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[Christoff Yurievich]

Has there been any talk of Blu-Ray Audio like DVD-Audio? That would be sweet.

well, back when the PS3 was first announced it was due to play CD, SACD, and HD-SACD but that was clarified as a printing error. who knows.

Yahoo tech blog:

Paramount Set to Drop HD DVD for Blu-ray

Tue Jan 8, 2008 10:54AM EST

See Comments (47)

How many "death blows" will it take for Blu-ray to finally win the format war against HD DVD? I've been hearing that phrase (and writing about it) since July 2007. Well here comes another one. Following in the footsteps of Warner Brothers' abandonment of the HD DVD format, reports are surfacing that Paramount is headed to Blu-ray as well.

This is huge news not just because it would leave just one major studio (Universal, plus the mini-major DreamWorks) producing HD DVD content. It would mark the first time in the high-def war that a studio has abandoned one exclusive format and switched to another. Warner was producing both HD DVD and Blu-ray discs and merely dropped the HD DVD ones. Paramount will have to switch entirely to Blu-ray, which it has not been producing up to now.

According to the Financial Times, Paramount has a clause in its contract with the HD DVD camp allowing it to switch to Blu-ray in the event that Warner was to do so. And exercising that clause is what's about to happen. It's also theorized that DreamWorks will follow Paramount, since the studios are closely tied together.

Nothing's been announced yet, but this should be wrapped up in fairly short order. Stay tuned.

two of the comments (same person):

Well I can definitely see a HUGE class action lawsuit over these recent moves, especially considering how many HD players were sold this holiday season...

The class action suit has been filed vs Warner and Paramount.

I wish him luck with that, all the good it's going to do for him.

check what came in the mail today:

thanks Warner!

 

[Raistlin]

To the people talking about Sony blocking MS/Nintendo ... ummmm ... :lol



Even if they had the power to do it (which they don't) ... WHY WOULD THEY? They want as many people with BD players as possible. Why would they through away HW and SW licensing money ... as well as an opportunity to speed up adoption?

 

[OokieSpookie]

QUestion about Dragon Wars before I pick it up on blu.
Not interested in the "it sucks" bit, just curious as to whether it is Korean native with english subs and english dubbed like the Host ( horrid dubbing at that) or if it is English native.

 

[Raistlin]

This shit is incredible. They need to make a movie about it and release it on Blu-Ray.

I don't think you could write a better story then all of this HD-DVD/Blu-Ray drama.

In all seriousness, there will likely be a book, if not several, made about this.

Can't wait for it.

 

[vpance]

Maybe my example isn't flawless, but you get the point. I don't see how allowing Microsoft to produce a BDR add-on would hurt PS3 sales. Everybody knows that add-ons and peripherals are never adopted by the masses; hence why Nintendo bundled their then-crazy controllers with the Wii...

It wouldn't hurt PS3 sales, but it could certainly become another one of the easy selling points to the casual crowd. The know-nothing crowd that could easily be swayed by something like, "Xbox is a bit cheaper, but only PS3 can play Blu-Rays". A converted-possible 360 sale into a PS3 sale may be a better outcome than an added 360 BR addon sale, since the PS3 sale turns into potential sales on the games side as well.

 

[Big-E]

To the people talking about Sony blocking MS/Nintendo ... ummmm ... :lol



Even if they had the power to do it (which they don't) ... WHY WOULD THEY? They want as many people with BD players as possible. Why would they through away HW and SW licensing money ... as well as an opportunity to speed up adoption?

Exactly.

 

[kaching]

I don't think you could write a better story then all of this HD-DVD/Blu-Ray drama.

In hindsight, the format war is probably the best thing these companies did to drum up interest in an HD disc format. Forget content, pricing and whatnot. Red vs. Blue, it's just too blatant not to see it now.

 

[Laurent]

Will Paramount or Universal announce their defection to Blu-ray anytime soon?

 

[Snah]

well, back when the PS3 was first announced it was due to play CD, SACD, and HD-SACD but that was clarified as a printing error. who knows.

Yahoo tech blog:two of the comments (same person):
I wish him luck with that, all the good it's going to do for him.

check what came in the mail today:

thanks Warner!

Class Action lawsuit against Warner and Paramount? Lol. Good luck with that, indeed.

 

[The Bookerman]

Given the new thread title, this seemed appropriate:

http://ces.cnet.com/8301-13855_1-9845372-67.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=CES2008

"Seagate CEO: Blu-ray won the battle but lost the war"



And as a chaser:

I got a big problem with HD distribution over the internet. Fact is: HD movies over the internet requires bandwidth, and loads of it. Internet services providers in the states aren't the best in the world as I've heard. How can HD distribution over the internet hit mainstream when companies have download quotas of 20 gb or even 1 gb. That's not feasible. HD distribution over the internet will not hit mainstream for a long while.

 

[polyh3dron]

That would make absolutely zero sense. Not a chance.

Supporting HD DVD exclusively for as long as they have doesn't make sense either.. I was actually surprised by WB's move because it seemed to be the ONLY studio move so far in this HD format war that actually did make sense.

 

[djkimothy]

What is with talk about Sony cockblocking MS and nintendo from using blu-ray drives. If all video games next gen were pressed onto blu-ray discs, can you imagine the royalties. :lol

 

[Raistlin]

I got a big problem with HD distribution over the internet. Fact is: HD movies over the internet requires bandwidth, and loads of it. Internet services providers in the states aren't the best in the world as I've heard. How can HD distribution over the internet hit mainstream when companies have download quotas of 20 gb or even 1 gb. That's not feasible. HD distribution over the internet will not hit mainstream for a long while.

Come on ... read his quote.


Hollywood is expected to magically upgrade our infrastructure to support it :lol

 

[Laurent]

And a company that cooperates with MS, as one of their biggest licensees of Windows (because of Vaio computers)

Exactly... Should Microsoft block the usage of Windows on Sony's computers because of the actual console war?

 

[Oni Jazar]

On why no Toshiba executives were present at CES

Originally Posted by Talkstr8t:
He actually turned around upon landing at LAX and returned to Japan, where he was greeted at Narita by a throng of reporters (on a Sunday). I wouldn't be surprised if a round of resignations aren't likely soon.

Repost hilarity for the new page!

That would be one long ass plane ride. I would have just went to Disneyland if it was me.

 

[Witchfinder General]

You guessed wrong and are insinuating things that aren't even true. I get all my hifi gear from the premier shop on the East Coast. Stereo Exchange in Soho, Manhattan. It doesn't get more hi end than that. And i've auditioned everything from pro-ject turntables to everything in between, on high end speakers (B&W, Dali, Monitor, Sonus Faber, Gallo etc) and a good portion of the people I know have the same passion I share, music and have gear that is far more expensive than mine. I currently own Rotel (RSP 1069, RMB-1075 and CDP-1072) and B&W(Pair of CM7's, Pair of CM1's, CMC and a PV1 sub) gear, and prior to that I owned a seperate Classe CDP and Amps with B&W 805s. So, no...i'm not exactly listening to a boombox nor am I an uninformed, you're very mistaken. It's not a billionaires set-up, but it's still 20K worth of gear in 2 set-ups, and that counts for something, so I think i've earned to right to talk here.

Let me be clear, I never said Vinyl was bad or inferior. You're the one making statements about superiority and inferiority here. If you said. "I think Vinyl is superior to SACD, DVD-A and CD." That would be one thing. No, you compared it to Beta losing to VHS...i.e. an inferior format beating a superior format. You even said it, there is nothing inferior from a technical standpoint. That is a fact. If you want to talk about sound preference, there is no arugement there, some people prefer Vinyl. My contention was that there is no factual data of it being superior, it's just a preference for some.

Telling me what "masses upon masses" of audiophiles do is irrelevant. Many of them are clearly insane. I don't care what "masses upon masses" think or do. I've seen many of the masses of audiophiles drop thousands on Nordost cables and interconnects, and they swear by it. I'm a member of an audio club (Bernardsville), and we've done AB testing with Nordost, Kimber and Canare 4s11 cables, of course most of the "experts" went on and on about this cable sounding "warm" that one being "rigid" etc....lol. We never told them that we all used Canare 4s11 cables for everything. We just let them believe what they wanted. Some people buy cable lifts because of the interference it will make if it touches the floor, whatever the fuck that means. I know people that wrap tin foil on their equipment. Just because masses upon masses do something or believe something doesn't make it factual. It makes it either their preference, or sadly in some cases, group think.

If you gave me a choice between a pro-ject-turntable or a CDP. I would take the pro-ject turntable, sell it on Audiogon and purchase a quality CDP with phenominal DAC's (Classe, Rotel, Musical Fidelity)

OK, you don't believe in cable quality at all so I'm going to stop right here as we're never, ever going to come to an agreement on anything.

And no offence, as nice as your system is it's not exactly high end, nor is Pro-Ject by any stretch of the imagination.

If you're going to compare a turntable against a great CD player then listen to a good turntable like Thorens, Clearaudio, SME, Continuum Audio Labs, etc.

 

[Raistlin]

Supporting HD DVD exclusively for as long as they have doesn't make sense either.. I was actually surprised by WB's move because it seemed to be the ONLY studio move so far in this HD format war that actually did make sense.

They actually had some level of investment in HD DVD ... unlike the other studios (well, Warner did as well, but they also did in BD).

Basically, Universal had more to gain if HD DVD won. If that was not the case, they'd already be making BD titles.

 

[Luckyman]

Ken "Give consumers who buy into HD DVD what they paid for" Graffeo announcing Blu-ray would be too funny.

 

[sonycowboy]

The fallout of all this is, does Sony now block MS and Nintendo from having BR drives in their next-gen systems? Do we see them stuck with DVD or even HD-DVD game discs and no hi-def movie playback from physical media?

As important as the Playstation business is to Sony, Blu-Ray is probably 3 times as important. They've already spent hundreds of millions, if not billions in R&D developing the format and slicking the way for studio support. They are the chief license holder and stand to make the lions share of the royalties for the format. We are talking billions upon billions of dollars.

This requires:

1) Ubiquitousness as a movie format (which needs complete openness) or else studios would NEVER have singed.

2) Ubiquitousness as a data storage format (PC's with Blu-Ray 200GB discs for backups anyone?).

3) Ubiquitousness as a delivery format beyond the 2 items above. This is not only games, but hybrid items such as audio/multimedia releases.

Sony will be the first to allow ANYONE and EVERYONE to be a Blu-Ray licensee. (Well, not absolutely everyone as the CE companies are desperate to make money on some hardware, so the cheaper knock off CE companies may wait awhile).

 

[gofreak]

I might be slow with all the posts today, but in case this is new, via Reuters:

Microsoft's Xbox could consider Blu-ray support

"It should be consumer choice; and if that's the way they vote, that's something we'll have to consider," Albert Penello, group marketing manager for Xbox hardware said when asked whether Microsoft would support a Blu-ray DVD accessory in the event that HD-DVD failed.

"You can't say it's not a bummer, not a setback, but I've seen this battle declared over so many times," Penello said of Warner's decision.

"I want consumers to have a voice in this and I think there are a lot of consumers who bought HD-DVD who are going to have a say in how this shakes out."

I hope it happens, but I'd have a good chuckle about it.

 

[speculawyer]

I got a big problem with HD distribution over the internet. Fact is: HD movies over the internet requires bandwidth, and loads of it. Internet services providers in the states aren't the best in the world as I've heard. How can HD distribution over the internet hit mainstream when companies have download quotas of 20 gb or even 1 gb. That's not feasible. HD distribution over the internet will not hit mainstream for a long while.

I can't read that without thinking of . . .

I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?

Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially.

And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It’s not a truck.

It’s a series of tubes.

And if you don’t understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

 

[MassiveAttack]

Repost hilarity for the new page!

That would be one long ass plane ride. I would have just went to Disneyland if it was me.

Meanwhile, back at Toshiba headquarters...

 

[bill0527]

HD movies over the internet suck in terms of both video and audio quality.

720p with shitty audio that takes me a few hours to download? No thanks.

Maybe for some of the lower tier movies out there that I might have a passing interest in I would consider downloading, but I want physical media for movies I want to watch over and over again.

 

[speculawyer]

Sony will be the first to allow ANYONE and EVERYONE to be a Blu-Ray licensee. (Well, not absolutely everyone as the CE companies are desperate to make money on some hardware, so the cheaper knock off CE companies may wait awhile).

It is probably already cast in stone . . . these standards groups usually require everyone to sign an agreement stating that they will license any IP they have related to the standard on a reasondable and non-discrimatory (often called RAND) basis.

 

[djkimothy]

I might be slow with all the posts today, but in case this is new, via Reuters:

Microsoft's Xbox could consider Blu-ray support





I hope it happens, but I'd have a good chuckle about it.

If it's about choice, then why don't they release a blu-ray drive?

 

[mckmas8808]

This shit is incredible. They need to make a movie about it and release it on Blu-Ray.

I don't think you could write a better story then all of this HD-DVD/Blu-Ray drama.

:lol

I thought you were going to say DVD.

 

[Ryu1999]

As important as the Playstation business is to Sony, Blu-Ray is probably 3 times as important. They've already spent hundreds of millions, if not billions in R&D developing the format and slicking the way for studio support. They are the chief license holder and stand to make the lions share of the royalties for the format. We are talking billions upon billions of dollars.

This requires:

1) Ubiquitousness as a movie format (which needs complete openness) or else studios would NEVER have singed.

2) Ubiquitousness as a data storage format (PC's with Blu-Ray 200GB discs for backups anyone?).

3) Ubiquitousness as a delivery format beyond the 2 items above. This is not only games, but hybrid items such as audio/multimedia releases.

Sony will be the first to allow ANYONE and EVERYONE to be a Blu-Ray licensee. (Well, not absolutely everyone as the CE companies are desperate to make money on some hardware, so the cheaper knock off CE companies may wait awhile).

Could they then just moneyhat the shit out of every 3rd party developer with those massive profits and make the 360 obsolete?

 

[Snah]

If it's about choice, then why don't they release a blu-ray drive?

lol.

I remember someone asked Peter Moore about that and he didn't have a good reply. For Microsoft, it was never about choice, but now they'll have no other choice.

 

[mckmas8808]

As important as the Playstation business is to Sony, Blu-Ray is probably 3 times as important. They've already spent hundreds of millions, if not billions in R&D developing the format and slicking the way for studio support. They are the chief license holder and stand to make the lions share of the royalties for the format. We are talking billions upon billions of dollars.

This requires:

1) Ubiquitousness as a movie format (which needs complete openness) or else studios would NEVER have singed.

2) Ubiquitousness as a data storage format (PC's with Blu-Ray 200GB discs for backups anyone?).

3) Ubiquitousness as a delivery format beyond the 2 items above. This is not only games, but hybrid items such as audio/multimedia releases.

Sony will be the first to allow ANYONE and EVERYONE to be a Blu-Ray licensee. (Well, not absolutely everyone as the CE companies are desperate to make money on some hardware, so the cheaper knock off CE companies may wait awhile).

How do you know Sony can make billions off of Blu-ray?

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

Got 3:10 To Yuma today, my first blu-ray of the new year. I was going to get shoot em up but bastards at best buy didnt have it.
Only went to best buy because i had 90 bucks in reward zone cards. Got a bunch of SACD's too.

totally not the thread for this but which ones? My BB doesn't even carry the things anymore, not to mention all of the good ones are released in Europe only.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

QUestion about Dragon Wars before I pick it up on blu.
Not interested in the "it sucks" bit, just curious as to whether it is Korean native with english subs and english dubbed like the Host ( horrid dubbing at that) or if it is English native.

I suspect it was English native.

Here's the disk specs.

I'd say this movie is on par with Transformers. No better no worse.

Could have used moar dragons, but the times they were on screen were pretty awesome. Especially dragon v. assault helicopter above the US Bank building. Probably the coolest scene in the movie IMO.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

OK, you don't believe in cable quality at all so I'm going to stop right here as we're never, ever going to come to an agreement on anything.

He was talking about Canare 4s11 cables, which aren't crap cables. In fact, chances are, the vast majority of the music or movies you listen to on that high-end turntable probably came through a Canare or Belden cable in the recording studio or on the set.

Proper routing and custom-fitting of good, high-quality, industry standard cables to the nearest possible inch is way more important than blowing a load of cash on some boutique brand.

High-end audio gets to joke levels of fake, placebo-effect "nuance" in order to fleece as much money from the rich or wanna-be rich as possible. Cables are a prime culprit.

But yeah, if you believe in all that stuff, you aren't going to ever come to an agreement with someone who is more pragmatic, so this debate is kinda useless. Besides, this isn't really the thread for your turntable/CD smackdown anyway.

 

[Xisiqomelir]

How do you know Sony can make billions off of Blu-ray?

NAICS, the North American Industry Classification System run by the census bureau, tracks industries in NA.

You can go to their website, search for "software" then add up the revenues of gaming publishers, developers and retailers, and it will be nothing compared to optical media production.

 

[Raistlin]

"You can't say it's not a bummer, not a setback, but I've seen this battle declared over so many times," Penello said of Warner's decision.

"I want consumers to have a voice in this and I think there are a lot of consumers who bought HD-DVD who are going to have a say in how this shakes out."

Not to belittle people purchasing what is now a dead format ... but even if every owner of a HD DVD player decided to skip out on BluRay, it would be quite unlikely to kill off BD.

 

[captive]

To the people talking about Sony blocking MS/Nintendo ... ummmm ... :lol



Even if they had the power to do it (which they don't) ... WHY WOULD THEY? They want as many people with BD players as possible. Why would they through away HW and SW licensing money ... as well as an opportunity to speed up adoption?

Its really ridiculous that the question was even asked seriously....

I just read a post on the megadeth boards the guy said "I really hate to see Sony win this one... "

This stuff gets old quick

 

[Witchfinder General]

He was talking about Canare 4s11 cables, which aren't crap cables. In fact, chances are, the vast majority of the music or movies you listen to on that high-end turntable probably came through a Canare or Belden cable in the recording studio or on the set.

Proper routing and custom-fitting of good, high-quality, industry standard cables to the nearest possible inch is way more important than blowing a load of cash on some boutique brand.

High-end audio gets to joke levels of fake, placebo-effect "nuance" in order to fleece as much money from the rich or wanna-be rich as possible. Cables are a prime culprit.

But yeah, if you believe in all that stuff, you aren't going to ever come to an agreement with someone who is more pragmatic, so this debate is kinda useless. Besides, this isn't really the thread for your turntable/CD smackdown anyway.

Uh, huh, whatever, I'm not eher to argue with cable sceptics nor did I start the "turntable/CD smackdown" in the first place.

 

[InsertCredit]

HD movies over the internet suck in terms of both video and audio quality.

720p with shitty audio that takes me a few hours to download? No thanks.

Maybe for some of the lower tier movies out there that I might have a passing interest in I would consider downloading, but I want physical media for movies I want to watch over and over again.

??

High profile encoded x264 mp4/mkv's with up to 7.1 audio are actually extremely nice.

And at 720p they offer a fantastic quality vs filesize ratio. 1080p also works fine but that'll net you 16-24GB per movie.

I'd rather store all my media digitally, future proof and extremely transferable.

 

[sonycowboy]

How do you know Sony can make billions off of Blu-ray?

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/dvd-for...D-and-who-owns-it-Whom-to-contact-for-sp.html

Rates have changed from this, but you can get this idea:

Any company making DVD products must license the patented technology from a
Philips/Pioneer/Sony pool, a Hitachi/Matsushita/Mitsubishi/Time
Warner/Toshiba/Victor pool, and from Thomson. Total royalties are about 6%
(minimum $6) for a DVD-Video player, 6% (minimum $6) for a DVD-ROM drive,
5% (minimum $2) for a DVD decoder, and 10 cents for a DVD disc.

Multiply that by:

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/33462.html

Pegging worldwide optical disc production at 20 billion units per year, Sony said the combination of paper material and printing technology is also expected to lead to a reduction in cost per disc and expand already increasing adoption of optical discs.

Can equal a few bucks each year

(BTW, I remember posting actual numbers some time ago, but essentially it showed increasing billions of discs each year. And then the licensing of HW, SW, disc licensing, disc production costs (which Sony does as well) and so on. They invested all of this and risked the Playstation brand for a reason. )

 

[sonycowboy]

double post

 

[bill0527]

??

High profile encoded x264 mp4/mkv's with up to 7.1 audio are actually extremely nice.

And at 720p they offer a fantastic quality vs filesize ratio.

Does the Xbox Live marketplace use those video and audio codecs for their movies? I rented The Perfect Storm from the Marketplace several months ago, and while it looked pretty good at 720p, the audio on it was fucking terrible.

 

[dallow_bg]

OK, you don't believe in cable quality at all so I'm going to stop right here as we're never, ever going to come to an agreement on anything.

And no offence, as nice as your system is it's not exactly high end, nor is Pro-Ject by any stretch of the imagination.

If you're going to compare a turntable against a great CD player then listen to a good turntable like Thorens, Clearaudio, SME, Continuum Audio Labs, etc.

:lol

Enjoy the heavy metal on the Shures.

 

[Darko]

??

High profile encoded x264 mp4/mkv's with up to 7.1 audio are actually extremely nice.

And at 720p they offer a fantastic quality vs filesize ratio. 1080p also works fine but that'll net you 16-24GB per movie.

I'd rather store all my media digitally, future proof and extremely transferable.

yup, ive been downloading hd rips (mkv) off newgroups and have them on my media center pc

 

[InsertCredit]

Does the Xbox Live marketplace use those video and audio codecs for their movies? I rented The Perfect Storm from the Marketplace several months ago, and while it looked pretty good at 720p, the audio on it was fucking terrible.

Nope they don't. Bitrates on those are terrible as well as the codec / encoder settings used.

Too bad it's only the 0day scene that make full use of the platform, but viable HD movie downloads are real and available right now.

 

[Loudninja]

New Line dropping HD-DVD immediately
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/s...s/New_Line_Details_Transition_to_Blu-ray/1351

damn!

 

[distantmantra]

New Line dropping HD-DVD immediately
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/s...s/New_Line_Details_Transition_to_Blu-ray/1351
damn!

So Pan's Labyrinth is their one and only HD-DVD release, then.

 

[djkimothy]

Don't know if this was posted yet since it's pretty obvious but New Line has cut HDDVD support to be in line with Warner.

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/s...s/New_Line_Details_Transition_to_Blu-ray/1351

Confirming earlier reports that it would follow Warner to Blu-ray exclusivity, New Line says its first HD DVD title ('Pan's Labryinth') will also be its last.
Though it was widely assumed that New Line (whose parent company is Time-Warner) would follow Warner Home Video's lead and continue to release on HD DVD through May 2008, a company rep tells us that New Line's move will go into immediate effect, with all of the studio's planned HD DVD releases now cancelled (including the HD DVD versions of current Blu-ray releases 'Hairspray' and 'Rush Hour 3,' which had previously been planned for HD DVD release sometime in early 2008).

As for 'Pan's Labryinth,' which hit stores late last year as the first (and only) New Line HD DVD release, the studio says that once current retail supplies are depleted, the title will be discontinued -- making it an instant collector's item.
New Line says it's not planning to issue an official press release trumpeting the move, ending its short-lived HD DVD support with a relative whimper.
The studio also tells us they won't be revealing any new Blu-ray titles at CES, though they do plan to continue to support the format throughout 2008 with a variety of new release and catalog titles to be announced in the future.

Lord of the Rings please. That could be your only release for all I care.

D'oh, beaten... :lol

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

New Line dropping HD-DVD immediately
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/s...s/New_Line_Details_Transition_to_Blu-ray/1351

damn!

That was fast.

 

[nubbe]

I want LOTR by christmas, thanks.

 

[Mifune]

Boogie Nights and Magnoila, please. I've already spent too much money on LOTR releases.

 

[Darko]

New Line dropping HD-DVD immediately
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/s...s/New_Line_Details_Transition_to_Blu-ray/1351

damn!

it begins..