Bill Stephan
Forum Replies Created
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Remember that sales of surround audio systems are going up and up also. But look in a typical store like Best Buy. You will find 600-1000 ft. of counter space devoted to selling audio CDs. You will find 20 ft. of counter space for DVD-Audio and SACD discs combined. Some music stores have stopped selling these discs entirely.
Several months ago, I purchased a DVD player that also plays DVD-Audio and SACD. Because the output of the highest quality tracks is crippled (analogue out only), my system has a bass management problem when playing these discs. Combine that with the very limited availability of content, and you will see why I won’t buy any more of these discs.
Remember that the record companies want your dollars, while they really don’t want you to have very high quality content (because you, the customer, are assumed to be a thief and will make enough copies of their discs to run them out of business). And each manufacturer wants you to buy only their format and not the other company’s format.
Does any of this sound like what is developing in the world of high-def DVDs?
The film studios and electronics manufacturers already can down-rez your HD movie to 25% of normal if it is played through the analog video outs. And if the mothership back in Hollywood decides that you are involved, however remotely, in piracy, they can disable BOTH your hi-def DVD player AND your really expensive flat screen TV. That is what HDCP is for. Every new movie DVD will have an updated list of devices that need to be disabled upon insertion of the DVD.
The music and the film/video business are the only industries that operate under the principle that their customers are the enemy and their competitors are their allies.
Remember that all of this will be in the stores on May 23, 2006. Get your checkbook out and be ready to write some big numbers on it!
Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City -
[Dan Sheridan] “I have heard that Sonic Solutions are releasing software that will enable authors to create projects on both medium…”
You can get Sonic Blue Ray Creator to author blue ray DVD or HD Scenarist to author HD-DVD. You can’t do both in the same authoring system. At least Sonic has one HD encoder that encodes all the mandatory video formats, so that will work for both types of DVD.
OK folks! Place your bets. (But I think you get better odds at the crap tables in Vegas than you will on the floor of N.A.B. trying to pick the winning DVD format.)
Personally, I think both Blue Ray and HD-DVD are going to end up as DVD-Audio and SACD did — formats that few people care about.
Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City -
You need a good reference signal to both the Kona and the VTR.
Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City -
Most likely you have a partially complete render unless powering-off the computer corrupted the precompute. You should be able to see an indicator in the timeline that shows what is unrendered. (Turn it on in the timeline menu if it’s off). Then you should be able to continue rendering from where it stopped.
Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City -
In our facility, DVCProHD and HDCAM do seem to play well together.
Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City -
On my Sony progressive scan DVD player, if I want to watch a 4:3 DVD in 4:3 on my 16:9 display (in other words to pillarbox it and display correct aspect ratio) I need to change the DVD player to interlaced mode. Progressive mode in the DVD player always fills the entire screen. I suspect that most other players work in a similar fashion regardless of how the DVD is authored.
Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City -
If your dissolves look noisy, the bit rate for the MPEG encoding is too low, or you need to do VBR encoding. A dissolve is the most difficult piece of video to encode, as every pixel is changing across both space and time. That is what MPEG tries to compress. If every pixel is changing, it doesn’t compress well and the picture quality suffers (looks noisy).
High-end hardware and software encoders have ways of dealing with these problems.
Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City -
DVD Studio Pro, Adobe Encore, Sonic DVDit & DVD Producer all do this. Hw much of a no-brainer a motion menu is in these apps is debatable.
Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City -
If you reinstalled Windows using a clean installation, all hooks into the operating system are gone, and you can delete any traces of the old software that are still hanging around on your hard drive.
Does your system meet Avid specs for XpressProHD? For one, you need Windows XP Professional for all Avid PC software. If you are trying to run on a less than fully certified system, maybe the software will work and maybe it won’t.
Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City -
Capture directly from the output of a DVD Player.
Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City