Clearing The Air With The Blu-ray Disc Association
Dear Gary:
As usual, Widescreen Review raised the right questions for the Sony and Pioneer execs to address. For the most part, WSR readers can be pleased that what we see at the store for Blu-ray Disc is mostly start-up issues mixed with:
- 25-GB disc limited space for HD movie, bonus features, and audio elements
- Unnecessary noise filtering in the first Samsung units
- Unavailability of HDMI 1.3 chipsets to support DTS-HD™ Master Audio/Dolby® TrueHD led to 16-bit/48 Khz 5.1 PCM audio
- Immature authoring tools
But I am left with a question and larger concern based on comments by Sony exec, Don Eklund, that suggests poor product launch decisions are also at play. Mr. Eklund stated “... we’re not wedded to any one codec, but we are presently satisfied that the Sony encoders (MPEG-2 implied) are the closest to the original master. As technology improves with AVC and VC-1, we may switch to one of these codecs...”
Mr. Eklund implied that AVC and VC-1 codecs were not mature enough or rendered no performance advantage compared to MPEG-2 for use on the initial Sony titles. Does he expect most WSR readers to believe that statement? HD DVD uses VC-1 on their titles and on average, generates better-looking video. Furthermore, in year 2000 as a technical marketing manager for a video server company, I had my application engineer test MPEG-2 codec versus an early generation of the VC-1 codec on the same material. I learned that we could produce the same color fidelity and lack of compression artifacts using VC-1 at 30 percent fewer bits than MPEG-2. VC-1 has improved over the last six years. Everything I’ve seen from AVC (MPEG-4 QuickTime) HD movie trailers suggests that it performs in the same video bit compression-to-results range as VC-1.
So to me, Mr. Eklund’s statement seems like a cover story, inciting speculation about other factors. Given the tight deadline for product launch, did management choose Sony’s MPEG-2-based mastering tools to produce discs for replication faster than they could have produced them with “then available” AVC or VC-1 tools? For understandable business strategy reasons, Sony may not want to use VC-1, but were Sony’s engineers unable to generate 40 percent bit savings using AVC versus MPEG-2 to justify the switch? Did Sony product managers naively conclude that MPEG-2 looks just as good as VC-1 or AVC, 95 percent of the time, so why bother with those codecs? That last question should raise the antennae of WSR readers.
If Mr. Eklund thinks it’s okay to MPEG-2 encode most Blu-ray HD movies at 18 Mbps and grainy HD movies up to 25 Mbps, perhaps he should revisit the value propositions of Superbit and HD. Both are Sony products propositioned to be state-of-the-art formats. Superbit encodes a 345,000 pixel frame video (720 x 480) at 7 Mbps, average for higher fidelity than DVDs video-encoded at 4.5 Mbps, average. Similarly, Sony Blu-ray Disc brags about soon having 50-GB discs to support 2,116,800 pixel frame video (1920 x 1080) up to 40 Mbps. Doing the math to render a best-of-breed image better than HD DVD, one expects six times more MPEG-2-encoded HD movie bit rate over MPEG-2-encoded Superbit DVD movie bit rate.
WSR readers must see and hear a compelling upgrade over Superbit DVD to justify another movie catalog transition. Given Sony Blu-ray Disc’s best-of-breed value proposition for home entertainment and both VC-1 and AVC codecs being about 40 percent more coding efficient, WSR readers should expect the Blu-ray Disc camp to showcase its storage advantage one of two ways:
- MPEG-2 encode feature length movies at 40 Mbps, average.
- AVC encode or VC-1 encode feature length movies at 25 Mbps average with lots of room for value added.
Fox Studios seems to have read the memo. They are planning to release AVC-encoded movies on 50-GB discs this fall. I hope they are wise enough to AVC encode at 25 Mbps along with DTS-HD or Dolby® TrueHD. If so, Fox will compel WSR readers like myself to buy immediately and with confidence.
Thomas Dorsey
mailto:publisher@soulofamerica.com
Editor-In-Chief and Publisher Gary Reber Comments:
Don Eklund, Senior Vice President Advanced Technologies, Sony Pictures Entertainment Comments: Thanks for giving me the opportunity to respond. Mr. Dorsey makes many assertions about picture coding that are incorrect, as we demonstrated to your [WSR’s] staff during a recent visit. Any opinion that I can offer to Mr. Dorsey will undoubtedly be received as biased, but I hope that you [WSR] will take the opportunity to share your observations made at SPE. Each codec has its place, but none is clearly superior or more efficient than another, at least not in their current form.
Perhaps Mr. Dorsey will be receptive to the praise that Ridley Scott gave for the early version of Kingdom Of Heaven.
Editor-In-Chief and Publisher Gary Reber Comments: I realize that the serious enthusiast community has some anxiety about the current state of affairs with respect to the first titles and player released in the Blu-ray Disc format. I, based on perhaps a bit of insider perspective, believe that the true merits of the Blu-ray Disc format are yet to be appreciated, but soon will be. I believe that once the delayed first-generation reference players, particularly from Sony and Pioneer Elite, are introduced, this anxiety will cease. I think that the bit rate at which the three different codecs are run is critical to producing their very best picture quality. Each has its own “sweet rate” for optimized picture quality. I think that all of this will play out and the studios will settle on one or two video codecs optimized for their “sweet rate” and following that, Blu-ray Disc releases will show themselves to be every bit as good and consistent in quality as HD DVD releases, if not even more impressive. Once the studios and the player manufacturers master the execution of the respective formats, we will all appreciate the incredible picture and sound quality that both formats are capable of delivering. We need to be patient, while at the same time letting the format developers know our desires for “the best that it can be” in picture and sound quality as the formats evolve.
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