Early adopters of Blu-ray left out in the cold

If you have any Blu-ray player except the PS3 (imagine that), later this year new disc will not work with the new features coming. [Link]

"One key Blu-ray developer told BetaNews that although he builds discs for studios including Fox and Lionsgate, he did not buy a Blu-ray player for personal use." Regarding current Blu-ray player owners, Blu-ray developers told BetaNews, "They knew what they were getting into."

Representatives at the Blu-ray booth at CES told BetaNews that the PlayStation 3 is currently the only player they would recommend, due to upcoming changes to the platform. But Pioneer, Samsung, Panasonic and Sony have all been selling standalone Blu-ray players to customers.

So here's how it's going to work: current players are Profile 1.0, and can play future hi-def discs but no bonus stuff. Profile 1.1 dics will include additional bonus material that won't play on 1.0 players—these discs will have a "Bonus View" sticker. Come October, Profile 2 capability will come to the market, which includes Internet activity, but only on Profile 2.0 players—these discs will have a "BD Live" sticker.

We still haven't gotten an HDTV, so an HD player doesn't make any sense. But now that the format war looks like it is almost over in Blu-ray's favor, when we are in the market for a new player it looks like it'' be Blu-ray.