Home Theater Forum  ›  Forums  ›  Hi-Definition  ›  HT Software - High Definition  ›  The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

#1
Rating: 0
I've been watching movies on BD for about 2 months now and I must say I am very impressed. They really are THAT good.

Unfortunately there's one thing I knew would bug me, and it really is the ONLY thing that bugs me:

I really, really dislike the way that Warner Bros BDs go straight to the movie without first giving the user the option to set the required audio format. It would be fine if the audio defaulted to the best setting - normally Dolby TrueHD in the case of WB - but it doesn't.

I actually dread the process of putting on a WB disc, muting the sound, starting the movie, then going to the pop-up menu, changing the audio, then backing up, unmuting the sound and starting the movie again. You can't even PAUSE the disc while you navigate the menu, you have to spoil the impact of those first few seconds by fumbling around.

Okay I'm sure other folks really don't care, but I like to get that BANG impact with the music and the logos and everything else when a movie starts (ironically it's the WB logo itself that you're most likely to miss whilst changing audio, not a very wise PR move by the studio!!)

So my request to Warners is this: Please do what (as far as I know) every other studio does and let's have some menus before the movie starts!

THANKS!
Export to Wiki
#2
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Correct me if I'm wrong here, because I have a lousy memory: if the WB default audio selection was lossless, and your AVR didn't handle the lossless format, wouldn't you just get the core audio? If so, why wouldn't WB choose lossless as the default? That should suit everybody. [I am unable to test this "core" concept with my AVR.]
Export to Wiki
#3
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

I couldn't disagree more. About wanting a menu at the beginning of a disc, anyway. I can see your point as far as configuring the sound goes, but I would much rather jump right into a movie, changing the sound option on the fly, and getting right into the film itself.

No new menus, please.
Export to Wiki
#4
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by James Ryfun
I couldn't disagree more. About wanting a menu at the beginning of a disc, anyway. I can see your point as far as configuring the sound goes, but I would much rather jump right into a movie, changing the sound option on the fly, and getting right into the film itself.

No new menus, please.

But you're NOT getting right into the film itself. You're getting right into the process of calling up a menu, changing the audio (which causes an audio dropout), closing the menu and then picking up the movie from the, what, 10 second mark!

It doesn't happen that way in cinemas (ok, "theatres") like that and we are trying to reproduce the theatrical experience here!

Again, I'd be happy if the sound defaulted to the best setting - no need to change it and therefore no need for the menu - but as it stands, well it's disappointing when every other studio lets you set the film up BEFORE you watch it.
Export to Wiki
#5
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

I also perfer the menu to pop up first and not have the film auto-start. I like to put in the disc and let my FP warm up for about 10 minutes before I start the film.

Sometime's you reach what's real by making believe.

Export to Wiki
#6
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by CraigF
Correct me if I'm wrong here, because I have a lousy memory: if the WB default audio selection was lossless, and your AVR didn't handle the lossless format, wouldn't you just get the core audio? If so, why wouldn't WB choose lossless as the default? That should suit everybody. [I am unable to test this "core" concept with my AVR.]

That's an excellent point.
Export to Wiki
#7
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

The amount of time it takes to set up the audio when the movie auto starts is minimal. I don't bother muting when I make the change. I can handle it either way. If WB wants to auto start their films then I don't have a problem with it. It's also fine with me if other studios use a static menu before the film starts. What I hate is the reams and reams of trailers that a person has to wade through to get to the feature. Trailers should be accessible through the extras menu only. I always check what extras are available. If there is a trailer that I'm interested in then I will select it and watch it, otherwise don't waste my time making me watch trailers that I couldn't care less about. That is the one nice thing about WB's auto start: no worthless trailers to endure.

When you have to shoot...shoot. Don't talk!

Export to Wiki
#8
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

I'd rather have the disc go to the main menu too but I'm not that concerned about it either.
Export to Wiki
#9
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Edwin-S
What I hate is the reams and reams of trailers that a person has to wade through to get to the feature. Trailers should be accessible through the extras menu only. I always check what extras are available. If there is a trailer that I'm interested in then I will select it and watch it, otherwise don't waste my time making me watch trailers that I couldn't care less about.

Oh I completely agree!!
Export to Wiki
#10
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Agree it's not a big deal for most people. Pressing the audio button on the remote to cycle through the tracks isn't too disruptive to me, but John is really into the soundtracks IIRC so it sure isn't optimum.

I used this "auto-start lossy default" as a hint of the apparent WB lossless schizophrenia back a bit. I don't recall it went over well...LOL.
Export to Wiki
#11
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Personally, I also think that the issue of needing to manually select the Dolby True HD track is going to quickly be a thing of the past. Even now, I'm noticing that more often than not the default and only available English track is either Dolby True HD or DTS Master Audio.

The only place this issue will continue to raise it's head is when the original theatrical sound mix is included. A lot of times the original mix is being put on the disc using one of the lossy formats. Unfortunately, not a lot of discs are including the original sound mix.

When you have to shoot...shoot. Don't talk!

Export to Wiki
#12
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

It probably doesn't bug me quite as much as it does John, but I agree. Warner should either give us an easy way to change the audio before the movie (auto) starts or simply default to the best quality, original soundtrack.

However, I'm not too sure about a DD core being passed out for Dolby TrueHD though. I had once thought that was the case, but was told that's not how it actually works. It works that way for DTS-HD/MA w/ the DTS core, but not so sure w/ Dolby TrueHD (and whether the included DD track is actually in the "core").

Still, I suppose most players should be able to transcode Dolby TrueHD into DD for output even if it's not actually passing a core.

_Man_

Just another amateur learning to paint w/ "the light of the world".

Export to Wiki
#13
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Man-Fai Wong
It probably doesn't bug me quite as much as it does John, but I agree. Warner should either give us an easy way to change the audio before the movie (auto) starts or simply default to the best quality, original soundtrack.

However, I'm not too sure about a DD core being passed out for Dolby TrueHD though. I had once thought that was the case, but was told that's not how it actually works. It works that way for DTS-HD/MA w/ the DTS core, but not so sure w/ Dolby TrueHD (and whether the included DD track is actually in the "core").

Still, I suppose most players should be able to transcode Dolby TrueHD into DD for output even if it's not actually passing a core.

_Man_

Well, I'm not sure if it is a "core" or a shadow track, but I have discs that contain only a Dolby THD track. On my system the PS3 passes those tracks as Dolby Digital 5.1. I suspect every Blu ray player does the same. There would be a lot of pissed off people if the only track on there was Dolby THD and people couldn't hear it due to an inability to downrezz.

When you have to shoot...shoot. Don't talk!

Export to Wiki
#14
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Good grief, it's not hard to access the pop-up menu, select the different audio stream, and hit chapter skip back. It takes all of 15 seconds.
My DVD/BD Collection
Criterion DVD/BDs Owned: 55, Total DVDs Owned: 525, Blu-ray Discs Owned: 227
Export to Wiki
#15
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

I don't really see any benefit to NOT having a menu pop up first, and having a lesser audio track as the default just makes no sense. Frankly, the reasons given so far against menus ("I like to jump right into a movie", "I don't mind changing the audio while the movie is playing") seem kind of weird to me. I agree with John that it is annoying to those of us who want to tweak audio, captions, and such before the movie starts.

Both of these "features" remind me of early WB DVDs, and that went away pretty quickly, IIRC. This will too, thankfully.

Why would it be any problem to have a menu come up first, just like 100% of modern DVDs? If you want to start the movie right away, just press the start button, right? I just don't see a downside to having menus first.

Franklin C

My DVD Collection

Export to Wiki
#16
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Man-Fai Wong
However, I'm not too sure about a DD core being passed out for Dolby TrueHD though. I had once thought that was the case, but was told that's not how it actually works. It works that way for DTS-HD/MA w/ the DTS core, but not so sure w/ Dolby TrueHD (and whether the included DD track is actually in the "core").

Still, I suppose most players should be able to transcode Dolby TrueHD into DD for output even if it's not actually passing a core.

_Man_

You might be right there. With a PS3 as my player and HDMI to my AVR, I may not have all the audio output options some have. IIRC I could not properly handle the lossy audio cores when I tried several months ago as an experiment. If the Dolby TrueHD cores don't exist...well, that's the other explanation why it didn't work!

If such lossy cores don't exist, then that might explain why almost all my Dolby TrueHD BDs also have DD5.1 tracks, otherwise one would say they're superfluous. I say "almost all" because, according to my notes, The Professionals only has TrueHD. I'm sure not saying my notes are perfect...

Edit: I see Edwin-S covered this ...
Export to Wiki
#17
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

I don't mind auto play on movies, but Warners goes too far with the Sarah Connor Chronicles TV Series. Those discs auto play every episode on the disc.
Export to Wiki
#18
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

I just hit pause and then press menu when the WB logo appears.
Click here to view my DVD Collection
Export to Wiki
#19
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brandon Conway
Good grief, it's not hard to access the pop-up menu, select the different audio stream, and hit chapter skip back. It takes all of 15 seconds.

Sure, it's not hard. But it's also not necessary.
Export to Wiki
#20
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dale MA
I just hit pause and then press menu when the WB logo appears.

How are you changing audio while the disc is paused?

The pop-up menu doesn't work on my Panasonic BD50 when the disc is paused. You can access the "Top Menu" but unfortunately you can't change the audio options from there (which is another ridiculous non-feature!!)

It's a pain that (presumably) we'll have to mess around with the Matrix movies like this. I just hope they get their act together before they do anything with Lord Of The Rings!!
Export to Wiki
#21
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Warner really needs to try reading the BD spec harder.

EVERY Dolby TrueHD track HAS to have a piggy-backed DD track for use if the TrueHD track cannot be decoded.

EVERY DTS-HD MA track includes a lossy "core" track which is played by default if the HD MA extensions cannot be decoded.

If Warner would just default to the lossless track there would be no problem.
Export to Wiki
#22
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig_Ehr
If Warner would just default to the lossless track there would be no problem.

That would certainly be an acceptable solution!

If WB has listened to complaints about the lack of lossless tracks on their discs and have now started the process of including them, perhaps they'll take this suggestion on board too!
Export to Wiki
#23
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by John H Ross
How are you changing audio while the disc is paused?

The pop-up menu doesn't work on my Panasonic BD50 when the disc is paused. You can access the "Top Menu" but unfortunately you can't change the audio options from there (which is another ridiculous non-feature!!)

It's a pain that (presumably) we'll have to mess around with the Matrix movies like this. I just hope they get their act together before they do anything with Lord Of The Rings!!
It depends on whether the menus are programmed in Basic or in Java. If it's the latter you can access the menus while paused.
My DVD/BD Collection
Criterion DVD/BDs Owned: 55, Total DVDs Owned: 525, Blu-ray Discs Owned: 227
Export to Wiki
#24
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brandon Conway
It depends on whether the menus are programmed in Basic or in Java. If it's the latter you can access the menus while paused.

Well the two I tried - Blade Runner and LA Confidential - didn't work so I guess those were done in Basic. Grrrrrrrrrrr,
Export to Wiki
#25
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by John H Ross
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dale MA
I just hit pause and then press menu when the WB logo appears.How are you changing audio while the disc is paused?

The pop-up menu doesn't work on my Panasonic BD50 when the disc is paused. You can access the "Top Menu" but unfortunately you can't change the audio options from there (which is another ridiculous non-feature!!)

It's a pain that (presumably) we'll have to mess around with the Matrix movies like this. I just hope they get their act together before they do anything with Lord Of The Rings!!

Agreed. The problem does also get worse when there are certain kinds of special features like alternate version of the film via seamless branching. When I first played I Am Legend on my PS3, I had a hard time figuring out how to play the version I actually wanted to try first -- and it also got a little confusing which one I actually ended up playing until I could compare the different alternate scenes. And I'll bet it gets even worse when titles start using lots of BD-J to control navigation and such.

There really is no excuse for making things more complicated than necessary for viewers to simply watch the movie in its best quality.

Part of the problem also comes from the various studios not standardizing on how all this works out. I find that if I want to ensure I'm watching the (right version of the) movie in its best quality, I generally need to check the settings, even if an actual change is not needed. They really should just make sure to default to the best settings (which might depend on player settings) and then also make it quick-and-easy to make any other changes as occasionally needed, eg. choose different version of the movie.

_Man_

Just another amateur learning to paint w/ "the light of the world".

Export to Wiki
#26
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brandon Conway
Good grief, it's not hard to access the pop-up menu, select the different audio stream, and hit chapter skip back. It takes all of 15 seconds.

But if the menu automatically came up I wouldn't have too. If the menu automatically came up I could put in my disc walk away and go make my popcorn come back (letting the PJ warm up), select lossless and play. As it is now I have to sit, wait for the movie to start, hit pause, go make my popcorn then come back and select lossless and play.

Warner sure needs to get their shit together!

Sometime's you reach what's real by making believe.

Export to Wiki
#27
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

I much prefer the feature starting right off, than having to wade through a mountain of trailers and warnings like are on Sleeping Beauty. I'm sorry but that is just a crime!

Doug
"I'm in great shape, for the shape I'm in."
Bob Hope in The Ghostbreakers
Export to Wiki
#28
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron-P
But if the menu automatically came up I wouldn't have too. If the menu automatically came up I could put in my disc walk away and go make my popcorn come back (letting the PJ warm up), select lossless and play. As it is now I have to sit, wait for the movie to start, hit pause, go make my popcorn then come back and select lossless and play.

Warner sure needs to get their shit together!


Unless lossless is the default, which means you would have to do nothing.

Maybe the ultimate solution is to make your popcorn first.

Doug
"I'm in great shape, for the shape I'm in."
Bob Hope in The Ghostbreakers
Export to Wiki
#29
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

I LOVE Warner's having the movie start immediately.

If someone has to make a change, just use the remote or select it from the pop-up menu. So, so easy. Reading this thread took longer.

I also despise trailers. In fact, its in the future interest of packaged media that trailers, copyright warnings, disclaimers about commentaries, Whoopi Goldberg PC babble, everything repeated in Spanish, & anything before the main menu or auto-start, should be a thing of the past.

(Can you imagine having all that nonsense to go through every time you wanted to listen to a Pink Floyd CD?)
Export to Wiki
#30
Rating: 0

Re: The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Deeb
In fact, its in the future interest of packaged media that trailers, copyright warnings, disclaimers about commentaries, Whoopi Goldberg PC babble, everything repeated in Spanish, & anything before the main menu or auto-start, should be a thing of the past.

This brings up a peeve that irritates me more than the non-lossless auto-start. I wasn't going to mention it, but since we're kinda headed that way and to unload my peeve list...

Like others, I like to throw the disc in and wander away for a while, for whatever reason. It's not a big deal to FF past junk, and I much love the PS3 (and probably others can do it, I don't know) 120X FF for this which makes it almost instantaneous. My peeve is this newish thing of putting all the warning crap AFTER you select "play movie". Consider in Canada where we almost always get it in 2 languages, and very occasionally Chinese also. This stuff that can't be bypassed (usually these days) is one of the reasons I got into the habit of wandering away for a while...
Export to Wiki