bd profile 1.1
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1:00PM Nick Broughall | One of the big reasons that Blu-ray isn’t gaining the same traction as DVDs (aside from the required spend on compatible hardware and cost of both the players and movies) is the fact that there have been several different, confusingly named standards. While we’ve been over it before and know the differences between the different BD profiles, it still bugs the hell out of us to see a product launch that announces that it’s “Final Standard Profile” when there’s nothing “Final” about it. Which is exactly what the latest player from Sharp does.
The Sharp BD-HP21X offers “Final Standard Profile”, which lets you watch Picture-in-Picture during playback of your Blu-ray movie. There’s no BD-Live support for those of you with compatible BD-Live movies (like Iron Man), meaning you’ll never be able to access all that extra downloadable content unless you buy a new player.
It’s not all bad - there’s a quick start mode and the player only pulls in 0.5W of power in standby, but for the same price as this $499 unit you can pick up Sony or Panasonic’s latest players which do do BD-Live. And that’s where we’d suggest you put your money, if you’re in a Blu-ray buying mood. More »
Sharp Keeps The Blu-ray Market Confused With BD Profile 1.1 Player
1:00PM Nick Broughall | One of the big reasons that Blu-ray isn’t gaining the same traction as DVDs (aside from the required spend on compatible hardware and cost of both the players and movies) is the fact that there have been several different, confusingly named standards. While we’ve been over it before and know the differences between the different BD profiles, it still bugs the hell out of us to see a product launch that announces that it’s “Final Standard Profile” when there’s nothing “Final” about it. Which is exactly what the latest player from Sharp does.
The Sharp BD-HP21X offers “Final Standard Profile”, which lets you watch Picture-in-Picture during playback of your Blu-ray movie. There’s no BD-Live support for those of you with compatible BD-Live movies (like Iron Man), meaning you’ll never be able to access all that extra downloadable content unless you buy a new player.
It’s not all bad - there’s a quick start mode and the player only pulls in 0.5W of power in standby, but for the same price as this $499 unit you can pick up Sony or Panasonic’s latest players which do do BD-Live. And that’s where we’d suggest you put your money, if you’re in a Blu-ray buying mood. More » 
