Blu-Rays DVD's

As most of you folks out there have heard about Blu-Ray DVD's I thought I would share some info about them.

First of all if you want to make a 100% Blu-Ray DVD that is going to be 100% playable in all Blu-Ray players then you need to use either Scenarist 4 ($150,000) or Sony's Blu Print (you still cannot afford it ) authoring software.

Plus more money on licenses.

1 - Blu-ray License

2 - AACS License

3 - HD-DVD License

4 - Audio ->DTS License and/or DD+ License

5 - MPEG License ->AVC and MPEG2

So basically Hollywood have designed the format for themselves only and out priced it for anyone else to use it and made the players to reject any disk that has not be authored using their $$$ method.

Yes you can use other cheap so called Blu-Ray software but you will find they will not play on many Stand Alone set top DVD players. However this may change with abit of luck and in a few years we may all be able to make Blu_Rays disks that will play on most BD players. The same thing happened with normal DVD'rs with many first generation players refusing to play home made DVDs but now days most can.

Here is some text taken from DVDit® Pro HD

[The two ways to view a BD disc created with DVDit Pro HD are in BD compatible computers and on a BD set top player. Currently there are very few computer BD players available outside of OEM channels (bundled with BD computers). It is anticipated that several will be released in late 2006. Note that some set top BD players that are being sold will play back HDMV on BD-R(RE) and some will not. Playback of unprotected HDMV content on BD-R is expected to be widely supported by player manufacturers following an amendment to the BD specification in June, 2006. Please check the manufacturer’s specifications for HDMV on BD-R(RE) support.]

Has anyone else have any info on them?

Wagsy

The pricing is still out of control on replication as you pointed out and these is nothing in the realm of afffordable authoring to tap into the full features of HD DVD or blu ray.

If you are asking about DVDit® Pro HD (think you were) the buzz on the lists is that this is the only software within the realm of mortals that will produce a Master for replication - apparantly Encore will not produce the proper format for replication. Roxio has been around for awhile (if that is what you are asking) and has some real good products. On the Mac side of things Toast is a "must have" pretty much for burning for quite awhile. Roxio was bought by Sonic Solutions, http://www.sonic.com, a big name in the biz with this system http://www.sonic.com/products/Professional.../quicklook.aspx.

As an aside I think blu ray may win if I had to bet - blockbuster has announced its stores will carrry blu-ray for rental and not focus on HD DVD and at VSDA/Home Media Expo there was a special offer to attendees - a Toshiba HD Player and 3 titles for $99.

The war is going to heat up this xmas. Blockbuster chose BD based on their limited title range. Netflix, Amazon and others still carry both. In fact Amazon sells more HD-DVDs than BD. With Xbox 360 out selling PS3 everywhere and bundling HD-DVD, and the HD players peppering the market (at a loss apparently), HD DVD is a viable alternative. The studios will choose the format that wins the war. Do you really think Disney et al will not sell the winning format on principle? Especially seeing how we can directly record HDV .mt2 files on and DVDSP FCS 2 does construct HD-DVD masters, albeit in non-advanced form. Since Advanced form HD-DVD isn't out yet I guess Apple wants to hit us with the upgrade!

Plus I think HDDVD has the better encoding for films imho. The Matrix and 300 looked better without the crappy banding on BD.

Our Naturally Ningaloo has been made into a Blu-Ray using DVDit® Pro HD.

It will be interesting to see how many players it will play on.

While the hard to make and expensive HDDVD and Blu-Ray war is on......watch out for HDVMD for us common folk.

Our Naturally Ningaloo has been made into a Blu-Ray using DVDit® Pro HD.

It will be interesting to see how many players it will play on.

 

While the hard to make and expensive HDDVD and Blu-Ray war is on......watch out for HDVMD for us common folk.

The folks over at DVDit Pro HD are posting a patch that will allow a home make blu-ray

disk to be able to play in Sony's PS3...

The patch can be found on the Roxio forums as a sticky for DVDit Pro...

Yes I spotted that patch over there.

I encoded out a 1920/1080 mpeg2 CBR 25mbps with AC3 audio straight out from a HDV EDIUS timeline. I then made a small Blu_Ray project in DVDit Pro HD and then burnt it to a normal DVD-r disk.

I then fired up Power DVD and here I am watching the 25mbps Blu-Ray authored DVD on my computers normal DVD drive.

Will it play in any stand alone BR player is another thing?

How bad is this for computer playing of commercial Blu_Rays

I have proven that a normal computers DVD drive can play Blu_Ray specs files no problems.

But for a commercial Blu_Ray if you don't have a HDCP-compliant card/display then the AACS downrezzes commercial titles.

So you have to buy a whole new graphics card and monitor or screen or TV or Projector that has HDCP to play commercial Blu-Rays at full res on you computer.

Home made Blu_Rays will play full res with any computer screen.

No wonder people make crack codes .

The war is going to heat up this xmas.

"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc said on Monday they will release their DVD titles exclusively on HD DVD ahead of what they say could be the biggest holiday season ever for DVDs." Read more...

ML

Interesting development in the ongoing saga:

"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc said on Monday they will release their DVD titles exclusively on HD DVD ahead of what they say could be the biggest holiday season ever for DVDs." Read more...

 

ML

LOL I was just about to post the same thing and there was some other info - Spiderman 3 will only be Blu-ray.

Wish these people would make up their mind already...sheesh. Interesting as it seemed Blu-ray is taking the lead this comes out.

This is just stupid.

I'm sure china will make cheap drives that play both and people will make crack programs so they can play them on their computers without having to spend $1000+ on a new HDCP graphic card and monitor so they can watch Blu_Rays, on their computers.

Actually there already is commercial program you can buy that will allow you to copy the whole Blu_Ray or HD DVD to you computers hard drive, then you can watch it no problems or burn back to a Blu_ray or HD DVD disk.

Its called AnyDVD HD

It simply

1 Removes encryption (AACS) from Blu-Ray or HD DVD DVD.

2 Removes region codes from Blu-Ray or HD DVD DVD.

3 watch movies over digital display connection, without HDCP compliant graphics card and HDCP compliant display.

As I said before, home made Blu_Rays will play full res fine with a normal VGA computer screen even from a normal red laser DVD disk.

I think many of us were reading the same articles. Around Xmas both sides will be coming out with the blockbusters in different camps of HD or Blue Ray. The consumer is left stuck and ultimately, these same companies will lose lots of $ because of the many who are waiting for the dust to settle between them. People have long memories and the VHS vs Beta wars remain a viable position for not committing yet to one or the other. I recall have the first Beta on the block, and the second and then I wised up and had to switch.

Not again. I love the idea of the ANYHD Disc. Sounds good to me.

Steve B)