Mpeg 2 on Blu-Ray & Older DVD Players?
 

Hello,

I have a general question about the new Blu-ray or HD-DVD formats.

If I wanted to put a lot of standard definition mpeg-2 footage on the Blu-ray disc, will I be able to play that disc in an older, existing player?

Or is everybody going to be expected to buy a new HD-DVD player to play anything from the Blu-ray or HD-DVD discs?

This is a potential nightmare for video producers and knowing what type of player your client has.

Thanks

As far as I know, the blu-ray discs will not be compatible with existing red-laser DVD players. The good news is that the new players will probably be backwards-compatible with current red-laser discs, although that's not entirely uncertain yet. But assuming they are backwards-compatible, that means you could at least continue to produce standard-definition MPEG2 DVDs which would play in both new and old players -- using the old discs. Beyond that, you'll have to ask your customers to tell you want kind of disc they want, or prepare some of each if you're doing bulk sales somewhere.

So yes, it's going to be a hassle.

Thanks for your reply.

I was hoping this was not going to be the situation.

Upgrading to HD, or even widescreen is kind of tricky when customers are in the picture.

It looks like continuing to produce SD DVDs will be the only solution for me.

At least SD DVD has a decent chance of a majority clients/customers being able to play the product.

HD looks great, but I don't see a lot of people running to the stores to replace their working DVD player on a marked up Blu-ray player.

This adds years to the time when an upgrade to HD is actually a good business decision for me.

At least I won't be an early adopter!

Thanks

I just read about hybrid blu-ray discs.

These will let you burn DVD-9 on one layer, and HD-DVD on another layer.

This sounds like what video producers want to hear.

One could put a project on a couple of different formats on one disc.

The end user could pick the best format for their T.V.

I hope this will become a reality.

Then the upgrade to HD would not be so sudden and risky.