Reply to Message

That does not follow
megazone 12th Jul 2010
@wackoae While it *may* be true that some Blu-ray players could be upgraded to 3D like the PS3, your statement is a logical fallacy. Just because one device can be upgraded it does not follow that others can as well. The PS3 has the VERY powerful Cell processor, as well as a fairly powerful GPU and a good amount of RAM. It handles BD decoding in software.

Most Blu-ray players use specialized silicon. Decoding is done in hardware and the capabilities are fixed in the physical design of the chip, and cannot be upgraded. There is some ability to add features, but only within the capabilities of the chip. If the hardware can't do 3D decoding then no amount of software will fix that, the general purpose CPU cores such chips have for basic tasks are not at all powerful enough to do decoding in software.

Such dedicated hardware is much less expensive, and it makes the product less expensive to product overall because it also makes for a simpler design, less RAM is required, etc. So you have a cheaper, simpler design with more limitations on upgrades. Conversely a design like the PS3 is fairly expensive to produce - comparatively very expensive - but it has a lot of flexibility due to the raw horsepower.

The fact is most Blu-ray players could NOT be upgraded to 3D, they don't have the hardware to handle it - not in hardware decoding nor the power to due it in software.
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox