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DVD homework – our recommended reading!

June 7th, 2010

DVD Demystified Third Edition

The third edition and it’s predecessors have always been required reading for all new staff here at    24-7DVD!

This book, running at 700 pages and written by Jim Taylor, the author of the Internet DVD FAQ, covers everything from the history of the format to the in’s and outs of the technology.   Always good as a crash course or dip in reference guide, this is one book that everyone should have access to.

New and used always available on Amazon… get your hands on one!

dvddemystified3

The Digital Bits: Insider’s Guide to DVD

Written by the team behind one of the original DVD websites, this book offers an easy to follow history of the format, along with a collection of reviews of ‘must have’ titles.

Where this book is worth it’s weight in DVD gold is in it’s coverage of the creation of the Alien Quadrilogy box set.  If you’ve ever wondered what work goes into a high profile Hollywood title, this is the book to read.

digibits

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6 million Brits believe they are watching HDTV when they are not

May 17th, 2010

Armchair fans looking forward to watching the FIFA World Cup for the first time in HD may be in for a shock. According to the latest research from the British Video Association more than 6 million Britons think that they are already watching High-Definition TV, completely unaware that they are not connected to the right set-top boxes or Blu-ray disc players that unlock the potential of their brand new HDTVs.

In a study of 9,500 respondents commissioned by the BVA, many viewers – over 55% of UK households – revealed that they have spent hundreds or even thousands of pounds on the latest High-Definition TV technology without seemingly having appreciated the experience high definition screens are meant to deliver, even though, in the vast majority of cases, the extra equipment they need is relatively cheap and widely available.

The most surprising finding is that 6.5 million people (1 in 10 of the population) think they are watching high definition content when actually they are not. In the survey 28% of people think they can watch movies in high definition with a DVD player when actually a Blu-ray player or a high definition set-top box is needed to do so, and a further 27% believe that an HDTV shows everything in high definition when in fact they need a Blu-ray player to actually view content in the best possible quality.

Broken down further, 30% of respondents (14.6 million people across Great Britain) think they can watch Blu-ray discs or high definition broadcasts at home, while only 58% of that group have an HDTV with a high definition source connected. This means only 8.1 million people can in fact access high definition content, hence the 6.5 million of us who are very confused.

Simon Heller, from the British Video Association, comments: “In the run up to the World Cup even more people will be looking to invest in an HDTV, but they need to be aware that an HDTV alone does not mean that they are watching content in high definition. You are only getting a high definition experience if you are watching content via a bolt-on high definition set top box, a Blu-ray player, or a PS3 console.”

“With bolt-on technology such as a Blu-ray player at a fraction of the cost of the HDTV itself, it seems a shame to miss out on the ultimate high definition experience – with five times the picture quality and improved sound – that your HDTV is designed for.”

Source DVD intelligence – reproduced with permission

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Strong UK performance of Blu-ray boosts Q1 Growth

May 17th, 2010

New sales figures released by the British Video Association using data from the Official Charts Company reveal healthy year on year growth for the home entertainment market based on data for the first quarter of 2010. New release titles performed especially well in the first quarter of the year, with volumes up 10.3% on the same period last year, with a 31% increase in March.

This is especially significant given the achievement of Quantum of Solace (20th Century Fox) last March, which sold 1.2 million units. The healthy increase was also due in part to Easter falling a week earlier than in 2009.

Growth in Q1 was particularly seen in the music genre (up 42% against last year), driven by Michael Jackson’s This Is It (Sony Pictures), and in children’s titles (up 38%) due to strong sales of Up (Walt Disney).

Sales of Blu-ray are up 69.5% (up 50% in value) on the same period in 2009, reaching 2.7m units in the first three months of the year, taking the total number of Blu-ray Discs sold to 15.6m units since launch.

The top three best-selling Blu-ray titles of the quarter saw their Blu-ray performance average at 20% of the total disc sales with The Hurt Locker at 24% (Elevation Sales), Up at 17% (Walt Disney) and 2012 at 20%(Sony Pictures).

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PAL and NTSC – What does it mean and do I need to convert my video?

March 1st, 2010

There are two main types of video standard used throughout the world.  They are NTSC and PAL.

Why are there two different standards?

Geography and the nature of technological innovation meant that two standards were invented and neither was adopted universally

The National Television Standards Council (NTSC) format was invented in America in 1953.  PAL (Phase Alternating Line) was invented in Germany in 1963.

What’s the difference?

There are some differences in the way that the two standards deal with colour, but for DVD, the main difference is frame rate and resolution.

In NTSC, 29.97 frames are transmitted each second.

Each frame is made up of 525 horizontal scan lines,

(Active picture is 720 x 480 pixels)

In PAL, 25 frames are transmitted each second.

Each frame is made up of 625 individual scan lines

(Active picture is 720 x 576 pixels)

Who uses what?

North, Central and South America, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan the Philippines and and Burma use NTSC.  The rest of the world use PAL

When do I need to convert?

If you have PAL content that needs to be played on an NTSC DVD player

We come across this frequently when clients need to play their PAL video (made in the UK or Europe) to viewers or clients in America (an NTSC country)

When you have PAL and NTSC content and want to put it on one DVD

When you make a DVD it has to be either PAL or NTSC, you cannot have PAL and NTSC video on the same DVD.  If some of your content is PAL and some is NTSC you will need to standards convert some of your video so that it is all the same standard.

When don’t I need to convert?

When playing NTSC on a PAL Player

Many PAL players, especially newer players, will play back NTSC content.

When your DVD is intended to be played on a media player in a computer

Media players on computers such at Windows media player and Quicktime do not worry about PAL or NTSC and will play back either format.

How can I convert my footage from PAL to NTSC

Changing a piece of footage from one standard to another is called a standards conversion.

When you standards convert between PAL and NTSC PAL to NTSC you are changing the speed (frame rate) that the film is transmitted, the way the picture is stitched together by the screen (scan lines) as well as the picture size (active picture).  During this process many things can go wrong resulting in the picture not displaying properly.

At 24-7dvd we use Snell and Wilcox Alchemist PhC standards converters which is the industry standard and provides excellent results.

Going from PAL to NTSC involves ‘creating’ frames to expand the frame rate from 25 to 29.97 frames per second.  This is known as interpolation.  Going from NTSC to PAL involves reducing the frame rate.  If the process is not completed professionally the result can be a stuttering motion on pans and tilts.

What is the process?

Example: creating an NTSC DVD from an PAL tape master

Send us your NTSC master on Digibeta and we will run the tape through the standards converter and provide you with a new master tape PAL format.  Once we have the PAL master we can encode your video to MPEG2 for DVD and provide you with a DVD master for duplication or replication.

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Can a hyperlink from my DVD link to my web site?

February 5th, 2010

It seems like a simple idea – a hyperlink from your DVD menu sends customers through to your site allowing them to view updated or bonus content, post comments on you blog or shop for products.  Unfortunately DVD doesn’t work like that.

Why Not?

DVD was not designed to interact with the internet.  Although DVD has been an incredibly popular format, it is easy to forget how ‘old’ it is.   Web connectivity never was part of the DVD Specification.  The blueprint to which all DVD players must follow was set in stone in 1995, and there is no real way to change that without breaking every DVD player that has come before it.

But what about products like Spruce Convergence, DVD@ccess and eDVD?

Three major industry players in DVD authoring have come up with products that attempted to offer web usability to DVD:

In August 1999 Spruce Technologies introduced a product called Spruce Convergence, an add-on for their Authoring Applications to add “full-duplex communication between DVD-based video and the Web, allowing web pages to be invoked directly by button clicks on the DVD title, as well as letting the internet browser control the DVD video.”  Spruce were later bought out by Apple, who went on to release it as DVD Studio Pro Version 2.

By 2002, Apple’s DVD Studio Pro 1.5 had a feature known as DVD@CCESS Web.  This functionality continued through later versions based on Apple’s aquisition of Spruce, but did not offer the same flexibility.   Like Spruce, this offered the ability to add a huperlink to a button on a DVD Page, but only if the disc was played back in Apple’s DVD Software.  This made the function inaccessible for PC users and therefore, arguably, the majority of corporate DVD creators.

At the same time, Hollywood also experimented with the concept of Web enabled DVDs, using InterActual’s PC Friendly Software.  A number high profile titles were produced over the years, including the early Harry Potter chapters and The Matrix.  Features included script viewers, storyboard comparisons, Image Galleries and QucktimeVR viewers.

Today, when viewing the InterActual website, it appears that no major titles have been announced since 2007.

Sonic Solutions, the company behind the Scenarist Professional DVD Authoring product, bought InterActual in 2004, and went on to release a number of versions of it’s eDVD software, which was designed to allow the easy addition of weblinks to DVD VIDEO discs.  Again, there was a requirement to install a compatible DVD software player on your PC or Mac, but at least the rationale was that more users would already have this installed as it had been used on so many high profile Hollywood titles.

Unfortunately, the InterActual player was never upgraded to support Windows Vista (and now Windows 7), and no option on the market dealt with the set-top box environment of the home.

So what are my options?

There are various other ways to direct your viewers to your web site:

  1. Include your web address on the screen and it can be copied into a browser  on your laptop, PC or phone.  (It sounds old fashioned, it is old fashioned).  This is ideal if your web address is short or memorable.
  2. Include a local web page on the DVD as ROM content.  This will not be accessible from a DVD player but PC users can find the file in the route of the disc and be re-directed from there.  This is not a retail solution as this method might be too complicated for ‘average’ users.
  3. For some projects a two disc set featuring a CD Rom and a DVD would provide the solution.  The DVD for the high quality video files and the CDROM for any supporting documents including PDFs, links and Office documents for download.

How about Blu-ray?

Well, you can have Internet connected discs, marketed as “BD Live”, which when used in conjunction with an internet-connected “BD Live” compatible Blu-ray player will access online content…

But …This content is stored and distributed by the content owner, in the form of trailers and “BD-J” java applications.  This is NOT a web browser to link to any website you wish.  BD Live allows access to Blu-ray specific online content, and nothing more.

This means you can include your target URL to be copied down and typed into a browser, your PC must have a Blu-ray drive to acces BD-Live content or you can include a CD Rom in the package.

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Licensing music for CDs

January 29th, 2010

Stack-of-CDsDid you know you can legally license music for as little as £5?

Adding an inspiring track to your training video, a cover version to your album release or a famous piece to your trade promotion can take your work to new levels.

Staff at 24-7dvd can advise you on every aspect of music licensing and help you get access to the music that you want.

How can I legally license music?

We work with PRS for music, the UK’s rights collection agency.  It exists to help businesses, individuals and community groups gain access to the music they want whilst fighting piracy and making sure that songwriters, composers and publishers are rightly rewarded.

For less than you might think you can get access to a well known piece of music for use on

  • Educational Products
  • Covermounts (free CDs supplied with magazines or newspapers)
  • Promotional/ Premium products – supplied for marketing communications
  • Trade Promotions
  • Aerobics/ Exercise CDs

How much does it cost?

The cost of licensing the music depends on the duration of the music that you use and the number of copies you make.

For smaller organisations the Limited Manufacture Licence grants you permission to legally use music in your own CDs DVDs and other formats for as little as £5.00.

You can check that you are eligible before applying and then apply, have permission granted and pay on line.

Don’t worry – it’s easy!

If you need more information you can call PRS for Music on 020 7580 5544 or Check out their web site.

24-7dvd is a PRS approved manufacturer and we can answer any questions that you might have.

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ITU sets roadmap for 3D Broadcasting

January 19th, 2010

3D-viewersTelevision viewers could soon be enjoying their favourite programmes or feature films in ’stereoscopic 3D’, thanks to ground-breaking work being undertaken at the UN agency, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Study Group 6 of ITU’s Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) has released a new Report outlining a roadmap for future 3D TV implementation, which envisages systems so smart they accurately mimic the way our eyes and brains perceive the visual world.

The new roadmap would see 3D TV technology rolled out in three successive generations (technically known as profiles).

The first generation – ‘plano-stereoscopic television’ – calls for two views to be delivered to viewers’ TV sets. Wearing special glasses similar to those used to watch 3D cinema, viewers will be able to see depth in the picture, although the view will remain the same when they move their heads (unlike in real life, where the view changes when heads are moved).

The second generation will provide for multiple views, with head movement changing the view, for a viewing experience that more closely mimics real life.
The third generation will feature systems that record the amplitude, frequency, and phase of light waves, to reproduce almost completely human beings’ natural viewing environment. These kinds of highly advanced systems are technically some 15-20 years away.

“This new ITU report establishes a clear framework for the development of new types of systems that will totally change the way we experience broadcast and multimedia content,” said Valery Timofeev, Director of ITU’s Radiocommunication Bureau. “It maps out an exciting vision that won’t just change the look of entertainment, but open up a whole range of exciting new possibilities in sectors from education and healthcare to traffic management.”

New 3D TV technologies being developed under the auspices of ITU will also have major implications for the film and television production sector, as content will need to be filmed using special new equipment in order for viewers to enjoy the full 3D experience.

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Blu-ray Disc Association unveils 3D logo

January 6th, 2010

3D-BluRayThe Blu-ray Disc Association has unveiled the new logo for the Blu-ray 3D standard, which was ratified in December. The specification allows for 1080p resolution delivery to each eye while wearing stereoscopic glasses, and will work on any compatible 3D display, including LCD, OLED and Plasma.

Blu-ray 3D also specifically calls for PlayStation 3 consoles to have full BD 3D content playback. According to CDRinfo:  “Additionally, the specification supports playback of 2D discs in forthcoming 3D players and can enable 2D playback of Blu-ray 3D discs on the large installed base of Blu-ray Disc players currently in homes around the world.”

“The Blu-ray 3D specification calls for encoding 3D video using the Multiview Video Coding (MVC) codec, an extension to the ITU-T H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) codec currently supported by all Blu-ray Disc players. MPEG4-MVC compresses both left and right eye views with a typical 50% overhead compared to equivalent 2D content, and can provide full 1080p resolution backward compatibility with current 2D Blu-ray Disc players,” CDRinfo adds.

The specification also incorporates enhanced graphic features for 3D. These features provide a new experience for users, enabling navigation using 3D graphic menus and displaying 3D subtitles positioned in 3D video.

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Blu-ray reviews – more like a QC!!

September 15th, 2009

Are on-line reviews of Blu-ray discs really reviews or just another level of QC?

With Blu-ray the expectations of home cinema enthusiasts have been raised and on-line reviewers are becoming more and more eagle eyed and knowledgeable about the format and passionate about the titles they are reviewing.

For the real enthusiast, the purchase of a Blu-ray disc could be the fourth time they have purchased a title.  Blu-ray was preceded by VHS, Laserdisc and DVD with each new format promising the best picture and sound quality.

Sometimes, people’s expectations are unrealistic, but in most instances there is no reason why a properly mastered title should not equal the cinema experience in your home.

With the advent of DVD & Blu-ray review websites and forums, titles being released today are given almost an additional QC by the reviewer.

These things are regularly picked up in the reviews:

  • The presence of film grain and the director’s intent
  • DNR (Digital Noise Reduction), EE (Edge Enhancement) and the battle to educate the “Playstation 3″ generation that films in high definition shouldn’t always look like High Definition Sport shot on Video.
  • The use of screen grabs to highlight issues and whether the saving of the image to a ‘lossy’ format like JPEG skews the validity of the image.
  • The use of screen grabs in general to highlight an issue which may or may not occur for just 1/24th of a second.

If you work in Video Compression for a living, you may wish to avoid the following websites as they pick your precious work to pieces!!

The AV Science Forum – Blu-ray Software:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=150

Michael Mackenzie’s Land of Whimsy:
http://www.landofwhimsy.com/archives/bd-impressions/

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Retail Blu-ray prices fall by 40% in six months

September 7th, 2009

In 2009, Blu-ray title prices have declined rapidly and the pricing gap is narrowing, according to Futuresource Consulting’s price tracking service. The service shows that in February the average Blu-ray price for new release movies in the UK was £27.29. By the beginning of August this had dropped to £16.74 – a sizeable decline of 40%.

Catalogue pricing has also fallen, but not by such a significant amount. From an average price of £16.87 in February, this dropped to £14.25 in August, representing a decline of 15%. When looking at the average catalogue price across the three largest etailers, (Amazon, Play and HMV), the price drop is far more significant, with the average catalogue price hitting £11.22.

Back in Q4 2008, both in the USA and the UK the premium for purchasing a new release title on Blu-ray compared to DVD was between 30% and 80%. However, for catalogue BD titles this premium was considerably higher, and in some instances was as much as 300%. Although it has never been disputed that consumers will pay more for Blu-ray, the premium in the market in 2008 was clearly not sustainable.

“Pricing is becoming an increasing area of focus for Blu-ray,” says Alison Casey, Head of Global Content at Futuresource Consulting. “Although a number of new BD releases are beginning to achieve healthy sales volumes, catalogue titles continue to disappoint. The retail price of Blu-ray titles, particularly when compared to DVD, is a key factor in holding back sales. Research shows that Blu-ray player owners are making a value judgement call when deciding whether or not to pay the Blu-ray premium; often continuing to buy some titles in standard definition.”

With more than 1,100 BD titles to choose from, combined with growing retail support and increased promotional activity, the rise of Blu-ray will help to offset declining sales of standard DVD product. European sales of BD movie titles are expected to top 31m by the end of 2009 – a more than three-fold increase on the 9m sales recorded in 2008. By 2012, around 35 percent of Western European video disc retail sale volumes will be Blu-ray (the US figure will be 50 percent).

Focusing on the UK, this year Futuresource expects both BD player and BD disc sales to more than treble. UK disc sales could hit 12 million given the strong release schedule for Q4.

On the hardware side, Futuresource’s quarterly BD hardware tracker shows European BD player sales, excluding PS3, are running at close to 300 percent up on the equivalent period last year.

The analysts expect to see players at or below €100 by the Christmas selling season. They reckon BD players will approach impulse purchase level very soon and at these levels people will be increasingly tempted to replace DVD players with the newer format. They expect that over 20% of European homes will be BD enabled by the end of 2011.

Source DVD intelligence – reproduced with permission

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