Why so few ethernet-equipped BD players?

[DaViD Boulet]

UPDATE: I've since learned that there ARE stand-alones that provide ethernet. My bad!

Consider this the now-established topic for disucssion:

Originally Posted by Go Blu

You do have a very good point though and I do think they should take notice.

For the price of the players
there is no reason why in 2007-2008 that every player is not WiFi enabled.
It should be as standard as a DVD drive in a PC.

My original comments were as follows:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Honestly, what gives?

The PS3 has it. EVERY HD DVD player has it. We know it's part of the 2.0 profile for BD.

Yet NO standalone BD player, at *any* price, provides it.

Let's call a spade a spade. This is rediculous. I can understand low-cost BD players omitting the connection to keep costs lower for consumers who may not care about it. But not even on high-end players where price isn't an issue?

Every time I update the firmware on my PS3 it's just a remote-click away. Same for HD DVD owners. Given all the updates necessary to play newer Java-heavy discs, it would make sense to have ethernet on BD players if for no other reason than to facilitate firmware updates.

IMO, the manufacturers (who were the problem to begin with by putting pressure on the BD group to ease spec requirements), deserve some major *****-slapping.

I'm still royally pissed about the BD group dropping required high-def decoding for the secondary video stream for PIP in profile 1.1 because the manufacturers complained that it would be "too hard" to do right now. That would have actually made BD *better* than HD DVD in regards to PIP... by giving users the abilty to swap with the PIP window to see the special effects or story-board in high-def 1080p when desired. It would also have been the perfect spring-board for real, authentic, dual-1080p channels for 3-D encoded discs with full backwards compatibility with all existing players in 2-D mode. Ok... that's a different topic. But given everything that the manufacturers have dumbed-down with BD so far, the lack of ethernet on all existing hardware is salt in the wound.

If you're going to charge 2-4 times the costs of a fully-featured HD DVD player, is ethernet too much to ask???

[CptGreedle]

I warn you now, people are going to call you a troll for this post.

All i have to say is that this is early in the format war. Plus I was sure there were a few stand alone players that did provide internet access for firmware upgrades.... I am just not sure which ones.

[Paden]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Yet NO standalone BD player, at *any* price, provides it.

<snip>

Every time I update the firmware on my PS3 it's just a remote-click away.

I think you've answered your own question. And I too believe there are standalone players that have ethernet but I'm not certain. Since I use a PS3 it isn't that important to me right now.

[Joe Cain]

I thought the Samsung BD-P1200 has ethernet...

[Go Blu]

I'd love to see the WiFi unit in the PS3 in all future stand alones.

[blitz6speed]

One of the samsungs has ethernet, maybe more then one. The Pioneer has ethernet. Every PS3 has ethernet. Doesnt seem like NONE of them have it to me?!

[domerdel]

i didnt see this as a troll post. someone is frustrated with BD hardware in the early stages of this format war.

I'm happy with my PS3 investment. We'll see the tide turn (in hardware) in the 1st round of 08'

[Living Near Shamu]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Honestly, what gives?

The PS3 has it. EVERY HD DVD player has it. We know it's part of the 2.0 profile for BD.

Yet NO standalone BD player, at *any* price, provides it.

Let's call a spade a spade. This is rediculous. I can understand low-cost BD players omitting the connection to keep costs lower for consumers who may not care about it. But not even on high-end players where price isn't an issue?

Every time I update the firmware on my PS3 it's just a remote-click away. Same for HD DVD owners. Given all the updates necessary to play newer Java-heavy discs, it would make sense to have ethernet on BD players if for no other reason than to facilitate firmware updates.

IMO, the manufacturers (who were the problem to begin with by putting pressure on the BD group to ease spec requirements), deserve some major *****-slapping.

I'm still royally pissed about the BD group dropping required high-def decoding for the secondary video stream for PIP in profile 1.1 because the manufacturers complained that it would be "too hard" to do right now. That would have actually made BD *better* than HD DVD in regards to PIP... by giving users the abilty to swap with the PIP window to see the special effects or story-board in high-def 1080p when desired. It would also have been the perfect spring-board for real, authentic, dual-1080p channels for 3-D encoded discs with full backwards compatibility with all existing players in 2-D mode. Ok... that's a different topic. But given everything that the manufacturers have dumbed-down with BD so far, the lack of ethernet on all existing hardware is salt in the wound.

If you're going to charge 2-4 times the costs of a fully-featured HD DVD player, is ethernet too much to ask???

I seen it ma'! The troll is hunting!

[Luis_A51]

Just proves the PS3 is the best overall BD player. There are just to many pros to counter the 1 major negative (no DTSMA)

[Jim L]

When it does become standard, I think it would be best to have wi-fi.

Many folks (myself included) do not have an ethernet jack right next to their home theather system, or it would be a pain in the @ss to put one in. It works great for the PS3.

On another note -- all these things added to a standalone unit cost money. And I hear a lot of *****ing about prices needing to be lower. So the CE companies are damned either way, and they really would like to make a handy little thing called profit on these players.

If you're honest, you have to admit Toshiba must be losing money on their players. (Hence they are just about the only CE company making them.) And from what I hear, they still don't perform that well. (On the 4th? generation now) They're still slow, buggy, need lots of updates and have trouble playing some of their key titles. If there was profit in the hardware, more effort could be put into quality, speed and reliability.

Personally, I do not see ANY compelling reason to have network connectivity in a player, other than making firmware updates easier.

[Beta-guy]

I agree for my movie viewing expieriance the only profile I'm personally excited about is 2.0, 1,1 is PiP and I don't was to see and hear a bunch of guys yapping away thoughout my movie, no one likes going to the theater and have some one talk on thier cellphone this to me is no differant, I haven't heard a good rationale for why they can't just have that video in the extra features instead of valuable screen space during the movie.

Profile 2.0 on the other hand is big, download additional content, firmware updates made easier for the consumer I doubt an ethernet port would cost $5 (please correct me if I'm wrong) as for adhering to the full standard I don't think it would cost that much, remember the PiP is a secondary video playing a smaller video, they could add in a cheap video card chip to handle the second video stream as the primary video stream will handle the majority of the work. and throw in $5 and you got ethernet port put in 1 GB of flash memory (dirty cheap these days) and you should have a reletively low cost full profile BD player.

[BTBuck1]

Don't Samsung bdp1200, LG's dual format player and Pioneers player have it?

[Joe Cain]

Doesn't this thread need a new title?

[BTBuck1]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

I warn you now, people are going to call you a troll for this post.

Anyone who knows David from AVS knows damn well he isn't no Troll.

[RUR]

Originally Posted by Joe Cain

I thought the Samsung BD-P1200 has ethernet...

It does.

Originally Posted by Living Near Shamu

I seen it ma'! The troll is hunting

Please do some homework before calling people trolls. David is the farthest thing from it.

[CptGreedle]

Hey, I said it would happen, and it did. I didn't say he was.
Either way, I was also right in that there are other players out there that have ethernet. I am also sure all the future ones will have to add this in to add support for the 2.0 profile when it is out next year.

[Rup_Muk]

Originally Posted by BTBuck1

Anyone who knows David from AVS knows damn well he isn't no Troll.

I agree. David Boulet is NOT a troll.

Rup.

[owa]

Originally Posted by Go Blu

I'd love to see the WiFi unit in the PS3 in all future stand alones.

Yeah, that would be my preference also since I don't have an ethernet connection where my home theater resides.

[victorvondoom88]

The samsung 1400 has one.

The pioneer elite BDP-94HD has one, so does the pioneer BDP-LX70 and the BDP-95FD.

[DaViD Boulet]

hey guys,

my bad if there really *are* stand-alones out there with Ethernet. Why haven't I heard of this before?



In any case... does that mean that those players can connect to the internet for auto-updates without having to burn disc-software to get an upgrade? Will they become 2.0 compliant with future firmware?

thanks for the input. Oh, and I'm definitely not a troll. BD enthusiasts should be allowed to call honest shots as well, even when their own format needs some help.

dave