A Blu Ray question

[Anthony Williams]

I'm hoping that someone here will be able to confirm something about Blu Ray for me (I'm thinking most likely Perry "Steve" Vale, but not discounting someone else knowing the answer...)

Someone once told me that the terms of the Blu Ray licence were such that the main feature on any Blu Ray Disc HAD to be in High Definition (although special features etc. could be in SD). Recently, I mentioned this on another forum, and was quickly shot down by just one poster, who said that I was misinformed.

So, the question I have is... is this true, and is there a source for it?

[Anthony Williams]

...no-one?

Damn

[SiHart]

I know you can have SD features on a Blu-Ray disc.

[Philipnet]

Hi,

Unless someone can get their hands on a copy of a BluRay license, we might never know!

[Perry Vale]

Hi Ant!

Just noticed this. Can't recall ever commenting on the subject, but I would suspect it to be true. I can't think of any exceptions that I know of. I can think of some things that were not shot in HD, such as Life On Mars, but they are upscaled to HD from SD. I think you might be right in your assumption, but cannot prove it or say for sure.

[Anthony Williams]

Hi Ant!

Just noticed this. Can't recall ever commenting on the subject, but I would suspect it to be true. I can't think of any exceptions that I know of. I can think of some things that were not shot in HD, such as Life On Mars, but they are upscaled to HD from SD. I think you might be right in your assumption, but cannot prove it or say for sure.

Thanks, Steve - it's what I suspected. If true (and as someone else pointed out), it would rule out whole seasons of Doctor Who being released on one Blu Ray disc.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

The information on the wikipedia entry on Blu Rays stops short of confirming this but it doesn't deny it either. In any case it seems a shame given that Blu Rays can potentially hold 25 GB of information.

However to fit several stories on one disc no upscaling would be possible so there'd be no benefit to those of us who've already bought all the Classic Who releases.
Also as most Blu Ray players are backwards compatible (at least to DVDs within the same region) and they usually upscale the picture automatically so again aside possibly from saving space no real benefit unless you haven't already bought the DVDs.