Blu-ray's certainly making a name for itself on the headlines, mostly with good news all around. There is one bit of news, however, that puts a damper on these proceedings, and it's got something to do with one of shortcomings of Blu-ray at present: future compatibility.Future compatibility, in this case, refers to the Blu-ray disc player's ability to play future Blu-ray discs. The big problem right now, it seems, is that current standalone players lack future compatibility, and thus, the ability to play the additional features that come with certain titles.
How does this work? Well, imagine you have a BD player which supports Profile 1.0. Your player might be able to play the movie that comes with the Profile 1.1 or 2.0 Blu-ray disc, but it won't be able to access the special features that come with it, such as internet connectivity (present in the upcoming Profile 2.0).

To that end, the Blu-ray Disc Association has decided to place stickers on upcoming releases, signifying whether they have additional content accessible with a Profile 1.1 player using the "Bonus View" sticker or Profile 2.0 capability with the "BD Live" sticker.There is one side-effect of this though. It seems that there's at least one Blu-ray player out there that is constantly being updated with future compatibility, and also happens to be cheaper than most Blu-ray players. That's right: Sony's PS3 is the in-thing when it comes to compatibility at the moment, which may mean that Blu-ray fans might just buy a PS3 for its ability to play all sorts of content.

We're hoping the different Blu-ray player manufacturers find a way to settle this problem among early adopters of Blu-ray though, because it's certainly going to be an annoyance for the common consumer who wants his money's worth if he can't get everything that he was hoping for in his purchase.

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