Video Business: Sony plans 50GB Blu-ray releases

[bboisvert]

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6365717.html

wow, just... wow

[The Bus]

Sony partly credits its work reaching out to media critics to ensure they fully understand how best to view the format.

"We'd like you to view the format as how it might be next year. Think PS3!"

[Shannon Nutt]

Sony executives gave some explanations for why some titles might look better than others on Blu-ray.

“RV happens to be a very recent title,” Eklund said, referring to the Robin Williams comedy release on standard DVD and Blu-ray this month. “The quality of the film masters is variable. It’s going to depend how the film was shot, with some having more film grain and some having a sharper image.”

Of course, this doesn't explain why identical movies look better on HD-DVD than they do on Blu-ray, does it Mr. Eklund?

[awmurray]

With the Blu-ray titles in the market so far, “we’ve been conservative … focusing on pictures and sound more than anything else,” Eklund said

I can hardly wait until they start focusing on other stuff!

It was expected that they would release a handful (Amir actually said one or two) titles on 50GB discs by the end of the year just to say they could... But those releases will be highly subsidized because of the low yields on BD discs so we probably shouldn't expect very many at all. And that's the problem... BD succeeds or fails on 50GB discs IMO because otherwise they have no advantage at all over HD DVD. Even with 50GB discs the advantage may not realistically be there (for movie playback that is).

[RoboDad]

Dang it! I was gonna quote that one! "Focusing on pictures and sound" indeed! Notice the conspicuous absence of the word quality in that phrase?

[darkside]

Sony really wants to make sure I never buy a Blu-ray player. If they would at least be honest I could have enough respect for them to come on board when they get the issues worked out. As it stands now, Blu-ray can't die fast enough for me.

[digitalfreaknyc]

what a fucking mess. and Darkside, I'm right there with you.

[Josh Z]

This is my favorite part:

Additionally, some Blu-ray titles have been mastered on display monitors differently from ones consumers use for TV viewing.

“We’re going to be doing some work in the fall with filmmakers and post-production, looking at how authoring works in what consumer monitors are like today,” Feingold said, noting the influence of quickly evolving flat-panel and plasma TVs.

They've been making DVDs for 9 years and they're just now starting to understand the video transfer process? Priceless.

[Supermallet]

Originally Posted by awmurray

It was expected that they would release a handful (Amir actually said one or two) titles on 50GB discs by the end of the year just to say they could... But those releases will be highly subsidized because of the low yields on BD discs so we probably shouldn't expect very many at all. And that's the problem... BD succeeds or fails on 50GB discs IMO because otherwise they have no advantage at all over HD DVD. Even with 50GB discs the advantage may not realistically be there (for movie playback that is).

It will be interesting to see how many copies of the 50GB movies come out. If Amazon couldn't keep Aeon Flux in stock, then these will probably only be seen by a very lucky (or, unlucky, depending on how you look at it) few.

[digitalfreaknyc]

Originally Posted by Suprmallet

It will be interesting to see how many copies of the 50GB movies come out. If Amazon couldn't keep Aeon Flux in stock, then these will probably only be seen by a very lucky (or, unlucky, depending on how you look at it) few.

1) According to Bill Hunt, they have no players to play them on anyway.

2) it will be interesting to see how many of them dont' work when and if they're finally released.

[Supermallet]

1. I don't understand how a player can come out that support the full mandatory BD spec and not play BD50 discs. I don't really know where Bill got that little tidbit of information, and as much as I love to see BD crash and burn, I actually am going to give Samsung the benefit of the doubt on this one.

2. My guess is 35-45 percent. Although, from what I've heard, they've had to manually check each disc that's printed to see if it works, so it could be that all of them will be good.

[digitalfreaknyc]

Originally Posted by Suprmallet

2. My guess is 35-45 percent. Although, from what I've heard, they've had to manually check each disc that's printed to see if it works, so it could be that all of them will be good.

Can you imagine that job?

My god. How fucking mindless must that be?

[Supermallet]

I don't know what the check consists of, actually. From what I've read, they have to manually check that the blank media works by hand, so it's not even like they put a video on it and test it in a player.