CES 2008 Central Thread - Put Everything Here Please-

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Lee Stewart

Pioneer plans pricey new players


http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6517157.html

There goes Pioneer's profits for BD players during 2008.

[kamspy]

Originally Posted by Cowboy X

Don't the top players claim to be able to do the decoding and then pass onto the receiver? Because then one would not need a receiver that can decode the particular format, all it would have to do is accept the signal and send it to the appropriate speakers as instructed by the player.

Am I right or wrong.

Bingo. As long as the player has analog outs.

Everyone with an optical port on their receiver can get 2 channel uncompressed PCM.

Good for me, because I've never been a fan of the rear channels on 90% of movie tracks.

3.1 is my usual set-up, aside from a few really good 5.1 tracks.

My Onkyo 601 matrixs the 2.0 PCM stream to 3.1 brilliantly, I wouldn't want to do it 5.1, but 3.1 works very well. Give it a try!

[Lee Stewart]

Bump - CES starts tomorrow . . least we forget!

[Lee Stewart]

Pioneer promises pricey new Blu-ray players in 2008

Posted Jan 5th 2008 5:46PM by Richard Lawler
Filed under: Blu-ray, Pioneer

Even with high def player prices slipping almost daily, Pioneer promises to launch Blu-ray players for both more and less than its current $999 BDP-95FD. No specifics, so whether it will match Denon's behemoth players in price is TBD, but BD Live-compatible hardware is definitely on its way in 2008. Pioneer thinks its build quality and specs will keep customers coming even at the higher price, and really, would you put a no name player next to that shiny new Kuro?

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/05...ayers-in-2008/

[Lee Stewart]

Fox To Release Six New Blu-ray Titles

Los Angeles — Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (TCFHE) said it will ship six movie catalog favorites in the Blu-ray Disc format during the first quarter of 2008.


The titles include the BD debut of “Ice Age,” “Independence Day,” “I, Robot,” “Man On Fire,” “Wall Street,” and “Me, Myself and Irene.”


Highlights among the titles include a Blu-ray exclusive trivia track and BD-Java-enabled video game called Alien Scavenger Hunt with the “Independence Day” release, which is slated for March 11. The game challenges players to correctly identify items in select scenes to unlock additional bonus features.


“Ice Age,” which is slated for a March 4 release, will be authored in MPEG2 compression and presented on a 25GB disc with English 5.1 DTS HD Lossless Master Audio and French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital Sound. Bonus features include: a commentary by director Chris Wedge and co-director Carlos Saldanha; deleted scenes with commentary by Wedge and Saldanha; a theatrical teaser and trailer.


“I, Robot,” which will street on March 11, will feature direct access to in-movie features through one of the four colored buttons on the BD remote that allows viewers to quickly access the enormous amount of bonus materials on the disc including commentaries, production diaries, extended and deleted scenes, trivia and more.


“Man On Fire,” which is due Jan. 8, is authored in BD-Java using MPEG2 compression and presented on a 50GB dual layer disc with English 5.1 DTS HD Lossless Master Audio and French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital Sound.


“Wall Street,” will street Feb. 5, authored in MPEG2 compression and presented on a 50GB dual layer disc with English 5.1 DTS HD Lossless Master Audio and English, French and Spanish subtitles. Bonus features include: a commentary and intro by Oliver Stone; a Greed Is Good featurette; deleted scenes with commentary by Stone; and Money Never Sleeps – the making of Wall Street.

“Me, Myself and Irene,” will also street on Feb. 5, authored in MPEG2 compression and presented on a 25GB disc with English 5.1 DTS HD Lossless Master Audio and French 5.1 Dolby Digital Sound. Bonus features include deleted scenes with optional commentary by Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly and theatrical trailers.

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6517200.html

[tomes]

Originally Posted by Lee Stewart

Fox To Release Six New Blu-ray Titles


http://www.twice.com/article/CA6517200.html

strange they use mpeg2 so much still (picture can still look great of course, but with the new formats available), why bother? less royalties??

[Lee Stewart]

Originally Posted by tomes

strange they use mpeg2 so much still (picture can still look great of course, but with the new formats available), why bother? less royalties??

Hey come on. We are talking about the superior format here.

MPEG2 is so 1990's though

And 25GB discs!

[DVD+RW]

Originally Posted by Lee Stewart

Hey come on. We are talking about the superior format here.

MPEG2 is so 1990's though

And 25GB discs!

Get used to BD25 from now.
Two years from now BD25 will be the prominent form of delivery of Blu-ray. When the competition is gone; BD25 becomes "enough"

[Lee Stewart]

Originally Posted by DVD+RW

Get used to BD25 from now.
Two years from now BD25 will be the prominent form of delivery of Blu-ray. When the competition is gone; BD25 becomes "enough"

But with a higher bit rate!

Can you do that? Have less storage and a higher bit rate?

[kamspy]

Originally Posted by Lee Stewart

But with a higher bit rate!

Can you do that? Have less storage and a higher bit rate?

There are many good titles with lossless on BD25.

I wonder how many HD DVD titles exceed 25GB?

[djames]

Originally Posted by Lee Stewart

Hey come on. We are talking about the superior format here.

MPEG2 is so 1990's though

And 25GB discs!

maybe they're trying to stock up on BR50 gigs so they don't look like total asses when the big push with the masses begins.

[Lee Stewart]

CBS to significantly increase TV show releases on DVD this year

6 January 2008 2:36 by Rich "vurbal" Fiscus

Despite concerns in the TV industry that the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike will give networks problems packaging and selling TV series box sets from the current season, at least one home entertainment division has decided the future lies in the past. That division is CBS DVD, and as the name suggests they're part of CBS Corp., owners of the CBS television network. The past consists of TV shows owned by Paramount Home Entertainment, a division of Viacom, which formerly owned CBS as well. In 2008 CBS plans to release 105 to 110 titles, resulting in an increase of at least 13% over last year.

Despite no longer being part of the same corporate giant, CBS DVD and Paramount Home Video are still partners in TV series packaging, with the Viacom division taking responsibility for sales and distribution and both companies providing marketing support. CBS retains creative control over the packages, just as before the split from Viacom more than two years ago.

“The [overall] category does show flattening growth compared to previous years, but that is not a testament to how viable the business is,” said Ken Ross, executive VP and general manager at CBS DVD. “We have lots of titles that we will put out that will do substantial volume.”

Ross is also confident that the two companies' will sell at least 100,000 copies of their first HD DVD box set, Star Trek: Season One. “I think that when we are looking at catalog and some sitcoms, we don’t see [high-def] moving the dial that much, but with some of our sci-fi and action-adventure, it can be a very positive format change for us,” said Ross.

Of course any HD DVD release news at this point seems to be overshadowed by Warner Brothers' announcement that they'll be throwing their support behind Blu-ray exclusively, but it's hard to overstate the possible interest for TV franchises like Star Trek or CSI, which would also be on HD DVD (being a CBS property) if it were released any time soon.

Source: Video Business

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/12374.cfm

[DVD+RW]

Originally Posted by kamspy

There are many good titles with lossless on BD25.

I wonder how many HD DVD titles exceed 25GB?

Come on Kampsy,
You're on of the most neutral guys around here; I've seen you criticizing both sides.
But the whole promise of Blu-ray has been using BD50 with super mega bitrate AVC encodes and uncompressed useless PCM!
I hope I'm wrong; But once the competition goes away and Sony's help in replication decreases I bet we'll see more and more BD25 because somehow becomes enough and BD50 will be reserved for super blockbusters and priced premium.
Now, I'm not saying the quality on BD25 will be bad. In fact, I have always believed HD30 was great to achieve great quality and I'm positive you can get excellent result with Dolby TrueHD/DTS-MA and AVC/VC1 on BD 25...
However; the promise is BD50 not BD25. and once they have no competition, that promise might change and we hear things like BD25 is plenty.....
I hope I'm wrong; But I can see it happening very easily.

[kamspy]

Originally Posted by DVD+RW

Come on Kampsy,
You're on of the most neutral guys around here; I've seen you criticizing both sides.
But the whole promise of Blu-ray has been using BD50 with super mega bitrate AVC encodes and uncompressed useless PCM!
I hope I'm wrong; But once the competition goes away and Sony's help in replication decreases I bet we'll see more and more BD25 because somehow becomes enough and BD50 will be reserved for super blockbusters and priced premium.
Now, I'm not saying the quality on BD25 will be bad. In fact, I have always believed HD30 was great to achieve great quality and I'm positive you can get excellent result with Dolby TrueHD/DTS-MA and AVC/VC1 on BD 25...
However; the promise is BD50 not BD25. and once they have no competition, that promise might change and we hear things like BD25 is plenty.....
I hope I'm wrong; But I can see it happening very easily.

If 30GB is enough 25GB is enough if you truly enjoy HDM.

I love PCM, but most are content with THD.

Look at X-Men III. BD25, stellar PQ and DTS-MA. Not too shabby!

[DVD+RW]

Originally Posted by kamspy

If 30GB is enough 25GB is enough if you truly enjoy HDM.

I love PCM, but most are content with THD.

Look at X-Men III. BD25, stellar PQ and DTS-MA. Not too shabby!

That's not the point I'm making kampsy
I believe BD-25 and HD30 can do wonderful results; heck I can verify this statements by looking ay my system (and Yes, X-Men III looks real good).
The point is; all these Blu fanatics are putting HD DVD down because they don't think HD30 is enough and they believe BD50 is needed for super high quality. Heck that's why Sony and BDA say as well....
The promise is BD50 will be prominent form of Blu-ray in future and it is better because it tops HD30.
Wouldn't this be stupid if one year from now BD25 all of s sudden becomes good enough and no more BD50 is needed....
That just proves that HD DVD was right all along when they said HD30 is enough to deliver reference audio and video.

PS: I have nothing against PCM but I don't see the point when you have Dolby TrueHD or DTS-MA. Why would you keep a 100MB file when you can zip it into 25MB?