Regretting BluRay right now.. (trouble with 2012) - Page 2

Yeah, I think I only had one somewhat minor playback issue w/ one disc from Mad Men Season 1 on my PS3 before, and I rarely updated the software.  Only updated it for DTS-HD/MA playback (that was originally missing) a long while back and then a couple other times to test/try some other non-BD-related things.

BD-Live titles could sometimes take a long while to load even on the PS3, but that was when I kept it enabled/connected.  I suspect it'd load much faster for those titles if I had disabled BD-Live before -- that's what I do now w/ the Panny BD60, and it seems to load at a reasonable pace even for BD-Live titles w/ that disabled (although I'd certainly like to see it load faster).
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by TonyD 

"rental exclusive" versions do this, these are discs with only the movie and NO MENU. fast forward only.

Not sure about all rental exclusive versions, but IIRC, most/all(?) of the ones I've seen have some very basic, barebones menus w/ no extra features.  I just watched Invictus last night, and that's apparently a Warner rental exclusive (from Blockbuster Online).  It had a barebones menu -- and still had the popup timeline thing during pauses.  Not sure if it actually had forced previews since I didn't see any by the time I got back in front of the display (after preloading the disc) -- and I didn't get around to fully reloading the disc to check.

_Man_

it has a pop up menu but there is nothing there but a language option, there is NO chapters at all there.

Quote:

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.

How much quieter?  I have my PS3 in another room (the wonders of Bluetooth) but I'd like to get another player at some point and other than the fan noise, I quite like my PS3.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaulDA 

How much quieter?  I have my PS3 in another room (the wonders of Bluetooth) but I'd like to get another player at some point and other than the fan noise, I quite like my PS3.

It's incredibly quiet compared to the original.  The only time I hear the fan is when I'm taking out a disc I've just watched, and that's not even bad.  Whatever Sony did when they made the slim model was a huge improvement.

I've reviewed over 60 Blu-rays for HTF and played at least 200 more, and the only disc that gave me trouble in a Panasonic BD-50 was Lionsgate's Daybreakers

I had problems getting Daybreakers to run on my LG-BD370 standalone player - which is not connected to the internet as my PC is at the other end of my house

initially, the film would not load past the menu, and this took literally minutes for the menu to load..

its not too much hassle to move the LG player and display (LG 32" panel) into my PC study to plug into the broadband connection, as its much lighter than the old CRT displays, so a firmware update was in order

but even with the latest firmware, it was incredibly slow to load, so slow my display would go into "sleep mode"

once loaded, I really enjoyed this film, but was glad it was a rental Blu-Ray as none of the 160+ Blu-Ray movies in my collection suffer this problem

Quote:

Originally Posted by hampsteadbandit 

 

I had problems getting Daybreakers to run on my LG-BD370 standalone player - which is not connected to the internet as my PC is at the other end of my house

 

* * * 

 

but even with the latest firmware, it was incredibly slow to load  . . .

This was noted in my review.

"This was noted in my review."

Michael, can I ask why is it so slow to load?

It is something to do with Java?

Quote:

Originally Posted by hampsteadbandit 

"This was noted in my review."

 

 

Michael, can I ask why is it so slow to load?

 

It is something to do with Java?

It's almost always something to do with Java. We really need someone like Van Ling, who's actually programmed Java for Blu-ray, to break it down for us, but generally the more features the producers cram onto a disc, the longer the load time. In the case of Daybreakers, there's that routine that checks the internet for an update at startup -- and this one really does check. Even if your player isn't connected, there's a pause right there while the code figures out that there's no connection.

Then there's the BonusView stuff for the PIP display, along with the BD Touch and MetaMenu code -- all of which isn't something I've seen on previous Lionsgate discs. As far as I can tell, all of that stuff gets loaded, whether or not you intend to use it. I think that's most of the delay right there.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Man-Fai Wong 

Yeah, needing to chapter skip them is annoying, but a few somewhat recent rental BDs I tried even killed that and required the more cumbersome fastforward scan.  Can't remember which ones offhand, but I'll take note going forward.  Not sure if I've come across any retail BDs that bad yet.

 

_Man_

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.

Given how Warner tends to do things and the fact they've moved to rental exclusives, I'm guessing all such discs from them will have forced previews done this way going forward -- and probably the other few I've tried like this were also Warner rental exclusives.

_Man_

Quote:

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_

Quote:

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.

Quote:

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.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott Merryfield 

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.

 

 

 I'm experiencing slowdown from the WiFi connection that I do not from the hard connection (to the router).  Some part of that slowdown probably comes from the use of WPA encryption (and whatever other security measures), but unsecured connection isn't that much faster for me either.  The slowdown seems much worse for the PS3 than for the laptop.  Granted, I have not tried a hard connect for the PS3.  It may just be the PS3's current WiFi capability and/or general networking plumbing being a sluggish performer -- that was why I brought it up when Eric mentioned waiting for a Wireless N PS3.

 

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.

 

 

We use 5Ghz for home phone, but we might still have neighbors using 2.4Ghz although I kinda doubt is a phone issue given the pattern I see.

 

Our old microwave used to be a problem (when we used it).  Our current one is lower powered and has not been a noticeable problem even when in use.

 

Basically, there are times of the day when the signal seems stronger than other times -- seems more consistently weak late at night, which is opposite of what I would've expected.  However, our PS3 rarely ever sees a strong signal -- and it generally does not stay strong -- whereas our laptop will see strong signal during certain times of the day.  Our iPod Touch also sees good signal strength during similar times as the laptop.  And I'm comparing from the same general vicinity of the PS3's location although those other devices are not usually sitting in the open-air TV stand w/ A/V components (and a big DLP TV) next-to-or-above/below it.

 

I don't normally have any Bluetooth devices running either, except maybe one of the PS3 controllers.

 

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.

 

That seems unlikely unless the PS3 is just more finicky than the laptop (and iPod Touch).
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by KMR 

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.)

They might *IF* they're not authored using BD-Java.  With BD-J, all bets are off me thinks though I could be wrong there -- it's just my educated guess.   And the trend has been to move toward using BD-J even if/when that may not really add any meaningful features for the us -- it certainly usually kills one useful feature, if nothing else, ie. the basic stop-resume-play feature.

_Man_

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.

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_

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.

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.

Quote:

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.

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.

Quote:

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_

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.

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.