Blu-ray discs wave goodbye to HD analogue compatibility

Mr-White

Mr-White

Mr-White

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Tech Radar said:
lu-ray players housing component connections have been hit by a new ruling, which sees image constraints added to Blu-ray discs in 2011.
As from the beginning of January, Blu-rays can have something called an Image Constraint Token embedded into the discs.
This is a piece of code that can restrict image quality to 540p – a smidge better than DVD – when played back through component cables.
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More here

I always see this kind of thing as good, some times companies hold on to legacy equipment/standards for too long

MW
 
A good thing definitely. The amount of people who have HD equipment and use scart and composite is shocking :eek:. Components not too bad but why bother when HDMI is 100% better?
 
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Meatball said:
A good thing definitely. The amount of people who have HD equipment who use scart and composite is shocking :confused:. Components not too bad but why bother when HDMI is 100% better?
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I've seen this too, it almost deceives the point of having a HD tv it's that bad :D

MW
 
I hope this isn't a stupid question but what if you use VGA and are playing the disks via pc surely this line of code on the disk wouldnt effect anything then would it ?
 
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You think it's good that they will artificially limit the quality of the output over certain ports? Component cables that have happily supplied 1080 video to a tv are suddenly only capable of 540? There is no technical reason for this.
 
component cables are perfectly fine for playing hd content! there is zero reason for them to limit its capabilities....so what its not hdmi? big deal! electronics have had 100s of connections over the years that have lasted fine without any need for change.

some people dont give these 'old' connections the credit they deserve.

the only reason their doing this is too save some cash.
 
bledd. said:
I was sad that the PS3 didn't even come with a HDMI cable, they must cost about 25p for Sony
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With no other options that'll hopefully no longer be the case in future consoles. The main reason they didn't was that so many people didn't use HDMI to connect to the TV.

Glad to see legacy devices in two of my fav areas (tv/gaming and PCs) are finally getting ditched. Shame they held on so long.
 
SniperDude said:
I hope this isn't a stupid question but what if you use VGA and are playing the disks via pc surely this line of code on the disk wouldnt effect anything then would it ?
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If you're playing the Blu-Ray through official software (WinDVD, PowerDVD etc) then yes, VGA will be limited to as it's an unsecure analog connection :).
 
Really don't see the point in this, HDTV was popular before HDMI existed so what about folk with old sets with component/dvi only? Seems completely pointless to me to purposefully restrict it, can't even imagine why. Its not like anyone would use an analogue output to record a copy or something when you can chuck it in a pc and make a 1:1 digital copy with no hassle!

Waste of man hours imo. Why can't they spend some time changing to anamorphic storage on bluray, would be so much more beneficial.
 
I think binning legacy stuff helps people get out the dark age and allows companies to focus on the future and not waste time worrying about back dating.

MW
 
Two only reasons i can see why there doing this


1) to stop people recording (copying) them at 1080p through component connections...(The same reason why there no more component outputs on skyHD boxes)

2) To make people buy new hardware that has HDMI inputs/outputs which companys like sony are going make money from...
 
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HDMI > Component.

HDMI supports 5.1/7.1 surround sound whereas component only supports stereo.

Glad to see scart leads going. the amount of times a friend has said 'I got a new TV the other day but my Xbox looks s*** on it' is unbelievable. I go and have a look to see if the TV needs calibrating but instead there using a god damn scart lead :O Idiots... all of them!
 
Mr-White said:
I think binning legacy stuff helps people get out the dark age and allows companies to focus on the future and not waste time worrying about back dating.

MW
Click to expand...

I'm not sure you understand exactly what is happening here. New Bluray releases will request that the Bluray player limits it's output over unprotected ports to 540p, old Bluray releases will continue to output HD video over these same connections. There is nothing special that has to be done to continue to allow these connections to work, they are actively going out of their way to cripple them. Can you see why that's bad?
 
This is forcing people with older AV amps to upgrade and that's it.....it must cost to put this in place? It's going to kick all those who use the six channel inputs on their amps.

Why not just stop making sources with component connections if they really want to do it. No doubt someone will design a HDMI to component converter or something.
 
chaparral said:
Two only reasons i can see why there doing this


1) to stop people recording (copying) them at 1080p through component connections...(The same reason why there no more component outputs on skyHD boxes)
Click to expand...

Who in their right mind would do this though? Why bother when you can get a perfect digital copy with a PC?

mattjd said:
HDMI > Component.

HDMI supports 5.1/7.1 surround sound whereas component only supports stereo.
Click to expand...

Eh? Component is Video only.

It just seems like a complete waste to me, I'd rather they spent their time working on anamorphic BR's or SVC for broadcast.
 
I'm confused...people talking about getting 1080p above via scart. Err....how? I thought the whole point was that 1080p = HDMI required.
 
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