Industry Insiders Q&A MASTER THREAD [separate thread for Xbox/Add On & PS3] - Page 14  

IPTV by definition means a TV service provided by your IP network provider, not TV over generic IP services. So yes, you'd need to have an IPTV service for this to work.

The basic idea is to let a 360 work as an additional IPTV set top box, without requiring an additional purchase, and something else to stick in the room. I'd love to have this for the bedroom, or my office. But I live in a Qwest neighborhood...

I have a question for any insider regarding the new TL 51g HD DVD disc. Supposing that 1st and 2nd gen HD DVD players can actually read the disc (I would ask, but I assume nothing is definite until the spec is finalized), could a transfer initially made for Blu-ray be easily/cheaply ported over to HD DVD without a new transfer being made? And if so, can the 1st gen machines (X/A1 and 360) play a 5.1 PCM audio track?
Thanks for any info.

And to take that a bit further,

Given that Warner are presumably using a LPCM master to put into the TrueHD encoder in the first place and that ALL BD players support PCM and that their BD50 releases have a fair bit of unused space on them, why not simply put a lossless PCM track on BD?

Also, why are Warner persisting with such low bit rate DD and DD+ encodes on the majority of their titles? How about a minimum of 1.5Mbps, or preferably some kind of lossless (master downsampling not included) for all discs?

Are these technical or political decisions?

The maximum bitrate for the good old Dolby Digital is 640 kbps.

Amir,

I know this was touched on back when it was first announced in mid November, but I can't remember if anybody directly asked this question. With Bandai Visual being included in the CES press release of studios that support HD-DVD, and with Bandai Visual announcing back in November that they would be using VC-1 for their HD-DVD release, hopefully you can answer these two questions I have. First, Bandai Visual is a Japanese company, so most likely their home country releases won't have english subs/dubs. Will "Bandai Visual USA, Inc.", its own wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, or "Bandai Entertainment", Bandai's North American distributive unit, be supporting HD-DVD by releasing content in the US? Do you know if any US releases, or at least releases containing english subs/dubs are in the works? Secondly, is Bandai Visual exclusively supporting HD-DVD? Thirdly, and I assume I know the answer to this one but figure I'll ask anyways, with the demonstration as CES of the networking capability of the HD-DVD format, is there any word that Bandai Visual is at the very least aware of the Additional Subtitle Stream support in the HD-DVD format, and if so, do you have any information you can divulge that they are considering employing that to provide additional subititles for their japanese only releases? I assume that last question is one WAY too obscure cookie jar for you to have you hand in it, but I figure it doesn't hurt to ask.

Thanks!

Thanks for the answer. It's kind of a downer though as it appears that it will be years before I can take advantage of it, so I'm not sure why MS is doing this if they can't provide the service to the installed base in the US.

I'm sad that there is no 360 V2 with HDMI announcement today as I was hoping to hear one after the articles on engadget.com. Oh well. If it wasn't announced today I doubt we will hear something in the next few weeks.

So Sony announced a $32,999 70" XBR3 with x.v.Color. A little out of my price range. The set doesn't say it is HDMI 1.3, is that what they mean by x.v.Color? That they are supporting the extra colors of HDMI 1.3?

Would I be able to see a difference on the existing 360 HD DVD over the VGA at 1080p?

I am thinking of buying either 42" XBR3 or 52" XBR3, but I may wait until later this year for a newer XBR model that supports HDMI1.3 or x.v.Color if someone can tell me if I will see a difference between current cable broadcasts on HD or the 360 HD DVD.

Thanks.

And where is the 360 HDMI announcement? Grrr...

Just a bump for my question about the lack of Dolby True HD tracks on various BD titles (Superman Returns) that are present on the HD DVD edition...

Amir, your description suggest that the 51G disc is not a triple layer but a dual layer disc.

Any confirmation that this could actually be the case?

Doing >8-bit was never a disc capacity issue, it was a limitation of decoders, bitstreams, etcetera. Doing more is going to require another generation of formats.


I wouldn't say bleak - 8-bit done right can look great, even with forthcoming displays.

He wrote TL-51 right in his post. TL = triple layer.

Sure, it'll play back PCM just fine.

I don't know of any titles that have used it, since TrueHD is mandatory, but it's in the spec.

Don't take this as gospel, because I thinks it's a pretty weak arguement...

Blu-ray uses the unique Dolby Lossless to allow Blu-ray devices to leverage the core DD stream separate from the DTHD stream.

Long story short, Dolby Lossless != DTHD, therefore they would have to do *some* modicum of work, not just a straight port.

At least that's what an insider told me.

Ooops...gotta ask a question...insiders, does this sound reasonable?

I have a question that may have been covered already, but I haven't seen it -- HD-DVD and region coding.

Let's put aside whether content providers will or should use it. I'd like to know if region coding exist at all and is hardcoded in the HD-DVD specs.

If so, how many regions? Could it be implemented at will should a legal necessity arise? And what about the players already in the market?

thanks to all in advance!

There is no region coding in HD DVD whatsoever.

The possibility of adding it is being looked at, but there is no commitment to do so, nor is there any extant support in any existing titles or players for it. If it did happen (far from a given) it wouldn't be for a while.

Could anyone shed some light on the Windows CE 6.0 Broadcom SoC reference design? Will the system support playforsure or even act like a V2 Vista MCE extender?

Replication isn't an area I spend much time focusing on....

No issues whatsoever. As long as the disc meets all Blu-ray media spec criteria, the fact that it may also meet HD-DVD media spec criteria is of no concern from a BD licensing standpoint.


I've seen no indication that anyone other than Lionsgate is pursuing this method of providing a PiP user experience.

Unlikely if they're using secondary video.

I have no idea whether your observation that most of the movies are short is statistically correct. Nonetheless, I've seen nor heard no evidence suggesting there is a concerted effort to avoid releasing longer movies (there clearly are some, like Kingdom of Heaven).

I thought this was the case as well (Amir said so some months ago, referenced by me more recently), but more recently he claimed this was not the case and that Blu-ray titles with TrueHD would need a companion DD track. Based on other information I've seen I tend to believe Amir's old story (that there is a core DD track within the lossless Dolby stream, a la DTS), but I would like to see definitive indication of this.

Blu-ray Dolby TrueHD spec requires a core Dolby Digital stream, that's why Warner didn't port it over from their HD DVD counterparts: it would have required reauthoring and reencoding.

"Legends of Jazz" indeed has a core DD stream, running at 448Kbps. This can be output thru the SPDIF port on BD players. Even though they didn't have to, they also offer a separate Dolby 5.1 track at 640Kbps...a different sounding mix (as well as a PCM 2.0 stereo version)!

Amir-

I know you have answered a few questions on the TL51 spec, but I have some...

1) Is it your feeling/understanding that Toshiba plans on submitting the TL51 spec to become part of the actually HD-DVD spec. I know they showed off the TL45 spec but nothing came of it. Obviously if they don't, then it's a bit of a moot point from most of our perspectives.

2) You also mentioned the TL includes an increase to 1.5x read speed, which coupled with the density increase would greatly increase bandwidth. If the TL spec becomes part of the HD-DVD standard, is there any reason the 1.5x spec or increased density could not carry over to the SL and DL specs? I can't think of a situation currently where the higher layer count can support a higher read speed than a lower layer count.

Thank you,
Chris

Amir's newest claim is the correct one. In order to import a TrueHD track into BD, you need an AC3 encode of the same material. At that stage, they are interweaved. Dolby's software will create a compliant TrueHD stream for both formats in one pass. The fact that Warner decided not to use it on some of their BD releases is puzzling because they already did the work.

I get that, but how much work can it really be? Aren't we literally just talking about pushing a button?

My thought was that maybe since the core is coupled into the MLP-based Dolby True HD stream for BD, that it might increase the bandwidth/bit-space needed which might tax a single-layer 25 gig BD if the HD DVD was already pushing those limits.

Thoughts?

Something seems wrong IMO. It's hardly "equal" support when the HD DVD gets the lossles audio but the BD version doesn't!!!

Fyi just finishing Emmy award dinner... When I get back to hotel will answer questions put to me....

Amir, is there a Universal Studios announcement (titles) still forthcoming?

[fingers still crossed for Jurassic]

Talkstr8t I noticed you are a Blu Ray insider...what is your position...what company do you work for.

Amir,

A bit off topic but since you are avideo enthusiast, I'm wondering if have had time to wander the booths. Mainly, have you seen the 8th gen Pioneer plasmas that they are claiming to be amazing? If so, what is your take on it's PQ?

Thanks,
Robert.

Please be sure to let us know about that amazingly innovative game controller that won an award.

I only had a couple of hours to look around. But did try to see the new Pioneer but it was not on display yet. I understand however, that it uses a filter to achieve its better black and as a result, its screen is more reflective. Given the fact that I think reflections are an issue already for Plasma, that does not seem a full step forward to me. Our contacts say the current FH-1 is superior as a result.

On the other hand, I was pretty impressed with the new Sharp LCDs with 3000:1 contrast ratio. It was great to see black and detail in blacks, rather than shades of gray (or blue in the case of some other LCD makers). I tried to look for vertical banding that people complain about but I only saw it once and that could be in the content but I have no seen that kind of artifact before. So for now, a guarded thumbs up for the Premium LCD line from Sharp.

Oh, I let someone else do that .

But this was a real honor, winning an Emmy award for Windows Media in streaming architecture. As most of you know, the heart of Windows Media is Windows Media Video which is the same codec as VC-1. So for those of you who are a fan of VC-1, this is an award for you as much as it is for us.

This was the third Emmy award that I had gotten over the years for the products that I have managed but it was the most special as we got recognition from the traditional judges for new ways of delivery content.

Microsoft also won a second Emmy for DirtectX 10.

Yes, as far as I know, they are going to propose it to DVD forum for standardization.


Persumably machines which are compliant with the new TL spec, will be able to read single and double layers just as fast (minus the small difference between 15/17). So yes, that makes logical sense.