DVD Category: Digital Rebellion Blog

Sign the DVD Studio Pro Blu-ray petition

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:24:37 MDT

AppleInsider recently had an article listing the version numbers of the applications in Final Cut Studio 3.

Although it's just a series of numbers, it is a useful indicator of just how much the applications have been updated. The most notable numbers are Color 1.5, Compressor 3.5 - indicating relatively minor changes - and DVD Studio Pro 4.2.2 - indicating virtually no changes at all.

So for those of you hoping for a major DVD Studio Pro update that supports Blu-ray burning, it looks like you're going to be disappointed once again.

There is now a petition circulating that asks Apple to reconsider its policy.

"We, the undersigned, will not buy a new version of Final Cut Studio if it is still lacking Blu-ray support."

Be sure to add your signature if you agree.

Blu-ray license simplification coming mid-2009

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:49:29 MST

ZDnet is reporting that many of the problems preventing Blu-ray from coming to the Mac should ease in mid-2009 when new licensing comes into place.

A new licence will be established by mid-2009 as a "one-stop shop" for device makers. The licence will include all necessary Blu-ray, DVD and CD patents for selling Blu-ray players. The licensing programme will be handled by a new licensing company to be led by Gerald Rosenthal, former head of intellectual property at IBM. It will be based in the US, but will have local branches in Asia, Europe and Latin America.
Instead of having to approach Blu-ray, DVD and CD holders individually and paying them separate royalties, the single licence should cut down the total cost of royalty payments by 40 percent, according to Sony.

The fees for the new licences will be $9.50 for a Blu-ray player and $14 for a Blu-ray recorder. Making Blu-ray Disc will cost 11 cents for read-only, 12 cents for recordable discs and 15 cents for rewritable discs.

Hopefully this new license coupled with new DisplayPort Mac Pros will encourage Apple to consider Blu-ray drives as an option for its high-end systems.

Why does my DVD audio level differ from the level in FCP?

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 07:29:35 MST

Have you noticed a discrepancy between the audio in your Final Cut Pro timeline and the audio of the finished DVD when using Compressor's DVD presets?

That's because the Dolby Digital 2.0 audio preset in Compressor has several functions to improve unsuitable audio, but if you have already mixed your audio they might do more harm than good in some cases. Rather than just telling you which settings to use, I'm first going to explain what these functions are designed to do because there are a lot of misconceptions about them.

Compression alters your dynamic range (the difference between the loudest and quietest sounds in a soundtrack) by compressing the level of sounds to fit within a certain range. The loudest sound in a Dolby soundtrack can be 105dB. Considering the fact that prolonged exposure to 90 dB audio can result in hearing loss, most people do not play their audio at 105dB. When you set up a Dolby decoder with a reference tone, you are telling it the volume level it should play 105dB audio at. So if this is lower than 105dB (which is likely), you will lose some of the very quiet sounds on the soundtrack. The compression presets allow you to regain these sounds by sacrificing some dynamic range in the process.

It is set to Film Standard by default but if you have already performed a mix with a moderate dynamic range, further compression is not likely to be necessary and so it is worthwhile to switch this to None.

Dialog normalization is a feature on several Dolby decoders that ensures all content plays back at the same level. The listener sets their preferred playback level and the dialogue in every DVD and TV show plays back at the same level, meaning you don't need to keep reaching for the remote in order to adjust the volume. Contrary to popular belief, it only adjusts the overall volume level when the source changes (i.e. when you begin playing the DVD or when a new TV program begins) so dynamic range is preserved throughout the movie. It does not dynamically adjust the volume as the movie is playing.

The normalization value indicates the difference between the overall level of dialog and the maximum audio peak of 0 dBFS. The default is set to -27 dBFS, which is the established level for film soundtracks. It is also the level most decoders are set to by default. If you have your decoder set to -27 dBFS and then, for example, try to play a -25 dBFS movie, the decoder will lower the overall volume by 2 dBFS so that the general dialogue level remains the same. If you do want to switch it off when compressing your audio files (if you've already leveled your sound mix for example), set it to -31 dbFS.

So if you would like your audio to be exactly how it was in Final Cut Pro, set Dialog Normalization to -31 dBFS and set Compression in the Pre-Processing tab to None. However, these functions do serve useful purposes for the end user and it is worthwhile to bear their needs in mind.

Blu-ray is a "bag of hurt" says Steve Jobs

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:51:15 MDT

This was something I missed on Tuesday as I didn't see the actual keynote address, only what Apple posted on their web site.

According to Engadget, Steve Jobs is blaming licensing issues for the current lack of Blu-ray on the Mac.

"Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It's great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we're waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace."

It's good to finally hear something from Apple on this subject. I guess, much like when Apple introduced DVD burners, they are waiting for larger consumer adoption and significant falls in the price of media before committing. Unfortunately that's not so helpful for Pro App users.

Third party Mac Pro Blu-ray drives

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:55:31 MDT

MCE Technologies has announced the availability of an internal 6x Blu-ray drive for the Mac Pro that seamlessly fits into one of the existing bays inside the machine.

The drive alone is $499 but there is also a version bundled with Roxio Toast 9 for $599. An external version is available for $749. It requires OS X 10.5.2 or higher but no device drivers are needed.

Currently the only Mac applications capable of burning Blu-ray movies are Roxio Toast 9 and Adobe Encore CS3, however there are quite a few more available for Windows if you have a Boot Camp partition available.

[via TUAW]

Toshiba to drop HD DVD

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:12:39 MST

BBC News is reporting that shares of Toshiba have risen over speculation that it will scrap the HD DVD format. Toshiba was one of the pioneers of the format and has stood by it even after it was eclipsed by Blu-ray.

The article states that Toshiba is "reviewing its business strategies" but no decision has been made about HD DVD's future yet. This reflects a change in Toshiba's attitudes as it used to answer a firm "yes, the format will continue" when asked.

I hope Toshiba kills it sooner rather than later, as not only are they hurting themselves and the industry, but they are prolonging the inevitable. I think the major complaint about Blu-ray - price - will become a non-factor in the future as the industry can now focus its resources on one format to bring down prices, instead of splitting them between two. Also, technological improvements over time and increased demand will lower production costs and bring down prices as well.

Some people are wondering if it will all be in vain, as the download industry is just starting to take off. That remains to be seen but I don't think they are ready to directly compete with discs yet though.

Update 2/19/08: It's official. Toshiba has now suspended production of HD DVD players and recorders but will continue to clear out its inventory until March. This is a lot earlier than I had originally expected, so well done Toshiba for not drawing it out.

How to restore the DVD Studio Pro welcome screen

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:27:11 MST

I saw this thread on Apple's discussion forum in which a user was asking how to get back DVD Studio Pro's welcome screen once you deselect "Show at startup". Unlike Motion, DVD Studio Pro has no option in its menu to restore it once again.

Here's how to do it:
1. Make sure DVD Studio Pro is closed.

2. Navigate to ~/Library/Preferences (~ refers to your user directory).

3. Double-click on com.dvdstudiopro.plist to open it in Property List Editor.

4. Click the arrow next to "Root" to expand the options and then click New Sibling at the top.

5. Type showFirstLaunchDialog exactly as shown here.

6. Set Class to Number.

7. Set Value to 2.

8. Click File > Save.

9. Fire up DVD Studio Pro and enjoy your restored welcome screen.

Hope this helps other people who were having this issue.

More troubles for HD DVD

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:28:10 MST

AppleInsider reports that the ailing HD DVD format has suffered two more blows.

Best Buy has stated it will promote Blu-ray over HD DVD in its stores. Blu-ray discs and players will have more prominent placing and staff will be instructed to recommend Blu-ray over HD DVD.

Netflix stated that, to ease consumer confusion, it will not be adding new HD DVD formats to its catalog and will gradually phase out the existing ones.

When you consider how much of a share Netflix has over the home rental market and how much Best Buy has over the retail DVD market, this is a massive blow for HD DVD. It is also a psychological blow because consumers can sense that the ship is sinking and no price cuts from Toshiba will change this. Even if they gave away HD DVD players for free, I don't think they could make a comeback.

Apple, despite being on the Blu-ray board, has remained incredibly quiet over the whole issue. I think the whole issue lies with burning Blu-ray discs. From what I have read, standard DVD and Blu-ray are so different that DVD Studio Pro will require a rewrite in order to support Blu-ray. I am guessing the same applies to iDVD and the Finder's built-in disc burning capabilities.

I would imagine this is the primary reason why Apple does not offer a Blu-ray drive option in their lineup. Maybe they were waiting for a clear winner to emerge before putting resources into updating their software packages. It would be very expensive to write code for a losing format. Price may also be a factor, considering the ~$1000 price tag of Sony's burners and the $10-25 price per disc.

Everyone predicts a Blu-ray burner from Apple every year and it never arrives but this year is different because we now have a clear winner. Everyone is so glad that a winner is emerging that they are putting all of their resources behind it to spur it on, leaving no doubt in my mind that HD DVD will eventually die. When that occurs is up to Toshiba. If I was managing Toshiba, I'd stop production, sell off the remaining inventory and count my losses. Persevering in the face of obvious defeat will only damage them in the long run.

I think we could see Blu-ray drives in Mac Pros by the end of the year (probably as a BTO option).

Sonic drops HD DVD Scenarist support

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 02:23:26 MST

Video Business is announcing that Sonic Solutions has discontinued support for its HD DVD Scenarist authoring software. This is important because Scenarist is a popular product that is used professionally for disc authoring.

Sonic claims it wants to focus on Blu-ray and add extra functionality to the Blu-ray edition of Scenarist, rather than splitting its time and resources between two formats. Customers of the HD DVD version can exchange it for the Blu-ray edition.

As Toshiba seems unwilling to kill off HD DVD, many companies have chosen to pounce on it now that a possible winner has emerged. I think this is good for the industry, and the sooner Toshiba realizes this, the better.

Gartner: HD DVD dead by the end of the year

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 10:53:51 MST

PCWorld is reporting that Gartner Research has predicted the death of HD DVD by the end of the year. It dubs Toshiba's massive HD DVD player price cuts as "useless resistance".

While I have no idea how long it will take before Toshiba gives up, I am in agreement that it is incredibly difficult for HD DVD to make a comeback. It is too costly for the studios to output to three different formats (standard-def DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray). More importantly, HD DVD is already dead in the eyes of several consumers I have spoken to, and I am sure the recent negative publicity cemented this belief in many more people.

Lack of studio support and constant predictions of HD DVD's demise are denting consumer confidence and increasing Blu-ray's lead. If Toshiba is planning a comeback, it needs to be now.

As an update to my previous post, the "Save HD DVD" petition now stands at over 30,000 signatures and the "Let HD DVD Die" petition stands at over 10,000. I cannot see Warner or the others doing a U-turn on this policy, however, no matter how many votes it gets.

Update 1/30/08:
Video Business is reporting that HD DVD player sales rose significantly over the past week. This is likely to be due to the massive (half-price in some cases) price cuts that took place. Last week's player sales put Blu-ray at 63%, HD DVD at 33% and dual-format players at 4%. The week before it was 90% for Blu-ray and 7% for HD DVD.

This shows that consumers are more susceptible to pricing strategies in this war than previously thought. HD DVD is the cheaper format, in terms of both disc and player costs but if Blu-ray does become the dominant format, production costs (and presumably prices) will fall with time.

HD DVD not going down without a fight

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:57:21 MST

HighDefDigest has a series of articles on the ongoing HD-DVD vs Blu-ray saga. I have heard some consumer publications say that HD-DVD is dead and Blu-ray has won the war. This is completely misleading. HD-DVD has taken some heavy blows but it has not died yet. Microsoft has shown in the past that it is prepared to make a loss in order to increase the market share of inferior products.

HD-DVD is definitely not giving up the ghost here. Universal has confirmed that it has no plans to abandon the HD-DVD format, despite the escape clause in its contract.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence, Warner revealed that it plans to delay even more of its HD-DVD releases. The delays now encompass its catalog titles in addition to its new ones.

Retailers are supporting Warner's move as well. Retailers are becoming cautious about over-stocking HD-DVD titles and are dedicating more shelf space to Blu-ray discs.

Finally, an online petition has been set up, campaigning against the move to abandon HD-DVD. At the time of writing, it has received over 15,000 signatures. Recently, a counter-petition called "Let HD DVD Die" was set up. At the time of writing, it has over 6,000 signatures (including mine). Because the first petition has had a couple of weeks' head start, it's difficult to tell which one is actually "winning" right now, although it probably won't make much difference.

More companies drop HD DVD

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:29:47 MST

HBO announced yesterday that it will follow its parent company, Warner, in embracing Blu-ray exclusively. Warner has one more subsidiary, BBC Home Video, that has not yet announced its intentions but it is expected to follow suit.

Variety is now reporting that the two remaining studios in the HD DVD camp, Universal and Paramount, could switch sides soon as well.

They say that they can confirm that "Universal's commitment to backing HD DVD exclusively has ended" and that Paramount has an escape clause in its contract that will allow it to release films on Blu-ray after Warner embraced it exclusively. The two companies are not dropping support for the format but it is less attractive for them to remain exclusive to it.

I am certain that HD DVD will not go down without a fight, as Microsoft and Toshiba have invested a considerable amount of money into the format. Toshiba says it will remain faithful to the format but as a consumer, I would not be rushing out to buy an HD DVD player right now. If the remaining HD DVD-supporting studios choose to release their titles on both HD DVD and Blu-ray, the battle is already over. Why would you buy an HD DVD player that can play two studios' titles when you can buy a Blu-ray player that will play every company's discs? It's a no-brainer.

Update: Universal has issued a statement: "Contrary to unsubstantiated rumors from unnamed sources, Universal's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format". Note that they did not use the word "exclusively" or say anything about not releasing titles on Blu-ray.

High Def DVD News

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 04:05:27 MST

I've been a bit busy over the past few days and haven't had much time to post unfortunately, but there have been some very interesting developments in the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray.

Late last week, Warner Brothers announced that it would be dropping support for the HD DVD format in May and supporting Blu-ray exclusively.

This had a knock-on effect, causing the HD DVD Promo Group to cancel their press conference at CES, citing the "timing of Warner Brothers' announcement" as the reason. This in turn prompted Paramount to clarify its position that "Paramount's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format", but they have canceled any HD DVD title announcements at CES. This doesn't sound to me like Paramount is 100% confident in the success of the HD DVD format.

There was some initial confusion as to whether Warner's subsidiaries would follow suit. New Line clarified its position but said that unlike its parent which was waiting until May 2008 to shelve HD DVD, its switch to Blu-ray would take place immediately. This would make Pan's Labyrinth the only New Line movie to have been released on HD DVD.

It would appear that the studios are getting tired of the confusion caused by the format war and the fact that most people are waiting for it to end before making a purchasing decision. In my opinion, Blu-ray is a superior format so I am glad it is achieving market penetration. HD DVDs have the advantage of being cheaper to produce but if Blu-ray becomes a standard, this issue will diminish with time.

Interesting Apple patents

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 11:50:58 MST

Apple was recently granted several interesting patents.

The first one offers a method of analyzing video frames and working out their attributes such as if the footage is interlaced or progressive, and if pulldown has been applied or not. This would allow software such as Final Cut Pro to change project settings to match these attributes automatically without any user intervention. It would also allow software like Compressor to work out which fields in interlaced footage are duplicates and only rendering them once, thereby speeding up rendering times and reducing file sizes. I would imagine this is geared at ProRes, Apple's professional codec.

The second patent is for a DVD web system that provides a method of controlling - and being controlled by - internet content. Web content is currently available via next generation HD DVD and Blu-ray players but this patent specifically caters for two-way communication and control.

Their final patent covers color correction using an accelerated graphics card rather than the processor. My first thought was that it was a patent for the technology in Apple Color but further reading revealed that Apple proposes a playback system (such as QuickTime) where the original color space of the video (such as NTSC) could be converted to the current color space of the monitor to ensure accurate color reproduction.

It must be noted that Apple ultimately may not choose to implement these technologies into their products.

[via AppleInsider]

Saw IV Blu-ray DVD to feature web-enabled content

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:15:54 MST

HighDefDigest is reporting that the Blu-ray release of Saw IV will feature web-enabled "MoLog" functionality. "MoLog" stands for "Movie Blog" and enables consumers to make blog posts and comments about the movie directly from their couch.

This will be the second Lionsgate title to feature web-connectivity, the first being War, which has a built-in multiplayer game that people can play over the internet. This news comes shortly after Warner announced a "Community Screening" feature on the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix HD-DVD that allows you to watch the movie at the same time as other people and chat with them in real-time.

I have to say that I don't know how popular or successful these features will ultimately turn out to be, but it will be interesting to see how the technology is used 2-3 years down the line when the novelty has worn off and distributors have a better idea of what consumers are looking for. The thing about technology is that no matter how flashy or innovative it is, its ultimate success depends on how useful it turns out to be for the end-user. I think web-enabled content has potential, but I think the potential lies in adding value long after the user has purchased the product, such as with TV spots, fan films, alternate endings, etc. This would maintain interest in the title and increase the potential financial reward for a sequel.

Harry Potter HD DVD contains "Community Screening" feature

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:45:33 MST

High-Def Digest has an article about a new feature on the Order of the Phoenix HD DVD (not the Blu-ray version).

Live Community Screening allows you to play the movie at the same time as other people with the disc and talk to them about it via the text-based chat room.

One user starts the session and invites the other viewers to it. This user can control playback (play, pause, etc); no-one else can. It is unclear at this stage how you invite other people - presumably they must register with a central database.

I think this is an experiment more than anything else, which is why Warner released it without much fanfare. Voice-based interaction might make it more viable but it's simply more enjoyable to watch a movie with other people in the room.

However, with that said, it might be useful for people who are separated by long distances.

Various high def DVD items

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 09:35:42 MDT

Best Buy has been named the top retailer of Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs "by a large margin", with Amazon at second place. Both companies attribute their leads to their informational approach to marketing, which aids consumer understanding of the technologies and the format war.

It is unsurprising that consumers are confused when the DVD Forum is close to approving a 51 GB HD-DVD disc. This would eliminate the main advantage of storage space that Blu-ray has over current HD-DVD discs. I prefer this to the HD-DVD group's previous competitive strategy of paying companies to use their product, as the consumer benefits greatly from this latest development.

Meanwhile, in the Blu-ray camp, they are giving away free Blu-ray discs with the purchase of a qualifying player. Once you buy the player you're pretty much locked to the format, and the studios know this. Universal has incorporated web-enabled HD-DVD features which extends HD-DVD's interactivity lead over Blu-ray and with higher capacity HD-DVD discs on the horizon, Blu-ray needs to fight with either marketing or technological advances. I'm hoping it will be the latter.

However, Sony is reporting that it has achieved high manufacturing yields nearing those of DVD. What that means is that there are fewer defects in the discs and so fewer discs have to be thrown away, resulting in lower manufacturing costs. The technological advances to HD-DVD could prove too confusing and expensive for the consumer so they may go with something cheaper and more reliable.

This war ain't over yet.