Why should there be any standards for any players except to read a disc?

[Firestreak]

I don't know about you guys, but I don't think it's really all that great to have these stringest standards on HD DVD and Blu-ray players. What if you don't want to pay for features you won't use?

Why not have a 1080i blu-ray player? Or HD DVD without internet or PiP.

Personally, I want to buy a $50 blu-ray player that only outputs standard def. I'd put it on standard def TV in my basement. Then I could watch my blu-ray movies down there. It doesn't make sense for me to have a full 1080p player attached to a standard def TV, but what if I want to watch Superbad down there?

Why not? I don't see who is being hurt, it's not like it will decrease the PQ or AQ on my PS3 or someone else's standalone 1080P player.

[WickyWoo]

Personally, I want to buy a $50 blu-ray player that only outputs standard def. I'd put it on standard def TV in my basement. Then I could watch my blu-ray movies down there. It doesn't make sense for me to have a full 1080p player attached to a standard def TV, but what if I want to watch Superbad down there?

Because it's completely non-practical.

The hardware required to decompress it is very high end and expensive, it takes just as much effort to do a 480p model as a 1080p

The 1080i HD DVD players are intentionally crippled, and Toshiba took a huge loss on each and every one sold. The same would go with a 480p blu-ray player.

Standards are there because stupid people don't read, it's to ensure that all titles will enjoy a base level of functionality

[miokti]

standards just makes sure that every disc released by every studio can play in every player released by every CE.

[WriteSimply]

I think you're confusing standards with compatibility. Standards are agreed-upon rules and conditions that ensures things work globally, like fuel quality or audio recording. Compatibility is an accumulation of standards that work independently within one unit.

Without standards, somebody can design a car that takes up more than one lane that s/he wants to use on the highway, which would be dangerous. Without compatibility, a left-hand drive car can't be driven in a right-hand drive country.

I could think of two reasons of why compatibility is important for BD players:

1) It helps the consumer in making a purchase. You see a BD player and just know that the standards of DVD, CD and BD is there.

2) The cost differential in making players with differing standards is just not there. It may also be harder to set a price for a range of features for a player.


fuad

[Firestreak]

But aren't the 1.1 and 2.0 specs going to become standards, and CEs won't be able to make the old 1.0 players anymore?

[tron3]

Originally Posted by Firestreak

...
Personally, I want to buy a $50 blu-ray player that only outputs standard def. I'd put it on standard def TV in my basement. Then I could watch my blu-ray movies down there. It doesn't make sense for me to have a full 1080p player attached to a standard def TV, but what if I want to watch Superbad down there?
....

No offense dude, but this is utterly stupid. Not for want of a cheaper player, but for the downgrading of the picture.

I have heard of a few people on and off this site who bought blu-ray and use it on SD TV's. Not out of choice, but out of lack of an HDTV. I don't consider this stupid as they all plan on upgrading to HDTV and simply future proofed their movie collection.

I thought I was being smart for buying all my DVD's in widescreen for knowing one day I would have a widescreen TV.

[bajor27]

ridiculous idea. I don't want to have to deal with checking out every last little thing about a blu-ray player to make sure it's what I want. I want to be able to buy any player knowing it's 1080P and can play DVDs, and can support certain audio codecs. I'll worry about the few optional features, but I sure as heck don't want to have to check every last thing.

Imagine how pissed off consumers who don't do a lot of research before buying would get? Yes, sure, it's their fault for not checking. But pissing off the average consumer certainly doesn't help your bottom line.

I think WriteSimply nailed it on the head with the car analogy. Would you really want to have to check the width of every car you buy to make sure it would fit in parking spaces and on the road?

You should be happy things like these have standards.

[blu-backer]

Originally Posted by Firestreak

I don't know about you guys, but I don't think it's really all that great to have these stringest standards on HD DVD and Blu-ray players. What if you don't want to pay for features you won't use?

Why not have a 1080i blu-ray player? Or HD DVD without internet or PiP.

Personally, I want to buy a $50 blu-ray player that only outputs standard def. I'd put it on standard def TV in my basement. Then I could watch my blu-ray movies down there. It doesn't make sense for me to have a full 1080p player attached to a standard def TV, but what if I want to watch Superbad down there?

Why not? I don't see who is being hurt, it's not like it will decrease the PQ or AQ on my PS3 or someone else's standalone 1080P player.

I'm not sure what sounds more ridiculous: connecting a BD player to an SD TV or asking the industry to loosen up the standards to come up with a player to allow for such a thing. (I'm betting the Chinese will eventually come out with one some day to fill this growing need. </sarcasm>)

Srsly, watching a disc made for 1080p on a tv that can only do 480i? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

[Luis_A51]

If they made a 480p bluray player then

1) they would completely cheapen the whole idea of bluray in consumer's minds

2) it would lead to an unbelievable amount of confusion for buyers

Not to mention the fact that the market for such a product would be very smal, and that the hardware cost savings arent there to offer them for less than the current player price.

[Blu As Hell]

Originally Posted by Firestreak

I don't know about you guys, but I don't think it's really all that great to have these stringest standards on HD DVD and Blu-ray players. What if you don't want to pay for features you won't use?

Why not have a 1080i blu-ray player? Or HD DVD without internet or PiP.

Personally, I want to buy a $50 blu-ray player that only outputs standard def. I'd put it on standard def TV in my basement. Then I could watch my blu-ray movies down there. It doesn't make sense for me to have a full 1080p player attached to a standard def TV, but what if I want to watch Superbad down there?

Why not? I don't see who is being hurt, it's not like it will decrease the PQ or AQ on my PS3 or someone else's standalone 1080P player.

No offense, but you do realize, if you like, you can change the setting on any Blu-Ray player to a standard 480p/i? What would the point be to watch a disc with 1080 lines of resolution outputing only 480 lines of resolution?

[ground chuck]

Originally Posted by Firestreak

I don't know about you guys, but I don't think it's really all that great to have these stringest standards on HD DVD and Blu-ray players. What if you don't want to pay for features you won't use?

Why not have a 1080i blu-ray player? Or HD DVD without internet or PiP.

Personally, I want to buy a $50 blu-ray player that only outputs standard def. I'd put it on standard def TV in my basement. Then I could watch my blu-ray movies down there. It doesn't make sense for me to have a full 1080p player attached to a standard def TV, but what if I want to watch Superbad down there?

Why not? I don't see who is being hurt, it's not like it will decrease the PQ or AQ on my PS3 or someone else's standalone 1080P player.

becareful...brilliance at work here, please stand back.

[blckshp]

I'm high def through and through, but I haven't replaced every TV in my house with a Hi Def model. While I enjoy watching my Blu-rays on my Home Theater setup, there may be and probably will be a time when I want to play the disc in my office on my tv there which is still standard def. I don't want to buy two discs to watch on different tv's in my office. The fact is that those tv's will probably be upgraded in the future. But all Blu-ray players that I know of have at least a composite output which works just fine. No need to make a less capable player.

[Blu As Hell]

Originally Posted by blckshp

I'm high def through and through, but I haven't replaced every TV in my house with a Hi Def model. While I enjoy watching my Blu-rays on my Home Theater setup, there may be and probably will be a time when I want to play the disc in my office on my tv there which is still standard def. I don't want to buy two discs to watch on different tv's in my office. The fact is that those tv's will probably be upgraded in the future. But all Blu-ray players that I know of have at least a composite output which works just fine. No need to make a less capable player.

Please read the following statement made by myself a couple of posts ago.

Originally Posted by Blu As Hell

No offense, but you do realize, if you like, you can change the setting on any Blu-Ray player to a standard 480p/i?

...continue.

"COOOBRAAA!!!"

[blckshp]

Originally Posted by Blu As Hell

Please read the following statement made by myself a couple of posts ago.



...continue.

"COOOBRAAA!!!"

Yep and then you continue on with the question of why would you want to lower the resolution. I backed up his statement of wanting to watch Blu-ray on a standard def TV and then reinforced your comment about changing resolution. No need to get feisty!

COOOOOBBBRRRRAAAAA PPPPSSSSTTTT!

[Anthony P]

Firestreak:

agree on the basic sentiment (keep the min at the basics) but you do make a few mistakes

1) BD does not mandate 1080p the disks can be authored in less and the players can output less and don't have to have 1080p as the max

the Samsung 1000 was originally supposed to be 1080i but when everyone else made 1080p players they decided to do the same and added an extra chip to deinterlace the 1080i internally.

2) 2.0 is not mandated on BD players and as long as nothing changes it won't be. But 1.1 is mandated

even though PiP was too difficult for the first generation chips the reality is that once the processor becomes strong enough for it , it does not make much sense to make non-PiP chips. Look at PCs (or intel) they make the Pentiums and they make today’s generation chip. Intel does not care about making 286 chips because they can't sell them cheap enough to have people interested in buying them over the newer chips. As time passes there is less and less of a cost difference and at some point it becomes 0 because the chip can do, no problem. It is not like 2.0 where a player needs extra HW and so always has a cost.