Preparing your
customers and your
facilities for Blu-ray
A powerful format that leads to
new challenges in authoring and
creative design
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Exceeding expectations
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After several years of development, consumer
and industry expectations are high
DVD was a leap in complexity, BD will be as well
Expect a transition to happen over the next year
in how titles are developed
The best products are expected to have not only
great picture and sound, but also added value
that drives product sales
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Blu-ray data structure
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DVD vs. Blu-ray
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Mature authoring tools
Ubiquitous MPEG2 video
Mature audio codecs
Mature subtitles creation
Little or no programming
possible
Mature QC processes
Creative design built around
DVD capability
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New authoring tools
New compression codecs
New audio codecs
New subtitles
New programming
environment
New QC complexity
New creative process with
many possibilities
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SPE authoring tool
development
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The current DVD world with
PAL and NTSC compression
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At present, most Film based DVD content
sold in Europe plays 4% fast in order to
manage the difference between 24fps film
and 25fps PAL video
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This affects the consumer experience, the video
speed is not noticed, but correspondent change in
audio pitch is obvious
Studios have to conform elements and compress
video for both NTSC and PAL standards adding
cost and complexity to DVD manufacturing
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The European standard
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Movies can and should be encoded to one
standard - worldwide
EICTA – “HD ready” sanctioning body
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http://www.eicta.org/files/LicenseAgreement-114914A.pdf
Basic Requirements (information copied from license agreement)
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The display device accepts HD input via:
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HD capable inputs accept:
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Analog YPbPr and DVI or HDMI
1280x720 @ 50 and 60 hz progressive (“720p”) and 1920 x 1080 @ 50 and 60hz
interlaced (“1080i”)
The DVI or HDMI input supports content protection (HDCP)
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Blu-ray Video Codecs
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AVC – computation intensive, some LSI
implementations exist, but typically uses
blade servers
VC1 – also computation intensive, software
implementations
MPEG2 – less efficient at very low bit rates,
but equivalent performance at >15mbps.
Encoding and decoding readily available.
Master tape quality – results of tests
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New audio codecs
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Both Dolby and DTS have new codecs
included in Blu-ray
Studios are already expressing interest in
using “lossless” coding
Decoding hardware needed before new
codecs can be used
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New subtitles
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HD resolutions
Both Unicode and BMP available
256 colors available – excellent anti-aliasing
New standards for delivery
New methods of delivery – network
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BD-J A programmable
environment
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Blu-ray provides an implementation of Java
that can be used to create newer forms of
disc interactivity
DVD authoring and BD-J authoring are not
the same skill set
Game / web development skills are
converging with packaged media
development
Keeping order – spiraling complexity
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Blu-ray Movie Mode
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Similar to DVD functions with improvements
Ideal for first titles
Can provide a better user experience than
DVD
The first step in player development and
compatibility
Low level conventions are used in BD-J
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QC for Blu-ray
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What display
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Consider scaling artifacts – full resolution avoids
this
Screen size, two to three picture heights
Professional versus Consumer devices
Interlace artifacts – should allowances be made?
Interactive disc QC
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Network connection
Game style capability
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The creative process
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Balancing improved performance and graphic
complexity
Re-educating the industry on what can be
accomplished
Providing better tools to eliminate
redundancy
Balancing format capability with time to
market
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Priorities – before the first order
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Staffing - Blu-ray has capabilities through Java
programming that are not in the typical skill set of most
DVD tool users
Video encoding – MPEG2 encoders are available and
can do an outstanding job for this application. Adoption
of alternative codecs may not be needed for a while
Data handling – can your network and storage systems
handle HD?
Quality control – How will you check HD video? Display
choices are limited.
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Launch timing (estimated)
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC
- BD players in market
- BD software in market
- BD software with Java based navigation
-BD player/software network usage
- BD authoring in progress from Nov 05’
On time!
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Summary
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Blu-ray will launch in the Spring – the time to
prepare for compression and authoring is now
24p encoding worldwide is a win – win
Consumer broadcast experience with HD is
uneven, packaged media should set the
benchmark… again…
The distinction between authoring games and
authoring movies will start to blur. Hiring for
development and QC needs to adapt
accordingly
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