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Blu-ray profile 2.0 arrives, early adopters get nothing
How do you reward your customers for helping you get and keep the number one spot in HD media? Render their hardware obsolete, of course. At least, that's the plan if you are the Blu-ray Disc Association, which has the foresight to continue adapting Blu-ray technology to make newer discs unplayable in older players, thus forcing people to buy new players.
With the introduction of BD Profile 2.0, key features are added that make the units more robust. Features like local storage, network connectivity, et cetera – all very good things to have, but things that were initially left out due to cost, so they say. The hardware refresh addresses the issues, but the caveat is that newer media, depending on how it is configured, won't be playable.
Note: This story has been edited for accuracy. Originally we mistakenly quoted Blu-ray Disc Association's spokesman Andy Parsons. His actual take on the matter was a more apologetic 'technology changes, eventually becomes obsolete.' If there is anything further to report on the matter we will follow-up with a new story.
With the introduction of BD Profile 2.0, key features are added that make the units more robust. Features like local storage, network connectivity, et cetera – all very good things to have, but things that were initially left out due to cost, so they say. The hardware refresh addresses the issues, but the caveat is that newer media, depending on how it is configured, won't be playable.
Note: This story has been edited for accuracy. Originally we mistakenly quoted Blu-ray Disc Association's spokesman Andy Parsons. His actual take on the matter was a more apologetic 'technology changes, eventually becomes obsolete.' If there is anything further to report on the matter we will follow-up with a new story.
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User Comments (7)
Post a comment| AParsons on January 14, 2008 1:26 PM | Hi Justin:
I must protest your inaccurate quote that I "responded with a cold 'they knew what they were getting into'". I said no such thing. If you attended the press event, you will recall that when asked about this, I responded that it's the nature of electronics technology for new features and capabilities to be added over time, a fact that I believe early adopters understand all too well. I also said that early generation Blu-ray players will continue to deliver what most people bought them for: playback of high definition video and audio content. By the way, I am only the chair of the U.S. promotion committee for the BDA, not the president. That job is held by someone else. -- Andy Parsons
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| Nirkon on January 14, 2008 1:27 PM | I say screw bluray just for that, go for HDDVD
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| shl0791 on January 14, 2008 2:35 PM | They can't even modify the players' firmware? Well then, screw them. HD DVD FTW!
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| canadian on January 15, 2008 12:02 AM | I must say this is disappointing, but this leads me to question: Can the PS3 play the new disks? If it can, then why cant other players?
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| Julio on January 15, 2008 12:38 AM | I don't believe this will affect current blu-ray players in the short term, who knows how things will adapt in the longer run. That said, I'm a bit impressed by the U.S. figures released out there: same market share in terms of standalone players (hd dvd vs. blu-ray), the PS3 contributes massively to dominate the total amount of capable players out there. Finally there is a larger number of blu-ray movies being sold and rented, however the quality among the few hundred movies out there is about the same. The result is a non-sense fight for the end consumer. Wait, wasn't that obvious?
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| Eddie_42 on January 15, 2008 9:07 AM | Read the first comment and the amended note. They are just adding bells and whistles left off initially to cut down cost. The functionality of the playback will be unaffected.
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| zeda.Zakuya on January 21, 2008 3:15 PM | just another way to bring blu-ray down and i must say this article is so wrong.why because when older blu-ray player cant use the new profile 2.0 that does not mean they can't play blu-ray . blu-ray discs can always be played on a blu-ray player.playstation 3 is the only blu-ray player that can get every firmware upgrade and make total use of it .i still say blu-ray is the better player because it's not on the dying species list.that's why they have so much more company backing and studio backing.hey don't get it wrong here i love hd-dvd judt like the rest but don't make articles that are total nonsense
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