Fox Revs Up Blu-ray Launch Plans

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Disc_Announcements/Fox/Fox_Revs_Up_Blu-ray_Launch_Plans/120

Fox Revs Up Blu-ray Launch Plans
Tue Jun 27, 2006 at 04:00 PM ET

Six months after Fox pledged support for Blu-ray at CES 2006, the studio
is nearing an official announcement of its initial software launch plans
for the format, reports Broadcasting & Cable.

During a private demo held last week for select members of the press, Fox
executives showed off clips of a number of its upcoming planned Blu-ray
releases.

The studio plans to have nearly two dozen Blu-ray titles available by the
end of the fourth quarter, including such recent hits as 'Ice Age 2,'
'X-Men: The Last Stand' and the recent remake of 'The Omen.'

Fox reps also pledged to fully exploit the video and audio capabilities
of Blu-ray, including encoding their discs at full 1080p resolution. The
studio is also planning to exploit the internet connectivity built into
Blu-ray hardware, allowing for additional supplementary content to be
downloaded by users months or even years after a title has been released,
such as additional language tracks and other extras.

Though Fox has not yet publicly commented on the Broadcasting & Cable
story, trade reports indicate the studio is expected to officially
announce its initial Blu-ray launch plans in the coming days.

 

Tarkus () wrote in alt.video.dvd:

Wow, what an amazing thing...not. *Every* HD-DVD and Blu-Ray disc so far
has been encoded at full 1080p for the main feature.

Until a player/display combo comes along that can reliably allow 1080p
to be displayed, it's kind of a non-event.

 

Will these and other discs all be single layer mpeg2? - have Blu-Ray
been able to release ANY dual layer discs with mpeg4 / VC1 etc? - if not
are most Blu-Ray titles worse quality than HD-DVD?

 

Unknown but probably.

So far, unequivocally yes.

 

Aren't there suppose to be LCD, plasma and DLP sets coming this fall
with 1080p inputs and 1:1 pixel mapping?

 

poldy () wrote in alt.video.dvd:

The problems are:

- no HD player yet has 1080p output
- tests with 1080p output from other devices have shown that displays
that "support" 1080p input have some bugs that make it not work a lot
of the time (but, this could just be an HDMI/HDCP issue)

 

The Samsung Blu-ray player will output 1080p. However, to get there, the
original 1920x1080 data on the Blu-ray disc is first decoded as 1080i
and then deinterlaced to 1080p by a Faroudja deinterlacing chip. So it
goes from 1080p->1080i->1080p.

 

Joshua Zyber () wrote in alt.video.dvd:

That's why I said that no HD player has 1080p output. At that point,
you have all the flaws of the Faroudja chip (and there are a few) coming
into play.

And, there are still problems with it then working with displays.

 

Don't you think it's a good idea for Fox and others to deliver 1080p now,
rather than wait until the players mature, and then have to release
updated titles?

 

But it *does* have 1080p output, as I just explained.

 

There is no need to update the titles for 1080p. All HD DVDs and
Blu-rays have been encoded as 1080p since the beginning. The limitation
is one of the hardware, not the software, and should be rectified by the
second generation of players.

 

Joshua Zyber () wrote in alt.video.dvd:

You could also say that a DVD player has 720p output, and although it
might, you still suffer from the limitations of the source being 480i.
With 1080i in the middle, although the output is 1080p, it's identical
in every way to the 1080i that was created during the conversion from
the source to 1080i.

 

My LCD HDTV display HD DVD at 1080 in a 1:1 direct pixel mapping.

 

It doesn't need to be p. Interlaced is fine.

Hell, 720p blows all the old shit out of the water.

 

There are NO differences in the datagram between the two. The ONLY
difference is in how it is displayed.

The pixel array size is the same, therefore the visual resolution is
the same. The only difference a given viewer MIGHT notice is a slight
flicker on the interlaced version, but the displayed pixel array (as
in DATA) is the same.

 

HEAR, HEAR... THERE... THERE!

Most assuredly so, my dear Watson...