By Cornelius Wilson on 12/18/07 at 6:11 PM

Back in October, Sony Computer Entertainment confirmed it would offer a Playstation 3 update that would allow the gaming console to support Blu-ray's impending spec requirements, dubbed Blu-ray Profile 1.1 (and formally called Blu-ray Bonus View). At the time, Sony wouldn't commit to when it would offer the upgrade, but the simple fact that it would was significant news to the 2.7 million Playstation 3 owners.

Sony has come through on its promise today, with its announcement that firmware 2.10's availability. The firmware adds Picture-in-Picture support for viewing supplemental content on-demand (just as you can with HD DVD), and adds support secondary audio and video streams--useful for interactive features.

The company has not announced BD-Live support as yet, but based on the PS3's specs, the console should have no problem meeting the hardware requirements for BD-Live (ethernet connection, at minimum 1GB of persistent storage).

According to stats from the Blu-ray Disc Association and Video Business, if you include Playstation 3 among the pool of Blu-ray players in homes, then 2 million Blu-ray players now support Blu-ray Profile 1.1. Among standalone players shipping today, only LG's Super Blu BH200 and Panasonic's DMP-BD30 currently support Profile 1.1.

The Profile 1.1 support is the big news with this update. However, two other notable improvements also came along for the ride: the PS3 now can handle DivX and VC-1 video.



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