Japan and US to share region encoding on Blu-ray

[~Shard~]

Any official word yet on the region scheme? Can't seem to find it on blu-raydisc.com. Shard how was CES?

CES was amazing - overwhelming as well. 106-inch plasma screens, Intel having Black Eyed Peas performing, the Blu Ray display area, Sony's cafe built into the middle of their display area, Blu Ray demos running off the PS3, Samsung's massive 25,000 square foot display area... It was amazing, I'd love to go back again net year.

 

[0098386]

No sir I don't like that.

Well, at least we'll get to see Iraq prisoner DVD's before America.

What is the point of region encoding? I can't see any benefit myself.

 

[clayj]

Why is China seprate from the rest of Asia?

Because they're a bunch of freakin' pirates, is why.

 

[~Shard~]

Because they're a bunch of freakin' pirates, is why.

clayj. I applaud your candor and honesty. Thanks for saying what I was thinking.

 

[Abstract]

Well the only HD "format" I'm aware of is ATSC. Europe is still undecided right? So if you want to watch an HD signal your okay. If you want to output to your standard def TV I assume the video signal will default to whatever the video standard is of the country you bought the player in. Some companies have been nice enough to make thier DVD players both NTSC and PAL compatable like Phillips. And don't forget about SECAM it's only used in France and Russia though.
Oops, wait are there more HD formats? What are these DVB-C, DVB-T, T-DMB, DAB, ISDB-T. Oh, wait Japan uses one of them, but they use both NTSC and ATSC. These must be broadcast wave standards and not video standards right? Like UHF and VHF?

Goobly-goop. I've only heard of NTSC and PAL.

Because they're a bunch of freakin' pirates, is why.

Not as bad as Malaysia. They're the source for a lot of the movies.

 

[clayj]

clayj. I applaud your candor and honesty. Thanks for saying what I was thinking.

Hey, I calls 'em like I sees 'em.

It would make me happy if more people and companies would stop tiptoeing around the Chinese... when they demanded that web indexes be censored, Google SHOULD HAVE told them, "Sorry, but you don't get to tell us how to serve our customers." When the Chinese banned Memoirs of a Geisha, Sony should have said, "Fine. We will NEVER release any more of our product in your country." Instead, Google and Sony, and God knows how many other companies, have caved in and sacrificed their principles at the altar of "one billion potential customers". Who cares if there's a billion potential customers there, if all they seem to do is steal software, music, movies, and other intellectual property?

 

[e²Studios]

Because they're a bunch of freakin' pirates, is why.

The part i find interesting is that the government there says they are working to crack down on the pirating of copyrighted material yet if you ever have the chance to visit there you will find that it is actually harder to find original software/DVD's since most everything you see is pirated and out for sale in the open.

I am hoping for HD-DVD to take the forefront, i like backwards compatibility with my current DVD's. If you really look at the trends whatever the porn industry picks is what will more than likely prevail. The war between beta and vhs was essentially won when the porn industry starting using VHS. Here is a good article on it http://hardware.silicon.com/storage/0,39024649,39126916,00.htm

Ed

 

[XNine]

The part i find interesting is that the government there says they are working to crack down on the pirating of copyrighted material yet if you ever have the chance to visit there you will find that it is actually harder to find original software/DVD's since most everything you see is pirated and out for sale in the open.

I am hoping for HD-DVD to take the forefront, i like backwards compatibility with my current DVD's. If you really look at the trends whatever the porn industry picks is what will more than likely prevail. The war between beta and vhs was essentially won when the porn industry starting using VHS. Here is a good article on it http://hardware.silicon.com/storage/0,39024649,39126916,00.htm

Ed

From what I've heard the Porn industry has already backed Blu-ray.

As for China being pirates, this is correct. China and Hong Kong are the largest bootleggers of DVD's in the world. Ever look on ebay for Anime? 9/10 DVD's are Chinese/Hong Kong bootlegs, which are compressed down and don't even have correct subtitles.

 

[greatdevourer]

BTW, do these next-gen formats avoid the NTSC/PAL problem?

Yes, considering that for HDTV, there is no NTSC/PAL mess to begin with (we're all either 720p, 1080i or 1080p, so just record in 1080p and either downsample for 720p or halve the frames for 1080i)

What is the point of region encoding? I can't see any benefit myself.

I've always wondered this, and as far as I can make out, it's to keep those darn Americans smug about getting games/movies so damn early

What are these DVB-C, DVB-T, T-DMB, DAB, ISDB-T

I hate to burst your bubble, but none of those are formats in the way of NTSC/ATSC/PAL. They're broadcast formats, short for Digital Video Broadcast Terrestrial, Digital Video Broadcast Cable, Terrestrial Digital *summat beginning with M* Broadcast, etc. And DAB isn't even anything to do with this - it's a digital radio standard

 

[Loge]

So Europe gets screwed again. Region 2 = 2nd class.

 

[DISCOMUNICATION]

Video sandards are different than broadcast signals

I hate to burst your bubble, but none of those are formats in the way of NTSC/ATSC/PAL. They're broadcast formats, short for Digital Video Broadcast Terrestrial, Digital Video Broadcast Cable, Terrestrial Digital *summat beginning with M* Broadcast, etc. And DAB isn't even anything to do with this - it's a digital radio standard

Yup, I caught my own mistake in the very next sentence? I realized something was wrong when I saw Japan used one of them. Japan and the USA use the same video formats. The actual broadcast signals are different around the world though.

 

[superbovine]

Mmmm, this does sound nice to me!

*sigh* Now if only video games had region sharing between the US and Japan!

*le sigh* And if only I had time to play them!

sony was nice enough to do that with the psp