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Sony Fakes Blu-Ray Demo?
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.
A company faked a demo? I'm shocked....SHOCKED, I tell you!
It sounds like Lance Ulanoff from PC Magazine is jumping the gun. According to notebookreview.com: 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,
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.
They are like M$, they can't do anything anymore without bad press.
Perhaps we should start using $ony when having a whinge about them.
You get what you give though.
The last real demo of a new product was Windows 98 at COMDEX on April 20, 1998.
http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20060 512
Thib ;-)
This is the problem with jumping to conclusions without any more evidence than a single photo of a burned disk, an empty case, and a computer being juxtaposed. Your IQ may or may not have been toyed with by the OP. After reading the article from notebookreview.com though, I'm somewhat inclined to believe that you've been had. So . . . is anyone gonna pay now?
Dumbass journalist alert!!!
Repeat after me: DVD is not HD.
Would Sony use a burnt DVD for display ? Possible (hey, there's idiot students everywhere), but unlikely. Would Sony use a regular DVD for comparison versus Blu-Ray ? Certainly!
It's not like they have to fake it, they have the drive. They probably have demo content too. I'm pretty sure Blu-Ray video is encoded at a much higher resolution than boring old 720x480 Mpeg-2 DVD. Now maybe if our overzealous reporter had taken a moment to actually examine the demo and see the difference, maybe even chat with the Sony media monkey, perhaps he would have come up with a more valid article. Or maybe he did all that, but decided the notoriety of his lies would be a bigger hit.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Even if the reporting of the "faked" Blu-ray is a complete load of hogwash, it doesn't excuse the fact that Sony bootlegged a movie. Would the MPAA like to find out about that? If that much is true, and if there was no proof of an original DVD of the film anywhere to be found, then what's to say that Sony haven't image tweaked the burnt DVD+R to a lower encoded video quality, in order to help with their performance? Did anyone see the original blu-ray disc of the movie?
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
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.
In other news, the Motion Picture Association of America takes on a legal battle against Sony. Sony allegedly made unauthorized copies of one of its own movies, House of Flying Daggers. Sony also allowed an unlicensed public performance of said film.
/^([Ss]ame [Bb]at (time, |channel.)){2}$/
In other news, Gearlog fakes news story by not mentioning that the DVD+R was being used for a comparison.
Did you ever notice that *nix doesn't even cover Linux?
I'm even more shocked! Press journalists are known to be corrupt and inept, but a blogger screwing up.... well that really makes you spill your cup of tea!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
But, then, I'm female and we're used to faking it realistically.
Okay, I don't know why our poster thinks engaget is the "general concensus", perhaps he finds their comments section mentally stimulating (click the link in the headline and scroll down).
Regardless if this was faked or not, I don't trust all these band-wagoning fools here or there. All you have to do is read my previous posts that were modded as troll, flame, etc when I predicted a fiaso with Sony's Blu-ray and PS3 releases. People saw big numbers, wanted big numbers, and completely forgot about Sony's failures in the past.
Kind of reminds me of the idiocy supporting support for multiple wars a couple of years ago. People like to believe things and completely turn off the part of their brain that comprehends history's lessons.
Fake.
2 939
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=
"It will work. It will be in the PS3. It will have a huge market just because of the PS3. It therefore will not go away. Yes sony sucks, but for some reason everyone and their dog will buy the ps3. It guarantees Bluray's success."
It will work. It will be in the PSP. It will have a huge market just because of the PSP. It therefore will not go away, It guarantees UMD's success....
Wait? They are stopping production of UMD movies? Ah... forget what I just said.
"The stupider people think you are, the more surprised they will be when you kill them..."
Damn shame /. doesn't allow us to demerit its own postings when they are so bogus and designed to inflame and slander. These postings really undermine the credibility of /..
Could Slashbots BE any more eager to make up bullshit to trash Sony with? Good to see /.'s editorial integrity is keeping to its... high... standards.
I mean, really! Was the demo to show off the technology and the HiDef resolution, or was it to showcase the underlying media technology? If the former, and the story is indeed accurate, then shame on Sony. Ah hell, based on the rootkit, their membership in the RIAA and MPAA, attempted hijacking and elimination of Fair Use rights and right if first sale, it's clear that Sony has no shame.
If it is the latter and they were using a small amount of Blu-Ray-encoded/resolution files on DVD-R media with a custom build designed to recognize Blu-Ray content on a DVD due to what could be a scarcity of notebook form-factor Blu-Ray drives for the demo, then there isn't so much of a problem, except that if that were the case Sony should qualify the demo with "by the way, this is our software technology demo, using DVD-R media for this demo, blah blah blah" just to avoid the negative PR fiasco that you see here.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Sony has ZERO credibility when it comes to demos. The fact that so many people accepted this story pretty much proves it. They fake demos left and right. (remember the "PS3" demo from LAST E3?) And when you're a tech company, and people won't even believe your PR any more, you've got MAJOR problems.
Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.
Found this as a comment on the site, who knows if its legit?
Sony Responds
Posted by: J Piazza, Sony Employee
I would like to clarify this issue regarding the content that was shown last night at the Sony VAIO 10th anniversary event.
The demonstration in question was a side-by-side comparison of Blu-ray Disc recorded content compared with a DVD recording of the same content. The identical notebooks were each playing the Sony Pictures release, "House of Flying Daggers"- one notebook showing the DVD format and the other showing the Blu-ray Disc format.
The photograph taken by one of the reporters attending the event was of the DVD version used for demo. The Blu-ray Disc media had no label.
I can attest that the disc in question was a Blu-ray Disc as I organized the event. The Blu-ray Disc media used, though not a final master, was encoded and displayed using Blu-ray Disc technology and rendered in true 1080p resolution. This resolution could not possibly have been duplicated using a DVD. I hope this clears up any confusion.
Chicken fried butter sticks? Do
One of the replies to the blog: Whether this was really a Sony employee or not, this argument is backed up by other sites.
Oh well. Never let the facts get in the way of a story...
I agree the story is a fake, but I think I missed something... Lance Ulanoff did not write that article. Nor can I find and article from Lance Ulanoff reporting on this. The only article linked is from a two-bit reporter Jennifer DeLeo who claims this is what Lance Ulanoff said. Moreover, read the post made by the ACTUAL AUTHOR in the comments section of Gearlog, several posts down:
"We're sorry!
Posted by: Jennifer DeLeo
Tuesday, May 16, 2006 5:41 PM
Ok. We admit it. We were trying to come up with ways to get hits to our website. We knew if we somehow could make it look like Sony was caught in a wb of lies, every gaming and electronics site would link to us. We would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!"
Link
There are countless other reasons it is obviouosly faked too; shame on all of you gullible idiots.
Well that was the most obviously trumped-up story I've ever seen - what's next, Sony Tortures Kittens And Laughs Heartily?
I'd say the anti-Sony cabal have jumped the shark with this one.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Every time someone posts something like this I go to Digg... and see dozens of examples completely inane/utterly worthless/disgustingly badly-reported shit I'd rather not slog through.
Seriously, this is like going to church to go tell everyone how awesome atheism is.
(also, your post kind of doesn't make any sense. you simultaneously expect slashdot to produce a story like this and expect it to be better? what?)
*burns karma*
"Quoting yourself is stupid." -Me
Even a DVD+R can hold HD data. It's not as though the media itself is inherently "high definition", it's the data held within that counts. The point is, however, that DVD+R cannot hold a feature-length film within its comparatively miniscule capacity of 4.7GB. The BluRay disc, according to spec, can hold a standard of up to 33GB of data, which is plenty for feature-length HD content, and more than twice that of a standard single-layer HD-DVD (15GB), which is also capable of holding feature-length video.
It's all about the capacity, folks. You guys should know that!
Screw the rules, I have green hair!
The purpose of the demo is to show what the improvement will be like with Blu-Ray.
You can do that with a DVD! You only need a couple of minutes and can easily store that on a DVD. You use exactly the same codec as the Blu-Ray version, get the higher resolution, and allow people to compare. The Blu-Ray version will look better. Perhaps they are using a DVD for various reason. It's only a demonstration!
Why are all you so naive!? They do this sort of thing all the time. Advertising dog food - The dog doesn't like it. They use another brand. Showing a photo of the company founder? It may well be an stand-in. A celebrity endorsing a product? They may not even have tried the product. Advetising is like that. Why pick on Sony?
Well, let's put it that way, should Sony sink, I'd offer them a glass of water or an anvil, but still, even they should be tried by the same standards I want to be tried on.
If someone claims a demo to be rigged, he should produce some evidence. Not the other way 'round.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I don't think anyone else has said this yet so I'll throw it out there. IIRC BD-9 is a format for Blu-Ray. This format uses existing DVD+/- discs and reads them with a red laser. This, obviously, defeats the biggest purpose of Blu-Ray discs because they have a much smaller capacity. However, for an early demo such at this, if Sony wanted to show a 20 minute clip of the video and was not able to get their hands on a Blu-Ray disc, then they would conceivably use the BD-9 format to put HD content onto a normal DVD. This would allow for 1080 HD content to be shown, and compared to the normal DVD on the other laptop. So the DVD+R could very well have been used in the Blu-Ray drive *and* also be producing true HD video output.
Boy do I wish I hadn't just pressed reply.
A DVD+R (the one shown isn't DL) is 4.5G of course. What's wrong with me thinking of CDs?
You're right. With H.264, at 4.5G for a 2 hour movie you could get very good results. With 9G (dual layer), I figure you could get nearly perfect results perfect results.
Boy do I feel stupid. I apologize. I musta had a brain lock.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95