I have a week off work for Christmas and I thought it would be fun to do a Blu-Ray parody.

Some BDs have trailer that you are forced to watch touting how great blu-Ray is.

I want to make a parody of that which features some of the annoying "features" such as being forcred to watch that same promo reel every time you want to watch a the movie.

Ather one would be the need to update your player before you can watch the movie.

If I can come up with a list of quirks then I think it'll be a fun video to make.

~Jay

lack of subtitles
every release should have 20-30 subtitle options

WHAT ANNOYS ME MOST ABOUT BLU-RAY is threads like this....

WHAT ANNOYS ME MOST ABOUT BLU-RAY is threads like this....

so don't participate in them :rolleyes:

OP,

There are plenty of DVDs that prohibits viewer from skipping the promos. If you don't want to watch a trailer then please skip it by pressing the forward button.

The thing that annoys me the most is the security stickers and the sticky residue.

I wouldn't say anything annoys me about blu-ray. prehaps the need to do firmware updates. but really that hasn't been an issue as of yet as all Bd's have played just fine. although I think this is do to games have update on them and myself buying new enough games to maintain firmware....

also why are Blu-ray priced low at the places with low or poor selection (target,walmart) but high a places with good selections (best buy, borders, FYE).. as I'm the type who likes to look at the cases of movies I'm deciding about.
amazon has really been my friend the last year I've ordered more movies in the last year via amazon then the total combined 5 years I've been using amazon.

Hello i hate the slow loading times it takes a couple of minutes at the start. and the price they charge to much around here in EUROPE a decent title will cost around 29,95 euros.just my 2 cents

regards and happy holidays

What annoys me about Bluray?

Probably the totally unprepared way that it, along with HD DVD, was presented. The numerous different audio codes that there are fifty different ways to play, the numerous firmware discs for the numerous different players that make a certain disc playable, the numerous glitches on countless discs, and the way, way overpriced players to start off with, and finally the way that bluray was able to destroy HD DVD even though it was twice the price to start off with. I love the HD Discs to watch and collect and I love Home Theater too but this could have been presented in a way that was easier for everyone to want to switch from regular DVDs and it could have been a lot cheaper. It was almost like Bluray (and HD DVD) didn't want to succeed. It all was very unorganized to say the least.

JMO...

:cool:

RTR
BEAT UTAH

What annoys me about Bluray?

Warner Brothers titles lacking HD audio,or movies auto starting with Dolby Digital when a HD audio is available.:confused:

What annoys me about Bluray?

Warner Brothers titles lacking HD audio,or movies auto starting with Dolby Digital when a HD audio is available.:confused:

Man, no question about this. My wife called me from Walmart or Target one night and was telling me what was new on Bluray that they had and I would ask her what kind of audio on the different discs and she kept saying DD 5.1 and I would say no that can't be but she was right and every one of those turned out to be WB. NO EXCUSES WARNER BROTHERS!

:cool:

RTR
BEAT UTAH

Regional coding on some discs.

Regarding subtitles they could allow us to choose our own font and color for the subtitles and allow us to place the subtitles where we want on the screen but so far no disc has been encoded to allow this as i guess it means extra work for the studio's.

That's it really.

DNR and EE

HDMI "handshaking" for one,
and also the fact that most studios cant even be bothered to include the special features you got on the DVD version of a film.

Agreed on the lack of lossless audio on some titles - this is supposedly one of the things that they tried to sell us on when they announced HD formats.

Definitley the audio, it can be done but there just pure lazy. Mind you I have been critized by some members for complaining that a certain bd did not have the current Hd audio and I did not buy it.

Man, no question about this. My wife called me from Walmart or Target one night and was telling me what was new on Bluray that they had and I would ask her what kind of audio on the different discs and she kept saying DD 5.1 and I would say no that can't be but she was right and every one of those turned out to be WB. NO EXCUSES WARNER BROTHERS!

*cough*The Last Samurai*cough*

Some BDs from WARNER BROS.just have only plain Dolby Digital such as Get Smart,Speed Racers.WARNER and COLUMBIA should consider to move up the subtitles above the lower black bar as many studios and Lucas's film always do,it is better in cinemascope screen viewers.

I have a week off work for Christmas and I thought it would be fun to do a Blu-Ray parody.

My annoyances are pretty minor, in the realm of "peeves". The slow appearance of catalog titles and classics bothers me most, but I'm sure the studios are running their spreadsheets and doing what seems good to them.

In terms of irritations:


Titles that are put on Blu-ray without any serious effort at improving image quality over what is available from a good DVD player.

Menus that are so clever as to be hard to use

Marketing-driven tripe like BonusView and and BD-Live; I wish they would put that effort into better mastering (or lower prices). Give me the film, the whole film, and nothing but the film.

Some discs have that "this could take 2-3 minutes" warning screen, which as far as I can tell does nothing but stall startup while you read it.

Too much BD-Java programming makes discs slow and flakey.



-Bill

When they release shlock comedies or other pointless titles in High Def while several BIG catalog titles just sit there collecting dust. Ya know, titles like Legend of Ron Burgandy or something along those lines. Its like "Please STOP releasing crap and bring us the big hitters"!

:mad:

Things that annoy *me* about Blu-Ray?

Region coding of catalogue titles (FOX) and then not even releasing them in Region B - e.g. Man on fire, Cast Away, The great escape

Boxset space - all the UK boxsets I have purchased include individual cases - this is OK for some but it makes my collection take up a lot of space - I would prefer a more custom boxset

Finding out which release to buy by hunting along forums to find which editions are cut

Barebone disks

BD25/MPEG-2 disks e.g. Mission impossible boxset recently released in Region B :confused:

Various studios not working together to release UK boxsets e.g. Die Hard (Vengence not available in UK), Austin Powers (the first one not available in UK) - I could import the US boxset but that one is not the same cut

Second dipping! e.g. the rumoured release of LOTR will be the theatrical version and they will double dip on a extended boxset later.. complete unacceptable - the extended version is the only one I want :rolleyes: The lack of uncut die hard 4.0 which probably means I will have to double dip in the future (FOX again) :eek:

Waiting for releases! e.g. Gladiator, Lord of the rings. Saving private ryan :(

The expense of importing australian disks (e.g. Casino Royale, Vengence) for a better cut

Lack of uncompressed audio on some disks

I'm sure I can think of a few more :D

I can't say I'm bothered about loading times.. I usually get a drink or something while I wait. Other than that -

The Warner Bros. mentality.

Lack of new transfers for catalogue titles.

This may seem minor but the cheap plastic used for the cases. I'd say about half of the BD's I've bought when I got home and opened them had a piece of the case broken some where.

The firmware game and BD Java, I really hate the fact that I have to constantly watch the players site to see when new firmware goes up incase a recent purchase doesn't work. I never had that problem with any DVD player. BD Java is slow and painful, from what I understand Java isn't the most efficient programing language so I have no idea why the would use it over something like HD-DVDs XML stuff.

The price of many catalog releases, when their DVD counter parts are 10 bucks or less. Seriously you want 30 - 40 msrp when the dvd is 7.99 and you half assed the transfer and took out all the extras? Pass me some of what you're smoking.

Disc load times, region coding, crappy transfers, and price.

The lack of fully DVD compliant combo discs also irks me.

Pricing

DTS-MA bomb
Disc prices

Otherwise my PS3 load time is as fast as DVD and I just skip the forced BR ads.

Warner Bros. not starting at the disc's main menu and then defaulting to Dolby Digital instead of TrueHD. I want to hear every note of the score in lossless, and I hate having to flip through the tracks which takes a minimum of 10 seconds no matter what method I use. It's a mood breaker.

I would probably buy twice as many blu-rays if the prices were cheaper by a few dollars. Its hard to justify paying 26.99 for a movie that you haven't seen. And that is the Amazon price. Imagine people that are thinking of upgrading and they see the B&M store prices that are $30+!

I'm not going to mention something that is due to the studios' behavior (like the lack of lossless audio, DNR/EE, or region coding). Instead, I'll focus on something that is a characteristic of the format. I'll even leave load times alone, as I assume they will improve in the future as players get faster.

I would say it's the lack of resume. If they had to include BD-J or whatever else that prevents it, they should have found a way for it to be shut down and resumed. This should have happened before finalizing the specs. It's amazing to think that they probably knew this would prevent it, yet didn't think that the public would care.

(Yes, I realize that it's only certain discs that won't resume, but I'm not going to bother keeping track of which do and which don't. Just having a lot of them not resume is annoying enough.)

Lack of resume I agree with, most other points are not Blu Ray restricted. I can't even say grain as my pet hate, because it is not Blu Ray that causes it.

Prices! Oh and also when they release a really crappy looking title like Forgetting Sarah Marshall! :eek:

Warner Bros. not starting at the disc's main menu and then defaulting to Dolby Digital instead of TrueHD
I agree with Warner's choice here, cuz if it defaulted to TrueHD, they'd have a ton of support calls by people wondering why their sound is all screwed up. But yeah, this is the fault of Blu-ray. If TrueHD were mandatory, even with AC3 5.1 transcoding through SPDIF, then there would be no need to default to the DD AC3 track.

I also like Warner's choice to skip all that stuff. Disney's discs drive me nuts.

Lack of resume I agree with
Oh yeah! How could I forget that. That was a MAJOR oversight by both the HD DVD and Blu-ray people. Most people (like me) consider that very, very basic functionality.

This is one of the very first things non-AVS types notice. They wonder if it's just because they bought some low end cheap BR player, and then are shocked to find out all BR players behave the same way.

Prices! Oh and also when they release a really crappy looking title like Forgetting Sarah Marshall! :eek:

That movie was funny though. :)

I loved the movie which is why I was mad at the pic Q they put on the disc. Great flick! :)

I agree with Warner's choice here, cuz if it defaulted to TrueHD, they'd have a ton of support calls by people wondering why their sound is all screwed up. But yeah, this is the fault of Blu-ray. If TrueHD were mandatory, even with AC3 5.1 transcoding through SPDIF, then there would be no need to default to the DD AC3 track.

No, the issue here is that Warner is not authoring the TrueHD track so that the DD track runs "parallel" to it. Instead they have the tracks on there separately, if that makes sense. On other studios' discs, it will default to TrueHD, but the track that actually plays depends on the equipment, so the DD track will play if the gear doesn't support TrueHD.

This might be an aftereffect from authoring for both HD DVD and BD.

For me it's mostly price. On my setup there's not enough difference between BR and a really good upconverted DVD to justify paying $20-$30 for a movie I already own on DVD. That and having more of the movies I actually want to buy available on BR. This will be resolved as time goes on but for right now the pickings are slim. I'm looking forward to the day when I see bargain bins in Wal-Mart full of Blu Rays.

I almost forgot. UNiversal titles are still causing some issues with some players... That annoys me. :)

This might be an aftereffect from authoring for both HD DVD and BD.

That hasn't given Paramount any trouble with doing it properly!

What annoys me about Blu-ray?
The frequent firmware updates, the high prices, the fact that most transfers are mediocre at best, the limited title selection.
J

What annoys me about blu-ray ?
Blu-ray has a ton of space and some companies are always skipping spanish subtitles on their releases. There's no excuse to not have spanish subtitles on movies like wall-e or sleeping beauty when they have them on standard dvd !!! Also the difference in picture quality and no high def audio on some releases are things that annoy me. But I still love bluray.

What annoys me the most? The fanboys.

2nd: The people that are complaining about black bars on BR discs. It's like DVD never existed to these people.

Some hate how you can't upconvert BD extras. I liked Warners no menus when it meant insert disc movie plays. Now they play some FBI BS first so it sucks now. Disc that are authored in advanced mode but make no visible use of BD-J. Sony putting 448kbps DD tracks on some BDs use to bother me but I upgraded. Warners inability to uncheck the downconvert to 16bit checkbox when they do find the encode to TrueHD button. Remixes get lossless while original mix gets shafted. Credits with high bitrates. Does scrolling white text on black need 10+Mbps? 30GB disc really annoy me. Don't waste a DL disc for 5GBs.

No, the issue here is that Warner is not authoring the TrueHD track so that the DD track runs "parallel" to it. Instead they have the tracks on there separately, if that makes sense. On other studios' discs, it will default to TrueHD, but the track that actually plays depends on the equipment, so the DD track will play if the gear doesn't support TrueHD.

This might be an aftereffect from authoring for both HD DVD and BD.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but IIRC the spec allows a player to support TrueHD but only output 2.0 audio (when using SPDIF).

Assuming I'm not mistaken, then that means that TrueHD would still be a major problem in terms of being the primary audio track. I don't know if any players actually do this, but if it is allowed, then that kills the TrueHD-as-primary-audio-track idea.

What annoys me about Blu-ray?
The frequent firmware updates, the high prices, the fact that most transfers are mediocre at best, the limited title selection.
J

ditto--wish they had ironed al this out prior to release...id give up all this internet stuff if we could just get consistent great audio and video.

The one thing that really annoys me about Blu Ray discs is pricing. :eek:

The one thing that really annoys me about Blu Rays in general are the nah-sayers and HD DVD fanbois that creep out of the woodwork and bemoan BD in general, or try to predict its demise or position in the world. :mad:

Seggers

The one thing that really annoys me about Blu Rays in general are the nah-sayers and HD DVD fanbois that creep out of the woodwork and bemoan BD in general, or try to predict its demise or position in the world. :mad:
:rolleyes:

Warner Bros. not starting at the disc's main menu and then defaulting to Dolby Digital instead of TrueHD. I want to hear every note of the score in lossless, and I hate having to flip through the tracks which takes a minimum of 10 seconds no matter what method I use. It's a mood breaker.
I totally agree on this. What a needless, pointless Pain in my Ass.
I'm glad it annoys at least one other person, not that I'm glad you're annoyed;), just that I'm not the only one that is pissed by this.

obviously- price. Especially when you get a dud. Nothing worse than spending $29.00 on a BD title (like "Step Brothers", or "Forgetting Sarah Marshall") only to be dissapointed in the movie itself, not so bad when you spend $10.00 or $15.00 .

My two are,

1. Price. I would buy a lot of titles that are "maybe purchases" if the price was around $15-$20. Hopefully this will happen soon.

2. HDMI handshake issues. I can't believe that the studios will not put EVERYTHING (menus, trailers, extras) that are in 1080p @ 24hz. Just like the movie. It doesn't seem like it would be a lot of extra trouble.

Default audio track. BD players need a way for the users to set the default priorities of the various audio tracks. It is extremely annoying for many Warner movies to start playing without first going to the setup menu, and use the least common denominator DD audio track. If I could setup my player to default to TrueHD before DD, I'd be significantly less annoyed.

Another really annoying thing is movies such as Iron Man where the TrueHD track defaults to DRC (dynamic range compression) enabled, and I have to manually change the setting in my receiver to disable DRC.

Bad:
1: The absurd retail pricing. Titles at $30? lol. no.
2: The 'it'll never replace dvd' idiots.

Good:
1: Scratch resistant coating. Damn I love that stuff.

Paying $24.99 (average price) for a movie that uses BD-25 and another movie with the same price uses BD-50.

1. HDMI handshaking (dont know how you would get around this exactly)
2. DRC with TrueHD (this is more of an issue with my Onkyo as I cant set DRC to OFF by default for TrueHD and must hit the button on my remote for every TrueHD track assuming a power cycle has occured)

Both of these issues are VERY minor for me, but would like it if they were not there.

Warner Bros lack of HD Audio
Warner Bros not providing a main menu like every other manufacturer (movie auto starts because there is no menu)
Pricing
Subpar restores
Original Movie Trailers not included or else they are in SD or even SD 4:3
I'm still waiting on a few blu-ray release that were released on HD-DVD while I see movies like Kramer vs. Kramer coming out in HD :rolleyes: :D

The 'it'll never replace dvd' idiotsexactly:D

Loading times depending on your player

Pricing

No resume feature on most blu ray movies.

Frequent player software updates required.


Other than that, I love all 200+ blu rays/hd dvds in my collection.

Mr Ian B

2. HDMI handshake issues. I can't believe that the studios will not put EVERYTHING (menus, trailers, extras) that are in 1080p @ 24hz. Just like the movie. It doesn't seem like it would be a lot of extra trouble.

How do they do that if the content isn't 24fps? Some HD extras are shot with video cameras that do 1080i60.

Disks that are sold before there are player firmwares that allow them to play.

Some transfers were a lot better on HD-DVD les storege on the disk and still better picture.Quality. and cheaper....

regards patrick

ps i love BLU and RED

Special features that are in 480 (and don’t upconvert to 1080, thus causing my TV to black-out and “reset” for the new resolution).

Region Coding.

I absolutely agree with everyone who's said Price. I have been so used to buying most DVD's used for $5-$10 bucks, and very few movies, new or old, are going to feel worth $30 to me.

Some people going "Drama Queen" over EE.

We all hate EE, but its funny when some people go as far as to say things like this over Batman

"My bottom 5 choice for BD's"

"Complete Junk"

"They Gangs of New Yorked it":rolleyes:

as mentioned, but i cant stand BRs starting with double digital and not the HD audio. later.

I absolutely agree with everyone who's said Price. I have been so used to buying most DVD's used for $5-$10 bucks, and very few movies, new or old, are going to feel worth $30 to me.

Dittos!

And the fact that I really cannot see that much difference in pq compared to some of the newer releases on dvd. I use a Denon DVD-2930CI which is HDMI connected to the Denon AVR 4308ci which is connected via HDMI to a 52" Sony Bravia XBR2. I honestly have a tough time justifying any BD purchases. And yes, I own a Sony BD player. The only BD flick I have watched in a long time was the new Bat Man, and I rented that.

I'm sick and tired of firmware upgrades. My Panny BD10 must have had over 10. I've lost count. The format's spec's should have been locked long ago. Firmware updates is going to drive some smaller player manufacturers out of the market. First they have to match Sony and Panasonic's price-points, which is hard enough. Then, they have to suppourt firmware update after update on their very slim margins, and they'll have a high return rate of decks by folks who cannot get discs to play.

I hate BD-J and BD-Live since it obstructs basic disc navigation, the Resume function specifically. They're letting junk features obstruct ergonomics! :mad: All too often it's just to have Java menus! :rolleyes: I could care less about fancy menus. If they wanna serve up junk features, do it on disc 2 of the set. I want an all-out video-disc tuned for performance, not junk delivery.

I loaned my mom a BD and then I had to return that evening to start the bloody movie for her! :eek: Menus should be so simple-stupid that you don't even have to think, much. The most unsophisticated consumer, like my mom, should be able to operate it intuitively.

Blu-ray isn't really ready for the mass-market because of firmware fiascos. I cannot even explain to my mom what firmware is. She's elderly and can't grasp it. That means millions of other folks also cannot understand it. Blu-ray isn't really ready for the manufacturers of decks due to firmware fluctuations. Somethin' bloody needs to be carved in stone and that's it.

If the studios think folks are gonna quit watching DVD-R's, or files, because they're providing Di...Deee, Di-gel....di, Digital Kopy.....that car, portable, and bedroom DVD players will magically turn into Blu-way players, well, I want a few tokes of their smokes 'cause it must be good sheet.

Disc prices are a disgrace. When a studio like Echo Bridge can serve up BD's for less than $10.... :eek: When the very prices of BD's are attracting professional shoplifters in mass... :eek: There's a recession, if not a mini depression, going on.... tell the suits to come in from sailing around Catalina or come home from skiing in Colorado, everybody else is in an economic downturn. Yeah, "it's a profit deal", but doubling, or way more, the selling price of the equivalent DVD never was a sustainable market plan! Ain't reality a bitch.

Folks shouldn't have to grub around the internet and far horizons to find reasonable disc prices. I buy virtually no BD's locally unless they're a real, bona-fide sale item or Busted Buy sends me a $5 off Reward Zone Coupon. Hare en Knocksville we ain't got no Fye's, no Frys, and no Costco....that's none of the above. Retail prices suck. No, they're beyond suck, they're suck-tacious grande.

Blu-ray has a world of potential as a format but of all the junk features they've saddled it with along the way, the only one that looks worthwhile to me is D-Box. I'd rather go back to the original formats sans the Java and BD-Live with just D-Box tacked on. I'd like Resume on my simply mastered discs. Put the crap on disc 2. I likes the horse that brung me more than the mule that's waddlin' away.

players not being able to remember where you were in the movie after you press 'stop'.

Bad:
2: The 'it'll never replace dvd' idiots.


You know it will never replace dvd :p

I agree about the prices and especially when it comes to catalog titles they should be much cheaper and because our pound is so low at the moment i'm paying so much more to import my movies.

I also agree with the EE/DNR sentiments because if i'm paying for high definition then i want the best possible high definition and not some guy/gal playing with their ( DNR ) toys and filtering the very finest detail before it hits the disc. I'll take a few scratches and specks on a film over a loss of detail caused by the use of "tools" to remove such specks or scratches any day of the week.

I agree with the firmware comments but also think it's kinda cool they can add new features using firmware but i suppose at the end of the day you gotta ask the question as to whether we need those new features or not.

Other than the prices of the media, the next most annoying thing for me would be the lack of special packaging (like Steelbooks). I hate seeing DVDs get the cooler package when we're paying more for the BR version... Lack of resume in most players also annoys the hell out of me, why the hell can't my DVDs even resume?

players not being able to remember where you were in the movie after you press 'stop'.

Me too. Plus Rome not yet on Blu-ray. Geeze.....

Only One Easy Answer:

Mandatory AACS - Keeps prices high and keeps many independent producers out of the market. There's so many great films out there which will NEVER be put to BD with the current licensing structure. :mad:

It was almost like Bluray (and HD DVD) didn't want to succeed. It all was very unorganized to say the least.The studios didn't actually want us having digital copies of their HD masters.....





Mandatory AACS - Keeps prices high and keeps many independent producers out of the market. There's so many great films out there which will NEVER be put to BD with the current licensing structure. :mad:.....so they agreed to release them only after dumbing-down the specs a bit and adding mostly useless copy-protection which can be circumvented; that likely means constant firmware upgrades from now 'til eternity.

Java

Warner

Cutesy menus (Pixar especially) Menus are a navigation tool - if I can't navigate them, they fail.

Pop-up menus that don't pop-up (the ones that take you to a full menu screen with the movie in a itty-bitty PIP.)

Whoever or whatever is responsible for me having to turn DRC off every time on a True-HD disc (Onkyo receiver.)

Other countries getting English language releases before the US.

Being forced to wait and read multiple reviews before buying, because so many transfers of good movies suck so bad. It's BD - take advantage of it and do the right thing.

The top three are:

1. No resume play on BD-J titles.

2. Forced trailers (even when you can press FF repeatedly).

3. Region locking for titles not released locally or those with better encoding elsewhere.

so don't participate in them :rolleyes:
I was joking....hardee-har-har.:p


Warner Brothers titles lacking HD audio,or movies auto starting with Dolby Digital when a HD audio is available.:confused:
#1 complaint about BD: WB, WB, WB, etc...




Titles that are put on Blu-ray without any serious effort at improving image quality over what is available from a good DVD player.

Menus that are so clever as to be hard to use

Marketing-driven tripe like BonusView and and BD-Live; I wish they would put that effort into better mastering (or lower prices). Give me the film, the whole film, and nothing but the film.

Some discs have that "this could take 2-3 minutes" warning screen, which as far as I can tell does nothing but stall startup while you read it.

Too much BD-Java programming makes discs slow and flakey.



-Bill
Amen.

And the lack of a RESUME function for ALL BDs.

1. Price.
2. No bookmark function on Disney/Fox titles.
3. Firmware updates.
4. Warner titles w/ lossless defaulting to DD.
5. Titles with BD-J for absolutely no reason other than fancy menus.
6. Having to skip through all of the Blu-ray promos. Yes, I realize how great the format is. I'm watching it, aren't I? It's like trying to somehow boost your interest AFTER you've already invested the money.
7. SD extras.

I agree with Warner's choice here, cuz if it defaulted to TrueHD, they'd have a ton of support calls by people wondering why their sound is all screwed up. But yeah, this is the fault of Blu-ray. If TrueHD were mandatory, even with AC3 5.1 transcoding through SPDIF, then there would be no need to default to the DD AC3 track.

Wrong - there are plenty of discs with only an English TrueHD track that default to it, but that because of the embedded DD companion track, still play fine even if your player/receiver doesn't do TrueHD. I'm looking at my copy of "Iron Man" on BD right now as a perfect example. I really really wish Warner's BD production staff would reread the BD specs, because apparently they missed that part.

Primary: BD+ AACS HDCP Regioncoding
Secondary: Firmware upgrades, disc loading times.

While the secondary isnt any big problem for me today, it can very well be much more annoying on any secondary player.

No Auto-Resume on newer profile discs! :(

Oh and the whole Warner business of lossy audio on start.

Because we all throw our expensive discs around, come on :rolleyes:

I just purchased a bluray player this weekend and have to say it's weak sauce compared to HD-DVD. Consider me disappointed.

My dislikes: Price and the majority posted above for dislikes.

My likes: It's the "winning" price tag, erm, I mean format (which means HD stuff on disc, hopefully).

The scratch resistant coating is a VERY good feature and not just for those that "throw our expensive discs around" which I only do on Tuesdays:D

Anyone who owned HD-DVD AND rented HD-DVD discs knows the frustration of discs not playing due to the smallest of scratches on occasion. I have had MANY rented HD-DVD discs start skipping, freeze up, not play, etc.....but have not had one BR do this. This was my main complaint with HD-DVD and my biggest reason for prefering BR. ;)

What exactly is "weak sauce" with BR compared to HD-DVD?

The scratch resistant coating is a VERY good feature and not just for those that "throw our expensive discs around" which I only do on Tuesdays:D

Anyone who owned HD-DVD AND rented HD-DVD discs knows the frustration of discs not playing due to the smallest of scratches on occasion. This was my main complaint with HD-DVD and my biggest reason for prefering BR. ;)

Precisely. It is especially a huge benefit for rental services.

Precisely. It is especially a huge benefit for rental services.

Exactly. I would always hold my breath while watching a rented HD-DVD knowing it could go south at any time:( It is not even a thought with BR:)

- Lack of Advanced audio on some discs
- DNR and EE (Dark City makes me weep :( )
- NO chapter or title repeats
- Forced commercial introductions
- Extra features being taken away from the BD version (The Thing)
- Lazy video encodes (not specifically DNR and EE)
- Blatantly obvious set ups for double dips with some titles (Warner Bros. especially)
- Player and disc incompatibility
- Obnoxious assumption that the format is the best choice to watch HD so buy us already (more a personal pet peeve)
- Companies still releasing lackluster 1.1 decks with outrageous prices (Marantz, Denon, etc.)

Minor annoyances

- No Star Wars yet (4-6)
- No Star Trek yet (1,2,4,6,8)


Ok that's enough for now. I'm sure I can think of more.

what annoys me about bluray?

Warner brothers titles lacking hd audio,or movies auto starting with dolby digital when a hd audio is available.:confused:

+1

First of all, I'm glad BD exists. It produces some of the best PQ and AQ I have seen in my HT. With what I've spent on the HT components, the price of the players hasn't really bothered me (currently have a Panny BD30). I actually don't even mind paying a little extra for a BD title.

My main problem is I can't find enough titles on BD that I actually want to own. For me, a title has to have a "repeatability" factor built in. There are some films that I can watch over an over again. Those are the ones I want on BD. More often than not, I'm finding House of Wax, Saw III or Kill Bill. Just not my type of film. I wouldn't care if they were 3 for $5, I still wouldn't want them.

The "sales" on BD typically feature Pirates of the Caribbean (all three), I, Robot, Independence Day and the like. Already have them on BD. Open the vaults, clean up the prints, and provide catalog titles for $15 to $20 and I'll be first in line.

Wrong - there are plenty of discs with only an English TrueHD track that default to it, but that because of the embedded DD companion track, still play fine even if your player/receiver doesn't do TrueHD. I'm looking at my copy of "Iron Man" on BD right now as a perfect example. I really really wish Warner's BD production staff would reread the BD specs, because apparently they missed that part.
You missed my other point. I could be wrong, but I believe a player can technically support the optional TrueHD, but only output 2.0 from TrueHD over SPDIF.

In that situation, a movie that defaults to TrueHD would give you only stereo audio on a small subset of BR players. You'd have to manually go and change the audio setting for it to work properly.

If I am correct, it is Warner who is spec'ing their discs properly, to avoid the aforementioned situation.

My main beef is EASILY the lack of resume play.

I've got the Panasonic BD35. I'm fine with it's loading and navigation speed and everything else. But it drives me nuts to put in the "new" technology (and this included HD DVD) and have it feel like "old" technology when I simply want to stop the movie at the spot I'm watching and come back to it later. You know...like I've been able to do for years and years with that old DVD technology. I just can't believe it's that hard with HD media, but as someone who likes to dip into movies and who often doesn't have the time to finish every movie I start at one sitting, the lack of resume play really pisses me off.

And don't get me started about when I'm watching a movie and accidentally press the "stop" button (in the dark) on the remote, forcing me to have to re-start the disc, sit through all the #(*%# trailers, warning, welcome screens, menus and re-navigate myself back to the same spot!!!

Did I mention how much I dislike the lack of resume play...?

The damned digital copy discs which are useless IMHO and just add needless expense in the manufacturing, thus added cost to the consumer.
When we moved to DVD, they didn't bundle in a VHS copy did they? No. So they should stop this already.

The damned digital copy discs which are useless IMHO and just add needless expense in the manufacturing, thus added cost to the consumer.
When we moved to DVD, they didn't bundle in a VHS copy did they? No. So they should stop this already.
Heh. I have the opposite beef:

I like having a digital copy. However, what annoys me is the quality. It's significantly worse than ripping the DVD yourself.

I agree that sometimes the extra cost isn't justified though. I don't want to pay much for the digital copy, although I would pay $2 more for a combo BD/DVD, where I could rip my own non-DRM'd digital copy. If a title costs $5 more partially because of the digital copy, then that's pointless, because you could simply legally download the movie yourself for less than that. One example of that is WALL-E. The 3-disc version costs more than $5 more (around here) than the one without a digital copy. I guess the good news is you don't have to buy a the 3-disc version for that title.

One less-than-ideal solution but which eliminates the extra disc manufacturing cost is simply to put the digital copy on the BD50. However, it would mean that most computers couldn't read it. Or how about managed copy for the BD itself, in a streamable fashion in the home?

That's partially what I meant. Who wants less than DVD quality?
And I don't have an ipod, I have a Zune so I can't even put these on them for portability so they are really useless. I don't watch movies on my laptop at home, I go into the living room and fire up the PJ.

How do they do that if the content isn't 24fps? Some HD extras are shot with video cameras that do 1080i60.

If it isn't possible to take the extras and get them to 24hz, they could at least make the menu and the previews 24hz so I don't have to wait for my projector to sync up every time it changes from 60hz-24hz or vice versa. It is only a 5-7 seconds tops, but it is still something that would be easy to fix.

First of all, I'm glad BD exists. It produces some of the best PQ and AQ I have seen in my HT. With what I've spent on the HT components, the price of the players hasn't really bothered me (currently have a Panny BD30). I actually don't even mind paying a little extra for a BD title.

My main problem is I can't find enough titles on BD that I actually want to own. For me, a title has to have a "repeatability" factor built in. There are some films that I can watch over an over again. Those are the ones I want on BD. More often than not, I'm finding House of Wax, Saw III or Kill Bill. Just not my type of film. I wouldn't care if they were 3 for $5, I still wouldn't want them.

The "sales" on BD typically feature Pirates of the Caribbean (all three), I, Robot, Independence Day and the like. Already have them on BD. Open the vaults, clean up the prints, and provide catalog titles for $15 to $20 and I'll be first in line.Man, I'm still waiting for stuff on DVD lol (Friends of Eddie Coyle and Amazing Grace and Chuck come to mind.) And I know I'll never get some of my favorites like Exotica, Local Hero, Heaven Can Wait ... I'm holding out small hope for Searching for Bobby Fischer, but I basically try not to think about it.

I think your gripe belongs in a "What annoys you most about Hollywood executives?" thread. :D

You missed my other point. I could be wrong, but I believe a player can technically support the optional TrueHD, but only output 2.0 from TrueHD over SPDIF.

Only if you've poorly set up your player (i.e., using optical or coaxial, and configured the player to decode instead of bitstream). No player I'm aware of (they may exist, I can't say they don't) picks in-player decoding as the default, so if you don't know what you're doing, the player should still at least give you 5.1 DD if you select (or the disc selects by default) TrueHD and you're not actually wired to handle it. So what's the problem?

In that situation, a movie that defaults to TrueHD would give you only stereo audio on a small subset of BR players. You'd have to manually go and change the audio setting for it to work properly.

As I said above, players generally pick default settings that will provide reasonable quality (maybe not the best, but that's why we tweak). With the players I've seen to date, even if they have the ability to decode TrueHD in the player, bitstreaming is still the default - so you'd get DD, not 2-channel PCM mixdown.

If I am correct, it is Warner who is spec'ing their discs properly, to avoid the aforementioned situation.

You need to read up the subject of the DD companion track, why it's there, and how it works. If the player doesn't deal with TrueHD, or it does but it's configured to bitstream via S/PDIF, it uses the embedded DD companion stream instead. That's the whole idea - so those with such setups aren't totally left out in the cold. (Yes, there are BD players that don't handle TrueHD at all.)

I spent all day today watching blu rays...and I cannot tell you how many times I meant to hit the pause button on the ps3 remote and hit the stop button. I swore I used to be able to resume discs...I came on here to find out what I changed and low and behold it's a feature that is missing...

crap technology...bring back vhs...guaranteed auto resume everytime. ;)

Maybe we need a POLL, now that the main complaints have been identified?

Other than the prices of the media, the next most annoying thing for me would be the lack of special packaging (like Steelbooks). I hate seeing DVDs get the cooler package when we're paying more for the BR version...

UGH

I HATE special packaging that has no easy way to fit it on the shelf. Every release should include the normal Blu-ray case or a close variant of it(with "pages" inside for multi-disc sets, or even the thin cases like Matrix which are close enough). NO fold-out cardboard crap. No metal boxes.

My annoyances:

- Lack of resume
- Warner lack of menus
- Warner lack of HD audio
- Warner's inability to default to an HD soundtrack even when they do include it
- Failure to carry over existing extras
- Failure to give BR director's cut (Live Free and Die Hard, Commando)
- Digital Copy
- non-BR extras discs (again mainly Warner, Blade Runner, Hellboy 2)
- Indecipherable menus (esp. Pixar)
- Fox disc prices
- Lazy encodes that waste large amounts of disc space (Matrix)

Man Warner sucks. I don't usually like to condemn a whole studio but they really do bite the big one.

What annoys me about Bluray?

Warner Brothers titles lacking HD audio,or movies auto starting with Dolby Digital when a HD audio is available.:confused:

Ditto

I have found with my Playstation 3 that the disc always resumes at the last spot even if i take the disc out and then hit play again it always resumes at the last spot viewed in the movie so the resume function is already there for me.

To the person who says there isn't much difference between the latest DVD's and some Blu Ray releases as far as image quality goes and they find it hard to justify paying extra for the Blu Ray well i'm just like WOW....Every single Blu Ray i have looks a million times better than even the best DVD which has been upconverted. Check your equipment and check your viewing distance because something is not right in your setup and i say that with the greatest respect. In fact it sounds like a viewing distance issue.

And I don't have an ipod, I have a Zune so I can't even put these on them for portability so they are really useless.
The digital copies are AAC and WMV. If those latter files don't work for you, then blame Microsoft that their own Zune player can't load their own WMV format's files.

I have found with my Playstation 3 that the disc always resumes at the last spot even if i take the disc out and then hit play again it always resumes at the last spot viewed in the movie so the resume function is already there for me.
Not with BD-J discs.

Only with DVDs and non-BD-J discs. ie. The PS3 suffers the same problem as the rest of us with standalone players. BD-J discs will not resume.

Every single Blu Ray i have looks a million times better than even the best DVD which has been upconverted.

That does not compute.

-Bill

I spent all day today watching blu rays...and I cannot tell you how many times I meant to hit the pause button on the ps3 remote and hit the stop button.

Right on! If there is one thing I do hate about the PS3 remote its that damned Stop/Pause button arrangement. UGH! ;)

Originally Posted by BuGsArEtAsTy
In that situation, a movie that defaults to TrueHD would give you only stereo audio on a small subset of BR players. You'd have to manually go and change the audio setting for it to work properly.

Which is why it would be easier for Warners to default to a menu where the user can choose the track that best works for him or her. Every other studio does it, why not Warners?

Because we all throw our expensive discs around, come on :rolleyes:

I just purchased a bluray player this weekend and have to say it's weak sauce compared to HD-DVD. Consider me disappointed.

My dislikes: Price and the majority posted above for dislikes.

My likes: It's the "winning" price tag, erm, I mean format (which means HD stuff on disc, hopefully).

The scratch resistant coating is a VERY good feature and not just for those that "throw our expensive discs around" which I only do on Tuesdays:D

Anyone who owned HD-DVD AND rented HD-DVD discs knows the frustration of discs not playing due to the smallest of scratches on occasion. I have had MANY rented HD-DVD discs start skipping, freeze up, not play, etc.....but have not had one BR do this. This was my main complaint with HD-DVD and my biggest reason for prefering BR. ;)

What exactly is "weak sauce" with BR compared to HD-DVD?

Exactly!
I stopped buying movies awhile back and only rent now, using both BB and Netflix. here's how my experience has been HD wise-
HD-DVD - Watched about 40 movies, only had 6 play w/o locking up/skipping/etc.
BD - Watched about 25 so far, only 1 problem. Doomsday wouldn't play. Returned it for another copy which played perfectly.

I know it may have been my player (which was always up to date) but I have a couple friends who reported similar experiences with different players.

Price is my big pain point. once that starts coming down, I'll start picking up some BD's here and there for my "core" collection. As it sets though, I can't imagine getting overly excited to find a new release for $20+ bucks. No thank you!

Which is why it would be easier for Warners to default to a menu where the user can choose the track that best works for him or her. Every other studio does it, why not Warners?
Yeah that's reasonable.

However, I do remember another thread posted a while back where complained that movies defaulted to menus and not to the movie directly. :D

Movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, where there's both a rated version and an unrated version. But the unrated version option is buried in the menu (rather than having a big "select which version you would like to see" option right after selecting "play" from the movie) and the rated version plays by default.

I got almost two hours, with a friend, into that movie before realizing we had missed the scene where thet were doing the head stands on the gym mats.

My only two gripes are (1) the price of catalog titles vs. standard DVD prices (I don't mind paying a little more for films like "Dark Knight" or "Iron Man" but $24.99 for "Sleepy Hollow"? Please!), and (2) the lack of high-rez audio on certain titles, especially given the higher price. If I'm going to pay a premium over standard def DVD I expect to get improved video AND audio in return. I realize that in comparison to what laserdiscs used to cost BD's are a bargin. However, standard def DVDs look pretty darn good and are much less expensive. Other than those two things, no other real complaints.

I love how 90% of the problems presented in this thread are (1) the fault of the studios and not the format, and (2) were, and in many cases still are, problems with DVD.

- Fanboys who continue to defend everything Blu-ray
- High prices for barebone catalog titles (Fox)
- Lack of lossless audio on new releases (WB)
- Forced ads and trailers (Sony, Lionsgate, and Disney)
- BD+ and DRM changes that require constant FW upgrades
- Broken or ill-thought out BD 2.0 implementation on discs (Sony and Disney)

The only things that bother me are:

1. High prices for many titles.

2. Poor transfers. No excuse for this in my opinion.

KT

That does not compute.

-Bill

You need a new CPU Bill ;)

But seriously i do not understand those who say their DVD editions look like HD when upconverted...They do not...Look at the background detail and look at the overall clarity and even the worst Blu Rays still look better than the best upconverted DVD's.

Obviously there will be exceptions to this rule.....Escape From New York or Scary Movie might be exceptions.

High priced software.

Poor menu systems and lack of menu compatibiliy between discs.

Selection of titles.

I love how 90% of the problems presented in this thread are (1) the fault of the studios and not the format


While many things certainly is more a studio problem, its often a combination. Long disc loading time is because advanced content, so the studio is to blame that they included advanced content, but the format is to blame for the way it handles advanced content.


and (2) were, and in many cases still are, problems with DVD.

That something is a problem with DVD, doesnt excuse that its a problem with a more modern format.

You need a new CPU Bill ;)

But seriously i do not understand those who say their DVD editions look like HD when upconverted...They do not...

It depends on the display. On a 32 inch set I find the upgrade from SD to HD very marginal.

On bigger screens, its night and day.

My biggest complaint is the large inconsistency regarding picture quality between studios.
It would help if a new addition was added to the specs on the back cover. Example, something to let us know if this title came from an older existing master or new. This would reduce the blind risk buying older movies.
I know this is a lonnggg shot but Id also like to see some standard set that all studios would have to follow. This would help force those few studios who are known to deliver sub par transfer to catch up with the others.

My biggest complaint is the large inconsistency regarding picture quality between studios. The consumer takes the hit in the wallet.


Always wise to rent first, then the "hit in the wallet" can be eliminated if you find the disc is not up to par.

The digital copies are AAC and WMV. If those latter files don't work for you, then blame Microsoft that their own Zune player can't load their own WMV format's files.



The zune does play WMV files. It has to do with "play4sure" and DRM.

The zune does play WMV files. It has to do with "play4sure" and DRM.
What I was getting at was PlaysForSure is a MS certification for MS's WMV format files, and yet MS's own Zune doesn't support it.

While I don't like DRM either, in this case the blame falls squarely on MS's shoulders. For obvious reasons, MS has received a lot of flak over this.

I know. It will hopefully come in a future firmware update.

:)

I love how 90% of the problems presented in this thread are (1) the fault of the studios and not the format, and (2) were, and in many cases still are, problems with DVD.

I noticed that as well. That's a pretty good sign that the format has been doing things right. All the other stuff is hardware related. Manufacturers will make better/faster players as the years go by. That's just how it goes. The software junk like java all the BD live crap is useless to me so it's easy to ignore. Except for the resume play "feature" being missing from the typical BD players I'd say I am very happy with Blu-ray. All the other complaints can be aimed towards the studios and how they handle their content. This being a problem carried over from DVD, btw...

Hey, I was happy playing my BD's on a 13 yr old CRT tv thru s-video just so I could listen to the PCM sound. All I want is my uncompressed or lossless sound. I just got a Panny BD55 for X-mas so I am gravy. :D

I have found with my Playstation 3 that the disc always resumes at the last spot even if i take the disc out and then hit play again it always resumes at the last spot viewed in the movie so the resume function is already there for me.

I believe the issue is if you hit the stop button. I have the PS3 as well and if I shut it off, reset it, or take the disc out, it will resume play. But if I hit stop by accident (which I do as well when trying to pause it), I need to find the scene to start over.

My annoyances are the same as everyone else - biggest being the menu button never working at startup. Why do I need to FF through previews on a disc I bought (and most likely overpaid for)??? Never mind one that costs 2-5x as much as the DVD and can't even contain a lossless soundtrack.

There should be a whole hell of a lot more tiers of pricing with BD's. A blu-ray should not cost upwards of 10x that of it's DVD counterpart.

-No 10-bit/12-bit/16-bit standard
-Sony so intent to beat Toshiba to a new format that it was released far too early.
-Not enough space for lossless encoding of video
-Insanely long load times for some players
-Higher resolution leading to increased DNR by ignorant studios
-2.0 standard is for the most part useless. people want to chat and upload video instead of... you know, watch the film?
-No real solid standards of audio formats. 96/24 lossless would have been a nice bar, and having the player down convert to DD5.1 if there was no receiver to decode it instead of having a mandatory AC3 track.

- We still have to spend 5 minutes through unskippable logos, ads, anti-piracy, your player may load slow, and commentary is not the opinion of the studio before we can get to the menu or movie every time we pop in the disc.

Hyperbolic, recyled, rhetoric.

Brandon

Not having enough time to watch all the kick ass blu-ray movies I want to watch :D

I'm sick and tired of firmware upgradesexactly, especially for fear of inadvertently "hacking" my unit.

Every single Blu Ray i have looks a million times better than even the best DVD which has been upconverted.


Impossible. It can only be six times better

SD DVD: 720*480=345600
Blu-Ray: 1920*1080=2073600

2073600/345600=6.

It is statements like yours that overhype people and then lets them down when they see blu-ray. Let's be sure we are factual. A more accurate statement would have been

"Every single Blu Ray I have looks at most six times better than even the bet dvd which has been upconverted."

What annoys me most? First, region coding. Second, encodes of poor masters, DNR and EE. Third, the still extremely biased choice of movie: mostly recent titles, with a heavy dose on mid to low range action films.

Impossible. It can only be six times better

SD DVD: 720*480=345600
Blu-Ray: 1920*1080=2073600

2073600/345600=6.

It is statements like yours that overhype people and then lets them down when they see blu-ray. Let's be sure we are factual. A more accurate statement would have been

"Every single Blu Ray I have looks at most six times better than even the bet dvd which has been upconverted."

Well golly gee for taking my clearly over the top statement and making a drama out of it.

Just for you though i will amend my statement. My new statement is below.

All my Blu Ray's look five times better than even the best DVD which has been upconverted ( seeing as i'm from PAL land we can get away with five times instead of six )

When did we all become too serious ?

Impossible. It can only be six times better

SD DVD: 720*480=345600
Blu-Ray: 1920*1080=2073600

2073600/345600=6.

It is statements like yours that overhype people and then lets them down when they see blu-ray. Let's be sure we are factual. A more accurate statement would have been

"Every single Blu Ray I have looks at most six times better than even the bet dvd which has been upconverted."

:rolleyes:

I bet you were the kid who reminded the teacher that they forgot to give the homework assignment.

Two and a half years in and no Braveheart or Gladiator! Whats up with that! I call that a major annoyance and blatant violation of Man Law.

:rolleyes:

I bet you were the kid who reminded the teacher that they forgot to give the homework assignment.

lol...or that they forgot to collect our homework assignment.

Brandon

Two and a half years in and no Braveheart or Gladiator! Whats up with that! I call that a major annoyance and blatant violation of Man Law.

I believe both of those are coming in 2009, right?

Brandon

What annoys me most? First, region coding. Second, encodes of poor masters, DNR and EE.

I know this is subjective but this had me wondering the total % of mediocre to weak transfers of all titles sold. From my personal experience I would have to say at least 60%. Universal, Disney, Dreamworks have really set the bar for reference transfers on a consistent basis, kudos to them.

Always wise to rent first, then the "hit in the wallet" can be eliminated if you find the disc is not up to par.

Its sad there is any risk. You would never buy a car if the salesmen told you you might get a good one:)
These transfers should live up to the marketing on the cover and TV commercials, instead we get a small % of good transfers for every batch that ships.
We have to rely on the reports from the few brave early buyers who share their experience on these forums in many cases saving the rest of us ( those who care about PQ ) from taking the same hit.
Its like buying a screen with a smudge on it, you'd return it for one that's perfect.

lol...or that they forgot to collect our homework assignment.

Brandon

Or God forbid he's the kid who told the teacher you didn't finish your homework when the teacher asked the students to swap homework and check it themselves. ;)

1.MPEG-2 on some releases.
2.No LPCM or TrueHD on some releases.
3.Releasing sucky films before the blockbusters.Where's LOTR and Gladiator?
4.Price.

Its sad there is any risk. You would never buy a car if the salesmen told you you might get a good one:)
These transfers should live up to the marketing on the cover and TV commercials, instead we get a small % of good transfers for every batch that ships.
We have to rely on the reports from the few brave early buyers who share their experience on these forums in many cases saving the rest of us ( those who care about PQ ) from taking the same hit.
Its like buying a screen with a smudge on it, you'd return it for one that's perfect.

I hear you:) Unfortunately though the reality is there is risk which is why I usualy rent first.

Two and a half years in and no ....

Braveheart
The Graduate
David Lean (big 3)
The Great Escape
Scent of a woman
few if any good classic musicals .... West Side Story for one

oh .. and expensive burners and blanks .....

1. New discs with no lossless
2. The public who think they know anything about anything (they don't)
3. The discs that have stickers sealing 3 sides of the disc
4. Non-standard sized cases (except for the bigger or narrower spine thickness, those are OK)

Where are:

Alien/Aliens
Back to the Future
Gladiator
Star Wars
LOTR(not just the damned first one)
David Lynch stuff
The Cell

Lots and lots of others. They keep releasing CRAP! UGH!

Where are:

Alien/Aliens
Back to the Future
Gladiator
Star Wars
LOTR(not just the damned first one)
David Lynch stuff
The Cell

Lots and lots of others. They keep releasing CRAP! UGH!

I was listening intently to your post and then you mentioned The Cell :p

Where are:

Alien/Aliens
Back to the Future
Gladiator
Star Wars
LOTR(not just the damned first one)
David Lynch stuff
The Cell

Lots and lots of others. They keep releasing CRAP! UGH!

Indeed, I'd probably buy most of those. Maybe not Aliens 4 though or Back to the Future movies (I enjoyed them but don't need them) and the David Lynch which I'd just rent.

Two and a half years in and no .........really has'nt been two-and-a-half years, it's only been since like March 2008 since the [industry] moved to BluRay officially.

Impossible. It can only be six times better

SD DVD: 720*480=345600
Blu-Ray: 1920*1080=2073600

2073600/345600=6.

It is statements like yours that overhype people and then lets them down when they see blu-ray. Let's be sure we are factual. A more accurate statement would have been

"Every single Blu Ray I have looks at most six times better than even the bet dvd which has been upconverted."


whether a million (obviously he wasn't saying that to be a factual number) or 6 times better, I've seen some BRs that didn't look any better than an upconverted DVD.

It really annoys me is that BD-J is NOT used for what it CAN do:

- note that the warnings/previews had been played, and go to the main menu directly
- note which soundtrack was played last, and default to that (some Lionsgate movies do that)
- offer the darn resume function (again BD-J records the timestamp at stop)

All easily fixed by studios using the features properly.

Slow load times.

Very expensive. Consumers should not have to scour the internet to find BOGO sales to get good pricing.

The slow release of titles like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan, True Lies and so on.

There is way to much emphasis on special features. If I wanted to play a game, I would buy a game, not a movie! Lets put the emphasis on making the movie and put less emphasis on special features.

The menu’s suck. There needs to be more of a standard with menus.

Players that do not remember where you stopped the movie so you have to find the chapter you left off at.

It really annoys me is that BD-J is NOT used for what it CAN do:

- note that the warnings/previews had been played, and go to the main menu directly
- note which soundtrack was played last, and default to that (some Lionsgate movies do that)
- offer the darn resume function (again BD-J records the timestamp at stop)

There's no excuse for ditching Resume! :mad: I accidently hit Stop when picking up the remote last night whilst viewing Burn After Reading....

Now, now, I really appreciate a repeat of the Warnings! I seldom finish reading them before they're wisked away. ;)

If BD-J isn't gonna be used correctly, I wish it'd just go away. It's only detracting from my Blu experience.

Its got to be disc/player incompatibility issues for me. All the firmware updates, combined with HDMI/HDCP fragility make Blu-ray pretty much an enthusiasts format in my opinion. You need to be pretty techy savy to not only get the best out of the format, but also to just grasp basic use of some of the players (barring the umbiqutous PS3 of course).
I just cant see my folks managing to burn a firmware disc and update a Blu-ray player, and I wouldnt be surprised if the majority of owners couldn't either. I never had to do a f/w update on any DVD player, they were just pretty much plug-in-and-play. Blu-ray certainly isn't.

Impossible. It can only be six times better

SD DVD: 720*480=345600
Blu-Ray: 1920*1080=2073600

2073600/345600=6.

It is statements like yours that overhype people and then lets them down when they see blu-ray. Let's be sure we are factual. A more accurate statement would have been

"Every single Blu Ray I have looks at most six times better than even the bet dvd which has been upconverted."

Ah... but it's not quite as simple as the math would have you think! The pure number of pixels may go according to your math, but the lack (or at least "reduction") of DVD compression artifacts is PRICELESS--creating an experience much more than "6 times better". Remember, the quality of the image isn't simply a function of the pixel resolution. I love not being distracted (on most titles) by mosquito noise, macro-blocking, and other hideous reminders of DVD's massive amount of compression.

Film looks like film again!

Good points! And then there are the sound advantages as well, making DVD's even harder to go back to.

DNR, EE, no OAR, high prices

I have to say the firmware upgrade (not that it fixes anything accept allow a some movie which cant be playback before can be done now)....plus BDJava...which is slow as hell....but the biggest is the prices of the movies....catelog titles like Mummy, Independence day, Night at the museum etc are priced at $25+ at BB & CC...plus the WM near my house dont carry enough movies anyway.

I have just have 4 movies...& it cost me 90+ (I got them since my new BR player dont look good with any movies to playback). But now no more buying anything if not less then 20 for new & less then 15 for catelog (or less)

Film looks like film again!

It might if they had increased color gamut and bit depth, but that is the same as on DVD.

-Bill

Fanboys who continue to defend everything Blu-rayso what should be defended? SD-DVD? HD-DVD? 8mm movies? LaserDisc? BetaMax? VHS?

so what should be defended? SD-DVD? HD-DVD? 8mm movies? LaserDisc? BetaMax? VHS?

The people who constantly attack blu-ray. The HD DVD fans now pushing anything but blu-ray. The people with double standards who would shout that a title is amazing looking, fantastic, the best it ever looked for an HD DVD but then in a blu-ray picture thread hunt for every last imperfect pixel.

You didn't ge the "instructions" WestCoastD :confused:

1. High Cost (but this seems to be improving - competition is good)
2. No Resume
3. Momma Mia - there should be a law to prevent crap like that

Excessive DNR and EE. I HATE when the ability to achieve a very film like look is within a studio's grasp, but it doesn't do so, out of ignorance or poor quality control.

I would have to say the forced trailers and the long loading times. Though now that I have a PS3 the loading times are much, much better.

There's no excuse for ditching Resume! :mad: I accidently hit Stop when picking up the remote last night whilst viewing Burn After Reading....

If you use a learning remote, try mapping the "stop" and "eject" buttons to another page. If your player has a multifunction button, like my BDP-S350's "options" button (which requires navigating a menu), you could map it to the "stop" location. While getting accustomed to the S350, I performed a few knee-jerk "stop" button pushes. Now, whenever I push "stop", I get a menu.
My PS3 asks for confirmation before it will stop the disc.

My biggest gripe with BD is the hoop-jumping to get HD audio.

If you use a learning remote, try mapping the "stop" and "eject" buttons to another page. If your player has a multifunction button, like my BDP-S350's "options" button (which requires navigating a menu), you could map it to the "stop" location. While getting accustomed to the S350, I performed a few knee-jerk "stop" button pushes. Now, whenever I push "stop", I get a menu.
My PS3 asks for confirmation before it will stop the disc.

My biggest gripe with BD is the hoop-jumping to get HD audio.

You've got an intresting concept there Oliver. I'll mull it over. Already, I'm leaning to turning the Stop button into the Start Popcorn machine button.... ;) :)

The people who constantly attack blu-ray. The HD DVD fans now pushing anything but blu-ray. The people with double standards who would shout that a title is amazing looking, fantastic, the best it ever looked for an HD DVD but then in a blu-ray picture thread hunt for every last imperfect pixel.
Sour grapes and all that.
Eventually, like the dinosaurs, they will become extinct.;)

1. Lazy transfers that don't take advantage of the formats PQ/AQ capabilities
2. Region coding...this is one of the big reasons I went HD-DVD before Blu-ray.

Pricing

Word up.

lack of subtitles
every release should have 20-30 subtitle options

I watched Life of Brian last night and made the mistake of turning the subtitles on. It took like 15 minutes to cycle through all the subtitles to turn them off.

But the thing I hate the most...

the B.D.A.

You didn't get the "instructions"????

I don't like the fact that DTS HDMA is not the default on all discs. If it were the default we would not have to worry about the menu because we would get lossless if we want it and those who can't do lossless could receive standard DTS and not have to do anything to get it. Joe sixpack would never know the difference.

I also don't like BDJ being on the feature of the disc. If they want to put the extras on the same disc as the feature make it so that BDJ only kicks in when the extras are selected so that those of us who will never watch the extras can use the pause button.

Poor transfers are also killing the adoption of the technology. My friends come to the house to see what Blu-ray looks like and they get to see garbage on the screen and they figure that they're not missing anything.

I don't like the fact that DTS HDMA is not the default on all discs. If it were the default we would not have to worry about the menu because we would get lossless if we want it and those who can't do lossless could receive standard DTS and not have to do anything to get it. Joe sixpack would never know the difference.
DTS is a mandatory format on Blu-ray, so I agree to an extent.

I will say though that one of my 5.1 receivers does not support DTS at all. With that receiver and discs with DTS only and no DD, I would get no sound at all. That said, DD 5.1 receivers are pretty damn cheap these days, so it's not really a major issue.

I also wonder about cost and comfort level by the sound guys. DD is ubiquitous, but DTS is not. I guess part of that is because for the longest time, DTS encodes had to be done by DTS.

1. Price!
2. DNR.
3. Use of multiple discs (blu ray claims to have this huge amount of storage, ex: The Dark Knight, the second disc is a huge disappointment, and not necessary.)
4. Load times (slow even on my PS3, can't even imagine load time on any other player.)

Lack of subtitles and lack of consistency from disc to disc. Spanish & French are not the only other languages spoken in the US. Bluray discs have large capacity so don't skimp on the subtitles.

BD+. It's ludicrous that players must be firmware-updated every few months.

1. Price!

Seconded. The majority of the titles I've bought are 19.99 and lower. I find myself Netflixing the majority of my titles now. The studios need to lower the price of titles to that of DVDs or else BD will remain a niche format like laserdisc.

price..LOL

1. SDH subtitles only. Yes, some of us like to have the sub track on as often dialogue can be drowned out by sound effects, mumbling, et al.
2. The obvious; loading/lack of resume/titles auto-starting, but that's not really a big deal.
3. Lack of extras. Sony's excuse especially is terrible.
4. Missing original audio tracks (for instance on The Terminator, instead you get the awful new one with poorly remixed audio and new sound effects.)
5. Regional coding. Drop it already. Universal, Warner, Paramount/DreamWorks and most of Sony's titles are region-all. Even Fox are starting to loosen up.
6. I'm sure there are more little nitpicks, but mainly audio and video tampering stand out as the big sinners.

BD+. It's ludicrous that players must be firmware-updated every few months.

I do think eventually they'll realize that BD+ is futile, and stop doing the updates to the VM. For now though, it's your typical arms-race scenario, and they want to believe they can win it.

1. High Cost (but this seems to be improving - competition is good)
2. No Resume
3. Momma Mia - there should be a law to prevent crap like that
Two out of three ain't bad. :) Although I liked the Mama Mia! BD, I agree that the lack of encoding on too many BDs so that if you stop playing one, it won't remember where you stopped when you want to start watching again is irritating. I also agree that the across the board prices of BDs is still WAY too high compared to DVD prices.

Same as everyone mainly.

1. Cost. $25-30 new releases, $15-20 sales sucks compared to DVD (and even to DVD by it's 2nd and 3rd year when prices dropped).

Though I care less about this as I have 300+ DVDs and seldom watch any of them, so I had drastically scaled back my purchasing the past couple of years anyway and mainly just netflixed. I generally prefer to watch something new vs. rewatching something.

2. Loading times.

3. No resume.

lgans...






Sorry, but I coudn't resist...;)

DNR, EE, and subtitles hanging off the picture.

My biggest gripe is the movies I see available overseas that are delayed for US release. For the love of God, I want Ronin!

1) DNR and EE.
2) Lack of extras that are readily available on the DVD version.
3) Price.

I would agree with: LACK OF RESUME

I pause an average BD movie at least 40 times (for taking screenshots). If I accidentally press STOP instead of PAUSE, I'm looking at several minutes to reboot the disc, get to the menu, start the movie, and forward to where I left off. HATE it.

I wish they will program a resume function on the software.

The crap that WB puts out.
Not defaulting to the lossless codecs.
Waiting for releases that should have been out already.

Same as everyone mainly.
3. No resume.I was so happy when I watched Lost S4 on Blu. Disney's SeasonPlay technology should be mandatory on all Blu-ray discs from now on. It behaves exactly as I expect it to, and in addition to resume, if I want to watch another episode, it asks me if I want to move the SeasonPlay entry to that episode, or leave it where it is. Perfect! It makes me sad when I play all my other discs.

Region coding...this is one of the big reasons I went HD-DVD before Blu-ray.

Same here.

I’m also incredibly frustrated with not only a lack of HD special features, but the way my PS3 handles non-HD extras. I am still using component video (no real need at this point to upgrade my 65” Mitsubishi; which still looks great even at 1080i), and anytime I view non-HD content, the signal is “reset” to 480p. When this occurs, my TV “blacks-out” for a few seconds to reset and accommodate the new 480p signal.

What makes this doubly annoying is that my HD-DVD player never did this, even when playing non-HD features. It simply upscaled everything on the HD-DVD to 1080i. Why can’t Blu-ray do this?

I recently “retired” my HD-A1, but I tell you; there were some things with HD-DVD that I simply liked better. (I really love the scratch-resistant coating on Blu-ray, though!)

Same here.

I’m also incredibly frustrated with not only a lack of HD special features, but the way my PS3 handles non-HD extras. I am still using component video (no real need at this point to upgrade my 65” Mitsubishi; which still looks great even at 1080i), and anytime I view non-HD content, the signal is “reset” to 480p. When this occurs, my TV “blacks-out” for a few seconds to reset and accommodate the new 480p signal.

What makes this doubly annoying is that my HD-DVD player never did this, even when playing non-HD features. It simply upscaled everything on the HD-DVD to 1080i. Why can’t Blu-ray do this?What model Mits do you have? My 4 year old 65 inch has a DVI input, which easily accepts a DVI to HDMI cable. No switching to 480p occurs on either my Mits or my NEC front projector.

Nope. No DVI. Just Component. (...and a Firewire connection.)

It's a WS-65869, Medallion series.

I’ll upgrade one of these days (perhaps somewhat soon), but it’s hard to justify a new TV purchase when this TV still works and looks great.

Nope. No DVI. Just Component. (...and a Firewire connection.)

It's a WS-65869, Medallion series.

I’ll upgrade one of these days (perhaps somewhat soon), but it’s hard to justify a new TV purchase when this TV still works and looks great.

If it still looks great and you are happy with it, then what the heck?

But it is true without a digital connection, you're missing out on alot of things.
Pros and cons, pros and cons....;)

2. Loading times.
Although I agree that many Blu-ray players load BDs very slowly, those of us who have PS3s have apparently not had the problem.

-DNR and EE'd transfers
-price of software
-barebones releases on 25 GB discs
-not porting over all of the previous DVD's special features
-lack of diversity in the studios' output (more catalog, please)

The things that have annoyed me most about Blu-Ray are:

1. The lack of a uniform standard for players. Some have a network jack, others don't. Some only decode Dolby TrueHD, others only decode DTS-MA, while others don't decode any. While HD-DVD did not have as many hardware manufacturers, at least they had a somewhat uniform standard. Also considering Blu-Ray always had more hardware backers, why was there such a lack of hardware duing the first 6-10 months.

2. The high initial prices of movies and players. Even todays prices are still too high.

3. The rushed launch and first 6 months of bad transfers.

4. The constant need to update firmware to watch new movies.

5. The way Blu-Ray killed off HD-DVD. I understand its business, but I still despise Sony and the Blu-Ray group for paying for Warner going exclusive. Yes I know the Toshiba and the HD-DVD group did the same thing with Paramount, but their deal was not as large (monetarily), and with Warner being the only holdout studio it sealed HD-DVD's fate.

Before either format came out I was pretty much deciding that I would not pick up HD-DVD, but would get Blu-Ray, and that in my opinion Blu-Ray would win the war because it was the superior format. After good initial reviews and postive remarks from friends I picked up a Toshiba HD-A1 in June 06. I then picked up a Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-Ray player in December 06. During 2007 my opinions on both formats changed and to me HD-DVD was the superior format in practice, Blu-Ray was the superior format on paper.

DNR, obscene pricing, non-standard cases, DRM (the constant cat-and-mouse game of updating BD+ and having Slysoft crack it a few days later is obnoxious), many titles' lack of special features, releases that don't feature lossless audio tracks, region coding

At this point, I presume that non-HD content on HD-DVDs was originally upscaled and encoded on the disc at 1080i, hence why an HD-DVD player never changed its resolution regardless of the content on the HD-DVD. Again, I simply wonder why Blu-ray content isn’t encoded in a similar fashion...

It seem ineffective to upcale and then encode, much easier to just upscale the SD content in the player.

Unecessary EE, DNR and releasing titles like The Matrix & The Godfather only in overpriced sets.

Although it seems to be getting better, the inconsistent menus of the titles.

Like everyone else said, price, and inconsistent authoring. I don't know if it's the BDJ or some other organization of the discs' contents themselves, but the James Bond movies handshake over and over again with my display, and take forever to load because of it. These little "nuances" need to be cleaned up, IMO.

Blu-ray is supposed to be about the best video and audio, but it's hit or miss depending on the transfer and what the studio has decided to include with a release.

Blu ray needs to have a set standard that includes:
1. The best possible video transfer
2. Lossless audio in 7.1, not just 5.1

Without these, we might as well continue with DVD if the Blu ray version of the film doesn't look and sound A LOT better than the DVD version.

Also, there should be an option to watch every film with their included deleted scenes, like an extended edition.

2. Lossless audio in 7.1, not just 5.1

C'mon, it's not how long you make it, it's how you make it long.... This is the most unrealistic request/complaint that I recall on this thread. A few good channels beats a contrived, mock 5.1 or 7.1 reeee-mix. Plenty of processors can give you 7.1 output anyway.

DVD's don't sound as good as 5.1 BD's with 640 Dolby. Maybe a few "full" bit-rate, 1500 DTS DVD's are close. That's about it.

Getting the maximum number of channels is absolutely not guaranteed better sound no how, no way.

I have a week off work for Christmas and I thought it would be fun to do a Blu-Ray parody.

Some BDs have trailer that you are forced to watch touting how great blu-Ray is.

I want to make a parody of that which features some of the annoying "features" such as being forcred to watch that same promo reel every time you want to watch a the movie.

Ather one would be the need to update your player before you can watch the movie.

If I can come up with a list of quirks then I think it'll be a fun video to make.

~Jay
Number one the prices, number two the BD-java loading time, number three the incompatibilities. My opinion? BD sucks :)! But I appear to be stuck with it :(!

Blu ray needs to have a set standard that includes:
1. The best possible video transfer
2. Lossless audio in 7.1, not just 5.1

Without these, we might as well continue with DVD if the Blu ray version of the film doesn't look and sound A LOT better than the DVD version.


I imagine that standardizing quality 7.1 re-mixes of what were originally 5.1 tracks is highly unrealistic for some studios in terms of time and resources expended. There are indeed some very good sounding 7.1 re-mixes, but there are some that don't add much with an unconvincing use of the extra two channels. If a 7.1 re-mix is going to be done, at least properly preserve the fidelity of other aspects in the original mix and make the channel expansion more convincing than what PLIIx does in our AVRs.

As for films that are originally mixed in mono or stereo, I couldn't imagine anyone craving for a 7.1 re-mix in those situations. Just imagine if Criterion opted to have The Third Man re-mixed for 7.1. "Now you can hear the police from behind you as they search for Harry Lime." :D

I do highly agree with studios setting forth more rigid QC in what video transfers are selected, and what is done in post without the approval of the filmmakers.

Blu-ray is supposed to be about the best video and audio, but it's hit or miss depending on the transfer and what the studio has decided to include with a release.

Blu ray needs to have a set standard that includes:
1. The best possible video transfer
2. Lossless audio in 7.1, not just 5.1

Without these, we might as well continue with DVD if the Blu ray version of the film doesn't look and sound A LOT better than the DVD version.

Also, there should be an option to watch every film with their included deleted scenes, like an extended edition.
No offense, but first and foremost, Blu-ray is about profit for the player manufacturers and the studios, that was made clear upfront. It was HD DVD that ran counter to that, not Blu-ray!

Blu ray needs to have a set standard that includes:
1. The best possible video transfer
2. Lossless audio in 7.1, not just 5.1

Without these, we might as well continue with DVD if the Blu ray version of the film doesn't look and sound A LOT better than the DVD version.

Also, there should be an option to watch every film with their included deleted scenes, like an extended edition.

When very, very few titles are even created as 7.1 tracks, #2 isn't a very realistic "standard."

Also, when many deleted scenes don't have the post-production work applied to them, and the jarring effects they would have in a viewing continuity, let alone the vast differences of types and quantities of deleted scenes from title to title....saying a branching version including them must be an included option is a pretty silly demand as well.

Let's stay on subject, please. Thanks.

larry

OMG--
easiest question ever--
REGION CODING and FORCED SUBS

I'd like to point out that people on AVS forum are MUCH more knowledgable on this topic than quite a high percentage of the general consumer population. Many are still getting used to DVD, nevermind understanding (or should I say wanting to understand) why Blu ray is better.

What I've previously posted is just my personal wish list for what I would like to see with Blu ray, regardless of actual realities like a studio's costs, timelines, etc.

Basically, without a spec sheet, anyone can see a huge difference between VHS and DVD. It's just a shame when some Blu ray doesn't look or sound much better (not slightly) than the DVD version of the same film. For example, one argument that I've heard on many occasions is that you need a 50"+ screen to see the difference.

Blu-ray is supposed to be about the best video and audio, but it's hit or miss depending on the transfer and what the studio has decided to include with a release.

Blu ray needs to have a set standard that includes:
1. The best possible video transfer - Studio continuity is required
2. Lossless audio in 7.1, not just 5.1 - 7.1 was not available on DVD, this is something that could set it apart from DVD. OK, maybe not as a standard but certainly much more of it for appropriate releases. Remember, the general public is conviced bigger/more is better. :D

Without these, we might as well continue with DVD if the Blu ray version of the film doesn't look and sound A LOT better than the DVD version.

Also, there should be an option to watch every film with their included deleted scenes, like an extended edition. - A request for the entire film as it was initially intended and filmed to be available before it was cut up to fit time contraints to become the theatrical version. Like the way the LOTR was released as an extended edition on DVD. Occasionally, the studios seperately include deleted scenes on discs, but why not leave them in a version of the film instead of just clips?

I do think eventually they'll realize that BD+ is futile, and stop doing the updates to the VM. For now though, it's your typical arms-race scenario, and they want to believe they can win it.

If you don't realize it, BD players are quite complex computers, and the studios are always doing new and more complex things with the menu systems, resulting in bugs being found that weren't found in testing.

BD+ can update itself via information on the discs themselves; the firmware updates are to fix bugs, usually of the "the player hangs on this menu" variety.

The thing that annoy me most about Blu-ray is that it seems we have to take some steps backwards to be able to move forwards.

In buying a newer, better technology, we have to wait significantly longer just to open the tray. Obviously, this will get better in the coming years, but it's annoying.

Then they ask you to give up features. For instance, every DVD player I've ever owned (which are four different, mostly inexpensive players) allowed you to zoom the picture. I'm not talking about trying to get rid of black bars, just a multi-level zoom to look more closely at a scene (for instance writing on a wall in the background). This is a feature my wife and I used all the time, but it seems that most Blu-ray players won't do it.

Features like slow forward/backward and frame-by-frame advance are often not offered, even though these were pretty standard on DVD players. (My player does perform these functions, but I know of others that do not.)

Rule #1 when trying to get consumers to upgrade to the next "best thing": don't take away any features that they're used to!

Onto other annoyances...

Like most other people, I feel the price of discs is too high. That should change, but it seems like the price of software is not keeping pace with hardware.

A much larger problem (IMO) is that not enough movies are available on Blu-ray. That's something else that will obviously change, but I fear that many good, but not classic, titles will never make it to BD.

Am I the only one who feels that the text on BD menus is too small? I've only watched a few BDs, but most of them have really small text that's hard to read if you're not sitting really close. Yes, I know we could move closer to the TV, but I'm married, we don't have a dedicated HT room and my wife is not going to allow me to move the seating to less than 10' away from our 50' set. Plus, many people are going to start buying Blu-ray because it's "better", even though they sit 13' away from a 37" TV. The menus should be designed for these people, not those who sit within the recommended "full HT immersion" viewing distance.

Also, the menus seem unnecessarily complicated. I felt like standard DVD-type menus were fine. Why complicate things?

the high price!

----------------
Now playing: Pete Murray - Opportunity (http://www.foxytunes.com/artist/pete+murray/track/opportunity)
via FoxyTunes (http://www.foxytunes.com/signatunes/)

Why are so many people complaining about the high price?

You posted this in a thread titled:

What annoys you most about Blu-ray?



Are you asking a trick question?




;)

The uber high prices of catalog titles, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid came out at 34.99 in Canada, that's more than The Dark Knight & Wall-E. I also hate how bunch of useless movies keep getting blu treatment (mamma mia, i am legend and so on...) while the juggernaut classic/catalog titles are nowhere to be seen. F8#k the studios for ignoring the audience.

That they are not given to me for free.

-Not having Jurassic park, Star Wars.

-My ever depleting bank account.

Slow down on the new releases so i can keep up!
lol

Please flag the hd audio track as master!. It sucks to change the track to hd in a darkend room.......*&^% where's the remote.....:p Why must i do this with a 100% hd setup?? :mad: Let those with only dd decoders be the one to change the sound track to dd. This will stimulate them to go all the way!!? ;)

the price....all should be $19.99 or less.

I agree... Prices are what is hurting the format the most... Many tell me they would "buy" into Blu ray if the movies weren't so much more (new releases)...

the price....all should be $19.99 or less.

+1. It should be $19.99 for new releases and $14.99 for catalog titles. Also there's some new catalog titles that don't have any kind of extras.

The biggest problem is probably that the studios never resolved the format issue thus giving us two formats for HD for a while, each with its pluses and minuses until BD won out by WB's coup (notice they used the "R" word before any other corporation did in their press release?) Of course this was exacerbated by the fact the the suits and beancounters who run the studios don't understand technology and get sold a bill of goods (probably by copy protection companies like Macrovision) that cripples the platforms for the consumer.

I really am not that interested in "factory movies" which much of the fair coming out on BD is. I only noticed one other person mentioning the AACS requirement which keeps many of the second tier studios out of the game. It is almost as if the big studios want to be the only ones producing content and ruling the entertainment industry. Unfortunately though many of their "factory movies" are long on technique they are low on art. Looking at the HD-DVD spec it looks like only the replicators had to be licensed for AACS. Maybe that would be the solution for BD?

I too am annoyed with the long load times for the BD-J code, etc. Some nuts in the studios marketing department probably insisted on this but I don't think fancy menus add anything. I just want to check available settings and get to the movie. That's possible without BD-J so I second the notion to leave that for extras for the fanboys.

Also agree with the frequent taking away of "resume" which we all became used to with DVD.

The annoying running of trailers without being able to press Menu to get to the film. I'll watch the trailers after the film for ones I haven't seen yet. Again probably some marketing nut's idea of giving the audience "the theater experience" as we often have to sit through a barrage of those in theaters.

Features that for some reason don't work. On "House Bunny" which was a well produced BD I couldn't get the music video to play even though the box says it is on there. I only showed the introduction. Is it really on the disc? Or is there some high yogic method of playing that video?

And yes I have to echo the person who started this thread amazement that a promo for Blu-Ray would be on a Blu-Ray disc. Somebody nut case in Sony's marketing department must have really lobbied for that even though it makes no sense whatsoever on a BD disc. Suppose that nut case even understand or own's a BD player?

The bottom line is too many decisions were made by beancounter's and executives not technically adept enough to be making them (now I suppose I'll get retorts from the "armchair executive" types here.

BD+ can update itself via information on the discs themselves; the firmware updates are to fix bugs, usually of the "the player hangs on this menu" variety.If that's true, why did PowerDVD 7 require an update in order to play the newer Fox discs?

How long it takes to actually play the movie.

1. Wait for player to load disc.
2. Skip through all the trailers and promotions.
3. Skip through "we are not responsible for the commentaries..."
4. Wait for BD-Java to load.
5. Wait for the animated menus so I can hit "play movie".
6. Wait for FBI and other non-skipable warnings.
7. Hopefully it's the lossless soundtrack, or I'll have to change it somewhere from STEP 5-7.

It would be nice to put the disc in and go straight to the movie.

Something that has me concerned is how sensitive and fragile the discs seem to be. I've had BR with Netflix for less than a month now, and I've already received two discs with hair sized cracks that renders them unplayable. I do not remember such a problem with DVDs. These cracks are so small they seem to come from a player or something.

Anyone else experience this issue?

1. Prices in general.

2. Prices of older titles released as blu-rays. I can buy the Super Troopers DVD on Amazon for $10 or the blu-ray for $25. It's not even a great transfer, so I'd rather buy the DVD.

3. Not to be a snob, but where are the good movies? I sure hope that all the greatest movies in the world are getting the best transfers possible in this long wait time.

I actually don't mind the extra waiting times, but the forced trailers need to go.

I Had Netflix back in it's early days. One of the several reasons I quit was I recieved quite a few cracked DVD's. Maybe you should be on about the Postal Service? A few months back I sent my brother an upgrade CD for his BD10 in a padded mailer and a full-sized jewel case. The Postal Service managed to destroy the CD just the same.

Immediately i'd say the multiple profiles.

Now I actually don't have a problem with Profile 1.1 as final standard, not every disc needs BD-live and for many people it would make no difference. However Profile 1.0 should have never been released. Every player should have been able to play what's on the disc and that to me is a shame that the early generation models can't.

Java to me is an annoyance for many it really slows the loading process. Its' bad enough you have to wait for you player to boot up, then you have to wait for it to load the Java info. Also it seems to have cause a lot of inconsistency between players. Another frustration is that some Java titles don't let you bookmark. Given Java's problems, I wish that HD-I had been chosen. I don't see any qualitative difference Java has over it, and every HD-I title on HD DVD was bookmarkable. Same can't be said with Java and BD. Speaking of Java, I wish that ever BD could store a resume function like DVD.

I would say the pricing on the hardware but honestly they have really been agressive in bringing down prices this year, in some cases under $200. That's amazing as compared to a year ago. Still and all, the concept of players priced at $600 and above is crazy.

Most obvious is the pricing on the software. While catalog pricing lines have been established, it's still not low enough to entice catalog collectors and the concept of a $40 list price on a BD is unrealistic! In fact I believe BD really needs to drop their new release pricing to $30 (unless multiple disc) as purchasing a new release discounted to $28/$27 is not realistic for a mass product.

In fact I propose the following pricing:

New Release single disc $30/ double disc $35
Catalog single release $20-$25, double disc $25/ $30

That way when the titles are discounted it can bring it under the $20 mark which I think will cause titles to fly off shelves.

All players should at least be 1.3 HDMI and capable of bitstreaming ALL codecs. It's not necessary to have built in decoders (from a cost standpoint) but each player should have been able to bitstream all codecs.

Price
Forced downconvert for PowerDVD (and all HTPC from what I understand) (This falls under "sucky AACS stuff" right?)
Menus aren't standard. DVD's started out with all sorts of varying menus, but eventually everyone settled on something similar to "Play" "Scenes" "Setup" and "Special Features" with all sorts of funky crap from there.

Some BD movies I have go straight to the movie, requiring use of the popup menu. Since my VMC remote doesn't have a popup menu button for PowerDVD, I have to go grab the mouse.

Other movies go straight to the menu, but have a crappy menu system (and menu's that freeze my software, such as Lion, Witch, Wardrobe when changing audio options when the movie is playing PiP)

Hehehe...forgot about the whole HDMI screen blacking out each start/stop of a special feature.

I actually "voted with my feet" the other day, and SOLD my BD player on eBay. It's upscaled DVD, DirecTV, and HDTV for me, primarily because the BD's I have seen do not exceed this standard of say, a Network NFL game in primetime.

Let me count the ways:
1. BD quality is << HD-DVD quality. (Do we have a thread for this?)
2. BD quality is barely better than upscaled DVD.
3. New firmware installs for literally every movie I rented.
4. Those clever HDMI blackouts when changing tracks.
5. Menus which pop up so slowly that I've already hit another key by the time they animate over, and then they animate right back, because I've hit the key twice.
6. Ridiculously long load times.

BD is a format best skipped, like Laser Disc.

The internet will increase speed, and HD content will stream over BD's cold, dead format.

Aww -- I love LD! Got more LD titles than DVD, then come HD DVD and BD -- with those two being almost even at this point :)!

lack of a standard menu system. No software player seems to like every disk all the time. still plays fine... but not as easy as DVD and HD DVD were./are

lack of a standard menu system. No software player seems to like every disk all the time. still plays fine... but not as easy as DVD and HD DVD were./are
Amen, brother :(!

Hehehe...forgot about the whole HDMI screen blacking out each start/stop of a special feature.

I actually "voted with my feet" the other day, and SOLD my BD player on eBay. It's upscaled DVD, DirecTV, and HDTV for me, primarily because the BD's I have seen do not exceed this standard of say, a Network NFL game in primetime.

Let me count the ways:
1. BD quality is << HD-DVD quality. (Do we have a thread for this?)
2. BD quality is barely better than upscaled DVD.
3. New firmware installs for literally every movie I rented.
4. Those clever HDMI blackouts when changing tracks.
5. Menus which pop up so slowly that I've already hit another key by the time they animate over, and then they animate right back, because I've hit the key twice.
6. Ridiculously long load times.

BD is a format best skipped, like Laser Disc.

The internet will increase speed, and HD content will stream over BD's cold, dead format.

You must be kidding...

3. Not to be a snob, but where are the good movies? I sure hope that all the greatest movies in the world are getting the best transfers possible in this long wait time.



Simple: The studios are marketing BD titles towards the PS3 (read: young male) demographic.

In other words -- don't hold your breath :(!

PS. If you don't like it, say "Thank you, Sony!" :)!

You must be kidding...

Aye! ....an' nobody knows what slow is that never owned a Samsung 1000 with the early firmwares, I might add.
:eek: .....or a Sony 300 takin' 5+ minutes to saddle up.

Like Zappa used to say, "Eddie are you kidding....." ;)


P.S. - "frankly, when I first saw the new double-knits, I was not impressed....Eddie are you kidding, no, no...."

Simple: The studios are marketing BD titles towards the PS3 (read: young male) demographic.

:eek: "say it ain't so Joe" ...."a mind is a terrible thing to waste", "I'd buy that for a dollar", La Femme no-need-a. ;) Apparently......but maybe we'll have a nice Mother's Day double feature.....

Aye! ....an' nobody knows what slow is that never owned a Samsung 1000 with the early firmwares, I might add.
:eek: .....or a Sony 300 takin' 5+ minutes to saddle up.

Like Zappa used to say, "Eddie are you kidding....." ;)


P.S. - "frankly, when I first saw the new double-knits, I was not impressed....Eddie are you kidding, no, no...."

I believe FZ also said,

"Let's not be too rough on our own ignorance, it's what makes America great!"

Simple: The studios are marketing BD titles towards the PS3 (read: young male) demographic.


I would believe it. My small town Hollywood video, although in a college town, got 4 copies of House Bunny if that is the correct name of that traveshamockery. sp? :D :rolleyes: Even though it was a crappy film they only got 3 of the latest Mummy and never have gotten more than 3 BD's of any title including DK.

Hehehe...forgot about the whole HDMI screen blacking out each start/stop of a special feature.

I actually "voted with my feet" the other day, and SOLD my BD player on eBay. It's upscaled DVD, DirecTV, and HDTV for me, primarily because the BD's I have seen do not exceed this standard of say, a Network NFL game in primetime.

Let me count the ways:
1. BD quality is << HD-DVD quality. (Do we have a thread for this?)
2. BD quality is barely better than upscaled DVD.
3. New firmware installs for literally every movie I rented.
4. Those clever HDMI blackouts when changing tracks.
5. Menus which pop up so slowly that I've already hit another key by the time they animate over, and then they animate right back, because I've hit the key twice.
6. Ridiculously long load times.

BD is a format best skipped, like Laser Disc.

The internet will increase speed, and HD content will stream over BD's cold, dead format.

1) I do agree that SOME HD DVD releases are better than the Blu Ray counter parts but only a matter of time before they catch up.

2) Based on what? Your own viewing? For me, watching some Blu Rays like Cars can never compete with an upscaled DVD movie. The immense amount of detail is just insane

3) Which blu ray player do you have? I own a PS3. It makes a good blu ray player as when you download firmwares, it upgrades the blu ray player also.

4) Have no comment on that. That also bugs me too.

5) Some have lag, some don't. Not a big issue

6) I don't have to wait too long for my movie to load. I use the time to prep any movie snacks, bath room and getting settled in for the movie.

What is your ISP? I'm in Canada and it isn't as great as some American companies but I am paying 60 a month for 5 mb/s and unlimited cap. Unless they boost my speeds up to 10-15 and still offer me the unlimited cap, there is no way I can ever download a blu ray movie without running over. Besides, I would only get the movies and none of the special features.

Hehehe...forgot about the whole HDMI screen blacking out each start/stop of a special feature.

I actually "voted with my feet" the other day, and SOLD my BD player on eBay. It's upscaled DVD, DirecTV, and HDTV for me, primarily because the BD's I have seen do not exceed this standard of say, a Network NFL game in primetime.

Let me count the ways:
1. BD quality is << HD-DVD quality. (Do we have a thread for this?)
2. BD quality is barely better than upscaled DVD.
3. New firmware installs for literally every movie I rented.
4. Those clever HDMI blackouts when changing tracks.
5. Menus which pop up so slowly that I've already hit another key by the time they animate over, and then they animate right back, because I've hit the key twice.
6. Ridiculously long load times.

BD is a format best skipped, like Laser Disc.

The internet will increase speed, and HD content will stream over BD's cold, dead format.


:rolleyes: I assume this post is meant to be humorous?

:rolleyes: I assume this post is meant to be humorous?

Let's hope so

1. bitter HDDVD fanboys

2. rich studio execs having no perspective on the value of money to most people (but this applies to DVD as well)... 99% of movies out there aren't worth $20 or $30 new.

Hehehe...forgot about the whole HDMI screen blacking out each start/stop of a special feature.

I actually "voted with my feet" the other day, and SOLD my BD player on eBay. It's upscaled DVD, DirecTV, and HDTV for me, primarily because the BD's I have seen do not exceed this standard of say, a Network NFL game in primetime.

Let me count the ways:
1. BD quality is << HD-DVD quality. (Do we have a thread for this?)
2. BD quality is barely better than upscaled DVD.
3. New firmware installs for literally every movie I rented.
4. Those clever HDMI blackouts when changing tracks.
5. Menus which pop up so slowly that I've already hit another key by the time they animate over, and then they animate right back, because I've hit the key twice.
6. Ridiculously long load times.

BD is a format best skipped, like Laser Disc.

The internet will increase speed, and HD content will stream over BD's cold, dead format.

Ha ha. A PS3 would have solved most of those issues.

One thing that is important to note is that HD programming especially football, not movies, is going to be full screen, 60fps and so you won't see many issues outside of some compression due to bandwith limitations in best case scenarios. I have seen some movies on HD movie channels that do "seem to look better" than the BD, but that is because they are zoomed or cropped or what ever is the actual term and therefore the detail "looks" better, since it is blown up.

1)We now know that within reason overall BD PQ is in fact better than HD DVD was.

2) If BD quality is barely better than upscaled DVD on your setup, you have a whole host of possible issues with your viewing. Distance, player for BD, screen rez, your type of display, settings, etc. all should be checked.

3)New firmware installs for every movie you rented seems like a complete exaggeration, unless you rented only a few BD's.

4) HDMI dropouts when changing tracks. If that has to do with BD it is news to me and I am sure many others.

5) No comment other than a PS3 is the solution

6) You really need to get a PS3 as the most I have ever waited is 10 seconds and that is viewing hundreds of BD's.

7) Wait you didn't have a 7th complaint, but I have a 7th comment. I call BS. !:D

I believe FZ also said,

"Let's not be too rough on our own ignorance, it's what makes America great!"

He must have been havin' a very strange day as usual to say that.... ;) :)

Aye! ....an' nobody knows what slow is that never owned a Samsung 1000 with the early firmwares, I might add.
:eek: .....or a Sony 300 takin' 5+ minutes to saddle up.

Like Zappa used to say, "Eddie are you kidding....." ;)


P.S. - "frankly, when I first saw the new double-knits, I was not impressed....Eddie are you kidding, no, no...."
I own two BD-P1000 players, and I like the BD titles I've played to date. However, generally speaking, I'm on the order of six to nine months behind on the released titles roster. Accidental? Not entirely, I tend to be sluggish to spin new releases, but I don't mind lot's of time going by to increase the likelihoood my purchased titles will actually play :)!

My list of annoyances in no particular order:
- Warner and their filtered releases. I denied it at first, but i've seen enough evidence to believe it now.
- Warner and their lossy sound
- Fox and their crazy catalog prices. Even when they lowered MSRP to 34.99 from 39.99, titles still sell for $25-30.
- Disney and their never-ending trailers.
- The general way BD Live affects load times... dont tell me I need to update unless I try to access a BD Live feature. Wait for me to select BD Live from menu, then check to see if i need to update.
- DNR and EE

My list of annoyances in no particular order:
- Warner and their filtered releases. I denied it at first, but i've seen enough evidence to believe it now.
- Warner and their lossy sound
- Fox and their crazy catalog prices. Even when they lowered MSRP to 34.99 from 39.99, titles still sell for $25-30.
- Disney and their never-ending trailers.
- The general way BD Live affects load times... dont tell me I need to update unless I try to access a BD Live feature. Wait for me to select BD Live from menu, then check to see if i need to update.
- DNR and EE
Sounds fair to me :)!

You must be kidding...
You took the words right out of my mouth. He needs to either get new glasses or get back on his meds. :)

I just pulled the trigger on the HD display two days ago, and on the Blu-ray player, yesterday. I get cable today.

I was tickled pink that the tuner picked up the over-the-air HD NBC affiliate immediately. The football playoff game looked great, ditto SNL. But I digress.

As far as slow loading times, remember that large displays are essentially computers that do little but control a display, and there is a lot of processing power in players as well. Just waiting for Java and then for whatever handshaking is required between the two devices probably explain long waits.

I was delighted in the quality of the upsampling that the Sony 350 did with the old DVDs. I feel less of a need to double-dip.

Still, there is a big difference in the detail in Blu-ray. But so far it doesn't look very film-like, (The Dark Knight)though I haven't tweaked all of the scores of adjustments Samsung presents me with. So I suppose that is an objection.

I object to the high price of the media, but it occured to me in Blockbuster that this may be a decision to help Blockbuster along. They help flog Blu-ray, the makers still keep the price points high to encourage people to rent rather than buy. I suppose there is still Netflix, but people seem to have been having problems getting playable discs, and I guess there might be considerable waits for titles to be available.

Just my two cents.

If that's true, why did PowerDVD 7 require an update in order to play the newer Fox discs?

Perhaps PowerDVD also had JVM bugs.

All the PowerDVD updates I see on their site add features, fix PowerDVD bugs or compatibility issues with Windows, or improve handshakes with HDCP hardware on various hardware cards:

http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/download/patches_1_en_US.html

I object to the high price of the media, but it occured to me in Blockbuster that this may be a decision to help Blockbuster along. They help flog Blu-ray, the makers still keep the price points high to encourage people to rent rather than buy. I suppose there is still Netflix, but people seem to have been having problems getting playable discs, and I guess there might be considerable waits for titles to be available.
I got a Blockbuster subscription last summer, right after I bought a PS3. I chose BB instead of Netflix primarily because of the privilege my BB subscription gives me to return movies I got in the mail to any of 4 BB stores that are near me. The Subscription also allows me to get 5 additional movies a month from a store in return for a returned mail order movie.

For those without a BB nearby with a good selection of BD movies, though, Netflix might be a better choice because NF appears to have a number if indie movies that BB doesn't carry. Be warned though, there are some indications that NF might buy only a limited number of each BD movie title.

I got a Blockbuster subscription last summer, right after I bought a PS3. I chose BB instead of Netflix primarily because of the privilege my BB subscription gives me to return movies I got in the mail to any of 4 BB stores that are near me. The Subscription also allows me to get 5 additional movies a month from a store in return for a returned mail order movie.

For those without a BB nearby with a good selection of BD movies, though, Netflix might be a better choice because NF appears to have a number if indie movies that BB doesn't carry. Be warned though, there are some indications that NF might buy only a limited number of each BD movie title.

I'm a netflix subscriber for about a year and a half now. Netflix has really improved their speed with delivering the latest Blu Ray releases. For a while I was about to give up on them but recently they have improved dramatically.

I wish it were possible to save Blu Ray versions on my computer drive.

I also wish that studios deceided not to use region coding.

Otherwise no issues for me.

1. bitter HDDVD fanboys

2. rich studio execs having no perspective on the value of money to most people (but this applies to DVD as well)... 99% of movies out there aren't worth $20 or $30 new.

As former HDDVD fanboy now purple.... +1 to #1.

And everyone agrees on number 2. It reminds me of the Geico commercials where the gecco asks, "Who wouldn't want free pie and chips?"

I got a Blockbuster subscription last summer, right after I bought a PS3. I chose BB instead of Netflix primarily because of the privilege my BB subscription gives me to return movies I got in the mail to any of 4 BB stores that are near me. The Subscription also allows me to get 5 additional movies a month from a store in return for a returned mail order movie.

For those without a BB nearby with a good selection of BD movies, though, Netflix might be a better choice because NF appears to have a number if indie movies that BB doesn't carry. Be warned though, there are some indications that NF might buy only a limited number of each BD movie title.

I had them when it was free. dropped them. came back and now I pay for the option.... I don't though.

1. Price vs. relative value for some of the older transfers.
2. Lack of HD audio on a disproportionate number of BDs.
3. Too few blu rays in 1.78:1 AR (or conversely, too many in 2.35(or greater):1 AR)

3. Too few blu rays in 1.78:1 AR (or conversely, too many in 2.35(or greater):1 AR)

Most movies are 2.35:1, so it makes sense.

3. Too few blu rays in 1.78:1 AR (or conversely, too many in 2.35(or greater):1 AR)

:facepalm:

Three words for you: ORIGINAL ASPECT RATIO.