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Just thought I'd post a few comments from the NAB show this year.
I was presenting a demo on Ulead's DVD Workshop 2.0 so I didn't have a lot of time to see everything in the show.
The one thing that did catch my attention was small MS demo of a HD encoded wmv format DVD. I asked the MS rep about this demo and here's what he said:
The DVD was encoded in a HD format, I think it's 1080i.
It was encoded using wmv format at a contant bitrate of 8000kbps. Constant bitrate was used because there are problem with DVD players and minimum readout rate similiar to the problems early DVD players had with minimum readout rate with VBR encoded MPEG-2. Basically they have to figure out how to keep the disc spinning at the correct speeds to keep the buffer full, but not overload it.
On the Plasma display in HD the content looked really great. Hard to believe it was encoded at 8000kbps.
WMV capable drives are said to be available in 6 months.
I'm not sure what's going on here, but I think many DVD players already have the capability to decode wmv format vob files since my Sony player could play this DVD. Perhaps it's downconverting to SD 480i? Anyway the playback didn't look at good as a normal DVD on my player. There was noticeable banding in the sky.
If all of this pans out, it won't take much to modify current DVD authoring programs to author wmv media. So, we'll have a delievery format for HD content in short order due to the fact that wmv is a more advanced compression scheme than MPEG-2. Basically we'll go HD with the same bandwidth as current SD MPEG-2 files.
Sorry if I got any of these facts wrong, there seems to be quite a bit of confusion around this issue right now. I just thought I'd report what I had learned.
IMO I think wmv will eventually replace MPEG-2. As long as players support both formats the transition should be transparent to the end user (fingers crossed).
- Mark
I was presenting a demo on Ulead's DVD Workshop 2.0 so I didn't have a lot of time to see everything in the show.
The one thing that did catch my attention was small MS demo of a HD encoded wmv format DVD. I asked the MS rep about this demo and here's what he said:
The DVD was encoded in a HD format, I think it's 1080i.
It was encoded using wmv format at a contant bitrate of 8000kbps. Constant bitrate was used because there are problem with DVD players and minimum readout rate similiar to the problems early DVD players had with minimum readout rate with VBR encoded MPEG-2. Basically they have to figure out how to keep the disc spinning at the correct speeds to keep the buffer full, but not overload it.
On the Plasma display in HD the content looked really great. Hard to believe it was encoded at 8000kbps.
WMV capable drives are said to be available in 6 months.
I'm not sure what's going on here, but I think many DVD players already have the capability to decode wmv format vob files since my Sony player could play this DVD. Perhaps it's downconverting to SD 480i? Anyway the playback didn't look at good as a normal DVD on my player. There was noticeable banding in the sky.
If all of this pans out, it won't take much to modify current DVD authoring programs to author wmv media. So, we'll have a delievery format for HD content in short order due to the fact that wmv is a more advanced compression scheme than MPEG-2. Basically we'll go HD with the same bandwidth as current SD MPEG-2 files.
Sorry if I got any of these facts wrong, there seems to be quite a bit of confusion around this issue right now. I just thought I'd report what I had learned.
IMO I think wmv will eventually replace MPEG-2. As long as players support both formats the transition should be transparent to the end user (fingers crossed).
- Mark
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