Blu-Ray 1.1: A lawsuit waiting to happen?

Early adopters of Blu-Ray Disc could be so incensed by changes being made to 'their' movie format that they could sue Hollywood studios and hardware makers alike.

This is because many Blu-Ray movies being launched next year have interactive menus and other features that take advantage of BD-Video Final Standard Profile 1.1.

says Olivier Van Wynendaele, spokesman for the European arm of the HD DVD Promotion Group. Rob Mead Of Tech.co.uk says he has a point, and it's a very good one:

"You some have hardware limitations. Persistent memory, for instance, mandates that you have flash memory inside the player, which is what HD DVD players have."

"You can't upgrade the hardware"
"Take a Samsung or a Sony player - they have no flash memory. How will you introduce flash memory into a player which has already been designed and introduced? It's not a PC, you can't change the board, you can't upgrade it," Van Wynendaele told Tech.co.uk.

[Jen5en]

Oh no! *Sounds the flame siren*

[eLiNeS]

[ ]

[SDFm3rc]

the last I heard SONY is now in $12 billion long-term debts. Now don';t get me wrong, I'm a major SONY fan, but s#it, if I were SONY I'd just concentrate on trying to knock out some decent GAMES, and not worry about this stupid format war FFS. The PS3 is first and foremost a GAMING machine right?

1. Toshiba's money is NOW infinitly longer than SONY's.

2. Sony should never have stepped head-on into another format war, knowing that they've LOST ALL PREVIOUS ONES.

[PopEmUp]

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[Fighter]

Blu ray is not only Sony. Sony and other companies are all responsible for Blu ray.

Someone once told me that early DVD players could only read a single layer of a DVD and they didn't have firmware updates back then. I could be wrong.

From what I know about this 1.1 update all previous players can still play new movie but the new features will not be accessible. That is not right for consumers but that's the price for being an early adopter to any forms of technology, you'll always get screwed. Since the attach rate for stand-alone BD players are low maybe the Blu ray group should replace the old players with new ones to satisfy the customers or maybe release an add-on device for those players.

[cuco33]

They lost on MOST but not all.

This 1.1 profile ordeal is something I've seen come from a long ways. It's proof on why the format was launched unfinished. There's what... 2 1.1 compliant players on the market? The new one from Panasonic (heard good things about it) and the Samsung dual format one. I could be wrong on 2 but it isn't large. Sony themselves recently certified their newest player due out soon to 1.0 profile just days before the 1.1 deadline date of 10/31/07

[Regret]

They finnaly made very good format, and they totaly fcked up with this.

[green]

dont know why sony never learns from their mistakes,by going along with this format war.They lost all previous ones so what made them so sure they would win this one.

I know the stakes are massive for winners but it really is getting tiring for the consumers.I dont have HD-DVD or BLUE RAY but decided to buy HD-DVD drive for he 360 this christmas on the basis of cost.But after hearing about the fall update for the 360 and their digital distribution service.Ive decided tobuy a larger hard drive and download all my movies in 720p instead.Hardly ever rewatch movies anyway.And thosei really want i still have the option of buying them

As for sony seems they are digging their graves again.because if there is a lawsuitand it becomes public.then it will seriously dent blue rays reputation

[THUNDERMARE]

Sony did win in some area (the betamax was kindda huge embarrassment but anyway) Video8 was the dominate format in comcorder market and MiniDise is pretty successful in Japan. If you really count the number that Sony lost in format war (I mean "a war" and not some partial nich market penetration), you only get 1 big one; the Betamax.
However, there are some other smaller war like the SDDS and MiniDisc, which is hardly call a war since it was develop for different market and on much different scale.
Anyway, the BR-DVD associate is made up of several big manufactures and entertainment companies, namely, Apple, Dell, H-P, and Samsung.
You are greatly mistaken to think that this is Sony Vs Toshiba war.
Its a war in a much larger scale that involve almost all of the biggest home entertainment companies in the world.

[gnothe1]

whats up with the sony boys constantly stating that blu ray is the superior format, an that people are supporting a dead format with HD-DVD.looks like sony is in for it AGAIN with this!!

[pwnsause]

you like to troll around dont you. how old are you 13? please explain yourself

[jlytle1234]

frivolous lawsuit alert. call me crazy, but doesnt technology always get updated. this is not lawsuit worthy and youd be better off buying another bluray player than paying for a lawyer only to get your a$$ handed to you. plus the fact that a ps3 can be updated via firmware to 1.1 so sony offered you a bluray model that cant be outdated. you passed up on it if you bought a standalone player. oh and your tv,car,mp3 player,computer,and toaster will all be outdated before long too.

[jahcure]

For hardware revisions? Then Toshiba should be sued for making 1080p players. This is garbage, technology changes all the time. Did anyone think before writing this?

[theBishop]

No lawsuit is going to gain any kind of traction. The existing players will always play Blu-Ray movies even if they don't support all the advanced interactivity features.

It was the same situation with DVD. Most early players didn't support progressive scan (480p). Now, you can buy a progressive DVD player for $40.

The early adopters (and this is an early adopter market, $99 players notwithstanding) are primarily concerned with having HD-quality movies, and that's exactly what they are getting.

[Bladestar]

This is all blu-ray is... a prototype... Sony used their fanboys to test their new technology... now all those people who purchased those blu-ray drives are stucked with players that may very well not be able to play future movies... good job Sony.
This will be fun to watch...

[jlytle1234]

it would be fun to watch you never comment again too.

[Bibto]

Would there actually be any legal grounds for people to sue? This is the risk that early adopters take by buying into new technology very early. Their player will still play the movies, just not the advanced features.

<<<< Begin: Senseless rant >>>>

Can all the people who bought the $98 HD-DVD player sue because it can only output 1080i and not 1080p?

I bought a Canon digital camera last year. A month after I bought it, they released the newer model with more features and a better price. Can I sue Canon?

If you bought a profile 1.0 player, you will get a profile 1.0 player. You can't expect it to magically turn into a Profile 1.1 player now.

Honestly, I'm going to sue Nvidia now because my graphics card didn't automatically turn into the latest version. Better yet, I'm suing Microsoft because my XBox 360 DVD player still hasn't magically turned into an HD-DVD player. My video out also hasn't turned into an HDMI out yet. Does anyone know if that will happen with the new fall update?

<<<< End: Senseless rant >>>>

[Sylo]

I think in your senseless rant you missed the point.

As you said, the player will still be able to play movies. However, most people, I would imagine, are afraid of their players becoming "obsolete," not outdated. And so it sounds like someone with HDDVD is playing off those fears.

Your examples are a little ridiculous. People that bought their movie player to play movies, just to find out it won't play movies would have every right to be pissed. It just sounds like people are misinformed.

[beavis4play]

something i don't get: why would anyone care to have PIP to see the people who are giving commentary? i could care less.

[andy001]

Someone sued Apple regarding the iphone price drop only a few months after launch

Someone sued the 360 regarding the RROD

Someone sued MS because of the Xbox power cord recall.

Someone sued Rockstar games blaming a game for their child shooting someone.

Someone will most likely sue the Blu Ray disc association because some PiP feature which they most likely would never have used won 't work on their old player.

Someone will most likely sue the HD DVD people when the format becomes obsolete and they can't find movies anymore.

Someones always suing someone. Not sure there is any point to be made here except it is the HD DVD marketing guy who is suggesting it, hoping some lawyer wanting to make a name for themselves will encourage a consumer with more money than sense to try it.

According to the HD DVD bods the PS3 is the only player selling and its a games console, not a movie player, so try making a lawsuit out of that. :o)

[mccomber]

it's hard to take the article as scripture considering the source for most of the information is a spokesman for HDDVD.
One gem is that Van Wynendaele states "This feature won't work on any Blu-ray player available today. Even on the PS3..." and it's obvious that only the article's writer actually says anything about the fact that the PS3 does meet the standards for 1.1 and can be easily updated via firmware, and as the highest selling BluRay player, that is very important. Now that it doesn't affect attach rates, the HDDVD group is back to ignoring it as the top-selling player; except for that one little jab that doesn't even matter in the end since a firmware update will fix it.
Yes it does suck for early adopters (who should be used to getting screwed, because that's unfortunately how it often works) but at the same time, we don't know how many players sold this will affect in the end.

[blackmagic]

I highly doubt that a lawsuit would be successful in court. The way that people are today... well, let's just say I wouldn't be really surprised if people tried.

The real issue is that profile 1.1(bonusview) and 2.0(bd-live) are potential pr nightmares. There's a reason nothing profile 1.1 related is being released until after christmas...

[mmccking]

It's this BS that player manufacturers love, churn hardware sales.

Sure products evolve release to release, however, how many other consumer electronics makers have you known to pre-obsolete the products they are selling today?

THIS is why I won't support BD. Sure I'm not happy with HD DVD's unwillingness to work towards a unified format, but at least my options are on the table right now, I can either go 1080i or 1080p and know that everything else will work...unless of course triple layer HD DVDs don't!

[Grassroots]

the movies will still be able to be watched, just not the special IME features. Which to many people won't bother, some it will.