More on, "12 Monkeys"(now availible on DVD, AC-3 only). Time for Phillips to give up..............................................................................
Audio Uncertainties Slow European DVD Releases
The DVD Consortium's decision to throw Philips Electronics NV a bone and make MPEG-2 the DVD specification for multichannel audio in PAL countries could backfire and delay the release of titles in Europe.
Even if studios were clamoring to ship MPEG-2 encoded titles to Europe, they don't have the tools to author them. Philips-the only company manufacturing encoders-hasn't made the equipment available. The Eindhoven institution looks to be the sole proponent of MPEG-2, and its poky ways haven't given Hollywood any reason to jump on the bandwagon.
"We have not been able to get our hands on a multichannel evaluation unit," said Chris Cookson, senior vice president of technical operations for Warner Bros. "This really puts us in a severe bind. There needs to have been an answer before now on how you do it."
Only a few DVD player models are available in Europe-mostly in Germany-but large shipments are expected to begin arriving on the continent in August. This is later than European vendors had hoped, and occurs largely because there aren't many PAL titles to play on the machines. Since developers can't get Philips encoders, the resulting encoding delays will further stymie DVD's growth. And content audio standards are largely unresolved.
What the final DVD specification requires in terms of audio encoding depends on who you talk to. The consensus is that in PAL countries some form of MPEG-either stereo or MPEG-2 multichannel-must be used, and AC-3 can be used as an option.
Based on interviews sister publication Multimedia Week conducted with Hollywood insiders and executives in the DVD tools and authoring business, MPEG-2 isn't gaining much support. None of the companies we spoke with have received the thumbs-up from their studio customers to master content using the Philips standard.
"I think everybody in the world except for Philips wants [the PAL standard] to be AC-3," said an executive at a U.S. mastering facility who asked not to be identified.
Anthony Charles, development manager for DVD at Electric Switch in the United Kingdom, said Philips encoders were expected to reach his facility last week.
Bob Doris, president of Sonic Solutions, said he doesn't plan to buy the Philips encoders but is ready to support the standard "when our customers want it."
Leon Silverman, executive vice president of post-production house LaserPacific Media Corp. [LPAC] said, "I don't have the ability to create multichannel audio." He said his facility has authored content for Europe and encoded it using MPEG stereo.
"There's no doubt that this is an issue," Silverman said. "There will be products on the market that are stereo only."
Steve Cantos, manager of technical services for Fox Home Entertainment International, said the company has no plans to encode or ship titles for distribution in Europe. "At this point, we still have a red flag in front of us saying 'wait'," Cantos said.
To meet the DVD specifications and offer optimum audio performance, several companies are putting MPEG-1 stereo and AC-3 on PAL titles. But opting to use two kinds of audio takes up a good deal of the disc and costs more than some companies to want to spend.
"It would be better if there were one standard," John Town, vice president of R&D of Nimbus Information Systems, said. "It would lower development costs."
Early indications are some title companies won't adhere to the MPEG mandate. The first-and so far as we know the only title-released as a PAL DVD in Europe was 12 Monkeys, which was distributed by Concorde Video and encoded using AC-3. Others are playing it safe for fear of creating discs that don't meet specifications outlined by the consortium.
"For our own product, we're more likely to use linear PCM," according to Richard Green, director of technology at EMI International. Green said EMI will buy an MPEG-2 encoder when one is available. The absence of MPEG-2 multichannel audio capabilities among the DVD-Video players hitting the European market isn't giving studios any incentive to encode in the format.
None of the players available in Europe include an MPEG-2 multichannel decoder. Toshiba Corp. will release such players with such a decoder in the late summer. Even Philips, the driving force behind MPEG-2, isn't planning to include the capability.
Only two Thomson players and one Panasonic player include built-in AC-3 decoding, however, AC-3 receivers are in far greater abundance than systems that can play back the MPEG-2 multichannel. The only MPEG-2 multichannel decoding receivers available in Europe cost more than $2,000 and are sold by high-end companies such as Meridian.
"There's a better financial model of getting AC-3 decoders into Europe," said Town, acknowledging that the MPEG requirement could hinder development of titles for the European market.
(Toshiba America Information Systems, 1600 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va. 22209-2505, 714/583-3000; Philips Electronics NV, Dudley G. Eustace, Groenewoudseweg 1, NL-5621 BA Eindhoven, The Netherlands, +31-40-273-2305) |
