A comparison of PS3 and 360 as media players

[Nesh]

What you guys all fail to realize is that you can't just let people go enjoying the content you're selling all willy-nilly. As soon as you do that, BAM!, they become pirates and you completely lose out on any potential revenue you could have gotten from them. It's a known fact.

Well you cant stop people from pirating anyways.
Either you dont give enough access to the consumer's purchase and motivate him more to pirate without mercy, or give him enough access to keep him closer
There should be some form of mechanism that does not allow abuse of content or at least limit it. Sony's idea for activating a limited number of registered devices like the PS3 and PSP is a good first step. Something can be evolved from that.

 

[patsu]

What you guys all fail to realize is that you can't just let people go enjoying the content you're selling all willy-nilly. As soon as you do that, BAM!, they become pirates and you completely lose out on any potential revenue you could have gotten from them. It's a known fact.

I think we are entitled to one free digital copy of a purchased Blu-ray movie. The BDA hasn't delivered mandatory managed copy yet. If the studios don't give the consumers a satisfactory working system especially when portable media devices are selling so well, I fear the consumers will take matters into their own hands.

The studio execs keep saying they want people to buy movies instead of rent right ?

 

[bkilian]

I think we are entitled to one free digital copy of a purchased Blu-ray movie. The BDA hasn't delivered mandatory managed copy yet. If the studios don't give the consumers a satisfactory working system especially when portable media devices are selling so well, I fear the consumers will take matters into their own hands.

The studio execs keep saying they want people to buy movies instead of rent right ?

Haha, nowhere in the Managed Copy spec does it say "For free". In fact, it specifically calls out that the managed copy may be charged over and above the original bought physical disc.

 

[patsu]

"Free" is not a technical feature/spec, or a Mandatory Managed Copy guarantee. The latter is only an enabling mechanism; an official one at that. There are other tools.

Most lawyers would consider (free) backup a "Fair Use", as long as you own the purchased media and made the copy for personal use.

 

[patsu]

DEG’s Year-End 2011 Home Entertainment Report compiled by DEG members, tracking sources and retail input:
http://www.degonline.org/pressreleases/2012/DEG_year_end_2011.pdf

Annual Spending on Blu-ray Discs Jumps 20 Percent Hitting $2 Billion for First Time

Digital Spending Up 50 Percent

Blu-ray Disc Playback Devices In Nearly 40 Million Homes, Up 38 Percent from Year Earlier

...

Available 3D Blu-ray Disc titles more than tripled in 2011 compared to 2010, growing from 20 to 65, while unit sales increased more than six times in the same period.

...

 

[patsu]

Crackle and CinemaNow apps join Xbox Live today
http://www.shacknews.com/article/72245/crackle-and-cinemanow-apps-join-xbox-live-today

Two more entertainment apps are available to download off Xbox Live today: the Crackle app from Sony Pictures and CinemaNow from Best Buy.

CinemaNow allows Xbox Live Gold members to buy and rent movies and TV shows. (Why anyone would do this instead of using the Zune Marketplace, we're not entirely sure.) Crackle offers "thousands of full-length movies and TV shows" for free.

...

 

[patsu]

Redbox Puts the Kibosh on WB’s 56-day Waiting Period
http://gizmodo.com/5881138/redbox-puts-the-kibosh-on-wbs-56+day-waiting-period

While Netflix is happy to kowtow to Warner Brothers Studio's title-delaying demands, Redbox is having none of it. The curbside video rental chain just let its contract with WB expire over the issue—allowing Redbox to rent its WB catalog ahead of the competition.

The trouble started when WB tried to impose an additional four-week delay for rental and streaming companies—Netflix, Redbox, and Blockbuster—in order to help prop flagging DVD sales. That's on top of the current delay of 28 days, increasing the total wait time to a full two months.

Netflix has since agreed to those terms, the LA Times reports that Redbox did let its current contract expire citing customers' expectations of new releases in a timely manner.

This means that a) Redbox will have to buy future WB content elsewhere and without the company' wholesale discount and b) Redbox is no longer subject to the extended delay.

...

 

[AntShaw]

....

 

[patsu]

Follow-up to AntShaw's inflammatory comment...

Iger: Disney Implementing 28-Day Delays; Taking ‘Wait and See’ Approach Toward UltraViolet
http://www.homemediamagazine.com/di...ait-and-see-approach-toward-ultraviolet-26354

Walt Disney Studios plans to impose a 28-day rental delay on new-release disc titles, CEO Bob Iger said. He did not elaborate on timing but a rental source said Disney would embargo War Horse, which streets April 3..

During a Feb. 7 fiscal call with analysts, Iger said Disney remains on the fence regarding the rollout of the industry-wide initiative UltraViolet, the cloud-based digital locker aimed at jumpstarting sellthrough of both physical and digital content.

...

 

[patsu]

Disney’s MacPherson, BDA’s Parsons Talk Blu-ray
http://www.homemediamagazine.com/blu-ray-disc/disney-s-macpherson-bda-s-parsons-talk-blu-ray-26502

On Feb. 23, Lori MacPherson, EVP of global product management for The Walt Disney Studios, and Andy Parsons, SVP of corporate communications for Pioneer Electronics and chair of the Blu-ray Disc Association's (BDA) promotion committee in the United States, participated in the first of several virtual roundtables with journalists held by the BDA.

Here’s a selection of the Q&A portion of the roundtable:

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Touches on Blu-ray, 3D, streaming, Ultra-Violet and Disney's competing DRM service.

 

[-tkf-]

The Next round of Blu-Ray is shaping up:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...Blu-Ray-discs-offering-times-hi-def-2013.html

And with Sony producing 4K PJ´s it´s pretty much a given that they will persue this. The interesting part is the disc, and how they are going to handle upgrades.

There are several ways, stick with 50GB, could be done though it would be a compromise, however, considering that 3D in 4K also is a given, that would be a compromise that is harder to swallow.

There is and has been a lot of talk and research about upping the capacity, i guess we will see either more layers or the Panasonic/Sony solution where they push each layer to 33.5 GB (http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=3977). 30% more storage for 4 times the number of pixels...

Of course, the pursuit of 4K makes it even more likely that the PS4 will be based on Blu-Ray yet again while the 720 still is a big unknown but imho without Blu-Ray the 720 will be losing a bullet point.

 

[Npl]

That really gonna be a mess. Already having separate 3D and non3D versions pisses me off - should be possible to just use one version instead?
For me such new standards are less of an issue because of new hardware as you`d need just a new BD Player to play new discs (albeit not in their best quality) - I had a PS3 and Blurays long before having a HDTV. Whats annoying me is that my bigger investment - as in the movies I have bought getting re-released and my version kinda down-valued.
I really got a tick to find the best version of everything....

On the upside though is that some bad early transfers will be done again for 4K, which could be alot more significant increase in quality than the 4x pixel upgrade.

 

[joker454]

That really gonna be a mess. Already having separate 3D and non3D versions pisses me off - should be possible to just use one version instead?

Don't know if it will matter much since 4k will likely be niche only, mass market will prolly ignore it.

 

[-tkf-]

That really gonna be a mess. Already having separate 3D and non3D versions pisses me off - should be possible to just use one version instead?
For me such new standards are less of an issue because of new hardware as you`d need just a new BD Player to play new discs (albeit not in their best quality) - I had a PS3 and Blurays long before having a HDTV. Whats annoying me is that my bigger investment - as in the movies I have bought getting re-released and my version kinda down-valued.
I really got a tick to find the best version of everything....

On the upside though is that some bad early transfers will be done again for 4K, which could be alot more significant increase in quality than the 4x pixel upgrade.

I think that some movies are released as 2D/3D on one Disc, apparently it depends on the movie since the 2D version will be "one eye" instead of two. But it would be cool if 4K discs just played back on normal bluray players in a "lowres" version

Right now, i think that 4K-Blu will be to Blu-Ray what Laserdisc was to VHS, limited to some releases at a higher cost instead of a mass market. And i would love that

 

[tuna]

I think frame rate will be more important as well. The Hobbit will be 48 fps 3D, that will require 4 times the band width of current HD if every frame should look as good. How much more would 48/60 fps 4k 3D require?

 

[jlippo]

I think frame rate will be more important as well. The Hobbit will be 48 fps 3D, that will require 4 times the band width of current HD if every frame should look as good. How much more would 48/60 fps 4k 3D require?

If you just take average of 20Mb/s and double framerate and quadruple resolution and add stereo image it would be 320Mb/s.

The thing is that when you go for higher resolution and/or increase framerate the data becomes easier to compress as changes between frames and pixels is smaller.

 

[-tkf-]

If you just take average of 20Mb/s and double framerate and quadruple resolution and add stereo image it would be 320Mb/s.

The thing is that when you go for higher resolution and/or increase framerate the data becomes easier to compress as changes between frames and pixels is smaller.

The 3D compression that is used now only has an overhead of 50% according to the wiki.

So it would 80 mbit for the res times two for the framerate and 50% more for the 3D and end up around 240 mbit. But as you say, the higher density and more frames should allow for a much more efficient encoding.

I would guess we end up with 4K non 3D @ 24p , at least from the start.

With a max of 40 mbit within the current specs 4K would be heavily compressed since there is no headroom, and with that bitrate it could only fit a movie of around 120 mins. I would guess an average of 60 mbit should be enough and with the +33% technique they could just squeeze that on a DL disc with headroom. Bit that would leave absolutely no space out for extras and stuff like that. So i hope they go for at least a 3 layer solution with the +33%. I would hate to end up with a "HD-DVD compromise" with 4K

Curiously the Sony 4K VW1000ES doesn´t support 3D in 4K

 

[patsu]

HBO Go Xbox 360 app coming on April 1
http://www.slashgear.com/hbo-go-xbox-360-app-coming-on-april-1-28216013/

HBO has announced that it will bring its streaming video service to the Xbox 360 in just a little more than a month. This would be the latest extension for the platform, which has already launched on set-top boxes like the Roku as well as Android and the iPhone/iPad. Of course, the service only works if customers have an existing HBO subscription with a participating provider.

...

 

[Arwin]

Would be sweet if that comes to Vita. We just got HBO here and if a Vita version appears we may switch from Canal+

 

[Brad Grenz]

HBO Go Xbox 360 app coming on April 1
http://www.slashgear.com/hbo-go-xbox-360-app-coming-on-april-1-28216013/

Just in time for Game of Thrones. Hopefully they don't have any snafus like with the UFC app. The nerd rage would be exquisite.