Ensuring Compatibility Between Blu-ray Disc Players and Your A/V System
Dolby Has You Covered
Blu-ray Disc™ optical players differ in many ways from the functionality and performance of standard-definition DVD-Video players. The good news is that whether you own a legacy audio/video (A/V) system equipped with Dolby® Digital or a more current A/V receiver equipped with an HDMI™ connection or external line-level multichannel inputs, a compatible, high-quality playback path is assured. Dolby has you covered.
The Advanced Capabilities of Blu-ray Disc Players
Advances in coding systems and disc storage capacities combine with blue-laser technologies to give Blu-ray™ discs the capability to deliver high-definition video quality. New audio codecs including Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD will also bring high-resolution audio performance to the entertainment experience.
The superior capabilities of the Blu-ray format go far beyond the high-quality picture and sound. All new Blu-ray Disc players include support for interactive features that expand the total entertainment experience. Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD fully complement these features.
BonusView (Profile 1.1) is a disc-based feature. Playback compatibility is mandatory in all Blu-ray Disc players beginning in 2008. BonusView enables picture-in-picture features for secondary audio and video content. The picture-in-picture window is superimposed over the main program and can deliver commentary that’s actively linked to the main-window content or additional information about onscreen people or products. The audio track can be played on its own or mixed in with the main soundtrack by the player.
BD-Live™ (Profile 2.0), an optional feature for Blu-ray Disc players, adds Internet-based interactivity. Players with BD-Live capability can download content from a movie studio’s home entertainment website (or other website), either for real-time streaming playback or for storage (and future playback) in the player’s internal memory or memory card.
The movie studio (or other content producer) determines whether a title will have BD-Live features during the initial production of the home entertainment release. A website address is encoded on the disc during authoring, and the studio creates and updates interactive content related to the BD-Live release.
Potential applications for BD-Live include picture-in-picture display, featurettes, high-definition theatrical trailers, language options, director’s live commentary, and gaming options allowing the user to join a multiplayer interactive game. The audio can be unique to the added feature or can be mixed with the main soundtrack on the Blu-ray disc during playback. Using BD-Live, the content producer can also deliver new material for a title—for instance, a new game—long after the discs have shipped.
How Dolby Technologies Support BonusView and BD-Live
Dolby Digital Plus is a standard audio technology for Blu-ray Disc and is integrated into all Blu-ray players equipped with BonusView playback capability. The coding efficiencies of Dolby Digital Plus enable optimal BonusView performance, delivering up to 5.1 channels of DVD-quality audio with minimal bandwidth requirements. Using Dolby Digital Plus, content producers can add compelling secondary audio tracks without compromising either sound quality or video performance. Viewers experience the full potential of the Blu-ray Disc format.
For BD-Live audio, the compact files of Dolby Digital Plus can be downloaded rapidly and take up a minimal amount of the player’s internal memory. A commentary track, for example, can usually be mono and coded at a reduced data rate for a dramatic reduction in file size.
Because BD-Live offers tremendous potential for added entertainment, content providers may prefer the highest audio quality possible. Dolby TrueHD delivers it, supporting BD-Live with up to 7.1 channels of studio-quality audio performance—fully equivalent to uncompressed PCM, yet with much greater coding efficiencies that enable faster downloads and use less memory.
