Next Blu-ray players promise more options

Studios concerned that discs won’t work on all hardware

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 3/23/2007

MARCH 23 | Blu-ray Disc players released after Oct. 31 will feature markedly improved functionality over models currently available for sale.

The Blu-ray Disc Assn. has mandated that all hardware streeting after that date must be able to play back picture-in-picture video, as driven by BD Java interactive technology. Many players on shelves now can handle BD Java, but to varying degrees. Few Blu-ray players include picture-in-picture capability, for instance, not even the PlayStation 3.

Sony’s current and summer 2007 stand-alone models and available Pioneer and Philips units are among those lacking the picture-in-picture feature.

With two different pools of players at retail in the near future, studios will have to navigate how to best create titles that play universally. A title with a highly touted picture-in-picture feature, for example, might not play properly on all players.

“For studios, it’s always a good idea at this stage to test” titles on all available players, said Andy Parsons, senior VP of advanced product development at Pioneer Electronics. Pioneer has upgraded its own BD Java playback with a firmware update, as posted on its site earlier this week. Prior to the upgrade, Pioneer owners could not see Lionsgate’s intended flashlight graphic within the menu portion of its Blu-ray version of The Descent.

Yet Parsons doubts that firmware alone would facilitate picture-in-picture, a relatively complicated part of the BD Java specification.

“There was a grace period between the launch of the first generation Blu-ray launch and October,” said Parsons. “After October, [manufacturers] must conform to the full range of specifications.”

Additionally, after Oct. 31, all Blu-ray players must hold a minimum 256MB of persistent memory storage, which will help power the picture-in-picture feature. Also, any Blu-ray player that features an Internet connection is required to have 1GB of such memory, in order to hold whatever content users decide to download from the Web.

To this point, studios have not released a true picture-in-picture Blu-ray product, according to manufacturing and studio sources. Lionsgate worked around the issue for The Descent, by creatively placing two versions of the film on a large capacity Blu-ray 50GB disc to give the appearance of picture-in-picture technology.

Numerous HD DVD titles boast picture-in-picture, as that format required all of its players to support this feature at launch.

Manufacturers are confident new player requirements are not cause for consumer alarm. All players, regardless of BD Java and memory functionality, are designed to successfully run a Blu-ray film.

“As is common in new format introductions, future products will include some additional features such as picture-in-picture,” said Marty Gordon, Philips VP. “Regardless of whether first-generation hardware supports these new features, the discs will still play.” Disc designers are struggling to determine how to craft titles that will play the same on current and future Blu-ray models.

“I just finished graphics with my first BD Java title,” said DVD producer Van Ling, who declined to name the release. “What I’m finding is that there is a lot of optimism that it will work, but it’s not a certainty. We are now out of the realm of normal video format stuff, and we’re into computer programming.”

Ling worries about ongoing differences among Blu-ray players, because it’s likely some manufacturers will adhere to minimum standards and others will go above and beyond for competitive reasons.

“The whole problem comes in when some manufacturers toe the minimum line and some others might make twice the minimum [functionality] on players,” said Ling. “In my view, I shouldn’t have to know what every single player can do. Rather than downgrade my creative vision for the lowest common denominator player, I want to create something [that fully realizes Blu-ray abilities].”