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.

Comments

Faked Demo?

[deanj]

A company faked a demo? I'm shocked....SHOCKED, I tell you!

Re:Faked Demo?

[$RANDOMLUSER]

Well, you know the old saying: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo".

It's probably NOT fake...

[grub]

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.

Re:It's probably NOT fake...

[Mr_Escher]

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.

Too many holes...

[DrEldarion]

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.

Re:Too many holes...

[4e617474]

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?

Come on, to prove he was on the level, he enlarged the photos!What more do you want?

But seriously, I could go either way on this one. You raise good points, but let me play devil's advocate point by point:

1) The whole idea was that working tech or not, there are so few Blu-ray discs to be had that it's hard to get one, even for an official demo.

2) Even the biggest corporations come down to a couple of guys low on the totem pole sooner or later. When the job is "Take this cake and a couple laptops to a night club" there's no telling who they're going to send. A couple of guys with a deadline, an iso file, and blank media laying around isn't that big of a stretch.

3) Again, it's a couple of guys. Maybe a couple of guys who heard Verbatim's don't make as many coasters.

4) I doubt they'd want to do that. Can you really tell the difference on a notebook screen? And if both machines had the discs they were officially supposed to, I'd expect a standard commercial DVD. A DVD+R of a commercial movie is generally not legal.

5) Okay, you got me. I might make a comparison to "How do you know it's not a government conspiracy" but anti-Sony sentiments are too widespread and getting faked photos onto a blog "expose" are too in vogue not to give that a pass.

6) Like who? The mainstream press? They barely covered the rootkit, and that allowed undetectable arbitrary code on your home PC. Besides, the CIA director just left on bad terms, Bush is proposing to throw out the tradition of civilian leadership in replacing him, the NSA knows who calls your house (thanks in part to the new proposed CIA director), we're militarizing the Mexican border but cutting existing illegal aliens a yet-to-be determined amount of slack, and nobody knows how close Iran is to getting the bomb, and Britney Spears is pregnant again. It's not an easy time to break into the news cycle when there are no celebrities involved.

All of them are faked nowadays

[Anonymous Coward]

The last real demo of a new product was Windows 98 at COMDEX on April 20, 1998.

More than just a laser

[Anonymous Coward]

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...

[atomic-penguin]

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.

Re:Poor Sony.

[Irish_Samurai]

SON¥

Faking it isn't a problem

[skayell]

Faking a demo isn't really a problem at all. You just have to be smart enough NOT TO GET CAUGHT. I've faked dozens of demos in my lifetime (and, yes, I still sleep okay).

But, then, I'm female and we're used to faking it realistically.

Re:Faking it isn't a problem

[KingPrad]

It's not that you women are good at faking. It's just that we men don't care!

Fake

[CNERD]

Fake.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2 939

Sony Responds - a comment FTFA

[bi_boy]

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.

Re:A blogger faked a fake...

[Jim_Callahan]

I agree, old chap. The GP surely owes me a new monocle.