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[PS3Scene]

Current Blu-ray Players Obsolete by October? Posted by XanTium | 3-4-2007 23:09 EST

From gamerawr.com: Here's the deal. Blu-ray was rushed out the door in order to stay competitive with HD DVD. The Blu-ray Disc Association has only recently finalized the formats specifications, which most current players do not conform to. This includes the Playstation 3, and all of Sony's own Blu-ray players. The lacking features include PIP support, part of BD-Java technology. Many players that even support BD-Java, do not support picture in picture. After October 31, 2007, picture-in-picture (via BD-J) will be mandatory for players to carry the Blu-ray logo. New specification requirements also include 256MB of persistent memory storage, and a required 1GB for players with an internet connection. This new memory requirement is also part of the BD-J picture-in-picture spec. So what does this mean for your current Blu-ray player? A simple firmware update, right? Well, a firmware update obviously won't give you memory that isn't already there. Given the nature of the PS3s hardware, it's reasonable to assume PIP will eventually be supported. Other players wont be so lucky. Even if your Blu-ray player isn't up to spec, it is promised you will be able to watch all Blu-ray discs in the most basic form. Full Story: gamerawr.com

[epsilon72]

Virtually no one has bought the stand-alone players (why would anyone want to?), so I don't think this'll be too big of a problem.

[dvsone]

I feel sorry for the manufactures that have supported Blu-Ray. Not only do they have to deal with the fact that Sony has created much cheaper players in the form of the PS3 and they own standalone player (don't have the model number on me), but now they are expected to add new specifications to their future lines. This just adds more cost to a product that nobody is going to buy.

[ConteZero76]

BD-J was expected since original launch, it just wasn't finalized then.
Most readers (BD 1.0) probably fix things with a firmware upgrade (because manufacturers WERE aware that BD-J was coming), the others just gambled their customers.

A new add-on is probably under way, the DeepColor support for BD, but almost no reader (except PS3) can handle it right now... it requires HDMI 1.3+ to get a still better image quality (48bpp).

This post has been edited by ConteZero76: Apr 4 2007, 10:27 AM

[bucko]

I guess this is the only good thing about the PS3, it has enough storage capacity both in flash and HD storage for this type of thing. *Hopes to see it fixed soon*. I guess this is yet another reason to wait.

[mlmadmax]

I wouldn't say it renders the player obsolete, the older players will still play movies. It still sucks though

[throwingks]

I always thought of 'persistent memory storage' as ROM. Is it not? Cause the PS3 doesn't have the 1GB required for internet capable players.
Maybe they can rig it to use the harddrive somehow? But a harddrive is nowhere near as fast as dedicated ROM/RAM.

Who knows? Quick searching of Google didn't help me.

This post has been edited by throwingks: Apr 7 2007, 05:21 PM

[Thraxen]

WTF?  Why does a movie player need an internet connection and 1 GB of memory?  What in the hell would any of that be used for?  Seriously, if BR is supposed to have so much space, what could the player possibly be getting from the internet that couldn't have been included on the disc???

QUOTE(throwingks @ Apr 7 2007, 10:52 AM)

I always thought of 'persistent memory storage' as ROM. Is it not? Cause the PS3 doesn't have the 1GB required for internet capable players.
Maybe they can rig it to use the harddrive somehow? But a harddrive is nowhere near as fast as dedicated ROM/RAM.

I think you are correct.  "Persistent" usually indicates memory that is retained when powered off (e.g. like flash cards and not like RAM).  So a hard drive should fit the bill.

This post has been edited by Thraxen: Apr 10 2007, 06:02 AM