Not all Blu-ray players will be equal

The Blu-ray Disc Association sdays players released after October 31 should have a fuller range of features. For example they will be able to play back picture-in-picture video, as driven by BD Java interactive technology.

While lots of Blu-ray players that are on the shelves can handle BD Java to varying degrees, few can cope with the picture-in-picture capability.

Sony's Blu-ray 'killer application', the PS3 can't do it and neither can all the stand alone models from Pioneer and Philips.

Pioneer has upgraded its own BD Java playback with a firmware update. Before that its owners could not see a flashlight graphic within the menu portion of the Blu-ray version of the movie The Descent.

Videobusiness talked to Andy Parsons, a senior VP at Pioneer Electronics who said he doubted firmware updates would bridge all the gaps.

It remains a moot point whether older machines can be upgraded with firmware to get picture-in-picture functionality as the BD Java specification is a bit complicated for this sort of upgrade.

Other upgrades that the new standard demands is that all Blu-ray players must hold a minimum 256MB of persistent memory storage, although those that connect to the Interweb must have 1GB of such memory.

So far the studios have not released a true picture-in-picture Blu-ray product. The Descent had a work around for it.

It looks like the early adopters who gave Blu-ray its start and paid over-the-odds for their machines may find that they have to buy another player to get the full monty. µ