OFFICIAL T2: Extreme WM9 HD-DVD Review Thread - Page 2

hey lurking msft dudes...I don't really have a big deal about DRM, but I would never tolerate DRM that needs constant call homes. Once is enough. I am hearing about too many activation problems that comes from (potentially) multiple call homes.

thanks

Darius

P.S. I make it a point never to have real media or interactual software on my computer. Use your own ******* software to confirm licenses.

P.S.S. Given all that license mess, I'm thinking...hmmm what are the garuntees I have for satisfaction? Sure you guys are here and you and others can give informal help, but what system is in place for smooth and effective license disentanglement help? I wouldn't think MSFT's methods for businesses with Office/WindowsXP license problems (which I have heard about) would be suitable for consumers?

Oh, and one last thing. Nor will I tolerate situations where I recieve a license for the media and own the storage only, but I (company X says) *actually* only purchased the storage, and they are not liable for replaceing bad storage, or whatever. If I am at risk for those kind of situations, then I will either, crack, find someone to crack, or purchase a cracked version for backup purposes.

Again, I am fine with licenses, but licensing give YOU obligations as well, just like a landowner. I want to be able to purchase these things in secure knowledge that what I purchase will stay purchased unless EXPLICITLY not so.

2.8 GHz P4 here, with ASUS P4S8X, and 512MB DDR 333 RAM, generic GEForce 4 MX 440 card. Playback was smooth 99% of the time (though it got a bit choppy for the last few seconds of each of the seven WM9 parts.)

Amir,

Are MS happy with Artisan's checking of network IPs to exclude non-USA / Canada residents, or is this something that you would like to see dropped too? As far as I know there are no plans for a R2 release of this set, so for those of us outside the US, importing this disc is our only chance to see it in HD. (And in the case of Europe, there is no broadcast HDTV or DVHS, so this is our only way of acquiring HD content, which makes the disc even more tempting.)

Thanks for keeping us informed anyway.

Hey, something just occurred to me. If Hypersnap can take a perfect capture of 1 frame. And using Hypersnap over and over could take a perfect capture of a series of frames.

Hmmm.


Joe

Could someone please confirm the need to install the InterActual player to unlock the disc?

The 5-day limitation on the DRM license is bad enough, but the thought of having that POS on my HTPC is almost enough to say "thanks but no thanks".

"Even if there is a frame step function, I bet it only works on I-frame or some sort."

Automating that part would probably require another 17 year old Scandinavian.

Joe

Well, I installed the Interactual Player, but I couldn't get it to run without crashing, so in the end I acquired the licence with WMP9. I guess it's possible though that installing (as opposed to running) Interactual Player did something that allowed WMP9 to get the licence, so I couldn't say that it'll definitely work without the Interactual player. But if all you have to do is install it to get the licence, and you can watch the movie with WMP9, then it shouldn't matter too much having it on your hard drive...

Nice screen captures, BTW - thanks

Can someone PM me or post where you are able to purchase this???? I would love to watch it this weekend...........

Where did you guys buy it? If anyone around DC has it I would appreciate them telling me how they got it.

Members that have it seem to be East Asian based so far... HK / Japan / Etc...

I wanted to clarify a few things for everyone.

The registry setting that is being set for user experience purposes only and not security. The registry setting lets the player know that a license has been issued and if the user has accepted the EULA (which isn't complete yet).

After you have acquired the license you shouldn't need to be on-line anymore within those 5 days. After the 5 days, you need to put the DVD back into the drive and a new license will automatically be renewed. This policy is something that can be updated in the future.

I noticed some folks have tried disc #2 on P4 2.4, 2.53 and 2.66 GHz machines. Our testing found that lower end machines played the disc fine as long as the user had a good video card 64M or higher and had a fast read DVD-ROM 16X +.

Lastly, Interactual knows about the issues that have been posted on this thread and will be posting a fix soon.

John
Microsoft

So Li On, how much smearing occured? In all the trailers I've seen, there is alot of smearing at 720p.

Colors in WM9 were more intense than the superbowl trailers, but the trailers were sharper. An odd thing, to those that have seen the matrix reloaded, was the pic quality better than the 720p trailers? When I went to the theater, the T3 trailer was much , much sharper thant he film, and judging by certain scenes, the 720p trailer actually seemed sharper to me (most evident in the Morpheus speech distance shot)...

Darius

Hmm I just saw those two DVD vs wmv9 comparison hmm the picture isnt THAT much improved its still blury. i guess the original source is plain and simple crap :/ It's better sure.. but not THAT much better :/ Post some other scenes maybe its just that scene. None the less I can't wait to get myself a copy, I never knew T2: EE was out :/ how about a scene with a face close up.

Can someone that has this disc please state exactly what resolution the WMP9 version is?

Many thanks
Brian

Brian it has been repeatedly stated that the resolutions is 1440x816p anamoprhiclly encoded to provide a 1920x816p output...

As this is a 2.35 film that is equal to a letterboxed 1920x1080p source if it was on a 16:9 screen.

Thanks for explaining this to me. 816p now makes sense.

Has anyone considered the negative effects of displaying this res 1440x816p on a CRT PJ that can only run at 720p?

on the avforums - apparently the theatrical cut is on disk 1 of the extreme edition

Highlight "Sensory Control" and press right 5 times. "The Future is Not Set" will appear. Press Enter and you can play the Theatrical Version!

Any of our american cousins confirms this works?

Two quick questions:
What is being done to make sure that when you need to make a DRM connection you can get one? The Shadows DVD showed that the system did and probably will have glitches.

Why does the T2 data take so much cpu power? I've been encoding OTA HD @ 1280x720 90% quality WM9 and the files play fine over the network (wired) with a 1.8 gHZ laptop. The WM9 playback is so good that I've been pitching the original HD files ;-)

When playing this on TV what have you guys run it at, 720p how about 1080i

On my CRT Sony XBR set, I ran it at 1080i and it worked just fine. But if you have a fixed panel progressive display device such as DLP/LCD, you are probably better off running at the native resolution of the panel (i.e. 720p for most DLPs).

Amir
Microsoft

Can someone please PM me if you have found this in Dallas? I have checked a couple Trashmarts but no luck... I really want to watch it in HD!

Thanks for all the good feedback on this thread. However, I must chip in with how annoying it is that the PC that is playing this disk needs an Internet connection, I have just finished building my home theatre room and now look like I'm going to need to drag another cat5 cable through for a net connection. I'm so close to just saying sod it with the whole Microsoft HD-DVD thing. I can appreciate the need to try and combat the whole issue of piracy, but surely there must be a better way. The fact that many HTPCs are, like mine configured to run the bare minimal services in order to devote as much processing power to scaling, running ffdshow and aiding stability that having to enable all the networking stuff is an inconvenience.

feel better after getting that off my chest, thanks for listening!
Ian

Might we suggest 802.11b wireless net connections or equivalent. They are practically giving them away these days.