The capabilities of a Blu-ray player to do more than just play movies can are categorized by what is known as BD Profiles. The most capable Blu-ray players will offer features that bring it even with the features set of the now defunct HD DVD player. The profiles from top to bottom are:

• BD Profile 2.0 For BD Profile 2.0 (or BD Live) Picture-in-Picture (PIP), Secondary audio, a Virtual File System (VFS), an Ethernet port (internet connectivity) and support for 1 GB of local or removable storage are mandatory.
• BD Profile 1.1 Under BD Profile 1.1 (Profile 1 Final Standard Profile), Picture-in-Picture (PIP), Secondary audio, a Virtual File System and support for 256 MB of local or removable storage are mandatory. An Ethernet port (internet connectivity) is not required. All Blu-ray players released to market on or after November 1, 2007 must meet the Final Standard Profile at minimum.
• BD Profile 1 Under BD Profile 1.0 (or Profile 1 Grace Period) All profile features are optional. Players using the Grace Period profile must be on the market before October 31, 2007.

The manufacturer’s suggested retail price.

Typical price in a store or from an online retailer.

Deep Color provides for the use of a greater number of bits to represent colors, so that the full RGB color space can be utilized, and additional attributes like the transparency of the color can be represented. Under HDMI version 1.3a, Deep Color support is optional.

Remote control units that are packaged Blu-ray players fall in to 3 distinct groups. From best to worse they are:

• “Multi-Brand Learning” remotes have a pre-programmed code library of commands for other manufacturer’s equipment, and also have the ability to learn commands not programmed in the library so you can use one remote for all of your equipment.
• “Multi-Brand” remotes have a built-in code library of commands for other manufacturer’s equipment, allowing you to control the basic functions of other equipment with one remote.
• “Basic” remotes will control only the Blu-ray Disc player, and perhaps other equipment produced by the same manufacturer.

Standard manufacturer’s warranty, when the device is purchased from an authorized dealer.

Most movies are shot using a camera that operates at 24 frames per second, and are stored on DVD and Blu-ray Discs at the native frame rate. Unfortunately, the television video format runs at 30 frames per seconds, creating a mismatch. To deal with this mismatch in the frame rate, DVD and other digital playback devices have been manipulating the playback rate of content to ensure that things don’t run faster than intended. The technique used called telecining, periodically repeats frames to turn 24 frames into 30 frames per second. This solution is not without its drawbacks, and becomes most evident when there is motion in objects on screen. What you see on screen is a subtle jerking that can be annoying to some, particularly with smooth camera pans. An increasing number of HDTV’s can accept video at 24 frames per second, eliminating the need to manipulate the information transfer rate.

Up-scaling refers to the technique of manipulating standard DVD recorded at 480 lines of resolution, and digitally rendering its output as though it was recorded at 720p, 1080i or 1080p high definition video standards.

Blu-ray Disc (BD) and DVD disc can be recorded in several formats. DVD, DVD-R and DVD-RW are the officially endorsed DVD formats.

• BD-ROM are mass produced pre-recorded Blu-ray Discs that can be read but not written to.
• BD-R can be written to once by consumer level Blu-ray Disc recorders, (typically computer drives), and then function as standard BD-ROM discs.
• BD-RE can be written to and re-written to multiple times and played back on devices that support the format.
• DVD or DVD-ROM are mass produced pre-recorded DVDs that can be read but not written to.
• DVD-R can be written to once by consumer level DVD recorders, and then function as standard DVD-ROM disc.
• DVD-RW can be written to and re-written to multiple times and played back on devices that support the format.
• DVD+R can be written to once and then function as a standard DVD on devices capable of DVD+R playback.
• DVD-+RW – like DVD-RW can be re-written to multiple times.

The + (plus) and the – (minus) formats for DVD are incompatible, (similar to the divide that existed between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc); but many DVD players and DVD drives in computers are capable of playing both formats.

Compact Disc or CD can be recorded in many forms:

• CD – Standard mass produced pre-recorded Compact Disc.
• CD-R – media written to once, by consumer level recorders
• CD-RW – media capable or being re-written to multiple times.

MP3 or MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 is a popular digital audio encoding format, use widely with downloaded music. MP3 uses a compression algorithm that greatly reduces the amount of storage space needed to store data. Players capable or decoding the compression algorithm will be able to playback MP3 data recorded to disc.

JPEG is a popular method of compressing photographic images onto disc. Many people utilize JPEG for long term storage of images shot with digital camera, by burning it to disk. A Blu-ray Disc capable of playing discs of JPEG files, will allow you to view your family vacation pictures directly on your HDTV, without having to connect your computer to the HDTV.

V-Chip or Parental Control, as it is sometimes called, allows the blocking of television channels or programs. With V-chip technology, programs that have been rated are encoded with a signal of the rating. If the program’s rating is outside of the level set on the device, the program is blocked. A password designated by the device owner, will allow the block to be overidden.

CEC (Consumer Electronic Control) is an optional specification that is part of HDMI version 1.3a. This specification allows components to discover, communicate and self configure other CEC components in your system, so that optimal configuration becomes plug and play.

Dolby Plus is Dolby’s near lossless audio format that provides discrete multichannel sound output for up to 7.1 channels with Blu-ray media. The surround sound format also supports multiple programs encoded into a single bitstream. Dolby Digital Plus decoding is optional for the Blu-ray Format.

Dolby TrueHD is Dolby Laboratories lossless surround sound format. TrueHD provides sound that is identical to the studio master. Dolby TrueHD decoding is optional for the Blu-ray format.

DTS-HD Master Audio (formerly called DTS HD) is bit for bit identical to the studio master. This lossless surround format utilises the DTS 5.1 core and adds extensions to the audio stream to bring it up to 7.1 discrete channels. DTS Master Audio is an optional surround format for Blu-ray Disc.

Blu-ray players capable of outputting bitstream audio (the raw encoded audio content) via the HDMI output, will allow you the option of using the surround decoding processor built into your AV receiver (or other surround sound processing device). In situation where your AV receiver or external surround processing device has superior decoding capabilities, HDMI bitstream output (as opposed to multi-channel LPCM) will be your preferred option.

LPCM (Linear Pulse Code Modulation) is a sampling technique for digitally econding analog audio signals. Support for LPCM is currently mandatory for Blu-ray.

Blu-ray Disc players with 5.1 analog outputs will allow for direct connection to 5.1 analog inputs legacy A/V Receivers.

HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is the next generation connection interface, capable of transmitting uncompressed video and audio digital streams. This connection is the optimum interface for connecting Blu-ray Disc, HD satellite receivers, HD cable set-top-boxes, video game consoles, AV receivers and new DVD players.

Simplay HD is a new independent testing program for consumer high definition equipment that tests HDMI interoperability and connectivity of products. The program tests high definition components and cables so that end users will be assured that products will provide the highest quality performance and work together seamlessly.

Component Video is the best analog video connection, which transmits video on 3 separate cables; one for color information, one for luminance (or greyscale) information and the final one for synch. If the component you are connecting to doesn’t have a digital video connection, this is your best alternative.

SVideo or a Y/C connection as it is sometimes called is a legacy analog video- only connection that superseded composite video connections. SVideo separates the video signal into two separate signals; one signal carries the color information, and the second carries the luminance (greyscale) information.

Composite Video is a low quality legacy video only connection that uses a single wire to transmit video signals. At the dawn of the home video components market, this was the only video- only connection available.

Digital Fiber is the optimum audio connection for sending compressed or uncompressed audio between audio components.

Digital Coaxial is a digital audio connection capable of sending compressed or uncompressed audio between, audio components. It is equal in sound quality to its fiber-optic counter-part digital fiber, but it is physically more robust than digital fiber. However, digital coaxial can suffer from electro-magnetic interference.

Standard computer Ethernet connection.

Energy Star Compliance ensures that the device uses significantly less energy when it is turned off.

Power consumed by the device while in general operation.