Player support for 704-width video on Blu-ray Disc?

[Brad]

The specs only allow 720x480 and 720x576 for SD resolutions, but an old post reminded me that the specs also don't mention DVD compatibility.

Since:

• every BD player nevertheless includes DVD playback
• DVD supports 704x480 and 704x576

... that implies that the hardware in every BD player can play back those resolutions. The only question is whether the design allows the content to actually be played back from a Blu-ray formatted disc.

If anyone is willing to test their player and report back, I've attached a small ISO that you can burn to BD-R or BD-RE. (It contains cropping test patterns that jagabo posted, so you can check your display system for that at the same time.)

[marlboro_man]

Works on Philips BDP3280.

[jagabo]

It doesn't really matter if some players can play it, 704x480 is not part of the Blu-ray spec so you should avoid using it. How happy would you be if you burned a bunch of discs that your current player can handle, but a few years from now when your player dies, you find your new player can't? Now you can't watch any of those discs.

[yoda313]

It doesn't really matter if some players can play it, 704x480 is not part of the Blu-ray spec so you should avoid using it. How happy would you be if you burned a bunch of discs that your current player can handle, but a few years from now when your player dies, you find your new player can't? Now you can't watch any of those discs.

Just to play devils advocate whenever we eventually move to all digital Edit - sorry i mean all file based, I hate that "digital" stuff as it is digital on the disc.... and discs disappear than it won't really matter what resolution you use would it?

You could just rip the disc and play it as a file with no issues.

But yes you should always format to the main specs and not any "side" specs that might or might not work in the long run.

[Brad]

How happy would you be if you burned a bunch of discs that your current player can handle, but a few years from now when your player dies, you find your new player can't?

My current player is a PS3 that I bought second-hand and for the foreseeable future I would probably replace it with the same thing when it starts acting up. Otherwise, I like to think I would test in-store.

Regardless, I'm curious whether there are players out there now designed to reject 704x480. Thanks for checking, marlboro_man!

[Brad]

The test plays on the Seiki BD660; no surprise there.

[jman98]

Just to play devils advocate whenever we eventually move to all digital Edit - sorry i mean all file based, I hate that "digital" stuff as it is digital on the disc.... and discs disappear

Let me know if you actually live long enough to see discs disappear. I've been hearing that one for a long time now. While they MAY disappear in America, and I won't even bet on that, I'd like to remind you that
America != rest of the world
VCDs are still as of this very day being commercially produced and that format has been superseded by at least THREE replacement formats (SVCD, DVD, BD - plus the dead HD-DVD and maybe even laserdisc if you want to argue for it) so I'm a bit skeptical of this "discs are going away" prediction that I've been hearing about.

Back on topic...
vaporeon800 - the usual caution applies that if you make discs that violate the standards, you can't complain when they don't work. jagabo covered the possible dangers in his post.

[yoda313]

so I'm a bit skeptical of this "discs are going away" prediction that I've been hearing about.

Well I do understand that. Predictions are so "unpredicatable"

Anyway I guess what I was really getting at is that if you go with a digital file-based settop player than basically any resolution will work. Ok maybe not ANY resolution but you won't be fixed to a physical standard. It is much looser and potentially hackable to do what you want it to.

the usual caution applies that if you make discs that violate the standards, you can't complain when they don't work. jagabo covered the possible dangers in his post.

I also agree with that. Standards are there for a reason. Even if some do play that doesn't mean the next model you get from the same manufacturer will still play them.

Hence the reason for suggesting a purely file based playback system (could be on disc or harddrive but point being "FILE" based not format based).

[jagabo]

And hard drives are cheaper than good plastic discs.

[yoda313]

And hard drives are cheaper than good plastic discs.

I wonder are any file based media players raid capable?

If I were to ever solely use file based players I'd want complete redundancy. Obviously you'd have the originals but reriping and converting can be a pain to rebuild a harddrive.

[jagabo]

I don't know if any of the standalone media players support raid mirroring directly. But if you use a NAS you can use mirroring on the NAS. That's what I do. Several players and computers in the house can all access files on the NAS.

Or you can use an old Windows computer as your NAS.

[Brad]

So uh, my PS3 won't play 704x480 from BDMV. I made a second test disc with 720x480, 704x480, and 352x480 each in MPEG-2 and AVC. The latter four files just display blackness for their duration.

I'm sure I had a good reason to start the thread before even testing the PS3... Or maybe I just assumed, since it accepts all sorts of resolutions during file playback and is pretty relaxed about GOP and other restrictions in DVD-Video mode. Indeed, it happily plays back the same three AVC streams when copied as .mp4 files via USB. (I didn't bother to mux the individual MPEG-2 files to see if they would also play.)

The Chinese player I mentioned played through the disc without issue.