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Sony Fakes Blu-Ray Demo?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the please-ignore-the-man-behind-the-curtain dept.

twasserman writes "Lance Ulanoff of PC Magazine reported on Sony's recent event showing the new VAIO AR desktop with a Blu-Ray drive, observing that Sony faked the high-def demo by using a plain old DVD+R of House of Flying Daggers. Even before the rootkit fiasco, Sony has seemed increasingly desperate, but the general consensus seems to be that Sony is looking pretty sad and pathetic." Update 03:07 GMT by SM: Many users are calling shenanigans on this one since there were two laptops side by side, one with the Blu-Ray demo and another for comparison. Independent confirmation or negation has yet to surface, so take with the requisite grain of salt required when reading any news.

4 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. It's probably NOT fake... by grub · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It sounds like Lance Ulanoff from PC Magazine is jumping the gun. According to notebookreview.com:
    The premium model comes bundled with one of the first Blu-ray Disc (BD) movies, House of Flying Daggers, which Sony showed side-by-side tonight, along with the DVD version. Contrary to what some have said, the difference in quality is instantly noticeable
    It sounds like Ulanoff was in too much of a rush for a scoop and didn't realize this when he ejected what was very likely the comparison DVD. Don't let the facts get in the way of a good Sony bashing, though.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:It's probably NOT fake... by Mr_Escher · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The reason I'd do it that way is so I could just cut, say, a 20 minute segment without the usual menus and so forth making it easier to sync the 2 machines side by side for comparison.

  2. Too many holes... by DrEldarion · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, wait a second. We've got some guy on some site that has pictures of a DVD in a drive, and this is somehow proof that Sony faked the whole thing? Aren't there just a few holes here?

    1) Sony has the tech, why on earth would they resort to a DVD?
    2) Why would they use a DVD+R with no label when they distribute the actual DVDs?
    3) Why would Sony use a Verbatim DVD+R?
    4) How do we know that machine wasn't supposed to be running a DVD to compare to a computer next to it running Blu-Ray. (Quite coincidentally, there are no pictures of the disc from that machine.)
    5) How do we know the picture wasn't staged by someone anti-Sony?
    6) Howcome nobody else is reporting on this?

    I know Sony's no saint, but this just doesn't make any sense at all.

  3. More than just a laser by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, I work on Blu-Ray players(not for Sony), take that for what you will.

    Aside from the article submitter trolling, I would like to state that Blu-Ray is more than just a laser. It's an entire format complete with a software virtual machine.

    When we test content it comes on a DVD-R, we're testing layouts of files, VM access, decoding, video quality etc.

    Now I don't know what was at the booth, but it is certainly possible that they were showing off their software Blu-Ray player with the content burned onto a DVD.