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Industry Insiders Q&A MASTER THREAD [separate thread for Xbox/Add On & PS3] - Page 69  

post #2041 of 4841
2/9/07 at 11:15am
To anybody from Microsoft...

Do I understand the upcoming DTS fix for the Xbox360 HD-DVD player correctly?
Rather than converting a Dolby Digital Plus or TrueHD signal to a 640K Dolby Digital stream, all sound will be converted to a DTS 1.5MB stream and sent to my receiver.
Rather than Dolby Digital appearing on my receiver, DTS will appear instead.

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post #2042 of 4841
2/9/07 at 11:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by wickedbob View Post

To anybody from Microsoft...

Do I understand the upcoming DTS fix for the Xbox360 HD-DVD player correctly?
Rather than converting a Dolby Digital Plus or TrueHD signal to a 640K Dolby Digital stream, all sound will be converted to a DTS 1.5MB stream and sent to my receiver.
Rather than Dolby Digital appearing on my receiver, DTS will appear instead.

That is true although you will still have the option of using DD on the way out, rather than DTS. And even with DD, you will be able to hear much improved quality compared to currently shipping player (more on this later ).
post #2043 of 4841
2/9/07 at 11:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by amirm View Post

Sorry for the late reply. It takes me a bit of time to get answers for overseas questions .

So here is the situation.

Pathé titles are distributed in France only. But for some titles such as Stalingrad and Alexander, they seem to have rights for UK market also. These titles will be on the market on March 7th. They would be sold on the Internet and could be acquired from UK for every country around the world.

Entertainment (BBC) has announced the release of Planet Earth for US market in April and later in Europe (probably around June time frame).

Regarding Momentum, they will distribute most of Studio Canal titles in UK market (the rest will be done by Optimum - acquired recently by Studio Canal itself).

Thanks for the response Amir. Do you know when Momentum will start selling their titles? I only ask because Optimum has already released a few.
post #2044 of 4841
2/9/07 at 11:36am
amir,

will the upcoming update include a new black 360 and matching addon?
post #2045 of 4841
2/9/07 at 11:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BenDover View Post

amir,

will the upcoming update include a new black 360 and matching addon?

Yes, we managed to get the Star Trek transporter technology to work through Xbox live. And upon download, your machine and add-on will turn into black!
post #2046 of 4841
2/9/07 at 11:57am
Amir, was the poll you ran here on AVS the reason Universal changed The Nutty Professor and The Jerk to regular HD DVD (they were announced as HD DVD/DVD combo titles)?

Hopefully Universal has a plan to make everyone happy, because as it is, I'm holding off on buying anything that ISN'T a combo. I'm very disappointed 40-Year Old Virgin was just announced as a regular disc as well. My DVD collection is very small, but now that I'm buying movies, I'd rather own a hybrid version and not have to pay more for a DVD plus have to deal with shelf space issues.

Is there any reasonable solution to this now that some early adopters are happy about fewer combos from Universal, while other like me who are willing to pay extra for them and prefer them are now going to hold off on purchases?
post #2047 of 4841
2/9/07 at 5:08pm
Are Euro HD-DVD tranferes of the same quality as there US counterparts due to the fact some titles have many more lauguages on the disc etc (or any other reason).

Some discs i have seen dont seem to compare too well to my north american copies of the same film.

or are my eyezies playing tricks on me. you know what its like when you stare at these things for too long
post #2048 of 4841
2/9/07 at 5:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by amirm View Post

That is true although you will still have the option of using DD on the way out, rather than DTS. And even with DD, you will be able to hear much improved quality compared to currently shipping player (more on this later ).

That is good news. Should keep people with DD only receivers happy.

However.. does the new DTS output outperform the upgraded DD output?
post #2049 of 4841
2/9/07 at 5:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by efralope View Post

Amir, was the poll you ran here on AVS the reason Universal changed The Nutty Professor and The Jerk to regular HD DVD (they were announced as HD DVD/DVD combo titles)?

Hopefully Universal has a plan to make everyone happy, because as it is, I'm holding off on buying anything that ISN'T a combo. I'm very disappointed 40-Year Old Virgin was just announced as a regular disc as well. My DVD collection is very small, but now that I'm buying movies, I'd rather own a hybrid version and not have to pay more for a DVD plus have to deal with shelf space issues.

Is there any reasonable solution to this now that some early adopters are happy about fewer combos from Universal, while other like me who are willing to pay extra for them and prefer them are now going to hold off on purchases?

I am providing feedback based on the opinions of the forum to the studios. I don't personally know if that has affected their plans regarding those titles (but it could have). I hope to provide more concrete feedback to this forum soon.

As to your concern, you are right that it will be hard to please everyone. I know opinions are varied on this so some percentage of people may not like the policy no matter what. Ultimately, once the market gets large, then it might merit different versions being published.
post #2050 of 4841
2/9/07 at 7:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by paidgeek View Post

I don't know the exact date the announcements will come, but in the next few weeks you should expect to hear about some strong titles. I have seen what is in planning for the year and I'm sure you will be pleased.

We are favoring AVC encoding for a large percentage of titles. It could just be coincidence, but lately we have had several masters in production that have benefited from using AVC based on tests. Rocky Balboa was a particularly difficult title and you will understand why when you view it. No tutorial on film grain will be required for that one...

Is the AVC encoder inherently better with grainy masters or is it because the MPEG2 encoder exceeds the 40mbps bandwidth limit for video peaks ??

b2b
post #2051 of 4841
2/9/07 at 7:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by b2bonez View Post

Is the AVC encoder inherently better with grainy masters or is it because the MPEG2 encoder exceeds the 40mbps bandwidth limit for video peaks ??

b2b

Yes, generally speaking, the Sony AVC encoder can retain the character of the titles with heavier grain better than the Sony MPEG2 encoder or the VC1 encoder, but each master really has to be evaluated case by case. The MPEG encoder can be constrained to whatever max bitrate is permitted by the project.
post #2052 of 4841
2/9/07 at 8:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by paidgeek View Post

Yes, generally speaking, the Sony AVC encoder can retain the character of the titles with heavier grain better than the Sony MPEG2 encoder or the VC1 encoder, but each master really has to be evaluated case by case. The MPEG encoder can be constrained to whatever max bitrate is permitted by the project.

Does this imply you have the latest (or a recent) version of MS's VC-1 encoder? Or any version at all, for that matter?

It has been mentioned here that Sony did not take MS up on their offer of the software and encoding assistance...
post #2053 of 4841
2/9/07 at 9:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by scaesare View Post

Does this imply you have the latest (or a recent) version of MS's VC-1 encoder? Or any version at all, for that matter?

It has been mentioned here that Sony did not take MS up on their offer of the software and encoding assistance...

We provided Sony with our latest encoder and tools late last year (post the interviews where they claimed they already had experience with VC-1). In addition, we have provided them with training on our tools and answered their questions.

Alas, unless Sony starts to actually use the tools and get experienced with them, they are not going to get good results from VC-1. One does not become an expert at a sport, by just reading the rules in a book!
post #2054 of 4841
2/9/07 at 9:34pm
I have another question for Amir regarding Universal's combo change-up.

As I have a hard time believing that the AVS poll would change Universal's policy (as I recall, somewhere North of 80% said they would buy combos under the various circumstances given) perhaps Universal thought they had other titles which would make more effective use of the combo manufacturing lines (stronger titles from a sales perspective) and bumped Nutty Professor and The Jerk for that reason?
post #2055 of 4841
2/9/07 at 9:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by amirm View Post

We provided Sony with our latest encoder and tools late last year (post the interviews where they claimed they already had experience with VC-1). In addition, we have provided them with training on our tools and answered their questions.

Alas, unless Sony starts to actually use the tools and get experienced with them, they are not going to get good results from VC-1. One does not become an expert at a sport, by just reading the rules in a book!

Are you sure Sony hasn't used the tools and become familiar with them, but still feel they get better results using AVC?
post #2056 of 4841
2/9/07 at 10:04pm
Amir, about 6 months to two years ago in various interviews including one in Widescreen Review you said that MPEG-4 AVC was incapable of encoding fine detail. Do you still believe that and if so have you ever seen the Blu-ray version of Open Season?
post #2057 of 4841
2/9/07 at 11:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by amirm View Post

We provided Sony with our latest encoder and tools late last year (post the interviews where they claimed they already had experience with VC-1). In addition, we have provided them with training on our tools and answered their questions.

Alas, unless Sony starts to actually use the tools and get experienced with them, they are not going to get good results from VC-1. One does not become an expert at a sport, by just reading the rules in a book!

I won't speak about our first hand experience because we are not allowed to do so. My comments are based on viewing the latest HD-DVD titles and discussion with other studios and authoring facilities. Even the most consistent supporters of VC1 are getting impatient with the time it takes to get good results. If VC1 is going to have a future in HD packaged media it should require less user intervention. There is ever increasing pressure to release new titles shortly after theatrical debut and it does matter when the time to complete compression and authoring is hindered by the choice of codec.
post #2058 of 4841
2/9/07 at 11:18pm
Paidgeek,

How much time on a title such as "Open Season" does one save with AVC vs. using VC-1 as per a rough estimate so we have idea of that means in terms of actual hours/days/weeks.

Thanks,
Robert.
post #2059 of 4841
2/9/07 at 11:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertR1 View Post

Paidgeek,

How much time on a title such as "Open Season" does one save with AVC vs. using VC-1 as per a rough estimate so we have idea of that means in terms of actual hours/days/weeks.

Thanks,
Robert.

I can't give an accurate estimate on "Open Season" because we got a very good result with AVC and did not test it with VC1. My prior comments are based on discussion with two studios and two major authoring facilities. In all honesty, I am happy to have 3 workable codecs to use provided that it makes sense. It just gets tiresome to have to continually defend our decision to use something other than VC1. At point some point, every content company is compelled to make decisions based on performance and economics....The same can be said about supporting disc formats....
post #2060 of 4841
2/10/07 at 3:11am
You are a small label with quite limited financial means but you have some HD material you want to release on HD-DVD or BR. NOT counting the costs for compression and making all the data ready for stamp master production and replication, what is the ballpark for the amount of money you have to spend per disc to make today 1000 discs, 10000 discs for HD-DVD? How much for BR? How much 6 months from now? In a year?
post #2061 of 4841
2/10/07 at 3:45am
Amirm, do you know when we´ll see the first HD DVD players from the Chinese companies, announced at the CES2007.

Q2, Q3 or later.???
post #2062 of 4841
2/10/07 at 4:13am
Paidgeek,

I realize that CES was only four weeks ago, but I was wondering when more information would be forthcoming regarding Sony's "Sapphire" Blu-ray players?


Thank you.
post #2063 of 4841
2/10/07 at 6:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by paidgeek View Post

I won't speak about our first hand experience because we are not allowed to do so. My comments are based on viewing the latest HD-DVD titles and discussion with other studios and authoring facilities. Even the most consistent supporters of VC1 are getting impatient with the time it takes to get good results. If VC1 is going to have a future in HD packaged media it should require less user intervention. There is ever increasing pressure to release new titles shortly after theatrical debut and it does matter when the time to complete compression and authoring is hindered by the choice of codec.

As consumers we just want the best looking product we can get. Are you saying here that getting it done and getting it out the door is more important?
post #2064 of 4841
2/10/07 at 6:44am
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=63849

are reporting Casino Royale will be coded A, B, C. How does this fit with the policy of coding in the first year and then removal or is this an error?
post #2065 of 4841
2/10/07 at 6:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ezra View Post

As consumers we just want the best looking product we can get. Are you saying here that getting it done and getting it out the door is more important?

No, I am saying that our goal is to provide consumers with an image that is indistinguishable from the master tape when viewed at 2 or 3 picture heights. If one codec can get to that result in a week and another takes two or three, we will make decisions accordingly.
post #2066 of 4841
2/10/07 at 6:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nic Rhodes View Post

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=63849

are reporting Casino Royale will be coded A, B, C. How does this fit with the policy of coding in the first year and then removal or is this an error?

Casino Royale has already been released in theaters worldwide. Since the theatrical window for the title is passed, we are coding the disc all region.
post #2067 of 4841
2/10/07 at 7:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sknight1 View Post

Paidgeek,

I realize that CES was only four weeks ago, but I was wondering when more information would be forthcoming regarding Sony's "Sapphire" Blu-ray players?


Thank you.

I don't have any new information on the release of the new models. As far as I know, the model for the U.S. is still coming in the Spring.
post #2068 of 4841
2/10/07 at 7:40am
Thanks PG
post #2069 of 4841
2/10/07 at 8:35am
I have a question concerning authoring/encoding. It seems agreed on that VC-1 requires "more time". I've also seen two weeks given as some kind of ballpark figure as to how long it takes to encode a movie using VC-1.

Would it be one person sitting in an expensive studio (several hundred dollars an hour) for twelve hours a day for two weeks or would he be doing actual work for x amount of days and the rest would be a computer processing the project by itself?

Are these two weeks (if correct) long enough to make an actual difference with regards to releasedates compared to other codecs using x amount of days less? With DVD releases normally several months after theatrical releases it would seem strange that the encoding couldn't be done in parallel with some other work on a project.
post #2070 of 4841
2/10/07 at 8:42am
Is the extra time it takes for VC1 (and more so AVC) because of the encoders just requiring more horsepower or because the tools are not available so it takes more man hours of human intervention?

And if it's the first why can't more processing power just be added as extra PC's? Is it not amenable to render farm techniques?

- Tom
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