Industry Insiders Q&A Thread: only Questions to insiders please - Page 19  

If you can't then doesn't it mean you won't be able to copy the movies out now with managed copy? It seems managed copy is pretty vague right now. This is a feature HD-DVD, Blu-Ray is touting.

I want to know if the current crop of movies can be copied. If now they can't, then how about the future? Will only future discs be copyable?

I think it depends on what the final AACS agreements are, which is still up in the air. Should manage copies be aloud, we need to wait for approved MC software to be come available for the copies to be made.

Is Windows Vista going to have MC software available soon after launch? Will it be free or will it cost money for the software (not including fees for having a MC should there be one)?

Every HD DVD released today already has the BCA (burst cutting area) for ID purpose. Once the AACS is finalized and MMC become a part of it, what prevents consumer from making copy of the current available HD DVD title?

Only insiders could answer this question.

I know current Toshiba players can't do MMC/MC.

Maximum mux rate for BD-ROM is 48 Mbps with a disk transfer rate of 54 Mbps.

Ron

Huh, now I'm confused. I thought DTS was keen for TrueHD to be done inside AVRs rather than players (that was my recollection from talk in one of the HiDef DVD threads here), transported via HDMI 1.3. Will we be seeing DTS TrueHD decoding inside players? I recall Dolby was keen on decoding inside players with transportation to AVRs via PCM. Do DTS and Dolby share the same PCM vision?

Second question (for all insiders) relates to HDMI sound quality. Will it improve?

More than a few people have stated that audio transported via HDMI does not sound that great (due primarily to jitter it seems). I recall that Arcam in its new AVR has HDMI but only for video switching, they do not like the sound of HDMI transported audio (they state that analogue currently is much better). Arcam is a quality company so I take their word on this issue (others have backed up this feeling as well). The question is will this situation improve, will the jitter (and other issues) of HDMI be solved in 1.3 and beyond such that high-end fans can use HDMI connectivity to get the best possible audio results.

Dennis.

I think I can answer my own question. According to this article, the lack of managed copy on current generation players won't affect the media titles.

The article is on the PCWorld website and is called "Burning Questions: No Copying From First High-Def Players"

I have GREAT news for those of you in Europe. I have finally permission to tell you that ALL Studio Canal titles will use 24p source encoding!!!

I told you to not worry :).

Big thumbs-up from me Amir to you, your team and Studio Canal :D

Note, I was ready to blast anyone that persisted with needless 4% speedup. I can put than cannon away now.

Great news. It appears both sides will be offering 24p to all folk, be they PAL or NTSC region. Fantastic news. I'll be doing much less importing now.

Excellent!!

Dennis.

I thought you would be happy Dennis :). Went looking for your old thread but it seems to have expired from my list....

Amirm - Am I wrong in thinking that this means the European releases will be 100% compatible with the US players (since regional coding isn't being used on the first titles)?

You generally don't see a good Mos Def reference dropped in a forum as, ahem, technical as this one. :)

I'm extremely pleased, very much so. My original PAL regions thread has achieved its aim. Thanks again Amir.

Speaking of which, that thread still exists at

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...5&page=1&pp=30

A note in that thread would be worthwhile, huge news indeed.

24p utopia ain't that far away :)

Dennis.

No you are not wrong. There are no region coding in HD DVD. So you can take titles from US and play them there, and vice versa. Of course, given the distribution deals content owners have, they would like you to not do that. But I let you decide what you like to do.

Jitter is definitely the enemy of digital audio. But yes, it will definitely improve in that higher end manufactures who understand it, and can design a player accordingly, will get it right and do justice to it. Note that some jitter problems are due to ground loops and hums induced by interconnect between devices. So if the quality is not quite where it should be, you may want to play with how you feed A/C into your player/reciever (move plugs, etc.). But we digress.

Just adding to my answer, HDMI 1.3 will not do anything to improve jitter. Jitter is a function of electrical design of the system, not what protocol is used on the wire.

Also note that "re-clocking" and buffering on the receiver can also help a lot with jitter, but it introduces delay which may not be welcome without compensation elsewhere.

Some comments that folks have made is that HDMI audio actually is a regression sound wise compared to IEEE 1394/Firewire (which is much better jitter wise) and DenonLink. Hopefully companies can get on top of the HDMI audio issue, it appears that the industry wants HDMI to be the connection standard. I'm just hoping thats its audio qualities will improve.

Personally speaking, I'd rather have HDMI purely for digital video transportation, and IEEE 1394 for digital audio transportation (just from the information I've gleemed). Probably won't happen though.

Dennis.

Forgive me if this has been brought up, but I'de like to know a couple things about the 360's external hd-dvd player before I spend $500 on the Toshiba....

1) Knowing that the decoder is by ATI and will be using the GPU to decode the video, can one expect similar PQ as in the current Toshiba hd player? <--- I'm not concerned with audio and other bells and whistles...just PQ. Can it even be predicted now?

2) Will the external hd-dvd player be able to upconvert standard dvds? If so...component? Hdmi? VGA?

A big thank you for answering these two questions and if they can't be answered I totally understand. :)

This was originally posted on another thread by CasualViewer. Could any of the insiders comment on it?
http://www.avguide.com/news/2006/07/...-chip-mistake/

Amir, regarding the rumors of 5.1 TueHD on the HDA1 via firmware...

Logic is telling me that TrueHD would be less of a load on the processors in the A1 compared to DD+ because trueHD is less 'compressed' and would therefore require less processing to 'decompress'.

Is this a true statement? Are there any hardware issues keeping the A1 from supporting 5.1 True HD in the future?


BTW, got my D2 today! :D Looks like they've caught up with demand for the moment so yours may arrive shortly!

That does not explain why people with the VAIO player see substandard picture quality too though?

Does either Blu-ray or HD DVD have in the spec anything that would mitigate or eliminate audio video sync issues. Will this still be a possible problem with these formats?

I know that in some people setups broadcast or cable set top boxes and in some video upconversion and AV receivers all add up to millisecond delays that can be noticable to some people.

I understand the problem is each individual device may add an insignificant delay, but the whole setup chain can add to a significant delay. I occasionally hear it my self in digital cable. Some products have just come out to address the problem.

Do the new high def formats address the problem?

I am confused. At one point, they talk about how much better things looked when the "noise reduction" was turned off. But then they said:

So I guess it didn't help much.

But most confusing was the final statement:

They just finished comparing Blu-ray to HD-DVD with a "modified" Samsung player with the noise-reduction turned off. They said the BD titles looked decidedly soft compared to HD-DVD. So why have "every confidence that Blu-ray will look fabulous when the Samsung "fixes" the noise-reduction problem"?

I know I ma no insider but did not see these points responded to

Robert1: Sony is not the only replication equipment manufacturer. Singulus, Panasonic are offering their own replication lines. Also from Cinram and Deluxe in the past and some other replicators we know they have BD replication lines. I think Amir’s point was that for the short term (If Sony has the lower price due to a promised cap or something else) Sony might have the best price and so the studios won’t want to go somewhere else.

Lymzy: Don’t forget MC needs a lot more then just the BCA on the disk in order to work. For instance it would need to know the call home address. If all the decisions or structure have not been decided (By AACS or outside of AACS) then how can they be on the pressed disk already?

I am not forgetting anything. That's why I am asking. :)
The HD DVD menu/extras/subtitles/sound tracks could all be updated later. Adding an URL for the clear house shouldn't be a problem. Of course, I am still looking for the insider's confirmation.

Nothing in the specs since it is a player implementation issue. While greater care is now being taken to ensure the A/V outputs of the player are correctly time-aligned, some players will have the ability to adjust the audio delay relative to the video. HDMI 1.3 also provide the tools to help address the issue moving forward.

did you guys ever address if there are legal issues with releasing a COMBO (blu/hddvd) player?

Thanks Ben and Talkstr8t
I have a few follow up.

Ben: If I understand correctly HD DVD can but the specs say a max of 2 so if you have general and dialog it can't have a commentary track but a way around it could be to have a)general, b)dialog only and c)dialog + commentary so if you are not watching the commentary you listen to A+B and if you do it is A+C?

too bad it is only two, after Talkstr8t's post I thought it would be cooler to have Music, effect, dialog1, D2, D3. That way the music could also be the movies soundtrack (as a menu item , play song#1, #2 and the movie at that point as the video)

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Talkstr8t: there was a reason I wanted the HD DVD and BD answer, HD DVD requires the player to process audio (well, up to 2ch lossless) and pass the processed info to the receiver. How does the muxing of the three channels you mentioned work in BD? can it do the combining without decoding and send the mixed signal to the receiver? does it send three tracks to the receiver and hopefully it can get three inputs and mux them together?

I'm not well-versed in the audio implementation, but I believe that they get mixed as PCM, so you only get the proper audio mix if you allow the player to do the decoding. If anyone knows differently please correct...

- Talk

I'm in Las Vegas right now, without a copy of the spec handy, so I'm not sure. But there might be a way to use the effects track to add commentary on top (but you wouldn't get button sounds).

I would also like to know the status/possibility of 5.1 TueHD implementation on the A1. This is the last hurdle to getting me off the fence and making a purchase.