CD Freaks Interviews Digital Storage Reps – time for the Blu-ray Disc Association!

Have you ever wondered what Blu-ray is up to? Would you like to know more about their decisions, (new) products and background information? Now you can! CD Freaks is organizing a series of interviews with digital storage related persons. The coming time we will ask them what you want to know!

Here some examples of types of questions you could ask:

• New products
• Market details / outlook
• Future opportunities

What’s next?

This week we will ask questions to Frank Simonis from the Blu-ray Disc Association!

Please post your questions below in this thread. Next week, all questions will be collected. We pick the best ones and report the answers back on CD Freaks.com!

- What is your reasons having a disc with AACS protection and in addition, the BD+?

- On a related note, you know that the protections will be defeated, what is your future goals with protection schemes?

- What is the relation of Blu-ray protection to software and hardware prices? People saying that the research and implementation of Blu-ray protections (AACS, BD+ and future protections) affects the software (movies) and hardware (blu-ray disc and players) prices and consumers are "paying" for it. What do you say about this?

- Do you think the high definition format war will end soon?

- In your perspective, what is the benefit of not having multi formats (Blu-ray and HD DVD)? In DVD world we have DVD+ by DVD Alliance and DVD- by DVD Forum. At 2008 CES we see Ritek dual format BD/HD DVD discs. Any comments about this?

- Do you expect to have other competitors in the high definition format in the future?

- Do you expect Blu-ray (and other high definition formats) to replace DVD? When do you think that will happen and what is your goal for this?

- What is your future market plan for selling this technology? Japan, USA and EU seems to be the countries that adapt the technology earlier than others? How about other countries?

- Can you show us software and hardware sales?

- Is there any consumer Blu-ray drive that can detect disc errors (or Disk Quality Scan like in CD/DVD)?

- When we will see BD-R/RE media prices to become more affordable, ie USD 2.00 - 3.00?


Thanks.

How many more hardware changes are going to be made before Blu-Ray Players are complete? Being a consumer and I speak for all we don't want to buy something now just to need to buy something newer to be able to playback our content in full.

Blu-ray Disc is the first consumer format that could potentially deliver un-compromised 3-D technology.

The secondary video stream (usually used for PIP with profile 1.1) could store a full-fidelity 1080p24 HD stream for the second eye-angle.

This solution would be ideal: conventional 2-D viewers could watch 3-D encoded BD software in normal 2-D form with no negative effects (their players would just ignore the seconary video stream).

However, uses with specially marketed "3-D" BD players could instruct their players to output the secondary 1080p24 video stream in any number of ways to support their choice of 3-D delivery:

1. matrixed into a single 1080p48, 1080p60, or 1080p120 stream alternating each "eye" for use on a single display synchronized with LCD shutter-glasses.

2. ouptut both 1080p24 streams simultaneously via two HDMI outputs... each feeding a separate projector for use with polarized light/glasses as we see in high-quality 3-D venues like IMAX.

3. any other future 3-D technology protocol could make use of the matrixed (alternating) or dual-HDMI output for whatever future display technology may arrise for 3-D reprodution with left/right-eye stereo vision.

All the BDA needs to do is approve a protocol for encoding the disc and supporting it with optional 3-D hardware. It's so easy, and Blu-ray has the bandwidth and spec to store a seconardy video stream in full 1080p24 already.

Will we see the BDA move on this? The consumer has always been offered inferior 3-D encoding technology with conventional software and Blu-ray Disc could be the first medium to do it RIGHT.

ummmm... let's see:
1. is there any info about the estimated BD-R archival life? holding +50GB of data on one disc without any warranty that it would live for another year would just not be as attractive for the current DVD consumer...

2. are you planning for any organic-based dye for the BD format? if so, regarding the delicate making and high sensitivity of the product are there any guarantees for data safety against degredation of the dye by time?

3. can there be a standard exclusively written for high-end/expert archival BDs that might at least live as long as our CDs do? while having another cheaper choice (be it organic or whatever lower quality alternative possible) that's used for short-term transfers and backups?

4. don't you think that you should drop those time and money consuming researches on DRM and the likes of it? i'm sure the BD-R customer won't be happy if he finds out someday that his home video, recorded on his own HD-Cam, is NOT editable -not even viewable!- once transferred or copied as an image to his HDD, cause of some "DRM Infrigement"?... cause that's what happens when you use a DVD-RW with a -VR format with your SONY Handicam (one of your affiliates?) and copy it to your HDD...
you're doing a good job... don't lose your customers...

5. what about BD-Audio discs? any chance that we would see those so-long-promised 64bit/385KHz/9Channels/ parallel-Instrumental/HardCoated formats? and what about the players? are they still 11 as in football? or have you reduced them to ONLY 27!!? and what do you think, have they noticed that i'm only kidding or not?!

and i don't really care about the Film Industry or market... if it's gonna help improve the format, then i'm all for it, if it's gonna plague the products with -eventually crackable- DRM, then i don't think i would notice...

and last, thanx again Livia, and thanx alot to Mr. Simonis who's gonna have some hard time with us *** it's still not our fault ***

A repost from the front page, I hope you guys can ask at least a few:

#1. When you decided on the final specs for Blu (you have, riiiiiiiight?) what lead you towards the round shape of the media as opposed to other geometrical options?

#2. If two discs are superglued together how many data layers will it amount to?

#3. Is your scratch guard coating sufficiently tough for an average early adopter to scratch their ..backs?

#4. If I accidentally run a walmart buggy a-la jackass style into a blu stand will you pay for my emotional suffering?

#5. Is it true that blue leads to depression?

#6. How many people by the name of Tim do you sponsor?

#7. Serious one. With 10s of thousand PS3s sold in Canada what steps do you take to make sure they will be properly recycled in the end? Will you offer any cooperation in recycling of your discs should the format become obsolete? Do you consider any alternative energy sources for the future hardware?

#8. and another. why on earth do you decide to spend millions on copy protections when everybody knows the real pirates will replicate discs with or without them?
What part of the final product price is taken by copy protections?

#9. What is your stand on baby seal hunting in northern Canada, will you sell to the Territories if it goes on and how do you rate your corporate ecological footprint in comparison?

#10. Last and the second serious after #9. Will there be support for individual x.264 coded files?

when will the stupid region code system finally be dumped?

-andy-

1. Why did BDA choose to implement BD+ when it obviously adds additional costs, and is anti consumer?

2. Why did BDA release a format without finished specs?

3. Why does BR have mandatory AACS and Region coding? (HDDVD has no Region Coding and AACS is not mandatory)

4. What happened to consumer rights? Does sony and fox think we should have none?

Guys is this meant to be questions or a crucifixion?

I can tell you that any and all questions regarding DRM/Region Coding have to referred straight to the studios.

There's a reason more than half the world's studios never contemplated releasing their movies on HD DVD and that is the lack of region coding to protect the staggered release for seasonal movies.

Without region coding (or BD+ in the case of Fox), you would never have got these movie studios over the line.

Also for the Blu-ray Audio question, there is a 7.1 PCM uncompressed format in the standard for audio.

One thing I find very annoying is not being able to access the main menu before skipping through all the previews with my player (Samsung BD-P1400.) Ratatouille comes to mind. There must have been an hours worth of previews before you can get to the main menu. Will they look at being able to access the main menu from the start of the disc, or is this another studio issue?

but thanx anyway for the info, though it's completely irrelative, but it's really good news

This is no different to DVD.

Yes it is. You can skip through the previews on DVD. Not surprising that Disney forces you to watch the previews though this is a dirty trick that they have been trying to force on people for years. @Brad considering that one of the major Hollywood studios is owned and run by the biggest developer and supporter of the BDA then it definitely is an issue with the format itself.

Another question:

Is there work being done to ready 75GB and 100GB discs for replication? Can the laser pick-up of current BD players access the additional layers? I constantly hear talk of using this advanced storage for computer applications, but as a consumer who HATES having to swap disc after disc to find the episode I'm looking for on TV season sets, having an entire season on a single disc would be a pleasure I'd pay more to enjoy.

In the interest of all concerned.
Please keep the posts on topic (questions to the Blu-ray Disc Association).

Questions about specific content implimentation per a studio's authoring decisions are not germane to a discussion with a BDA representative.

Universal did the same thing on quite a few DVDs... forcing you to get through the previous and disabling fast-forward. The complaint was with Universal, not the DVD forum.

The capability with DVD was always there to stop you skipping or fast-forwarding through certain things like FBI warnings and trailers. Some players circumvented it but the method is identical between DVD and Blu-ray.

1) Will current or future drives be firmware upgradeable to be able to read or write multi-layer discs?

2) Will anorganic recording layer-based media continue to exist?

That's all for now

Currently the standard def DVD association forbids upscaling to 1080i/1080p through an analogue output - only allowed through HDMI with HDCP

For those who have bought decent projectors with analogue or non HDCP inputs, a simple and relatively cheap upgrade to an upscaling dvd player (with farouja chipset) would have provided a real improvement. But the DVD associations arbitrary rules don't allow this so we are given a financial slap in the face by virtue of being forced into a complete upgrade

So my question is: in a future world where 4K screen size, will it be allowable to upscale old bluray disks to this new 4k standard or can we expect some arbitrary limitation citing compromised bluray DRM and/or piracy as a reason to force users to yet again upgrade all equipement ?

And my last question is: if i buy a new bluray disk and it won't play in my old player because it has been compromised by someone somewhere in the world and the association has revoked the player keys for this no longer in production player - will the bluray association responsible for the loss of my playback function compensate me for the cost of my new player ?

Cheers, Itchione

I could only rephrase the two questions kg_evilboy already posted...

I only have one Question:

1)
Will the Region Code System ever vanish ?. From my point of view the Region Code System just hurts the sales. I always import dvd' s from Japan or the US, because they simply are not available here in Europe. I mean in the end all DVD Players except my PS3 are Code Free or can be modified to be. So what really is the benefit of the Region Code System. I mean Sony realized it with their PSP and the PS3 and abandoned the Region System. So I can play games from Japan, some of them which will never be released here in Europe.
I would be so grateful if for example the PS3 would be region free. One Example: I'm still waiting for the blu-ray release of TMNT here in Europe. It's avaible in the States since last year. The DVD's Version was released in January in Europe but no Blu-ray. Import is a no-go because it has Region 1.

Kind Regards

Numer0bis

Many people blindly affiliates Blu-ray with Sony. What is BDA comment on this? Does Sony really has bigger share in BDA board (to make decisions)?