Whats the difference between the Blu-Ray out already and the one launching next year?
- Thread starter Arty
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The difference is that NONE of the BR player/recorders that are out there right now will be able to playback HD BR movie discs from studios. It doesn't have the copy protection hardware nor does it have VC-1/MPEG4 decoding ability. It probably doesn't even have the optical requirements to even be able to read the data on the disc.
ahh I love when I got a chance to spit some gas on flames...PC-Engine said:
aaaanyways, everything above is correct, IF:
- all upcoming BR-ROM content is copy protected. (acording to spec, the copy protection schema is in additional BR+ spec, and it's up to content provider to use / not use copy protection or parts of it.)
- NONE of the upcoming BR-ROM titles will use MPEG2 Transport / System Streams. (and so they will use VC-1 / H264 / MPEG4 instead. BR spec supports also MPEG2, so depending how much 1st generation BR Devices sell, we might see movies being released in MPEG2 format as well.)
Nappe1 said:ahh I love when I got a chance to spit some gas on flames...
aaaanyways, everything above is correct, IF:
- all upcoming BR-ROM content is copy protected. (acording to spec, the copy protection schema is in additional BR+ spec, and it's up to content provider to use / not use copy protection or parts of it.)
- NONE of the upcoming BR-ROM titles will use MPEG2 Transport / System Streams. (and so they will use VC-1 / H264 / MPEG4 instead. BR spec supports also MPEG2, so depending how much 1st generation BR Devices sell, we might see movies being released in MPEG2 format as well.)
Are you kidding? Of course ALL BR movies will be copy protected using AACS and BD+.
As for MPEG2 that depends too. We know there WILL be MPEG2 BR movies at least from SONY's own studios at BR's launch. However we do not know if the existing BR recorders will be able to even read the BD-ROMs regardless if the movie is MPEG2 encoded. Remember that the existing BR recorders were released at a time when the BD-ROM spec hadn't yet existed.
I'd would say that all BIG titles. For example, IIRC all finnish movies that ended up to DVD distribution were region free.PC-Engine said:
The point still was, that at least the public spec available in BR says that copy protection system allows partial use, so copy protection in BR isn't as black and white (fully protected / not protected at all) as it was with DVD.
I haven't read HD-DVD specs so I don't know what's the deal there.
PC-Engine said:
publically yes, but how long Philips, Matsushita and Sony have been making the spec under the wraps? Again, if we look at the situation just technical point of view, are the BR-RW discs using same laser as the BD-ROM will? if yes, I don't see other problems than software update. playing BR-RE in BR-ROM will be most likely possible.
at least you got me go on look for official info about this...
...but it has to wait till tomorrow because it's 2:13 am and I have to go to work tomorr... erm, this morning. EDIT: I quickly checked the specs and the basis for all BD Discs has been layout 1996 already. of course it took several years before first prototypes were running in labs, but the casing problem has been solved as early as 2000 (solved by TDK) so, I'd say that BD-RE systems most likely will play BD-ROM discs with MPEG2 TS / PS as well. They might need a firmware / software update able to read the file system, but physically the discs are one and the same.
and now some sleep.
specs for different BD disc formats:
http://www.bluraydisc.com/Section-13628/Index.html
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Copy protection and Region codes are two entirely different issues. You actually think some BR movies will not have copy protection? Must be those home made ones you're talking about.
First of all BR-RE has been in the specs from the start, but even those discs aren't 100% compatible with the existing recorders out there. For example larger DL discs recorded using the Panasonic unit have problems being read from SONY's unit. Regardless this is beside the point. The point is the new BD-ROMs will likely not be able to be played in existing recorders because the specs were finalized much later. Not really sure if a firmware update will solve anything considering the current SONY units still have problems reading discs recorded on Panasonic's unit and these are RW discs which were in the specs from the beginning.
First of all BR-RE has been in the specs from the start, but even those discs aren't 100% compatible with the existing recorders out there. For example larger DL discs recorded using the Panasonic unit have problems being read from SONY's unit. Regardless this is beside the point. The point is the new BD-ROMs will likely not be able to be played in existing recorders because the specs were finalized much later. Not really sure if a firmware update will solve anything considering the current SONY units still have problems reading discs recorded on Panasonic's unit and these are RW discs which were in the specs from the beginning.
serenity said:So we're back to square one again.
Well, thanks for answering the questions.
No problem. Anyway just want to emphasize that blank BR discs recorded using existing BR recorders are supposed to be readable by the new players, however looking at the fact existing BR units have trouble reading each others recordings it does look like it's going to be an issue.
BD-ROM (Hollywood movies), OTOH will likely not be readable by existing BR units because of the codecs. The only exception are SONY movies that will be released using MPEG2 which will have a higher chance of playing in existing BR units.
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