Paramount has always taken a "head in the sand" approach to all things home video. They were very slow to ramp up support for DVD as well.

Some interesting posts from Amir at AVS. Seems there is NO guarantee that BD will ever use VC-1. Apparently no one has come forward from "their side" to request their codec for creating the discs.
It's interesting to me because I think a lot of people were under the impression that it would only be a matter of time until they started to use it. That doesn't seem to be the case.

They can also use AVC, which is said to be very similiar to VC-1 quality (that is, similiar quality per gigabyte).

I doubt anyone would be too shocked to see Sony actually using the Microsoft codec (VC-1). I was shocked they announced support for it in the first place.

But they're not and for the moment, won't. That's the issue.

Also, it seems like their big "durabis" coating is not present either. ;) It's just something that they may or may not decide to use.

Got any reliable links to verify this?

no. Strictly of the "I heard something from someone" variety.
It's origin is the thread on AVS
here
I seem to recall your name on a few posts over there so you are probably already familiar with the thread, but I'm linking it anyway just in case someone else wants to peruse it.

I'll leave it up to everyone else to see if it passes the smell test.

on a similar but unrelated note- over in the Bd forums there is this quote, which is one of several of the same gist from different players that I have seen commenting on the stunning underperformance of the first Bd titles/player-

that quote is from Cliff Stephensen.

Wait, they are not using Durabis 2 on the Blu-ray discs? Can someone please confirm this. Without Durabis 2 those discs will be destroyed very easily.

I wish people would post links when they make claims like that. Otherwise it seems as though they’re just spreading false information.

I can believe all of the other faults with Blu-ray but I can’t believe that they’re releasing discs without Durabis given (from my understanding) that it’s an essential part of the disc’s makeup.

Durabis is supposed to be very expensive and a time consuming process. Iirc, the latter was one of the big reasons why they didn't use it on these first batch of discs.


If these Bd discs and the player look like they are being rushed to market half assed, they are. If Sony waited till they actually could produce Bd50s, they would have already lost.

You want proof? Here you go:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=689750

A scratch-resistant coating is mandatory. Durabis isn't. If it were, you should have bought TDK stock months ago. :D

For example, Verbatim's coating solution is called ScratchGuard, and other companies will use their own.

Another interesting post at AVS.
Robert George was responding to a PR piece about the BD launch and said that one of the BD-only companies mentioned in the article already has HD DVD masters done. He, of course, didn't say which one.

Sony, definately Sony.

;)

I thought Durabis II was a major selling point for BR... I don't understand how they could let that slip.

According to everything that I've heard until now, BR is very fragile and a new coating technology was developed specifically for BR discs so that they can be "caddy free".

From what I understood, any old coating wasn't good enough due to the data layer on BR discs being so close to the surface of the disc.

From www.durabis.com:
So what are they using? Durabis I (which is used on standard DVDs) probably:

I guess now they're going to claim Durabis II isn't really necessary. In my mind I add it to the list of reasons why current BR discs are broken:

MPEG2, SL only (25GB limit), no durabis 2 coating (supposedly essential for getting the disc out of a caddy), less extra features than on SD-DVD versions, rated versions only...

MGM, according to rumor.

Wasn't Durabis one of the main excuses for the delay? The laser reading through the coating?

Actually, if you read the arcticle, MGM Is never mentioned. ;)

So it's possible that another studio is contemplating.

Question though: what does it mean that someone is doing HD DVD masters? Isn't it just an encoding and both discs can use those encodings? Or is it because the encoding may have been in VC1 which leads one to believe it would be HD DVD only?

It sounds to me that they mean the complete master for an HD-DVD disc. That would mean the folders are set up, everything's in the file system HD-DVD uses, the menu's been created for HD-DVD, etc.

Well..it's not MGM (because they're not in the original article) and it's not Disney (Robert put the kibosh on that). I'm guessing it's Lion's Gate.

Hey, I'll take Saw, Saw II, and T2 in HD.

I think I read an article last week where Lions Gate said they are close to acquiring another studio's library. Didn't say who of course.

They're mentioned in the second paragraph:

(It's a two-page article, and the AVS post linked to page two.)

FWIW, Lionsgate was my first guess when this rumor started making the rounds a couple weeks back. All of the announced Blu-ray titles I'd be interested in buying are all from Lionsgate.

From this article last week:

Enh...i'll give it to you. I guess time will tell. I don't really care WHICH studios support as long as more sign on. I have to admit, it'll probably be Lion's Gate since I just bought the Crash 2 disc through DDD.

Showtime had played Crash a few times over the last month or so in HD and it looked sweet. The HD DVD should look better...provided they cross the line.

I don't think the reviews for the Samsung are going to make Fox want to announce their BD plans any time soon.

I only have the single disc DVD of Crash so I am all over a version on HD DVD if it turns out to be true.

Assuming LG will support both, I wonder if HD DVD would get the full 2-disc of Crash and the BD version would get the same version that was on the 1-disc.