wmv and HD DVDs

[Hulk]

A while back posted that I had a wmv format Hi-Def DVD that played on my Sony player. I was wrong. There are two discs in the package, one is normal DVD the other wmv to be played on windows XP machines.

The wmv files are very interesting. There are two copies of each video on the disc. One 720p with a video bitrate of 6000kbps, and another that is 1080i with a bitrate of 8000kbps for the video.

Both of them look amazing. It's really quite a feat when you consider that they are "only" 6000kbps (720p) and 8000kbps(1080i). This is basically the same bitrate MPEG-2 needs to do standard definition.

Hopefully we will soon seee DVD players that can play these wmv files AND downconvert them to SD if necessary. If this happens we'll have a lot of authoring options available.

Using SD video we can probably double or triple the amount of video content on a DVD using the wmv codec. Bitrates of 3000kbps with very good quality are doable. Imagine 4 to 5 hours of SD video on a DVD-5 disc.

Also, hopefully HD video can be placed on a DVD so that either SD or HD viewers can get at the content. This is how it should work anyway, for a seamless transition from SD to HD.

Of course this all assumes that authoring software will be updated to author using wmv format video. But, I'm sure many people have noticed wmv is a disc template option in WS2. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that it looks like we're headed in that direction.

I think one of the stumbling blocks to this may be hardware related, it seems that it takes quite a bit of processing power to decode these HD wmv video streams. I am showing 20-40% cpu usage for 720p streams (25% average) and 30-50% cpu usage for 1080i streams (35% average). cpu usage shoots up with high motion scenes as you would expect. I'm showing 10% to decode a normal MPEG-2 DVD stream. My system is pretty powerful being a P4 3.06 so even dedicated hardware is going to have to be pretty powerful to decode these streams.

The future should be interesting...

- Mark

[a_h]

What do you think, how large has the tv set diagonal to be, so that a clear difference between SD and HD can be seen?

Personally I think that the standard DVD has a great quality, especially if the producer fills it up to the rim, which is - unfortunately - the exception today (I've seen DVDs which had the *identical* movie track twice just to fill up the space).

However as good as the quality may be with HD, I won't accept a Microsoft video format (which is wmv). I would love to see the use of mpeg4.

What I've heared is, that the HD-DVDs will most likely offer mpeg2 streams, so no new propretary hardware has to be developed.

Have fun, Hannes

[junkmalle]

I won't accept a Microsoft video format (which is wmv)

You won't have any choice:

http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5166786.html

[Brian Ellis]

I understand MS used MPEG-4 as their starting point in developing wmv. MPEG-4 appeared to have a number of small object-oriented problems when it came to HD and wmv has overcome these. It is certainly object oriented, like MPEG-4.

An interesting side-issue is that, theoretically, by specifying a given object, it should be possible to smooth movement over a path, thereby eliminating camera shake for hand-held shots.

[Hulk]

As for the wmv format, it's hard to not want it to be included in the next DVD standard when you have a look at what it can do, and that really is the bottom line.

The screen size that makes HD "significant"? That's a tough one. I can readily see a difference between SD and HD on my 17" CRT computer monitor, but then again that's a high resolution monitor and I'm only two feet from the screen.

From my personal experience I think that HD becomes very noticeable when you move from a 27" screen to a 32" one. I have a 27" in my bedroom and a 32" downstairs. The same movie looks very sharp on the 27" and a bit soft on the 32". Of course if the display device resolution is very high then a HD program will always look better on any size display, if you get righ up on it.

But, since wmv can do HD using the same bandwidth as SD, when the shooting devices (camcorders) become more widespread I believe that there won't be a reason not to go HD with everything. Assuming that the DVD compatibility problems are worked out.

I personally wouldn't buy a HD display device at the present point in time that is less than 32" or so, but I'm not a fanatic and I'm not rich. I would like to have HD for my primary viewing room, i.e. the family room.

One final note, It looks as though HDV1 may be the "new" capture and editing format and wmv may be the delivery format, just as DV and MPEG-2 exist now.

Of course this is all wild speculation and plain fun gabbing!

- Mark


Brian,

Great link, thanks!