Parsons issues BD-Java clarification

[The Big Blue]

From the bits...

And while we're talking Blu-ray, the BD Association has issued a statement clarifying the compliance of current and forthcoming Blu-ray Disc players with the BD-Java spec. Here's the text:

"From Andy Parsons, U.S. Promotion Committee Chair, Blu-ray Disc Association:

Based on recent coverage, there appears to be some confusion about the implementation of BD-Java on Blu-ray Disc.

All Blu-ray Disc players must support BD-Java (BD-J) and every one shipped to date does. The confusion surrounds an announcement by the [Blu-ray Disc Association] setting an Oct. 31 deadline for implementation of several secondary features. The deadline applies to:

– Secondary video, also known as picture-in-picture (PiP).
– Secondary audio.
– Persistent memory storage (a minimum of 256MB, 1GB for players with an Internet connection).

Of these, the PiP requirement is receiving the most attention. The PiP feature is a specific hardware function that must be built into a player, and BD-Java is simply used to operate this feature if it's present. No player shipped to date supports PiP at this time, although it's always possible that a given model has been designed to switch it on later (no company has announced this yet as far as I know).

My point is that it's important to separate picture-in-picture and the other items listed above from BD-Java. BD-Java is one of two interactive modes that can be used on a Blu-ray Disc (the other being "HDMV" or high definition movie mode, which is similar to DVD navigational structures). All BD players must support both environments.

If a studio offers a PiP function or other features that require the persistent memory or the ability to playback secondary video or audio streams on future BD titles, current players will not support those specific features. However, movie playback, as well as other interactive features not using these functions would be unaffected and should work as they normally would."