Next wave of Blu-ray players threaten universal compatibility. What now, Sony?

October 31st. This is the date that will mark the end of the first wave of Blu-ray Disc Players. Particularly, this date officially marks the mandate of the Blu-ray Disc Association, which will have all hardware streeting capable of playing back picture-in-picture video, thanks to the BD Java Interactive technology.

Cool, then. We’re gonna have more Blu-ray options. But that isn’t exactly bringing in good news for us consumers, and especially not the manufacturers. The thing is, there’s only a handful of Blu-ray players currently out in the market that include picture-in-picture capability. For example, Sony‘s PS3.

The dilemma here rises from these stand-alone models not being able to play these newly-formatted Blu-ray discs because they lack this feature. As such, a disc with this picture-in-picture feature might not be able to play at all in these current models. Sony, and Philips as well (who also has a stand-alone Blu-ray Disc player model), would then have to find a workaround in order to get these discs working universally.

Well, they don’t necessarily have to hold up the whole sky by themselves. But if they don’t want to be left behind in the race by coming out too soon than the Association’s mandate, then they’d have to have a good headstart brainstorming that workaround. And they better get to work now. Especially Sony, lest they get their hopes dashed of boosting the PS3 sales with the Blu-ray. After all, we doubt if those after the Blu-ray capabilities of the PS3 would be so enticed to get one if its features would turn out to be near-obsolete.

Via Video Business

October 31st. This is the date that will mark the end of the first wave of Blu-ray Disc Players. Particularly, this date officially marks the mandate of the Blu-ray Disc Association, which will have all hardware streeting capable of playing back picture-in-picture video, thanks to the BD Java Interactive technology.

Cool, then. We’re gonna have more Blu-ray options. But that isn’t exactly bringing in good news for us consumers, and especially not the manufacturers. The thing is, there’s only a handful of Blu-ray players currently out in the market that include picture-in-picture capability. For example, Sony‘s PS3.

The dilemma here rises from these stand-alone models not being able to play these newly-formatted Blu-ray discs because they lack this feature. As such, a disc with this picture-in-picture feature might not be able to play at all in these current models. Sony, and Philips as well (who also has a stand-alone Blu-ray Disc player model), would then have to find a workaround in order to get these discs working universally.

Well, they don’t necessarily have to hold up the whole sky by themselves. But if they don’t want to be left behind in the race by coming out too soon than the Association’s mandate, then they’d have to have a good headstart brainstorming that workaround. And they better get to work now. Especially Sony, lest they get their hopes dashed of boosting the PS3 sales with the Blu-ray. After all, we doubt if those after the Blu-ray capabilities of the PS3 would be so enticed to get one if its features would turn out to be near-obsolete.

Via Video Business