Lionsgate's Crank 2

Crank 2, released today, took over an hour for a AV and Computer expert to load this film. I would get a square of about 8" of actual video on a 60" display after waiting 2.5 minutes.

First I updated my Panasonic DMP-BD35K firmware via the internet, which to this day never hicupped on any movie. Restarted, no change.

OK so I left it hooked up the internet, restarted again and this time the movie said it was checking on updates. Still I would not get pass that 8" square of video.

Ok so I then put in my SD memory card, restarted, and after downloading, which also took at least two more minutes on a 16 Mbps internet line, now I get a EULA for Lionsgate BD-Live site. I selected "I disagree" and sure enough the movie would still not load.

OK one more time and I selected "I agree" and wouldn't you know it the movie actually started.


This is the bottom line on getting the movie to play:
It appears that this problem disc will not load on certain 2.0 profile players unless you use an external memory card.

All 1.0 and 1.1 profile players such as the Panasonic BD-30 or Sony's BDP-300 or 500 will not have a problem because they are not BD-Live capable.

All players that are 2.0 profile, that have built in memory, i.e. the PS3 or the OPPO 83 will not have this problem.

All of this would have been a walk in the park if the studios would put a simple system requirement notice on the back cover stating " 2.0 profile players must have either internal or external memory installed for this movie to load correctly."

That's the point it was not a firmware issue.

You must be connected to the internet, have a SD memory card installed and agree to their EULA in order to update the java on the movie.

You know I'm going to edit the orginal post.

I don't know. It was the stangest thing that I have ever done in order to watch a movie. YMMV

No in that case you could just hit cancel and the movie would start (I own it). This was different. It would not load and fill the entire screen until I allowed it to do what ever update it was trying to do.

What I am saying is , in my case, on my Panasonic BMP-35, which has never had a problem like this, is the movie would get to a point where the Java loading icon would not go completely away after starting to play a preview. You would see part of the preview and part of the icon and the rest of the screen was black.

This was before the player was connected to the internet. Not until I connected to the internet and allowed the movie to go to Lionsgate web site with a SD card installed and agreeing to their EULA, downloading their update to the SD card did the movie finally played filling the screen.

Follow thread here: http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=113491

It looks like you have to just have a SD card installed in players that have external cards in order to watch the movie that is 2.0 profile.

THe OPPO has internal memory. I think this is where the problem starts. If you do not have internal memory then you have to have a SD card installed in order for the movie to load properly.

Ok I just went back to the system and took the SD card out and it has the same original problem.

Bottom line should be that Lionsgate and all the other studios should put on the back of the cover that " This movie requires either internal memory or an external SD card in order for the movie to load properly." If they want this format to have a lifespan, then they need to start this procedure now.

It was off before all hell broke loose. I never have had BD-live on until this movie gave me problems. I hate BD-live. Worthless piece of ______.

Maybe I need to bring my older Sony s-500 down from the bedroom and add it to the rack because low and behold it played fine on the older machine. However I would have lost out on the DTS Master audio.

Yes a forum member on Bluray.com said it loaded ok on the BD-30.

Ok, we sat down to watch this movie. We only lasted 55 minutes of the 85 minute run time. I can't believe people enjoyed this movie. It was a total spoof of the original Crank movie, more a comedy that an action flick. To each his own but if you have trouble with your player I wouldn't waste the time or effort to get it to load. My opinion and my wife but your YMMV.