Definition of "specs?"

[roc252002]

I am fairly new to blu-ray technology, and I often hear people talking about specs. What are specs? And specifically what is a 1.1 spec, and are blu-ray players compatible with this spec?

[Blu-dock Saint]

By 1.1 I think you are reading about BD-J 1.1 which is what new Blu-ray's are going to be required to use, and as far as we know all BD players are compatible with it.

[richteer]

Originally Posted by Blu-dock Saint

By 1.1 I think you are reading about BD-J 1.1 which is what new Blu-ray's are going to be required to use, and as far as we know all BD players are compatible with it.

Not quite accurate. BD-J1.1 refers to the minimum spec that Blu-ray *players* launched after October 31 this year must have (the current is 1.0). Most current players won't be 1.1 compatible, but this will only affect "extras" like PIP. The main feature (i.e., the movie itself) will not be hindered in any way.

There's also a Profile 2.0, which makes mandatory a couple of things that are optional in 1.1.

[DJeffries]

The following thread has some profile details for you.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=143801

[Anthony P]

spec is short for specifications. when talking about an object (like a movie or a player) it means the features. When talking about a format it usually means what is required, optional or none existent in the format.

BD has 4 profiles, each profile has a list of minimum specs for players. One of the profiles is called BD-video 1.1. Right now all players are BD-video 1.0 later on this year any new BD-video players will be required to be BD-video 1.1. The difference between video 1.0 and 1.1 is that 1.1 requires the player to have two video decoders so that two video streams can be decoded at once. In other words you will see two pics at once. This can be in the form of a PiP, in the form of a PoP or in any form the disk author decides.

[Anthony P]

There is no BD-J 1.1 spec. There is only one BD-J all players use the same. The difference is that some players will have two decoders.

There are 4 BD profiles (at this time)

BD-Audio
BD-Video 1.0
BD-video 1.1
BD-Live

BD-audio is the simplest BD player and is meant to play BD-Audio disks (i.e. kind of like SACD or DVD-A)

BD-Video 1.0: is the simplest BD player, it has everything needed to watch movies

BD-video 1.1: comes into effect later this year and replaces 1.0 as the min spec for video players. It requires a bit more permanent memory as well as the capability to decode two videos

BD-Live: adds network features for on-line interaction or DL features.

what are some examples of live features?

downloading extra subtitles like Swahili (the market being so small they would not want to include it on the disk) - can't remember who gave this example, but it is a simple example

on line gaming like a princess tea party where an on-line vote helps determine what princess is invited to it - given by Disney

getting hyperlinks to pop up to an on-line car insurance company (advertisements) every time the car crashes in the movie - this was given by MS about a super cool feature that HD DVD could give right now but it should be possible on BD-Live once playewrs come out with it.