Digital doesn't break disc- DVD, BD hold up despite onslaught of negative press

[crazzeto]

Originally Posted by neone

As a hobby it means someone who follows technology and can't resist finding out what makes things tick. As a job description, presumably it might mean a job title that has Technology in it somewhere.

I guess that makes me a Technologist if I decide I want to be called that? I mean I guess it would fit since HT is actually my second tech hobby, first and formost it's PC home building... And as a career I'm a computer programmer (long builds allow me to participate here) so whoo hoo, I finally have a snazzy title

More seriously I've heard this title used now and again on the news in technology stories, they'll interview someone and call them a technologist... I never really did get what it means in a business sense though, anyone familiar with the term in this context?

[neone]

Originally Posted by crazzeto

I guess that makes me a Technologist if I decide I want to be called that? I mean I guess it would fit since HT is actually my second tech hobby, first and formost it's PC home building... And as a career I'm a computer programmer (long builds allow me to participate here) so whoo hoo, I finally have a snazzy title

More seriously I've heard this title used now and again on the news in technology stories, they'll interview someone and call them a technologist... I never really did get what it means in a business sense though, anyone familiar with the term in this context?

I could have said Engineer, but that implies doing real work, and that's only partially true, since this BD thing is more hobby than work to me. I used technologist in the context of someone trying to understand the technology behind digital video, from the download side to the codecs to the silicon, (along with buying the gear and toys side of the addiction to technology) and while there is some intersection, I am not generating any revenue from the BD devices, in fact, I'm spending too much of my own money building up my collection.

I regularly walk past BD displays with my kids and they would strain for a long time trying to find a disk that we don't have. When they do find one, half the time, they'd be right.

[crazzeto]

Originally Posted by neone

I could have said Engineer, but that implies doing real work, and that's only partially true, since this BD thing is more hobby than work to me. I used technologist in the context of someone trying to understand the technology behind digital video, from the download side to the codecs to the silicon, (along with buying the gear and toys side of the addiction to technology) and while there is some intersection, I am not generating any revenue from the BD devices, in fact, I'm spending too much of my own money building up my collection.

I regularly walk past BD displays with my kids and they would strain for a long time trying to find a disk that we don't have. When they do find one, half the time, they'd be right.

So what persisly is it you're doing that say... I don't? Not really being flipant, just I really don't understand the title... I always presumed that in a business sense it's some one that essentially business analysis with specific concentration on the "tech" industry... i.e. based upon current trends what will mobile computers look like in 10 years? that sort of thing... I'm a huge tech enthusiest and while I do for fun on occation like to ponder where tech might be going, I don't do it for a living or really spend a lot of time on it...

Really the only forward looking field I'm bothering to analyze at all is with regard to digital video distrabution, and only because I'm impatient and hate driving to stores (which is why I usually predict a huge fail for these stupid flash card idea's getting tossed around).

[MrAngles]

Originally Posted by crazzeto

Well I can't speak for apple since I don't use their service for video as I can't pump QT encoded video to my home theater... Though from what I undrestand not only does apple get the same bitrate "break" x-box does by using 720P encodes and way better than mpeg2 codecs, but they also cut out DD 5.1 in favor of some sort of pro-logic type solution... Someone please correct if that's wrong, but if I'm correct about that then I imagin it would give them even more of a bitrate break over XBL which uses either PCM 2.0 or DD 5.1.

As far as XBL it has a bitrate celing of between 7 and 8 Mbps (I forget the exact figure, I'm sure someone will post it)... With VC-1 video codec's and 720p encodes you get very acceptable picture quality.

AppleTV uses mp4s, which are only able to contain AAC audio. AAC is a great and very efficient codec, but since most receivers cannot decode it, the only way to output it to a receiver over an optical or coax connection is 2.0 PCM. Because of this I believe they only release movies with 2.0 128 kbps soundtracks. PSN uses mp4 as well, but hopefully since the PS3 has an HDMI out they will be including 6-channel audio. Either way, the bandwidth difference between 128 kbps aac and 448 kbps Dolby Digital is pretty minimal, so it won't significantly affect the overall filesize or buffer time.

While bitrates of up to 7 or 8 mbps definitely produces an acceptably watchable picture quality, the picture quality is not acceptable to me at the price of $4.50-$6.00 per rental. It's worth mentioning though that's coming from a very satisfied Netflix customer however, where I pay an average of $1.07/rental, and prefer the convenience of setting up rental lists based on recommendations in advance and having them sent to me automatically rather than selecting a movie to watch an hour or so before I want to watch it (with my current connection and PSN speeds).

[crazzeto]

Originally Posted by MrAngles

AppleTV uses mp4s, which are only able to contain AAC audio. AAC is a great and very efficient codec, but since most receivers cannot decode it, the only way to output it to a receiver over an optical or coax connection is 2.0 PCM. Because of this I believe they only release movies with 2.0 128 kbps soundtracks. PSN uses mp4 as well, but hopefully since the PS3 has an HDMI out they will be including 6-channel audio. Either way, the bandwidth difference between 128 kbps aac and 448 kbps Dolby Digital is pretty minimal, so it won't significantly affect the overall filesize or buffer time.

While bitrates of up to 7 or 8 mbps definitely produces an acceptably watchable picture quality, the picture quality is not acceptable to me at the price of $4.50-$6.00 per rental. It's worth mentioning though that's coming from a very satisfied Netflix customer however, where I pay an average of $1.07/rental, and prefer the convenience of setting up rental lists based on recommendations in advance and having them sent to me automatically rather than selecting a movie to watch an hour or so before I want to watch it (with my current connection and PSN speeds).

Isn't netflix a less than DVD quality streaming tech? I would think that appletv/itunes would beat that... As far as the cost per rental, all I'll say is that for movie rentals and TV show purchases where for things like BSG seasons 2+ or Hero's season 2 etc I'm very very very happy with the quality of x-box video store.

[MrAngles]

Originally Posted by crazzeto

Isn't netflix a less than DVD quality streaming tech? I would think that appletv/itunes would beat that... As far as the cost per rental, all I'll say is that for movie rentals and TV show purchases where for things like BSG seasons 2+ or Hero's season 2 etc I'm very very very happy with the quality of x-box video store.

I'm talking about discs to my mailbox. Netflix streaming is worse quality, but even cheaper, unlimited streaming movies for the price of $free with any standard membership. I don't feel like I should pay 4+ times as much for less quality just to watch the movie immediately, considering that with the 3-at a time program I always have a disc at home to watch anyway. because of that I don't normally have time to watch streaming movies or shows, even if they were as high quality as XBL downloads.

[MrAngles]

As far as tv shows go, I already pay a ridiculous amount for cable television, paying again to "own" dvr quality copies of television episodes doesn't appeal to me much at all. I have been known to pay extravagant amounts of money to own episodes on discs, however (i.e. X-Files).