James Bond Blu ray Collection - Volumes 1 & 2 (1 Viewer)

[Paul Arnette]

Oddly enough, my Pioneer Elite BDP-HD1 will play For Your Eyes Only, which has been confirmed to have an authoring issue, but it wouldn't play From Russia with Love until I read of an ingenious work-around on AVS.

If, instead of pressing the Initiate Mission button to begin the movie, you go into the Mission Selection section and choose a chapter, you may be able to play the feature when you were previously unable to do so. This worked for me with FRWL.

It is ridiculous that we are required to do any of this, I admit, but it might get some of us going in the meantime while we're waiting for Fox and hardware manufactures to 'do the right thing', which is issues replacements for erroneously authored discs and firmware updates for problematic players.

BTW, doesn't it always seem like there are more goof ups during Q4? Last year it was the Harry Potter disc mix-up and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines 1080i snafu. This year we already have problems with the Matrix Reloaded and the James Bond movies. It certainly does seem like the Blu-ray Disc infrastructure is being stressed around this time of year.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Aren't they *all* mastering/authoring issues, not manufacturing issues (technically speaking)?

Of course, a mastering/authoring issue that requires recall will end up wasting actual manufacturing capacity and thus add more stress to the infrastructure than otherwise...

_Man_

 

[Paul Arnette]

Perhaps technically speaking. I know the issue with FYEO is supposed to be a corrupt .jar file, and the issue with Matrix Revolutions is encoding. Those are definitely mastering/authoring issues. The remainder of the Bonds movies? Who's to say? They could easily be authoring issues, or they could be attributed to BD player performance issues that could theoretically be improved with better firmware.

The point is some combination of studio and CE manufacturer resolution is required. The onus should be put on the studio to fix what can't be done by the CE manufacture in order to achieve the speediest resolution for the consumer. At least that's the way I see it.

 

[Jeff_HR]

Is there any prospect of any sort of action by either the Studio &/or hardware manufacturers to FIX this stupid situation any time soon? (By end of 1st qrt 2009) Or do I just toss these discs into a closet & forget about them for the long term.

P.S. This is a prime example of why you DON'T get rid of your old DVDs too soon when you are buying the same titles over again!

 

[Paul Arnette]

Sony released a firmware fix today for the S300. Someone on AVS indicated that Pioneer said they will have a fix forthcoming 'shortly'. No word on any other manufacturers or a commitment from Fox to exchange FYEO with correctly authored copy.

 

[RickER]

Thanks Paul for the info.

 

[Jeff_HR]

I just got home & discovered that Sony issued a new Firmware update for the S500 Blu-Ray player - version 4.10, dated today. I just burned the .iso to CD & will update my S500 Blu-Ray player immediately.

 

[MielR]

I've asked this question before, but I'll ask it again-

Do they not bother testing the playability of their products on various players before releasing them to the general public?

 

[Jeff_HR]

REPORT: (Neither of these 2 discs was played back all the way thru)

I put "Dr No" in, as it was one of the discs that I had the worse trouble getting to do anything at all. It seemed to load a bit faster, although I did not put a stopwatch on it. The film started from the "Initiate Mission" option, instead of having to use the Chapter option. Also at the end of the disc when all the title info is finished the disc returns to the main menu, which none of the few discs I got to play via using the Chapter option, would do at all. Every one of those discs froze solid at the title info without returning to the main menu. In addition the "Special Features" started without any problems. Prior to the Firmware update, no "Special Features" option would play at all.

I also tried "For Your Eyes Only". The disc performed just like "Dr No", without any problems. I also skipped chapter to chapter for 1/2 of the film watching a minute or two of each chapter. No Problems.

It appears that the 4.10 version Firmware update for my Sony S500 has rid me of the playback problems. I still must play all the discs all the way thru before passing final judgement. But, so far so good!

 

[Jeff_HR]

Personally, I simply don't know.
Perhaps some of these Studios wish to imitate a well known computer software GIANT & push their product out the door in an unfinished, flawed form & let the general public do their testing for them. Just a "thought"!

 

[Brandon Conway]

Of course they do. But humans do the testing, and sometimes things slip through.

They also don't test on every player model out there. These things are budgeted, and time is always against the QC testing, especially for the higher volume of releases in Q4.

 

[Douglas Monce]

It not just every model but also every firmware version for that model. Its just not possible for the studios to test every movie on every model with every firmware version.

Doug

 

[Greg Layton]

Regarding the movie cash mentioned earlier in the thread: Can anyone confirm for me that this movie cash allows for seeing QoS opening weekend? I know that in some cases passes aren't allowed for the first two or three weeks of a movie's run.

I just about picked up a couple of the $19.99 Target Connerys today thinking that I'd only be paying $11 or so with the movie tickets figured in but I held off because the possibility of not seeing QoS opening night is a deal-breaker.

Thanks for any clarification you can provide.

 

[Carlo_M]

And the theater selection is limited. I live in West L.A., home of a million theaters (and quite a few good ones like the Mann Village). The nearest one that accepts the moviecash is a small miultiplex in Santa Monica. None of the good ones which I assume will be showing QoS are on the list.

We encountered the same problem with The Mummy III moviecash offer (which actually worked out in our favor as we were unable to see it and I hear it was terrible).

 

[Citizen87645]

The only date on the movie voucher is an expiration of 12/31.

 

[Cees Alons]

For the record: the discs play on my Panasonic DMP-BD50 without any problem I'm aware of (except multiple "disc reading"s at the start, taking some time; I suspect they are really playing a script off the discs, as is possible within the BD+ specs).

The picture of all of the movies although perhaps not totally flawless, is indeed absolutely stunning. Far better than I ever saw on HT media and close to the cinema experience.

My all-times favourite Bond film (From Russia With Love, immediately after Dr. No) looks fantastic. Both do.

So shortly after The Godfather Trilogy and How the West Was Won, this is a big one for Blu-ray and the high-def format in general!


Cees

 

[Jeff_HR]

I played "Dr No" & "From Russia with Love" all the way thru without any playback issues. So that's 2 out of 6 that seem to be OK with the new Firmware in place on my S500. Will continue to play each of the other six & see if they play without issues. I DON'T anticipate any issues though.

 

[Jeff_HR]

So, due to a lack of posts about this subject, have Firmware updates cured everybody's playback ills with these discs??!?

 

[Felix Martinez]

Just played thru the Vol. 2 box. I have the Panny BD-30 and also did not have any probs whatsoever. I'm up to the last Firmware update (2.5?).

Great set; looking forward to more!

 

[Matt Hough]

All of them played in my PS3 but FOR YOUR EYES ONLY stumbled in the Samsung 1500. As far as I know, no firmware update that will fix that yet for the Sammy.