What video codecs will Blu-ray support?
01/ MPEG-2 – enhanced for HD, also used for playback of DVDs and HDTV recordings. 02/ MPEG-4 AVC – part of the MPEG-4 standard also known as H.264 (High Profile and Main Profile). 03/ SMPTE VC-1 – standard based on Microsoft’s Windows Media Video (WMV) technology. Will Blu-Ray support mandatory managed copy? Mandatory managed copy (MMC) will be part of the Blu-Ray format, allowing consumers to make legal copies of their Blu-Ray movies for local use. This function is subject to hardware support from manufacturers. How effective is the BD Copy Protection? BD movie discs use Advanced Access Content System (AACS) to help prevent un-authorised copying, however the effectiveness is jeopardised since most TV’s or monitors do not support HDCP. Since there is no high bandwidth copyright protection in place copies can be made via analog connections. Is Blu-Ray the same thing as HD-DVD? HD-DVD is a competing next-generation optical disc format developed by Toshiba and NEC. Although the format use
The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is still in the process of finalizing the BD-ROM specification, but they have stated that MPEG-4 AVC High Profile (previously called FRExt) and Microsoft’s VC-1 video codec (the proposed SMPTE standard based on WMV9) will be mandatory. They will also include MPEG-2 support for playback of recorded HDTV content and DVDs. The BDA expects the BD-ROM specification to be finished by the end of the year. Please note that this simply means that all Blu-ray players and recorders will have to support playback of these video codecs, it will still be up to the movie studios to decide which video codec(s) they use for their releases.
