Anyone mind running me down the pros?

i see the huge price diff, and wondering if the difference is large

Obviously there's a reason.. Profile 1.1 only allows you Bonus View.. meaning it can decode secondary video/audio streams on-fly for commentaries and extras. Profile 1.0 Blu-Ray wasn't capable of processing these secondary streams so they had to encode movies with 2 version..one with the commentaries or similar embedded into the video and the one version without it. They don't do that now with Profile 1.1 and above present.

Profile 2.0 supports mandatory access and storage on the actual player and fully supports BD-J. With some profile 1.1 players you might have issues playing some 2.0 or BD-Live capable discs because it requires stronger processing player that Profile 1.1 lack and also full BD-J support.

Overall if you just care about the movie you should be ok overall with Profile 1.1 but you might have to download firmware files to your computer, burn it to a DVD and then put it on the player. These are release from time to time to fix compatibilities with discs in cases I mentioned above.

Profile 2.0 players are usually BD-Live capable after future firmware updates and have full access to all features of the discs (considering that you can use BD-Live down the road if not right away)

Some players can be upgraded from 1.1 to 2.0. There is also the rather pointless profile 3.0 (bd audio).

a profile 1.0 player will still play a profile 2.0 ready disc.

I'm not sure you are giving him correct information.. Profile 1.1 cannot be upgraded to Profile 2.0. Specs are like that. If you are Profile 1.1 most likely it doesn't have enough device storage to qualify for Profile 2.0. If it's not that then it doesn't have ethernet connection. Either way Profile 1.1 lacks some mandatory requirement that would make it Profile 2.0, if the device has both it will be automatically Profile 2.0 anyways. Both limitations between Profile 1.1 and Profile 2.0 are physical. You can't upgrade if you don't have enough memory on the device or a physical ethernet port. No firmware can upgrade it to Profile 2.0.

Profile 2.0 compatible players CAN be upgraded to fully support BD-Live.

Just want to make that clear.

question 2: can blu ray players play DVD's- Normal CD's, W/E formats

there are a few players that were shipped with 1.1 that are 2.0 ready. Also 2.0 IS bd-live.

sorry boz... gotta agree w/ coldgunner here.

OP - yes, they can play DVDs and CDs. idk what you mean by W/E though

They are not 1.1 players.. they are Profile 2.0 compatible players meaning they have 1gb of memory on them and an ethernet port but don't have BD-Live features enabled in software.

A profile 1.1 player by definition either misses storage or ethernet thus cannot be Profile 2.0 ever.

Please link the Profile 1.1 players that say are upgradable to 2.0 please.

Thats what I mean't. There were a few that were shipped with the 1.1 firmware with the intention to upgrade as soon as the new firmware was done, and they had features 2.0 required.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc#Player_profiles

thanks alot, so buying a blu ray drive is a good way to go if i got cash, because i can play blu ray and if i ever get a HD dvd from a friend or something, i can play it, looking for something not needing a lot of mess arround it skills, i just lack the time

The fact that this question is being asked is the reason why BluRay has not taken off.

well im guessing price no? DVD's are just dirt cheap now.

You can't play an HD DVD on a Blu-Ray player.

Wasn't the PS3 1.1 and then updated to 2.0?

Yes, as are a few other players. PS3 actually started as a profile 1.0 player.

Yes, but to be fair that's always been a huge selling point for the PS3 if you want to buy a BD player; the PS3 is upgradeable to new firmware and profiles. Not many others are.

Correct, another major selling point is the systems power. It significantly reduces load times (at least against the first/second gen players)

PS3 is a bit of a trojan horse for the blu ray format, Sony had quite a safe bet in including it. If bd lost out to HDDVD then they still had a format to distribute games on. The upscaling for DVD's is also pretty good.

What I don't like seeing is fud being spread about 1.1/2.0 discs not being able to play the main feature on players with an older profile. This is not true.

I never cared for the extras anyway. But it worked out well for bluray. Sure, the first players were not even 1.1, but during the period in which thye were being sold, the ps3 outsold them anyway. So the majority of players are profile 2.0 anyway.

newer samsung players, such as the 1500 for example (which is fairly cheap now) have usb ports which allow you to plug in a flash drive to not only update the firmware, but to provide storage of at least 1gb to allow full 2.0 compatibility.

Right.. but it's the 3rd gen player that's Profile 2.0 capable. So basically it has everything need for Profile 2.0 but storage they expand externally. Not every player can do that though.. only those deemed Profile 2.0 capable.

the majority of players are STILL not 2.0.

Get a PS3 and be happy with it....

quite, why would anyone buy a player other than PS3?

Well, Quite possibly they dont want a big box of black.