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 The High Definition DVD Studio Support Petition Campaign |
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Is the Bluray BD 1.1 Standard still-born Yet Again?? Word that the only announced BD 1.1 player this year has been delayed till Q2 2008 I think most people reading this know that I have been extremely sceptical of the Bluray player standard player spec (AKA "WHAT standard player spec?", since there are three ) over the last few months. (This is a followup piece to a previous commentary we published earlier this year, so it might be useful for those not familiar with this issue to read that, plus an even earlier piece we wrote, also!) In previous articles here and more recently here, we have dissected and analyzed the various problems being reported in the field and by insiders in the online forums, to get a feel for what the REAL story might be at any point in time. Repected publication Ultimate A/V has also written about this very recently . Well, in this update, we've got some more questions to ask - starting with "Where the HECK are the BD 1.1 players, given that the standard is supposed to be mandatory in only about 2 months"? And we're not the only one's asking the questions, as this article seems fairly representative of some peoples feelings on the matter right now. There are BD players announced to land before the November 1st deadline, which means that they do NOT have to comply with the new "standard" (I use the term loosely), but the ONLY player that was announced to be compliant with the BD 1.1 player spec, the Denon Bluray player, has now, according to web reports, been delayed till Q2 of 2008 - fully another 7 to 10 months from now. And in an update to an existing story, Samsung has stated in a recent interview that they will have NO BD 1.1 comliant players until sometime in 2008! See the story here. This further increases the chances that the Bluray format will NOT have any BD 1.1 players ready for the November 1st deadline. That leaves NO OTHER BD players that have been announced as being able to comply with the BD 1.1 player spec... Meanwhile, HD DVD is now launching it's 3rd generation players to the market, with even lower prices, more features, and, as usual, with the one great, working, coherent player spec that studios can develop their film releases for with confidence, knowing that ALL owners of HD DVD players will get the same great experience. On the heels of the decisions by both Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks to drop Bluray support entirely and only release to HD DVD from now on, the questions are being asked - why? Is it possible that bluray's continued failure to cobble together some semblance of a STANDARD for ALL player part of their frustration with the format? As Warner Brothers has been waiting patiently for the BD 1.1 spec to appear to release many of their titles also, will this also cause Warner to lose faith and abandon Bluray too? It's certainly something that continues to annoy me. How many thousands of people have bought Bluray players based on demonstration videos at Point Of Sale, and were never told that their players would never be able to perform some of the features that they were promised? how many Bluray owners will be frustrated when they have problems trying to use features they see talked about in future Bluray releases, not realizing that they have an obsolete player that cannot understand these features? There's no sense in going over all the details here, again, as they are covered in the previous two commentary pieces linked above, but one would think that many Bluray buyers could make a case for deceptive sales tactics and potentially demand their money back. The signs are certainly there that perhaps show that Bluray may yet again miss it's promised deadline for getting their "one" player spec to the starting line - about 1 & 1/2 years after the "format war" started with the launch of the Toshiba HD DVD players - which had their player spec sorted from day one. Add to this reports by insiders that Sony is one of the only replication houses that are doing commercial BD50 replication. Even the handful of replication houses other than Sony who have spent millions to install BD50 capability, are said to be seeing production yields of only 10% (meaning they would have to discard 90% of a run), which would make it commercially impossible for them to do BD50 replication. Other big replication houses are holding off on BD50 plants, probably until the technology is working properly. How can the Bluray camp still hold on to any credibility at all? Beats me, honestly... Go to the "ACTION" page and send those letters! It'll only take 10 or 15 minutes...
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