Free Blu Ray movies deal

thirtythirty

Has anyone availed of this deal:
http://www.sony.ie/view/ShowArticle.action?articlesection=1&article=1198162904986&site=odw_en_IE

Or any clue when it runs out?

Also with regards getting cheap BDP's the cheapest i've found is:
http://www.shopireland.ie/electronics/detail/B000VRVUMO/Sony-BDP-S300Blu-Ray-DVD/
or
http://www.shopireland.ie/electronics/detail/B000WQISP6/Sharp-BD-HP20HBlu-Ray/

Amazon doesnt deliver them to ireland and the actual sony centre adds another €100 onto the price!

mathias

Read this ,

http://www.betanews.com/article/Bluray_Early_adopters_knew_what_they_were_getting_into/1199841379

The upshot of the story is that you need to make sure that any standalone player you buy is upgradeable to BD profile 2.0 or it becomes obsolete in october , currently the only player that is upgradeable as far as I can see is the PS3.

For a standalone it would have to have a working network connection for internet and at least 1GB internal storage , this will allow it to upgrade when the time comes , this is very important , dont get caught out.

Those players listed with the six movie deal are all profile 1 players and are no kind of a deal , you'll have to buy another player in October. See here ,

http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/sony-blu-ray-specification-deadline

At this moment in time, the only Blu-ray player to consider in my opinion is the PS3 , it doesnt have the 6 movie deal , but it will still be working come October as it can be upgraded via software due to it not being a regular standalone player. ( Its also now cheaper than most of the ones linked)

thirtythirty

Thats absolutely ridiculous! Thanks for that though, i had read about it but it hadn't clicked about the future implications!

I actually dont understand how Blu Ray won, HD DVD is clearly superior - it's half the price, and it's been at the BD2.0 standard since it was released!

Alls I want to do is watch Planet Earth in HD!!

EDIT: Are there even any 1.1 players available in UK or IRL yet? The only 1.1 player i can find is the Panasonic BD30k, but thats only in the states as far as i can see

kendragon

Its a joke that the offer for the free movies doesnt include the PS3. Thats what we get for buying too many of them... they know that we dont need any enticements. The US has a similar offer that does include the PS3 as a blu-ray player. Since I've bought the PS3 I'm beginning to think more and more that Sony suck. Their arrogance towards their consumers and supporters will be there undoing in the long run I reckon.

thirtythirty

Ye after looking around i think im just gonna get a 40gb ps3. It still seems to be the best player out there and despite no free movies it's cheap enough on ebay or something.
At least sony are keeping it up to date with firmware updates so it's always the "latest" player which is a bit of an enticement.

Plus you can plug in mouse&keyboard and put linux on it so i'll have a proper computer in the sitting room too!

mathias

I would be of the opinion that blu ray won because of its future capacity and what that means to Movie studios , currently a print of a movie costs upwards of 8000 dollars to produce and these have to be distributed around the world , blu ray and digital cinema on the other hand , would bring the cost of distributing movies down to about 40 dollars a copy. A huge enticement to movie studios.

Also , the 150 inch Panasonic plasma demo'd at CES was a Digital 4K TV , with a resolution many times that of 1080p , HD-DVD had no hope of holding a full feature at that resolution , Blu ray already can ....so while the standalone players are not ready at the moment for general consumption , the Disk technology is ready for a long term future.

Anyway back on topic , the PS3 is an excellent blu ray player , Ive had one for nearly 4 months now and with all the updates recently it pretty much plays back any file format you can throw at it. So its not all bad news.

revileandy

The upshot of the story is that you need to make sure that any standalone player you buy is upgradeable to BD profile 2.0 or it becomes obsolete in october , currently the only player that is upgradeable as far as I can see is the PS3.

For a standalone it would have to have a working network connection for internet and at least 1GB internal storage , this will allow it to upgrade when the time comes , this is very important , dont get caught out.

Those players listed with the six movie deal are all profile 1 players and are no kind of a deal , you'll have to buy another player in October. See here ,

Relax, if you happen to have a profile 1.0 player it's not the end of the world , it won't become obsolete in october, you won't have to buy a new one if you don't want to, the player won't explode - it will still play HD movies like it's supposed to!

If you pick up a disc with profile 2.0 features, you won't be able to access those features - you will however be able to watch the movie as normal.

Most of the bonus features that profile 2.0 allows for are just gimmicks. At CES they demoed Godzilla as a 2.0 enabled disc - the big feature was you could connect to net and download a free ringtone to your phone! Most of it involves online chat, blogs or basically allowing the film studio to hawk you movie paraphernalia from your own living room.

Believe me, you won't be missing out on a whole lot.

Anyway, standalones are completely overpriced at the moment - stick with the PS3

mathias

Its in the manual for the profile one players , Profile 2.0 is not just random content on the disc , its a new interface , and some profile 1.0 players may not be able to recognise this and reject the entire disc ...........not just specific content ,

its all in the audioholics link above , heres a quote , remember this is from the player manual !! Note specifically that it says " Disc " not content !

"This player supports BD-ROM Profile 1 only. Playback of later versions of BDs other than BD-ROM is not guaranteed. Since the Blu-ray Disc specifications are new and evolving, some discs may not play depending on the disc type and the version..."

revileandy

Well, anyone I've spoken to in the US running profile 1.1 discs on a profile 1.0 machine have had no problem, once they keep up to date with firmware.

Some talk about in the thread bleow

http://forums.highdefdigest.com/showthread.php?t=37157

The discs may take longer to load (due to the more complex java menus) but my understanding was profile 1.0 users only miss out on special features not in the profile 1.0 spec.

The audio and video spec remains unchanged hence the movie will still play.

Also check out this article

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=765

They put Resident Evil 3 into a 1.0 player and it plays fine, it just doesn't allow them to access the 1.1 features.

mathias

profile 1 to 1.1 is not the issue here , its the profile 2.0 thats the biggie , that will be a new interface , whereas any profile 1.x shares pretty much the same interface.

Its the profile 2.0 discs ( they will all be profile 2.0 come october , maybe even before ) that may not play at all , meaning that new titles possibly cannot play on machines bought now unless the machine is upgradeable.
The audio and video formats will not change , thats a given , but the interface will , and the interface is the front end for the load screen and menu , if it cant start that , then it will reject the disc , regardless of what content is on it.

revileandy

profile 1 to 1.1 is not the issue here , its the profile 2.0 thats the biggie , that will be a new interface , whereas any profile 1.x shares pretty much the same interface.

Its the profile 2.0 discs ( they will all be profile 2.0 come october , maybe even before ) that may not play at all , meaning that new titles possibly cannot play on machines bought now unless the machine is upgradeable.
The audio and video formats will not change , thats a given , but the interface will , and the interface is the front end for the load screen and menu , if it cant start that , then it will reject the disc , regardless of what content is on it.

Sorry, but where are you getting this info from??

Profile 2.0 is the exact same as profile 1.1 except it has an ethernet connection! Thats it.

So if you get a disc that has web-enabled features you won't be able to access those features. You WILL be able to watch the movie.

It's not mandatory for all discs to have web-enabled features by the end of October. Some discs (Saw IV) already have web-enabled features.

Also, A new interface?!? The interface on every Disc is a BD-Java interface. All profiles account for BD-Java. Newer models will have more advanced hardware and will load the interface faster. But older machines will still load it nontheless.

thirtythirty

Well i got a PS3 in the end anyway so not too worried. My main concern about 1.1 disks in 1.0 players was the ridiculously long load times etc that would annoy me.

Sure anyway as long as planet earth looks good i dont really care!

mathias

Sorry, but where are you getting this info from??

Profile 2.0 is the exact same as profile 1.1 except it has an ethernet connection! Thats it.

So if you get a disc that has web-enabled features you won't be able to access those features. You WILL be able to watch the movie.

It's not mandatory for all discs to have web-enabled features by the end of October. Some discs (Saw IV) already have web-enabled features.

Also, A new interface?!? The interface on every Disc is a BD-Java interface. All profiles account for BD-Java. Newer models will have more advanced hardware and will load the interface faster. But older machines will still load it nontheless.

Last question first ,

BD Java is a development environment , the only constaints on it are that they must conform to Java 1.3 , as long as it sticks to that constraint , it is possible to entirely rework the disc interface , something which is pretty much guaranteed for profile 2.0 and onwards.
For any player to cope with this , it must have local storage and a net connection to enable it to upgrade , much like the PS3.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BD-J

Profile 2.0 is the exact same as profile 1.1 except it has an ethernet connection! Thats it.

No its not , its completely reworked in the BD java development environment , the main fault with current profile 1 players is that they do not have an internet connection and do not have internal storage , the key benefit that these two things give is upgradeability , something which will be needed for future releases as more features are added to the BD J interface.

This is why the PS3 is immune from all this , it has storage and an internet connection ,therefore is upgradeable , if any of the current players had this there would be no issue , as it stands they cannot upgrade the profile software so may not be able to play profile 2 discs , the profiles are versions of the software interface ,not some off the shelf part you just plug in , you are getting badly mixed up here.

And last but not least , the fact that current players may not play profile 2 discs , ( and yes I said discs !! ) as opposed to content , is From Sony

From their own manuals for current players , the manual link is in the audioholics link I posted above and is from page 5 of the manual for the BDP S500 ,

"This player supports BD-ROM Profile 1 only. Playback of later versions of BDs other than BD-ROM is not guaranteed. Since the Blu-ray Disc specifications are new and evolving, some discs may not play depending on the disc type and the version..."

Now companys are not known for downplaying their products , and when they take the time to do this in the own product manuals then you just have to take notice , dont you think ??

revileandy

The Sony statement is merely a 'cover your ass' statement.

The fact is new discs will work on profile 1.0 players. The movie studios are aware of compatability issues and extensively test their products to make sure they work on all players. There's a even a new company, called BluFocus, working with the studios to make sure discs play properly on all machines.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=862

The ethernet connector in profile 2.0 is for web enabled content from the disc and also to get firmware upgrades. The extra memory is to save the downloadable content to your player.

Profile 1.0 players don't need this memory because they don't have an ethernet connector and won't be able to acces the downloadable content!

Profile 1.0 players can still be upgraded via firmware updates on a cd-r or memory card and if a situation arises where a profile 2.0 disc does not play on a 1.0 player, the player manufacturer will usually issue a firmware upgrade.

Anyway, Saw IV is one of the first profile 2.0 discs to be released in the USA, it's actually realeased today (Link). I'll get one of my american friends to confirm if their profile 1.0 player explodes upon playing this disc.

mathias

Profile 1.0 players can still be upgraded via firmware updates on a cd-r or memory card and if a situation arises where a profile 2.0 disc does not play on a 1.0 player, the player manufacturer will usually issue a firmware upgrade.

Simply not true , no firmware update can make up for lack of hardware , read the audioholics link again , profile 2.0 needs a connection and local storage , no firmware update can add that.

revileandy

Simply not true , no firmware update can make up for lack of hardware , read the audioholics link again , profile 2.0 needs a connection and local storage , no firmware update can add that.

Jesus Christ.....

I'm not saying a magical firmware update can change your hardware.

All I'm saying is the movie will play like it's supposed to. An ethernet connection and local storage have nothing got to do with how a movie plays.

Those two extras allow you to download and save various things. They do not affect movie playback. They're simply there for bonus content, nothing got to do with playing a movie.

If there's a problem with complex java menus running on older models, the player manufacturer will issue a firmware upgrade (as has happened in a few cases already)

Ok, this just in a blu-ray fan in America - first hand experience. I asked had he tried saw iv in a profile 1.0 player:

"It lets you go into the feature on the PS3, but says "cannot find out server" when you try to register. On my Samsung BD-P1000 (profile 1.0), it lets you go into the feature, but the options that require internet connection (like register) are not present. There are a couple of offline choices.

Oh, and the movie plays fine "