The victory of Blu-ray over HD DVD means that it is now safe (well, safer) to whip out the credit card and plunk it down on a player. However, is it a good time to buy or are you better off waiting? The answer to this question is, as usual, “it depends.”

In this case, the factors are how much you’re willing to spend, your current home theater setup, and what you demand from your movie viewing experience.

Profiling

The ironic thing about Blu-ray’s triumph in the high-def format war is that the loser, HD DVD, was actually a finished format while the victor is still a work in progress. The first Blu-ray players were what are called Profile 1.0. These players lacked features that will be required by the final Blu-ray specification. However, any Blu-ray player should be able to fulfill the most basic function of watching the movie on the disc. The missing features fall squarely under the heading of a “bell” or a “whistle.”

Profile 1.1 or “Bonus View”

The basic requirements for Profile 1.1 are a secondary video and audio processor. In layman’s English, this means the ability to add a picture-in-picture commentary over the movie while still playing the main soundtrack.

Profile 2.0 or “BD-Live”

Profile 1.1 is the final required profile for Blu-ray players, meaning that Profile 2.0 is optional, but most of the new players available by the end of 2008 should meet at least some of the requirements for this final profile. The most significant of these will be the presence of a network connection that will allow the player to access any web-enabled extras on Blu-ray discs. The other requirement is a gigabyte of local storage.

The real limitation is that early Profile 1.0 players are probably not upgradeable to Profiles 1.1 or 2.0, so if you buy a 1.0 player, that’s what you’re stuck with until you pony up for a new player.

If, like me, you have no need for all of these fancy gimmicks, then a Profile 1.0 player will probably fulfill your basic needs when it comes to watching movies. However, many of the early Blu-ray players were also lacking in some other features, specifically support for some of the new sound formats, known as “codecs.” The options in this department are varied and, even to a home theater aficionado like me, downright confusing.

Sound Decisions

If you thought the soundtrack options available for DVD were bewildering, then you are going to hate Blu-ray. Where you once had two basic sound formats, Dolby Digital and DTS, you now have no fewer than seven. Not all of them will be found on every title, but the differences between them are as significant as they are subtle.

So starting with the most familiar:

Dolby Digital and DTS

The familiar sound formats from the age of DVD are still here, to ensure compatibility with current sound systems. Also, the more advanced formats can “downsample” their sound to these two lowest common denominators, to allow users without new sound equipment to hear the soundtracks from their Blu-ray disc.

The Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks on Blu-ray discs also use a higher bit rate, meaning that they contain more information than similar formats found on DVDs, so even if you have a less sophisticated sound system, without an HDMI connector or decoders for the advanced codecs, you will still be getting sound superior to what you heard with DVD.

All early Blu-ray players support either DTS or Dolby Digital.

Linear PCM

All of the other sound formats are compressed, meaning that they use some sort of mathematical method to reduce the amount of space required to store the sound on the disc (“Codec” means “compression/decompression”).

PCM is not a codec because it does not compress the sound. Some DVDs, especially concert videos, had stereo PCM tracks, giving them roughly the same sound quality as compact discs (those shiny silver things that your parents use to get their music).

The increased storage space on Blu-ray discs allows multi-channel PCM tracks up to 8 channels, meaning you can have 7 channels of surround sound and another for a subwoofer. Because the sound is not compressed, the quality is outstanding, but it requires a great deal of space on the disc.

Other than Dolby and DTS, all Blu-ray players are also required to play PCM tracks, if one is present, so when an older player does not decode any of the more advanced codecs, you can still have ultra-high quality sound from your Blu-ray discs as long as the producers of the disc were kind enough to include a PCM track.

Dolby Digital Plus (DD+)

Dolby Digital Plus, the first of the advanced formats developed for Blu-ray and HD DVD, is an evolutionary development of the venerable Dolby Digital codec that has been around since the days of laserdisc. It features a more efficient compression scheme and allows more surround channels.

There are three ways for a Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack to get from the Blu-ray disc to your speakers. Actually, these three methods exist for all of the advanced sound formats.

Bitstream – Bitsteaming means that the digital soundtrack is simply read directly off the disc and transmitted down an HDMI cable to another device, probably a receiver, and decoded there.

Decoded PCM – This means that the player decodes the DD+ soundtrack then sends it down the HDMI cable to your receiver. This would be the solution if your player decodes Dolby Digital Plus but your receiver does not.

Legacy AC-3 – Every DD+ track contains a standard Dolby Digital track that can be decoded by an existing receiver over the same optical or coaxial digital connection used on DVD players for the last ten years. Again, this would be a higher quality soundtrack than you’d typical find on a DVD.

DTS-HD

This is the DTS equivalent of DD+, namely a more efficient codec capable of supporting more channels of sound. And like DD+, it allows the same three methods of getting the sound off the disc to the speakers. In short, it could either be decoded by the player or the receiver, or translated into a high-quality DTS track.

Dolby TrueHD

Dolby Digital, DD+, DTS, and DTS all have one thing in common. They are called “lossy” codecs. This means that, in the process of compressing the sound, some of the information is discarded, mostly in the sound frequencies that people can’t normally hear. No matter how good the compression method is, the end result is still a compromise.

TrueHD is a “lossless” codec, meaning that the sound information is compressed without losing any of the actually sound when it is later decompressed. In short, the sound that goes in is identical to the sound coming out. This means that the sound quality of TrueHD ought to be identical to Linear PCM, but using less space.

Like Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD can be “transcoded,” or converted to an old-fashioned Dolby Digital track for compatibility with older equipment.

DTS-HD Master Audio (DTS-HD MA)

This is the lossless version of DTS, roughly equivalent to TrueHD, and can also be translated to a DTS track if necessary (although most Blu-ray discs that have a TrueHD or DTS-HD MA track will probably also have the corresponding DD or DTS track, making the transcoding completely unnecessary).

Hate the Game, Not the Player

Confused Yet?

No? Well, let me fix that.

Not only are early players limited to Profile 1.0, many of them are incapable of handling the more advanced audio standards supported by Blu-ray. Support for DTS-HD MA is especially spotty. Fortunately, it appears that the new players being released in 2008 will handle all sound formats in some fashion.

Some players, however, will only pass the soundtrack to a receiver via an HDMI cable, requiring you to have one of the newer receivers, which can decode these formats, in order to get the full experience from all of the new sound codecs.

If you don’t have one of those receivers, you will need a player that decodes the advanced sound formats. Currently, these tend to run about $100 more than players that only pass the bitstream to the receiver. Fortunately, new receivers from Sony and Yahama, which handle these sound formats, are coming to market at prices that most people would consider mainstream, between $400 and $600.

No matter what method you use to decode the sound, the best way to connect your Blu-ray player to your sound system or television is via an HDMI cable. This is the newest, shiniest connection that promises to cure the “rat’s nest” of cables behind your entertainment center. It handles both sound and picture.

Now if you buy your television, Blu-ray player or sound system from your average “big-box” store, they will attempt to sell you a name brand HDMI cable that can run from $50 to $150 in price. Now, of course it’s their job to peddle the overpriced accessories that help compensate for the slim margins on high ticket items, but such pricey cables are completely unnecessary. Online retailers like Blue Jeans Cables and MonoPrice.com sell high-quality cables for less than $10. They may not be as “good” as the store cables, but the “enhancements” you’re paying for are completely unnecessary. For lengths of 10 feet or less, the generic cables are perfectly acceptable.

Now if you don’t have a newer receiver with an HDMI connection, you can still get the high-quality soundtracks out of the player and into your receiver, assuming you have a player that fully decodes the sound format in question. Most players and receivers have a multi-channel analog connection, which consists of six or eight RCA-style connectors that allow you to send an already decoded multi-channel soundtrack directly to the receiver.

Now, you might say, “I’ve paid all this money for all this fancy digital equipment. Why would I stoop to using an analog connection? That’s so 20th century.”

Actually, in this case, you lose nothing by connecting your Blu-ray player this way. All sound has to be converted to an analog signal before it can be sent on to your amplifier and out to your speakers. In this case, the player handles both the decoding and the conversion and the analog connection provides a link directly to the receiver’s amplifier. If you have no other option, it’s a perfectly acceptable solution.

Okay, So What Are My Options

Okay, now that I have thoroughly confused you, now it’s time to boil it down and simplify things a bit. For 2008, the major Blu-ray manufacturers are introducing new players that are at least Profile 1.1 and have at least some support for all of the major sound formats.

Almost all current players already support DD+ and DTS-HD. It’s universal TrueHD and DTS-HD MA support that that makes the newer players worth a look. Remember that the big difference between Profiles 1.1 and 2.0 is the Ethernet port, which is hardly something I’m really jonesing for.

Panasonic BMP BD-50 (May 2008) – For $600, you will get a full Profile 2.0 player that fully decodes all of the sound codecs. For less than $400, you can already get the BMP BD-30, which is Profile 1.1 and handles TrueHD and DTS-MA by passing the bitstream to the receiver.

Sony BDP-350 (Summer 2008) – For $400, you will get a Profile 1.1 player that bitstreams the TrueHD and DTS-HD MA. If you have another $100 and a little patience, you can also get the…

Sony BDP-550 (Fall 2008) – This more advanced player is Profile 2.0 from day one (the BDP-350 is upgradeable) and fully decodes TrueHD and DTS-HD MA. This model also has an eight-channel analog output while the BDP-350 only has six.

Pioneer BDP-05FD (Spring 2008) – A Profile 1.1 player which fully decodes TrueHD and DTS-HD MA, this one is a bit pricey at $999. Look for prices to fall on this one quick if it hopes to compete against Sony and Panasonic.

Sharp BD-HP50 (2nd Quarter 2008) – Another pricey Profile 1.1 player at $699, this one decodes TrueHD but not DTS-HD MA, which is only bitstreamed. Given that the Sony BDP-550 fully decodes all formats for $200 less, this one probably will not exactly fly off the shelves at the original price.

Samsung BD-P1500 (Summer 2008) – This is a Profile 1.1 player that bitstreams TrueHD and DTS-MA. For $400, it competes with the Sony BDP-350. Samsung’s earlier players, however, have had spotty reputation among early adopters while Sony’s efforts up to this point have been reasonably solid. To make assurance doubly sure, the Sony player would be a safer bet until it’s clear that the Samsung lacks the glitches of their earlier models.

Sony Playstation 3 (Available Now) – Yes, it’s a game console but it’s also a very competent Blu-ray player, getting high-marks for its picture quality. Also, because its onboard hardware is designed to handle video games, it loads discs and starts playing them noticeably faster than the standalone players. Also, it’s built-in networking and 40 gigabyte hard disk makes it easily upgradeable to Profile 2.0.

There are a few trade-offs, however. First, it does not handle either DTS-HD or DTS-HD MA, at all. It doesn’t decode them or bitstream them. It might be possible to upgrade the machine to do this in the future but Sony has shown no indication that they’re going to do that.

Second, the player has no multi-channel analog connection, even though it decodes Dolby TrueHD (but, for some strange reason, doesn’t bitstream it). This means that if your receiver doesn’t have an HDMI connection, there is no way to get TrueHD or multi-channel PCM sound out of this player.

Third, the remote control is sold separately. Unless you pony up the $25, you have to use the game controller to play Blu-ray discs. Also, the remote control uses the Bluetooth radio technology found in cellular phone headsets, making it incompatible with most of your universal remotes.

Despite these oddities, the Playstation is still a solid Blu-ray player that is almost future proof. At $400, it comes in at the low end of the current market. In order for the other companies to sell a lot of Blu-ray players to the average consumer, they are going to have to start beating the Playstation’s price. For this reason, I expect aggressive price cutting between now and the end of the year and some insane “Black Friday” sales after Thanksgiving.

In order to make sure you get a Blu-ray player that supports all of the features that the format has to offer, it probably wouldn’t hurt to hold off at least until this summer, when the first wave of new machines will be in the stores. If you are in no hurry, waiting until the holidays will probably save you a lot of money.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 3:27 pm and is filed under CH Reports. Keywords: Blu-ray, High Definition DVD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Paul is shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in Casablanca!