Hey Asc - Found something you might be interested in, it's from Richard J Casey...In regards to Natures' Journey and the difference:

"Both Video Encodes look great … and I think most people would be hard pressed to see much of a difference between them." - Umm, so the guy responsible for the one title you claim represents the glaring differences in BD and HD DVD basically disagrees with you...

And regarding difficulties authoring in both formats he had this to say:

"As it turned out, there was a flag in the Authoring Software that was set by default to what everyone believed it should be set to.  When we checked the disc, it played fine on every BD Player we tested it on. However, soon after release, Sony updated their PS-3 System Firmware and set the flag differently.  This caused our CHRONOS release in BD to stop playing on all PS-3 Systems. It did not affect any other BD Player.

We recalled the product, replaced discs (at no charge for consumers), and released an updated version that works great on all PS-3 Systems as well as every other BD Player on the market.

With NATURE’S JOURNEY, we had some challenges with both formats as well.  Nearing the end of production, we had to delay the BD release one (1) month due to several issues with BD-J programming as well as compatibility concerns due to player firmware issues."

I hadn't seen you mention any of this before. I wonder why...

from High-Def Digest

Warner Shelves "Total HD" Hybrid Disc Plans

Wed Nov 14, 2007


Speaking exclusively with High-Def Digest, Warner Home Entertainment says its previously announced HD DVD/Blu-ray hybrid disc won't be hitting stores anytime soon.

As we've previously reported, the studio made a splash when it unveiled Total HD earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show, proposing it to the industry and consumers alike as a solution to the ongoing format war. Containing a Blu-ray layer on one side of the disc and an HD DVD layer on the other, the studio said the hybrid disc would retail for little more than a single-format title, and that it planned to have its first releases in stores by the second half of the year.
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Roughly six months later, Warner announced it was pushing back its launch plans for Total HD until early 2008, but said it remained committed to the concept, promising ten to twenty launch titles upon the format's eventual release.

Though the studio had since remained mum on the status of its plans for the hybrid format, a Warner exec has now confirmed to High-Def Digest that all current plans for Total HD have been shelved in response to a perceived shift in retailer needs following Paramount's move to HD DVD exclusivity.

"The short answer is, for the moment, it [Total HD] is on hold," explained Jim Noonan, SVP of Strategic Promotion and Communication for Warner Home Entertainment Group. "We're the only studio producing content in both formats. If we were to put out Total HD with just our titles, it wouldn't really provide the solution to our retail partners that it was intended to provide. If anything, at this point, it would further complicate their life, because there would be another product looking for shelf space. Our job is not to further complicate the lives of our retailers."

As for the possibility that Total HD might still see the light of day should other studios go format-neutral, Noonan certainly didn't rule it out.

"Total HD was something that we offered up to the industry as a solution that would address buyer hesitancy, and the concern a consumer might have about the possible obsolesce of the hardware they were buying. We have no proprietary interest in Total HD. There is no patent we're involved in, and there is no monetary reward for us if another studio decides to put out titles on Total HD. It was offered purely as an industry solution -- and it is still a good and viable solution that has no expiration date."

Quoting Battling Butler:

Quote:
from today's Audioholics:

http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/sony-ceo-uncertain-of-blu-ray-future

Sony CEO Uncertain of Blu-ray Future

by Tom Andry — last modified November 13, 2007


Sony CEO Uncertain of Blu-ray Future

If only Blu-ray had a time machine...

After the spanking Blu-ray got at the hands of HD DVD recently, Sony's CEO Sir Howard Stringer commented that the two formats are in a "stalemate" according to the Associated Press. While he doesn't cite the falling prices of HD DVD players compared to their own "budget" $400 players, he did mention that the coup HD DVD pulled by wooing Paramount into an exclusive deal as being a deciding factor in the current state of the format war.

As we have long suspected, Sony seems to have been pricing their players higher in order to give the impression of higher quality over their less expensive HD DVD rivals. Stringer mentioned in his interview that they were trying to win on "merits" though what those merits might be in an incomplete format escapes us. Stringer suggested that there was a time for a unification of the two formats in the past but blamed his predecessors for letting that opportunity slip through their fingers. But lets face it, once Sony introduces something like this (SACD anyone?) they don't "unify" anything.

They just keep pushing until it dies.

With more and more dual disc players on the horizon, unification may be a moot point anyhow - at least eventually. At around $1000, dual discs are still only in the realm of those with large amounts of disposable income or the terminally impatient. At this point, there is no reason to assume that their Ethernet port (currently used exclusively by the HD DVD half of the player) will be able to be utilized for BD-Live. Wouldn't that just be a kick in the pants!

As far as we're concerned, Sony's decision to put a Blu-ray player in their Playstation 3 console is the only reason there is a format war at all. If not for that installed base (40% of which don't even realize that their PS3 has Blu-ray capability), HD DVD would have won on price alone.

Consumers don't care which format wins, the just want the latest and greatest technology - and they want it cheap.

HD DVD is providing that right now while the only thing that Blu-ray is providing (according to their current marketing blitz) is Disney titles. We all know that ads aimed at kids work but it seems a little low to be pushing children into begging for a $400 player. But when you're desperate…

Well, I guess that answers my question about who would be taken in by the sorry misleading piece of journalism done on the interview.

Here is part of the transcript from that interview to help some people out.

Quote:
Adler: Of course, one of the big fights right now is Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD for the high definition video market. I mean, the first and most obvious question is: Shouldn't there just be one format? Why should people have to choose between the two? And is there any possibility that we'll be heading there?

Stringer: I should point out that that is not part of the software battle. I mean, that's actually in some ways sort of anachronistic. We're fighting over a packaged goods hardware that will not go on forever, from a classic sense. We have a more expensive version, as Sony tends to, and Toshiba has a cheaper version, which seems to keep getting cheaper. I believe it has slowed down the progress of high definition packaged goods. Oddly, the studios kind of liked it for a while. They were able to leverage one of us against each other. But in the end, it's counterproductive. We have a sort of stalemate at the moment. As you know, they had fewer studios, but then they paid a lot of money for Paramount. So we have four studios and they have two or three studios. It's a difficult... it's a difficult fight. There was a chance to integrate it before I became CEO. This is something I inherited. And I don't know what broke down. I wish I could go back there, because I heard it was all about saving face and losing face, and all the rest of it. But it's not a battle about the digital future. That's what's so strange about it. If it doesn't work out, that doesn't say very much about where we're all going. It's just... it's a scorecard: one-nothing or something. But it doesn't mean as much as all that. PlayStation 3 will still go on playing games. It would have to have a different disk drive. And that's about it really.

Adler: So when a consumer now has to choose between the two, if they want to get into the high definition video, Wal-Mart was selling the Toshiba HD-DVD for $99 last Friday for a couple of days. Usually, it's been $199 there. I think your list price is $499 for Blu-ray. That's an enormously big difference, particularly in a slowing economy. Can you play that game with the difference being that great?

Stringer: Well... we've been selling them as fast as we're making them because the brand -- first of all, we're not the only ones selling them at that price. So is Panasonic, so is Samsung, so is Sharp. And one of the reasons it's more expensive is because it does more. The bandwidth is greater. If you just want a two-hour movie, the Toshiba version is a high definition picture. But we thought that to drive high definition into the customer's imagination, you should future-proof the disks so that you could have director's cuts, which are fairly obvious. We have six to seven hours of bandwidth available. You can have interactivity in three dimensions. We would be prepared to allow the package goods to survive much longer by making it much more innovative. But that does make the player more expensive. Now, they all come down. The race is to bring costs down. It always is in consumer electronics. So it isn't going to stay at $499.

Adler: But are you surprised by how little Toshiba can sell its unit for?

Stringer: No, because -- look, I can sell it for a dollar. I'd lose a lot of money, but if you want to go that route, it's a tough competition, and it seems to be about a lot of things, including face. So if you want to cut the price down and engage us in a price war, that's a different system. We were trying to win on the merits, which we were doing for a while until Paramount changed sides.

Adler: Microsoft seems to have an interesting role in this. They're selling add-on HD-DVD drives for the -- they're taking HD-DVD to the Xbox, and Xbox competes strongly with you. Is Microsoft kind of working in cahoots or in alliance with Toshiba on HD-DVD? Is that a competitive challenge to you?

Stringer: Only the spirits know. [laughs] Yeah... you never know with Microsoft do you? You never know. Xbox versus PS3 is sort of a subplot. What Microsoft's role is in that? I don't know. We're still selling software at a faster level than Toshiba. Obviously, we care about the software side more than the Toshiba does. It doesn't have a studio. It doesn't own a studio. So it's in our interest to -- actually the most significant thing in some ways about Blu-ray, going back to Microsoft... the Blu-ray Disc has a very high security level, which Fox in particular, but also other studios, was most excited about -- wanted to have some protection from instant ripping. So the specs that went into the Blu-ray, which were done in conjunction with many studios, had this security level. That is probably not in Microsoft's interests. The Toshiba disk is certainly far easier to rip. Whether you like that or don't like that depends on your consumer enthusiasm.

There you go.  PART of the COMPLETE sentences left out.  Much ado about nothing.

The other part of that article is very interesting.  The whole WHAT IF scenario.  If the PS3 didn't have a BD player in it, blah blah, blah.  Well, if the HD DVD player didn't have rock bottom prices, it wouldn't be around, now.  Sounds even to me on that front.  It's amazing how they can put together articles without basing it in reality.  I guess reality isn't what it use to be, huh?! 

You keep talking about the PQ on this release...Damn me for not posting the entire thing.  So you're saying that the video is better too...It's NICE THAT YOU apparently disagree with the comments of the creator of the disc. Glad you're so damned smart.

Just to play nice I'll post the audio comments as well, I'm not hiding anything.

And you know that DREAMWORKS (Paramount didn't release Shrek, moron) couldn't (?) fit a TrueHD track how? Moron.

Quoting Ascended_Saiyan:

Quote:
BTW, if you read my statement about Shrek 3's audio, you would have seen the "PROBABLY" part.   Well, you tried.  We'll send you some lovely parting gifts in the mail. 

This is your statement:  "That is the BANDWIDTH difference between Blu-ray and HD DVD.  That's probably why Paramount could NOT include a lossless soundtrack on SHREK 3 despite it ONLY being 90+mins long.    Oh, the compromises!"

The way you wrote it, the word 'probably' deals with the reason they could not include it.  It has nothing to do with whether or not they included it.

Simply put, you said they could NOT include a lossless soundtrack and it was probably due to the bandwidth difference.

Now, that may not have been what you meant to say...but it IS what you wrote.  It pays to understand sentence structure. 

Am I missing something about the Dreamworks Home Entertainment part of the release equation? Yes, Paramount is the parent company, I do understand that. It's a Dreamworks Animation film distributed under the Dreamworks Home Entertainment name by the parent company PHE...I consider that a DHE release. Show me something different and I'll concede the point.

I DID NOT SAY THERE WAS NO DIFFERENCE. I said it was negligible and that most people wouldn't see any difference. Hard pressed means you'll have to really look hard to see it, if you find it at all. Those were HIS words, not mine and I didn't "misunderstand of the words"...The discussion wasn't about audio, that's why I didn't include it. I mean, come on now. Why would I bring it up when it had absolutely nothing to do with my post?

So, he didn't max out the bandwidth...That is relevant because?

Spare the postage...

Ok, ok! To me it's still a Dreamworks release but I grant you all the pleasure of proving me "wrong". I wasn't beating myself up over it. It's really not that increidbly important to me as I still consider it a DHE release, as would most people.

You say potato, I say potato...

Still think Asc is a moron. 

Quoting bob9000:

Quote:
Quoting twojayz:

Quote:
Still think Asc is a moron. 

Everyone thinks the ASC is a moron.

I don't think Asc is a moron...that would be giving him too much credit .