Industry Insiders Q&A Thread: only Questions to insiders please - Page 90  

According to highdefdigest, the PS3 will....

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...y_Playback/255

PCM all the way. Let's fill up this 50GB baby....

And make it real lossless 24bit/48Khz while you are at it ;)

both would be nice. since BD-50 will have the space

what is with all the discussion?

i thought this was a Q/A for only insiders only to answer, and no other commentary welcome?

on these hd dvd 30/9 combos, is it possible to do as they are doing now, ie, hd on the hd30 side and sd on the dvd9 side, but make the sd side a separate purchasable feature left to the buyer (eg, using the internet connection to 'unlock the sd side or enter some code that was purchased, etc).

this way those who don't like paying the extra $5 or so up front don't have to?

is this possible within the hd dvd format?

If it is "SD video," then by definition it is not governed by HD DVD format :).

There are schemes being developed (to avoid retail theft) that may allow activation of the layer (in any optical format) but I am not sure they will be deployed anytime soon. They require new players and that would not be a positive thing for users.

The solution to $5 premium is some other studio pricing them differently, or your voices being heard. That is a lot better solution than any other scheme...

Hi Amir,

It has been stated (in the 360 Add On thread) that several of the current 360 games are made rendered in 1080p. When MS update the 360 dashboard, these games will be automatically rendered at 1080p. What is/are comment/s on this? What are the current (already in the market) 360 games that are made rendered in 1080p other than Oblivion? (In the same 360 add on thread, some one has confirmed that Oblivion is made rendered at 1080p). If this is the case and MS update the 360 dashboard before 11 Nov, 360 will beat PS3 to become the first to render games at 1080p.

question 2. Will there will an announcement on the estimated figure of 360 add on that MS plan to put into the market by year end and by March 07, during the X06?

thanks

Amir,

We know thanks to you that the A1 and XA1 do not support any possible future region coding with the current firmware versions, so they can stay region free (for HD-DVD) permanently.

Is this also the case for the new XE1 models?

Yes. There is no region coding in any announced hd dvd products.

I posted this question over in the "Blu-ray Players" sectioin to see if any of us "commoners" knew the answer, but I'm curious if any of you insiders have any info on this:

"Has anybody heard when we can expect to get some reports/reviews/impressions of the PS3 as a Blu-ray player?"

We've seen some of the games, and I can understand Sony wanting to highlight that part of the PS3 first and foremost, but is there an upcoming convention, conference, or date between now and November 11th/17th that someone can point to as the PS3's "Blu-ray functionality coming out party"? Is there a particular title Sony is waiting on to be released that will show the Blu-ray player of the PS3 in a good light? Or is there even just a website someone knows of that is claiming "We will have some hands-on impressions of the PS3 Blu-ray functionality on (fill-in-the-blank date)!!!"?

Anything is fine. The PCM could get used immediately, of course. But putting on the TrueHD track would lead the world to a better place. And the PS/3 is supposed to be able to decode that.

Gary

Following up on your post, I would like the BDA insiders to clarify if the only way the PS3 would be able to ouput TrueHD is over HDMI 1.3, otherwise it would have to be downgraded to DD5.1 to be output over SPDIF/Toslink? If this information could not be declassified at this moment, is there a point in time earmarked for this announcement? TGS has come and gone, and X06 is a MS press-event. I don't know if there are any CE or gaming related special events/shows to make this kind of announcement prior to the launch of the console 7 weeks ( :eek: ) from now..

P.S:
BTW, TIA.

Amirm,

plz tell me how dolby true hd will be transportated in the 360 add-on because i really need to know because it would be great if it was through the analog ports

DTS-master or DTHD, your choice, isn't lossless, lossless?

I would say DTS MA lose the DD and make all languages lossless. (my understanding with DTS MA you don't need DTS or DD)

not sure I understand the answer

the DVD is two DVD 9's right? if the 9 of the combo has the movie then are the extras on the 30 side? Are you saying the BD will have an SD copy of the movie as well

No, but the HD-DVD add-on is more than a drive. It also has to carry the patent and IP burden for the format and any codecs it supports. It also has to be designed, manufactured, packaged, shipped, supported, and provide some margin for the distributor and the retailer.
Given what will be something like a 10:1 ratio of Blu-ray drives to HD-DVD drives by the end of 2006, I'd imagine much of the cost of Blu-ray's extra optics would be offset by economies of scale...

- Talk

But what is the answer Talk? If our cost is over $200, how much is Sony's cost, given the "extra optics" they have? You are trying to do the math for us, how about doing the same for them?

Or you could just say you don't know their cost, or ours and we can leave it at that :).

I would love to knows this too. I'm quite sure some MS guy said ALL 360 games were done in 720p (at the same time he said that no PS3 games would be 1080P, maybe he said "this year", don't remember.)

Update: OK, the link is http://games.kikizo.com/news/200603/101.asp. MS: "I think 1080p, just to address that directly, will be basically impossible. I think if you talk to any developer they will tell you that they will not have a performing game at 1080p." (Riiiiight...)

OK, so he didn't directly say anything about the 360, but from what he says, you should think there will be no 1080P titles for it. Amir? (Hey, I'm not saying 1080P gaming is a must for the general gaming public, just wondering.)

Also, since Amir mentioned that MS have put no "hurdles" in the HD DVD add-on as far as ripping it out and using it in a PC, is there anything else to stop anyone from putting it in a PC and playing back HD DVDs (assuming everything else is in place in the PC)?

amirm,

XBOX 360 VGA Cable currently output RGB signal at so called "TV Scale" instead of "PC Scale" Most displays expect PC Scale from its VGA input, this will result in washed out picture (too bright picture) and loss in dynamic range if you try to compensate black level by turning brightness setting down.

Can this be fixed by software update? or it is hardware bug that cannot be fixed.

Thanks.

Putting on my Videogames Insider hat for a moment, three games in that thread were listed as internally rendering at 1080p - Oblivion, Call of Duty 2 and Dead or Alive 4. Framebuffer dumps of the CoD2 and DOA4 demos indicate a 720p resolution being used. Based on how graphically complex Oblivion is, I'm willing to wager that would be 720p too.

1080p frame buffers are definitely possible and the HD-DVD player obviously uses them, but I just don't think we've seen them in games yet.

The current news from gaming websites are a plenty quoting yourself on 1080p through VGA only on the xbox 360 console:

My question is this:

1. Do MS have no answer to Sony's HDMI option on the PS3?

2. Is it possible to release a HDMI cable for the Xbox 360 without picture loss?


Many thanks.

amir, isn't 1080p output for games on the xbox 360 available over component? it would seem to me that the gaming websites are confusing sd dvd and hd dvd playback with gaming...can you clarify this as it doesn't make any sense to restrict gaming output as there are no ccs/aacs restrictions related to gaming?

Sorry this is specifically HD DVD related, not games

In a 30/9 combo, it's been discussed that all that is on the SD-9 part is SD extra content instead of a whole other encode of the feature like on KKBB, Firewall, and 16 Blocks. I don't know if this is the case with Superman Returns, though. Clearer?

BD doesn't support combo and therefore makes no sense to the studio to issue 2 software licenses in one package that can be easily separated from each other. I'm saying that Warner MAY put all of the SD stuff (except for the SD feature, if it exists on that side of the HD combo) from the SD-9 side of the 30/9 onto the BD50 thus leaving only 11GB of empty space instead of my theorized 20GB previously.

Cjplay.

CJ,

In all honesty, I cannot wait for the day these flipper discs die. Has Warner done a study on the durability of these flippers in the most-likely event of finger-prints or smudges inadvertently appearing on either surface? It has been reported through rental discs that even small pieces of lint or a faint smudge on the shiny surface is enough to send the players into a tizzy.

Why cannot the SD extras be included on a separate DVD-5 or a DVD-9 instead of mating it with the HD15/HD30 side? I understand that you don't make the business decisions at Warner, but what is the inside opinion of Warner guys on these flippers?

P.S.
In case I haven't said before, thanks for your insights and continued participation. Much appreciated !

amirm, right now I can play mpeg2 and VC-1 hidef content on my 360 through the media center, but no h.264. My question is about the upcoming 360 update: will it be possible to play h.264 hidef video from the media center?

Talk, do you have any source for this estimate?

With it widely understood that there are FAR more Toshiba HD DVD decks in the wild than Blu Ray decks, and Toshiba releasing the Gen-2 players within the next month, it seems there is a big jump on the number of drives out there currently. These are from two known manucaturers thus far: NEC and Toshiba (TSST?).

Add to that MS is ramping up production for their HD DVD add-on release prior to end of year and that PS3 inital shipment estimates have been scaled back (twice?). I believe for one of these, Sony stated that diode reliability was a problem.

Given all of the above, an order of magnitude difference in the number of drives manufactured this year, which only has 3 more months left in it, seems difficult to reconcile.

Is there some factor I am overlooking? Thanks.

Talkstr8t might take some time to get back [being busy and all..], and it does seem to be very obvious what he was referring to, I will try to answer this question [excuse me for this one time, mods!]

I guess Talk was referring to the PS3 juggernaut when he said that BD drives would outnumber HD-DVD drives by a factor of 10:1 by the year end. Leaving the PS3 and the HD-DVD add-on, neither camp can realistically outsell the other by a 10:1 margin, [definitely not Blu-Ray, with all the standalone players at the launch premium prices of around $1000+.]

Correct. Gaming has no restriction so 1080p is available on component.