Hi all. Spent a fair amount of time with the manufacturers and content producers for Blu ray at the recent Consumer Elctronics Show in Vegas. This thread is for commenting on the players.
Blu ray Players have different levels of functionality..ie what they can and cannot do. So its important to consider what features will be available on Blu Ray disks in the future, versus now, and whether current limitations on players will mean anything to you before making a purchasing decision.
Overall, there are three " operating systems" or versions of the Blu ray specification that players can be grouped into. These include Blu Ray 1.0, Blu Ray 1.1, and Blu ray 2.0. There are no others planned at this time that I am aware of.
The Eponym for the 2.0 Blu Ray Player spec is "BD- Live". Currently there are no Blu Ray 2.0 players available. Importantly, there is only one current Blu Ray Player that will be upgradable to the Blu ray 2.0 Spec. That is the Sony PS3.
All three Blu ray versions WILL be able to play the movie, both audio and video, of any and all future Blu Ray disks, according to reps from Blu Ray and Disney as well as others.
What is missing is some of the Picture in picture, interactive, and other web enabled online features.
Blu ray 1.1, such as the upcoming Samsung BD-5500 ( not yet released--probably in April or May), ads the ability to, for example, run a commentary from the director while the actual movie track plays in the background. It also allows for example, an online game to be played as well, and the demo here is the recent Pirates of The caribean Release which has this as sort of, an "extra" if you will.
Blu Ray 2.0 allows for everything you can think of and then some. So two people watching DVDs in two different homes at the same time and being able to chat together and sync the frames ( Paramount Hd-DVDs do this now if anyone wants to see what this looks like), online shop for what you see in the movie shopping, live interviews with actors etc. All kinds of stuff.
1. Do not assume that a future firmware upgrade will make a current blu ray player be able to do everything in the future that will be present on Blu ray Disks. That is a false assumption and don't be folled. There ARE firmware upgrades for sure, but you cant make an ethernet connection or PIP capability magically appear.
2. Ethernet connectivity and Picture-in-a picture are two things to definetly want in a player unless you are OK with not having access to all of the features avialable in future blu ray disks.
3. The Blu ray 2.0 spec will be out most likely later this year and I bet certainly by 2009.
4. In judging whether or not these features would mean anything to you or not, look at current HD-DVD stuff like the Bourne Identity or the Harry Potter HD-DVD release before this last one and check em out. The extra may mean nothing at all to you, but then again they might.