In the month of September events come thick and fast.
IFA, IBC, CEDIA, ESCA - you need a dictionary of acronyms just to keep up. This year's crop has been particularly fruitful, despite the financial climate, and some of the annoucements look set to affect the way we look at home entertainment and packaged media in the future.
You would have to have your eyes closed to miss 3D. And thanks to the CE manufacturers – notably Panasonic – Blu-ray has been presented as being at the heart of the stereoscopic revolution. So many 3D 'standards' have been presented that you could be forgiven for thinking that 3D in the home was upon us. The trouble is, so many of them are mutually incompatible that consumer confusion is inevitable.
IBC was notable for its contribution to the 3D knowledge base, with the conference including presentations from content providers like Fox Sports, Sky and the BBC and a one-day masterclass. Both sessions opened a few eyes to the challenges that lie ahead. Who knew, for example, that all the 3D content ever created could be broadcast in a week and a half of 3DTV programming? Or that the fact that a child's eyes are closer together than an adult means they perceive 3D differently than their parents?
David Hill, Chairman and CTO of Fox Sports Television, showed a fifteen-minute trailer of what could be possible, if he were to be given "a very big cheque-book". Impressive though the sequence of NASCAR racing, NFL cheerleaders and Madison Square Garden boxing was when projected on the large screen, it was a good demonstration of another challenge inherent in 3D: the need to shoot and post-produce for a pre-determined display size.
That's right, the theatrical version of a 3D movie is not optimised for the home screen. It is (relatively) easy to re-render an animation title and release it as a Blu-ray title, a challenge to do the same for a live action feature. These challenges will no doubt be met but, as Hill asked, "Can we charge any more for advertising on a 3D channel?" What is required to bring 3D home is a large chunk of interest-free, no strings attached investment. Anyone ready to step up to the plate?
Such vulgar considerations were of no concern to consumers who flocked to IFA in Berlin earlier in the month. Alongside the washing machines, in-car audio systems and wireless gadgets were 3D displays and Blu-ray players foretelling a future in the third dimension. A bevy of analysts were there too, praising the earnings potential of companies involved in the new world.
Obviously, making 3D-ready kit for the home is a breeze. Just double-up the bandwidth, double the screen refresh rate, sort out the HDMI connector, distribute millions of pairs of glases and you are home free. No wonder the BDA promises a 'standard' before the end of the year, even though SMPTE will not publish their standard before mid-2010.
Then again, maybe not home free for 3D... The issue, as always, is money. Brian Lenz at Sky is a great believer in the economics of delivering 3D through the 2D infrastructure. This is done by using the simple trick of squeezing the pictures for the left and right eye, widthwise by 50%, so they fit into a single 2D frame. Transmit it like that and then unsqueeze at the other end and Voila! 3D TV in the home. If you are a major international broadcaster wanting to get into the market with a splash, this is the perfect route. It mirrors Sky's earlier decision to abandon component TV, favoured by BSB, and stick with PAL. Commercially, it was the right decision the time, regardless of the impact on image quality.
Visitors to CEDIA in Atlanta will not be convinced by the '3D on 2D' approach. They were treated to a display of what Panasonic refers to as 'Full HD 3D', two separate 1080p channels, combined at the point of display. "That's the way to do it!" as Mr Punch would have said, were it not for the fact that Punch and Judy shows were established four centuries ago. And they were in 3D.
Blu-ray is the only consumer format able to deliver two concurrent video streams in HD 1080p So if - and it is a big if - consumer 3D takes off, packaged media can expect to survive for several more years. Since no-one looks crazy enough to launch a competing format, maybe now is the time for replicators to buy that additional line.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Battle for the home network - which CE device has the power to win?
DSL, WiMax, LTE or whatever, when it enters the home, broadband has to be distributed from somewhere. So which device should be the gatekeeper for the home network? It was easy in the days of dial-up. The computer had a modem and home networks barely existed, so you time-shared the telephone line between voice and data communications and everything worked passably well. As long as you hadn't subscribed to call waiting.
Meantime, the TV was lord of the video world. Whether cable or broadcast, pictures came down the coax into the set and on onto the screen. Where they stopped. Or rather, were converted into coloured light by knocking photons off phosphors and into your eyeballs. Where the pictures definitely stopped.
And then things started to get complicated. Video recorders delayed the passage of photons to eyeballs. ADSL meant you could talk on the phone and check the sports results. The word multitasking entered the vocabulary of consumer as well as computer geek. But the CE world still comprised islands of connected devices. Of course, as readers will know, we long-ago entered the joined-up era of convergence but it is only recently that device manufacturers have begun to worry about their place in the connected world.
The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) has so far done a great job in getting its logo on a wide range of devices, providing reassurance that device A will connect with (and talk to) device B. Sony, Philips and most other major hardware companies have shared some of the device protocols so that one remote can at least turn two devices on and off. But a bigger battle looms and millions of dollars will be spent in a battle that most consumers will find hard to understand.
Take that shiny new Blu-ray player, for example. (Please - we need the sale!) It probably has a network connection on the back, which will allow the lucky owner to connect it to the internet. BD-Live features depend on persuading an increasing number of people to do just that. But do they have the cat 5 cabling necessary to make it work? And importantly, can their i- phone talk to the Blu-ray player? Don't look to the DLNA to sort that one out.
How about the new set-top box with built-in 320 GB drive, supplied with your satellite of cable subscription? Can you copy data and from the hard drive on your PC or play the stored video on your laptop when you're laid-up with the latest version of porcine or poultry flu? Or transfer the emails in your inbox to the Yahoo Widget on the TV?
This isn't a plug for the Slingbox, great device though it is, I'm simply pointing out that one or other of these electronic boxes has to take charge, or the result will be a cacophony of devices switching each other on and off and demanding priority. The ensuing chaos could make the Sorcerer's Apprentice look like the most polished System Administrator in the broom cupboard.
It's an issue that is not going to go away, as Yahoo and Intel realised when they drew up designs for TV Widgets. If the TV is going return to its primary place in the sphere of home entertainment, the connection to the world outside needs to go direct to to an in-built router in the set. That way, VoD, downloads, IP cable and all manner of other video services can be delivered straight to the screen. But what about other consumer devices with an IP address, like the games console, the mobile phone, the security system, the smart metering, the set-top box? Should they all rely on the TV? Clearly not. And the manufacturers and suppliers would not want it that way.
If the Xbox 360, the slimline PS3, the HDTV STB or any other device is going to be the main revenue earner from paid-for online services, the hardware will have to be 'friendly' to the incoming data. And that becomes harder the more devices are conected and the more diverse they become. WiFi enabled mobile phones won't let you access VOIP services, for example, or go places outside the "walled garden" authorised by the network operator. The same principle could soon be applied by cable operators who deliver IPTV services as long as you use their phone network (and pay their prices), or take advantage of high-speed internet from your power company, as long as you buy their energy and install their smart meters.
So is the answer an industrial-strength router at the interface with the world outside? It may work for the small business user but will homeowners pay for and maintain the beast? Probably not. And what are the implications for BD Live? To extract the last dollars and cents from a BD-enabled product, people who buy the disc need to go online and access the content linked to the title. Getting them to put that network plug into the back of the player is going to be an increasingly tough call unless, like mobile phone companies, an inbuilt WiFi or other network connection broadcasts its availability and connects to the world outside.
Philips understood this with their Streamium WiFi audio range but networking has to extend to every audio-visual device in the home - securely and simply. Wireless connection may have advantages for hand-held devices but there is another option, which perhaps ought to be inbuilt into every consumer electronics device in the home, from Blu-ray players to PCs, TVs and home security cameras.
Powerline would not solve every problem of CE device interconnection but it would be a major step along the road. And if you could plug just two cables into your Blu-ray player (Power and HDMI) and get all the promised functionality, surely a lot more people would be online right now...
Meantime, the TV was lord of the video world. Whether cable or broadcast, pictures came down the coax into the set and on onto the screen. Where they stopped. Or rather, were converted into coloured light by knocking photons off phosphors and into your eyeballs. Where the pictures definitely stopped.
And then things started to get complicated. Video recorders delayed the passage of photons to eyeballs. ADSL meant you could talk on the phone and check the sports results. The word multitasking entered the vocabulary of consumer as well as computer geek. But the CE world still comprised islands of connected devices. Of course, as readers will know, we long-ago entered the joined-up era of convergence but it is only recently that device manufacturers have begun to worry about their place in the connected world.
The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) has so far done a great job in getting its logo on a wide range of devices, providing reassurance that device A will connect with (and talk to) device B. Sony, Philips and most other major hardware companies have shared some of the device protocols so that one remote can at least turn two devices on and off. But a bigger battle looms and millions of dollars will be spent in a battle that most consumers will find hard to understand.
Take that shiny new Blu-ray player, for example. (Please - we need the sale!) It probably has a network connection on the back, which will allow the lucky owner to connect it to the internet. BD-Live features depend on persuading an increasing number of people to do just that. But do they have the cat 5 cabling necessary to make it work? And importantly, can their i- phone talk to the Blu-ray player? Don't look to the DLNA to sort that one out.
How about the new set-top box with built-in 320 GB drive, supplied with your satellite of cable subscription? Can you copy data and from the hard drive on your PC or play the stored video on your laptop when you're laid-up with the latest version of porcine or poultry flu? Or transfer the emails in your inbox to the Yahoo Widget on the TV?
This isn't a plug for the Slingbox, great device though it is, I'm simply pointing out that one or other of these electronic boxes has to take charge, or the result will be a cacophony of devices switching each other on and off and demanding priority. The ensuing chaos could make the Sorcerer's Apprentice look like the most polished System Administrator in the broom cupboard.
It's an issue that is not going to go away, as Yahoo and Intel realised when they drew up designs for TV Widgets. If the TV is going return to its primary place in the sphere of home entertainment, the connection to the world outside needs to go direct to to an in-built router in the set. That way, VoD, downloads, IP cable and all manner of other video services can be delivered straight to the screen. But what about other consumer devices with an IP address, like the games console, the mobile phone, the security system, the smart metering, the set-top box? Should they all rely on the TV? Clearly not. And the manufacturers and suppliers would not want it that way.
If the Xbox 360, the slimline PS3, the HDTV STB or any other device is going to be the main revenue earner from paid-for online services, the hardware will have to be 'friendly' to the incoming data. And that becomes harder the more devices are conected and the more diverse they become. WiFi enabled mobile phones won't let you access VOIP services, for example, or go places outside the "walled garden" authorised by the network operator. The same principle could soon be applied by cable operators who deliver IPTV services as long as you use their phone network (and pay their prices), or take advantage of high-speed internet from your power company, as long as you buy their energy and install their smart meters.
So is the answer an industrial-strength router at the interface with the world outside? It may work for the small business user but will homeowners pay for and maintain the beast? Probably not. And what are the implications for BD Live? To extract the last dollars and cents from a BD-enabled product, people who buy the disc need to go online and access the content linked to the title. Getting them to put that network plug into the back of the player is going to be an increasingly tough call unless, like mobile phone companies, an inbuilt WiFi or other network connection broadcasts its availability and connects to the world outside.
Philips understood this with their Streamium WiFi audio range but networking has to extend to every audio-visual device in the home - securely and simply. Wireless connection may have advantages for hand-held devices but there is another option, which perhaps ought to be inbuilt into every consumer electronics device in the home, from Blu-ray players to PCs, TVs and home security cameras.
Powerline would not solve every problem of CE device interconnection but it would be a major step along the road. And if you could plug just two cables into your Blu-ray player (Power and HDMI) and get all the promised functionality, surely a lot more people would be online right now...
Monday, July 20, 2009
Toshiba Blu-ray player readied for market
Spin that past me again – The Toshiba Blu-ray player? Well now you mention it, it's kind of inevitable. While everyone regrets the 'format war', it did awaken consumer interest for a while. Unfortunately, it also led to a long period of indecision at a time when other delivery options - satellite, broadband and even USB flash drives - were moving forward at high speed.
Blu-ray players have evolved, along with almost every other CE product from Widget TV to iPhone, and it is the concept of the connected device that is now centre stage, not the way data is written to polycarbonate discs. How HD video gets to the home has become a battle of the marketing departments, and currently Blu-ray is losing the war.
Philips tried to promote Compact Disc interactive (CD-i) in the early 1990s with the slogan "You're only using half your TV". The billboard showed a split screen TV, with color bars on the left, half a picture on the right and not a lot more to explain what was going on. Consumers had no idea how that related to their real lives and ignored CD-i in their millions.
Jump forward to the 21st century and compare the way Sony promotes Blu-ray. OK, there's the financially crippling decision that put a BD player into the PS3. It created an almost instant Blu-ray player park but what else did it do? It made PS3 too expensive, it delayed the focused roll-out of stand-alone Blu-ray players and, above all, the implied message is that Blu-ray is "something games freaks use when they're not blasting aliens."
You may not like it, PS3 users don't like it, but DVD is quite big enough to store the data for most games, so why burden it with a 50GB player? The Blu-ray player has done little for the gaming fraternity, so perhaps Sony is simply happy that all those PS3s are being used to watch movies. Well, the fact is, they're not. Apart from the early rush to buy BD titles for the PS3 "just because I can", there is very little evidence that the games console is regularly used for anything other than its main purpose.
So how does this affect the average consumer? The overall impact has been negative. Blu-ray brings fantastic picture quality to the home, great sound, terrific interactive extras, maximises your investment in the giant 1080p plasma screen but has this message got across to the customer walking the aisles at Best Buy? Not at all.
What is the received message about Blu-ray? It's a way to play HiDef video. Ask "Have you seen HiDef Video?" and you'll be told "Sure, I watch it on my Notebook and we've signed up for HDTV from Dish Network. Don't see the need to spend money on another box that does the same thing." Clearly, all HDTV is not made equal, but if you try to promote a technology rather than its advantages, don't be surprised if the message doesn't get through.
How do satellite broadcasters promote HDTV? Well, in Europe, Sky HD takes customers by the hand. "Experience television like never before with sharper detail and superb quality sound. Feel closer to explosive dramas, hear all the big moments in sport and see the latest blockbuster movies in your living room, all in stunning high definition. Join Sky+HD and get the true high definition picture on your HD ready TV".
Are you ready to sign up? Or would you prefer a Blu-ray player that delivers "Ten times the sound quality and five times the picture quality of DVD"? Come on Sony, you can do better than that. Actually, you need to do better than that if Blu-ray is going to make it in a world of competing formats. The battle against HD DVD was won, at great cost to us all. Now fight the battle against connected devices, superfast broadband and satellite TV with the same enthusiasm.
And let's welcome Toshiba to the world of Blu-ray. It's great to have you on the same side at last. Now get your marketing team up to speed and sell, sell, sell. Consumers would love to have a connected Blu-ray player at the heart of their home entertainment. Will someone take up the task of explaining why they should...
Blu-ray players have evolved, along with almost every other CE product from Widget TV to iPhone, and it is the concept of the connected device that is now centre stage, not the way data is written to polycarbonate discs. How HD video gets to the home has become a battle of the marketing departments, and currently Blu-ray is losing the war.
Philips tried to promote Compact Disc interactive (CD-i) in the early 1990s with the slogan "You're only using half your TV". The billboard showed a split screen TV, with color bars on the left, half a picture on the right and not a lot more to explain what was going on. Consumers had no idea how that related to their real lives and ignored CD-i in their millions.
Jump forward to the 21st century and compare the way Sony promotes Blu-ray. OK, there's the financially crippling decision that put a BD player into the PS3. It created an almost instant Blu-ray player park but what else did it do? It made PS3 too expensive, it delayed the focused roll-out of stand-alone Blu-ray players and, above all, the implied message is that Blu-ray is "something games freaks use when they're not blasting aliens."
You may not like it, PS3 users don't like it, but DVD is quite big enough to store the data for most games, so why burden it with a 50GB player? The Blu-ray player has done little for the gaming fraternity, so perhaps Sony is simply happy that all those PS3s are being used to watch movies. Well, the fact is, they're not. Apart from the early rush to buy BD titles for the PS3 "just because I can", there is very little evidence that the games console is regularly used for anything other than its main purpose.
So how does this affect the average consumer? The overall impact has been negative. Blu-ray brings fantastic picture quality to the home, great sound, terrific interactive extras, maximises your investment in the giant 1080p plasma screen but has this message got across to the customer walking the aisles at Best Buy? Not at all.
What is the received message about Blu-ray? It's a way to play HiDef video. Ask "Have you seen HiDef Video?" and you'll be told "Sure, I watch it on my Notebook and we've signed up for HDTV from Dish Network. Don't see the need to spend money on another box that does the same thing." Clearly, all HDTV is not made equal, but if you try to promote a technology rather than its advantages, don't be surprised if the message doesn't get through.
How do satellite broadcasters promote HDTV? Well, in Europe, Sky HD takes customers by the hand. "Experience television like never before with sharper detail and superb quality sound. Feel closer to explosive dramas, hear all the big moments in sport and see the latest blockbuster movies in your living room, all in stunning high definition. Join Sky+HD and get the true high definition picture on your HD ready TV".
Are you ready to sign up? Or would you prefer a Blu-ray player that delivers "Ten times the sound quality and five times the picture quality of DVD"? Come on Sony, you can do better than that. Actually, you need to do better than that if Blu-ray is going to make it in a world of competing formats. The battle against HD DVD was won, at great cost to us all. Now fight the battle against connected devices, superfast broadband and satellite TV with the same enthusiasm.
And let's welcome Toshiba to the world of Blu-ray. It's great to have you on the same side at last. Now get your marketing team up to speed and sell, sell, sell. Consumers would love to have a connected Blu-ray player at the heart of their home entertainment. Will someone take up the task of explaining why they should...
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Connected World?
It's becoming impossible to buy a CE product these days that isn't "connected" in some way. Of course, notebooks and PCs have been "online" in one way or another since the last century but today cellphones, games consoles, handhelds, Blu-ray players (of course) and now TVs are nothing if not connected.
Yahoo's TV Widgets are a case in point. The tube has long been a single ended device – mindless video in and photons out – with nothing as a back-channel, unless you count the "press red now" phone-line connected 'interactive button'. Not so long ago, TV manufacturers would say that's the natural order of things. "Flat screens are receivers of information, let other devices take care of phoning home." Well Yahoo and Intel dared to think otherwise.
The trouble with TV screen real estate is that there's only so much of it. And most of what you're looking at is programming. The average couch potato isn't going to be happy if the screen is obliterated with an interactive dialog box, just as the home team scores a goal. Fortunately, many camera operators have been schooled into putting the main line of interest into the upper third of the screen, leaving the lower part free of tedious information.
Into this potential void comes Yahoo TV Widgets, together with the 'Widget button' on the TV remote, something that we all look likely to press in the near future. Research shows that almost all computer owners between 16 and 25 are online as they watch TV. Now Yahoo have put the web ON the TV, along with a whole lot more.
There's already quite an array of Widgets on offer, from Blockbuster OnDemand thru eBay and Yahoo Weather to photo sharing on Flickr. And just when you thought it was all going to be Yahoo branded stuff, they announce that ANYONE can develop a Widget, using the free-to-download development kit. Now that's clever – and if Apple hadn't invented it first with the App Store, it would be full marks for originality.
What the heck, give Yahoo due credit. There are companies out there that would charge hundreds of dollars for a tool set to create pop-up widgets, and by doing so they would kill the idea before it launched. The key thing that will get TV Widgets onto every TV screen by 2012 is giving developers free rein to develop Widget ideas that no-one anticipated. And when ideas are allowed to roam free, the billionth Widget download can't be far behind.
How about a TV Widget map, that lets you locate Teheran or Tahiti when they're in the news? Or a Widget donut locator that dials your order through? Maybe a TV Widget to keep an eye on match scores elsewhere in the league or perhaps a Widget alarm that alerts you when the doorbell rings or the toast pops up? There are ten developers out there for every one of those ideas, and several thousand more who will come up with something unexpected – and no doubt profitable – and we'll all wonder why why we didn't think of it ourselves.
But there's another aspect to Yahoo YV Widgets. The basic Widget engine can be transplanted into other devices. And other devices, particularly disc-based media devices, can make use of the same protocol. Yes folks, why not put TV Widgets on your next Blu-ray title? The App can reside on the disc, be downloaded to the TV and - this could be neat - it can be updated interactively, providing a selling opportunity for "The Simpsons" season 22 before it has even been shot.
Advertisers and Premium online services will love Yahoo TV Widgets, they'll get audience metrics at the click of a remote and when your Blu-ray title gets its award, you can air the director's comments without wishing you'd invested a little more in BD Live.
There's a lot more neat stuff to come and the really clever thing that Intel and Yahoo have done is to get the major players in the CE business to sign up first. As Patrick Barry, Vice President of Connected TV at Yahoo said recently, "TV hasn't changed, but we have!" TV Widgets could finally bring televison sets into the 21st century.
Yahoo's TV Widgets are a case in point. The tube has long been a single ended device – mindless video in and photons out – with nothing as a back-channel, unless you count the "press red now" phone-line connected 'interactive button'. Not so long ago, TV manufacturers would say that's the natural order of things. "Flat screens are receivers of information, let other devices take care of phoning home." Well Yahoo and Intel dared to think otherwise.
The trouble with TV screen real estate is that there's only so much of it. And most of what you're looking at is programming. The average couch potato isn't going to be happy if the screen is obliterated with an interactive dialog box, just as the home team scores a goal. Fortunately, many camera operators have been schooled into putting the main line of interest into the upper third of the screen, leaving the lower part free of tedious information.
Into this potential void comes Yahoo TV Widgets, together with the 'Widget button' on the TV remote, something that we all look likely to press in the near future. Research shows that almost all computer owners between 16 and 25 are online as they watch TV. Now Yahoo have put the web ON the TV, along with a whole lot more.
There's already quite an array of Widgets on offer, from Blockbuster OnDemand thru eBay and Yahoo Weather to photo sharing on Flickr. And just when you thought it was all going to be Yahoo branded stuff, they announce that ANYONE can develop a Widget, using the free-to-download development kit. Now that's clever – and if Apple hadn't invented it first with the App Store, it would be full marks for originality.
What the heck, give Yahoo due credit. There are companies out there that would charge hundreds of dollars for a tool set to create pop-up widgets, and by doing so they would kill the idea before it launched. The key thing that will get TV Widgets onto every TV screen by 2012 is giving developers free rein to develop Widget ideas that no-one anticipated. And when ideas are allowed to roam free, the billionth Widget download can't be far behind.
How about a TV Widget map, that lets you locate Teheran or Tahiti when they're in the news? Or a Widget donut locator that dials your order through? Maybe a TV Widget to keep an eye on match scores elsewhere in the league or perhaps a Widget alarm that alerts you when the doorbell rings or the toast pops up? There are ten developers out there for every one of those ideas, and several thousand more who will come up with something unexpected – and no doubt profitable – and we'll all wonder why why we didn't think of it ourselves.
But there's another aspect to Yahoo YV Widgets. The basic Widget engine can be transplanted into other devices. And other devices, particularly disc-based media devices, can make use of the same protocol. Yes folks, why not put TV Widgets on your next Blu-ray title? The App can reside on the disc, be downloaded to the TV and - this could be neat - it can be updated interactively, providing a selling opportunity for "The Simpsons" season 22 before it has even been shot.
Advertisers and Premium online services will love Yahoo TV Widgets, they'll get audience metrics at the click of a remote and when your Blu-ray title gets its award, you can air the director's comments without wishing you'd invested a little more in BD Live.
There's a lot more neat stuff to come and the really clever thing that Intel and Yahoo have done is to get the major players in the CE business to sign up first. As Patrick Barry, Vice President of Connected TV at Yahoo said recently, "TV hasn't changed, but we have!" TV Widgets could finally bring televison sets into the 21st century.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
3D or not 3D?
The news that the CES, the Blu-ray Disc Association, Panasonic, Dolby, Quantel and the Toblerone Appreciation Society are setting up 3D task forces to decide how we will watch 3D TV at home will be a comfort for the average consumer.
Just as the 'HD-ready' tag on flat screens indicated to eager shoppers that 720p would give them the ultimate in picture quality, the sight of a self-adhesive sticker proclaiming '3D Ready' will mean customers can spend their money without having to worry about future developments. Of course, it could take a couple of years to solve all the problems, but it's clear that 3D is going to come along 'real soon now'. Having a plasma display with a sticker on it will mean you'll be one of the first on the block to show off that immersive experience to all your friends. Why, I'll bet you won't even need glasses...
Or maybe not. OK, so we've all seen 3D in the cinema, digitally projected and with good quality glasses, but the images in Bolt or Coraline or UP! are not likely to be matched in the home for a while. Especially if you're hoping to make do without glasses. The technical problems are far from solved for broadcast 3D transmission, despite what the PR departments are saying and while Blu-ray is theoretically able to deliver the frame and data rates that are needed, there is one crucial problem to solve.
There are no official standards for 3D TV. And anyone who thinks that an industry trade association is going to solve that problem has never had to deal with the DVD Forum. The lack of standards led to the HD DVD vs Blu-ray battle (not to mention China HD, HD VMD or any other acronym that consumers have been asked to buy). How many camcorder 'standards' are out there now and does anyone know the difference?
Wool cannot be pulled over consumers' eyes forever, as those who bought future-proof Digital Terrestrial Television receivers will tell you. The concept of 3D Ready displays is way too early for the consumer market and should not be allowed to escape from the marketing department; at least until a viable 3D system has left R&D. There's already a backlash from consumers who paid good money for HD-Ready screens that can't display 1080p, from DTT viewers whose future-proof digital box had a life of less than two years, or from HD DVD owners who can no longer buy blank media.
The industry has to fess up and say "We don't yet have a viable 3D system for the home, until we do, enjoy the magic of the cinema." One day, not too far off, Blu-ray will undoubtedly be the key to 3D, but when it arrives, the display technology is more likely to be projection than LCD, Plasma or OLED. And owners of the Philips 3D screens that didn't need glasses can peel off their stickers today - the product line has been discontinued.
Oh, by the way, it turns out that the Toblerone Appreciation Society is concerned about three-sided chocolate bars and not three-dimensional images. Must learn not to trust everything the search engine throws up...
Just as the 'HD-ready' tag on flat screens indicated to eager shoppers that 720p would give them the ultimate in picture quality, the sight of a self-adhesive sticker proclaiming '3D Ready' will mean customers can spend their money without having to worry about future developments. Of course, it could take a couple of years to solve all the problems, but it's clear that 3D is going to come along 'real soon now'. Having a plasma display with a sticker on it will mean you'll be one of the first on the block to show off that immersive experience to all your friends. Why, I'll bet you won't even need glasses...
Or maybe not. OK, so we've all seen 3D in the cinema, digitally projected and with good quality glasses, but the images in Bolt or Coraline or UP! are not likely to be matched in the home for a while. Especially if you're hoping to make do without glasses. The technical problems are far from solved for broadcast 3D transmission, despite what the PR departments are saying and while Blu-ray is theoretically able to deliver the frame and data rates that are needed, there is one crucial problem to solve.
There are no official standards for 3D TV. And anyone who thinks that an industry trade association is going to solve that problem has never had to deal with the DVD Forum. The lack of standards led to the HD DVD vs Blu-ray battle (not to mention China HD, HD VMD or any other acronym that consumers have been asked to buy). How many camcorder 'standards' are out there now and does anyone know the difference?
Wool cannot be pulled over consumers' eyes forever, as those who bought future-proof Digital Terrestrial Television receivers will tell you. The concept of 3D Ready displays is way too early for the consumer market and should not be allowed to escape from the marketing department; at least until a viable 3D system has left R&D. There's already a backlash from consumers who paid good money for HD-Ready screens that can't display 1080p, from DTT viewers whose future-proof digital box had a life of less than two years, or from HD DVD owners who can no longer buy blank media.
The industry has to fess up and say "We don't yet have a viable 3D system for the home, until we do, enjoy the magic of the cinema." One day, not too far off, Blu-ray will undoubtedly be the key to 3D, but when it arrives, the display technology is more likely to be projection than LCD, Plasma or OLED. And owners of the Philips 3D screens that didn't need glasses can peel off their stickers today - the product line has been discontinued.
Oh, by the way, it turns out that the Toblerone Appreciation Society is concerned about three-sided chocolate bars and not three-dimensional images. Must learn not to trust everything the search engine throws up...
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Everything's on the table
Apart from quality and integrity, it seems.
It is informative to read Disney boss Bob Iger's presentation to the financial wizards of the Deutsche Bank this month. There's a major change of thinking in what he says about the way we consume entertainment media and it's going to have a profound impact on the future of our industry.
"There's confusion out there about what digital technology and high-def is," Iger told his audience, "and Blu-Ray and what Blu-Ray is. And I think that contributes a little bit to the hesitancy that you see in the marketplace to buy the new formats, even though the format is very compelling."
In a nutshell, that is the problem. What is Blu-ray? If you ask around, you'll find many people just don't know. Challenge them and they might tell you it's a 'better DVD' or 'a cool feature in my PS3' but rarely do they appreciate the benefits of lossless audio, high data rates or web connection.
To listen to the HDTV over the web guys, you'd pretty quickly believe that all HD is born equal. You want 720p from YouTube? You got it. 1080i over your ADSL broadband connection? No problem. Seen on your flat screen plasma display and from around 15 feet away it's "awesome" whether it was encoded at four or fourteen megabits. And tell me why I need Blu-ray again, when I can download all this stuff from the web? It's hard to counter these propositions.
A physical disc is easy to play whenever and wherever you want, which is what has sustained this business for the past few years. People like to build libraries; give discs as presents; let the children choose their own entertainment from a pile of DVDs, without having to go online. Blu-ray was supposed to pick up sales as DVD declined, adding quality, usability and interactivity to take us into the second decade of the 21st century. But connectivity could be its Achilles heel.
Bob Iger told his audience "The average home in the United States that owns a DVD player already owns 80 DVDs; there are many with well over 125. So in the last decade we saw a fair amount of growth in library building." What he said next is worrying. "Once you own 80 movies, I believe no matter what the economy is, you're going to be more selective about movies that you buy."
The answer to the decline in packaged media sales is not to be found in new blu shiny discs. As far as the mouse is concerned, the computer is the way of the future, an entertainment platform in its own right. Rather than the purchase of single, high value Blu-ray discs, consumers will be wooed by online entertainment, enticed to regard the web site as a 'destination' and visit often. If you can sell the occasional BD to collectors when they are passing, that's great, but all the extras, all the social networking, all the interactive features will be online, 'free' at the point of access. In exchange for this, advertising, appropriate sponsored links and other revenue-generating activities will be alongside the fun stuff.
It's a compelling vision of the future and it is not one that is restricted to Bob Iger, even though he may be the first to articulate it in such detail. Broadband video has changed the paradigm. It is now economic to do exciting things with Java and Flash on the website that cannot be financially justified on a Blu-ray disc. The result is a raft of plain vanilla BD titles that are audio-visually impressive but interactively lacklustre. In some recent releases, the DVD is far more exciting than the BD as a result of long production lead times and the version confusion in the Blu-ray player market.
Just as this truth becomes apparent, a further digital spanner is thrown into the works. A number of dedicated HD media players have been launched to bridge the gap between TV and PC, such as the Seagate FreeAgent Theater. A 500GB hard drive that docks with the computer and the TV, this unit emulates DVD playback, reading the VIDEO_TS file to display menus perfectly while upscaling SD to 1080i. It's robust enough to be given to the kids and big enough to store fifty or more ripped DVDs on a single drive.
It gives added emphasis to Bob Iger's words: "The computer is a very, very important place to entertain people."
It is informative to read Disney boss Bob Iger's presentation to the financial wizards of the Deutsche Bank this month. There's a major change of thinking in what he says about the way we consume entertainment media and it's going to have a profound impact on the future of our industry.
"There's confusion out there about what digital technology and high-def is," Iger told his audience, "and Blu-Ray and what Blu-Ray is. And I think that contributes a little bit to the hesitancy that you see in the marketplace to buy the new formats, even though the format is very compelling."
In a nutshell, that is the problem. What is Blu-ray? If you ask around, you'll find many people just don't know. Challenge them and they might tell you it's a 'better DVD' or 'a cool feature in my PS3' but rarely do they appreciate the benefits of lossless audio, high data rates or web connection.
To listen to the HDTV over the web guys, you'd pretty quickly believe that all HD is born equal. You want 720p from YouTube? You got it. 1080i over your ADSL broadband connection? No problem. Seen on your flat screen plasma display and from around 15 feet away it's "awesome" whether it was encoded at four or fourteen megabits. And tell me why I need Blu-ray again, when I can download all this stuff from the web? It's hard to counter these propositions.
A physical disc is easy to play whenever and wherever you want, which is what has sustained this business for the past few years. People like to build libraries; give discs as presents; let the children choose their own entertainment from a pile of DVDs, without having to go online. Blu-ray was supposed to pick up sales as DVD declined, adding quality, usability and interactivity to take us into the second decade of the 21st century. But connectivity could be its Achilles heel.
Bob Iger told his audience "The average home in the United States that owns a DVD player already owns 80 DVDs; there are many with well over 125. So in the last decade we saw a fair amount of growth in library building." What he said next is worrying. "Once you own 80 movies, I believe no matter what the economy is, you're going to be more selective about movies that you buy."
The answer to the decline in packaged media sales is not to be found in new blu shiny discs. As far as the mouse is concerned, the computer is the way of the future, an entertainment platform in its own right. Rather than the purchase of single, high value Blu-ray discs, consumers will be wooed by online entertainment, enticed to regard the web site as a 'destination' and visit often. If you can sell the occasional BD to collectors when they are passing, that's great, but all the extras, all the social networking, all the interactive features will be online, 'free' at the point of access. In exchange for this, advertising, appropriate sponsored links and other revenue-generating activities will be alongside the fun stuff.
It's a compelling vision of the future and it is not one that is restricted to Bob Iger, even though he may be the first to articulate it in such detail. Broadband video has changed the paradigm. It is now economic to do exciting things with Java and Flash on the website that cannot be financially justified on a Blu-ray disc. The result is a raft of plain vanilla BD titles that are audio-visually impressive but interactively lacklustre. In some recent releases, the DVD is far more exciting than the BD as a result of long production lead times and the version confusion in the Blu-ray player market.
Just as this truth becomes apparent, a further digital spanner is thrown into the works. A number of dedicated HD media players have been launched to bridge the gap between TV and PC, such as the Seagate FreeAgent Theater. A 500GB hard drive that docks with the computer and the TV, this unit emulates DVD playback, reading the VIDEO_TS file to display menus perfectly while upscaling SD to 1080i. It's robust enough to be given to the kids and big enough to store fifty or more ripped DVDs on a single drive.
It gives added emphasis to Bob Iger's words: "The computer is a very, very important place to entertain people."
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
The news from VUDU, the Californian HD on demand outfit that offers 1,400 HD titles in its online rental catalog will cause consternation in some quarters. As of now, download-to-own goes mainstream since the company announced deals with independent studios, including First Look, Kino and Magnolia, to go Day and Date with the DVD release of their new titles.
HD titles for sale in 1080p format include the 2009 Academy Award-winning Man on Wire along with Transiberian and War, Inc. from First Look. Viewing requires the $149 VUDU box and a broadband connection, after which consumers are charged between $13.99 and $23.99 for the download. After that, they can watch as often as they like, for no exta charge - rather like a DVD in fact.
The end of packaged media has been oft predicted over the past ten years but could this be the final nail in the jigsaw of video home entertainment? [Or is a just a piece in the coffin...]
The answer might lie in the Press Release. "VUDU is the only service to offer both instant start HD and HDX, the highest quality on-demand format available anywhere," it says. "HDX with VUDU's TruFilm™ technology features a virtually artifact free 1080p picture."
Weasel words can conceal a wide difference between expectations and delivery and whereas Blu-ray can offer an 18-20 Mbit stream of almost perfect video to the largest of screens, the highest quality on-demand format will struggle to exceed 2Mbits. Or if it does, ISPs across the planet will be screaming at the supplier. Anyone comparing a well-encoded upscaled DVD (at 7 or 8 Mbits/sec) will quickly see the difference. Those betting that the downloaded HD will look better should see their optometrist soonest.
It's good news that someone cares enough to invest in any form of HD distribution and for the casual viewer, the VUDU service will no doubt look better that any clip on YouTube. However, speaking as someone who has just lost a hard drive and most of its contents, for $13.99 I would rather have several dozen lumps of polycarbonate than an inert metal box that once contained my movie collection.
HD titles for sale in 1080p format include the 2009 Academy Award-winning Man on Wire along with Transiberian and War, Inc. from First Look. Viewing requires the $149 VUDU box and a broadband connection, after which consumers are charged between $13.99 and $23.99 for the download. After that, they can watch as often as they like, for no exta charge - rather like a DVD in fact.
The end of packaged media has been oft predicted over the past ten years but could this be the final nail in the jigsaw of video home entertainment? [Or is a just a piece in the coffin...]
The answer might lie in the Press Release. "VUDU is the only service to offer both instant start HD and HDX, the highest quality on-demand format available anywhere," it says. "HDX with VUDU's TruFilm™ technology features a virtually artifact free 1080p picture."
Weasel words can conceal a wide difference between expectations and delivery and whereas Blu-ray can offer an 18-20 Mbit stream of almost perfect video to the largest of screens, the highest quality on-demand format will struggle to exceed 2Mbits. Or if it does, ISPs across the planet will be screaming at the supplier. Anyone comparing a well-encoded upscaled DVD (at 7 or 8 Mbits/sec) will quickly see the difference. Those betting that the downloaded HD will look better should see their optometrist soonest.
It's good news that someone cares enough to invest in any form of HD distribution and for the casual viewer, the VUDU service will no doubt look better that any clip on YouTube. However, speaking as someone who has just lost a hard drive and most of its contents, for $13.99 I would rather have several dozen lumps of polycarbonate than an inert metal box that once contained my movie collection.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Which version of the firmware are you using?
The firmware on my Sony S-350 has just been updated. A simple concept for some folk but incomprehensible to the many who grew up with VHS (or Betamax) or even early DVD players. Back in those happy days, towards the end of the last century, you bought a consumer electronics device and whether it worked or didn't, you were pretty much stuck with what you had. There was no program of constant updates over the internet, if it was broken when they made it, it was broken when you used it.
I've just been wrestling with a Sony Lasermax player, trying to get audio and video from ten Laservision discs that I produced in 1985 and turn it into usable digital data. All those frustrations that I remember from 20+ years ago came back to haunt me. The fact is that you could do nothing without the remote (with a set of new batteries), that the SCART socket on the back is only partially configured, that it is a struggle to get what now seem to be giant discs in and out of a slot. What little firmware it had inside the box was set in silicon at the time of manufacture and updates involved buying the latest generation player.
Despite the clunky feel of Laserdisc it looked and sounded (with digital ausio) pretty good. I remember being told that DVD was an upstart, that it would never take over from LV since the sound and picture quality just wasn't good enough. Well that argument was soon lost and at least the DVD player had a small amount of intelligence and memory inside it. Too little memory, it turned out, even when compared with the short-lived CD-i format, and as a result the layer break was (is) usually far from seamless.
So I was very pleased when my new upscaling Philips DVD player proved to be a star on the layer break stage. Problem discs were played without interruption and the picture quality at 1080i demonstrated just what a good MPEG-2 encoder could do at 8 Mbps. It was also the first DVD player that I had owned that benefited from consumer updates to the firmware. A persistent bug vanished after the first of these updates and things could only get better.
Which they did with the move to the S-350. From an AV point of view, anyway. Great pictures and sound from both BD and DVD but s l o w, s l o w, s l o w to load and search. Then there was the fact that previously perfect DVDs started to reveal problems that had not been there before. What could have been logic errors in menus appeared, were it not for the fact that only the S-350 showed them. Worst of all, the delay at the layer break on some DVD-9s was more of a still than a momentary freeze frame.
A firmware update seemed to be the answer - though finding it on the Sony support site was far from easy. Download a disc image, burn it to CD, insert into player, wait 25 minutes and voila! Some of the problems had been resolved. The layer change it still obtrusive but the menu bug is gone and the player may be slightly more responsive.
Apart from the obvious question "Why is a 2008 player less able to handle the layer break than a Panasonic A100 designed in 1996?", how many consumers even know that revised firmware is available? DVD was designed as a simple CE product - put the disc in and play. The latest low-power computers with an optical drive, packaged as Blu-ray, are a far cry from the basic rule of Consumer Electronics - Keep It Simple Stupid.
And now I'm off to upgrade the firmware on the toaster.
I've just been wrestling with a Sony Lasermax player, trying to get audio and video from ten Laservision discs that I produced in 1985 and turn it into usable digital data. All those frustrations that I remember from 20+ years ago came back to haunt me. The fact is that you could do nothing without the remote (with a set of new batteries), that the SCART socket on the back is only partially configured, that it is a struggle to get what now seem to be giant discs in and out of a slot. What little firmware it had inside the box was set in silicon at the time of manufacture and updates involved buying the latest generation player.
Despite the clunky feel of Laserdisc it looked and sounded (with digital ausio) pretty good. I remember being told that DVD was an upstart, that it would never take over from LV since the sound and picture quality just wasn't good enough. Well that argument was soon lost and at least the DVD player had a small amount of intelligence and memory inside it. Too little memory, it turned out, even when compared with the short-lived CD-i format, and as a result the layer break was (is) usually far from seamless.
So I was very pleased when my new upscaling Philips DVD player proved to be a star on the layer break stage. Problem discs were played without interruption and the picture quality at 1080i demonstrated just what a good MPEG-2 encoder could do at 8 Mbps. It was also the first DVD player that I had owned that benefited from consumer updates to the firmware. A persistent bug vanished after the first of these updates and things could only get better.
Which they did with the move to the S-350. From an AV point of view, anyway. Great pictures and sound from both BD and DVD but s l o w, s l o w, s l o w to load and search. Then there was the fact that previously perfect DVDs started to reveal problems that had not been there before. What could have been logic errors in menus appeared, were it not for the fact that only the S-350 showed them. Worst of all, the delay at the layer break on some DVD-9s was more of a still than a momentary freeze frame.
A firmware update seemed to be the answer - though finding it on the Sony support site was far from easy. Download a disc image, burn it to CD, insert into player, wait 25 minutes and voila! Some of the problems had been resolved. The layer change it still obtrusive but the menu bug is gone and the player may be slightly more responsive.
Apart from the obvious question "Why is a 2008 player less able to handle the layer break than a Panasonic A100 designed in 1996?", how many consumers even know that revised firmware is available? DVD was designed as a simple CE product - put the disc in and play. The latest low-power computers with an optical drive, packaged as Blu-ray, are a far cry from the basic rule of Consumer Electronics - Keep It Simple Stupid.
And now I'm off to upgrade the firmware on the toaster.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Beyond the third dimension
James Cameron is a fan of 3D and so is Yoshi Yamada of Panasonic. How do we know? They were saying as much at CES this month, when Yamada-san announced that Panasonic will soon have a 3D Blu-ray authoring system installed in its Hollywood lab. Meanwhile, Cameron is in production with Avatar, which will be shot entirely in 3D.
It's a pattern that Panasonic knows well. Ensuring that DVD production tools were right there on the Universal lot from 1996 onwards, under the wise stewardship of Jerry Pierce of DVCC, helped to make the format acceptable to both creatives and accountants in the film industry. Without this on-the-spot demonstration of the format's potential (along with the decisive support of Warren Liebefarb of Warner Home Video and Koji Hase at Toshiba) DVD could well have fallen at the first hurdle.
At CES in January 1997, it was hard to avoid being hit by giant DVD posters and flags, which fluttered over non-working mock-ups of what DVD CE products might be like if ever the consortium members could finally agree common standards. The 3D video being shown at CES in 2009 is threatened by a similar lack of agreement on how to implement 3D in the home. Lack of agreement held back DVD and the fruitless battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray put off all but determined early adopters of HD packaged media. Format squabbles could prevent investment in the 3D content which is needed to make it a success and everyone involved should fight against this possibility. The home entertainment industry needs to wake up to reality.
3D glasses will be with us for some time yet, which some may think to be a disadvantage, although it adds a sense of occasion to the viewing experience. Pseudo-3D, as demonstrated by Philips and others, is fine for watching short-term - at right angles to the screen - but tiring and ineffective for long-term viewers. Dolby and Quantel go for the polarized approach: surely this must be the route to success at the present state of the art.
Disney's cartoon Bolt, featuring the voice of John Travolta, was released in Disney Digital 3D 'in select theaters' in mid-December and it looks great. As a showcase for the full 1080p 3D home system of the future (2010 onwards?) it is hard to beat. "It's not a gimmick" says Cameron and he's right. You quickly come to think of the screen as an open window, with nothing between you and the movie characters.
Bolt, Avatar and as many additional productions as can be assembled, could well be the catalyst Blu-ray requires to establish its identity as a 'must-have' item in the cash-strapped home. When the potential for 3D Games is added to the attraction of 3D movies and music titles at last the format has a USP that will put it ahead of the pack. Will a 3D animated dog turn out to be Blu-ray's best friend? Coming soon to a three-dimensional home near you...
It's a pattern that Panasonic knows well. Ensuring that DVD production tools were right there on the Universal lot from 1996 onwards, under the wise stewardship of Jerry Pierce of DVCC, helped to make the format acceptable to both creatives and accountants in the film industry. Without this on-the-spot demonstration of the format's potential (along with the decisive support of Warren Liebefarb of Warner Home Video and Koji Hase at Toshiba) DVD could well have fallen at the first hurdle.
At CES in January 1997, it was hard to avoid being hit by giant DVD posters and flags, which fluttered over non-working mock-ups of what DVD CE products might be like if ever the consortium members could finally agree common standards. The 3D video being shown at CES in 2009 is threatened by a similar lack of agreement on how to implement 3D in the home. Lack of agreement held back DVD and the fruitless battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray put off all but determined early adopters of HD packaged media. Format squabbles could prevent investment in the 3D content which is needed to make it a success and everyone involved should fight against this possibility. The home entertainment industry needs to wake up to reality.
3D glasses will be with us for some time yet, which some may think to be a disadvantage, although it adds a sense of occasion to the viewing experience. Pseudo-3D, as demonstrated by Philips and others, is fine for watching short-term - at right angles to the screen - but tiring and ineffective for long-term viewers. Dolby and Quantel go for the polarized approach: surely this must be the route to success at the present state of the art.
Disney's cartoon Bolt, featuring the voice of John Travolta, was released in Disney Digital 3D 'in select theaters' in mid-December and it looks great. As a showcase for the full 1080p 3D home system of the future (2010 onwards?) it is hard to beat. "It's not a gimmick" says Cameron and he's right. You quickly come to think of the screen as an open window, with nothing between you and the movie characters.
Bolt, Avatar and as many additional productions as can be assembled, could well be the catalyst Blu-ray requires to establish its identity as a 'must-have' item in the cash-strapped home. When the potential for 3D Games is added to the attraction of 3D movies and music titles at last the format has a USP that will put it ahead of the pack. Will a 3D animated dog turn out to be Blu-ray's best friend? Coming soon to a three-dimensional home near you...
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