Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 22 January 2008 11:40
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
The only real high-def alternative, for 1080p video, is a Blu-ray player. Naturally, Sony’s PS3 is one option, and is one of the cheapest and yet most advanced Blu-ray players that you can buy.
Sony are also engaging in a bit of their own marketing by offering a free Playstation 3 with any purchase of a Bravia XBR, X or W model HDTV.
As Dan Warne of
APC Magazine notes, buying a PS3 to use as a Blu-ray player is probably the best choice, simply because each PS3 comes with a large hard drive, has Ethernet and can have its Blu-ray specification easily upgraded by downloading the latest update from the Internet.
But Blu-ray has had problems that initially made HD DVD players more attractive for some. Most early Blu-ray players are stuck at the original Blu-ray 1.0 specification, and can’t be upgraded thanks to the lack of a mandatory Ethernet port and other missing features that have been added into the follow-up Blu-ray 1.1 spec, and the upcoming Blu-ray 2.0 spec.
This doesn’t mean early Blu-ray adopters are left completely in the lurch – they are supposed to always be able to play the main movie part of any future Blu-ray disc – but won’t be able to access certain bonus features if the disc is in a higher Blu-ray spec.
Blu-ray 1.1 players now on sale have additional features, including additional hardware decoders for audio and video and 256MB of internal flash-based storage, while the upcoming Blu-ray 2.0 profile has even more hardware decoders and must have at least 1GB of internal flash-based storage.
HD DVD players, on the other hand, were mandated to have Ethernet and internal storage from the start, making them easily upgradable to future HD DVD specifications, although it doesn’t seem like that is a worry any more.
So although HD DVD looks like it’ll go the way of the dodo, buying a Blu-ray player is still causing some tech savvy consumers to wonder whether it’s worth waiting for Blu-ray 2.0 spec players to hit the market – or to just ‘bite the Blu-ray bullet’ and go with a PS3.
Is Blu-ray and HD DVD's major competitor - downloads - stand a chance in the near term? Please read onto page for the conclusion...
