The "technological advancement" is a valid argument.
However, it inevitably boils down to "obsolescence" for the end user.
BDP is a hi-fi component, not a computer. Amplifiers, preamplifiers and even CD players progress very gradually and only a manufacturer who is unfamiliar with the intricacies of genuine R&D will claim otherwise and insist on the word "revolutionary" rather than "evolutionary". It is my view that BDP should be excused from this obsolescence, to a degree. If a goal is to make it a platform rather than a product, then it is how platforms are established.
To put it differently, if you put all advantages of the BDP aside for a moment and think of it like a computer, then you can have a different computer for a fraction of the cost.
If you cannot put those advantages aside, then clearly, we are not talking about a computer and so, this new feature set is not what it should be all about.
BDP-1 had an AMD chipset which could support 768MB of system RAM and yet, it was kept at 256MB. Whether that's enough or not, I don't Know. What I can say is that unplugging the flash drive from either BDP-1 or -2 while they're playing will play the exact same track till the end and then stop. BDP-2 did not buffer more than a BDP-1.
On the other hand, BDP-2 has a provision on the left side of it's rear panel that can make use of it's internal USB 3.0 ports, even if it's main bus has limited bandwidth to allow for full use of the USB 3.0 protocol, but having 8 USB ports instead of 6 would have still been welcome.
So there are still ways to improve upon what is already an existing platform.
Cheers!
Antun
