Okay, while I am staunchly Red at the moment, even I will admit that the future is not looking bright at the moment.

So, one of the features that I love about HD DVD is the menu system and the fact that you never have to leave the movie to change or select anything. In fact I like it so much, watching regular DVD's is painful to go through the menus.

So, for all of you that have both formats, how does the menu system in Bluray compare? (I'm not talking interactive features, which HD-DVD still has the lead on, but basic menu navigation)

Any insights appreciated.

Menu system is the same. You can bring up options, chapter selection, and special features on the fly while the movie is playing.

Okay, while I am staunchly Red at the moment, even I will admit that the future is not looking bright at the moment.

So, one of the features that I love about HD DVD is the menu system and the fact that you never have to leave the movie to change or select anything. In fact I like it so much, watching regular DVD's is painful to go through the menus.

So, for all of you that have both formats, how does the menu system in Bluray compare? (I'm not talking interactive features, which HD-DVD still has the lead on, but basic menu navigation)

Any insights appreciated.

The menu system for all of the Buena Vista titles are amazing.. Check out Pirates of the Carribean...all 3.. Also Rattatoulie's menu system is very good. I would say the Blu-ray Menu system works much smoother and faster than my HD-A2 and HD-XA2 ever did. I have a PS3 ofcourse which is the player I would get if I were you..

Purple Rain

Artist(Band):Prince

I never meant to cause you any sorrow.
I never meant to cause you any pain.
I only wanted to one time see you laughing.
I only wanted to see you laughing in the purple rain.

Purple rain, Purple rain
Purple rain, Purple rain
Purple rain, Purple rain

I only wanted to see you bathing in the purple rain.


Shouldn't you post your question in the Blu-ray player forum?

I personally disagree with the posts above me and have always thought HD DVD had a much nicer, smoother, and more intuitive menu system.

The menus on the Pirates of the Caribbean BD's are fancy in a way that you have this skull & crossbones talking to you and some flashy animation - but even it I don't find as pleasing as most HD DVD discs. (Also the POTC menus seem to have a bit of load time, which drives me crazy.)

With HD DVD, all I ever had to do was press up or right on the directional pad, and the menu very pleasantly slides onto the screen over the movie, and I can easily navigate the entire thing quickly and smoothly. To hide the menu, I then just press in the opposite direction (down or left) and it slides away.

Blu-ray menus are similar, but just feel alot less polished and far more jarring to me. You press the "Pop-up Menu" button and the menu usually appears very suddenly. You switch between the options as you would expect, but transitions never seem as silky and pleasant to me as they do on HD DVD. To close the menu, usually you use the direction pad to move over to a widows-like "close" or "X" button.

Blu-ray discs have considerably more variety in menu design - which I guess is good in that it changes things up some, but I've had a number of discs where I find the menus a bit hard to use in general. For some discs (Rescue Dawn comes immediately to mind), I've even had problems figuring out what options I'm selecting as the "highlighted" options were very difficult to discern.

Overall I like the HD DVD menus *alot* more than the BD menus I've encountered. The BD menus get the job done, but the experience isn't near as nice IMO.

Shouldn't you post your question in the Blu-ray player forum?

Not really, I don't want Blu opinions, I want opinions from people who have and use both. Hence the question in the general software discussion forum. :)

To the others, thanks for the quick replies.

So, for all of you that have both formats, how does the menu system in Bluray compare? (I'm not talking interactive features, which HD-DVD still has the lead on, but basic menu navigation)

The in-movie menu works identically (I own an A1 and a Panny BD-10). When you hit menu you are allowed to choose between the top menu or the pop-up menu. The pop-up menu slides up onto the bottom of the screen and works like an HD DVD menu (exact design obviously dependent on how it was authored by the company who made the disk). I frequently use it to select lossless audio.

The Java menus offere even more powerful animation and programming abilities, but as has been noted the require some additional load time, so I personally prefer the more vanilla menu, but really I stop caring once I start enjoying the movie in all it's hidef and losslesss audio glory. :)

Not really, I don't want Blu opinions, I want opinions from people who have and use both. Hence the question in the general software discussion forum. :)

To the others, thanks for the quick replies.

I have used both (HD-A1, 360 add-on, Samsung BD-P1000 and PS3) and the menu systems are identical from a "what could be done" point of view.

Blu-ray discs, unlike HD-DVD's, have two menu buttons.

"Menu" = the top menu. Stops playback and takes you right to the top menu. Often this is where major branches of the menu system are, like "movie" or "interactive game" or whatever is on the disc.

"Pop-up menu" = what it says. This brings up the a menu, superimposed over the playing content in the background. The menu has the usual stuff like from HD-DVD - setup, subtitles, chapter locations, etc.

Some studios (Warner) don't really use the "top menu" - just the pop-up menu.

To give you an idea - Warner discs are pretty much the same experience from BD to HD-DVD (assuming to IME or interactive craziness is at issue). You put the disc in, you get the 10 second Warner logo over blue sky animation, then a ratings screen, then the movie starts. If you hit the "pop up" button, the menu that appears is identical to what you'd see on an HD-DVD - Languages, Chapters, Special Features.

There are fully menu sounds as well, as you'd expect.

Hope this helps.

I 100% agree that the HD DVD menu system and the graphics are better compared to the menus I have seen in BDs (INCLUDING RAT,CARS,POTC etc). Having unleashed the potential of HD DVD (Navigation Menus, HDi/PiP/IME, Live Community Screening, Web enabled features etc) for 2 years it's a shame on Warner to back Blu-ray and not remain neutral.

the only "issue" ive had with BD's is when watching extras. pressing the menu button brings you back to the main menu instead of just doing an overlay. the last two movies i watched (shooter and superbad) both did it and it was kinda annoying

the only "issue" ive had with BD's is when watching extras. pressing the menu button brings you back to the main menu instead of just doing an overlay. the last two movies i watched (shooter and superbad) both did it and it was kinda annoying

This is the same behavior with HD-DVD on non-HD content.