Regretting BluRay right now.. (trouble with 2012) (1 Viewer)

[Eric_L]

Originally Posted by Scott!

I'm on my second PS3 and love it. I bought the slim model because the fan was so much quieter than the original, but I've never had any playback issues with either one of them. My Samsung player (don't remember the model number...I think it's the BDP-1600 but could be wrong) works OK but loads a lot slower than the PS3.

I am thinking of getting a PS3, I have done some research and become interested in internet TV. I've tried Playon.tv - it is nice, but not yet refined enough for primetime. The video is quite compressed, but the bigger trouble is it is still klunky trying to surf channels. Google TV will be out soon and I bet within a few years it will be refined enough to justify canceling my satellite TV.


Anyway - my point is; Sony will be working quite close with Google TV. I expect that they will support it with the PS3, hopefully even Hulu will join in. (they aren't THAT lame, are they?) Anyhow, Sony supposedly is announcing wireless n on the PS3 and I suspect it will make for a better experience with internet tv - whether I use Google TV or playon.tv I really want to buy now, but I don't see the point when wireless n is right around the corner. I may just buy a house brand blu-ray for now and get the PS3 later - I can then use the house player elsewhere.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Originally Posted by Eric_L

Anyway - my point is; Sony will be working quite close with Google TV. I expect that they will support it with the PS3, hopefully even Hulu will join in. (they aren't THAT lame, are they?) Anyhow, Sony supposedly is announcing wireless n on the PS3 and I suspect it will make for a better experience with internet tv - whether I use Google TV or playon.tv I really want to buy now, but I don't see the point when wireless n is right around the corner. I may just buy a house brand blu-ray for now and get the PS3 later - I can then use the house player elsewhere.

Sounds interesting, but would wireless N really make a diff? I have a hard enough time getting anything more than ~11Mbps to the router on a consistent basis w/ my current WiFi setup (using WPA) -- not too sure, but I get the feeling there are times of the day (particularly later at night) when my WiFi is getting more interference that's degrading signal strength where I need it most.


My PS3 typically shows only 20-50% signal strength, and internet access seems quite sluggish in general -- more so than my laptop from nearby though neither is ever as fast as a hard connection to the router even though I'm only using basic DSL, which should clearly have the lowest bandwidth by a wide margin in that chain.


_Man_

 

[Eric_L]

Man-Fei - I beleive you could bump up your speed if you set your router for n only and 50mhtz only. I've heard of 50% improvements.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Originally Posted by Eric_L

Man-Fei - I beleive you could bump up your speed if you set your router for n only and 50mhtz only. I've heard of 50% improvements.

As long as his Internet connection is a relatively slow DSL circuit, I doubt that he would experience much, if any, speed improvement by upgrading to 802.11n. The 802.11g wireless LAN is not the bottleneck -- the ISP connection is.


Now, if you were streaming from a server on your home network to the PS3, then an upgrade to 802.11n could be worthwhile. If your only source is the Internet, though, I wouldn't bother unless you are truly experiencing interference in the 2.4GHz band. Then, a 5GHz 802.11n (or 802.11a) signal could help.


Typical items that can cause interference in the 2.4GHz spectrum are microwave ovens, cordless phones and bluetooth devices. You should try to mitigate the source of interference before spending money on an upgrade, though, IMO. Changing the channel on your wireless router, moving the router, cordless phone or bluetooth device are all things I would try first.


Finally, it is always possible that your router's radio is just not putting out a very strong signal. I did have problems with an old Dlink 802.11b/g router getting a consistent signal to our second floor. I replaced it with a newer Netgear 802.11b/g router after the Dlink became too unstable, and the connection to the second floor has been rock-solid ever since.

 

[KMR]

Originally Posted by Man-Fai Wong



Well, just watched Book of Eli on rental from Blockbuster Online last night, and this one is a Warner rental-exclusive disc. And yep, it has the forced previews w/ *both* the menu buttons and the chapter skip buttons blocked. Can only use fastforward scan to move the previews along more quickly, which is cumbersome to say the least since you have to do it for every single preview.

Well, this is sure sounding real fun.


Just curious: Do Blu-rays have the same kind of title structure as DVDs, making it possible to get directly to the movie through the title selection function on the remote? You'd have to guess which title number is for the feature. (I have to do this with my Wholphin quarterly DVDs, which for some reason disable the cursor on the main menu in my Panasonic DVD players; they work fine in my Sony Blu-ray player.)

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Originally Posted by Scott Merryfield


_Man_

 

[Rick Thompson]

As I read all these posts about finicky systems, not fast enough broadband and enforced preview watching, I can't help the feeling that the industry has decided they don't like Blu-ray and are trying to kill it by piling on annoyances.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

One thing of note.


Regardless of whether you wait for the wireless N PS3 -- and use WiFi to stream content, etc. -- I'd still recommend disabling BD-Live as your default setting (and maybe enabling it only on a case-by-case basis).


For one thing, w/ BD-Live disabled, I find Universal BDs (and many others) load much faster. And in the case of more recent Uni titles where trailers are downloaded off the net, you don't even need to worry about forced previews w/ BD-Live disabled.


_Man_

 

[Bill Buklis]

Just wait until the studios figure out how to disable the fast forward button. Then we'll really be annoyed. Note that rewind is conveniently left enabled.


It may seem nice that many Warner titles automatically start the film, but I actually find this highly annoying. Mainly because they always select the wrong audio track! Every time I have to pause the movie, popup the menu, select the correct track, and then restart the movie. If it turns out that this title had only one track anyway, it doesn't matter. I'm still doing the same procedure because I don't remember which ones need it and which ones don't.

 

[Rick Thompson]

Originally Posted by Bill Buklis

Just wait until the studios figure out how to disable the fast forward button. Then we'll really be annoyed. Note that rewind is conveniently left enabled.


It may seem nice that many Warner titles automatically start the film, but I actually find this highly annoying. Mainly because they always select the wrong audio track! Every time I have to pause the movie, popup the menu, select the correct track, and then restart the movie. If it turns out that this title had only one track anyway, it doesn't matter. I'm still doing the same procedure because I don't remember which ones need it and which ones don't.

On that date, my purchase of Blu-rays will end.

 

[Ed Moxley]

Originally Posted by Bill Buklis

Just wait until the studios figure out how to disable the fast forward button. Then we'll really be annoyed. Note that rewind is conveniently left enabled.

I've had blu ray movies that the fast forward button didn't work on, to get past the previews. I don't remember which ones they were, but they are out there.

Every time I have to pause the movie, popup the menu, select the correct track, and then restart the movie.

Why?

Push the "Audio" button on the remote, and scroll down to the soundtrack you want, and press select. You can do that without pausing anything, and before the movie actually starts.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Originally Posted by Ed Moxley

Why?

Push the "Audio" button on the remote, and scroll down to the soundtrack you want, and press select. You can do that without pausing anything, and before the movie actually starts.

Don't know about others, but I *much* prefer to go w/ a "standard (for me)" approach for playback of *all* titles as much as possible *and* to deal w/ all such setup issues *before* the movie starts.


Given how BD load times, movie startups, setups, etc. can vary so much, in my view, it's just best to do all that stuff at the menu before the movie starts even if that means restarting an autostarted one (eg. Warner titles). With frequently long load times plus forced previews, I tend to preload the disc and do some last minute stuff before settling down for it a few minutes later, and I only wish there was a way to force (Warner) titles to wait at the menu by default.


Although I'd prefer autostarting the movie under perfectly standardized conditions w/ no significant load/startup times, expecting such is purely a pipe dream given how reality is w/ the studios (and the BD market as a whole). So the other way is the best compromise under the circumstance, IMHO.


And yes, I agree w/ others that Warner's previous policy of autostarting w/ the inferior audio track really sucks -- and yes, I thought the same of the early days of DVD too when many studios defaulted to the DD 2.0 track instead of the superior track. They should either do the autostart right or don't bother at all. And although Warner has changed that in the past year, that doesn't solve the problem for prior releases.


_Man_

 

[PaulDA]

I gave up trying to create a "standard procedure" a long time ago (back in early DVD days). I put the disc in and deal with whatever quirks it throws at me. As a default, I always check the Warner audio but, other than that, I go with the flow. I will say that I do not care about pausing a film at the studio logo stage to make adjustments, if need be (I know that's not the case for everyone, but it is for me), so the quirks are somewhat less annoying than they might otherwise be.

 

[Bill Buklis]

Why oh why can't there be a player setting that allows the user to select their preferred (or capable) level of audio and let the discs always select that track first (if available). Seems like a no brainer, but... There are so many things I would do differently if I was in charge of the standard. Alas Sony never called.