Articles >> BD Live: The Great Profile Mess


Now, let's get into a little lesson here about profiles and whatnot about Blu-ray. When HD DVD launched it was a finalized spec (with a few firmware updates that came along through the years). My HD-A1 I purchased in April 2006 could do everything that the HD-A35 could when Toshiba killed HD DVD in February 2008. That includes PiP, Online functions, TrueHD/DTS MA decoding etc. Blu-ray however, opted to first release several Profile 1.0 players (basic), then upgrade to Profile 1.1 (also called Bonus View) in October 2007, and then finally Profile 2.0 (BD-Live).

Profile 1.0 is the basic player that is still being sold in stores today. Those include the Sony BDP-1, BDP-300, BDP-500, the Samsung 1000/1200/1400, Panasonic BD10K and a few other players. Some of these players allow internal TrueHD decoding, while some allow bitstreaming of DTS MA and TrueHD.

A little over a year after Blu-ray launched Profile 1.1 (Bonus View) players arrived which include the Panasonic BD30K, Samsung 1500 & 5000 (which also plays HD DVDs), LG100/200 (both play HD DVDs as well), and the more recent Insignia/Magnavox/Sylvania players. These players allow the consumer to watch PiP commentaries as well as play certain Blu-ray java games. These players also allow faster disc loading then Profile 1.0 players.

There is also a slight possibility that the Samsung 5000 and LG 200 may be upgradable to Profile 2.0 thanks to the required Ethernet jack on both players to meet the HD DVD standards. As it stand right now they are both Profile 1.1 and both can decode TrueHD internally and bitstream DTS MA.

Finally, Profile 2.0 launched which at the moment includes... nothing. The Samsung 1500 is BD-Live capable meaning with the help of a 1GB SD card and a future firmware update it to will soon be Profile 2.0 compliant. At the current moment that's it. Very soon Panasonic will be launching the very impressive DMP-BD50 and Sony has a few players also set to launch in the next few months (S350/S550). This will allow consumers to take part in online activities as well as features that all studios plan on rolling out.

Currently only a few studios have taken advantage of BD-Live and at the moment Sony (no shock there) has several titles with functions that allow you to go online through you're player to download trailers, deleted scenes and interviews. The best title to show it off, at the moment, is Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Paramount plans on bringing several of its HD DVD exclusive titles (Transformers) to Blu-ray with those features intact available for BD-Live players only. I can only assume other studios will follow suit as well. Disney and Sony have both pledged that nearly every title available in the near future will sport some sort of BD-Live functions. Lionsgate also has a few titles with online functions (Rambo, Saw IV) and Universal has some amazing plans for the service since they are already accustom to online interactivity with HD DVD. Fox, however, remains silent on the issue and Warner has past experience with some HD DVD titles (Blood Diamond, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) so it’s only a matter of time.

Now, the odd ball is the PS3. This went from Profile 1.0, to 1.1 and finally 2.0. The PS3 is capable of doing everything Disney imagined and at the moment is the best Blu-ray player to buy. That will all change very soon when Panasonic and Sony launch their stand alone players and other CE's follow suite (Pioneer, Samsung, Oppo).

Disney is doing some amazing things with Blu-ray and if you own a current Profile 1.0/1.1 player its worth upgrading to a newer one just for the features Disney is offering.

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