Sony Fakes Blu-Ray Demo? 305
twasserman writes "Lance Ulanoff of PC Magazine reported on Sony's recent event showing the new VAIO AR desktop with a Blu-Ray drive, observing that Sony faked the high-def demo by using a plain old DVD+R of House of Flying Daggers. Even before the rootkit fiasco, Sony has seemed increasingly desperate, but the general consensus seems to be that Sony is looking pretty sad and pathetic." Update 03:07 GMT by SM: Many users are calling shenanigans on this one since there were two laptops side by side, one with the Blu-Ray demo and another for comparison. Independent confirmation or negation has yet to surface, so take with the requisite grain of salt required when reading any news.
Faked Demo? (Score:5, Funny)
All of them are faked nowadays (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Faked Demo? (Score:5, Funny)
A blogger faked a fake... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A blogger faked a fake... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A blogger faked a fake... (Score:4, Insightful)
Technically minded people are the most arrogent people on the planet. They think that anything that doesn't capture reality in a wholly accurate manner in detail is useless. I mean clearly it should be a crime against humanity whenever someone equates copyright violation to theft.
In the real world people actually want to have current events explained to them in a way that they can understand. Journalists are trained in communication, not in your area of expertise. If the average person is incapable of understanding what a root-kit is, is it better to scoff at them and call them names, or to try to explain it (in technically inacurate terms) so that people with no desire to understand the inner-workings of an operating system can at least have an idea what it was that Sony did? So what if they call it a virus? Sure, it's not technically correct, but it gets the point across. That is after all what communication is all about.
I think that the problem stems from our education teching us that the printed word is an authority. I know I seldom questioned the accuracy of the encylopedia, my textbooks, or even the newspaper before I was in college (or at least until I was an upper-classman in high school.) Now in our particular areas of expertise we are frequently more knowlegable on a subject than the newspaper. We draw the conclusion that the newspaper is worthless as a source of information. What we (as technically minded people) fail to recognize is that the newspaper's goal isn't to be totally technically accurate, but rather to explain what is happening in the world to people who aren't experts.
Journalists have a role to play and it's not to provide technical information. If you are trying to understand AJAX by reading a Web 2.0 article in USA today, it isn't the journalist who has failed, you have failed in seeking out an appropriate source of information.
Re:Faked Demo? (Score:2, Funny)
If it's phony it must be Sony!
It's probably NOT fake... (Score:5, Insightful)
It sounds like Lance Ulanoff from PC Magazine is jumping the gun. According to notebookreview.com [notebookreview.com]: It sounds like Ulanoff was in too much of a rush for a scoop and didn't realize this when he ejected what was very likely the comparison DVD. Don't let the facts get in the way of a good Sony bashing, though.
Re:It's probably NOT fake... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It's probably NOT fake... (Score:4, Interesting)
Too bad those rack-mounts are PS3 devkits! With all the faked Sony bashing, it's clear why no one pays attention when they do do something crooked.
Re:It's probably NOT fake... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It's probably NOT fake... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's probably NOT fake... (Score:5, Funny)
So they could go "Nah NahNah NaNAH Na! We can copy DVD's without legal repercussions!"
Re:It's probably NOT fake... (Score:5, Funny)
That's not an evil laugh, that's the Katamari Damacy theme song!
Re:It's probably NOT fake... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's probably NOT fake... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's probably NOT fake... (Score:4, Insightful)
Jesus wept. Every new tech launch. Every new console gen. Like clockwork. Same old bitching about price points, same old conspiracies about fraudulant demos, same old "this company isn't supporting the tech I want/like/own, so they're going to fail" rhetoric.
Doesn't anyone else getting really fucking tired of this, or am I missing the point, is this what we do now?
Re:It's probably NOT fake... (Score:2)
Slashdot's one redeeming feature (Score:2)
Re:It's probably NOT fake... (Score:2)
The ARTICLE is faked. (Score:2, Funny)
"We're sorry!
Posted by: Jennifer DeLeo
Tuesday, May 16, 2006 5:41 PM
Ok. We admit it. We were trying to come up with ways
Re:It's probably NOT fake... (Score:2)
On one table Sony execs proudly displayed two ARs playing early Blu-ray content: The House of Flying Daggers (below). They even had the Blu-ray packaging. So exciting...but WAIT! I went ahead and ejected one of the Blu-ray drives to see my first Blu-ray disc. Instead, I found a crummy, old school DVD+R, complete with the Sharpie-written, House of Flying Daggers. Apparently even Sony can't get its hands on Blu-ray content!
Whoops. He didn't realize it was
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Too many holes... (Score:4, Insightful)
But, I have to ask -- this is a surprise? this is something to be outraged at?
Has the author never attended a trade show like NAB or CES? It's pretty much standard operating procedure for these shows to show off stuff that isn't yet finished - half the high end digital cinema cameras that are shown at NAB are wooden models, for crying out loud!
If it's not shipping, it doesn't exist yet, as far as I'm concerned.
Re:Too many holes... (Score:2)
Re:Too many holes... (Score:2)
Re:Too many holes... (Score:2)
That said, the whole BD-ROM physical format is also something of an open question. Dual-layer replication isn't supported by commerical replicators, and even single-layer is having terrible yields. It seems like the recordible format didn't translate that well the ROM format.
Re:Too many holes... (Score:2)
Dunno. I haven't been in Japan for a while, and maybe not too many carry it because it costs over a thousand bucks. But if you want to buy one, you can buy one here [yahoo.co.jp], so I think it's pretty obvious it was on retail shelves at some point...
Re:Too many holes... (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't know why Sony would want to use a Verbatim DVD+R for their demo, but I know I use Verbatim recordable media for integrity and reliability. I've still got circa 1997 2x CD-R Verbatim DataLifePlus discs that are still working perfectly. In fact, even with physical abuse, the discs have withstood the test of time, storage, and transportation for nearly a decade and have retained their resilliency. The only other recordable media I own that have proved nearly or equally as capable has been the Kodak DS
Re:Too many holes... (Score:5, Informative)
The other points have some validity, but different divisions of a single company don't stick to using in-house products. Even years before IBM spun off the drive division most of the drives they shipping in machines came from other vendors.
Re:Too many holes... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Too many holes... (Score:5, Funny)
Come on, to prove he was on the level, he enlarged the photos!What more do you want?
But seriously, I could go either way on this one. You raise good points, but let me play devil's advocate point by point:
1) The whole idea was that working tech or not, there are so few Blu-ray discs to be had that it's hard to get one, even for an official demo.
2) Even the biggest corporations come down to a couple of guys low on the totem pole sooner or later. When the job is "Take this cake and a couple laptops to a night club" there's no telling who they're going to send. A couple of guys with a deadline, an iso file, and blank media laying around isn't that big of a stretch.
3) Again, it's a couple of guys. Maybe a couple of guys who heard Verbatim's don't make as many coasters.
4) I doubt they'd want to do that. Can you really tell the difference on a notebook screen? And if both machines had the discs they were officially supposed to, I'd expect a standard commercial DVD. A DVD+R of a commercial movie is generally not legal.
5) Okay, you got me. I might make a comparison to "How do you know it's not a government conspiracy" but anti-Sony sentiments are too widespread and getting faked photos onto a blog "expose" are too in vogue not to give that a pass.
6) Like who? The mainstream press? They barely covered the rootkit, and that allowed undetectable arbitrary code on your home PC. Besides, the CIA director just left on bad terms, Bush is proposing to throw out the tradition of civilian leadership in replacing him, the NSA knows who calls your house (thanks in part to the new proposed CIA director), we're militarizing the Mexican border but cutting existing illegal aliens a yet-to-be determined amount of slack, and nobody knows how close Iran is to getting the bomb, and Britney Spears is pregnant again. It's not an easy time to break into the news cycle when there are no celebrities involved.
Re:Too many holes... (Score:2)
Depends - mine's 1920x1200, so you can definatly tell the difference between a (good) HDTV source, and a regular DVD.
Re:Too many holes... (Score:2)
While that's generally true, I think it goes without saying that the copyright holder of the movie is entitled to do whatever the hell he wants. I think it's safe to make the assumption that somewhere in the depths of Sony, there's a copy of HoFD without the CSS encryption. And I doubt the MPAA is going to go after what's probably it's largest producer if it turns out that's not the case..
I hate Sony as much as the next /.er and at this point I'd bel
Re:Too many holes... (Score:2)
The blu-ray discs may not be ready yet, which might lead them to using DVDs if there was a time pinch (which, incidentally, is exactly what the original author suggested). If that's what they did, they'd probably just use whatever was around the office, same as you or me - and that would just as likely be Verbatim DVD+Rs as any other brand. The DVD+R wouldn't have a label, obviously.
The
Re:Too many holes... (Score:2)
They may have been showing MPEG4 HD content from a data DVD+R. This would probably be easier and quicker to prepare than an actual Blu-ray disc.
2) Why would they use a DVD+R with no label when they distribute the actual DVDs?
They may have prepared particular scenes and removed the menus, etc.
3) Why would Sony use a Verbatim DVD+R?
I doubt the end of the DVD assembly line is anywhere near the Blu-ray development offices. Their secret
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Too many holes... (Score:2)
Well, not being a fanboy myself, I'm sure there's a better way you could phrase that. Yes, most intelligent people aren't going to risk their reputations like this, but that also doesn't mean someone will not. After all, employment by a major magazine (which is often more or less freelance) does not automatically qualify the author as a neutral party.
Maureen O'Gara, Rob Enderlee, etc...
Re:Too many holes... (Score:2)
Re:Too many holes... (Score:2)
Geez, this tinfoil hat's a little itchy.
Poor Sony. (Score:5, Funny)
Perhaps we should start using $ony when having a whinge about them.
You get what you give though.
Re:Poor Sony. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Poor Sony. (Score:2)
Actually... (Score:2)
Obligatory Ctrl+Alt+Del reference (Score:4, Funny)
http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20060 512 [ctrlaltdel-online.com]
Thib ;-)
Re: (Score:2)
Sony, meet Nelson (Score:2)
as others have said... (Score:2)
Gotta love journalists (Score:4, Insightful)
Repeat after me: DVD is not HD.
Would Sony use a burnt DVD for display ? Possible (hey, there's idiot students everywhere), but unlikely. Would Sony use a regular DVD for comparison versus Blu-Ray ? Certainly!
It's not like they have to fake it, they have the drive. They probably have demo content too. I'm pretty sure Blu-Ray video is encoded at a much higher resolution than boring old 720x480 Mpeg-2 DVD. Now maybe if our overzealous reporter had taken a moment to actually examine the demo and see the difference, maybe even chat with the Sony media monkey, perhaps he would have come up with a more valid article. Or maybe he did all that, but decided the notoriety of his lies would be a bigger hit.
Repeat after me. (Score:2)
The video very well be high definition. They could have simply put a high definition data file on a standard DVD to show what it would look like.
Still faked demo but not as bad as you are making it out to be.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sony the bootlegger (Score:5, Informative)
Somehow, I'm not sure "bootlegged" is the right word for Sony making a copy of this film.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Sony the bootlegger (Score:2)
They own the copyright, but would they still be on safe legal ground if they violated the DMCA to make the copy?
Re:Sony the bootlegger (Score:2)
`(A) to `circumvent a technological protection measure' means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological protection measure, without the authority of the copyright owner;
Without the authority is the key
More than just a laser (Score:5, Insightful)
Aside from the article submitter trolling, I would like to state that Blu-Ray is more than just a laser. It's an entire format complete with a software virtual machine.
When we test content it comes on a DVD-R, we're testing layouts of files, VM access, decoding, video quality etc.
Now I don't know what was at the booth, but it is certainly possible that they were showing off their software Blu-Ray player with the content burned onto a DVD.
Re:More than just a laser (Score:2)
Re:More than just a laser (Score:3, Insightful)
Which would definitely constitute a rigged demo. We've had the ability to play high-bitrate movies from hard-drives for years, so why does anybody care about Blu-Ray? Because it's a removable optical media with enough capacity for full-length high bitrate movies. So if that's not what they were demoing, it certainly was a rigged demo.
Re:More than just a laser (Score:3, Insightful)
In most cases, the only meaningful demo of BluRay is going to be quality based, and therefore the physical media is irrelevant, so I don't see how it's "Rigged" if it's still showing BluRay content.
Re:More than just a laser (Score:4, Insightful)
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
in other news (Score:4, Informative)
Faking it isn't a problem (Score:5, Funny)
But, then, I'm female and we're used to faking it realistically.
Re:Faking it isn't a problem (Score:2)
Re:Faking it isn't a problem (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Faking it isn't a problem (Score:2)
pics or it didnt happen!
Re:Faking it isn't a problem (Score:5, Funny)
It's not that you women are good at faking. It's just that we men don't care!
This topic is complete troll bait. (Score:5, Insightful)
Regardless if this was faked or not, I don't trust all these band-wagoning fools here or there. All you have to do is read my previous posts that were modded as troll, flame, etc when I predicted a fiaso with Sony's Blu-ray and PS3 releases. People saw big numbers, wanted big numbers, and completely forgot about Sony's failures in the past.
Kind of reminds me of the idiocy supporting support for multiple wars a couple of years ago. People like to believe things and completely turn off the part of their brain that comprehends history's lessons.
Fake (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=
Re:Fake (Score:2)
Re:Fake (Score:2)
Truth is HD doesn't require a new dvd format (Score:2)
That extra will be great for backups..
Re:Truth is HD doesn't require a new dvd format (Score:2)
Re:Truth is HD doesn't require a new dvd format (Score:2)
perhaps they were demoing the codec (Score:2)
Think of it this way: if you were doing a DVD/SVCD comparison, you could run both off of CDs -- you'd just encode the MPEG2 file for the DVD demo and burn it to a data CD.
Is it a *totally* valid demo? No. But it's not a particularly outrageous lie.
DVD content on CD-ROM works, sort of. (Score:2)
You can encode a CD blank in DVD format. This is nonstandard, but it works, sort of. Most software players on computers will play the thing. A few standalone DVD players will play it, but most will reject the disk, hang, or crash. It tends to work on low-end DVD players that use computer drives, because those drives can crank up a CD to 48x or so and get the data rate of a DVD.
Can you do the same thing to put HDTV on a DVD
-2 Flamebait the article (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:-2 Flamebait the article (Score:2)
Hi! You must be new here.
Check my UID (Score:2)
Why not just add a 360 advertisement and write a fake PS3 review tomarrow? Don't laugh when it happens. I don't care if it's the 360 or the PS3 -- all this doe
Dumb name (Score:2, Funny)
-matthew
FFS (Score:3, Funny)
What are the facts here? (Score:4, Insightful)
If it is the latter and they were using a small amount of Blu-Ray-encoded/resolution files on DVD-R media with a custom build designed to recognize Blu-Ray content on a DVD due to what could be a scarcity of notebook form-factor Blu-Ray drives for the demo, then there isn't so much of a problem, except that if that were the case Sony should qualify the demo with "by the way, this is our software technology demo, using DVD-R media for this demo, blah blah blah" just to avoid the negative PR fiasco that you see here.
Easy solution (Score:2)
Here's the problem... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Here's the problem... (Score:3, Interesting)
Sony Responds - a comment FTFA (Score:5, Informative)
Sony Responds
Posted by: J Piazza, Sony Employee
I would like to clarify this issue regarding the content that was shown last night at the Sony VAIO 10th anniversary event.
The demonstration in question was a side-by-side comparison of Blu-ray Disc recorded content compared with a DVD recording of the same content. The identical notebooks were each playing the Sony Pictures release, "House of Flying Daggers"- one notebook showing the DVD format and the other showing the Blu-ray Disc format.
The photograph taken by one of the reporters attending the event was of the DVD version used for demo. The Blu-ray Disc media had no label.
I can attest that the disc in question was a Blu-ray Disc as I organized the event. The Blu-ray Disc media used, though not a final master, was encoded and displayed using Blu-ray Disc technology and rendered in true 1080p resolution. This resolution could not possibly have been duplicated using a DVD. I hope this clears up any confusion.
crow time (Score:3, Informative)
A DVD+R (the one shown isn't DL) is 4.5G of course. What's wrong with me thinking of CDs?
You're right. With H.264, at 4.5G for a 2 hour movie you could get very good results. With 9G (dual layer), I figure you could get nearly perfect results perfect results.
Boy do I feel stupid. I apologize. I musta had a brain lock.
I'm Shocked! (Score:2, Informative)
One of the replies to the blog:
Rabid anti-Sony brigade just jumped the shark (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd say the anti-Sony cabal have jumped the shark with this one.
The only thing fake around here... (Score:2)
Who cares? (Score:2, Insightful)
It's
Does it really matter? (Score:2, Insightful)
You can do that with a DVD! You only need a couple of minutes and can easily store that on a DVD. You use exactly the same codec as the Blu-Ray version, get the higher resolution, and allow people to compare. The Blu-Ray version will look better. Perhaps they are using a DVD for various reason. It's only a demonstration!
Why are all you so naive!? They do this sort of thing all the time. Advertising dog food - The
Guilty until proven innocent (Score:3, Insightful)
If someone claims a demo to be rigged, he should produce some evidence. Not the other way 'round.
Re:The arrogance! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Even if they did, it doesn't matter. (Score:3, Informative)
It will work. It will be in the PSP. It will have a huge market just because of the PSP. It therefore will not go away, It guarantees UMD's success....
Wait? They are stopping production of UMD movies? Ah... forget what I just said.
Re:Even if they did, it doesn't matter. (Score:2)
Unless said dog is a Nintendog, which is programmed to buy the system at a loss to Sony, and then bury it in a virtual yard somewhere.
Re:don't think anyone will see this, but.... (Score:2)
That's only correct if you assume that the commercially produced movie is using Dual Layer and the DVD+R isn't.
For reference, DVD+R DL is 8.5 GB.
Re:don't think anyone will see this, but.... (Score:2)
Let's say you wanted to demo two videos side by side, but only had 15min to do it in? Would you...
a. buy a copy of each video, manualy jump to selected scenes to show the difference
b. take sel
Re:Libel (Score:2)
Re:DIGG vs Slashdot (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, this is like going to church to go tell everyone how awesome atheism is.
(also, your post kind of doesn't make any sense. you simultaneously expect slashdot to produce a story like this and expect it to be better? what?)
*burns karma*