originally Posted by amirm

I am a strong proponent of this and have communicated the studios. I think the issue here is that this is a new feature and uncharted territory. And as with anything new, it takes a bit of time to guage market interest (thanks for your ), and prototype things to get them out. I think everyone agrees that our track record in getting new features into these formats is good . So this kind of thing will be offered in the future.

Thanks for the answer, Amir. Those are words of positivity that I find encouraging.

As a follow up, two questions came to mind.

1) Are HD DVD players, right now (today), checking for internet connections as well as some server for updates upon inserting each movie? Or does the movie itself have to have that functionality authored into it to begin with? (In other words, is it theoretically possible to update any released disc so far?)

2) Is it in the specs to allow streaming media through the HD DVD players? For example, is it theoretically possible to stream a TrueHD track (with heavy buffer of course) while watching the movie?

[amirm]

Originally Posted by Meatpopsicle

1) Are HD DVD players, right now (today), checking for internet connections as well as some server for updates upon inserting each movie? Or does the movie itself have to have that functionality authored into it to begin with? (In other words, is it theoretically possible to update any released disc so far?)

Our HD DVD drive for the Xbox will do that to see if there is an update for that title. Other players don't and there is no obligation to do that. But I think you are asking a different question wrt to subtitles. There, the disc could be authored to look/download new subtitles. A player could also be modified to do it but this answer, is more complicated and I rather not get into it (don't aske me why please ).

2) Is it in the specs to allow streaming media through the HD DVD players? For example, is it theoretically possible to stream a TrueHD track (with heavy buffer of course) while watching the movie?

Yes, streaming is part of the spec. And indeed, one can send such an audio stream (it is called "Substitute Audio" in HD DVD lingo. However, there is a hitch in that the audio gets rounded to the seondary decoder (the one being used for PiP) and I am not sure that subsystem is forced to have full multi-channel decode capability or not for THD. For PC/game machines this would not be much of a barrier but for CE products it might be.

Clever suggestion btw.

[Delta_FX]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Starship Troopers is in the works... Bad Boy's at the moment is not.

Paidgeek,

If there are no plans to release Bad Boys/Bad Boys II, then why does Sony include them as one of the Coming Soon movies in their Blu-ray trailers on their movies, like Talledega Nights, Black Hawk Down, Casino Roayle...

Any idea when Sony will start to work on these?

Thanks.

-Alex.

[Mr. Integration]

Amir,

Kudos to your team on Matrix VC1!!! we will be using that disc when Joel comes to do ISF training. We are looking forward to all the jaw drops. I was wondering with all this talk of downloading vs. tactile media do you really think people will want to pay for something they cannot really touch or feel? I mean who doesn't want the back up DVD of their MS office 2007 even though it works fine as a download.

Also I wish BR would see the light and go all VC-1 it seems to be the most consistent codec around.


Dave

[amirm]

Originally Posted by Mr. Integration

Amir,
Kudos to your team on Matrix VC1!!! we will be using that disc when Joel comes to do ISF training. We are looking forward to all the jaw drops.

Thanks Dave. Was nice to chat with you at the HTC also. You should tell people what you won at the auction. You will make a lot of people jealous!

I was wondering with all this talk of downloading vs. tactile media do you really think people will want to pay for something they cannot really touch or feel? I mean who doesn't want the back up DVD of their MS office 2007 even though it works fine as a download.

Download does not need to be just virtual. There are a lot of people working on EST (Electronic Sell Through) where you download but then get to also burn a copy. This in some ways is easier to do with HD DVD as compared to DVD because AACS has specific provisions for it. So for people who want that comfort, they can get it. Without a trip to the store.

From my point of view, I think as long as people think they need a physical copy, then we haven’t done our job right. We must find a way to make people not worry ever that they can lose such a content. At lease no more worried than they are with their physical goods (a DVD can get destroyed too but not easily). So while EST is good, I think it shows how far behind we are in implementing proper electronic distribution format.

Also I wish BR would see the light and go all VC-1 it seems to be the most consistent codec around.
Dave

[Mr. Integration]

[quote=amirm]Thanks Dave. Was nice to chat with you at the HTC also. You should tell people what you won at the auction. You will make a lot of people jealous!


You mean that little black thing that attaches to my 360?


or my autographed Runco?

[Kampf kobold]

Originally Posted by woodspoon

This is a question for paidgeek:
I live in Spain, and It looks like titles like "Ghost Rider" are getting only the PCM track, not the TrueHD, and the other languages are plain DD. When does Sony plan to encode 2-3 truehd tracks in european releases? It´s one of the biggest advantages over HDDVD (sorry Amirm, it´s true) but we hardly see it used (not only Sony is to blame, and don´t get me started on Paramount, they haven´t released anything...) Thanks for your time.

Why you need True HD if you have the PCM Track?

[Jackinbox]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

There are additional complications to upscaling interlaced material versus progressive. I don't know if this will be improved.

Paidgeek,

If they can't upscale them, is it possible to at least windowbox the 4:3 extras found on BD over component? I much prefer to purchase the neutral titles on BD but my A2 displays the 4:3 extras properly and the PS3 won't do that.

Thanks again for all your input.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Delta_FX

Paidgeek,

If there are no plans to release Bad Boys/Bad Boys II, then why does Sony include them as one of the Coming Soon movies in their Blu-ray trailers on their movies, like Talledega Nights, Black Hawk Down, Casino Roayle...

Any idea when Sony will start to work on these?

Thanks.

-Alex.

I don't know when the BB titles will start production. We reserve the right to change our minds about when to release titles from time to time. You will almost always get a better product after the wait...

[wakashizuma]

Hi Amir
I have a question regarding Xbox360's HD DVD drive.
My question is about the optical output. If a title has a DD track @ 640kbps (which can be sent through optical) does the add on convert the track to PCM first and then convert it back to DD (if we choose DD as our output) or it recognizes that track can be sent through without any conversion needed?

[yipchunyu]

amirm:

i learned that HD DVDs started to have download content like
http://www.animeonhd-dvd.com/reviews...views/6337.php

so, do u know any studio / films will start to have downable subtitle e.g. Chinese? In my place, Hong Kong, most of the people perfer the Chinese Titles e.g. in Blu Ray.
thx

[amirm]

Originally Posted by wakashizuma

Hi Amir
I have a question Xbox360's HD DVD drive.
my question is about the digital audio out. If a title has a DD track @ 640kbps (which can be sent through optical output) does the add on convert the track to PCM first and then convert it to DD (if we choose DD as our output) or it recognizes that track can be sent through without any conversion needed?

Currently it does not pass through because we mix other audio with it so we have to decode the stream anyway.

[amirm]

Originally Posted by yipchunyu

amirm:

i learned that HD DVDs started to have download content like
http://www.animeonhd-dvd.com/reviews...views/6337.php

so, do u know any studio / films will start to have downable subtitle e.g. Chinese? In my place, Hong Kong, most of the people perfer the Chinese Titles e.g. in Blu Ray.
thx

Oh, I just got finished reading the same review. Chris did a good job there, both on the review and on getting his article out before anyone else.

Freedom really pushed the envelop here, showing many of the scenarios we talked about at CES. Like last year, it is great to see concepts become even better products. The director of the feature took a personal interest here btw and drove a lot of the creatives.

As to your question, yes, it is coming but I can't say which title or language.

[yipchunyu]

Originally Posted by amirm

Oh, I just got finished reading the same review. Chris did a good job there, both on the review and on getting his article out before anyone else.

Freedom really pushed the envelop here, showing many of the scenarios we talked about at CES. Like last year, it is great to see concepts become even better products. The director of the feature took a personal interest here btw and drove a lot of the creatives.

As to your question, yes, it is coming but I can't say which title or language.

amirm, really thx for your quick reply and good news. Just hope more and more films will have Chinese subtiles in the future. cheers

[joshd2012]

Originally Posted by amirm

DVD Forum's official position is that HD does not stand for anything . It is simply part of the format name. As to the point that SD content can also live in HD DVD, well, I could say the same thing about upconverted SD content in ATSC. But I don't see people wanting to call HD TV "High Density" Television. Most TV programming lack enough intelligence to be called High Density anything .

Actually, the DVD Forum has called the format both High Definition DVD and High Density DVD. Originally, they called it a "High Density Read-Only Disc (HD DVD-ROM)" which was taken from the Steering Committee Meeting of September 12, 2006.

http://www.dvdforum.org/images/35th_...SC_Meeting.pdf

Though, in the White Paper they said, "Using combination HD DVDs, with standard definition DVD on one side and high-definition DVD on the flip side..."

http://www.dvdforum.org/images/HDDVD..._Paper_1-0.pdf

Also, if you look at the official website for HD DVD, it says in the FAQ that HD DVD stands for High Definition Digital Versatile Disc.

But now you are saying it doesn't stand for anything? Is it possible you can find out what is really going on and if there is a unified answer as to what HD DVD stands for?

[FilmMixer]

Originally Posted by Kampf kobold

Why you need True HD if you have the PCM Track?

Space, compatibility and access to changing, mixing and adding to the audio stream (i.e. player mixing.)

Remember that the resulting PCM from a TrueHD track should be identical to the uncompressed PCM stream.

When 7.1 tracks become more readily available, what about players and receivers that don't support 7.1 PCM? What is going to happen to the extra channels? You will start losing parts of the mix. The lossless codecs support fold downs...

And in the future, these lossless codecs will support more than 7.1 channels (they do now, just no tracks yet)

[FilmMixer]

Originally Posted by joshd2012

Actually, the DVD Forum has called the format both High Definition DVD and High Density DVD. Originally, they called it a "High Density Read-Only Disc (HD DVD-ROM)" which was taken from the Steering Committee Meeting of September 12, 2006.

http://www.dvdforum.org/images/35th_...SC_Meeting.pdf

Though, in the White Paper they said, "Using combination HD DVDs, with standard definition DVD on one side and high-definition DVD on the flip side..."

http://www.dvdforum.org/images/HDDVD..._Paper_1-0.pdf

Also, if you look at the official website for HD DVD, it says in the FAQ that HD DVD stands for High Definition Digital Versatile Disc.

But now you are saying it doesn't stand for anything? Is it possible you can find out what is really going on and if there is a unified answer as to what HD DVD stands for?

I'm not Amir, but wanted to stick my nose in anyways.

If you re-read your quote from Amir, he didn't say it was his position, but the forums.

If you are talking about the "look and sound of perfect webstie" they are promoting High Definition pre recorded video content, thus HD DVD (and it would be weird to call it HD DVD HD-V like DVD-V is for video content with Digital Versatile Discs, and in those cases they just started calling it DVD and replaced versatile with video, because it was easy and marketable).

Computer manufacturers and data hawkers are going to use HD for high density storage, and will market it as such...

Not sure there is a clear cut definition, or why we need one... it's a moniker for a technology package and standards..

[amirm]

Originally Posted by joshd2012

Actually, the DVD Forum has called the format both High Definition DVD and High Density DVD. Originally, they called it a "High Density Read-Only Disc (HD DVD-ROM)" which was taken from the Steering Committee Meeting of September 12, 2006.

http://www.dvdforum.org/images/35th_...SC_Meeting.pdf

Though, in the White Paper they said, "Using combination HD DVDs, with standard definition DVD on one side and high-definition DVD on the flip side..."

http://www.dvdforum.org/images/HDDVD..._Paper_1-0.pdf

Also, if you look at the official website for HD DVD, it says in the FAQ that HD DVD stands for High Definition Digital Versatile Disc.

But now you are saying it doesn't stand for anything? Is it possible you can find out what is really going on and if there is a unified answer as to what HD DVD stands for?

No need for that. I already gave you the proper answer . What I post was the "official" stance of DVD Forum. That is, what the lawyer and trademark groups would tell you. If you don't believe me, here is the way they put in the official notice to licensees of the mark: it http://www.dvdfllc.co.jp/hd_dvd/hd_what.html

'"HD DVD" is a generic term to specify new generation DVD formats developed by the DVD Forum.' [emphasis mine]
It doesn’t say it is an abbreviation for anything. And that “high definition” and “high density” are two capabilities of the specifications, not the meaning of the name.

Now, people can go ahead and call it different names when they talk about it and there is no police to take them to jail . Just as some people call the other format BD, BRD, but that doesn't make these are the official acronyms. Ditto for using a dash in HD DVD.

[joshd2012]

Thanks for the clarification once again, Amir!

Originally Posted by amirm

Just as some people call the other format BD, BRD, but that doesn't make these are the official acronyms. Ditto for using a dash in HD DVD.

Actually, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but "BD" is the official acronym for Blu-ray as confirmed by the Blu-ray Discs Association. I vaguely remember something semi-official, but its been a while. They do use it all over their website, however.

The use of the hyphen always got me too. I did find it funny that the HD DVD website had that as the second question in their FAQ I continue to find it disappointing, though, when high ranking officials - people who should know better - still use it.

[Jason One]

Originally Posted by TheLion

Dear paidgeek,

I almost forgot to report a real annoying issue/oversight with the new PS3 1.8 firmware.

Why is it that the (excellent) SD/"DVD" upscaling is not enabled while playing SD content (like 480i special features) from a BRD?

Originally Posted by paidgeek

There are additional complications to upscaling interlaced material versus progressive. I don't know if this will be improved.

Paidgeek, the PS3 is already upscaling interlaced material when it upscales DVDs, which are native 480i. Surely this can't be the reason the PS3 doesn't upscale standard-def extras on BDs.

[amirm]

Originally Posted by joshd2012

The use of the hyphen always got me too. I did find it funny that the HD DVD website had that as the second question in their FAQ I continue to find it disappointing, though, when high ranking officials - people who should know better - still use it.

Well, I think it is a "good thing" that we don't act as lawyers and put everything in its most approved form. We all pay people to know that stuff well, and it isn't us .

[amirm]

Originally Posted by Grandmaster

Amir,

Does the Xbox 360 Elite's HANA scaling chip use the same bilinear scaling algorhythm as the old ANA chip in the original console?

Sorry I missed your question before .

Hana (or ANA) is not used for scaling in 360. Instead, the graphics processor (GPU) is used to do the scaling. I won't disclose the internals of the filter but it is not bilinear at all. It is much more sophisticated than that with far more taps. Given where the hardware is, the scaling logic is the same in both products.

By the way, I just thought I'd say that I really like the Elite. Its ability to interface with any DVI monitor and offer the same resolution options as VGA is excellent. I applaud Microsoft's philosophy of bringing HD gaming to seemingly every conceivable device capable of rendering an HD image.

Thanks for the positive feedback! It is nice to have both new and old video standards covered....