RSSAt Last, Blu-ray Gets Picture-in-Picture
By Ed Oswald | Published October 31, 2007, 2:22 PM
Panasonic said Tuesday that it had introduced the first Blu-ray player to be based on the Final Standard Profile, which adds new functionality that so far has been missing from Sony's format.
For example, picture-in-picture will be available for the first time in Blu-ray; previously it was only offered by HD DVD players and is useful for displaying special feature content alongside a movie. Additionally, other features which made the interactivity superior in HD DVD are now making it onto Blu-ray.
This is because the new standard makes certain interactivity features mandatory. Panasonic's DMP-BD30 player is the first player to support the new standard, also known as Blu-ray Profile 1.1.
Unfortunately, older players from Panasonic and other Blu-ray manufacturers may not be upgradable to the new standard due to changing hardware requirements, leaving early adopters without full functionality. Only the PlayStation 3 will be upgradeable to Profile 1.1. However, Profile 1.1 does not mandate an Ethernet connection for downloading extra content, which will come in Profile 2.0.
The problem with differing standards is that movie studios won't know what capabilities Blu-ray owners will support. With HD DVD, which required 128MB of storage, dual video and audio decoders, and an Internet connection from the start, studios can rely on the features for special content. With Blu-ray, studios need to consider many users have older players that can't -- and never will -- support advanced functionality.
Other features of the DMP-BD30 include Deep Color Compatibility, HDMI 1.3B, 1080/24p playback, and an SD Card slot to allow the use of media from devices that support that format. In addition, an ethernet port will allow for the downloading of additional content.
"The DMP-BD30 will contribute greatly to Blu-ray's mounting lead over HD DVD," Panasonic Entertainment Group chief Gene Kelsey said in a statement. "Panasonic's adoption of the Final Standard Profile adds a whole new dimension to the entertainment experience."
Still an issue for the player will be its price: $499 USD. While significantly cheaper than Panasonic's other attempts at a Blu-ray player for the masses, it still comes in far above the $200 level analysts have repeatedly stressed as necessary for the format to take off. So far, no Blu-ray player has come within $200 of that so-called magic price point.
A release date for the Panasonic DMP-BD30 was not announced.
No-one really cares.
The huge US retail industry just 'called' the format war.
It's HD DVD.
Get over it.
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I can't understand this... Maybe someone can help me, but:
Why is it that Blu-Ray came to market with less features than HD DVD, less compatibility with legacy DVD, more DRM to cripple users from exercising their fair use rights in an age where multiple playback devices operate for media (mp3 players, dvd players, iPod video, dvd transcoding to AVI for home made/MCE theatre jukeboxes etc), an incomplete spec that doesn't even allow for downloading content (in this day and age, everything seems to hit the internet for updates!), and oh yeah, a huge price difference?
Exactly how is Blu-Ray better?
Oh wait, the shills will jump out with things like "It looks better" or "It has more space" or "The discs are tougher".
Let's put this into real world perspective, folks... Not everyone is a anal mutant videophile with eyes like an eagle and ears like a bat.
First of all, if the movies are coded identically, using the same codecs in both platforms, please tell me aside from overblown bitrates, how a movie looks better if it's encoded identically, and why a layman should really CARE? Everybody loved how clear DVD is, both HD formats will look awesome unless you're some anal-retentive A-personality picky self-important nutjob going "look! two pixels are fuzzy here!"
Next, the "more space" argument is a moot point. VHS had more space than Beta and beta lost. But I'll give Sony the win technically because the Beta *was* a superior product in most other respects! But it still didn't win. "Hmmmm..... that's really really shhhhhomething!" as someone once said sarcastically.
and last: hand a blu-ray disc to a child and see how long it lasts. Hell, hand any electronic device or playback medium to a child and see how long it lasts.
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"TV finally gets color" is about as exciting as this news. Yay, BD finally added a basic feature to thier spec.
Get your $99 A2's this Friday and $169 A3's at Sears.
Dave, you should consider getting one at these prices, $99 is only a single paycheck for a baller like yourself.
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yeah. im not even scanning this article nor comment list. this has troll all over it
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The superior format gets even better. I hear there is a fire sale on HD-DVD as no one is buying them.
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It gets better by one single player getting something HD DVD had from the beginning? LOL. Oh and remember that fire sale line for the next time Sony lowers the price on any of their products. Oh wait, they already lowered the price of the PS3. Fire sale!
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You tell 'em!!! Thumbs UP.
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What ever you say there Pit$ingo.
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LOL... superior? At best it is slightly better and only on some titles.
Walmart bought 2 million of the HD-A2's at $50 a piece. They are starting to sell a bunch Friday at $99.
Blu-ray's days in the lead are definetely numbered. Unlike blu-ray, I won't go so far as to say blu-ray will be dead.
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Thats what I've been saying. Except even with a fire sale the PS3 hasn't sold :'(
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I agree with the posts below. This is really just too little too late on Blu-ray's part. Until the Blu-ray camp finally realizes that no amount of extra features is going to matter to the retail consumer that can only afford to spend $200 on a new player, they are going to remain firmly behind the eight ball in this battle. When your cheapest players start at more than $300 more than the competition (for essentially the same level of actual performance)...you lose.
I think this Christmas shopping season is going to be a very telling one about the future prospects for these two formats. HD DVD has struck first with its sub-$200 player now and unless we see the Sony camp respond in kind (which I am almost certain they will not) I think you are going to see a very different looking High Def DVD environment come Jan. 1st of next year.
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"This is really just too little too late on Blu-ray's part. Until the Blu-ray camp finally realizes that no amount of extra features"
Jesus, what aload of hypocrites here.
People beat Blu-ray up for not having PiP, but now the story changes, and Blu-ray manufafturers should not be doing that, they should be lowering costs.
Can I suggest you get your story straight and STICK TO IT.
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Well, now hold on a sec here Joey, I didn't say they shouldn't be doing it, I said it was just too little to late. It sort of puts me in mind of the old saying "You don't bring a knife to a gun fight."
From what I have personally witnessed at the retail level, HD DVD is handily outselling Blu-ray due to its lower price point. If the Blu-ray camp thinks it can correct this problem by simply adding new features alone without substantially lowering prices to be competitive, I think they are in for a very rude awakening in the marketplace.
HD DVD has really thrown down the gauntlet now with their recent price drop to below the $200 mark. If the Blu-ray camp either can't or won't respond in kind and do so very quickly, I think it is going to be a very long holiday shopping season for Sony and friends.
History is repleat with examples of fights between features and low price. Well it doesn't take a PhD to figure out that 99% of the time, low price is going to win that battle hands down.
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I am not sure we can say this Christmas will define which format will win, I think with the price point for HD DVD they will sell a TON of players and next year will be a good year for the format. That is not to say Blu-Ray will be dead since the overall percentage of HD sales are weak, but it could have a big impact.
If anything, maybe it will start getting Blu-Ray manufacturers to work towards driving price down for next Christmas season. Competition is a beautiful thing.
Personally I am fine without until one format is the clear winner, or dual format players are at the $200 pricepoint.
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This is an anti-climatic announcement.
Eventually every Blu-Ray manufacturer is going to announce a profile 1.1 device (unless they fall so far behind and just end up announcing profile 2.0 devices).
So, without having announced a release date, this is still just “smoke and mirrors”.
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http://www.blackfriday.i...rs-black-friday-ad.html
obviously things could change before then but i've seen several sites including nytimes mention this sale and they said you can order them online between 5am and noon also so no waiting in line
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wreck, can you provide a link. for $169 i will order another for the bed room. the cheapest i saw was $279
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the phrase to little to late kinda comes to mind too... i'll be ordering the a3 for $169 from sears
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That really is a great deal. I just wonder how long they'll last before selling out.
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When they run out I am betting that they will make more so stock will be refilled.
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It's just a one day sale, they'd have to make them and ship them awfully fast. :D
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even being a one day sell at that price there is going to be alot of hd dvd units under the xmas tree this year, factor in the 7 free movies and the player is nearly free
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I agree, that's why I think they'll probably sell out fast unless they have a lot of them in stock at each store.
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if it's true that you can order them online they must have enough or toshiba has some kind of arrangement to fill the online orders
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So in reality, the lowest priced blu-ray player has now become $499.
Why buy any other player when it is likely NOT going to support any of the new profiles.
Even the PS3 is questionable - if it WAS going to be upgradable for sure, I'm sure Sony would be promoting this. I believe they are still not sure themselves.
Bottom line - Blu-ray was released about 1.5 years prior to it being ready. The first profile 1.0 player being announced now (with no street date yet) clearly shows this.
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My guess is Sony is working on the PS3 update but are running into problems. Seems it would have been out by now, or at least announced. I think they will eventually release it though.
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Sony never annonce things before they are ready. The first thing you will hear about the PS 1.1 Profile update, will be when it happens.
There is talk of Firmware 2.0 hitting this week, but no idea of it's contents, aside from random speculation.
Either way, who cares, the PS3, having an installed base of 6 million consoles, all Blu-ray movies will play on it, Profile 1.1 or not. PiP is a gimmick, and only being touted as great by HD DVD fanboys because they know it's the one single area that HD DVD current beats Blu-ray.
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"PiP is a gimmick, and only being touted as great by HD DVD fanboys"
Ohhhh, so if Blu-Ray as a feature, it's the best thing since sliced bread. But if HD-DVD has a feature it's just a gimmick?
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"PS3, having an installed base of 6 million consoles"
Last week it was 5 million, the week before that was 4 million. Can you make up your fuc@en mind?
http://www.vgchartz.com/
Or at least learn how to round.
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Make that three areas Joey/Dave, player pricing, finished spec, and an interactive online experience with HDi.
Like I said, all they did was add something HD-DVD had from day one. Early adopters with set top players ..... screwed.
The only people talking of 2.0 firmware hitting this week are the girls at blu-ray.com, you all "hoping" for an update.
By the way, if Sony "never annonce things before they are ready" (nice spelling) then how is there talk of an update?
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"By the way, if Sony "never annonce things before they are ready" (nice spelling) then how is there talk of an update?"
I'd love to hear his response to that one. :D
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"Sony never annonce things before they are ready."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
That made me laugh so hard, my chest hurts. What about back before the Xbox360 was launched? Sony were pretending they had the PS3 ready to launch _ahead of_ the Xbox360!! They knew the PS3 would not be ready for another 6-12 months, yet they flat out LIED to all their fans, up until the last possible minute!
Anyway, how many profile versions do they plan to have for Blo-Ray? There's 1.0, 1.1, and now talk of 2.0? Is that all? Will there be a 3.0 and 4.0 in the future? It's just ridiculous. Joe Average doesn't want to have to worry about which "version" of a HD player he has. He wants a player that just WORKS and plays everything as it was intended. Blo-Ray is so dead in the water, it's not even funny anymore.
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"Or at least learn how to round."
Why don't we just round it up to a nice 10 million PS3s? That ought to make all the Sony cheerleaders jump for joy. Seriously though, 6 million PS3s? Heh, in your wet Sony dreams maybe.
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Whops you slipped up there. It seems you are not a sony fan at all, at least a fan would not be so wrong about his supported products
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They should do that when they announce new hardware then. How many times does their crap get delayed? They are never ready for anything. This whole profile crap kind of points to the fact that the format was released before it was ready. So typical of $ony.
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I take it much like their comments of "the next generation doesn't start before we do",
"PS3 will be fully backwards compatible"
"PS3 will have ..." who knows how many ports they said at first...
The point is, I wont believe it until I see it. As far as I'm concerned Sony has a record of spewing sh!t out of their mouths.
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It's called damage control.
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why would u want a giant box on the screen while trying to watch a movie?
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What, you've never watched a movie twice? Why buy a movie to only watch it once?
While watching a second time, using the PIP and other features can be pretty cool.
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The idea is for special feature content, for example director commentary (seeing the actors or director talking in the corner of the screen) or seeing how the movie was made.
In 300, you can see how they filmed all the scenes with a special non-edited version of the film. In HD DVD, you can watch that in a box and compare it to the final cut of the movie. In Blu-ray, you can only watch it by itself, which makes the feature entirely useless.
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It's not for everybody. All those special features in DVDs like Director's Commentary, I've never turned them on. I don't even like the menus really, whenever I back up my movies I always rip out the menus and extras. Just put in the disc and the movie starts, that's all I really want. That's just my opinion though and I'm probably in the minority. For lot's of people the flashier the better.
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that sounds pretty lame actually. Explaining how a movie was made ruins the movie. Its supposed to transport the viewer into the movie.
300 is a bad movie without a big box.
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"Its supposed to transport the viewer into the movie."
Well, yeah... the first time. After that, watch the extras. It's what they're for.
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It might be lame to you, but I like to see how stuff was made.
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If PiP is SO important why did more (double?) BD discs sell for 300 than for Red??
Toshiba are panicking and trying one last effort to save itself. The ship is sinking fast and they are loosing money by the bucket load.
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