Re: [backstage] Open source video streaming browser based video client
I came across this recently but have not tested it: Flumotion Cortado by Fluendo, streaming applet for Ogg formats http://www.flumotion.net/cortado/ http://stream.fluendo.com/en/textos.php?id=8 On the client side, it's a java applet which can be embedded into a page. On the server side, Ogg Theora / Ogg Vorbis can be streamed via a Flumotion platform or even loaded locally. No idea how that last would hold up under heavy traffic though. This is not a recommendation, I have merely looked through their site. I am looking at streaming hosting for a project I'm working on and I want to check this out later. Cheers Sean On Feb 18, 2008 11:29 PM, Graeme West [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Dan, Apple's Darwin Streaming Server might do the trick for you. It does MPEG-4, MPEG-4 H.264/AVC etc. streaming and supports SMIL files. It's open source (though those file formats are patented). http://developer.apple.com/opensource/server/streaming/index.html We use it to serve BBC content from our repository under our educational deposit agreement. I can't say that it's the most feature-complete piece of software in the world but it does the job, and there's a decent user community if you get stuck with anything. Client-side, things get a bit tricky, since the QuickTime plugin is basically mince. It's quite pernickety about network issues (such as proxy configurations not being inherited from the OS on Windows), but again it does the job... Though at least the transport would be in a relatively standard format (RTSP/RTP), rather than nasty Real guff. Simon's suggestion of Flash on the client side might make a nice combination with DSS, though we've only ever used Flash as an HTTP (progressive download) front-end - not true streaming - so I can't say if/how well the combination would work. Graeme -- Graeme West Web Services Development Architect Spoken Word Services Glasgow Caledonian University Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (+44) 0141 273 8544 Project web site: http://www.spokenword.ac.uk/ On 17 Feb 2008, at 22:55, simon wrote: Hello, Flash appears to say yes to SMIL: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/main/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=LiveDocs_Partsfile=0589.html though flash has caused me problems by only implementing limited subsets of other standard formats (eg limited html tags in flash textareas) so I wouldn't like to say for sure the flash's understanding of SMIL would do what you want. I've never used SMIL + flash. And the best bet I think for an open source flash streaming server for flv video format is still currently Red5 which hasn't made a 1.0 version yet: http://osflash.org/red5 If you use MP4 container with h264/aac as your flash video format (from memory: player 9,0,115,0 onwards), you may have more options for your server, it's on my list to check this but so far I haven't had time. S. On Feb 17, 2008 10:18 PM, Dogsbody [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Apologies if this is slightly off topic but I have been googling on and off since last year, found nothing and you lot are the best people I know to ask! I'm looking for an open source video streaming server browser based video client for the video finish of a charity marathon I run. I'm already using Helix Server for streaming the video although I could change that if required. I'm using Real video for the stream and I guess it's the having to ask users to download and install Real Player that's harsh. While Real is very good at simultaneous multi-bitrate streaming it's anything but open and I know plenty of people that refuse to install Real Player not to mention to vulnerabilities! It would be great to have the video window in the browser so the user didn't have to download anything (e.g. VLC) but I think that just leaves Flash(!?) which is also not open (although people are at least used to video in Flash). The BIG requirement though is that the client can understand/replicate SMIL information as the video is stored on the server as a single 1GB file and different users are streamed different 20 second clips based on the time they went over the finish line. Can Flash even do that? Any help appreciated. Dan P.S. I'm using the term Open Source as a indication of the ideal, I'm a fan of open source so I would like to use it with free software being the next choice but as this is a charity marathon we have no money to throw at commercial software. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ Email has been scanned for viruses by Altman Technologies' email management service - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit
[backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray
Toshiba drops out of HD DVD war - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7252172.stm What does everyone think? I thought they would keep this going for longer. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray
On Feb 19, 2008 1:18 PM, Matt Barber [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What does everyone think? I thought they would keep this going for longer. You know, I always read Blu Ray as Blur-ry... ;-) !! Not having big screen, DVD is more than good enough for me. How long will regular DVD last? Davy -- Davy Mitchell Blog - http://www.latedecember.co.uk/sites/personal/davy/ Twitter - http://twitter.com/daftspaniel Skype - daftspaniel needgod.com - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
RE: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray
Yup. Presumably, in this ridiculous Must buy into the latest hype even if the technology really isn't up to the job and it's totally impractical world we live in people will happily wait several hours after deciding they want to watch a movie for their movie to download instead of just inserting that pre-2K bit of plastic that starts up immediately. Michael Bay famously declared that HD-DVD was introduced by Microsoft as a deliberate spoiler to Blu-Ray to ensure failure of that format and eventual success of the download high def format they were really after. Clearly the ravings of a lunatic who hasn't enjoyed the picture quality of a broadcast on a stuttering iPlayer on an 8MB broadband connection! Ian (happy to be fighting over a comb if the alternative is either watching postage stamp sized movies on a phone or enjoying artefacting and poor quality that is the Sky HD service). From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Butterworth Sent: 19 February 2008 13:55 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: Re: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray On 19/02/2008, Matt Barber [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Toshiba drops out of HD DVD war - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7252172.stm What does everyone think? I thought they would keep this going for longer. Bald men fighting over a comb. Now one one them can scrape their scalp to their heart's content. Putting data onto bits of plastic is so pre-2K... - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ -- Please email me back if you need any more help. Brian Butterworth http://www.ukfree.tv
Re: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray
On 19/02/2008, Matt Barber [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Toshiba drops out of HD DVD war - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7252172.stm What does everyone think? I thought they would keep this going for longer. Bald men fighting over a comb. Now one one them can scrape their scalp to their heart's content. Putting data onto bits of plastic is so pre-2K... - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ -- Please email me back if you need any more help. Brian Butterworth http://www.ukfree.tv
Re: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray
On Feb 19, 2008 1:42 PM, Davy Mitchell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Feb 19, 2008 1:18 PM, Matt Barber [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What does everyone think? I thought they would keep this going for longer. You know, I always read Blu Ray as Blur-ry... ;-) !! Not having big screen, DVD is more than good enough for me. How long will regular DVD last? Davy -- Davy Mitchell Blog - http://www.latedecember.co.uk/sites/personal/davy/ Twitter - http://twitter.com/daftspaniel Skype - daftspaniel needgod.com - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ That's an interesting point. I think that while DVD production will continue for mainstream films for a long while - the long tail of niche and genre specific film will continue for even longer, because filming, mastering and producing for SD DVD is so much cheaper than HD right now. I got myself a HDTV last month and I'm really pleased with the quality of regular DVDs when played through an xbox360 connected via VGA, it upscales. From a consumer point of view, this news interests me because it helps me decide what HD format to go with if I were to buy a player. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
RE: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray
What I /heart/ about the pre-2K bit of plastic is the way it takes control over your TV/DVD and insists that you watch the copyright notices and it tries to thrust the 'don't copy videos' advert on to you. Why should any company have the right to stop you using your own DVD controls and force you to watch the messages it demands that you watch. It 'steals' your electricity and screen time to display its messages and if you tot up all the hours people waste waiting to have control over their DVDs then you realise that it wastes a lot of energy and is anything but green. Wonder why this imposition hasn't been challenged in the courts. It is a small but very annoying thing. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Ian Smith (Irascian Ltd) Sent: 19 February 2008 14:17 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: RE: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray Yup. Presumably, in this ridiculous Must buy into the latest hype even if the technology really isn't up to the job and it's totally impractical world we live in people will happily wait several hours after deciding they want to watch a movie for their movie to download instead of just inserting that pre-2K bit of plastic that starts up immediately. Michael Bay famously declared that HD-DVD was introduced by Microsoft as a deliberate spoiler to Blu-Ray to ensure failure of that format and eventual success of the download high def format they were really after. Clearly the ravings of a lunatic who hasn't enjoyed the picture quality of a broadcast on a stuttering iPlayer on an 8MB broadband connection! Ian (happy to be fighting over a comb if the alternative is either watching postage stamp sized movies on a phone or enjoying artefacting and poor quality that is the Sky HD service). From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Butterworth Sent: 19 February 2008 13:55 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: Re: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray On 19/02/2008, Matt Barber [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Toshiba drops out of HD DVD war - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7252172.stm What does everyone think? I thought they would keep this going for longer. Bald men fighting over a comb. Now one one them can scrape their scalp to their heart's content. Putting data onto bits of plastic is so pre-2K... - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk http://backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ -- Please email me back if you need any more help. Brian Butterworth http://www.ukfree.tv
Re: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray
What I /heart/ about the pre-2K bit of plastic is the way it takes control over your TV/DVD and insists that you watch the copyright notices and it tries to thrust the 'don't copy videos' advert on to you. Why should any company have the right to stop you using your own DVD controls and force you to watch the messages it demands that you watch. It 'steals' your electricity and screen time to display its messages and if you tot up all the hours people waste waiting to have control over their DVDs then you realise that it wastes a lot of energy and is anything but green. Wonder why this imposition hasn't been challenged in the courts. It is a small but very annoying thing. Useful tip: Turns out that pirated videos don't have these annoying warnings on them, allowing you to go straight to the film after you pop it in the player and offering a far more pleasant viewing experience because of it. Now you'll know for next time ;) In all seriousness, who those messages are intended for is entirely beyond me. I even know the guy who cut together the original Pirated videos are low quality infomercial and the message I got is that it was no ones idea - it's just one of these things that got passed on and agreed by committee without any kind of sanity checking. It was originally a zero-budget one-off clip to be shown before (I think) LotR. As far as Blu Ray is concerned, it's pretty apparent to me that the manufacturers think the lack of uptake was down to the Blu Ray/HD DVD spat and not because people clearly have no need for either at present unless they have a full size cinema screen in their living rooms (which, granted, I'm sure some people do). The uptake of DVD was so rapid because people hated VHS. It was bad quality, it degraded over time, plus you had to rewind/fast forward on it, which was just annoying. DVD was a technology that was an obvious progression after the popularity of CD and is still of more than reasonable quality even for today's high spec TVs. There are no gaps in the market that Blu Ray is bridging. Iain - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray
On 19/02/2008, Ian Smith (Irascian Ltd) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yup. Presumably, in this ridiculous Must buy into the latest hype even if the technology really isn't up to the job and it's totally impractical world we live in people will happily wait several hours after deciding they want to watch a movie for their movie to download instead of just inserting that pre-2K bit of plastic that starts up immediately. Michael Bay famously declared that HD-DVD was introduced by Microsoft as a deliberate spoiler to Blu-Ray to ensure failure of that format and eventual success of the download high def format they were really after. Clearly the ravings of a lunatic who hasn't enjoyed the picture quality of a broadcast on a stuttering iPlayer on an 8MB broadband connection! Is there HD Flash content on the iPlayer? I must have missed it. I've even typed HD into the search box a few times. Ian (happy to be fighting over a comb if the alternative is either watching postage stamp sized movies on a phone or enjoying artefacting and poor quality that is the Sky HD service). *From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *On Behalf Of *Brian Butterworth *Sent:* 19 February 2008 13:55 *To:* backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk *Subject:* Re: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray On 19/02/2008, *Matt Barber* [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Toshiba drops out of HD DVD war - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7252172.stm What does everyone think? I thought they would keep this going for longer. Bald men fighting over a comb. Now one one them can scrape their scalp to their heart's content. Putting data onto bits of plastic is so pre-2K... - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ -- Please email me back if you need any more help. Brian Butterworth http://www.ukfree.tv -- Please email me back if you need any more help. Brian Butterworth http://www.ukfree.tv
Re: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray
The deck makers don't mind giving you control, but the disc sellers do. That spam bit of FBI warning (means a lot in France) is Hollywood, terrified that they will suffer by not offering consumers what they want (cf.: the music industry). In both cases the basic model has been to upgrade physical record formats every few years then laugh all the way to the bank. They should have taken a clue from the failure of Super Audio CD. Consumers readily understand the advantages in investing in a new widescreen telly to better view their 80 or 100 DVDs, but the idea of replacing all those films yet again, after VHS (or Beta)?? On Feb 19, 2008 4:26 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What I /heart/ about the pre-2K bit of plastic is the way it takes control over your TV/DVD and insists that you watch the copyright notices and it tries to thrust the 'don't copy videos' advert on to you. Why should any company have the right to stop you using your own DVD controls and force you to watch the messages it demands that you watch. It 'steals' your electricity and screen time to display its messages and if you tot up all the hours people waste waiting to have control over their DVDs then you realise that it wastes a lot of energy and is anything but green. Wonder why this imposition hasn't been challenged in the courts. It is a small but very annoying thing. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Ian Smith (Irascian Ltd) Sent: 19 February 2008 14:17 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: RE: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray Yup. Presumably, in this ridiculous Must buy into the latest hype even if the technology really isn't up to the job and it's totally impractical world we live in people will happily wait several hours after deciding they want to watch a movie for their movie to download instead of just inserting that pre-2K bit of plastic that starts up immediately. Michael Bay famously declared that HD-DVD was introduced by Microsoft as a deliberate spoiler to Blu-Ray to ensure failure of that format and eventual success of the download high def format they were really after. Clearly the ravings of a lunatic who hasn't enjoyed the picture quality of a broadcast on a stuttering iPlayer on an 8MB broadband connection! Ian (happy to be fighting over a comb if the alternative is either watching postage stamp sized movies on a phone or enjoying artefacting and poor quality that is the Sky HD service). From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Butterworth Sent: 19 February 2008 13:55 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: Re: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray On 19/02/2008, Matt Barber [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Toshiba drops out of HD DVD war - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7252172.stm What does everyone think? I thought they would keep this going for longer. Bald men fighting over a comb. Now one one them can scrape their scalp to their heart's content. Putting data onto bits of plastic is so pre-2K... - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ -- Please email me back if you need any more help. Brian Butterworth http://www.ukfree.tv - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray
On Feb 19, 2008 3:51 PM, Sean DALY [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The deck makers don't mind giving you control, but the disc sellers do. That spam bit of FBI warning (means a lot in France) is Hollywood, terrified that they will suffer by not offering consumers what they want (cf.: the music industry). In both cases the basic model has been to upgrade physical record formats every few years then laugh all the way to the bank. They should have taken a clue from the failure of Super Audio CD. Consumers readily understand the advantages in investing in a new widescreen telly to better view their 80 or 100 DVDs, but the idea of replacing all those films yet again, after VHS (or Beta)?? True that replacing all those films would be annoying - but the blu-ray/HD players are backwards compatible to DVD. That's the good thing about this particular evolution in format, is that the form factor has remained the same. I'm not sure about the cases however, they look like they might be a different shape? But anyway, it's a nicer transition than, say, to BETA, where we had a completely different tape etc. On Feb 19, 2008 4:26 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What I /heart/ about the pre-2K bit of plastic is the way it takes control over your TV/DVD and insists that you watch the copyright notices and it tries to thrust the 'don't copy videos' advert on to you. Why should any company have the right to stop you using your own DVD controls and force you to watch the messages it demands that you watch. It 'steals' your electricity and screen time to display its messages and if you tot up all the hours people waste waiting to have control over their DVDs then you realise that it wastes a lot of energy and is anything but green. Wonder why this imposition hasn't been challenged in the courts. It is a small but very annoying thing. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Ian Smith (Irascian Ltd) Sent: 19 February 2008 14:17 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: RE: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray Yup. Presumably, in this ridiculous Must buy into the latest hype even if the technology really isn't up to the job and it's totally impractical world we live in people will happily wait several hours after deciding they want to watch a movie for their movie to download instead of just inserting that pre-2K bit of plastic that starts up immediately. Michael Bay famously declared that HD-DVD was introduced by Microsoft as a deliberate spoiler to Blu-Ray to ensure failure of that format and eventual success of the download high def format they were really after. Clearly the ravings of a lunatic who hasn't enjoyed the picture quality of a broadcast on a stuttering iPlayer on an 8MB broadband connection! Ian (happy to be fighting over a comb if the alternative is either watching postage stamp sized movies on a phone or enjoying artefacting and poor quality that is the Sky HD service). From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Butterworth Sent: 19 February 2008 13:55 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: Re: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray On 19/02/2008, Matt Barber [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Toshiba drops out of HD DVD war - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7252172.stm What does everyone think? I thought they would keep this going for longer. Bald men fighting over a comb. Now one one them can scrape their scalp to their heart's content. Putting data onto bits of plastic is so pre-2K... - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ -- Please email me back if you need any more help. Brian Butterworth http://www.ukfree.tv - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray
I think one of the things that has been overlooked in this whole HD-DVD / Blu-ray debate is the audio side of things. DVD offered the vastly better Dolby Digital and DTS formats vs. Dolby Pro Logic offered by VHS. Blu-ray offers a slightly better version of the audio in terms of DD+ and DTS HD, but nothing like the change from video to DVD - another reason in my eyes why people won't invest fully in Blu-ray just yet and will be happy to stick with DVD. Chris On 19/02/2008, Ian Smith (Irascian Ltd) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Most of Joe Public seem happy to watch 4:3 pictures stretched to widescreen or watch fuzzy YouTube videos on laptops, so upgrades to high definition over DVD is always going to be a harder sell than DVD was over VHS. For most folks the increase in quality isn't obvious. As for the cases - just as in the early days of DVD they're all over the place. MOST are about an inch shorter than DVD but in the UK instead of taking the States lead of making them MUCH slimmer (so you can actually stash a lot more of them into limited shelf width) they've kept the same width as the old DVD. That's what happens when European marketing decide to do their own thing :( (apparently someone decided the thinner cases made the new, more expensive format look cheaper than the old format so changed it for Europe) -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Matt Barber Sent: 19 February 2008 16:35 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: Re: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray On Feb 19, 2008 3:51 PM, Sean DALY [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The deck makers don't mind giving you control, but the disc sellers do. That spam bit of FBI warning (means a lot in France) is Hollywood, terrified that they will suffer by not offering consumers what they want (cf.: the music industry). In both cases the basic model has been to upgrade physical record formats every few years then laugh all the way to the bank. They should have taken a clue from the failure of Super Audio CD. Consumers readily understand the advantages in investing in a new widescreen telly to better view their 80 or 100 DVDs, but the idea of replacing all those films yet again, after VHS (or Beta)?? True that replacing all those films would be annoying - but the blu-ray/HD players are backwards compatible to DVD. That's the good thing about this particular evolution in format, is that the form factor has remained the same. I'm not sure about the cases however, they look like they might be a different shape? But anyway, it's a nicer transition than, say, to BETA, where we had a completely different tape etc. On Feb 19, 2008 4:26 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What I /heart/ about the pre-2K bit of plastic is the way it takes control over your TV/DVD and insists that you watch the copyright notices and it tries to thrust the 'don't copy videos' advert on to you. Why should any company have the right to stop you using your own DVD controls and force you to watch the messages it demands that you watch. It 'steals' your electricity and screen time to display its messages and if you tot up all the hours people waste waiting to have control over their DVDs then you realise that it wastes a lot of energy and is anything but green. Wonder why this imposition hasn't been challenged in the courts. It is a small but very annoying thing. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Ian Smith (Irascian Ltd) Sent: 19 February 2008 14:17 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: RE: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray Yup. Presumably, in this ridiculous Must buy into the latest hype even if the technology really isn't up to the job and it's totally impractical world we live in people will happily wait several hours after deciding they want to watch a movie for their movie to download instead of just inserting that pre-2K bit of plastic that starts up immediately. Michael Bay famously declared that HD-DVD was introduced by Microsoft as a deliberate spoiler to Blu-Ray to ensure failure of that format and eventual success of the download high def format they were really after. Clearly the ravings of a lunatic who hasn't enjoyed the picture quality of a broadcast on a stuttering iPlayer on an 8MB broadband connection! Ian (happy to be fighting over a comb if the alternative is either watching postage stamp sized movies on a phone or enjoying artefacting and poor quality that is the Sky HD service). From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Butterworth Sent: 19 February 2008 13:55 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: Re: [backstage] HD-DVD / Blu Ray On 19/02/2008, Matt Barber
