Meridian Plans?

[ebanks]

Has anyone read anything about a Meridian player being released?

I have been wanting to switch out my whole system for a complete Meridian setup but have been waiting and waiting on news of a BDP release. Anyway, I thought maybe someone here had read or heard something somewhere. My local Meridian dealer is a complete nightmare, so I have no hope in asking them.

[JadedRaverLA]

Well, Meridian was very clear that they were going to wait out the format war before looking at either format. Last year at CES, the HD DVD PRG listed Meridian as a "partner company" and Meridian basically came out and said that was false, and IF HD DVD won, it would still be years before Meridian launched a player. Most likely the same is true of Blu-ray.

Bob Stuart, CEO and Tech. Director for Meridian, was interviewed about both formats. He REALLY dislikes all the "bonus features" requested by studios that makes producing a player a pain in the a$$. At one point during the development, he supposedly offered to pay extra if he could get a license to create a "profile 0.9" player" (my term, not his), that would just play the movie, and wouldn't have to deal with Java, BonusView, BD-Live, etc.

I think you'll find a lot of high-end manufacturers who feel that way. They just want to be able to work on maximizing audio and video quality, but instead they have to deal with complex OS's, various copy protection mechanisms, Java VMs, internet connectivity, dual video and audio streams, in player audio mixing, firmware updates, etc.

So, yeah, don't expect Meridian to be producing a Blu-ray player anytime soon. (They still haven't even produced a SACD player for that matter!) Most other high-end manufacturers will also likely wait it out until everything is really finalized (and they can minimize firmware updates) or modify a Pioneer or Panasonic design with higher end components but the same OS and core functionality.

[Big Daddy]

Originally Posted by JadedRaverLA

So, yeah, don't expect Meridian to be producing a Blu-ray player anytime soon. (They still haven't even produced a SACD player for that matter!) Most other high-end manufacturers will also likely wait it out until everything is really finalized (and they can minimize firmware updates) or modify a Pioneer or Panasonic design with higher end components but the same OS and core functionality.

The reason Meridian refuses to produce a SACD player is because they are behind the MLP coding used in DVD-A. Dolby True HD is based on MLP. For similar reasons, Sony refuses to manufacture a DVD-A player because Sony and Philips developed SACD.

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by Big Daddy

The reason Meridian refuses to produce a SACD player is because they are behind the MLP coding used in DVD-A. Dolby True HD is based on MLP. For similar reasons, Sony refuses to manufacture a DVD-A player because Sony and Philips developed SACD.

That's very true -- hence the name... Meridian Lossless Packing. My point with mentioning SACD was just to point out that Meridian doesn't bow to pressure to release a product. They do things at their own speed, and certainly are going to support those formats they helped develop.