Blu-ray Review HTF Blu-ray Review: HARDWARE (read before buying) (Updated) (1 Viewer)

[John Alderson]

I used to have the problem of missing timecodes on DVD all the time for certain titles. It was consistent across multiple players, and those same titles still behave oddly on my Sony BDP-S350. The Monty Python Series Set comes to mind as one that has issues. There are others too but my mind is turning to swiss cheese. (Kids do that.)

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

Michael - I have tested (and enjoyed) this disc and found that you are correct, on both my Panasonic DMP BDA and Panasonic DMP BD50 players, when watching the film or enjoying the extras, the display only showed 'PLAY' at all times - no counter or chapter reference. Both my players are up to date (I'm fanatical about keeping them updated) so it can't be that I haven't loaded a required or recent update.

I've watched and even reviewed BD-Java encoded discs without issue before, including Batman Begins (Warner Bros), Spider-man 3 (Sony), Sunshine (FOX) and Pirates of the Caribbean 1, 2 and 3 (Disney).
I thoroughly enjoyed watching this great film again, and on blu-ray it was a real treat. Thanks for correctly setting my expectations on this one, spot on as always.

Neil

 

[Michael Reuben]

Thanks, Neil! That eliminates the "defective copy" theory. The report from Perry ("flagbrothers") also tends to confirm that there is some sort of authoring error with this disc. Unfortunately, since the problems don't seem to manifest themselves consistently, I doubt Severin will address them. The company's initial response our inquiry was to question whether the BD-50 is fully BD-Java compliant, which is (a) silly (for the reasons you've stated, among others), and (b) begs the question raised in the review of why this disc is loading all that BD-J code when there's no apparent use being made of it.