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Sony pushes forward with BD-J

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

April 14, 2008, 1:43 PM

Using the NAB's yearly meeting as a backdrop, Sony reaffirmed its commitment to Blu-ray Java by announcing new upgrades to authoring software from in-house and third-party sources.

Sony has hopes that pushing BR-J harder will help silence critics who often pointed out Toshiba's now defunct HD DVD format was far more advanced in authoring functionality. Making BD-J easier to use is likely a top priority for the Japanese company.

Both its DVD Architect and Blu-print applications have been upgraded to support the BD-J platform fully. DVD Architect is part of Vegas Pro, a complete authoring software and the new functionality will be provided as a free upgrade to registered Vegas Pro users in June.

DVD Architect allows menus and content on a disc to be organized, which will obviously include interactive content, which is where BD-J comes in.

That application is more targeted towards independent content creators. For professional authoring houses, Blu-print offers a similar solution. Available in May, it will be integrated with Ensequence on-Q Create for Blu-ray Java which simplifies the task of creating interactive content.

In addition, Sonic has also announced an upgrade to its Scenarist application which allows for easier creation of advanced BR-J content. Among those enhancements is a new project creation wizard, drag and drop functionality, security tools, and additional BD-J tutorials.

Sonic's upgrade is available immediately.

Add a Comment (12 Comments)

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By Hubert

posted Apr 14, 2008 - 8:30 PM

I can drink 4 cups of pure Java coffee till the program has finished starting !

Score: 0

By pitdingo2

edited Apr 14, 2008 - 6:59 PM

The power of Java along with Blu-ray sounds like M$'s worst nightmare....and it is. No wonder M$ bankrolled HD-DVD.

With the limited HD-DVD format gone, content producers can focus on the superior Blu-ray format.

If you have a crappy tv, you are not going to notice much of a difference between HD and SD. I have a brand new Sony SXRD-50 and Blu-Ray looks absolutely amazing on it. I can not even watch regular DVDs now.

Score: 0

By bobthegoat2001

edited Apr 14, 2008 - 11:06 PM

Whatever you say Dave. Have fun on your non HD Wii.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted Apr 14, 2008 - 11:25 PM

I was thinking the exact same thing. What a tool. (pitdingo)

Score: 0

By Hellcat_M

posted Apr 14, 2008 - 5:09 PM

lol I love it. Well I got an upconvert DVD player and I love it! I had a friend who has a blu-ray player and he couldn't believe the quality. He only had 3 blu-ray movies so he took the player back to the store, sold his br disks and bought an upconvert DVD player and the movies he had then sold, and saved some money on top of it. :) More people who find this out, the less significant blu-ray will be.

Score: 0

By JT30

edited Apr 14, 2008 - 3:51 PM

This is a BD-J application coming to titles it connects your iPhone to your Blu-Ray player:

http://tech.yahoo.com/bl...e-into-a-blu-ray-remote/

I saw these two videos of it on youtube looks GREAT
http://youtube.com/resul...blender&search_type=

I can't wait for this! Professionals can use their BD-J tool to create it.

Score: 0

By Danno

posted Apr 14, 2008 - 1:55 PM

huh.. wow I watched my first BD on the pos3 yesterday. Found it comparable (just under) to some DVD's i have watched upscalled on my HD Toshiba player. All in all it seems that people who are saying the better format lost are right. I know I am judging based on 1 move (Spider Man 3) but still it should have looked better on the 50 inch than it did. Sony can push forward all they want its still a niche product in comparison to DVD.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted Apr 14, 2008 - 11:31 PM

I may have to challenge you on the POS3. I started using mine as my main standard DVD upscaler for my projector / screen because the A2 is losing the HDMI handshake all the time now.

I finally did a 2.3 update (the first and only PS3 update I have ever done) and the black levels on the PS3 are better than any player I have seen. Movies also look better upscaled to 720p vs 1080i.

Cars on BD is probably the finest detail I have ever seen. It looks like the POS3 is good for something after all. I still can't bring myself to buy any games for it.

I'm still pised that it wont do optical and HDMI audio out at the same time (unless you are in the PS3 menu) when you start a movie, one shuts off.

Score: 0

By gregmlr

posted Apr 14, 2008 - 2:34 PM

I read a review from not long after HD-DVD and BRD were introduced and it pointed out how BRD didn't offer much better quality than an upconverted DVD. That review was written 2-3 years ago and from what you're saying it still holds true. I see no point in BRD myself when they make DVD players that can upconvert to 1080p. I think Toshiba and the other former HD-DVD supporters should continue to further develop such technology. Talk about hilarious if Blu-ray's downfall was the very technology it's trying to replace!

Score: 0

By OnePCWhiz

posted Apr 14, 2008 - 1:48 PM

Typical...

"...pushing BR-J harder will help silence critics who often pointed out Toshiba's now defunct HD DVD format was far more advanced in authoring functionality."

Why wasn't this mentioned (or mentioned more loudly and more often) before HD-DVD became "defunct"?

Score: 0

By Hocuspokus

posted Apr 15, 2008 - 4:01 PM

Sadly the (wholly expected) kick-start the PS3 gave Blu-ray was just too big a head-start for the studios to overlook, not when Sony (if not the BDA) were prepared to fork out $500 million to help them in their choice.

The public chose HD DVD as their high def movie media of choice but the industry preferred the quick buck of the game console kids & the safety of the PS3 niche.

Personally I suspect that the movie industry knows Blu-ray is going nowhere, it sure as hell isn't going to be 'the next DVD'.
But for the couple of years they can gouge the PS3 gang it will (including the Sony pay-off money) be profitable for them.

The really funny one is going to be Toshiba's Cell-based 'Super Upconversion' - no need for different discs or any of that expensive carry on, this works with everyone's existing SD DVD collection.

http://www.youtube.com/w...5uI&feature=related

Score: 0

By Niro

posted Apr 14, 2008 - 2:03 PM

Actually it WAS mentioned ALL the time, pretty loudly too. Now, however, instead of mentioning it as a "comparison"...people are b****ING about it.

Score: 0

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