Sony Pictures: At least two 50GB Blu-ray releases by year-end, no BD-J until 2007
By Richard Lawler 
posted Aug 25th 2006 7:52PM
posted Aug 25th 2006 7:52PM
Retail movie releases on dual layer 50GB Blu-ray discs will become a reality in 2006, according to Sony Pictures President Ben Feingold, quoted by VideoBusiness as stating that the studio will release at least two movies on the discs by the end of this year. He didn't specify any additional features, titles, prices or advanced codec support yet, but while another executive confirmed more Blu-ray features would be coming, we shouldn't expect to see discs using Blu-ray Java (BD-J) technology until January. They also commented on the criticism of the quality of some Blu-ray releases, noting that newer movies and more recent releases have received better reviews, while also putting some blame on the decisions of filmmakers and the monitors used during the mastering process. Movie houses are also waiting for more players (read: PS3) to hit the ground to be able to test compatibility before they start including highly interactive features. At least so far, HD DVD has been able to take advantage of their lead time on the movie side with (currently) larger discs, more efficient compression and some interesting bonus features. The real Blu-ray launch is coming this winter as several new players will be greeted by these much improved discs, we'll see how the format war stacks up then.
I don't think this is a war so much as an endurance test. How long will Sony's format last untill they screw it up somehow. Think about it: When has a Sony based movie format ever succeeded?
Sounds like more excuses coming from the BDA camp.
No BD-J until 2007?
Blaming the Mastering equip and engineers for crappy discs?
Why is it that Toshiba, despite the lack of Studio support and CE vendors, has had far less problems with their Mastering equipment and engineering. Why is iHD being used now for IME discs and not 2007?
Why are BD users always waiting for you to deliver a complete product? Why do we have yet more excuses pointing to the total debacle of the BDA launch?
I like to see these guys execute a little more than at the Press Release level.
Is this propaganda? They are getting so desparate, I find it hard to believe anything that is released to the press. Ben, Matt, is this credible?
They succeeded everytime they had major support by other manufactures and studios. Oh wait Blu-Ray has the most support from studios and everyone else except Toshiba on the manufacturing side is on the Blu-Ray camp. Wait until Blu-Ray players flutter the market, people will forget HDDVD even existed. We're getting like 4 players by the end of the year! One being the Blu-Ray assasin the PS3.
Buying an HDDVD is like throwing your money away just to watch universal studios movies until it dies off. You'll me missing out on a lot of great titles. The PS3 is really your safest bet, even if blu-ray rails the PS3 is an incredible piece of tech that will continue to use the format for it's games. You can't lose.
From the Digital Bits ("My Two Cents"):
"And get this: Sony STILL can't get their 50GB dual-layered Blu-ray Discs to work right on the existing and prototype players. The current Samsung player, as shipped, will not play them. How do you like them apples? Ouch."
50 GB DL BD-ROM is a SHAM - propogated by Sony to sew fear uncertaintty and doubt. HD DVD has been hamstrung by a format that is not what it purports to be.
That is if you can even find a PS3 this holiday season.
Blu-ray doesn't NEED 50GB DL discs. IF HD-DVD can make great looking discs at 30GB, there is NO reason the blu-ray camp cannot produce good discs on 25GB. It's the CODEC!!!!! If blu-ray used a more effiecient CODEC than MPEG-2, 25GB would be fine.
Why all the hate? BD was expected to be harder than HD-DVD to stamp commerically. Everyone knew this, including the studios that signed up for BD.
And, people keep calling this a Sony format. You're not over that yet? If anything, HD-DVD is more proprietary given it's lack of support.
FYI; Toshiba, the principle backers of HDDVD, collect rolyalties on all things related to DVD because its their encoding format that is used in DVDs. Perhaps, everyone got fed up with them and told them to f*ck off when they came around with the HD-DVD specs.
You want to know how the two formats are doing? Check out the Mission Imossible boxset. Yesterday, the Blu-Ray version was the 19,985 "best selling" DVD on Amazon's site, whereas the HD-DVD version was 160th.
Maybe it'll change, but consumers don't seem to give a crap about BLu-Ray right now, for obvious reasons.
So why the BD camp is dangling carrots that they may never get in front of BD fans to get them to wait, HD-DVD adopters are enjoying HD movies NOW, for the low-low price of $450 (or less).
Excuse me while I go watch another HD movie with TrueHD sound. BD have that yet? No, didn't think so.
More vaporware... All Sony is doing is trying to get people to wait for Blu-Ray instead of buying HD-DVD today, and it's working. I'm still on the fence. Who know's what all the holdups are, $#!: happens. If you want to jump now, you have an option, the rest of us will wait and see what happens. There's not much value in complaining about it.
#7
Sure, HD-DVD can produce great movies on 30Gb disks, but how many high-def extra features can they include on those disks?
I'm gonna have to day... not a lot.
This is why I think that Blu-ray is going to be the best long-term format. Having 50Gb to play with is going to be fantastic for the movie studios. They may not need all that space for the movie itself, but imagine what they could do with the space left over.
I can't wait to see what they're going to charge for those first dual layer releases.
All I keep reading about Blu-Ray is excuses. That and how technically it can be better.
Truth is, I believe what was mentioned earlier. Sony will find a way to mess up.
The PS3 won't be available in any quantity this year, and even when it is finally available, must how many people are going to buy such an expensive system? If you're truely into movies, I don't see you buying a PS3 as your movie player anyway.
I have got to say im with blue ray this time,
if we are going to make a big leap in tech, res & features, then why not go with the bigger one, if its available, 50 gb is going to be sod all when people get used to BR (never mind HDdvd).
I herd that there is a 103 inch tv coming out soon (and most of the hd tv's at 50 inch look kind of crappy screen quality in the shops), come on, if the tech is out there, then lets adopt it. Its the only way we are gona get this stuff cheaper in the next few years.
Seems to me that most of the opinions you read on most web sites are wrote by these xbox360 idiots / kids that are more interested in degrading Sony’s new console, and think that because they have purchased something that wont play BR, then BR must be crap, and will use every idiotic excuse / reson to slag it off.
You can tell me till I am blue in the face that there is no need for that amount of space at the moment (what twice the amount of HD DVD, which is twice the amount of DVD) , but what about in the next 5 years (just look at the history of VHS, DVD, current gen stuff, theres bound to be some general advancement), why do you think Toshiba is supporting both formats, and probably make quite a lot of the components for both of them.
I find it quite funny how there is so many people out there that seem to be dead curtain that this format is crap and going to die on its arse, and it isn’t even out properly yet.
By the way I have a 360. i like it, but I am not that anal with it that I would try and stop the progression of technology. There is realy entertaining post by a 360 fan on one site about this gene folding idea. The poster is so far up Microsoft’s arse that he dismisses the fact that this program could potentially be used to save lives, and he implies that it’s a Sony PR stunt, even though IBM have been doing it for some time now with other pc’s
I am willing to bet that in 5 years time, even blue ray wont be big enough for some of the stuff that may be on scene. (by that time a 103 inch TV might be cheap enough for me to buy like :-)
Oh, and don’t give me the crap about "some of us don’t want to watch stuff in HD, its good enough at the moment" Well I do, and probably quite a few of us out there do, and the only way we are going to get better stuff is if we start building it and buying it. Trust me, you wont be complaining in 5 years time when its cheap enough for you to switch over.
#14 - I have a 100" screen already (pj), and HD-DVD looks awesome on it. BD? Not so much.
As for your space comments:
"You can tell me till I am blue in the face that there is no need for that amount of space at the moment (what twice the amount of HD DVD, which is twice the amount of DVD) ,"
BD50 is still THEORETICAL. And guess what? HD-DVD has a THEORETICAL 45G disk that is reportedly cheaper to produce than BD50 -- sorry, but a 5G difference isn't that big a deal. (also, HD-DVD is nearly 4x the storage of DVD, not 2x... And BD is currently LESS than HD-DVD, and even when they get BD50, is less than twice as much as HD-DVD...).
As I've said before, feel free to wait and wait and wait for BD to catch up to HD-DVD. While you're waiting, I'm enjooying the best of the best and if for some reason it doesn't last (and there's no dual players), it was still worth the $450 I paid for the player to enjoy the best of the best today.
One of the reasons that I have my vote on BD is that I dislike that Microsoft has to have it's finger in every hole (in all types of markets, please try to make vista not to painfull). BD has the backing and is a more "open" format, and yes Sony IS the posterboy right now but I think that will chance in the future once other brands starts to ship BD.
And #15 BD-R DL 50GB is not theoretical, its out of the door. And one other thing HD-DVD 45GB is not in the original spec so YOU must buy a new player if YOU choose to use the discs.
http://www.hdbeat.com/2006/08/16/sony-shipping-50gb-dual-layer-blu-ray-bd-r-discs/
http://hdtv.engadget.com/2006/08/16/sony-gets-their-50gb-dual-layer-blu-ray-discs-out-the-door/
Hold on BD is the most "open" ?? How do you figure this when there is another layer of DRM added in with BD+ and ROM Mark? That doesn't sound more open to me.
As for 30GB vs 50GB HD DVD has clearly shown with Combo discs that 30GB is sufficient for the vast majority of feature film releases.
I'm not chosing formats because of dislike of Sony or Microsoft I simply want a high quality affordable format. Right now HD DVD is meeting both requirements.
50Gb theoretical?
Good lord, do you seriously believe that 45Gb HD-DVD disks are anywhere near being a reality for the consumer enjoying their HD-DVD movies? 50Gb disks are "out the door", with the first 50Gb movies being close behind.
And as for this argument that 30Gb is "sufficient for the vast majority of feature film releases"...sounds like you're saying there'll be feature films where 30Gb is not enough ;)
Joking aside, wouldnt you rather have a format where there is "room to beathe"? You could have 30Gb for the movie and 20Gb left over for extra high-def content. Sounds better to me....
I appologise, i thought it was twice the amount. ...
Surely a 45gb theroetical HD disk wont play on your already purchased HD DVD player will it. Wont you have to go out and get a new player (when it comes out).
and arnt there already 50gb blue ray discs. link below...
http://tomshardware.co.uk/2006/08/16/sony_50gb_blu_ray/
There "is" room to breathe with 30GB discs. The longest movie I own is Return of the King Extended Edition which is nigh 4.5 hours. That would be best split across two 30GB discs. However that is by far the largest movie I own and it would still fit on a single 30GB disc.
Now to answer your question. Yes I would like room to breathe but I'm not paying $999 for Blu-Ray player for an extra 20GB of data that really won't affect how the movie looks. My point has always been the cost of Blu-Ray. 50GB discs are going to be expensive as clearly they are tough to make in quantity. I don't see the value of one DL50 disc when two 30GB discs would be cheaper. I don't mind having two discs I just don't like to juggle more than two discs for one movie.
my last post was to number 15 by the way
While some people are willing to wait until the end of the year to "see how things stack up", as the purportedly unbiased HD Beat article seems to propose, the folks who actually buy this kind of equipment have already made their choice. Said folks are also the ones who have made it impossible for Sony to hide the fact that every single one of their HD movies is visually (and often even audibly) inferior to its hypothetical HD-DVD counterpart. Why? Sony's poor decisions combined with their frankly traditional hubris. They overestimated the push of their brand name and underestimated the ability of consumers to recognize facts. It's proving to be a painful lesson, right along with their battery problems and their bald-faced lies about the PS3's capabilities.
I frankly get a big ol' kick out of it. Poor Sony. Their moment in the sun is perhaps coming to an end.
"Surely a 45gb theroetical HD disk wont play on your already purchased HD DVD player will it. Wont you have to go out and get a new player (when it comes out)."
How would you know that? Are you a psychic? What about a firmware update would allow a player to play those 45GB discs for current players? Just as a firmware update allowed for TrueHD 5.1.
All you people think that with the extra space BD provides, it must be future proof.
It's the same stupid mentality that people buy those hideous Hummers. It is big so it must be better. While you morons drive those gas guzzling, lane hogging, useless piles of crap, I'll drive circles around you with my gas sipping POS.
Just because you have the space doesn't mean you need it. I rather have a more efficient codec that makes better use of the space than one that would take as much space as you can throw at it.
Can you hear the difference between uncompressed PCM and DD Plus / DTS? Why take up the space when you don't need it?
Triple layer HD-DVD news from over a year ago.
http://www.physorg.com/news4052.html
We are not amused are we Chooky?
Nooooooo we's are not amused by the Blew ray that blows.
We thinks Sony is bad for us. They blow up DELL notebooks they blows DVD's in our PS2 too often, they like to sell blown pixels (up to two) in PSP's and they blows SPE's in their silly Cell - No we are not amused by all this blowing of the blew ray to blows our dosh on such silly things. Sony just blows.
Performance must increase in direct proportion to capacity - Blu ray does not achieve this. We can expect excessive load times for anything other than streaming audio & movies. Like the UMD - its not a good choice for game consoles or IT applications.
By the time any meaningful market emerges for high capacity & performance storage it is likely we will have better options.
For me Blu_ray will do. I need the space and the long term usability. Also BD is using scratch proof layer and HD DVD is not. HD DVD is insane to store valuable data on...
"How would you know that? Are you a psychic? What about a firmware update would allow a player to play those 45GB discs for current players? Just as a firmware update allowed for TrueHD 5.1."
I dont now for sure, which is why i said "surely".
And no I am not a psychic. ;-)
But if you are like me and have the choice of two different formats, then all I was saying in my original post was why not go for the bigger one.
If you already have HD DVD why are you even bothered, just use that. I am looking at this from the point of view of someone that hasnt got either yet.
I dont even get why some people who have allready got a HD DVD player and are dead set on using that format (understandably so, if you all ready have a HD DVD player)are even bothering to read this stuff.
Definately if you know how crap it all is (as you inply). Or maybe you know as little about blue ray as I know about firmware and tripple layered discs %-)
"For me Blu_ray will do. I need the space and the long term usability. Also BD is using scratch proof layer and HD DVD is not. HD DVD is insane to store valuable data on..."
Is that your only reason? Don't you know that the coating is applicable to any format. CD, DVD, BD, HD-DVD. It all depends on the manufacturer. There are scratch resistant coatings on DVD+-R right now by Verbatim. For a manufacturer, it's easier to make the transition from DVD to HD-DVD.
Your excuse is based on your own ignorance.