Slashdot Mirror
High Definition DVD
Vinnie_333 writes "Looks like the specs for HD-DVD are currently being discussed by Hollywood big wigs, with an optimistic product release date of Xmas of 2003. Unfortunately, they seem to be completely disregarding the higher storage capacity of the Blu-Ray disc standard, that will hold 6 times the amount of a DVD-9, for the current red laser format with a different compression algorithm. Come on, more storage is always a good thing. Not only will it give us the quality we deserve, it is likely to cut down on Hollywood's largest fear (piracy) by making the media ungodly HUGE."
Quite a bit of intelligent and deeply detailed writing on this subject (and many more) has graced the pages of Widescreen Review. Their point of view is strongly in favor of waiting for a higher density, higher bitrate DVD formats over trying to rig the existing DVD format for high definition content. They claim the inside perspective is that high definition DVD is at least five (5) years away. They have also provided extensive coverage of the new D-Theater D-VHS high definition consumer tape format that is available right now for people with fancy video projectors and deep pockets. D-Theater doesn't look like it will ever be a mass-market technology, but its apparently a really nice interim technology and it seems to deliver video that truly does rival quality theatrical media. (If your projector is up to snuff, of course.)
The problem I see is that the existing DVD format has become a huge success, with the consumer electronics and movie industries heavily investing in it and heavily profiting in it. Consumers love the format, despite its irritating, customer-hostile feaures (such as region encoding and material the user interface prevents you from fast-forwarding through or skipping). I doubt either industry wants to compromise or confuse such a successful market. (Similarly, gamers have been so happy playing Half Life and its mods that Valve hasn't bothered to release a completely new game product in many years.)
The compression algorithm is from Microsoft. It uses Windows Media 9 (corona) and some hardware accelerated playback.
u l0 2/07-15DigitaLibraryPR.asp
Look at some other units coming into the market to see how Microsoft is making its penetration into home theater.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2002/J
The media 9 codec can do HD at less than 9Mb/s. It usually does well at around 7Mb with some material still looking good at around 3Mb.
Microsoft was showing extensive demos of its HD support with Corona at NAB 2002.
Of course it could probably be done without putting it on the HD just by issuing a couple of commands, one to write out a "stats" file, and another to use the stats file to actually write the movie. Or if one just creates a frameserving program that'll serve off of the DVD rather than the vob's on a hard drive.
Are you telling me you have 90 gigs of mp3s?
Assume that three Blu-Ray discs hold 30 gigabytes each for a total of 90 gigabytes. Assume that archive-quality stereo MP3 audio takes 32 kilobytes per second (256 kbps with LAME or FhG). This makes 937500 seconds (260 hours and change) of music spread across 3 discs.
Now assume that a typical album is one hour long (some run shorter, some longer). It's not inconceivable that a collector may have purchased 260 CDs from RIAA and independent labels, not to mention some tape and vinyl that the collector has digitized and DSPd to hide the artifacts inherent in those mediums.
Will I retire or break 10K?
- Moritz's DVD ripping and transcoding with Linux
howto
- Linux SVCD guide, written in French
- My own Linux Digital Fansubbing Guide (shameless plug) -- intended for anime fansubbers but perfectly serviceable as a ripping guide if you ignore the stuff about subtitles.
The summary is that all the stuff your friends do under windows (divx, vbr, two-pass encoding, pulldown flags, inverse telecine, etc.) are perfectly feasible under linux too, using free software.OK, I have to say it, but your maths sucks!
/lot/ of music!
90 GB = 92160 MB = 94371840 KB
94371840 KB / 32 KB = 2949120 Seconds = 49152 Hours over three discs, or 16384 Hours per Disc. That's a
Disclaimer: I meant what I thought, not what I wrote! What? You can't read my Mind? Oh dear!
I have reservations about both the Blu-Ray and the proposed HD-DVD being standardized in the near future.
First, as many have stated, using a new compression algorithm with the exisitng stoage of DVDs can be both good and bad. It is definitely good studios, who already have the standard DVD mastering equipment, and for DVD player manufacturers, who have already developed the red-laser hardware. It is good for the consumer in that the new players would probably be pretty cheap. I think cheapness is key for the acceptance of HDTV technology. Currently the sets are very expensive, and with the limited number of HD broadcasts, there is little incentive to buy one. Of course supply and demand is at work here--if more people bought them, the price would go down. Therefore, affordable HD-DVD players would go a long way in making HDTV's more attractive and useful, which would make their price drop and increase their market presence. Hopefully we would then see more HD broadcasts.
The problem with using exisiting DVD storage for HD-DVD is that is probably going to be obsolete sooner... bad for the consumer. Plus, I question how good the new compression algorithms really are. HDTV will tend to make compression artifacts and defects all the more obvious... again bad for the consumer.
Blu-Ray has many benefits in that has a much higher capacity (100GB if I remember correctly), so it will probably have a longer lifetime in the consumer marketplace. And, the picture quality would undoubtedly be of higher quality because the compression ratios would be lower. However, I fear that it is too costly of a technology to be a standard today or the next year. It would be great 5 years down the road, but not now. My reasoning? Blue lasers are really not ready for prime time... They are difficult to manufacture and are still extremely expensive. DVD player manufacturers still probably have much work to do to develop a consumer-grade blue laser disc playing system. Furthermore, the disc manufacturers would have to completely retool. I can see the discs and players being very expensive for a long time. This could further delay HDTV's acceptance in the mass market.
If I had to pick a technology today, it would have to be Hollywood's HD-DVD format, because I think it is important to give consumers incentive to buy HDTV's. Unless the Blu-Ray format can be substantially cheapened in one year (unlikely), I say wait a few more years for Blu-Ray.
Well, that statement isn't 100% correct. The FCC has mandated that broadcasters switch to a digital signal by 2006. This does NOT mean that it has to be HDTV -- it can be the lower-resolution SDTV format. I haven't read anywhere that describes exactly which format stations will choose. One can only hope that it is HDTV.
Now, the real catch is the satellite and cable companies. I believe they are supposed to carry the digital signals, but I don't think there is an FCC ruling preventing them from converting the digital signal to analog. A move like this will certainly slow the consumer adoption of HDTV tuners.
Personally, I hope that the world doesn't suddenly switch to pure digital. HDTV sets are cheaper than they were even last year, but that doesn't mean everyone can (or wants to) afford them. My analog TV works just fine, has a clear picture and lets my watch the few programs that I care about, why shell out money for an upgrade that's pure aesthetics?
To decode mpeg2 in realtime on a general purpose CPU requires, in the PC world, at least 500MHz. DVD players would not be sold at $200 if they had to incorporate high speed general purpose CPUs and lots of memory. The MPEG decoding is done by custom ASICs, and those are most definitely not upgradable. The CPU in a DVD player is typically a little 50MHz chip designed for embedded systems. When you upgrade the firmware, you're upgrading the software that runs on that: the user interface, not the decoding.
"Can NT apps running with admin privileges access arbitrary parts of RAM?"
Not normally but debuggers like IDA can.
Try about 2 million HDTV sets in use in the USA.
I think the figure you are citing is for HDTV Ready sets. While I'm sure some people have sprung for the HDTV receiver set top boxes needed to actually get the HD Digital signals on most "HDTV Ready" TVs/monitors. I think the number of people that have bought the add-on receiver in addition to the monitor, or that have bought one of the few sets with built-in receivers is far fewer that the number of HDTV-Ready sets/monitors sold.
The $700 additional investment is pretty steep and it appears that only units bundled with the DirecTV HD reciever are getting enough sales to stay viable on the market.
Work for Change & GET PAID!