Blu-ray players behind on interactivity
FEB. 1 | Studios are promising their most elite Blu-ray Discs to date in 2008, but not all available and upcoming BD devices can playback the advanced features.
Due to a decision by the Blu-ray Disc Assn. to keep certain hardware requirements optional, there is a far-flung range of capabilities on display at retail. A number of studios’ latest and greatest titles, including the industry’s first Web-enabled BD software with Lionsgate’s War and Saw IV, require consumers to watch them on Profile 2.0 players to enjoy the touted new technology. But up to these titles’ respective Jan. 1 and Jan. 22 street dates, no available BD player was certified Profile 2.0 (a.k.a. BD-Live), with hardware that could playback the included Web-based interactivity, such as War’s online fighter game and Saw IV’s movie blog.
Below is a complete list of BD players and their capabilities.
| Brand | Model | Available | Notes |
| Philips | BDP9000 | Now | No upgrade available |
| Pioneer | BDP-95FD | Now | No upgrade available |
| Samsung | BD-P1400 | Now | No upgrade available |
| Sharp | Aquos BD-HP20U | Now | No upgrade available |
| Sony | BDP-S300 | Now | No upgrade available |
| Brand | Model | Available | Notes |
| LG | BH200 | Now | Profile 1.1 ready, firmware upgrade due in 2008 |
| Panasonic | DMP-BD30 | Now | No 2.0 upgrade available |
| Philips | BDP7200 | April | No 2.0 upgrade available |
| Samsung | BD-UP5000 | Now | Profile 1.1 ready, firmware upgrade due in February |
| Samsung | BD-P1500 | May | No 2.0 upgrade available |
| Samsung | BD-UP5500 | May | No 2.0 upgrade available |
| Sharp | Aquos BD-HP50U | May | No 2.0 upgrade available |
| Brand | Model | Available | Notes |
| Panasonic | DMP-BD50 | Spring | |
| PlayStation 3 | 40GB | Now | Profile 2.0-ready, firmware upgrade due in 2008 |
| PlayStation 3 | 80GB | Now | Profile 2.0-ready, firmware upgrade due in 2008 |
| Sony | Sapphire 3 | Summer | |
| Sony | Sapphire 4 | Summer |
Post a comment Return to article View other article discussions
| Submitted by: | Rod 2/5/2008 5:33:41 PM PT |
| Location: | GTA Ontario |
| Occupation: | Qnalyst, Quality Assurance |
Here my take on thsi Format war: It is so interesting how a bunch of Sony Play Station 3 gamers have been able to sway most of the top Hollywood's Studios into betting their money on the Blu-ray HD media format, even though the average consumer has not even begun to show any interest in HD media yet. HD media has only infiltrated 2 to 4% of the worldwide consumer market place at this time. Would you declare a winner with only 4% of votes counted? Well Hollywood is doing just that. Are there any lessons to be learned here? Yes! The average consumer demands value for their hard earned money spent. Early released Blu-ray players are incomplete, because they were manufactured and released for sale before the Blu-ray specification was completed. Therefore, the first and second generation Blu-ray standalone players released for sale into the market place are not firmware upgradeable to the new Blu-ray Profile 2.0 specification. A good number of those early adapters of Blu-ray standalone players will regret their decision to purchase a Blu-ray player, since they are now obsolete. They lack the ability to: For example, Blu-ray profile 1.0 does not support dual video and audio decoders, which are used in picture-in-picture extra features such as those found in the 300 and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix HD-DVDs. Blu-ray profile 1.1 adds secondary video and audio decoder support, but is missing the Internet connectivity that most recent HD-DVD releases carry. The difference between Blu-ray and HD DVD is that HD-DVD is already a standardized format. This means that a customer that bought the very first generation HD-DVD player is able to play any and all features that are produced by the movie studios through firmware updates. It also means their existing DVD collection is protected and still viewable. Blu-ray profile 2.0 is required to play any online interactive content on Blu-ray players, however only one of the BD players on the market has the Ethernet port required to support BD profile 2.0. On any HD-DVD player, online interactive features are already standard, these include: picture in picture, movie trailer downloads, future release trailers, online polls, personality tests - Bourne Ultimatum, Heroes, Chat room access and My Scenes – create favorite scenes and share them using time stamps with online community e.g. Bourne Ultimatum. See the main differences in summary between Blu-ray and HD-DVD are as follows: • Blu-ray has greater bandwidth, but it might not be needed • Blu-ray and HD-DVD are equal in terms of video quality • Blu-ray and HD-DVD are equal in terms of audio quality • Blu-ray has region control, while HD-DVD is region-free • Blu-ray has more DRM than HD-DVD • HD-DVD has better interactivity than Blu-ray • Blu-ray has greater number of studios HD-DVD is a good buy right now as a SD DVD up-converter and HD-DVD media player. The cost to obtain an HD-DVD player and enjoy HD media is very inexpensive, and who knows, HD-DVD may turn out to be the winner in the long run. Just leave those young Blu-ray gamers in the dust where they belong and enjoy the great HD-DVD experience. If a buyer wanted to buy something now, go for the cheap Toshiba A3 or D3 which will up-convert your current library. If Blu-ray's Profile system fails (which it should) you will be sitting pretty. If Blu-ray prevails, you are not out much coin. Alternatively, if you go Blu-ray now, you lose out on Profile 2.0 features and risk still losing the 'war'.
| Submitted by: | john 2/5/2008 5:16:50 AM PT |
Sony''s Trojan Horse in now in reverse. Blu-ray players got into alot of peoples homes on the momentum of their new gaming system. Now, with Blu-ray having won the format war, it''s all about getting the game machine in peoples homes. The PS3 is the cheapest fully fuctional Blu player out there and will be for the next 12 months. Almost sounds like they made a deal with the other CE''s to keep the stand alones artifically high for that purpose. Otherwise why couldn''t Sony strip the gaming components off the PS3 and sell a stand alone just as cheap.
| Submitted by: | Tami S. (cosmictami@telus.net) 2/4/2008 11:25:38 PM PT |
| Location: | Vancouver, Canada |
| Occupation: | Healthcare provider |
Nice to see some truth online regarding this issue. Get's quite frustrating to find "the truth" about this format war. Not only that but finding up to date news with some truth to it with as little "spin" as possible. I have purchased a Toshiba HD player a few months after they first came out. This was very pricey but I felt that not only is a name like blu-ray rather goofy & stupid (not a realistic reason for purchasing anything) but I also had some decent information about the issues blu-ray, amazingly enough, is still facing. I recently upgraded my Toshiba HD player from my original one and was thinking of cashing it in for a blu-ray but then I see blu-ray is still messing around. I have enjoyed my HD movies to date with much amazement! The newest titles are something else - The Kingdom, Transformers, The Bourne Ultamtum. For me it seems so natural to have an HDTV and an HD player and not something called blu-ray. (what freaks me out is it sounds too much like Beta-Max) In concluding, it would be sad for those, like myself who have invested their hard earned $ on HD/Toshiba but I do agree that blu-ray has the most potential - i.e; storage space. However, it is totally strange that blu-ray would fumble the ball this much regarding special features and compatability issues.
| Submitted by: | T A (nothanks@nothanks.com) 2/4/2008 11:40:57 AM PT |
| Location: | USA |
Rolf brings up some comments, but most that cite the challenges of DVD are red herrings. Firstly, DVD did not offer increased resolution that required new television sets. Second, anamorphic DVDs do not require new televisions, if they can do pulldown. Thirdly, a player need not be able to decode DTS (receivers can also do it, and nearly all DVDs with DTS also include a DD soundtrack). Besides, it's not as if these developments in the profiles are new technology. They were included in the original goals of the spec, but not implemented.
| Submitted by: | earl (kyu2130@yahoo.com) 2/4/2008 6:01:55 AM PT |
while what you say is somewhat true, its not the whole truth. the 1.1 and 2.0 systems are designed to be selling points not requirements. not everyone wants the interactivity. Also as a minor error you should not have listed the 40 and 80 gig PS3 you should have listed the PS3 in general since all PS3s' are upgradable, even those that are no longer available such as the 60gig.
| Submitted by: | Balls 2/4/2008 2:36:15 AM PT |
a hd dvd biased site makes another claim, fans scream of happiness
| Submitted by: | Mark 2/4/2008 12:43:07 AM PT |
| Location: | Phx, AZ |
| Occupation: | Graphic Design |
John, "Who cares" As a consumer I care. I care when BDA and CE companies are trying to sell me $300-$400 and above players that can't do the same things that $100-$120 HD DVD players do. How do these guys then battle the format's and this Blu-Ray technology ineffeciencies? By paying hundreds of millions of dollars in order to lock in everyone they can and try to hush hush the facts that Blu-Ray as format is completely unfinished and that the consumer who buys a player now will have to rebuy a player next year if they want to play all features of the discs they pay $30. I agree with other people and also applaud Video Business of finally publishing an article that serves the consumers instead of CE companies interests.
| Submitted by: | john 2/2/2008 3:41:46 AM PT |
It is not and unreasonable consumer expectation to think that their player will perform all the things advertised on a box of a disk. These very extras are distinguishing the differences between standard definition and High Definition.
| Submitted by: | Rolf Hawkins 2/1/2008 7:35:13 PM PT |
| Location: | USA |
| Occupation: | Marketing |
Who cares? Okay, let''s break it down to the facts. When DVD players first came out, there were virtually no TVs with component video inputs to take advantage of the higher-resolution of DVD. You had to buy a new TV. The first DVD players also did not play dts. You had to buy a new DVD player. When DVDs started be released with anamorphic content on them, chances were pretty good you had to buy yet another TV, this time a widescreen one. Of all the hundreds of HD DVD titles available, how many have web content to access? Two? Three? We''re still in an evolving market for HD players of either format. When studios provide more content on servers, then you''ll see more players out there with the ability to access it. Most of the players on this list came out last year. When newer product lines launch later on this year, you''ll see more profile 2.0 players. For early adopters this is a minor annoyance, but not unexpected either. And it certainly won''t be a deal breaker as the newer players will be cheaper, and the older players (which will still play all of the new movies regardless) can be relegated to the bedroom.
| Submitted by: | Dave Oliveira 2/1/2008 7:03:42 PM PT |
| Location: | Scarborough, Ontario, Canada |
| Occupation: | Distribution |
I applaud you for finally publishing an article that speaks to issues of format incompatibilities that have plagued the Blu Ray format from day one. It is the single reason why tens of thousands of HD DVD owners have continued to resist purchasing Blu Ray, even in the face of Warner's selfish decision to stop producing HD DVDs in June. When Blu Ray finally does get its act together I may be willing to give that format some consideration. Until then, keep those HD DVDs coming as I am gonna keep buying them.
Post a comment Return to article View other article discussions