Who better to author the DVD of English football’s greatest moment than our German DVD author?
The disc features England’s world cup winning match against West Germany at Wembley featuring Sir Geoff Hurst’s hat trick and probably the most famous commentary in the world from Kenneth Wolstenholm.
The discs were distributed through Marks and Spencer, official tailor to the World cup team, earlier in the year.
re:fine have produced the Chelsea FC end of season DVD for over 30,000 season -ticket holders and fans.
The DVD charts an incredible season that saw the team winning the FA cup as well as the Premiership. Highlights include the 8-0 success against Wigan that sealed their victory, the Victory parade through West London and the contenders for goal of the season and player of the year.
Off the pitch footage includes interviews with the players and some really funny outtakes and bloopers.
The DVD is presented in a glossy lancing pack featuring team captain John Terry.
For the third year running re:fine will be taking part in the Soho fun-run!
This unique event is a three legged race around the heart of Soho and has become a bit of a summer tradition! The race follows a route around Soho where teams endeavor to answer questions and receive hospitality at various stops en route.
Once back in Soho square there is a big picnic and a live band. We’ve never won anything or even come close but it’s great fun and raises money for the Vision Charity -our industry charity that aims to change the lives of blind and visually impaired children.
To donate or take part click here!
It’s World Cup time! Celebrations, joy, chants, anguish and an ear-bleeding explosion of noise!
So, the World Cup… you probably think it’s all about the football? It’s not! We’ve created two stunning documentary DVDs for FIFA – these both explore FIFA’s intention that the World Cup in South Africa should leave a lasting legacy for the South African people, not just a pile of broken vuvuzelas, tattered flags and empty beer cans.
With commentary in four languages (French, Spanish, English and German), the documentaries show how FIFA have been involved in important, lasting projects that provide massive investment in infrastructure as well as investment in the social infrastructure, education, job creation and AIDS care & awareness.
No matter who wins and loses, South Africa will have gained a lot from this World Cup, and these DVDs show us how.
The Blu-ray Disc Association has released the specifications for BDXL, the new multi-layer recordable Blu-ray Disc format with up to 128GB of capacity. With the completion and approval of the specification, manufacturers can now obtain licensing information and license applications needed to begin production of the high capacity write-once and rewritable discs and hardware .
Targeted primarily at commercial segments such as broadcasting, medical and document imaging enterprises with significant archiving needs, BDXL provides customers with triple layer 100GB RE (rewritable) and R (write-once) discs and quadruple layer 128GB R discs. Possible consumer applications include capture and playback of HD broadcast and satellite programming in markets where set-top recorders are prevalent, like Japan.
“The BDA worked diligently to create an extension of the Blu-ray Disc format that leverages the physical structure of the design of the disc to create even more storage capacity,” said Victor Matsuda, Blu-ray Disc Association Global Promotions Committee chair. “We expect further growth of the Blu-ray Disc market as the introduction of 100GB/128GB discs will expand the application of BDtechnologies.”
The BDXL specification was developed with specific market segments in mind, and newly-designed hardware addressing such markets will play back or record BDXL media. However, because the new media specifications are extensions of current Blu-ray Disc technologies, future BDXL-capable recorders can easily be designed to play back existing 25GB and 50GB Blu-ray discs, says the BDA Association
My love for Blu-ray players grows whenever companies add another feature that has nothing to do with Blu-ray. Now any worthwhile player is a home-entertainment hub, replacing cable box and Apple TV alike. How soon till they handle everything?
We looked at the four newly announced flagship players from the four biggest Blu-ray companies, LG, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony. Any self-respecting Blu-ray player today has Pandora and Picasa, and of course Netflix subscription streaming video. They also have some form of pay-per-view movie download service, from Vudu, Amazon or Roxio’s CinemaNow and Blockbuster apps.
This year, though, the companies turned up the juice. LG added a built-in hard drive; Sony surprisingly built a remote-control iPhone app. And now all top Blu-ray players will go 3D. Integrated Wi-Fi was a stand-out feature last year; this year it’s par.
These won’t be out till the summer, and there’s no pricing announced yet, but already we’re excited. See, putting everything but the the kitchen sink into a firmware upgradeable $200-to-$300 box is way smarter than jamming it all inside a $1500 TV, where picture quality should be the chief concern.
read more at Gizmondo.com
What is Blu-ray 3D ?
Blu-ray 3D is the new movie format from the Blu-ray Disc Association, which allows for the playback of true stereoscopic high definition content in the home. This should not be confused with the existing red / blue ‘anaglyph’ 3D blu-rays which have appeared over the past couple of years. 3D Blu-ray should offer a comparable 3D experience to that seen in a modern 3D D-cinema presentation, but in the comfort of your own home.
3D Blu-ray is based around a new profile for players, known as Profile 5
1.0 being the original players
1.1 entitled ‘Bonus View’ and offering Picture in Picture, and
2.0 entitle ‘BD Live’ offering network connectivity.
What do I need to watch a 3D Blu-ray?
As a new format, you will need new equipment to experience 3D Blu-ray.
Route 1 – The Living Room
Route 2 – The Home PC
What happens if I put 3D Blu-ray disc into a normal 2D player?
The good news is that 3D Blu-rays are designed to be backwardly compatible with current 2D Blu-ray players. This means that you can author a 3D disc and 2D Blu-ray players will play it back in 2D.
Should we make separate 2D and a 3D Blu-ray skus?
Yes if you wish to take advantage of the potential premium price attached to 3D content.
It is perfectly possible to create a Blu-ray disc that displays 3D on 3D TVs and 2D on 2D TVs. Some of the advanced functionality of Blu-ray is lost on PS3s
What’s the deal with Playstation 3, can they be upgraded to 3D?
Yes, it is thought that the 3D Playstation games market is going to be a massive driver for 3D in the home, like it was for Blu-ray player numbers.
The games firmware upgrade was released June 2010, with the blu-ray 3d upgrade due before the end of the year. The caveat is that Playstation 3 does not support all of the advanced features of the 3D Blu-ray Spec and only HDMV Movie mode authoring is supported. That means no BDJ or BD Live support.
How do the menus work?
Profile 5 players allow for 3D menus and subtitles, in both cases this is a depth set above the video. 3D menus either position the menu pages at a distance above the video, or a more complex method by which the buttons are positioned floating above the menu page which is also above the video.
How is Blu-ray 3D different to Broadcast 3D?
As broadcasters showing 3D have to fit two eyes worth of information into an existing HD broadcast chain there have been some workarounds as follows:
Blu-ray 3D brings a new method to the table, which offers full HD resolution. In this scenario, the frames are interleaved in their entirety, alternating between left and right eyes.
This is achieved by:
This method also means that 3D Blu-ray can offer backward compatibility for 2D Blu-ray as older players can only decode the base view, as they won’t understand the data in the dependent view.
What is the difference between Active vs Passive Glasses? 
The two main ways two experience 3D is by wearing either Passive aka Polarised Glasses or by wearing Active aka Shutter Glasses. Note that these are completely different ways of viewing 3D and you have to get glasses that match your display.
The lenses on polarised glasses are each designed to let through one orientation of light, so the clockwise spinning light from the right image can only pass through the right lens and the anti-clockwise spinning light from the left image can only pass through the left lens.
Pros – The glasses are cheaper to buy / manufacture,
Cons – The screens are more expensive.
Pros – The screen are more economical
Cons – The glasses are more expensive & bulky
What do materials do I need to make a Blu-ray 3D?
The authoring process is very similar to 2D blu-ray authoring, so no real changes there. When it comes to the video the easiest way to supply your content for 3D Blu-ray mastering is by supplying separate left eye and right eye HDCAM SR masters.
SPEC:
1920 x 1080p 24p (23.976fps)
Left eye HDCAM SR + Right eye HDCAM SR
or
Uncompressed L + R QuickTime/.AVI files
or
L + R D-Cinema DPX files
L +R Sync is really important!
Does re:fine author 3D Blu-rays?
Ahem… yes of course!
Contact Symon (dot) Roue @refine-group.com
www.refine-group.com
We just couldn’t resist it… we’ve invested in early-release Blu-ray3D software and kitted out our authoring & graphics suite with Blu-ray3D players, screens and glasses.
We’re the first UK authoring facility to do so this, quickly enabling our clients to release their 3D content on Blu-ray.
If you have a film or project that you would like to get ready for Q4 then talk to us about how to deliver your materials.
With longer lead times than 2D, now’s the time to start thinking about getting your Blu-ray 3D ready.
Sales of 3D TVs and Blu-ray3D players have really taken the retailers by surprise with electronic manufacturers such as Sony, Samsung , LG and Panasonic set to shift 4.2 million 3D TVs globally in 2010 alone. The 3D television market is projected to triple to 12.9 million units next year, according to new research from Isuppli.
Further reading
Thousands of clips from the AP Archive can be viewed online by the UK education community thanks to the programmers at re:fine!
The clips are part of an initiative by JISC Collections (Joint Information Systems Committee, a government-funded agency) to provide the UK education community with access to archives of digital images to support all levels of teaching, learning and research.
The images will be accessible through an online database currently in development. Once a school, college or educational institution signs up to the scheme, their staff and pupils will be able to use the images freely, and without further authorisation.
The databases are incredible resources, designed by JISC to maintain the UK’s position as a global leader in education. The AP Archive, rich in its coverage of events, war and conflict, politics, disasters, environment, culture, social history, human interest, science, entertainment and sport is perfectly placed to deliver footage for the resources.
re:fine delivered over 350,000 files and associated metadata. Each clip was transcoded to WMV, MPEG2, MOV and JPEG files. re:fine programmers created a function to automatically insert metadata, enabling the clips to be searched by subject, date and key word or key-phrase.
The Volvo Ocean Race archive is the latest tape library to come under management at re:fine. The 4,500 tapes contain archive footage from the incredible race’s thirty year history.
The race (previously known as the Whitbread around the world race) takes place every three years. The 2008-2009 race covered over 39,000 nautical miles, took over nine months to complete and reached a cumulative audience of 2 Billion People. The race is a gruelling test of human endurance where conditions can include 30 metre waves and winds at up to 110 km per hour.
Each tape is logged on to our asset management system and stored in our climate controlled library. The assets can be viewed online and tapes and clips can be ordered for delivery worldwide.