• AnyStream is having some DRM issues currently, Netflix is not available in HD for the time being.
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What if slysoft can't keep up?

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No, wrong assumption. The format which *sells* will win. Money matters. Nothing else.

That's absolutely correct. Unfortunately the format that is harder to copy will sell more disks (though nowhere near any number that the studios *claim* are copied, since many people that grab copies wouldn't have bought the disk if they'd had to pay for it) and has the bigger studio support.

I am also not a big fan of Sony, and I much prefer HD DVD if only for the fact that it doesn't have region coding. I can see Bluray winning the battle eventually (unfortunately), but I truly hope it doesn't.

Ian
 
It is hard to tell exactly which "technology" the players are choking on most currently. The problem is the complexity of them.
BD-J is a full sized Java implementation that gives authors the freedom and flexibility to do so many things.
Every developer knows - the more complex your program is, the more bugs will (not might) be in it. This applies to BD discs and players alike.
BD+ also has a lot of potential to screw things up.

The both format is too complex. But HD DVD has only 1 implementation of Microsoft iHD. Blu-ray has the many BD-J.

The latest player software comes with some very advanced obfuscation techniques. These make it very hard for the developers themselves to keep a clear view on what they are doing.
So basically, I'm quite sure the players were much more stable if they were just players without all that DRM stuff.

Kernel mode hard for you? :p Maybe h/w player easier than s/w now?

Anyway - to address some speculation about what is going to come (or not): MKB4 is a little tough indeed, but we're making good progress.
BD+ may take a while longer, but will be beaten in the end.

If the fact that BD+ holds a little longer should decide the format war it'd be a pity - BD+ surely will take far less than a year in the end and then will be done for good. So in the long run, there's no point for the studios to take BD+ into account when making their choices.

How you say "done for good"? I think you do not think of bd+ ability to change encryption scheme. Every disc different. What do you say? :)
 
I think most of this is moot. In general.. if it can be played... then it can eventually be copied.

-W
 
No, wrong assumption. The format which *sells* will win. Money matters. Nothing else.

James-
I agree with your statement as being true, however I respectfully disagree from a real-world standpoint.

The studios right now are trying to deal with a lot of factors, and the format war is killing the market penetration. There are incompatibilities with both formats: the D-Box system does not work with HDdvd, Bluray players are unable to play the latest releases without firmware updates, and in the studio's minds, disks being cracked is a bad thing.

The two formats cannot definitively argue that one is selling more than the other, although the attachment rate of hddvd speaks volumes.

The fact is, if only one format was on the shelf right now- if it was bluray with bd+ - that would be the format that Joe Dumeasse would buy.

And if the studio heads have the option of an uncrackable encryption scheme, it will be irresistible. Think about it- 1080P with true hd 7.1 sound is as good as it is going to get for a long, long time. It took television decades to go from standard def to high def, and I think we will be here for a great while. That is ok by me- so these studios are realizing that if their content goes out at this resolution and format, it will be of high enough quality to satisfy consumer demand for decades.

They will not have a higher quality product to resell for 20 years- do you think consumers will go out and buy 4K televisions and projectors? I don't think so- which means, while these formats are a "flop" compared to DVD right now, they are here to stay.

I think HD-DVD's ace in the hole will be sub-$200 players this holiday at Walmart.

But Bluray's will be more powerful- "Studios- they can't steal or copy our disks."

When I want to watch Jurassic Park, Star Wars, or Indianna Jones in the best picture quality possible, I would like to be able to back it up too. And if Spielberg or Lucas have their choice, they will choose the secure format. If there is no secure format, they will choose the one with the most market penetration.

That is why your work is so very important. I mean, honestly- I think your work could ultimately decide this format war.

I don't care what anyone says- 1080P and 7.1 lossless are the material tech specs on both disks. Neither format has an advantage for the consumer technologically speaking. Even Blu-ray's 50 gig suppose size advantage- so what? That is marketing crap. I was absolutely amazed when I was at CES in Jan 06- I had to confirm it for myself at both booths- "wait- you guys are both 1080P? and both lossless audio? So- why don't you just combine forces?"

The fact is- the one material technical advantage that Bluray can tout to content providers right now is that their disks are uncrackable. And your work with anydvdhd can take that advantage away. Then it becomes purely about market share and what format sells the most players.

There are a lot of eyes on you right now. I hope you break BD+. And I think there are some huge electronics companies that hope you do too. If I owned Toshiba, I would put a ferrari in your driveway the day you break BD+ :)

No presure man :) Seriously though- thanks for your good work.
 
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Kernel mode hard for you? :p Maybe h/w player easier than s/w now?

I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say: the complexity of the software is becoming hard to handle by the developers of the players (for Cyberlink, Intervideo, ...). Not so much for us, if that's what you were saying :)
That's why we're seeing so many problems with the players right now.


How you say "done for good"? I think you do not think of bd+ ability to change encryption scheme. Every disc different. What do you say? :)

Oh, that "change the encryption scheme"-talk is pure marketing nonsense. Each disc comes with a "guide" to the "entirely new" encryption scheme on it itself - in form of the BD+-VM commands...
Or do you think a BD player will cry out "eeek! An entirely new encryption scheme! I can't handle it!" ;)
 
Are you saying that you want free DirecTV? THAT is STEALING.
Completely agree - it's not like they try and stop you recording the content you're viewing (which is exactly what AACS/BD+ is all about).
If you use Anydvd to back up media you legitimately own, that is not stealing, that is backing up.
Yes, but it is a breach of copyright. However you are right that it isn't handled under the same branch of the law as theft.
I think this needs to be clarified here. Most of us (I hope) want Slysoft to win so we can make legitimate backups of our legitimately bought media.
Some of us just like posting here and aren't actually Slysoft customers. ;-) But that's cause my needs are different - I'm currently backing up a R1 DVD I have owned for years that I can't play in stand-alone players because the glue hasn't set correctly, and I can't return it either.
They will only win if BD+ remains un-crackable.
I've said it many times - Bluray is an inferior format for the consumer. Even if Slysoft successfully manages to create their own little virtual player for the BD+ code to run in - how do you expect to recode your movie into Xvid - or simply to reduce the size to single-layer? Sure you'd be able to play it back - in its original form, but the ability to actually transcode the thing would not be available for a long time AFTER BD+ is successfully circumvented.

This is permanently an extra hoop you'll have to go through while backing up BD as opposed to HD-DVD, so it seems to me the choice is clear. In terms of BD-J, it seems a little like Nintendo64. The old N64 was notoriously difficult to program, and scared off many game developers who opted for the far easier code on Playstation (despite of course the PS having a far slower CPU, etc). You'll see more powerful software to handle HD-DVD's menu's & special features before you'll see as powerful BD-J software.

I'll be completely honest - if I was to buy HD-DVD tomorrow, and I wanted to watch a movie that's exclusive to Bluray I'd download it in protest, and write an angry letter to the distributor. Some people may be willing to pay for two players, but I'm not. But frankly these first-generation discs don't do it for me - a good decent chunk of them (HD-DVD & Bluray) are unscaled from a 720p - or even lower grade - picture. And these people who claim HD is 5 times the resolution can kiss my butt when I can own a 576p DVD, a 720p picture is like 2 times the picture resolution, so until HD starts actually achieving its potential they can forget about my business, I'm not going to pay for an HD movie that's only 720p!
 
I'd have to say you're completly wrong, nearly all films are taken from the original masters not upscaled from 720p, and if you can't tell the difference between proper 1080p and upsampled footage then you either need better equipment or need to get your eyes checked. Most films are transfered from the original film stock which has the capability of much higher resolution. Even going from 576 to 720 there is a vast improvement in picture quality which makes it worth buying. And with nearly all my full 1080p films you can see the difference when going from 720p to 1080p
 
I have to agree with Adbear...I don't know where you're getting your 720p scaled idea from, but, it's simply not accurate. All of my HD movies are native 1080p and there's a *HUGE* difference between them and the DVD version. I was originally hesitant about upgrading to HD, but, now having done so, I will never go back.
 
When I want to watch Jurassic Park, Star Wars, or Indianna Jones in the best picture quality possible, I would like to be able to back it up too. And if Spielberg or Lucas have their choice, they will choose the secure format. If there is no secure format, they will choose the one with the most market penetration.

That is why your work is so very important. I mean, honestly- I think your work could ultimately decide this format war.

The fact is- the one material technical advantage that Bluray can tout to content providers right now is that their disks are uncrackable. And your work with anydvdhd can take that advantage away. Then it becomes purely about market share and what format sells the most players.

There are a lot of eyes on you right now. I hope you break BD+. And I think there are some huge electronics companies that hope you do too. If I owned Toshiba, I would put a ferrari in your driveway the day you break BD+ :)

No presure man :) Seriously though- thanks for your good work.

I tend to agree.... Coming up with a perma-break for BD+ could help swing the format war a bit. The eyes of the whole world are now on James. :D

-W
 
I'd have to say you're completly wrong, nearly all films are taken from the original masters not upscaled from 720p, and if you can't tell the difference between proper 1080p and upsampled footage then you either need better equipment or need to get your eyes checked.

I have good equipment and a huge 104" screen, and I have to say the difference is not mind-blowing. It's definitely nicer and sharper than a really good quality DVD upscaled to 1080, but it's not like going from VHS to DVD. I can see how J6P is not blown away and rushing out to buy HD movies - even on the biggest screens, the difference is not enough to blow you out of your seat.

Again, compare to the VHS->DVD upgrade, that was something that any nitwit can see.
 
The difference between dvd and 1080p is much more than between VHS and dvd. You must have been seeing some really shit stuff if you can't see that
 
I have good equipment and a huge 104" screen, and I have to say the difference is not mind-blowing. It's definitely nicer and sharper than a really good quality DVD upscaled to 1080, but it's not like going from VHS to DVD. I can see how J6P is not blown away and rushing out to buy HD movies - even on the biggest screens, the difference is not enough to blow you out of your seat.

Again, compare to the VHS->DVD upgrade, that was something that any nitwit can see.

Buy Transformers HD DVD. You will never want to watch a DVD again
 
Buy Transformers HD DVD. You will never want to watch a DVD again

You ain't kidding! I LOVED that HD DVD! It looks amazing. There are others, too, that are far better than the DVD version. Casino Royale and the Pirates of the Carribean movies(other than framing issues in the first one) on Blu-ray look outstanding. Serenity, Batman Begins, Transformers, the Matrix collection, etc on HD DVD blow the DVDs away...even upscaled. I definitely think there's a huge improvement.
 
You ain't kidding! I LOVED that HD DVD! It looks amazing. There are others, too, that are far better than the DVD version. Casino Royale and the Pirates of the Carribean movies(other than framing issues in the first one) on Blu-ray look outstanding. Serenity, Batman Begins, Transformers, the Matrix collection, etc on HD DVD blow the DVDs away...even upscaled. I definitely think there's a huge improvement.

Do not forget Kingdom of Heaven, Bridge to trabithia and the new documentary that I forget its name (Nature's Journy or sth). Ups I forgot Planet Earth and Galapagos.

HD:bowdown::bowdown::bowdown:
 
Do not forget Kingdom of Heaven, Bridge to trabithia and the new documentary that I forget its name (Nature's Journy or sth). Ups I forgot Planet Earth and Galapagos.

HD:bowdown::bowdown::bowdown:

I haven't seen KoH or BtT on HD yet. I almost got BtT a few days ago but I held off. Yes, HD definitely rocks. I'm a huge fan. :)
 
I'd have to say you're completly wrong, nearly all films are taken from the original masters not upscaled from 720p, and if you can't tell the difference between proper 1080p and upsampled footage then you either need better equipment or need to get your eyes checked.
I beg to differ. This review on dvdbeaver gives T2 9/10 for picture quality (stating "I wanted to suggest that it isn't likely to be bettered on yet another high-def edition.")... and yet this page clearly shows that T2's image quality is upscaled from 720p... so it's contains less then half the resolution detail that 1080p is capable of!

Thus an upscaled job like T2 is a mighty rip-off. Moreover if you actually bother to check some of the ones they count as "full hd quality", like for instance Matrix Revolutions you'll see that many of those are hardly better then 720p (I'm still scratching my head, to me it doesn't look like Matrix Rev has any detail above the 720pDU sample!)
Most films are transfered from the original film stock which has the capability of much higher resolution. Even going from 576 to 720 there is a vast improvement in picture quality which makes it worth buying.
There may well be an improvement over SD, I'm not disputing that - what I'm saying is I'm not prepared to pay for 1080p movies that are really mastered from 720p sources. And so I believe there's a good few years to go yet, until studios pull their fingers out and start using full 1080p quality masters for HD material. Also, as reviewers are handing out "9/10" for video quality equal to 1080p, I think I have a while to wait yet until they've become discerning enough to give meaningful feedback on the quality of the video.
Most films are transfered from the original film stock which has the capability of much higher resolution.
Well that depends on your definition of "original film stock" - if by that you mean the original camera negatives, then no they're not - and if you mean the original master reel, well that's hit-and-miss but is more-or-less true for more recent films. But this doesn't mean that all masters are scanned at 1080p - and even if they are, they may be saved at a lower resolution... then an HD-DVD publisher comes along and wants to release a film and the studio says "here's our digital master, use this" "but it's only 720p?" "so just upscale it it'll be fine". **most** digital film masters were created **before** the release of the hd-dvd and bluray formats, and unless a publisher wants to spend lots of money having the film scanned & cleaned, they're most likely to use an existing master.
 
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Nobody has mentioned "Starship Troopers" (Blu-Ray), the best picture quality I have seen so far from HD-DVD or Blu-Ray
 
I have good equipment and a huge 104" screen, and I have to say the difference is not mind-blowing. It's definitely nicer and sharper than a really good quality DVD upscaled to 1080, but it's not like going from VHS to DVD. I can see how J6P is not blown away and rushing out to buy HD movies - even on the biggest screens, the difference is not enough to blow you out of your seat.

Again, compare to the VHS->DVD upgrade, that was something that any nitwit can see.

Well, a 104" screen is probably one of your problems. How much of a difference could there be stretching so few pixels over such an obscenely massive screen? You'd be better off watching something at 4K res. Personally, I feel HD is best on screens in the high 30s to mid 40s... 50" at the most (though I wouldn't want one so big, personally). And it still costs an arm and a leg to get a screen with truly good quality at the higher range of those sizes.
 
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Well, a 104" screen is probably one of your problems. How much of a difference could there be stretching so few pixels over such an obscenely massive screen? You'd be better off watching something at 4K res. Personally, I feel HD is best on screens in the high 30s to mid 40s... 50" at the most (though I wouldn't want one so big, personally). And it still costs an arm and a leg to get a screen with truly good quality at the higher range of those sizes.

The size of the screen doesn't have anything to do with it. I have a 70" screen and can't imagine going back to tiny 40" screen. 104" screen requires a projector and a screen. Projector costs are dropping, but they are not available at most furniture stores now. Although, to get a sharper image then you need a better video processor like the Realta Chipset. It can upscale all sources to High definition. This chip is going to be put in the Denon AVR-5308 receiver. So you could upscale any source, not just DVD's, Satellite TV, even enhances blu-ray, etc. http://www.siliconoptix.com/old_con...oProcessingChipset.cfm?CFID=&CFTOKEN=48859305

Nitro
 
You can only blow up images of a certain resolution so high before they look bad, so the size of the display does seem to matter somewhat. Regular TV ads always seem to look awful up on a movie theatre screen unless they've been reshot. For me, anyway 40" or 42" doesn't constitute "tiny". Not that many years ago, a 32" was considered large, lol. There is such a thing as too big, you know. And unless you're planning to turn your basement into a mini-theatre, 104" seems like a waste; not to mention excessive. The only way to justify it would be spending the rest of your life watching TV.
 
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