Consumers who have decided to hold off from buying a next generation player may be glad they have done so now. Not only had early adopters of Blu-ray had to fork out a substantial price, they are now faced with an issue where their player will not handle certain features on upcoming discs due to new Blu-ray profiles. While some discs come with updates mention that a firmware or software update may be necessary, these affect playback capabilities and not the player's features.
All Blu-ray standalone players released up to November 2007 use Blu-ray profile 1.0, while players released after this date use profile 1.1. However, apart from the PS3, it is not possible to upgrade the earlier profile 1.0 players to profile 1.1. On the other hand, the early players will play the main content in upcoming titles, but will have limited access to the bonus content or features that make use of profile 1.1. At least it is not as bad as the issue early HDTV adaptors faced when they found out that their TV is not "HD Ready" due to either being below the native 720p resolution or lacking HDCP support on its HDMI or DVI inputs.
Those who buy a Blu-ray player now may not be able to take advantage of the upcoming profile 2.0, called BD Live. This upcoming profile will feature Internet connectivity to download bonus content related to the title, such as content released after the title is already published. However, as Internet connectivity is not a mandatory feature in the current profile, current players may not be able to support the upcoming profile.
