The computing power, memory, and feature support of HD players is pretty much unmatched in the CE universe, so.....

Why in the $%^&$% can't the things do something as simple as resume play when you stop a movie and then restart????????

I've heard some lame explanations concerning the complexity of figuring out PIP status, subtitles, etc., but to me it doesn't make sense. How hard could it be to follow some logic like this:


1. POWER OFF. Can we identify this disk? Can we figure out where in the movie we are? If NO to either, power down anyway. If YES, save the state, power down, and:

2. POWER ON. Can we identify this disk? If NO, start up as usual. If YES:

3. Do we have a saved state for this disk? If NO, start up as usual. If YES:

4. Resume play where we left off.

Am I missing some algorithm or hardware limitation needed to do this that's beyond currently available human brainpower?

It's not the players it's the way HD discs are authored.
I know it sucks but there's nothing the CE manufacturers can do.

i really hate this feature as well.... i dont know why they would break functionality from dvd.

even the download services can resume play.

It's not the players it's the way HD discs are authored.
I know it sucks but there's nothing the CE manufacturers can do.

What is it about the disk structure that would prevent it? On the PS3 it can resume play as long as you don't power down or remove the disk. You can quit the movie, play a game, etc. and then restart where you left off, so there must be a way to read where you are in the movie They just don't write it to permanent storage.

Actually, if you think about it, how could the player display where you are on the timeline, or jump to a scene, if they couldn't determine where you were now and how to seek to where you want to go?

This has been discussed a 1000 times. Any title that's "Advanced Authored" on either format needs to add in the extra code to allow this function. For whatever reason none of the studios are doing anything about this. Well except for the ones that do not use any advanced features. Older Lionsgate and other Blu-Ray titles just had Regular DVD menus. A number of HD-DVD imports are this way as well.

DO what I have done... ADAPT!! When you are going to stop a movie (which I do VERY VERY VERY rarely) I have a dedicated button on my remote for "BOOKMARK", vuala, next time I restart the system I hit "Bookmarks" and I am taken directly back to my spot I stopped at the previous night. In the end it works just as well as resume but takes two more button clicks.... NO BIG DEAL.

I don't know.........why don't we still use rotary phones?

Good thing some aren't in charge, we'd still be drawing on cave walls. :D

Well, I was hoping for a little more technical answer. Sorry I missed the 1000 times it's already been discussed.

Bookmarks I believe are a disk feature (maybe an HD DVD feature? I don't know) and most disks don't have them AFAIK.

Maybe the PS3 doesn't really "stop" the movie, but just pauses it. But it does resume on any disk I've tried it, so it's not dependent on authoring.

Well, I was hoping for a little more technical answer. Sorry I missed the 1000 times it's already been discussed.

Bookmarks I believe are a disk feature (maybe an HD DVD feature? I don't know) and most disks don't have them AFAIK.

Maybe the PS3 doesn't really "stop" the movie, but just pauses it. But it does resume on any disk I've tried it, so it's not dependent on authoring.


Maybe this will help... At least for the HD-DVD side. I haven't heard anything from the blu side but I am guessing its the same issue.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12397096#post12397096

Thanks, that's the kind of info I was looking for.

I'm not sure how much of this pertains to Blu-ray, and I'm not convinced it couldn't be overcome by defaulting to just starting at the beginning if there was a question about the state, or by having a "start at the beginning" override feature in case it didn't work, but hey that's just me.

Looks like one BD disc gives you the "auto bookmark" when you hit stop.

Scroll down to post #7 for info:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=982589

It's called laziness. Seriously whoever thought about leaving out the autoresume feature should be fired and never allowed to work in the industry again.

Thanks, that's the kind of info I was looking for.

I'm not sure how much of this pertains to Blu-ray, and I'm not convinced it couldn't be overcome by defaulting to just starting at the beginning if there was a question about the state, or by having a "start at the beginning" override feature in case it didn't work, but hey that's just me.

The resume feature isn't one I typically use on either format but what use to be a "War" topic now plagues both sides.

I have only heard MS talk about their iHD, HDi or whatever they are calling it now when it comes to this. Java would be the blu side and I haven't heard a response from Sun or their insiders here go over it. Maybe Talk will see this dicussion and add some to it.

FYI here is more info from MS

http://blogs.msdn.com/amyd/archive/2007/08/19/saving-resume-information.aspx

The computing power, memory, and feature support of HD players is pretty much unmatched in the CE universe, so.....

Why in the $%^&$% can't the things do something as simple as resume play when you stop a movie and then restart????????


That feature will be in the "final spec" of HD DVD Players. :)

My Panasonic BD30 resumes play even after turning the player off as long as it's not a JAVA enhanced disc.

Actually, some BD's from Lionsgate like Weeds and Dr Strange do have bookmarking as an undocumented feature. On your PS3 remote hit the different colored buttons and see what happens.

As for why it's not an option built into the PS3 to bookmark all disks, be it BDs or DVDs to your harddrive, that remains a mystery...

Yeah, how hard could it be to have a hidden Bookmark "Slot 0" that is reserved for the player/movie to automatically bookmark your progress whenever you hit stop, then ask you if you want to continue from the bookmark when you hit play, deleting it if you don't?

This is one among the dozens of hurdles that will turn off potential buyers.

This is one among the dozens of hurdles that will turn off potential buyers.
Yes. This one just happens to have an especially high stupid factor.

I have to agree as well. For all the benefits HDM has, the LOSS of previous functionality will make people wonder "How is this better again?". I realize the reasons WHY it like this NOW, but it should NOT have been this way.

We can put guys on the moon (allegedly :)), but can't resume a movie? Bad design on so many levels.

i really hate this feature as well.... i dont know why they would break functionality from dvd.

even the download services can resume play.

A HUGE +1!:rolleyes:

I don't know.........why don't we still use rotary phones?

Good thing some aren't in charge, we'd still be drawing on cave walls. :D

:eek:;):D

It's called laziness. Seriously whoever thought about leaving out the autoresume feature should be fired and never allowed to work in the industry again.On the part of most of the studios, at least for HD DVD. My Studio Canal HD DVD's do resume.

Since it can be authored in by the studio -- users should complain to the studio's and not the HDM player manufacturers (unless there is no way to do it for BD Java titles).

On the part of most of the studios, at least for HD DVD. My Studio Canal HD DVD's do resume.

Since it can be authored in by the studio -- users should complain to the studio's and not the HDM player manufacturers (unless there is no way to do it for BD Java titles).
I don't care who is to blame. I just know that DVD players supported resume on all titles and HD DVD players don't.

I don't care who is to blame. I just know that DVD players supported resume on all titles and HD DVD players don't.

Nor do the Blu-ray advanced discs. It is just the software these days.

I don't care who is to blame. I just know that DVD players supported resume on all titles and HD DVD players don't.

It is not an HD DVD issue. It is soley a disc issue and many HD DVD discs have had advanced authoring from the get go. Early BD titles did not have advanced authoring on them. They will resume.

If a HD DVD titles does not use advance authoring, it too will resume. However, as we see more BD titles use advanced authoring you WILL lose the resume features on those titles and the problem will become more prevalent. There have been many threads about this already.

As to why initial BD titles didn't use advanced authoring, explaining the lack of it would move us towards the format war junk with the ensuing bickering that would happen. Not worth it. One thing to expect, more BD titles that cannot be resumed.

They should have made this mandatory as part of the specs (I don't think it was actually required with DVD, but many players did it anyway). They could have gone further by giving you the option to resume even when the disc is taken out, like software DVD players on computers.

That would have been a way to really make this better. Another thing should have been mandatory audio track locking - where you could select an audio track and lock the selection for subsequent viewings.

It is not an HD DVD issue. It is soley a disc issue and many HD DVD discs have had advanced authoring from the get go. Early BD titles did not have advanced authoring on them. They will resume.

If a HD DVD titles does not use advance authoring, it too will resume. However, as we see more BD titles use advanced authoring you WILL lose the resume features on those titles and the problem will become more prevalent. There have been many threads about this already.

As to why initial BD titles didn't use advanced authoring, explaining the lack of it would move us towards the format war junk with the ensuing bickering that would happen. Not worth it. One thing to expect, more BD titles that cannot be resumed.
The question is what advantage is this "advance authoring" giving us? I don't recall any deficiencies with those early titles. And if I look at BD-J titles like Spider-man I can't for the life of me see any feature it has that was not on "basic" discs. Other than the bookmarking which would not be necessary if the disc could resume in the first place. And the same holds true for the overwhelming majority of HDi titles. They don't offer anything above "basic" discs.

The other day I received the Chicago concert HDDVD which uses basic mode. I was amazed at how much more responsive the main menu was. And there was no frivolous transition animation every time you press a button. Also I could do "advanced" things like Resume the disc and go frame-by-frame.

They should have made this mandatory as part of the specs (I don't think it was actually required with DVD, but many players did it anyway). They could have gone further by giving you the option to resume even when the disc is taken out, like software DVD players on computers.

That would have been a way to really make this better. Another thing should have been mandatory audio track locking - where you could select an audio track and lock the selection for subsequent viewings.

Both of those states can be saved for basic BD/HDDVD titles in PowerDVD for example. It also saves the subtitle state. Just like it does with normal DVDs. My first generation Pioneer DVD player from 1997 also saved this information for up to 30 discs.

The problem is that HDi and BD-J prevent the player from saving the state because it has to load the disc from scratch every time.

The reason studios aren't really even attempting to deploy resume on advanced authored discs is it would create QA/testing nightmares...they're having a hard enough time authoring as is, without trying to synthesize hibernate solutions across the myriad platforms out there.

The reason studios aren't really even attempting to deploy resume on advanced authored discs is it would create QA/testing nightmares...they're having a hard enough time authoring as is, without trying to synthesize hibernate solutions across the myriad platforms out there.

A real nightmare would be the general public not buying anymore discs because of a missing essential feature. I too hate not having the ability to resume play. If a DVD player from 1999 can do it, an HD DVD player from 2008 should as well...no excuses.

A real nightmare would be the general public not buying anymore discs because of a missing essential feature. I too hate not having the ability to resume play. If a DVD player from 1999 can do it, an HD DVD player from 2008 should as well...no excuses.No, the *real* nightmare would be the general public not buying *any* next gen stuff because they keep hearing news reports about how playback devices keep locking up trying to replicate resume...in an age where CE devices are becoming PC's in cute packages, a key goal is to keep people thinking of them as CE devices, and having them go BSOD trying to replicate a full-on hibernate/resume doesn't really play to that goal.

I'd argue that there are enough "my player can't play this disc because of my firmware!" and "why does it take 3 minutes before the movie starts playing?" type posts here to give (hopefully) everyone pause before demanding that a feature--who's sole purpose in life is essentially to destroy the movie viewing experience--be de facto required because a previous format supported it. My 1984 VCR allowed me to record and play things, but that didn't stop me from buying a 1997 DVD player that only played things. ;)

No, the *real* nightmare would be the general public not buying *any* next gen stuff because they keep hearing news reports about how playback devices keep locking up trying to replicate resume...in an age where CE devices are becoming PC's in cute packages, a key goal is to keep people thinking of them as CE devices, and having them go BSOD trying to replicate a full-on hibernate/resume doesn't really play to that goal.

I'd argue that there are enough "my player can't play this disc because of my firmware!" and "why does it take 3 minutes before the movie starts playing?" type posts here to give (hopefully) everyone pause before demanding that a feature--who's sole purpose in life is essentially to destroy the movie viewing experience--be de facto required because a previous format supported it. My 1984 VCR allowed me to record and play things, but that didn't stop me from buying a 1997 DVD player that only played things. ;)

While you do make some good points, and my intention was not to be argumentative, but why does a resume play feature destroy a movie viewing experience? It's certainly no different than getting up and going to the bathroom at the movie theater. It's a convenience that CE manufacturers recognized we wanted and added it....nothing more. It also seems that most people still want it. IMO, it's a step backwards. HD DVD is supposed to be an extension of the DVD format, an evolution.

Yes, your early DVD player couldn't record things, whereas a VCR could. A few years later came the introduction of? DVD recorders. It takes time for a product to evolve, this I understand, and HDM is no different. I'm betting we will see that resume play feature, as opposed to not.

I agree amillians that one should watch a movie from start to finish, but sometimes I get sleepy. :o

It's not a really big deal, I just think it's kind of amazing that such a simple feature got lost in the design shuffle and now stumps the greatest minds on the planet.

It kind of reminds me of Windows Media Center 2005 requiring an analog tuner be installed in order to configure a digital tuner. I actually bought an expensive Hauppauge USB analog tuner just to plug in when I needed to set something as simple as adding or subtracting a digital channel! There were lots of lame excuses offered about needing the analog tuner configured first in order to get the guide data, but to me it just sounded like poor design and laziness on the part of the developers.

Nit picking at best, just plain whaa whaa nit picking.


Does anybody outside a few really care, NO.

You get a movie for the intent to watch the whole thing, not in parts.

Slight delay for something, pause.
Can't finish for some odd reason that may actually be important, stop movie, re watch it all to refresh your memory, or skip chapters etc. So freaking hard, but I need to save vital seconds of minutes by having it go to the exact stop point.

While you do make some good points, and my intention was not to be argumentative, but why does a resume play feature destroy a movie viewing experience?

Per my links above Microsoft did enable this on their 360 add-on and it turned into a disaster that they found before release so they turned it off. In august 07 they posted some code that could be used but I haven't seen it in any titles as of today.

There is all sorts of speculation thrown around about why we are not seeing this feature yet but it will all turn into War discussion which I am frankly sick of. I think I will just agree with metalsaber, HDM companies, both software and hardware are being just plain lazy. If everyone isn't on the same page the title won't play.

Nit picking at best, just plain whaa whaa nit picking.


Does anybody outside a few really care, NO.

You get a movie for the intent to watch the whole thing, not in parts.

Slight delay for something, pause.
Can't finish for some odd reason that may actually be important, stop movie, re watch it all to refresh your memory, or skip chapters etc. So freaking hard, but I need to save vital seconds of minutes by having it go to the exact stop point.

Nothing particularly whiny about wanting a feature that exists already on dvd. I've managed to live with it so far without complaining, but since some brought it up, I figured why not chime in. After all, discussion about technology is what this forum is all about. Also, when I purchase a movie, I have the intent to watch it how I want to watch it. If I want to watch half today, half tomorrow, one chapter in particular, maybe it's just a scene I want to see. It is my prerogative to watch a movie I purchased as I see fit. That is the way it is for everyone, otherwise there would be no other features except play.

The reason studios aren't really even attempting to deploy resume on advanced authored discs is it would create QA/testing nightmares...they're having a hard enough time authoring as is, without trying to synthesize hibernate solutions across the myriad platforms out there.

That's what confuses me as HD DVD is a "finished spec" so I would expect it to have this resume feature on all titles as part of it's finished specification. :confused:

That's what confuses me as HD DVD is a "finished spec" so I would expect it to have this resume feature on all titles as part of it's finished specification. :confused:

Just because the spec is finished doesn't mean everyone is using every option in the spec. Not every HD DVD disc contains a TrueHD track. Most HD DVD discs don't have stop-resume enabled.

The question is what advantage is this "advance authoring" giving us? I don't recall any deficiencies with those early titles. And if I look at BD-J titles like Spider-man I can't for the life of me see any feature it has that was not on "basic" discs. Other than the bookmarking which would not be necessary if the disc could resume in the first place. And the same holds true for the overwhelming majority of HDi titles. They don't offer anything above "basic" discs.

The other day I received the Chicago concert HDDVD which uses basic mode. I was amazed at how much more responsive the main menu was. And there was no frivolous transition animation every time you press a button. Also I could do "advanced" things like Resume the disc and go frame-by-frame.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a fan of advanced authoring. Not being able to resume is IMO just plain stupid. And don't get me started about bookmarking. Sometimes a disk has it, sometimes not.

The main point I was trying to make is the lack of resume is is not HD DVD specific. It is also on Blu Ray and will become more prevalent in the future for BD titles.

It is not an HD DVD issue. It is soley a disc issue and many HD DVD discs have had advanced authoring from the get go. Early BD titles did not have advanced authoring on them. They will resume.

If a HD DVD titles does not use advance authoring, it too will resume. However, as we see more BD titles use advanced authoring you WILL lose the resume features on those titles and the problem will become more prevalent. There have been many threads about this already.

As to why initial BD titles didn't use advanced authoring, explaining the lack of it would move us towards the format war junk with the ensuing bickering that would happen. Not worth it. One thing to expect, more BD titles that cannot be resumed.
In my mind you are splitting hairs. It doesn't matter if the problem is with the players or the discs. It sounds like the real problem is with the formats themselves. It seems that both formats are broken with respect to resume, but the problem has more prevalent on on the HD DVD side since there are more advanced authored discs. If that is the case, then the real problem is with advanced authoring and studios should stop using it until they get it fixed. I'm still trying to figure what possible benefit I get out of advanced authoring. It just seems that things get slower, break more often and don't allow simple things like resume.

So, based on what I am reading advanced authoring just sucks.

+1 I agree that studios should stop using it. But that is just MO. Some actually like it and others will say Bookmarking is just as easy. Been discussed in multiple threads long before this one. Too lazy to look them up.

Ok, so I got unlazy. Check this (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=885997&highlight=advanced+authoring+resume&page=2) out. I've pointed you all to page 2 as there is a lot of meat there.

Also, I believe amir gave a good explanation as to why resume is hard to implement but I can't find the post.

I think it's fair to point the finger in several directions, but in regard to advanced authoring, I think any performance issues have more to do with the player than the spec.

I had a Toshiba A-2 and I've gotta say I really liked Universal's UI. It was easy to use, looked great, and had legitimate advantages over plain ole DVD menus. However, the player's performance was absolutely horrid. Something as simple as skipping ahead one chapter took forever.

I've read similar performance complaints about numerous Blu-ray players as well. I bought a PS3 and switched to Blu after the Warner announcement, and the PS3 has absolutely no performance issues. It's as speedy as a regular DVD player, even on titles like Spiderman 3.

Advanced authoring includes things like mixing two audio streams for commentary or PIP, so there are valid reasons for it.

Anyway, right or wrong, I blame the players. At the least they should have fought harder for the spec to include enough uniformity so you didn't have to worry about flaky authoring.

No matter why this happened, it is definitely a mistake by both HDM sides; some kind of support should have been there. Not that all "Resume play" works on DVD players (e.g. it is common that they forget subtitle & sound settings), but at least you can get to the right time of the movie, and this is enough for me.

One other thing I really miss from my Panasonic DVD player: The possibility to move subtitles up & down, freely (many Panasonic players have this). Not part of the DVD spec, and probably something which may not work on all titles, but very convenient!

Ok, so I got unlazy. Check this (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=885997&highlight=advanced+authoring+resume&page=2) out. I've pointed you all to page 2 as there is a lot of meat there.

Also, I believe amir gave a good explanation as to why resume is hard to implement but I can't find the post.

Hmm, some interesting reading there, for sure. Here are some of my favorites: :D
I can't believe people here are making excuses for this. Resume play is a no-brainer feature. It should have been included from the get-go. There is no legitimate reason they can't get this to work. For god's sake, you can re-edit 300 and upload your cut online, but you can't just resume where you left off! What gives?

Agreed. I work in corporate IT and I've been a programmer for decades. Sometimes I make similar excuses to what has been put out as reasoning for not having the feature, but I recognize a bad excuse when I hear one (or make one). Just make it happen and stop f'ing around :)

Another feature that isn't there, and isn't even on my DVD recorder, is the ability to change the time display to show remaining time for title/chapter.

Now I know we'll be able to find a thread somewhere about how doing subtraction of the current time from the total time would conflict with PIP or web content or something, or maybe because you might have been in slow motion and time is relative, but I think it just shows again an example of sloppy design and/or implementation.

The only time I've needed to use/wished for a resume feature is when I've had to try to clean off HD-DVD discs that start skipping. It's a pain to try to get back to where we left off.

Not hating on HD-DVD because I love my XA2, but it has been an issue a few times for me. Sometimes being a scratch that can't be played through. But those were all netflix discs.

I can't stand this. I need to train myself to hit pause and not stop! Otherwise I have to sit through the FBI warnings and all other garbage just to get back to the main menu!

Maybe the players can't enable resume. One thing that really bothers me about the Toshiba players is that you cannot change the settings without stopping the movie and then you can't resume. So, if resume wasn't going to work Toshiba should have figured out a way to change settings on the fly.

+1 I agree that studios should stop using it. But that is just MO. Some actually like it and others will say Bookmarking is just as easy. Been discussed in multiple threads long before this one. Too lazy to look them up.

You are correct. OP please use the search engine first before starting a new thread topic. If you have additional questions or comments after finding an existing thread, then bump that thread instead of starting a new one.