Archive for the ‘Blu-ray’ Category

Luciano Pavarotti – on Blu-ray Disc

Monday, May 24th, 2010

pav bigThis month we completed a set of three Blu-ray discs  featuring the works of the late, great Luciano Pavorotti.

The Blu-rays feature a diverse range of Pavarotti’s concerts.   ‘Pavorotti in Modena’ is a Pavarotti’s triumphant  return to the music school of his youth for an emotional benefit recital.  In this concert Pavarotti performs a range of music  including what were tobecome his signature tracks by composers such as Bizet, Gluck, Tosti, Verdi and Puccini.

‘Christmas with Pavarrotti’ features some of the world’s favourite Christmas songs and Carols, performed in English French, German and Italian.  Tracks include ‘Ave Maria’ and ‘Pieta, Signore’ and ‘All Come All Ye Faithful’.

‘Pavorotti in Barcelona’ is a concert on a smaller scale that offers the opportunity to get to know more of his work.  This set of three stunning Blu-rays demonstrates why Luciano Pavorotti is the most revered tenor of all time.

The Great Dictator and The Kid – now on Blu-ray!

Monday, April 19th, 2010

charlie_bigWe are very proud of the brilliant pop up menus that our design team created for the Blu-ray releases of two of Charlie Chaplin’s most successful films.

The Kid was first released in 1921 and is the touching story of the friendship between a young orphan and Charlie Chaplin’s popular ‘Little Tramp’.  It was the first feature length comedy drama ever made and was written, produced and directed by Chaplin.

The 18773_chaplin_dictatorDictator (1940)  is a fascinating film that parodies Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.  It is Chaplin’s first true ‘talking picture’ as well as his most commercially successful film.  More importantly, the only major feature film of its period to bitterly satirize Nazism and Adolf Hitler.

The backdrop to the menus feature a 60 second loop of key scenes from the film.

Our designers used one of their favourite visual techniques, reflection, to give the menu some depth and matched the looping video in the reflection.

The Chapter points feature animated thumbnails, a feature unique to Blu-ray and not available for DVD.

The menus also feature music from the original score.We’ve already had some great reviews for the titles from The Digital Fix and from Blu-ray.com

Thinking of releasing your first Blu-ray?

Monday, April 19th, 2010

blurayuniversity

The Blu-ray team at re:fine are hosting a series of workshops to help you navigate a safe path to Blu-ray.

The next two workshops are on Thursday 10th June and Thursday 8th July  at 4pm at re:fine’s Latimer Road facility.

The workshops are a friendly and informative chance to learn more about Blu-ray and the production process including:

  • Introduction to Blu-ray
  • Why make the jump to  Blu-ray?
  • Features and benefits (major benefits of Blu-ray– with industry examples)
  • Getting your assets right
  • Paperwork – AACS and VISAN
  • Timescales

The format will include presentations from our authoring team, questions & answer sessions and a chance for a one-on-one chat with our team over drinks.

Please email   catherine.watling @ refine-group.com  to register your interest and receive more information

Blu-ray players make it on to the Nation’s official shopping list

Monday, April 19th, 2010

blurayAlongside lip gloss, cereal bars, bottles of mineral water and hair straighteners, Blu–ray players will now be included in official inflation calculations after the UK government statisticians looked into the contents of people’s homes and handbags to assess how the nation’s spending habits have changed.

Each year the Retail Prices Index and the Consumer Prices Index are given a spring-clean, to ensure that they truly represent what the country is buying and consuming.

In all, the UK’s shopping basket of goods and services that make up the indices contain about 650 items, with about 5 per cent of the items changed each year to reflect changing consumer habits. For an item to make it into the basket it has to achieve annual sales of £400 million. For it to drop, out annual sales have to fall below £100 million in most instances.

The Office of National Statistics normally add items to their basket because spending has reached a level that demands inclusion to ensure the basket remains representative of spending. In the case of technology such as Blu-ray players, their addition means they have reached a significant stage in consumer penetration.

Blu-ray players have come down significantly in price and have now reached a price point that is affordable for the majority of consumers, and not just the early adopters. The recent sales figures reflect this and the addition to the basket in turn reflects the growing consumer spending in this area.

Lavinia Carey, Director of the British Video Association commented: “We see this as a milestone moment for Blu-ray that reflects consumers’ growing appreciation of high-definition and what the format has to offer. With over 57% of households now owning an HDTV, sales of Blu-ray players are going to continue to grow throughout 2010, particularly in the run up to the FIFA World Cup as even more people make the move to HD.”

Source DVD intelligence – reproduced with permission

The Planets – An HD Odyssey

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

odysseywebThis Blu-ray  is a collaboration of music and science that could only have come out of Houston, Texas, the home of NASA and space exploration.

Filmmaker Dr Duncan Copp has created a spectacular visual companion piece for Holst’s musical score featuring new high definition NASA images which will be projected onto a 24ft screen as the score is performed by the Houston Symphony orchestra under Music Director Hans Graf.

To celebrate this production and the currently sold out US tour re:fine authored and replicated the Blu-ray & DVD presentation which features actual images and video footage of our solar system shot from a variety of unmanned planetary probes as well as the Hubble telescope.

re:fine created the print and packaging graphics after extensive consultation with both Duncan Copp and Houston Symphony.

Both the Blu-ray and the DVD are double disc sets, with the Blu-ray boasting PCM stereo & DTS-HD MAster Audio 5.1.  The second disc features an interview with Hans Graf as well as a tour of the planets with  NASA planetary scientists.

Many of the images have never been seen before by the public and would have been unimaginable 100 years ago when the score was written. One wonders how Holst would have reacted to seeing actual images of the worlds that he could only view from afar.

Blu-ray Disc Association unveils 3D logo

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

T3d blu-ray logobhe Blu-ray Disc Association has unveiled the new logo for the Blu-ray 3D standard, which was ratified in December. The specification allows for 1080p resolution delivery to each eye while wearing stereoscopic glasses, and will work on any compatible 3D display, including LCD, OLED and Plasma.

Blu-ray 3D also specifically calls for PlayStation 3 consoles to have full BD 3D content playback. According to CDRinfo: “Additionally, the specification supports playback of 2D discs in forthcoming 3D players and can enable 2D playback of Blu-ray 3D discs on the large installed base of Blu-ray Disc players currently in homes around the world.”

“The Blu-ray 3D specification calls for encoding 3D video using the Multiview Video Coding (MVC) codec, an extension to the ITU-T H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) codec currently supported by all Blu-ray Disc players. MPEG4-MVC compresses both left and right eye views with a typical 50% overhead compared to equivalent 2D content, and can provide full 1080p resolution backward compatibility with current 2D Blu-ray Disc players,” CDRinfo adds.

The specification also incorporates enhanced graphic features for 3D. These features provide a new experience for users, enabling navigation using 3D graphic menus and displaying 3D subtitles positioned in 3D video.

Source DVD Intelligence – reproduced with permission

Blu-ray disc academy to showcase Blu-ray apps

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

blurayacademy_202x113The MEDIA-TECH Association along with the support of the Blu-ray Disc Association will present this new forum showcasing the creative aspect of the Blu-ray format and how it can turn into business opportunities. Co-located with the MEDIA-TECH Global Expo and Summit, the Blu-ray Disc Academy will take place on 19 May 2010 in Frankfurt, Germany.

The Blu-ray Disc Academy is specifically designed to bring together the creative community and business/marketing professionals from across Europe to share experiences in turning content into profit.

This one-day seminar will have sessions that cover content creation with an emphasis on advance interactive features and how these can unlock market opportunities. The unique component of this forum will be the state-of-the-art live demonstrations of applications from pioneering production companies.

Jean-Luc Renaud, who has been involved in film, TV, and the new media for over 25 years and is the editor of industry website www.dvd-intelligence.com, will serve as the Forum Director of the Blu-ray Disc Academy. “I am excited to help shape this event as the presentations will cover a wide range of topics of particular relevance to the content community and will open doors for new business activities,” stated Renaud.

Niels Leibbrandt, European Promotions Chair of the Blu-ray Disc Association, adds: “The Blu-ray Disc Academy at the MEDIA-TECH 2010 provides a great opportunity to see the whole BD ecosystem in one location. The Blu-ray Disc association is happy to support this seminar which will be a terrific platform for BD production knowledge sharing and networking with professionals from all levels of business: creation of content, production, marketing, etc.”

More details on the programme of the Blu-ray Disc Academy will also be available soon at www.media-tech.net

Source DVD Intelligence, reproduced with permission

Speedlight Mastery Blu-ray and DVD

Monday, December 21st, 2009

speedlight202x113This instructional Blu-ray is ideal for any photographer wanting to take spectacular portraits on location. Shot using digital SLR cameras it was one of our most technical projects yet!

“Speedlight Mastery” was shot simultaneously using three Canon 5D MKII digital SLR’s cameras. Each camera had a 16GB memory card giving 15 minutes record time.  Audio was recorded through boom and a personal microphone and fed through a SQN mixer with balancing box to one of the cameras. 33 items were shot over a 4 day shoot of which 23 were selected for the final DVD & Blu-ray release.

Final Cut Pro was the editing system of choice, using its multi-camera capabilities to work seamless with the project.  Re:fine used Scenarist BD Studio along with its Cinevision encoder to get the best out of the video. The re:fine technical team were impressed with the output of the Digital SLRs and the combination of good optics and careful encoding proved to be a winning combination.

Refine have delivered both Blu-ray and copy protected DVDs which are now for sale at http://lovegroveconsulting.com/

Samsung in-Store Blu-ray

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Samsung-Blu-Ray-202x113

This month we authored and duplicated 1000 Blu-ray discs featuring an in-store presentation to showcase Samsung HD Televisions in DSG group stores.

The discs featured HD trailers from Blu-ray releases The Dark Night and Speed Racer.  It also previewed Gears of War 2 and Halo Wars for gamers.

We battled a tight deadline and delivered a day early!

True Treasures – Blu-ray box set

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

01_Blu-rayTrueTreasures

Viewing the stunning footage in this stunning five disc set is almost as good as visiting the landmark sites.

This month we are authoring a set of five Blu-ray discs showcasing some of the World’s greatest natural treasures from Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to stunning views of the Arizona’s Grand Canyon.   The footage is shot on HD video and then encoded to MPEG4 for Blu-ray.  This produces crisp, clean footage of some of the most beautiful landscapes on Earth.

The discs have three audio tracks; a narration in English, a classical musical track and an ambient sound track.  The stunning footage accompanied by the amazing surround sound makes an experience that feels almost as good as actually being there!