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Preparing your customers and your facilities for Blu-ray

A powerful format that leads to new challenges in authoring and

creative design

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Exceeding expectations

After several years of development, consumer and industry expectations are high

DVD was a leap in complexity, BD will be as well Expect a transition to happen over the next year

in how titles are developed The best products are expected to have not only

great picture and sound, but also added value that drives product sales

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Blu-ray data structure

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DVD vs. Blu-ray

Mature authoring tools

Ubiquitous MPEG2 video Mature audio codecs Mature subtitles creation Little or no programming

possible Mature QC processes Creative design built around

DVD capability

New authoring tools New compression codecs New audio codecs New subtitles New programming

environment New QC complexity New creative process with

many possibilities

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SPE authoring tool development

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The current DVD world with PAL and NTSC compression

At present, most Film based DVD content sold in Europe plays 4% fast in order to manage the difference between 24fps film and 25fps PAL video This affects the consumer experience, the video

speed is not noticed, but correspondent change in audio pitch is obvious

Studios have to conform elements and compress video for both NTSC and PAL standards adding cost and complexity to DVD manufacturing

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The European standard

Movies can and should be encoded to one standard - worldwide

EICTA – “HD ready” sanctioning body http://www.eicta.org/files/LicenseAgreement-114914A.pdf

Basic Requirements (information copied from license agreement) The display device accepts HD input via:

Analog YPbPr and DVI or HDMI HD capable inputs accept:

1280x720 @ 50 and 60 hz progressive (“720p”) and 1920 x 1080 @ 50 and 60hz interlaced (“1080i”)

The DVI or HDMI input supports content protection (HDCP)

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Blu-ray Video Codecs

AVC – computation intensive, some LSI implementations exist, but typically uses blade servers

VC1 – also computation intensive, software implementations

MPEG2 – less efficient at very low bit rates, but equivalent performance at >15mbps. Encoding and decoding readily available.

Master tape quality – results of tests

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New audio codecs

Both Dolby and DTS have new codecs included in Blu-ray

Studios are already expressing interest in using “lossless” coding

Decoding hardware needed before new codecs can be used

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New subtitles

HD resolutions Both Unicode and BMP available 256 colors available – excellent anti-aliasing New standards for delivery New methods of delivery – network

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BD-J A programmable environment

Blu-ray provides an implementation of Java that can be used to create newer forms of disc interactivity

DVD authoring and BD-J authoring are not the same skill set

Game / web development skills are converging with packaged media development

Keeping order – spiraling complexity

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Blu-ray Movie Mode

Similar to DVD functions with improvements Ideal for first titles Can provide a better user experience than

DVD The first step in player development and

compatibility Low level conventions are used in BD-J

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QC for Blu-ray

What display Consider scaling artifacts – full resolution avoids

this Screen size, two to three picture heights Professional versus Consumer devices Interlace artifacts – should allowances be made? Interactive disc QC

Network connection Game style capability

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The creative process

Balancing improved performance and graphic complexity

Re-educating the industry on what can be accomplished

Providing better tools to eliminate redundancy

Balancing format capability with time to market

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Priorities – before the first order

Staffing - Blu-ray has capabilities through Java programming that are not in the typical skill set of most DVD tool users

Video encoding – MPEG2 encoders are available and can do an outstanding job for this application. Adoption of alternative codecs may not be needed for a while

Data handling – can your network and storage systems handle HD?

Quality control – How will you check HD video? Display choices are limited.

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Launch timing (estimated)

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

- BD players in market

- BD authoring in progress from Nov 05’

On time!

- BD software in market

- BD software with Java based navigation

-BD player/software network usage

Demand for software and players

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Summary Blu-ray will launch in the Spring – the time to

prepare for compression and authoring is now 24p encoding worldwide is a win – win Consumer broadcast experience with HD is

uneven, packaged media should set the benchmark… again…

The distinction between authoring games and authoring movies will start to blur. Hiring for development and QC needs to adapt accordingly