Page 1 of New Line Cinema not conforming to DVD rules anymore??

Hello people, and a happy easter to all!

Noticed this the other day, are New Line doing a Disney and producing DVD`s which don`t conform to the global DVd forum rules? Only mentioning as it seems that the DVD Video logo we all know has been replaced by a totally different one on their region 1 Infinifilm discs.

Any ideas?

Westy

What rules are they and Disney breaking? If they are breaking these international rules how come they rare allowed to get away with it?

Nick

Basically, there was a time when some Disney discs refused to play in some DVD players due to their complex content, so Disney created their own DVD logo and stuck 2 fingers up. So they can do pretty much what they want with their DVD`s.

The world DVD forum has a set of rules which software houses must stock to in order for all dvd`s to be compatible with all players.

Something like that anyway!

Westy

>>Only mentioning as it seems that the DVD Video logo we all know has been replaced by a totally different one on their region 1 Infinifilm discs.


Changing the DVD logo does not allow a company to release a dvd thats doesn`t conform to the DVD Spec.

The DVD Forum own the trademark for dvd, Disney may have changed the logo but it`s still called a dvd and so the dvd forum would see it as a violation of the trademark if they released it as a dvd when it wasn`t conforming to the spec.


Disney and others have sometimes taken parts of the dvd spec to the limits (disney do this a lot with their menus, they fill up the buffer memory), problem is a lot of players do not conform to spec (either due to cost cutting or mistakes, ie miscalculation of maximum buffer size). When the matrix was released it took disc surface area to the limit, this meant some players had problems, Toshiba have only this year finally admitted that the problem with the matrix on some of their older players was actually their fault.

Discs of maximum quality rarely get released because of the problems with first gen and budget players. The maximum burst data rate for encoded video tends to be avoided because first gen players can`t cope with it. The original R2 UK release of Austin Powers IMOM made use of the maximum burst rate for dvd but had to be reissued a lower bitrate because of playback problems (audio dropout). For a long time disc producers didn`t make discs with seamless branching because they knew a lot of players wouldn`t be able to handle it properly even though it`s a required feature in the dvd spec.

Almost all playback problems can be fixed by firmware updates/fixes, the problem is this means the player manufacter has to admit that they were at fault and many won`t do this so they refuse to fix faults and blame the disc producers instead.

Yes, I remember the Matrix `issue` quite fondly as a former friend of mine had to arrange to have his prized Samsung 709 upgraded (something which jarred badly with his boastful attitude). I recall the Austin Powers re-pressing aswell as I had already bought (and still own) one of the original copies. I have to say that it`s always played with some sort of audio problem (usually sync) even on my newest deck, so I think that disc probably does breach some sort of advised-tolerance level. Another time I remember DVD`s being reportedly out-of-spec was when Pearl Harbor and Jurassic Park 3 (R1) had 5.1 tracks that some Amps couldn`t read. Not sure if anyone ever took the blame on that one, although the respective amp makers (despite offering fixes) swore blind it was the discs.

The Pearl Harbor/ JP3 audio problem is a audio decoder chipset bug. It can happen with discs encoded with a metadata tag set used for the EX flag DD5.1 EX when using a decoder based on the Cirrus / Crystal Logic Dolby Digital DSP (some denon and onkyo use these). Dolby advises compnaies not to use the metadata tag now.