A BD player (Sony BDP-S3700)

 A Blu-ray Player (or BD player) is an embedded device that plays Blu-ray Discs. Like PC, Blu-ray players come in all shapes and sizes from different manufacturers with their own System-on-Chips and custom video processors. They should be not considered as PCs or treated as such. They're neither personal computers or gaming consoles, a Blu-ray player is a Blu-ray player.

 

History

On April 10 2003, Sony introduced the BDZ-S77, the first Blu-ray recorder (burnable BD-Rs/BD-REs) designed for households. It was priced at US$3,800 and targeted toward the Japanese consumer markets to record or play recordable content. At the time, the product took advantage of the digital satellite broadcasting that was bringing HDTV to more and more households. 

On June 20, 2006, Sony released their first Blu-ray Disc launch titles: 50 First Dates, The Fifth Element, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, Underworld: Evolution, xXx, and MGM's The Terminator. On June 25 2006, Samsung released the first BD-ROM player, the Samsung BD-P1000, months after HD-DVD launched, priced at US$999.99.

When the first Blu-ray disc players launched (Samsung BD-P1000, Sony BDP-S1), they mostly received positive reviews for their superior image quality, immersive sound, and interactive features. However, they also faced some criticism. Initially, the players were slow to load content, the price was high, there were playback glitches, a few launch titles to choose from, and some models were incompatible with CDs. Today, newer players have improved over the years and are usually affordable.

 

Operating System

Today's Blu-ray players often use the Linux operating system, an open-source operating system developed by Linus Torvalds et al. Most player manufacturers choose Linux because it's free, open-source, and customizable. Some older players from the 2000s formerly used Windows CE.  The Sony NSZ-GT1 is the only BD player to use Android TV.

Oppo's BD player home menu

Without an operating system, all functionality like accessing the Internet, reading Disc/USB thumb drives, accessing local networks, etc., would all have to be implemented from scratch. So, player manufacturers always use an operating system. In that respect, the OS is like a System-on-Chip but for software.

It would be unrealistic to create programs (such as games) that run exclusively for a specific BD player's OS because that's not what this wiki is about, and what would be the point? The whole point of making BD applications is to be platform-independent. A BD player's OS isn't relevant for BDMV application development as BDs are OS-independent, using middleware and a virtual machine.

Hardware

A Blu-ray player's hardware architecture varies by player. In the 2000s, BD players used MIPS, and early Pioneer BD players used Super H until replaced by ARM, which is cheaper and uses low power consumption. The Sony NSZ-GT1 is the only stand-alone BD player that uses the x86 architecture (not counting PS4, PS5, and Xbox). Additionally, the PS3 used the CELL architecture.  With the slow rise of RISC-V, it would not be surprising to see RISC-V-based players appear on the market.

A BD player's hardware architecture isn't relevant for BDMV app development because BDs are hardware-independent. But what is relevant is its CPU speed as speeds vary by player, ranging from 300 MHz to 1 GHz. However, if you are making a BD-J app/game, be mindful that the JVM may be slower than the CPU itself (e.g. Xbox One), so it's recommended to optimize your BD-J apps/games for slower low-end BD players. It is unknown what the minimum requirements of the CPU speed are.

High-end BD players commonly use ASICs (Application-specific integrated circuits) and 2D graphics accelerator chips to render video, audio, and graphics in hardware for faster performance. Low-end BD players usually use the CPU to render everything in software, but performance will be slower.

To test the benchmarks for BD-J performance, the BD-ROM 2.0 Part 3 v.2.3 specifications (which were released in March 2009) must comply with certain minimum standards. These standards cover a range of factors including video and audio start times, image loading and drawing (JPEG/PNG graphics), font rendering (Latin/CJK characters), and animation. Additionally, the microprocessor performance must also be measured, which is done using EEMBC’s GrinderBench. (Or you can run/test homebrew BDs ISOs, such as Ukko's Journey, Doom and Funky Fresh, that push BD's specs to the limit and see if the player can handle it.)

Inside a Philips BDP3280/12 that contains a CPU, Memory and other components

 

A BD player's CPU and other components are usually inside a System-on-Chip (SoC). The player model's manufacturers use different SoCs like NEC EMMA3SL/HD (MIPS-based 32-bit 327 MHz), MediaTek MT855 (ARM-based - 32-Bit 800Mhz Single-core) on the Samsung BD-JM57, Broadcom BCM7400 (MIPS-based) on the LG BD370, Renesas R8A34019 (Super H-based) on the Pioneer BDP-09FD, Panasonic UniPhier MN2WS0260 (AM-based - 32-bit 486 MHz) on Panasonic BD players, Sigma SMP8634A (MIPS-based - 32-Bit 300Mhz) on the Sony BDP-S1, Sony CXD90011G-DC E GTS (Arm-based) on the Sony BDP-S3700, and the Intel Atom Processor N450 (x86 based - 1.66 GHz) on the Sony NSZ-GT1.

Not only manufacturers made SoCs but made dedicated video processing chips like the Genesis Cortez, Panasonic HCX, Marvell Qdeo, Samsung VQE, Lattice SiI9612, and the Silicon Optix Reon/Realta.

High-end BD players usually have digital-to-analog audio converters (DACs) and sound processing chips like the Wolfson WM8740, Cirrus Logic CS49702, and the ST STA309A.

Disc Drive

All Blu-ray players have an disc drive to read BD-ROMs and burnt BDs. It can additionally read DVDs and CDs. Drives are commonly made by the player's manufacturer but sometimes made by a different company.

    See: Blu-ray Drive

Memory

The BD player's system memory varies by model, most of them hold at least 256 MB for the operating system. Common memory chip manufactures are Toshiba and Samsung.

System memory is not relevant for BDMV application development. What is relevant is the BDMV application's primary and secondary memory for video, audio, graphics and data.

 

Storage

All Profile 1.1 BD players have an minimum of 256 MB of local storage to install/save content off the disc to the virtual file system (BUDA). For BD-Live enabled players, it has a minimum storage of 1 GB, and it is used to download content from the internet or connect to a local area network (LAN). Local storage is always use non-removable flash storage. Common flash storage manufacturers are Toshiba, Nanya, and Kioxia. Some players offer additional storage via USB or HDD.

    See: Local Storage

 

Playback

All Blu-ray players play Blu-ray discs (BD-ROMs and BD-R/BD-REs).

Since November 9 2007, all Blu-ray players must support Profile 1.1 "Bonusview". When a Blu-ray Disc not authored with interactive features dependent on Bonus View or BD-Live hardware capabilities is played on Profile 1.0 players, it is able to play the main feature of the disc, but some extra features may not be available or will have limited capability.

Most BD players are backwards compatible with DVD-Video and CD-Audio, and some will also play media content from USBs and servers.

 

Connectivity

A typical BD player has a 1.5x BD disc drive, HDMI output, IR sensor for the remote, a USB port, and a power output.

Higher-end player have output composite/component cables usually for digital-to-analog audio, coaxial cable output, and a Digital Optical TOSLINK output.

Controller

A typical BD remote control

For playback navigation, the majority of BD players use a standard remote that uses inferred (IR) signals. A remote is simple and easy to use for menu navigation or games with simple controls.

Symbol for devices that use IR signals

A standard BD remote features a multi-directional pad (left, right, up,  down), an enter button, a menu button, a pop-up button, four colored interactive buttons (🔴,🟢,🔵,🟡), number keys (0-9), playback buttons  (play, pause, next, back, rewind, fast-forward), subtitle button, audio button, and an eject button.

    See: Controllers

Besides PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, there are stand-alone BD players that support game controllers, such as the Sony DualShock 4. Game controllers are suitable for BD video games that use complex controls.

    See: Gamepad Support

 

Manufacturers

Besides Sony, many licensed manufacturers produce various models of BD players (home, portable, auto, and professional). Manufacturers include: Panasonic, Oppo, LG, Samsung, HP, ONKYO, Vizio, Toshiba, Sharp, Walmart, etc. They all compete each other on who can make the best or affordable BD player, even chip manufacturers compete each other.

High-end models from Sony, Panasonic, and Oppo are considered the best Blu-ray players (unfortunately Oppo left the market).

 

Network connectivity

BD-Live enabled players offer online connectivity on BDs such as updates, upload high scores, stream trailers, etc. As of 2021, Universal was the last major studio to discontinue BD-Live, but since BD-Live is decentralized (like PC) it doesn't mean it's dead.

    See: Networking

Besides BD-Live, BD players often provide online streaming services and apps such as Netflix, Hulu, Tubi, Youtube, Weather Channel, etc.

 

Modding and Homebrew

Unlike game consoles and PCs, modding BD players is uncommon and underrated. Most modders mod BD players to remove region code in order to play foriegn BDs. 220-electronics is a legitimate online store that sells modded region-free BD players.

Homebrew development of Blu-ray is small and niche, usually making or modifying BD movies and games. Homebrew developers either burn the homebrewed BDMV applications on a BD-R or play an ISO file via server or USB (depending on the player). Top communities are Doom9 (movies/albums) and Blu-Play (games).

Author(s) : Æ Firestone