A Visit with Sony -- High-Def Digest Interview

**PeterB** · 10-23-2006 07:45 PM

Hi all --

I did the first studio interview for the site, with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/feat...twithsony.html

Just posted, and I think they were pretty forthright in answering the tougher questions... definitely want to hear what you guys think about it!

Definitely, the Blu-ray camp is not rolling over and playing dead to HD DVD, at least if Sony has anything to say about it.

**munskie** · 10-23-2006 08:08 PM

I feel they were on the defensive mindset all along......damage control on all the initial mediocre transfers that were made.

**Blurry** · 10-23-2006 08:23 PM

As I read that article, I was actually expecting better than I got. I felt like they were trying to hand us a load of sh**t to justify their own internal decisions to do things that were more convenient for them, not the consumer.

I could barely finish the article, I felt disgusted by their patronizing attitude.

**mchamblissII** · 10-23-2006 09:00 PM

The whole article made me feel very digusted about what he said about what the consumers should do with the whole monitor calibration. So from what I got from the whole interview is that they are not concern about what the comsumers think but rather what they think is best for them lol that's a load of bs.

"Okay, I'm making this tweak here, and that tweak there, but how will that affect what it looks like on this consumer monitor? Does it bring about a different result?"

Ok i can see about calibrating your tv and everything but doing it for each film is really annoying.

**MrChaos** · 10-23-2006 09:22 PM

Lord.. I LOVED the excuse over not adding any extra's. I also enjoyed how he dodged your question about the lack of more interactive features. I guess Sony knows what the consumers want more than what the consumers actually want.

Nice intereview though Peter. Some really tough and interesting questions were asked. Too bad that Sony decided to give the standard corporate answers.

**JackDCD** · 10-23-2006 10:18 PM

You have to love the execs at Sony. They almost make you feel it's everyone else's fault because their picture quality is subpar. Hey Sony, If you don't want grain on your DVDs then pick titles that won't show it.
Why can HDDVD have such amazing looking discs but Sony feels it's OUR fault if we can't see the quality of their titles.Calibration?...so we need to "calibrate" that perfect picture. Oh! and pay 1000.00 for the player too.

**mossman72** · 10-23-2006 10:35 PM

wow...sony, are you kidding me! if toshiba's early releases looked like crap and they were using mpeg2....and there first player was $500 more then the current bd player.....sony would be trying to crush them for it! but instead sony is blaming us, samsung, and last of all the director choice's producing their movies. so do any of sony's MAJOR STUDIO backing's have film masters that will look good at all??

i gotta got try to wash the "odd artifacts" that happen in the backgrounds of my vc-1 encoded disks...lololol

**mchamblissII** · 10-23-2006 11:14 PM

LOL sony better just bite the bullet and listen to what the consumers ask for or it's over for them.

**doctornd** · 10-24-2006 12:36 AM

Peter, thanks for posting this article. It really gave me alot of insight on this whole BD ordeal. Although I am not truly sure what to make of it at this point as what I see (as a consumer) doesn't really add up to what I am allegedly supposed to be seeing (on my tv of course).

**marzetta7** · 10-24-2006 12:42 AM

Good interview. Enjoyed reading it. I felt there was a lot of good points given in response to the questions at hand, but of course there is no pleasing Sony haters.

I think Blu-ray is going to be coming out in a big way in the coming weeks. The clock is ticking, BD-50s are looking to be plentiful, new players are being released, etc. We ought to get a clearer picture toward the end of the first quarter 2007 of what format has a better chance in the future.

**MovieMinded** · 10-24-2006 12:42 AM

I can't believe how they criticize VC-1 for having "weird artifacting" but I've never seen any of it. Sony is quick to blame everyone but themselves.

**Maxx_75** · 10-24-2006 01:44 AM

Just think about the poor quality of product and service we are in for if they do end up on top. They had nothing but excuses. Pointing fingers at everyone else. Samsung, the film directors, the consumer, ect. WOW...

**Tejstar** · 10-24-2006 02:42 AM

A very interesting review, - thanks for posting it Peter! Sony are being defensive but I imagine that is due to all the flak they have received both externally but most probably, internally too I would imagine.

**madshi** · 10-24-2006 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by Don Eklund

I don't know if you've had the chance to look into these things, but most of the new HD DVD titles use more than 20 Mbps average bitrate Most of ours are 18 Mbps. So HD DVD titles are actually using a higher bit rate with the supposedly better and more efficient codec.

That is absolutely untrue. And I have proof for that. On the AVSForum we have Amir Majidimehr (Corporate Vice President, Consumer Media Technology Group, Microsoft) posting. And we have a compressionist posting ("Cjplay"), who did most of the Warner HD-DVD encodings including Batman Begins and the upcoming Harry Potter IV. I guess the guy who has done the encoding should know which average bitrates his encodings have!! Here's what he sais about HD-DVD bitrates:

http://avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthrea...te#post8462441

Originally Posted by Cjplay

Our averages since the beginning have been sub-16Mbps (Some went above that in relation to grain, age, etc.) with several at below 13Mbps for upcoming titles and we couldn't be much happier, encoding-wise.

Here's a Microsoft document about average bitrates on some HD-DVDs:
http://www.media-tech.net/fileadmin/...day1_ribas.pdf

Constantine 12 Mbps
Batman Begins 12 Mbps
Harry Potter IV 11 Mbps

I don't know what Don Eklund is smoking...

**Mal Reynolds** · 10-24-2006 02:17 PM

My favourite part is in bold:

What about the Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio lossless formats?
DE: The loseless codecs we are interested in. Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio are going to be great, and potentially save us disc space. But those weren't available when we started -- the chipsets weren't available yet. And there was no player that decoded them fully and put them out on an analog output. So, hands down, currently the best sound you can get on HD is coming from these PCM soundtracks on Blu-ray.

So... the guy says the lossless codecs are great, but with HD DVD is using TrueHD on certain titles and BD using PCM, how can the best sound possibly be coming from one format or the other?!?

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