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Toshiba To Stop HD DVD Player Production
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Why? Why should there be bitching? While a bunch of people sat on the fence, I've enjoyed HD DVD titles for 2 and a half years, and Blu-Ray for over 2 years. I bought in at the very beginning, and even at $500, the Toshiba HD-A1 is an awesome machine. My discs won't magically stop working if Toshiba stops producing the machines.
I find it ironic that on this website someone will chastise others for not waiting, yet if you simply look around, you've got a bunch of people agonizing each and every Tuesday to see if it'll be the day that Apple decides to release the new MBP.
Portable file format from Compressor to burn Blu-Ray on a PC
http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=21049
This post explains how to set up Compressor to create MPEG-2 files that can be burned to Blu-Ray on a PC running DVDit Pro HD, a $299 program from Roxio.
There must be some enterprising people all over the country with a PC and DVDit Pro HD who can burn Blu-Ray discs for people producing content on the Mac. Or someone who will set up internet file transfer of MPEG2 files and deliver Blu_Ray by mail.
The settings are:
Apple Compressor
File Extension: m2v
Video Encoder
Format: M2V
Width: 1920
Height: 1080
Pixel aspect ratio: square
Crop: None
Frame rate: 29.97
Frame Controls:
Retiming: Nearest Frame
Resize Filter: Linear Filter
Deinterlace Filter: Line Averaging
Adaptive Details: On
Antialias: 0
Detail Level: 0
Field Output: Same as Source
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Field dominance: Top first
Average data rate: 21.1 (Mbps)
1 Pass VBR enabled
Maximum data rate: 25 (Mbps)
High quality
Best motion estimation
Closed GOP Size: 15, Structure: IBBP
<<Note from TominIowa>>
For Final Cut and Compressor users, please make sure to,
In Final Cut changed the
"Sequence Setting",
"Starting TimeCode"
to 00:00:00;00 instead of the default value of 01:00:00;00.
If you don't, chapter markers may not work.
http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=21049
This post explains how to set up Compressor to create MPEG-2 files that can be burned to Blu-Ray on a PC running DVDit Pro HD, a $299 program from Roxio.
There must be some enterprising people all over the country with a PC and DVDit Pro HD who can burn Blu-Ray discs for people producing content on the Mac. Or someone who will set up internet file transfer of MPEG2 files and deliver Blu_Ray by mail.
The settings are:
Apple Compressor
File Extension: m2v
Video Encoder
Format: M2V
Width: 1920
Height: 1080
Pixel aspect ratio: square
Crop: None
Frame rate: 29.97
Frame Controls:
Retiming: Nearest Frame
Resize Filter: Linear Filter
Deinterlace Filter: Line Averaging
Adaptive Details: On
Antialias: 0
Detail Level: 0
Field Output: Same as Source
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Field dominance: Top first
Average data rate: 21.1 (Mbps)
1 Pass VBR enabled
Maximum data rate: 25 (Mbps)
High quality
Best motion estimation
Closed GOP Size: 15, Structure: IBBP
<<Note from TominIowa>>
For Final Cut and Compressor users, please make sure to,
In Final Cut changed the
"Sequence Setting",
"Starting TimeCode"
to 00:00:00;00 instead of the default value of 01:00:00;00.
If you don't, chapter markers may not work.
Nonsense. The only time or place that those ridiculous home theater proportions make sense is if you are dedicating a room to recreate a cinema.
If you aren't, the proportions simply do not apply. The TV is not the sole function of the typical living room, nor is it reasonable to shove a sofa so close to the television that you can't even put a coffee table in front of it. The result is a cluttered room with too much furniture (or a puzzling and vast expanse of empty space) and a TV that can only support at most 3 people with their face up against it (never mind that the two not in the middle have a substantially impaired experience, being off-center at such a close distance to such a small screen).
It only seems that way because you're hell-bent on people turning their homes into replicas of cinemas. The "optimal cinema viewing experience" is not the same as the practical function of a typical room in a home.
Because that's not a family room. That's a heap of furniture, completely out of balance with the space, that is wholly antithetical to a "family" enjoying a movie or, heaven forbid, each other's company with the TV turned off. Cramming a whole home theater system and furniture into a 6x6 box in the corner of the room, and having to duplicate furniture everywhere else is not consistent with a traditional household.
Exactly. A living room and a normal size HDTV aren't spaces conducive to 1080p at the screen sizes most people can afford.
This is such a misconception. The only difference between MPEG-2 and AVC or VC-1 is that MPEG-2 is not as efficient (quality vs. size).
Theoretically, let's say you have a source file that when compressed with MPEG-2 takes up 20GB of a 25GB BD-R. Then, you take that same source file and compress it using AVC to take up 10GB of a 25GB BD-Ryour end result is going to be the same.
MPEG-2 itself is NOT a bad video codec, it's just not as efficient as AVC or VC-1.
Yes they are. DTS-MA and HD Audio over analog doesn't hurt either (that's why I kept my A1 and didn't upgrade to a newer model).
Nonsense. You have very limited exposure to room usage. Look at the floor plans for system setups on any number of sites - most are not designed to take up the entire room, just the TV viewing part.
Again you seem to have a very limited experience - The TV viewing area is separate! You don't put a coffee table in front of it because when you are entertaining people you don't sit them across from a TV you sit them across from YOU!
In your limited world view - what's so amusing is you think your limited world view is the only way to go.
So your sense of esthetics should dictate the layout of a room more than its function? I have gotten a sense you were full of yourself.
No having a TV opposite the only seating in the room would be antithetical to a 'family room'. Again, you complain about that I want people to make 'home theatres' when you are the one advocating making the TV the center feature of the room. And its sounds like you have the Von Trapp family in mind since our family of 5 sat comfortably on a TV sofa (yes there was always another for entertaining) with 3 on the sofa and 2 kids sitting in front on the floor and that was very pre HD.
It is with a 42" screen, very affordable and that and larger are what you see going out the doors at Costco and other median consumer markets.
Face it, you seem to have an extremely narrow view of what the 'proper' viewing experience is even though the one I personally use is recommended from one end of the internet to the other. If you LIKE a 'sports bar' setup where the room is basically a TV viewing room for large numbers of people then have at it, and you are right 720, 1080 makes no real difference since the human eye can't resolve the differences at those distances. But that doesn't mean viewing a 1080p TV in the environment they were designed for is wrong, or silly, or insane or 'bad for the eyes'
Many people really do, obviously not in your experience but they really do. Don't know what the deciding factor is but I can only think of one house where I go where they sit you down in a space opposite a TV most have special seating for when you are going to watch TV. Obviously that is not the exception but the rule for you - I wonder what determines the difference - not money I'm very middle income, maybe regions? - Pacific NorthWest here...
Though not 'bad' I find its compression artifacts to be of a more obvious and 'jarring' nature than those of AVC which tend more to just noticable blur or contrast issues.
If I have a choice of over compressed media I would take AVC over MPEG-2
Toshiba has scheduled a press conference for tonight at 12AM PST (5PM Tokyo Time).
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/s...Conference,_HD_DVD_Announcement_Expected/1479
http://www.nikkei.co.jp/news/main/20080219AT1D180DU18022008.html
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/s...Conference,_HD_DVD_Announcement_Expected/1479
http://www.nikkei.co.jp/news/main/20080219AT1D180DU18022008.html
That's where the wheels come off the wagon for you. People don't arrange their living rooms based on floor plans on "build your own home theater" websites. If they're doing that, they're already outside the norm. Instead, they follow the standard distance guides used by retailers across the country: a 42-50" television for distances of 8 to 12 feet produces a comfortable image size.
Go into any number of rooms in this country or any other. You'll find that most living rooms have a set of furniture laid out to best suit the room, and a TV somewhere in that room, visible to the majority of seats in that room. You will almost never find a TV in a corner with a sofa 2.5 feet in front of it, set up like a little cocoon for one "perfect seat" viewer. At 4 ft to the eyeball, a three person sofa shifts the field of view almost 40 degrees. That's an unacceptable compromise for the typical home.
The only one with a skewed world view is your bizarre insistence that people are rebuilding movie theaters in their living rooms, or that they pile furniture all over the place so one person can have a textbook-perfect seat.
If you want to set up some corner of your room this way, knock yourself out. But it's foolish to suggest that everyone do so, ignorant to believe that most people want to do so, and just plain wrong to advocate that it's the best setup for a typical living room.
No, your sense of space planning should dictate the setup of your family room, not some contrived formula based on cinema design. The family room is not meant for such a purpose, and it is not used as such. Please just face the simple reality that a typical household room is not configured so that one person on a sofa gets a cinema-reproduction experience, and the people to the left or right get the "last seat on the end of the row" experience. It's set up as the furniture dictates, and there's a TV somewhere in the room where it looks best. The idea that people have multiple sets of furniture piled up in there doesn't comport with the average home.
With the numbers you espouse, there's no room to sit on the floor in front of such a television these days.
The number of homes placing the sofa 4 feet away from a 42" television is remarkably small. But if they don't, they're not getting your absurd "optimum" experience.
That's rich coming from the person saying that you should sit 4-5 feet away from a 42" TV or you're doing it wrong.
I guarantee you that the typical family does not plan their living room around what some bloviating "videophile" claims is the "optimum" distance, based on the proportions required for cinema certification. Those numbers are totally worthless unless you're building your own mini-theater.
Use it all the time. End user cant tell the difference. When the other codecs become easily accessible, then Ill use it
EXACTLY - hence I went with HD DVD instead of Blu-ray to start. Studios with movies on both formats initially made the Blu-rays with MPEG-2 and the HD DVDs with AVC or VC-1....
I'm not sure what to do because it is rumored that they are going to completely drop all support for HD DVD. I have an HD DVD player and 20 HD DVD movies. Do you think that a person can even sell them on eBay after this or will the price be so low that I might as well just throw them away? I mean it is hardly worth the hassle for a few bucks. I guess that I will have to wait and see what they say in the press conference. I just hope that there will be some way to play them in the future otherwise I might as well clean the shelf off. (and they were some darn good titles too!!!) Oh well.
Apple DVD Pro HD-DVD publishing feature has become obsolete.
This is very unfortunate.
Last two versions of Apple DVD Studio pro, supports the authoring of HD-DVD but not BR. It means that this great tool will require an update soon...
I hope we will get our money back or at least a Bluray replacement for the HD-DVD stuff we got (HD-DVD authoring SW, HD-DVD players and Warner-brothers HD-DVD titles)
This is very unfortunate.
Last two versions of Apple DVD Studio pro, supports the authoring of HD-DVD but not BR. It means that this great tool will require an update soon...
I hope we will get our money back or at least a Bluray replacement for the HD-DVD stuff we got (HD-DVD authoring SW, HD-DVD players and Warner-brothers HD-DVD titles)
Reuters is relaying reports from Asia that Toshiba will cease production and development of HD DVD players, essentially abandoning the platform.
Toshiba had been the single largest proponent of HD DVD hardware. Earlier this year Warner announced it selected Blu-ray exclusively, which gave Blu-ray an overwhelming majority of studio support. With recent conversions by Netflix and Wal-Mart to Blu-ray-only stock, key elements to the end of the format war are in place: content, hardware, and distribution.
Apple has been a member of the Blu-ray consortium's board of directors since 2005, but has not publicly announced their Blu-ray plans. It is likely that Apple's hesitation about releasing any Blu-ray products has been at least partially due to the ongoing format war.
Article Link
You put it eloquently... the fact of the matter is that if it weren't for the early adopter things wouldn't progress, especially when one is talking about TECHNOLOGY. The point for the consumer is to make a decision... whether if it's HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, or Digital Downloads... if one doesn't like the wares being offered, then he/she can simply buy something else, boycott, or abstain... simple as that.
But it is fun to watch the Busters... LOL
DVD SP will still produce discs, your players will still work, and so will your HD DVDs. Nobody is obligated to refund or replace anything.
It's official
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/ir/en/news/20080219_03.htm
Looks like a lot of discs are going in the trash tomorrow.
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/ir/en/news/20080219_03.htm
Looks like a lot of discs are going in the trash tomorrow.
Maybe not in the US, but in a modern UK house or apartment it can be a challenge to get more than 5 feet away from the screen unless you have a jumpseat fitted to the wall. 1080p - giving people who live in shoeboxes something to enjoy!
Crikey! Which planet are you from then? Here on earth the usual approach is to release a half-arsed half-baked half-ready version of something while trying to get the final draft of the specification to actually work. Some of the people reading your post are using USB 1.1 keyboards plugged into USB 2.0 ports while relying on a 802.11 draft-n wireless card to connect to their ADSL 2+ router. While simultaneously downloading beta versions of Service Pack 1 for Vista, Service Pack 3 for XP and the latest software update from Apple, not doubt.SiliconAddict said:
You do know that 5 feet is 1,5 meter/150 centimetres, right?
I doubt anyone, except someone living at home, with a room only big enough for a closet and a very narrow bed only have 1,5 metres to "stretch out" in.