Blu Discs and Players "Remembering" Where Movie Stopped - Why Don't They Do This? (1 Viewer)

[Michael:M]

I recently bought a basic home theater set up - HD TV, blu-ray player, home theater audio system - and have been loving the improved picture and audio. However, I've noticed that the blu discs I have (and I don't have many, yet) don't seem to "remember" where they were if I stop them during the movie, as standard DVDs do. Weirdly, when I put in a SDVD in, that feature works pretty well.


Is this a player issue? A disc issue? A stupid user issue? I find it really strange and more than a little annoying that I can't stop and start at will as I could with SDVDs.


If it helps, here is the player I purchased. I'm already thinking about upgrading early next year to a more wi-fi friendly model, so I can more easily stream Netflix.

 

[Douglas R]

I rarely play a movie all the way through at one sitting so I find this annoying as well. It seems to vary from disc to disc which I don't understand. Some Blu-ray discs will remember where they stop - but not many of them.

 

[Cinescott]

AFAIK, I think this is a BD-Java feature unlike DVD. I think it's a pretty basic issue of disc developers being too lazy to put it in, since it probably involves extra coding on the disc. DVDs didn't require this.

 

[Craig S]

I wonder if this is player dependent. My PS3 remembers where my Blus stopped and will pick right back up the next time.

 

[TheHutt]

The player's capability to store the previous position only works if the disc doesn't use Java authoring (BD-J).


If it does, it isn't possible for the player (BD-J adds an extra layer between the player and the contents). However, it is quite possible to implement such a function in Java itself. Some discs do just that; the developers of others were just too lazy.

 

[Michael:M]

I'm just glad to know it's not technological incompetence on my part.

 

[Carlo_M]

A workaround I found (and it is cumbersome) is to set a bookmark before you stop. Yes it's another step when you shut down, and another when you start up, but if you really do a lot of non-continuous viewing of materials, it may be the best option for you.

 

[Cinescott]

Since some players can do this independent of the discs, I would say that yes, it is player dependent. It's probably likely that the Blu-ray spec indicated that features such as resume and repeat would be handled on the disc itself and that is why some manufacturers didn't put it on the players. Unfortunately, most disc producers haven't added these features and it's turned into a sort of Catch-22.

For example, I have an older Panasonic player that has a repeat feature that works with every disc. My newer Sony cannot do this. Every DVD player I have had in the past could. It's not a big deal for me, but I can see how it could be for some. The only time I feel it would be nice is if I happen to fall asleep, but my Sony will shut down automatically if it stands on a menu screen too long.

 

[Worth]

It's a disc issue, not a player one:


http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/news/show/HD_Advisor/Joshua_Zyber/The_Whole_Nine_HD_Advisors/2643

The lack of a Resume Play option is tied to BD-Java, not to BD-Live specifically. While all BD-Live discs are authored with BD-Java (so they do go hand-in-hand to a certain extent), it's also possible for discs without BD-Live to share this problem. Java-enabled discs will usually start with a "Loading" icon before the main menu, and tend to take longer to load than non-Java titles...This is a major shortcoming of BD-Java, and I'm flabbergasted that none of the Blu-ray format developers ever gave this issue serious consideration. In some respects, Blu-ray has taken a step back from the convenience and ease of use that viewers have grown accustomed to with DVD. Sadly, there is no solution to this problem at present. Perhaps in the future, some hardware manufacturer will find a way to activate the Resume Play option on Java discs with a firmware update, but it's just not possible right now. The feature is only active with discs that are not Java-enabled.

 

[Michael:M]

I'm guessing by the time they "fix" this, owning hard copies of movies will be a thing of the past, and thus needless. Of course, manufacturers may already think this, and thus have a "why bother" mindset when all signs point to digital/cloud ownership rather than physical.

 

[cineMANIAC]

I think it's just a matter of the studios wanting people to watch trailers and other marketing materials every time you load or restart a disc. Why else would they make it so difficult to skip past them before the movie starts? Not being able to resume something at the point I stopped is a major pet peeve for me because I tend to fall asleep while watching long movies at night. And every time I have to go through the usual maze of junk to finish viewing. Sony is the worst offender, with all the warnings and disclaimers.

 

[Chuck Anstey]

As a software developer, knowing that you can bookmark on any disc then the solution at the player level would seem to be pretty simple. Whenever the disc is stopped the player creates a hidden bookmark and when play is resumed it automatically starts playing from the bookmark and erases it. Maybe some players do this or an equally effective solution.

 

[CraigF]

^ Nice idea. Just so many bad ideas were implemented for BD. I expect more bad ones. Oh wait, we already know what the "new" bad ideas are, expect new complaints soon...


It's a disc issue, not a player issue. I have had (and still have some of them) numerous BD players from over the years, and the "old" ones don't stop either with the newer Java-enabled BDs. So if you remember your "first" BDP having a resume for all BDs you played, it's probably because almost all the BDs back then didn't have Java.


Personally, I find it reprehensible (yeah, getting out the strong polite language...) that the ****s who author most TV BDs don't add a bookmark capability. HBO...you are the worst, as well as have the cheapest-manufactured BDs out there (great content though...). You, Lionsgate and Universal, no matter what some say, you know we need that bookmarking when a BD has 3-4 hours of content (which we don't want to watch all at once) and when your Java BDs take longer and longer to start up...so thanks for always putting it there.

 

[Martin Teller]

Criterion Blu-Rays ask if you want to resume where you left off.

 

[Matt Hough]

Originally Posted by Martin Teller

Criterion Blu-Rays ask if you want to resume where you left off.

Not only with the main feature but from within the bonus material as well.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Originally Posted by Martin Teller

Criterion Blu-Rays ask if you want to resume where you left off.

Interesting that resume works for Criterions. I guess they're more interested in providing interesting content than in controlling the consumer experience. I think most studios are far too interested in controlling what and when we can do something, than they should be.

 

[Ensign Eddie]

I was really surprised that the "Look! Up in the Sky!" documentary in the Superman Anthology set remembered where I left off after watching the first half of it. I was all prepared to chapter/speed search to where I left off, but it started up at the right spot when I came back to it.


I haven't checked out any other Warner BDs to see if this is normal for them or not, but it sure was a nice surprise in this instance.

 

[Michael:M]

Originally Posted by Ensign Eddie

I was really surprised that the "Look! Up in the Sky!" documentary in the Superman Anthology set remembered where I left off after watching the first half of it. I was all prepared to chapter/speed search to where I left off, but it started up at the right spot when I came back to it.


I haven't checked out any other Warner BDs to see if this is normal for them or not, but it sure was a nice surprise in this instance.

It's not. I own a few WB BDs, and they don't have the bookmark functionality.

 

[Chuck Anstey]

I don't think it is quite fair to blame the authors of the disc for missing a feature that should have been written into the spec from the beginning. The ones who were lazy or more likely rushing to market was Sony. There should have been a standard way for the player to get and store the current position when the stop button is pressed and then be able to go back to that location.

 

[ShowsOn]

Originally Posted by Cinescott

AFAIK, I think this is a BD-Java feature unlike DVD. I think it's a pretty basic issue of disc developers being too lazy to put it in, since it probably involves extra coding on the disc. DVDs didn't require this.

This is just my speculation, but I wonder if it has something to do with the idiotic advanced copy protection? Blu-rays play back inside of a Java Virtual Machine, it is possible that there is a set series of steps that the Blu-ray needs to load in that can't be saved in memory.