Joe Kane on Blu-ray Image Quality

Some of you may recall the earlier article I posted on Blu-ray. In that article the opinion piece I quoted from Projector Central detailed concerns about the image quality of Blu-ray over HD-DVDs. The primary reason given was that for whatever reason, Sony is currently using MPEG-2 to compress Blu-ray high-definition video (the same codec used in standard DVDs today), and not using newer, better quality codecs such as VC-1. (It’s worth highlighting that the article did also go on to say that larger Blu-ray disc capacity may help image quality in the future.)

Now, I’m a big home theater nut, and image quality is one of those things I take very seriously. I’ve had the plasma TV color-tuned for movie playback, and have also used some of the picture calibration tools such as Digital Video Essentials to verify color accuracy. (For what it’s worth, I have a totally different color mode that gets switched to when playing games. It’s a bit brighter, with deeper color saturation and contrast.) Suffice it to say, Joe Kane is a bit of an image-quality god to me, and so I personally take his thoughts on this subject very seriously.

This article from hometheaterblog.com quotes from a video interview with Mr. Kane (which can be found here). The article goes into more detail about Mr. Kane’s credentials, but includes some quotes which gave me pause. I won’t quote every comment he made since I’d be almost quoting the entire piece, but I thought these in particular were worth sharing:

“For example Sony has said their only going to do MPEG2 rather than the newer codecs, either the advanced video codec that was pickled here in Europe or the SMPTE standardized VC-1 codec, both of those codecs are superior to MPEG2”

“Sony’s claim that MPEG2 is equal to or superior to VC-1 clearly says they haven’t been looking at it, in a manner in which they can see it’

“I’ve been doing demonstrations now for over a year, of what MPEG2 looks like versus VC-1 and in all cases in audiences I do it for; no one misses the differences between MPEG2 and VC-1”

It’s worth highlighting that this is one man’s opinion. Still, it definitely puts a bit of a caution flag up for me personally, and I’ll be looking at side-by-side demos with much interest in the future. Anyone know if there are any movies available yet on both formats (to better do a side-by-side)?

Related posts:

1. Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD Direct Comparisons
2. 1080p Meaningless this Generation
3. Image Metrics and the Uncanny Valley
4. Blu-ray DOA?