Industry Insiders Q&A MASTER THREAD [separate thread for Xbox/Add On & PS3] - Page 11  

I fully expect the PS3 to be BD-Live capable (yes, I estimate it at >95% of the installed base with over a million units sold). I consider the PS3 as a standalone player, as it's a single unit, plays Blu-ray automatically when you insert the disc, supports a dedicated remote control, and in general functions very, very well as one. There are clearly people purchasing it for that purpose.

Correct. It didn't hold back studios from using DVD authoring features which didn't work on 1G players; it won't hold back studios supporting either format from supporting networked content even though a significant percentage of homes won't have network connected players, and it won't stop them from authoring content requiring secondary video, local storage, or network connectivity on Blu-ray. If they were never going to use a feature not available on every player why would they even have bothered specifying optional API's?

Thanks, I look forward to your response. I guess I just spoiled with all the fan site kits that the 360 games get.

Then what explains the relucatance of Sony to go there? Don Eklund and paidgeek both have confirmed that they are waiting "for the dust to settle." We also know Warner does not want to target a, well, a moving target and is leaving interactivity behind when porting a title from HD DVD.

As to optional APIs, well, that was their mistake with these features. Now wasn't it? You can't use something that has caused grief already, as a positive thing in the future...

How about a change of direction.....

Amir, Ben,

We've been discussing the trailers from thelookandsoundofperfect.com in the HTPC forum and I've got a couple questions for you (either of you).

Are these using Main Profile or Advanced Profile? It appears they report wmv3 (ie Main Profile).
How are they encoded? They're only 8Mbps for 1080p, and look very good.

How do you get from "waiting for the dust to settle" to "will only support features available on all players"? Waiting for the dust to settle, to me, implies waiting for upcoming players to be released (especially the PS3, given its market importance), allowing existing players to mature via firmware updates, and establishing a productive workflow with regards to tools and creative staff. You're well aware of the varied dynamics with regards to how studios treat bonus content. In studio discussions I've been told things ranging from "we want to push the limits of what BD-J can support and stay ahead of all other studios in both formats" to "we want to provide the exact same experience on both formats regardless of whether one can do more than the other". Very different viewpoints.

I won't mention specific studios to avoid running afoul of NDA's, but suffice it to say that not once in my many studio discussions have I been told that any studio intends to ignore features which aren't present on every BD player.

Amir, as you have said to me, may I ask you to stick to your area of competence?
This is incorrect. Blu-ray has two storage mechanisms - persistent storage, for things like bookmarks, and local storage, for disc updates, downloaded trailers and other A/V, etc. Only the presence or quantity of local storage varies between profiles. All Blu-ray players must support persistent storage.

As I recall, the BD spec requires secondary video to support the same bitrates as primary (though the combined bitrates can't exceed Blu-ray's maximum supported bandwidth). HD-DVD has much lower bitrate requirements, though there is a seldom-discussed optional feature which I don't believe is supported on any current HD-DVD players which allows for higher-bitrate secondary video.

I can see the BD-Live features becoming kind of like DTS on DVD. Something that gets used in some high profile titles, but not in most, since many customers won't be able to experience it.

And like DTS, something that uses up capacity and content creation budgets for all customers, even though many won't be able to experience it.

Ok cool, thanks for the additional insights Talk!

Ah, thanks for mentioning that. Thus, I can now mention the "The Descent" approach will have the effect of cutting PBR for the title nearly in half, since both streams go at the same time. And statmux won't be of singificant help there, since the two video streams are essentially the same complexity.

Again reminiscent of my 90's Director work, the Descent PIP solution is both a remarkably clever solution, and a brutally compromised hack. Again, hats off to those who pulled it off given all the constraints. I can't wait to see what they'll be able to do with HD DVD .

Can any insiders comment on what this is? Perhaps the feature Amir has referred to that allows additional comment streamed from the nework?

Can anybody confirm if it is indeed supported or not and in what hardware?

When can we expect to see their HD DVD results?

I don't know if their method does involve both streams at the same time, but if so it clearly hasn't impacted its widely heralded picture quality or stellar audio quality (7.1 lossless PCM), which all must be a testament to AVC and Blu-ray's capacity and bandwidth limits!

Hmm... is this a common thought from those in Microsoft's towards DTS?

Hopefully I shouldn't drawn any conclusions from that, as I'm quite eager for the 360 output thing to be fixed ASAP!

This question if for Amirm.

I am a professional OS X user and I want to know if we are going to see compatibility with VC-1 in any form inside OS X since is needed for the support of BluRay and HD-DVD movies.

Apple have contacted with your team or are you going to give support from a third partie point of view?

I can't comment on any specific relationship I am afriad. But I can say that we are quite anxious to see Mac playback for HD DVD. And would provide VC-1 expertise for BD if asked. So hopefully products come to market to support them.

Can an HD DVD insider comment on the following excerpt from the LG dual-player? Specifically, what sort of interactivity is missing from HD DVD playback that will be included when playing Blu-ray discs?

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/st...4500940&EDATE=

I thought DTS was mandatory in HD DVD, is this not the case?

If it is mandatory then more studios are likely to use it, which is MS point.

HDi insiders, I know that the Studio Canal titles properly support resume, do these titles properly support title name in bookmarks?

It is a pain to try and delete my HD DVD bookmarks from rental places after I have returned the disk since all current bookmarks are listed as "Unknown Title" on Xbox 360.

Sounds like he is saying they have not finished their HD DVD implementation and only support the older DVD menus (used by some discs in Japan). If true, they will have hard time getting HD DVD logo and claim compliance as all the discs in US/EU use adavnced content. Maybe they plan to do a firmware upgrade later?

I am running off to CES. If I learn more and can disclose it, I will do that.

No, they are mandatory in HD DVD. Ben was saying that DTS was not mandatory in DVD so not all discs use it. By the same token, optional features in BD do not get as much use (e.g. TrueHD/DD+).


Exactly although DTS was used as an analogy, not a real test case here.


Ben, do you mind follow up on this part? I don't know the answer.

what do you mean by "I fully expect the PS3 to be BD-Live capable"? The PS3 has been on the market since last year and you do not if it does BD-Live?

Studio Canal titles correctly create the info.txt file that allows players to list the title name in the persistent storage manager.

Very few hollywood titles do this. I expect they will start supporting it now that it's so visible on the 360.

Can anyone shed any light on when triple layer HD DVD's will be used commercially?

I'm on it.

We like DTS just fine. My point was that it was optional in DVD, so its use was an exception instead of the rule.

It's mandatory in HD DVD, so we'll see DTS-only discs, which wasn't possible with DVD.

Actually, you're wrong about one thing at least. You can't just insert a disc and have it automatically play. You have to (most annoyingly) navigate over to the "Video" menu and select the "Blu-ray Disc" item once you've inserted the disc, and waited for it to recognize it.

Interestingly enough, I was most impressed by all the claims online about the PS3 playing a disc in "less than 5 seconds" so I did some timings with "World Trade Center", and found that it's more on the order of 14-15 seconds from clicking on the icon to video starting. This is actually about 5 seconds slower than the 360 (from clicking on the "Play HD DVD" option to first video is 9-10 seconds).

Does anyone know if there's an option to make the PS3 automatically play a BD disc when you insert it? I couldn't find one.

Uh... you need to set your PS3 to auto-login and it will start a BD/DVD/CD automatically from standby/off (solid red light). It's only 10 seconds or so to the initial menu or title play, depending on the studio. Hit the Triangle when selected on your user in the XMB (farthest left option from the XMB top menu).

Regarding DTS and HD-DVD, is this chart from DTS accurate?

Ok, great. Guess I am a bit paranoid about the audio output from the 360 and it's patch/update for DTS. I'm looking at HDMI switching receivers now (and in addition to watching CES very closely to see what Denon et al announce), this becomes very relevent when considering what my HD-DVD playback option is going to be. Thanks!