Sony BDP-S350 firmware 015

Firmware version 015 was made available January 29th 2009 for the Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray player. The S350 automatically detected that a new firmware version was available. Downloading over the Internet and updating was very simple and took about 7 minutes. I really like the way that some networked AV components make firmware upgrades so easy and painless.

Improvements over firmware version 010:

• Improves BD-Java compatibility to enhance interactivity with some BD-ROMs.
• Improves BD-Live performance to enhance interactivity.

Some people have reported that the 015 update fixes the Baraka Blu-ray freezing problem. I am skeptical that something that appears to be a laser layer focus/transition problem could be fixed via firmware. I will update this section when more Baraka user reports are in.

The new 015 firmware did not fix the Wall-E Blu-ray DTS audio glitches that I was having with my Lexicon DC-1 pre-amp/processor. The Lexicon DC-1 has DTS firmware from 1997 so it is probably something that can't/won't be fixed externally. It's time for me to upgrade my old DC-1 to something newer that is HDMI compatible with the newer lossless codecs.

The higher end Sony BDP-S550 model also has firmware 015 available with the same improvements listed. The S350 and S550 firmware download files both have files sizes of 51,822,592 bytes but they have different md5sum checksums so they are not the same. I will update this section when I compare the contents of both firmwares and determine what is different.

It has been 4 months since the 010 firmware came out September 30th 2008 that added BD-Live support to the BDP-S350. At this rate the S350 will probably get a couple more firmware updates this year. They will likely only be bug fixes as Sony hasn't announced any future features like their competition has for streaming Netflix, YouTube, and Picassa support. This is sort of discouraging since Sony has such a great track record of adding new features and functionality to the PS3. Time will tell how this affects Sony's AV consumer business.

Wall-E Blu-ray DTS audio glitches

The Blu-ray disc of Pixar's Wall-E experiences several brief DTS audio dropout glitches when played on a Lexicon DC-1 THX AC3 DTS preamp with the v2.01 firmware. The DTS audio plays flawlessly until about 18 minutes into the movie when the first brief audio dropout occurs. The glitch is very annoying and it happens about 20 times during the movie. The dropouts are repeatable and they always happen at the same locations. When it happens the Lexicon loses lock on the 5.1 DTS signal, switches to 2ch 48K PCM, and then reacquires the 5.1 DTS signal all in a fraction of a second.

The Lexicon DC-1 is a 12 year old surround pre-amp that has played thousands of AC3 and DTS movies on LaserDisc, DVD, and Blu-ray without any problems. This particular Wall-E Blu-ray is the first disc that has had any audio decoding problems. It's surprising considering the amount of time, the number of different discs, and how fast technology has changed in pasts 12 years. No audio decoding problems until the Wall-E Blu-ray disc. Amazing actually.

The audio glitches go away if the Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray player is instructed to decode DTS internally and output 48K PCM 2 channel surround. So the problem is not the player or the Wall-E disc but the ability of the Lexicon to decode the DTS stream.

The Wall-E packaging says that the audio is 5.1 DTS-HD MA (master audio) when it is actually 6.1 channels. The DTS-MA on Wall-E uses a legacy 1.5Mbps DTS core that since it's 6.1 is DTS-ES (Extended Surround) which has six discrete channels. DTS-ES uses a core + extension design where the extra rear channel uses optional packaging flags that in the past haven't caused the Lexicon DC-1 any problems. Somehow this incompatible DTS-ES stream is encoded slightly differently.

The DTS website says this about the 6.1 DTS-ES core + extension:

So, if you have an older DTS-capable receiver, it will “ignore” any extensions and just decode the core — ensuring you of compatibility and very high quality.

Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case with the Blu-ray of Wall-E and a Lexicon DC-1. So the only solution is to listen to Wall-E with a 2 channel PCM downmix that lack dynamics, bass, and discrete channel steering. I guess it is time to upgrade my Lexicon DC-1.

Source

• http://www.dts.com/Technology/DTS_Digital_Surround_PLUS_Extensions.aspx
• http://www.pixar.com/featurefilms/walle/behind.html

Amazon's Blu-ray Buy 2 Get 1 Free

Amazon is having another one of its Blu-ray buy 2 get 1 free deal that runs until January 16th 2009. The selection is quite large this time. Amazon's slow but free shipping is also available which makes this deal even better.

The way to get the most out of this deal is to choose 3 discs that are all the same price. Below is a partial list broken down into price groups:

$17 * 2 / 3 = $11.33

• Coral Reef Adventure (IMAX)
• The Living Sea (IMAX)
• Dolphins (IMAX)
• The Alps (IMAX)
• House of 1000 Corpses

$18

• Monster's Ball
• March of the Penguins

$19 * 2 / 3 = $12.67

• The Shining
• The Road Warrior
• A Clockwork Orange
• The Fugitive
• Bullitt
• Enter the Dragon
• Swordfish
• The Aviator
• Eraser
• Body Heat
• Outbreak
• The Omega Man
• Space Cowboys
• Every Which Way But Loose
• The Gauntlet
• Scooby-Doo

$20 * 2 / 3 = $13.33

• Top Gun
• The Usual Suspects
• The Hunt for Red October (Tom Clancy)
• Clear and Present Danger (Tom Clancy)
• Patriot Games (Tom Clancy)
• The Sum of All Fears (Tom Clancy)
• Death Proof
• Mission Impossible III
• The Terminator
• The Italian Job
• Sleepy Hollow
• Robocop
• Lord of War
• The Doors
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
• Aeon Flux
• Babel
• Nacho Libre
• Hustle and Flow
• Reds (25th Anniversary Edition)

$21 * 2 / 3 = $14

• Face/Off
• Madagascar
• Shrek the Third
• Mission Impossible (Special Collector's Edition)
• Mission - Impossible II
• The Untouchables (Special Collector's Edition)
• Payback - Straight Up - The Director's Cut
• Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow
• Lara Croft - Tomb Raider
• Black Snake Moan
• Dreamgirls (Two-Disc Showstopper Edition)
• We Are Marshall

$23 * 2 / 3 = $15.33

• 300
• I Am Legend
• 3:10 to Yuma
• The Departed
• Rambo
• The Mist
• Dr. No (James Bond)
• From Russia with Love (James Bond)
• Thunderball (James Bond)
• Die Another Day (James Bond)
• For Your Eyes Only (James Bond)
• Live and Let Die (James Bond)
• Planet of the Apes
• Halloween (2-Disc Unrated Collector's Edition)
• Die Hard 2 - Die Harder
• Ultraviolet

$24 * 2 / 3 = $16

• Planet Terror
• Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
• I, Robot
• Troy - The Director's Cut
• Pan's Labyrinth
• Romancing the Stone
• Daredevil - The Director's Cut
• Die Hard
• Die Hard With a Vengeance
• Letters from Iwo Jima
• Rush Hour 3

$25 * 2 / 3 = $16.67

• Transformers
• Cloverfield
• Open Season
• Basic Instinct 2

$26 * 2 / 3 = $17.33

• Young Frankenstein
• Live Free or Die Hard
• Beowulf
• Jumper
• The Day After Tomorrow
• Monster House
• Nim's Island

$28 * 2 / 3 = $18.67

• There Will Be Blood
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Ice Age
• Ice Age - The Meltdown
• Bee Movie
• The Love Guru

$35

• Mad Men - Season One
• Rambo 1-3 Boxset

There are several collections available in the B2G1F deal. Six James Bond movies can be bought for $15 each. Four Tom Clancy movies are available for $13 each. Three Mission Impossible movies for $14 each. Four IMAX mini-features are only $11 each. There are many more movies that are part of this B2G1F deal than are listed above. Happy Shopping.

The Terminator: Blu-ray vs. LaserDisc

The 1984 film The Terminator made by James Cameron stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Michael Biehn. It is the classic action sci-fi cyborg thriller flick.

I purchased the THX certified LaserDisc of The Terminator in 1995. It wasn't a reference quality LaserDisc like the THX pressing of the Terminator 2 directors cut by any means but it wasn't a bad transfer either. The original was a low budget production and to reduce costs the film was mixed with mono audio. I have enjoyed watching this movie many times over the past decade, it was a good purchase.

Video
The Blu-ray version of The Terminator is a BD25 disc that uses the MPEG-2 video compression codec at an average 18.54 Mbps data rate. The picture visuals are far from reference quality but they are a huge step up from the THX LaserDisc. Video noise is mostly absent and the image isn't that grainy. The Blu-ray also has much more detail and is cleaner than the LaserDisc. Unfortunately these improvements have a downside in that the special effects shots are now more obvious and fake looking. It's a good looking disc and the extra detail provides a definite high-defness. This is probably the best The Terminator will ever look and it is a dramatic improvement over the old THX LaserDisc.

Audio
The old THX LaserDisc, as did the theatrical release, had a mono audio track. Cameron had a limited budget for Terminator and decided to spend the available funds on special effects instead of on a surround soundtrack. This was a good choice as the SFX really made the film work. The mono track obviously lacked any stereo or directional sound information. The mono track also lacked bass and sort of dynamics during the scenes with gunshots and explosions.

Several years ago Terminator was remixed with multichannel surround and many sound effects were recreated. The Blu-ray has an uncompressed LPCM 5.1 16-bit sound track along with a 640 kbps AC3 5.1 track those with older audio equipment. This new remixed audio track is impressive with strong bass and extreme dynamics. The battle scenes now have a kinetic sound force that matches the intense action on screen. You can hear the bullets whizzing around the room. Directional pans add a nice touch to some scenes. The rear surround channels are used throughout the film for an added ambience; urban city noise, crickets near the woods, humming sodium lamps in the parking garage, and buzzing machines in the tool shop. One strange ambient surround effect is the choice of crickets inside Sarah Conner's apartment. What are crickets doing inside? Other than that slight flaw, the sound design is well done and almost a bit over the top in some action spots. I enjoyed the new 5.1 remix immensely and it is a huge improvement over the mono track. This is the surround sound track that Cameron probably wanted originally but couldn't afford.

So what about purity of essence and faithful reproduction of the original version? Is 5.1 remixing like B&W colorization or the adding of CG effects years later? The 5.1 remix definitely has more impact and excitement than the original mono track which was lackluster and boring. So as a home theater enthusiast I like this new 5.1 mix but it would of been nice, form a purity of essence standpoint, if they included a compressed version of the original mono track for posterity. Other than for comparisons, I probably would never listen to the mono track but it's the sort of thing that should be included these days with multi-gigabyte Blu-ray discs.

Conclusion
The video and the audio of the Terminator Blu-ray are huge improvements over the old THX LaserDisc. The Blu-ray video has fine high-def details but it isn't close to being reference quality. The 5.1 remix has strong bass, explosive dynamics, nice directional pans, and enveloping surrounds. The Blu-ray provides a better viewing experience and I'll probably be watching The Terminator a lot more often now.

Highly recommended.

Amazon's Blu-ray Buy 2 Get 1 Free

Amazon is having another one of its Blu-ray buy 2 get 1 free deal that runs until November 6th 2008. The selection this time is very similar to the B2G1F sale in the middle of June. Slow but free shipping is also available.

The way to get the most out of this deal is to choose 3 discs that are all the same price. This time the biggest selection and best deals are the $20 discs which works out to a little more than $13 per disc.

$20 * 2 / 3 = $13

• The Fifth Element (Remastered)
• Hellboy (Director's Cut)
• Underworld (Unrated)
• Black Hawk Down
• Bram Stoker's Dracula
• Gattaca
• The Patriot (Extended Cut)
• Resident Evil
• House of Flying Daggers
• The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• Memento
• Resident Evil: Apocalypse
• Dogma
• Run Lola Run
• A Knight's Tale
• A Few Good Men
• Seven Years in Tibet
• Monty Python's Life Of Brian - The Immaculate Edition
• Wild Things (Unrated Edition)
• Cruel Intentions
• Immortal Beloved
• Secret Window

The Fifth Element and Hellboy have excellent Blu-ray picture quality and are visual treats. Bram Stoker's Dracula is a great film but this Blu-ray has a very soft picture quality and the fine detail and resolution look the same as on the old anamorphic DVD. Happy Shopping.

Baraka Blu-ray Freezing Problem

The October 28th 2008 release of the Baraka Blu-ray disc has a problem. Many people have reported that video playback freezes between chapter 18 and 19 which is around 72 minutes into the film. The exact location where the freeze up occurs changes slightly when the disc is reloaded but it is always between the chapter 18 and 19 spots. After freezing up, playback can resume on its own after the player jumps several minutes, or by manually fast forwarding or chapter skipping. Some people have reported no video playback freezing problems whatsoever. Everyone agrees that the picture quality of Baraka is spectacular.

The Baraka Blu-ray is a BD50 disc that utilizes the VC-1 codec at a high 30+ Mbps bit rate. When you do the math the 72 minute mark is about 20 - 25 GB into the disc which is about where the layer change would occur. This could be just a coincidence and the 72 minute mark could just be the location of a mastering flaw. What is odd about the freeze up flaw that everything is fine once the player jumps around 10 minutes past it.

The Baraka Blu-ray is packaged in an environmentally "green" 100% recyclable cardboard box that has a fold out sleeve which the Blu-ray disc slides in. It is a fairly snug fit and the disc surface is touching the cardboard sleeve. Optical media and friction are bad and can cause scratches, dirt to stick, and warping. Most inspections of the disc surface return a clean bill of health so scratches and excess dirt are not likely the problem. The tight shrink wrapping and the lack of structural support from the case can be causing minor warping.

Possible Culprits

• disc mastering or pressing flaw
• minor disc warping due to flimsy cardboard packing
• second layer transition laser focus problem
  

Some Blu-ray players seem more susceptible to this freeze up than others. Players such as the PS3 have been reported to both freeze up for some people and work flawlessly for others. Below is a list of which players suffer from the Baraka freeze up and which ones don't. Note that some players are listed in both good and bad categories.

Good Players

• Insignia NS-BRDVD
  
• Panasonic BD55
• Pioneer 51FD/05FD with firmware 1.12a
  
• Pioneer 95D
• Sony BDP-S1
• Sony PS3

Bad Players

• LG BH200
• Samsung BDP-1500
• Sony BDP-BX1 with 010 firmware update
• Sony BDP-S300
• Sony BDP-S350 with 010 firmware update
• Sony BDP-S550
• Sony BDP-S5000ES
  
• Sony PS3 with 2.50 firmware
  

Below is a list of links that have reported the Baraka freeze up problem:

Tracking Report Links

• http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=69146
• http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/ht-software-high-definition/278174-baraka-blu-ray-disc-problem.html
• http://wiredathome.com/story.php?title=baraka-blu-ray-disc-problem
• http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15000335
• http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14994471#post14994471

My Experience
I have a Sony BDP-S350 that has been updated to the most recent 010 firmware. I purchased my copy of the Baraka Blu-ray from Amazon. Picture quality is fantastic and the disc played great until a little bit after chapter 18 (~70 minutes) then playback froze and my S350 was unresponsive. I was able to skip a chapter forward but that took about a minute of waiting. I then ejected the disc, turned off the player, tried it again, and playback froze but at about the same spot (roughly 20 seconds later). I tried this several time an had the roughly the same results.

So I complained to Amazon that the Baraka disc was defective and they sent me a new one which arrived two days later. Now that is good service. Well, I put the Baraka Blu-ray disc jumped to chapter 17 and started watching. It played fine past the spot the original disc froze at, this got my hopes up, and then it locked up my Sony S350 player about two minutes later (at about 72 minutes). I tried this a couple time and the same thing happen. I looked at the surface of the Blu-ray disc and it looked fine. Great, now I have to discs I need to mail back to Amazon.

You could say I was frustrated. What do I do now? Hmmm. I looked at the cardboard packaging and thought what a piece of junk. It's great that they want to save the planet by using "green" packaging but sliding the disc in like that can't be good for it. So I put the Baraka disc into an unused CD jewel case I had laying around. About 12 hours later I decided to give the second Baraka disc another try. I popped the disc in, skipped to chapter 18, and this time it worked flawlessly. This is crazy so I tried it a couple time and every time it worked fine. Problem solved but how? This exact same disc failed several times just 12 hours prior. The disc must of been slightly warped and sitting in the CD jewel case fixed it.

Since I hadn't sent it back to Amazon yet, in an effort of completeness I decided to try my original Baraka disc again. It has been sitting in the cardboard sleeve for the past couple days. Jumped to chapter 18 and it froze at about 72 minutes, which is at a slightly different spot than it did at first. Tried it a couple times and roughly the exact same result. The original Baraka is now safely in a CD jewel case too.

Update Nov 7 2008
Over the past several days I have checked both copies of Baraka several times. My original Baraka disc is still freezing up in the Egyptian ruins section (~72 minutes) but at slightly different spots. My second "replacement" Baraka disc that originally froze has worked fine every time I have retried it. So it appears that the CD jewel case solution has worked great with one disc and it hasn't done a thing for the other disc.

Update Nov 14 2008
It has been another week of sitting in a CD jewel case and my original copy of Baraka is still freezing up at around the 72 minute position. The exact freezing spot is about +15 seconds from a week ago so it does seem to be moving forward slowly. I am returning this defective disc to Amazon today so this is end of my testing.

Conclusion
The environmentally "green" packaging is warping the Blu-ray disc. The solution seems to be to remove the disc from the flimsy cardboard packaging and put it some place safe where it won't be torques and twists. An empty CD jewel case or unused DVD case will work nicely.


Note
If you have the Baraka Blu-ray please post your experiences here. Please list your Blu-ray player make, model, and firmware version (if known) and the timestamp where Baraka freezes. If Baraka works fine on your player please mention that too.

Amazon's Blu-ray Buy 2 Get 1 Free

Until October 31st 2008 Amazon is running its Blu-ray buy 2 get 1 free deal. You choose 3 discs, pay for the two most expensive discs, and then get the third for free. Shipping is even free if you select Super Saver shipping which is a couple days slower than the Standard method.

The selection is 148 discs that range in price from $14 to $55. The way to get the most out of this deal is to choose 3 discs that are all the same price. Below I've grouped the some of my picks into their respective prices brackets:

$17 * 2 / 3 = $11

• The Fifth Element (Remastered)
• Hellboy (Director's Cut)
• The Shining
• A Clockwork Orange
• Halloween
• Saw
• Saw II
• The Fugitive
  
• The Aviator
• The Road Warrior
  
• Outbreak
  
• Swordfish
  
• Bullitt
  
• Eraser
  
• Enter the Dragon
  
• Dawn of the Dead
  
• Every Which Way But Loose
• Wyatt Earp
  
• Resident Evil: Apocalypse
  
• Battle of the Bulge
  
• The Gauntlet
• Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn
  

$20 *2 / 3 = $13

• Bram Stoker's Dracula
• Gattaca
• Resident Evil
  
• Robocop
• Species
• Secret Window
  

$21 * 2 / 3 = $14

• 300
• I Am Legend
• The Departed
• Troy (Director's Cut)
• The Terminator
• Ocean's Thirteen
  

This is an amazing deal and a great way to build your Blu-ray library. Some Blu-ray discs can be had for as low as $11 each! Happy Shopping.

Blu-ray is "a bag of hurt"

At the October 14th 2008 Apple Notebook event a question was asked why the new MacBooks didn't have HDMI or Blu-ray. The answer was "HDMI is limited in resolution and can’t drive our 30-inch display so we put in Display Port."

Then Steve Jobs added:

“Blu-ray is a bag of hurt. I don’t mean from the consumer point of view. It’s great to watch movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex. We’re waiting until things settle down, and waiting until Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace before we burden our customers with the cost of licensing. It's a nascent market that's just getting started. We'll see how it goes."

Bag of hurt? Ohh how I feel the pain. So is it licensing, cost, or something else?

Licensing
Apple currently licenses MPEG-2 video and Dolby AC3 audio technology for their DVD products. iTunes uses the MPEG-4 video codec and DRM. AppleTV has an HDMI port. Any hardware patents for the physical laser / disc transport would be taken care of by the drive manufacturer. So the only parts missing for a minimal Blu-ray implementation are the VC-1 video codec and BD-Java. Apple is also a member of the Blu-ray alliance whose sole purpose is to share technology and ease licensing problems. I don't see how licensing is an issue.

Cost
The current cost of Blu-ray drives are around $100 for a reader and $300 for a burner. These costs will go down over time but both Sony and Lenovo are currently shipping notebooks at MacBook prices so cost isn't the only issue. Performance also isn't an issue since a Sony VAIO with a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 Processor can handle playing Blu-ray video.

Something Else
Blu-ray would compete with Apple's iTunes video download business and it would make the current AppleTV obsolete. Apple and several other "experts" have claimed that the HD future is video downloading. High rental costs, limited movie selection, low quality (720p and low bitrates), and broadband provider bandwidth caps are all going to be major obstacles for consumer adoption. Another problem is that the video download market space is crowded with many players (Netflix, Sony, Hulu, Amazon, Vudu, iTunes, all the cable company VOD offerings). As a consumer, that is just too many boxes to have in my living room. I want one box and I think alliances are key here.

LG just came out with a Blu-ray player that supports Netflix streaming. Tivo supports Amazon downloads and there is talk about future Netflix and Hulu support. Sony has its Bravia-link streaming service and I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony's PS3 and BD-Live compatible players get a firmware upgrade supporting it.

The only solution that can currently support Netflix, Hulu, and iTunes is the Home Theater PC (HTPC) but I'm not sure I want one in my living room. Microsoft's Vista Media Center can do all this plus browse the web, play Blu-rays, do DLNA, and be a networked DVR. Has the battle for the living room just begun? Or is it already over?

Sleeping Beauty restoration

Disney Studios recently underwent an extensive restoration of the 1958 film Sleeping Beauty that was released last week on DVD and Blu-ray. The picture quality has been called "stellar" with "perfect contrast" and "awesome color levels."

video restoration details:

• used original nitrate sequential Technicolor process negative
• negative is 3 frames (RGB) of B&W film
• separate RGB frames prevent longterm color fading
• Technirama large format negative process was 35mm is size but called a 70mm format
• used an anamorphic Delrama lens for a 2.55:1 aspect ratio
• scanned with a 4K resolution
• major frame damage and flaws were manually fixed
• digital noise reduction (DNR) was used to remove grain and clean up image
• 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoding on a 50 GB Blu-ray with a bit rate that averages 35 Mbps
  

audio restoration details:

• the 1958 original 3-track 35mm magnetic score recordings from UFA Studios in West Berlin
• Peter Tchaikovsky's 1889 ballet score
• the original soundtrack was 6-track
• equalization and signal processing were used to remove noise, track hiss, and pops
• surrounds are used for residual score and ambient effects
• lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 on the Blu-ray

An incredible amount of care was put into the audio / visual restoration of Sleeping Beauty. The Blu-ray release also has an extensive amount of supplemental material. Let's hope Disney expends this amount of effort of all its future releases.

sources:

• http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movies.php?id=555&show=review
• http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1906

Netflix $1/month Blu-ray surcharge

Beginning November 5th (remember remember) Netflix will begin charging a one dollar per month premium for unlimited Blu-ray rental access. This $1/month will be in addition to the standard membership charge. The extra fee doesn't seem too exorbitant considering that Blu-ray discs cost significantly more than DVD 's. Let's hope this means no more long wait queues since Netflix will be increasing their Blu-ray inventory!

The monthly plans:

• $5 - 1 disc at a time - limit 2 discs per month and 2 hours of streaming
• $9 - 1 disc at a time - unlimited exchanges and streaming
• $14 - 2 discs at a time - unlimited exchanges and streaming
• $17 - 3 discs at a time - unlimited exchanges and streaming

Since the $1/month Blu-ray fee is the same for all plans the $17 plan offers the best Blu-ray for the buck. And remember with Netflix you get free shipping both ways, there are no due dates or late fees, and you can cancel at anytime.