Fox dreaming of a future where Blu-ray movies load faster, are judged by the content of their character(s)
By Richard Lawler 
posted October 1st 2009 11:23AM
posted October 1st 2009 11:23AM
[Thanks, chevelleman]
posted October 1st 2009 11:23AM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Funny, I can watch a BR movie, stop somewhere in the middle and eject the disc, put it back in and pick up right where I left off... with my PS3.
now, now... Don't bait the trolls. lol
With all of blu-rays additional features you'd have to be crazy to buy a stand-alone player over a PS3...
I have a PS3 as well...the resume playback does not work with all blu-rays. I'm looking at you, Disney...
If only my face had the same expression as wolverines every time i watched a blu-ray movie.
@valhalla Ah, but the HDDVD trolls are now on the anti-iPhone bandwagon. They won't even read a PS3 post :-P
Is the quality still there compared to a good stand-alone? I find watching a dvd on my PS2 to be fairly low quality compared to a decent stand-alone player, especially audio quality. Just wondering if this is an issue on the PS3.
@marcomera
IMO the PS3 interface is leaps over the PS2. The thing that a lot of people neglect when buying a Blu-Ray player is that as time goes the Blu-Ray format evolves and demands more from the hardware/software loaded on the machine. A console is already a working computer so it's impossible for it to become obsolete.
hrm.... Is it wishful thinking that those features can be implemented via a firmware upgrade instead of having to buy a brand new blu-ray player? (Assuming one has a blu-ray player capable of firmware upgrades...)
Not the faster load speeds, and I'm not sure about iphone connectivity. Maybe if you have a wifi enabled player it could be used with an update, but I don't see that happening even if it is possible. They still want to drive sales and make you buy a new one.
I was just curious if it was theoretically possible. I have a PS3, not a standalone, so I'm only marginally worried about it.
if they built in players with 50gb of space sorta like how psp and ps3/360 games have options to load files to the hdd to make load times faster.
They're not talking scene load times, they're talking from the moment you put in the disk to the point where you can interact with it.
Neat, all things I can do on the digital copy on my computer right now. Remind me again why people are interested in a physical distribution medium?
ummmm, cause some folks own Macs, which don't have blu-ray drives.
Although from the sounds of it, Steven is putting just those kinds of features on the purchased movie downloads. so if he could get the HD to be real 1080 and not just 720 at a decent file size, he might give this new form a run for its money. (well when broadband is decent speeds)
People like physical items sometimes. It's really not up to you to decide that nobody is allowed to make physical items anymore. Kinda like how I don't get to decide which restaurants shut be put out of business, or which bands should stop touring and selling albums.
1.) Physical media is more reliable. It's still there if your hard drive crashes. Some day, when we can reliably rip a Blu-Ray, we'll be able to have our disc, rip it for our media presentation hardware, and be able to enjoy all the benefits of physical media, and still have a backup if something bad happens to our equipment
2.) Higher resolution than currently-offered methods, and better quality (picture and sound)
3.) Special features
4.) Don't have to worry about files being corrupted/accidentally erased
5.) Tangible media experience. Loading up a movie from a physical device presents an experience for some people rather like having a face-to-face conversation with another person vs an IM conversation
6.) Having a physical library to present or show off is important for some
Any other reasons, all you video-philes?
@Scott
Bravo.
I have a feeling your digital copy looks like poo on a 50 inch plasma :x It could just be me though.
I watch 1080p 5.1 films on my media PC no load times instant access awesomeness looks as good on my 42" as on my mates through his blu-ray player. Anyone who says they look not as good as physical copies is kidding them selves.
@Scott
1.) Physical media is more reliable. It's still there if your hard drive crashes. Some day, when we can reliably rip a Blu-Ray, we'll be able to have our disc, rip it for our media presentation hardware, and be able to enjoy all the benefits of physical media, and still have a backup if something bad happens to our equipment
How is a blue ray disk any more reliable than a hard drive? In my personal experience, I've NEVER had a hard drive "crash". I have on several occasioned had optical media get scratched, or damaged beyond use. A Raided drive is basically infallible. With the age of the cloud, services like steam, will retain your ownership of digital property online. So even if your house burns down, you'll still retain all the rights to your media, you may have to download it again, but that can be done passively, and if your crib burns you'll probably have more important things to worry about than your dvd collection.
2.) Higher resolution than currently-offered methods, and better quality (picture and sound)
no, I don't believe that. How do they make the movie? It exists in a pure digital form long before it's ever stamped onto a blue ray disk.
3.) Special features
No, are you joking? give me special features that are not included in the Internet? I've seen some special features which consist of a link to a website.
4.) Don't have to worry about files being corrupted/accidentally erased
Same as #1, it's just as easy to accidentally throw disk in the garbage, or step on it as it is to erase it off your hard drive.
5.) Tangible media experience. Loading up a movie from a physical device presents an experience for some people rather like having a face-to-face conversation with another person vs an IM conversation.
This is true, I'll give you this one.
6.) Having a physical library to present or show off is important for some.
The trade off of course is you need to store that giant library somewhere, and it's a pain in the ass when you have to sift through that library to find that one movie without the help of ctr+F or "$>locate 'Hunt for the Red October.avi'"
The Fox blue ray commercials make me puke. The best parts, are when they show you a washed out image, and then compare it to the blue ray version...I'm not using blue ray now, how the fuck are you supposed to show me the difference between a dvd and blue ray on a dvd player? It's like trying Hitting someone with a wooden bat, and then hitting them harder with a wooden bat, and saying that that's what it feels like to get hit by a steel bat.
Going to throw out a support for physical media here (videophile):
Xmen collection is 225gb of bluray disk (6 disks, 3 duel layered), if my harddrive holding that died I would hate to have to download it again. Even with compression the special features and master audio track would make it pretty big. With all of that though you could just keep two hard-drives around with a copy each on it, though a 100 movie library where most movies average two disks or are duel layered would be pushing 5TB uncompressed.
Computers are had to export at the 24fps which TVs use to run smoothly (however in hindsight this is invalidated by later tvs and by streaming to an xbox/ps3), also having the the computer run dolby true hd/dts hs master audio is still somewhat of an annoyance.
Also another point for physical media, it has a resell value. Without selling your whole steam account (as an example) there is no real more practical way to sell your digital content.
@deathcapt
1.) How is a blue ray disk any more reliable than a hard drive? In my personal experience, I've NEVER had a hard drive "crash". I have on several occasioned had optical media get scratched, or damaged beyond use. A Raided drive is basically infallible. With the age of the cloud, services like steam, will retain your ownership of digital property online. So even if your house burns down, you'll still retain all the rights to your media, you may have to download it again, but that can be done passively, and if your crib burns you'll probably have more important things to worry about than your dvd collection.
i'll give you that one, although i've never had an optical media get scratched or damaged beyond use (except for when my DAD dropped something on my cd binder and cracked one). I take very good care of my discs. why shouldn't i? I paid for it.
2.) Higher resolution than currently-offered methods, and better quality (picture and sound)
no, I don't believe that. How do they make the movie? It exists in a pure digital form long before it's ever stamped onto a blue ray disk.
perhaps not higher resolution.....but the image and sound are of higher bitrate. before it exists in pure digital form, it exists on film, which is known to have a much much higher "resolution" than 1080p or 2K. i've watched some blu-ray rips and compared them to blu-rays on my PS3. the image quality for the most part is pretty close, but its when you get to the faster stuff, and the really dimly lit scenes that you see the differences IMO. you also tend to get a better color depth on blu-ray than on a rip. for most people audio is a non-issue, but i enjoy my uncompressed and "lossless" tracks over the DD or DTS tracks on the rips.
3.) Special features
No, are you joking? give me special features that are not included in the Internet? I've seen some special features which consist of a link to a website.
i can't say i've really perused the internet for special features, but I actually do enjoy special features on movies that I really like. sometimes, i'll actually even enjoy the BTS documentaries more than the film. and in most cases, make you appreciate the movie that much better. but i'm into thing, and i don't expect that many people to share the same interest.
4.) Don't have to worry about files being corrupted/accidentally erased
Same as #1, it's just as easy to accidentally throw disk in the garbage, or step on it as it is to erase it off your hard drive.
i don't know about you, but if i was throwing stuff away and saw a disc, i'd put it back where it should be, not toss it in the garbage. have you ever tossed a disc in the trash? but like i said above, i take good care of my discs. i paid for them, and intend to keep them all in good condition.
5.) Tangible media experience. Loading up a movie from a physical device presents an experience for some people rather like having a face-to-face conversation with another person vs an IM conversation.
This is true, I'll give you this one.
ditto
6.) Having a physical library to present or show off is important for some.
The trade off of course is you need to store that giant library somewhere, and it's a pain in the ass when you have to sift through that library to find that one movie without the help of ctr+F or "$>locate 'Hunt for the Red October.avi'"
it's called alphabetizing man. even faster than your computer can search for it.
Blu-ray what? Pay $70 for an poorly mastered movie with edge enhancement degradation everywhere? Why?
$70? Most BDs are $10-15 these days.
More like $25-30, but you can just trade them on goozex and pay like $1 plus shipping.
Huh, so people will be able to look up how completely shitty Wolverine is on imdb before subjecting themselves to having to watch it. Cool.
Except that it got a 6.8/10... which by IMDB standards is a pretty damn good rating.
I enjoyed Wolverine! Sure it may not have been the best movie ever (and the CGI for his claws was pretty awful at times), but it was totally worth the watch.
I swear, the people who always seem to good for something always seem the most un-happy.
Fanboys screwed the ranking system of IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.
Let's say Wolverine, Watchmen and such.
Watchmen was epic... bite your tongue.
Mark you're such a troll. Down rank him my minions.
Agreed. I'm dreaming of a future with no more shitty comic book movies. Wolverine was so god awful bad I turned it off with 30 minutes left. Go ahead dbags, down rank to your hearts' content.
Even with my dislike of the Deadpool design scheme they used in this movie, it was a phenomenal taste of what makes a great comic-based film. Mostly true to the origins, great action & acting (for the most part - they couldn't have picked a better Sabretooth), and the story mostly made sense. Of course, a comic-based movie is much like a novel-based movie. You can't fit everything into 2hrs, so shortcuts are taken, but still... really fun movie.
Bluray in a lot of ways reminds me of Vista... has great potential but is executed in all the wrong ways. Bad marketing, high price, low incentive, etc. Microsoft fixed that with Windows 7... will Bluray have a fix for us coming?
bad marketing and high price were your problems with windows vista?
Blurays problem is that everyone keeps trying to add more shit to it like this instead of just making it decently priced.
If blurays came out at DVD release price most people who own a HDTV would probably pick it up.
But in the end DVD still looks and sounds great and only really movie-philes want to pay the extra premium for them.
@hexydes: assuming you want to stay legal. I have a large collection of DVD's, but around 15 BD tittles. If a friend comes over and wants to borrow a movie, they can take the physical media. I can't loan a digital copy, thank you DRM, really, you are too kind. Also, most people don't have a huge media server at home to distribute content to all their tvs.
One thing I noticed recently.... I used to have my cable box connected through component, as soon as I switched he source to it, the image and sound would come up instantly. I recently bought a HDMI cable for it, now when I switch it takes around 3 to 5 seconds for the video/audio to come through. That's one thing they need to either eliminate or improve where a consumer doesn't notice the delay.. that stupid handshake does nothing for the consumer.
I am dreaming of a future with no blu-ray!
iPhone connectivity? I don't own one, but it got me thinking about when Apple eventually replaces the iPhone with something entirely new.
Can you imagine every app and accessory (including your car) that you bought because you loved the connectivity features all of a sudden becoming obsolete because the new iBrain (that you just HAVE to wait in line in the rain for) is not backward compatible?
my LG player can resume movies even after i take them out of the player and it loads faster than the PS3. Even so i like the idea of faster loading times but all these other useless feature like iphone connectivity and BD-live can go.
Does BluRay have that same annoying "feature" as regular DVD players where you have to suffer forever through the cutesy animated Disc Menu just to hit PLAY, and then wait for it to animate until it finally starts playing? I just want to watch my movie NOW, for crying out loud. No FBI warning, no studio baloney, no disc menu, thankyewverymuch.
So, what happened to the article on slow Samsung SSDs? Did Engadget censor itself? How much did that cost?
It's an important story because Samsung SSDs are commonly used in Lenovo, Apple and other notebooks (I have one) and the write speed issue is serious and needs to be addressed.
huh?
There was a post just before this one about problems with Samsung SSDs. I think the linked article was on Tech Web. The Engadget post had no comments, I hit reload to see if any came in and was sent back to the front page, and the article wasn't in the listing any more.
Windows Media Center + MediaBrowser FTW! Blu Ray is going to be gone before it really even gets off the ground. Digital distribution is the answer. Now, where's my fiber optic broadband?
@David Until broadband gets fast enough to play HD quality films in 1080p seamlessly, physical media will rule the day. I realize that broadband accessibility is growing and speeds are finally getting faster... but they're far from the speeds necessary to play true 1080p quality media.
We'll see what happens when all that 1080p streaming media hits Xbox Live this fall.
Come on. This is the McDonald's nation we're talking about here.
You can give them a competently mastered 480p recording and call
that HD and they will eat it up. It doesn't need to be a 33G movie for
companies like Apple or Netflix to start calling it high definition.
The public will buy into this. They won't catch the finer points because
they are prone to not notice them (or care) with a normal BD-ROM anyways.
It will be a repeat of MP3.
Haha, unfortunately, you're probably right. ;P
Maybe 1080p won't be final standard. Hear me out hear....
Say someone does setup a decent and reasonable priced product at a slightly lower resolution like 720 and for a large percentage of the audience this quality is acceptable (as well as sufficiently better than DVD) and deliverable quickly via broadband, then this could become the standard. Sure 1080p would exist for videophiles just as super-CDs and now FLAC exists for audiophiles.
I'm concerned that if blu-ray does become the standard by the time broadband catches up, hardware and movie companies will just release an even higher resolution standard and put the consumers through the mangle again.
This line of thought does have precedent, record companies were looking at higher and higher bit rate where all the average Joe wants is a bit rate slightly higher than what the player is capable of outputting and a fast and cheap way of getting it. MP3s are the standard now and the other ideas are long gone