Will Warner support Blu-ray?

[London Geezer]

Then a software renderer has to be a good thing as it can be updated with new algorithms...





Woohoo!

Well yes, but seeing how Sony decided to completely forget about PS2's rather advanced chipset (for a DVD player) and 32MB memory while playing DVDs, i'm not expecting too much.
PS2 (and even the Xbox) could have been a FANTASTIC DVD player if only someone bothered to make a more advanced software decoder on the Emotion Engine. Also the 32MB memory would have been useful as a buffer (change of layer without pause and stuff). Instead they just made it so the DVD would just play straight through the MPEG2 decoder and out to the video output with no intervention whatsoever. Shame.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The problem with PS2 was no upgradeable firmware. PSP has shown Sony open to improving their tech over time and I'd be surprised if they didn't support that same principle in PS3. Plus an HDD and Linux will open the way up for more advanced players I'd hope.

Also, is this tweening process simple enough to be considered in games? How's about spending 2x as much on rendering and tweening the results?

 

[London Geezer]

Also, is this tweening process simple enough to be considered in games? How's about spending 2x as much on rendering and tweening the results?

You mean the PixelPlus2 thing? Not too sure it would work properly to be honest.
Personally, if i had the money i would buy a Philips HDTV, but they're quite expensive. I saw one running the same DVD (The Incredibles) alongside 4 other HDTVs and it was shocking, the Philips one seemed to be running at 60fps and the other ones seemed "choppy" in comparison. Obviously, the others were just "normal" but the difference was striking.

With games, not sure, i guess if the console itself had the processing power to interpolate frames in between real frames, then it must have the processing power to run the bloody thing at 60fps to begin with! Seriously, i don't know.

 

[Titanio]

edit - i'm late late late

 

[London Geezer]

Warner Bros nearly there in terms of confirmation...

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200510070201.html



edit - whoops, not quite confirmation

Err u're a couple hours late

 

[Titanio]

Err u're a couple hours late

Doh, really? My bad I flicked through the last few posts and didn't see reference to it. I didn't think B3D moved that fast!

 

[London Geezer]

Doh, really? My bad I flicked through the last few posts and didn't see reference to it. I didn't think B3D moved that fast!

Last page. Oh and obviously there's a new thread about this, u know, usual blindness.

 

[Carl B]

I feel as if I'm getting that Mortal Kombat 'Finish Him' voice in my head with regard to HD-DVD with Warners seemingly imminent defection. Certainly, Warner is the most relevent studio still exclusively in HD-DVDs camp.

 

[London Geezer]

I feel as if I'm getting that Mortal Kombat 'Finish Him' voice in my head with regard to HD-DVD with Warners seemingly imminent defection. Certainly, Warner is the most relevent studio still exclusively in HD-DVDs camp.

Well Universal is still "exclusive". For the next 15 minutes that is.

 

[Carl B]

Well Universal is still "exclusive". For the next 15 minutes that is.

Yeah, but Universal...

I did like Serenity however, which I recently saw.

 

[wco81]

Philips never made much inroads in the states.

They priced their products as high as anyone else, including the PixelPlus sets.

But at the showrooms, if there was any advantage, they couldn't demonstrate it. So people just buy Sony XBRs since the prices are similar and you at least get a good warranty, not to mention the XBRs are sleek and one way or another comes across looking better than most others.

For instance, Panasonic makes very capable and competitive sets but their widescreen CRTs, despite being 20-30% less than the XBR model, don't sell at all.

 

[Serenity Painted Death]

Is this when and where we dig up Texan's "MS-INTEL BACK HD-DVD, BLU-RAY/PS3 DEAD" thread?

 

[randycat99]

...I am an expert at spotting artifacts, so please, take your speculation elsewhere.

Evidently, you are not. No way around that. Sorry.

The fact that you claim to see them in only in broadcast SD and DVD, but not in HD, proves only that you allow yourself to see them where you want and ignore them where you don't want. That should be bar none reason enough to dismiss your observations as compromised. I don't say that to be mean. I'm just stating a logical conclusion. Don't question other people's eyes. Don't question other people's expertise. Don't question other people's equipment. This is simply about your own ability/inability to "see" beyond the hype.

I do not wish to derail this topic any further. I only intended to make it clear there are 2 sides to the coin, not just "all is great, no problems here, it's perfect". I graciously invite all of us here to please do continue with the Warner news.

 

[Edge]

Very interesting article here:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2005/tc2005106_9074_tc024.htm

Gates argued that Sony's new high-definition DVD standard, called Blu-ray, needed to be changed so it would work smoothly with personal computers running on Microsoft's Windows operating system. Stringer and two lieutenants defended the technology, insisting Blu-ray would work fine in PCs.

Yet Gates's ire only grew. "There must be something much deeper going on," Stringer said later, according to another person who heard the comment. A Microsoft spokesman acknowledges that Gates and Stringer talked at the conference, but says things did not become "heated."

Microsoft at first stayed out of this tug-of-war. Instead, it focused on selling its software to both sides. The Toshiba camp first agreed to use a piece of Microsoft software, its VC-1 code, that squeezes content onto the disk, then decodes it for viewing. Then, in September, 2004, the Blu-ray backers adopted this chunk of code as well -- in exchange for a public pledge of neutrality from Microsoft. "We wanted them to join us," says an insider who is close to the Blu-ray Disc Assn. "But we compromised on neutrality."

That neutrality has unraveled over the past year, as Microsoft increasingly came to see Blu-ray as a risk to its fortunes. In May, Sony confirmed that it would include Blu-ray in the new PlayStation game console beginning next year. Microsoft's Xbox wouldn't have such capability. Then on June 15, the Blu-ray camp decided against using Microsoft's IHD technology to add interactive features to Blu-ray disks, opting instead to stick with software based on Java technology.

CRISIS MODE. Once warner started to waver, Paramount Pictures decided to move first in order to negotiate better terms, according to Hollywood insiders. On Sept. 23 one Blu-ray insider saw preliminary contracts written up by Warner Bros. and Paramount to join the Blu-ray board. "It was all going to happen in a day or two," says the source.

Leaked to Microsoft, the news put the company in crisis mode. Execs began working the phones, lobbying retailers about the potential for mass consumer confusion if competing standards came to market. Concerned, CEO H. Lee Scott of Wal-Mart Stores (WMT ). personally telephoned Stringer and Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger, two Hollywood sources say. Finally, Microsoft issued its joint statement with Intel. Microsoft declined any additional comment for this article.

 

[Carl B]

Nice find Edge - good read. Definitely interesting to see how important this format war is to so many companies and industries. I have a feeling that Microsoft put it's hat in officially at the worst possible time it could have, in terms of appearances. Was it designed possibly to have Paramount and Warner waiver? Anyway...

 

[randycat99]

That's an interesting point! Seems quite probable, imo.

 

[mckmas8808]

Nice find Edge - good read. Definitely interesting to see how important this format war is to so many companies and industries. I have a feeling that Microsoft put it's hat in officially at the worst possible time it could have, in terms of appearances. Was it designed possibly to have Paramount and Warner waiver? Anyway...

Yep. But why? Are they really losing that much money by not having their i-HD layer in BDs? Or did they do this too slow any PS3 news that this could have received?

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

Well, how else is MS going to own the world? Unless they're a crucial player in every existing technology today it won't happen. More over, like the article said, it interfers with MS's vision of the Digital Life, which of course has plenty of service charges and software purchase going straight to MS. Even further, MS HATES Apple and with Apple's undeniable strangle hold on MP3 and possibly video distribution and more so with Google's more and more broadening forays into similar distibution services, MS NEEDS this to fight back... or at least I think that's what they think.

 

[wco81]

MS wants to eliminate Java in the worst possible way. If Java succeeds, then people don't need Windows as much. Sun sued MS over Java.

Now if Blu-Ray wins, Windows will have to have Java in order to play BD-Java software from Blu-Ray discs.

 

[a688]

Well, how else is MS going to own the world? Unless they're a crucial player in every existing technology today it won't happen. More over, like the article said, it interfers with MS's vision of the Digital Life, which of course has plenty of service charges and software purchase going straight to MS. Even further, MS HATES Apple and with Apple's undeniable strangle hold on MP3 and possibly video distribution and more so with Google's more and more broadening forays into similar distibution services, MS NEEDS this to fight back... or at least I think that's what they think.

This has nothing to do with Apple, who makes barely anything from iTunes. iTunes and Blu-Ray/HD-DVD are opposite sides of distribution (Electronic vs physical).

MS wants to eliminate Java in the worst possible way. If Java succeeds, then people don't need Windows as much. Sun sued MS over Java.

Now if Blu-Ray wins, Windows will have to have Java in order to play BD-Java software from Blu-Ray discs.

Although MS wants to "eliminate" Java, Windows has always (since Java was made) needed to have Java and will continue to do so for a long long time even if MS "eliminates" java. Sun sued MS because of MS's implementation of their (MS's) version of the java client on Windows.