Not too far away. If i had to guess, i would say later this year around November.

Does anyone else know any more than me?

Lee 

9 LEE:

Not too far away. If i had to guess, i would say later this year around November.

Does anyone else know any more than me?

Lee 

 

Lee,

Do you think as a MK IV and/or as a upgrade-unit for the current MK III ?

I would guess both, but I think Lee might be a bit optimistic in his timetable.

Russ 

i have been told by a few dealers it might be retro fit to the MK3 and a few have said it will be retro fit.

i took the chance anyway and bought the BV7 MK3

RussR:

I would guess both, but I think Lee might be a bit optimistic in his timetable.

Russ 

Well.. when i say November, i mean July next year. I'm just getting into the B&O way of thinking with regards product releases, that's all..

seanklemis:

i have been told by a few dealers it might be retro fit to the MK3 and a few have said it will be retro fit.

i took the chance anyway and bought the BV7 MK3

A retro fit will be a B&O novelty, will it not?

It would be good to know if at very least the BV7 can be upgraded to bluray at some future date, if not then I am afraid it could be a deal breaker as I feel a bit uncomfortable investing in a BV7 right at the moment without a clear idea of the upgrade path.

 Is the Mk3 panel much better than 1 or 2? 

Doc:

A retro fit will be a B&O novelty, will it not?

The biggest problem with an internal drive is the constant sw updates Blu-ray drives receive. I'd expect B&O to be overly cautious and wait for the dust to settle, before they committ. Nothing worse than customer who expect long-term products, when their drive is out of date within a year.

moxxey:

Doc:

A retro fit will be a B&O novelty, will it not?

The biggest problem with an internal drive is the constant sw updates Blu-ray drives receive. I'd expect B&O to be overly cautious and wait for the dust to settle, before they committ. Nothing worse than customer who expect long-term products, when their drive is out of date within a year.

Don't see the updates as a problem: my BV7 will receive it's third update (4.24) soon.

And if you buy a standalone player it will become outdated to.

9 LEE:

RussR:

I would guess both, but I think Lee might be a bit optimistic in his timetable.

Russ 

Well.. when i say November, i mean July next year. I'm just getting into the B&O way of thinking with regards product releases, that's all..

 

Surely you meant either Septvember or Decebruary, right?  

Russ 

Doc:

moxxey:

Doc:

A retro fit will be a B&O novelty, will it not?

The biggest problem with an internal drive is the constant sw updates Blu-ray drives receive. I'd expect B&O to be overly cautious and wait for the dust to settle, before they committ. Nothing worse than customer who expect long-term products, when their drive is out of date within a year.

Don't see the updates as a problem: my BV7 will receive it's third update (4.24) soon.

And if you buy a standalone player it will become outdated to.

 

its not a question of being outdated.

As BR establishes itself and new titles come out new firmware updates are required on a very regular basis- Many of the newly released titles will not play and there is some doubt as to how non profile 2 players will cope in the future. Not many companies are good at supporting these firmware upgrades but Sony is the best- via ethernet if wanted. the PS3 with the later firmware upgrades even supports MA HD- although no B&O products do of course!

There is no way that B&O can have dealers do this! it will be another fiasco like the beo5-

So unless they can offer updating via the net I would not want a bv7 with it built in.

Obviously B&O will have to repackage something- problem is that there is not presently one really good BR player that is profile 2 compliant, the new panasonics bd30 and 50 promised it but seems its not reality. Only sony with PS3 have th right idea, otehr sony stand alones not much good either

So, are we saying that the base technology isn't really mature or stable?  Somewhat like, oh...I don't know...HDMI...or 24fps/120hz?  Some of you know that I have fought battles with HDMI equipment, as have others here...and the reviews we read here concerning 24fps as it relates to existing panels' refresh rates are mixed at best.  Now we are pushing for (or pulling back from) a delivery platform which may require regular firmware updates into the foreseeable future...and yet many of us have consistently bashed those poor Danish Gnomes, laboring deep under their trees, for not rushing out fast enough to embrace everything that comes down the pike.

Were I in the position to purchase a BV-7 at the moment, I think I would do so unhesitatingly, plug an affordable Panasonic B-R player into it, and enjoy myself while the rest of you wait for it to be 'properly' integrated.  At least  I get a year's use out of it (or more) and the concomitant enjoyment!  

;-)

Russ 

Doc:

Don't see the updates as a problem: my BV7 will receive it's third update (4.24) soon.

And if you buy a standalone player it will become outdated to.

Correct, but that's not the B&O style. Also, it's up to the dealer if they want to give the end-user a free sw update. Most do, from time to time, but some - as we've seen here - want to charge an engineer's fee. Why? B&O engineer's are generally freelancers. At the moment, my local dealer employs their staff, but that's soon about to change.

Jez:

Why not just use a PS3, B&O software supports it, PS3 will up grade constantly through it's wireless network without even having to do anything. I'm using BV4 50"/BS3 with software 4.24 and a PS3 that just uploaded to 24fps and couldn't be happier.

Jez,

Your PS3 is uploaded to 24fps? Which sw-version is that (2.36?). Do you have to change any settings on the PS3 to "let the 24fps work" ?

And last but not least: do you see a difference in picturequality ? (= whiteflash is gone / smoother panning?)

RussR:

Were I in the position to purchase a BV-7 at the moment, I think I would do so unhesitatingly, plug an..

Or a PS3 as someone said here. Completely correct Russ. BV7-40 is a great TV; superb with the right source. Watch a very recent Blu-ray via a PS3 on the BV7-40, and it's great.

If people are waiting for DTS-HD, fine. Wait. Uncompressed PCM sounds absolutely stunning on my setup.

Even if a Blu-ray drive can be retro fitted, I'm not sure I'll bother. Firstly I can't imagine it's going to be cheap, secondly I still have the PS3, so what's the point in paying, say, £400 to watch the same movie?

I wonder how long Blu-ray (BD) will be around? SONY recently announced they'll be releasing movies for download to PS3, including in higher resolutions.

We'll have Full-HD, I'm just not certain that we'll have Blu-ray disks. The format's really not taking off. Back when DVDs were introduced, you had SD-television and VHS to compete against (plus laser disks, remember those?) Today we have lots of channels with HD-transmissions, HD-downloads - and some pretty good upscaled DVD playback. 

If you have a projector, then you do want at least 1080i/720p - and with a large enough screen, you'd really appreciate 1080p. That screen would be well over two meters wide, by the way.

As 355f points out above, BD needs regular firmware updates. You should realize that BD and HDMI are really copy-protection schemes to prevent unauthorized copying of content - that's something I support. But the drawbacks have been abysmal - the long loading times, the many playback glitches, the fact that you can't pause your film for any length of time without defaulting to the menu (on some players), etc.

I'd opt for a stand-alone Blu-ray player, hidden in a cabinet. That's where I have my PS3 - rather than asking for one inside a BeoCenter 2 or BV7. Even if it updated its firmware automatically over the internet.

Personally, I believe we'll be doing our high-definition watching from downloaded files in the future, and that BD is just a transition format. The movie companies are salivating at the prospects of cutting their logistics and transportation costs, as well as all the pay-offs to middlemen, by going to downloads. They'll make more money, and ultimately customers will be paying less -- for the same content.

Jez:

Why not just use a PS3, B&O software supports it, PS3 will up grade constantly through it's wireless network without even having to do anything. I'm using BV4 50"/BS3 with software 4.24 and a PS3 that just uploaded to 24fps and couldn't be happier.

are you getting the white flash problem please?

355f:

Jez:

Why not just use a PS3, B&O software supports it, PS3 will up grade constantly through it's wireless network without even having to do anything. I'm using BV4 50"/BS3 with software 4.24 and a PS3 that just uploaded to 24fps and couldn't be happier.

 

are you getting the white flash problem please?

355f, the white flash does not appear when watching Blu-ray's, as from sw 4.01 onwards. With 4.24, you still get the white flash on PS3 menu usage and other PS3 areas (viewing photos etc). It's about 8cm from the bottom left of the screen and stretches for about 30cm horizontally, on my BV7-40.

soundproof:

I wonder how long Blu-ray (BD) will be around?

We'll have Full-HD, I'm just not certain that we'll have Blu-ray disks. The format's really not taking off.

Most likely as the Blu-ray discs are waaaaay too expensive. You can go out and buy a 4 month old SD DVD for about £6, whereas the same Blu-ray is still £18 - 3 times more expensive. How many times are you going to watch this £18 movie? I don't watch DVDs more than two or three times, at the most.

Soundproof is right, the future will be downloadable movies. B&O would be better implementing some kind of Apple TV based system in to their TVs *or* use the Beomaster 5 (and, I know, this isn't happening) as an AV storage unit that can record, store and control AV playback.

I just can't see B&O implementing an internal Blu-ray DVD player. Demand isn't there (how many people walk in to a B&O store and ask if the TV can play Blu-ray movies? This is the same company that ships most of their TVs without a HDMI socket!), Blu-ray players aren't superb (other than the PS3) and it's an ever-changing situation, which goes against the B&O tradition. Like 355f said above, they are not going to get their dealers to keep flash upgrading TVs simply for the internal DVD player.

I've got to be honest, some of the users on here demand way more than B&O can/will deliver. We need to think more like B&O and their traditional customer, then realise that an internal Blu-ray drive is less, rather than more, likely to happen. See above.

The future may well be downloadable films,but before that can happen we have to solve the problem of the majority,if not all,of the UK ISPs  falling substantially short of their quoted maximum download speed,which in some cases can be by 50-60%.

Beocare confirmed that they are working on blueray in their forum.

I don't think the blueray upgrade is such a big deal, it will still -play normal DVDs. Question is how high the price will go up. I doubt they throw that in as freebie.

As for format not taking off, I agree but it can anytime once they lower the price to DVD level which I dont think they would have a problem with. 

JK