Profile 2.0??? (1 Viewer)

[Ric Easton]

A few days before Christmas I bought the Panasonic BD-30 (already having bought the Toshiba A3 a month earlier). The box was labeled FINAL STANDARD PROFILE. I thought well here is the newest machine, I should be all set.

Today I read over in the bits...

Um... My player is 1.1, is that correct? I know... where have I been? I am ashamed to say that I was going under the assumption that FINAL PROFILE meant that they were finished and all the kinks had been worked out.

Am I in trouble?

If so, I'm honestly starting to wish I had stayed on the sidelines. I guess waiting over a year and a half to jump in was my limit. I haven't even told the wife about HD-DVD's troubles yet...

 

[Robert A]

Ric,

For some reason BD profile 1.1 is called Final Standard profile, even though there is another profile (2.0) after it. Profile 2.0 adds internet connectivity. If your player has Ethernet then it will probably be upgradeable (I don't think it does though).

 

[Ric Easton]

If internet connectivity is the only concern, then I am not going to worry about it. Still, it sure begs the question, "When is final, FINAL?" I mean, c'mon! Thanks for getting back to me. i think it may be best if I stay away from Hi-Def news and boards for awhile and just enjoy the ride. ...and hope my wife doesn't start reading the boards!

 

[Shane Martin]

Final standard means just that. I'm pretty sure 2.0 is optional. All it is is web interactivity which IMHO is a gimmick that won't really fly. The vast majority of people don't have the internet tied into their home media system.

 

[Peter Overduin]

Exactly...and ditto BD 1.1 compliance, which again has nothing whatsoever to do with the quality of the playback, audio or video, of the movie itself. It has only to do with the PIP features and BD Live for those who want to access those features. I think there are now 2 BD disks that have the features, and nothing in all these new compliance specs will detrimentally affect your movie watching experience in any way.

 

[Kevin. W]

But there is still the fact that all those who have bought a BR player that isn't Profile 1.1/2 compliant are going to miss out on the features that BR has too offer, unless they upgrade. At least with HD-DVD, all players support HDi features available on the disks and if needed can be upgraded via the internet.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

This "Final Profile" stuff for BD reminds me of the "Final Tour" announcement(s) by the Rolling Stones.

 

[brap]

and yet I feel a sense of urgency to see them in case this is their last farewell tour.

Profile 2.0, well even 1.1, is just for the extras. The movie will play as normal on 1.0 players (I hope).
For Profile 1.1, even though the PIP is a 1 up HD-DVD had on Blu-Ray, it was a feature I barely used. None of the visual commentaries were interesting, except the Starfleet Access on the Star Trek TOS HD-DVD. It's usually chunks of fluff EPK showing during the movie.
With Profile 2.0, other than the Transformers HD-DVD, the online stuff was lackluster. Trailers and polls.

I really don't think you need to be concerned unless the studios become incredibly innovative with extras. Which means you don't need to be concerned.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Personally, with the various profile 1.0 players out there, I'd be more concerned about general playback performance and reliability than the extra features capabilities being missing. Even if-and-when the studios finally produce worthwhile extras that need higher profile capabilities, there's good likelihood that you'll want a new (or 2nd) player anyway. And if the old one becomes a backup/bedroom/etc player, I doubt you'd really care that it doesn't play those extras. But if the player doesn't perform well or reliability (w/out frequent firmware updates) even for just simple movie playback, that's gonna be a real pain...

_Man_