bd-live

We've never been completely sold on BD-Live as a major selling point for Blu-ray. While special features on DVDs are certainly nice, the vast majority of people don't have the interest or time to watch more than the main movie. Blu-ray movies also have special feature sections, plus some movies have even more features available via BD-Live, which you can access with an Internet-connected Profile 2.0 player. While there are certainly plenty of cinephiles that want to watch every deleted scene and featurette available, we doubt it will be forcing many people to upgrade from DVD.

While … Read more

Sony has added BD-Live capability to the BDP-S350, making good on a promise it made when the Blu-ray player was released earlier this year. The upgrade is available as a free firmware update for existing users; it downloads and installs to the unit straight over the Internet at the click of a button. Even better, the price of the player has dropped to $300. That means--for the time being, at least--the player is 25 percent more affordable than the PlayStation 3. … Read more

The now dead HD DVD format had its faults, but we always loved the fact that there was a single hardware requirement for every player since day one. With Blu-ray, there are three different profiles, and each profile has a different set of required features, which affects what kind of special features you can play back on certain discs. And even though manufacturers aren't allowed to make the older Profile 1.0 players anymore, there's still a chance there are a couple of legacy units sitting on the shelf at your local retailer. So, is a Profile 1.0 player worth buying? Should you pay extra for Profile 2.0? Let's check out the differences.

Profile 1.0

Profile 1.0 is the original hardware requirement for Blu-ray players and essentially meets the bare minimum for playing back Blu-ray Discs. You'll have no problem playing back a movie, listening to standard audio commentary, tracks or using interactive "pop-up" menus, but you won't be able to access advanced features like picture-in-picture video commentary or download any extra content online.

If you're the kind of person that never watches special features, you might be fine with a Profile 1.0 player, but be aware… Read more

I recently wrote a column titled, "Is BD-Live Blu-ray's secret weapon--or a bust?" Most readers seemed to think all whiz-bang interactivity features were more busts than secret weapons. And now it appears that a selection of Blu-ray producers speaking at a panel at Comic-Con 2008 feel the same way.

Video Business reports that the panel drew dozens of consumers and that the Q&A discussion, moderated by The Digital Bits' Bill Hunt, was frank and lively.

A few choice quotes:

Producer Robert Meyer Burnett (Shoot 'Em Up) said: "It would be interesting if they wanted … Read more

When Panasonic announced the DMP-BD50 at CES 2008, home theater enthusiasts who didn't want a game console as their Blu-ray player finally had a fully-featured standalone player to look forward to. The Panasonic DMP-BD50 promises the two big elusive features: Blu-ray Profile 2.0 and onboard decoding for both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Tuesday, we attended a demonstration of the DMP-BD50 and learned some new details. Here's a quick glance at the spec sheet as far as we know right now.

Key features of the Panasonic DMP-BD50:

Samsung announced the BD-P1500 back at CES 2008, but our enthusiasm for it has always been tempered by the fact that the original announcement pegged it as a Blu-ray Profile 1.1 player. Well, Samsung made the BD-P1500 a little more interesting this morning by announcing that the BD-P1500 will be "BD-Live Ready" when it's released in June (pushed back from its original May release date). This means that the BD-P1500 won't be BD-Live (also known as Blu-ray Profile 2.0) capable when it's released, but owners will be able to update the BD-P1500 via … Read more

A couple of days ago I blogged about two new optical drives from Plextor that, besides many other things, can play both HD DVD and Blu-ray media. That's obviously cool, but this level of coolness always depends a lot on the software player. In my opinion, CyberLink's PowerDVD has always been one of the coolest, and most versatile playback applications. Today, it got even more versatile.

CyberLink announced Tuesday that their all new PowerDVD 8.0 Ultra will support the latest Blu-ray BD Profile 2.0 (aka BD-Live). For those of you who don't know what it … Read more

The PlayStation 3 is the first Blu-ray player to support BD-Live functionality, thanks to a firmware update available today. Officially announced just last week, the update (version 2.20) was released right on schedule, and is now available as a free download to PS3 owners directly through the console's onscreen interface. Once installed, it allows the PS3's to access Internet-connected BD-Live content available on some discs. The list of compatible discs is currently minimal--just War and Saw IV available now, plus The Sixth Day and Walk Hard following on April 8--and the first round of BD-Live content doesn't seem to be very diverting. But as the list of supporting titles grows--and, ideally, the BD-Live content becomes more compelling--look for players that don't support Profile 2.0 compatibility to be confined to the clearance shelves. The PS3 remains the best bet for Blu-ray shoppers, even if they have no interest in using its gaming capabilities. … Read more

Update: This story now reflects NPD data showing improved PlayStation 3 performance in the first two months of the year.

For many people, Sony's oft-maligned PlayStation 3 video game console had one no-doubt-about-it selling point: when it launched, it was by far the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market.

That's no longer true, what with plenty of low-cost players flooding the market now that Blu-ray has effectively vanquished HD DVD as the next-generation playback standard.

But with its announcement of a forthcoming PS3 firmware upgrade, Sony has once again given consumers a reason to buy the console for … Read more