Blu Ray 1.1 – buy a Playstation instead.

Another Blu Ray standard? Is this the final one or is there more to come? Does it make any difference, or are they backwards compatible?

All valid questions with yesterday being the end of the official “grace period” for Blu-ray manufacturers, after which all Blu-ray players released must comply with the latest standard — Blu-ray Profile 1.1 ( Final Standard Profile and BD-Video Profile 1.1). Of course, that doesn’t mean that Profile 1.0 Blu-ray players still can’t be sold, and when you go shopping for a player in the next few months you are likely to see Profile 1.0 and Profile 1.1 players on the shelf. As if it wasn’t hard enough making a decision in the first place.

Despite this being the “Final Standard Profile,” there is yet another standard to take into consideration – Profile 2.0, which includes a larger storage capacity and mandatory internet connectivity.

Profile 1.1 players don’t make older Profile 1.0 players obsolete. If you already have a Profile 1.0 player, it should be able to play all the new Profile 1.1 discs without a problem – less a few of the special features. Panasonic has just released a player called the DMP-BD30, which is one of the first of the 1.1 generation.

My advice – buy a Playstation 3 instead. As far as I can tell, it has the same spec as a 1.1 player, already has internet connectivity, and you can shoot people after the movie has finished.