Evolving Blu-ray Format Will Leave Some Behind

Reservoir Hill writes "Blu-ray may have taken a commanding lead in the next-generation format war, but Betanews is reporting that early supporters of Blu-ray will be left out in the cold when the Blu-ray Disc Association introduces BD Profile 2.0, expected to arrive in October. Unlike HD DVD, which from the very beginning mandated features such as local storage, a second video and audio decoder for picture-in-picture, and a network connection, the companies behind Blu-ray took a different approach to keep costs down. 'We should have waited another year to introduce Blu-ray to the public, but the format war changed the situation,' said one developer. Representatives at the Blu-ray booth at CES said that the PlayStation 3 is currently the only player they would recommend, due to upcoming changes to the platform. Asked if they were concerned about a backlash from early adopters who supported the format from the beginning, one representative said: 'They knew what they were getting into.'"

PC's go to HD-DVD, HD video to hdd, BluRay nowhere

[gregconquest]

Compatibility makes HD-DVD a natural PC component. There are no downsides. I wouldn't get a stand-alone player of any kind now. I'll stay with regular DVD and use my hard drive and HTPC for HD content for the next several years. However, in building a new PC, putting in an HD-DVD is becoming a nice option. You still have the ability to read and burn regular DVD+/-R's, and you can can burn a HD-DVD as well, though these will not be readable till HD-DVD replaces regular DVD on PC's.

WalMart, PostChristmas Sale and BluRay

[Anonymous Coward]

The local WalMart has a stack of BluRay media in a prominent location with leading movies on at a very good price. The stack is neat, tidy and hardly touched. Asked a checkout person in the electronics area how sales were. She said she has seen them but personally has not sold one since before Christmas.

Or as one potential sale said "BluRay must be some kind of game system"

Still waiting for the critical mass of buyers I guess.