Blu Ray functionality being exploited more fully now?

Posted by: TomK on 20 November 2010

One of the things I missed most about Blu Ray was the lack of a proper resume feature. I watch a lot of episodic stuff and my old Sony DVD player would easily recognise where I'd left off, even if it was a month or two before. Blu Ray didn't do that. Some disks would resume, but not after the disk was removed. Some supported bookmarks.
I've just been watching Predators and it resumes, remembers subtitle settings etc even after the disk has been removed.
For me this is quite a step forward although for some it's probably not important at all. At least the format's capable of it. Let's hope it's made use of.
Posted on: 24 November 2010 by Harry
Some of ours do and some don't. It is an incredibly convenient feature.
Posted on: 24 November 2010 by TomK
This is the first blu ray I've come across that not only has both resume and bookmarks, but resume works even after the disk has been ejected and is later played again. It also remembers language and subtitle settings. I'm curious to know which other disks provide this as it's been a long standing gripe about blu ray. Since day one in fact.
Posted on: 24 November 2010 by GreenAlex
Isn't that a feature of the player and not the disc? After all, the disc is ro and the player is the one remembering bookmarks and resume-points.
Posted on: 24 November 2010 by tonym
You're correct Green Alex. My Oppo remembers any BR disc it's played (not sure what the capacity for doing this is, at least ten anyway) and starts it from where it last stopped.
Posted on: 24 November 2010 by Dungassin
quote:
You're correct Green Alex. My Oppo remembers any BR disc it's played (not sure what the capacity for doing this is, at least ten anyway) and starts it from where it last stopped.

Tony, I wish my Oppo 83S DID consistently remember stop points. Alas, with most bluray discs, if I press stop, when I go off to the loo etc, when I come back and press play it's like putting a disc in for the first time : intialise, top menu etc etc. Ditto if I just power off while a disc is playing. This doesn't happen with DVDs in the same player, so I suppose I'll have to go into its setup menu and see if there's something there that I've possible upset.
Posted on: 24 November 2010 by TomK
Resume and bookmarks are normally provided by the blu ray disk. It's totally different from DVD, where the player merely reads the data on the disk so when you pause, press info or whatever, it looks the same for every DVD. With blu ray the disk loads into the player as a computer program, which is why it takes so long to start up, but then can provide much more functionality depending on the features built into the disk. Until recently disks have tended to provide either a limited resume, or bookmarks. This is a function of the disk, not the player. It depends on how the disk is authored.
If Oppos are now doing this it's on top of the basic blu ray spec and that's great. All the more reason to upgrade to Oppo some time down the line. I'm curious here and would appreciate verification that with an Oppo player the disk can be stopped, ejected, another disk can be played, then the Oppo will resume where it left off off.

The functionality comes from the disk and this has been a complaint since blu ray day one. If players are getting round this that's good.
Posted on: 25 November 2010 by tonym
I'll have to check this out again properly. Certainly the discs I've been watching, then taken out and subsequently put back in the machine, play from where they were stopped but I only ever pause a disc if nipping out to go to the loo, make a sandwich etc., never stop it.
Posted on: 25 November 2010 by Dungassin
No problem with restarting at the same place on the Oppos if you only pause. The problems come when you use STOP or put the player into standby, which I do if I anticipate being away from the player for more than 10 minutes or so. If, as Tomk says, bluray does it differently from DVD, then that would explain my findings very well. I've bought a couple of new blu ray discs recently (Prince of Persia etc) and will using STOP on them later this evening.
Posted on: 25 November 2010 by GreenAlex
I do know that even DVDs sometimes have built in restrictions so you cannot skip directly to the menu (to force you to watch FBI warnings or ads). But some DVDPs (the cheaper asian ones) don't care about that.
And computers certainly don't.
Same with skipping audio tracks.
I have a Metallica MusicDVD where you can only set the audio track via menu, not via the audio button. At least not on my DVD5. I think I can with MediaPlayerClassic on my notebook.

So I wonder if it's not maybe the same with BluRay. If you press stop, the BluRay player checks if it is allowed to jump to a certain title and obeys any restrictions.
Might be interesting to see if this is one of those cases or not.
Posted on: 25 November 2010 by Dungassin
Curiousity got the better of me. Just spent the best part of an hour trying various bluray discs in my Oppo 83SE (firmware version BDP83-48-1224). Very few will let you resume from the same place if you press STOP. The clue to which ones will, is that the message "to resume playback press play" is displayed. Newer discs seem to be worse in this respect than old ones. e.g. Harry Potter 1 resumes, Harry Potter 6 doesn't.

Just downloaded the latest approved firmware release for my Oppo, and will probably install it tomorrow (after I have made a note of all my settings, as a factory default reset is involved). Hopefully this won't bugger up the multiregion bluray and DVD characteristics of the player.

I went to the CRTprojectors site to check this, but they seem to have stopped their retail activities as of October! They are, however, still providing backup and support, so I have emailed their support people to check that the firmware update will be OK. Damn, that means that if I require another multiregion Oppo I'll have to go somewhere else, I suppose.
Posted on: 26 November 2010 by Dungassin
Been doing a little bit of research. The "resume" from last playback position apparently doesn't work with later blu ray discs which are Java enabled, but should work OK with older discs without Java. So, it seems that those of us with simple needs, who don't really want all the "extras" bells and whistles are being penalised. Java enabled discs will sometimes allow bookmarks and let you go back to where you were, but AFTER insisting on playing the startup screens etc (and the Java discs are the ones which tend to take ages to load). See this link :

http://www.hometheaterforum.co...ember-your-bookmarks
Posted on: 26 November 2010 by TomK
I'm not sure it's as much older v newer as some studios favouring Java, some not. I've tended to find find all disks from, say, Warner Bros did it one way while others did it the other. And of course some had neither resume nor bookmarks.

What started this debate was Predators, which was the first disk I've come across which offers both Resume AND Bookmarks. It was either/or until now. And the resume worked even after the disk had been removed and then reinserted. For me a big step forward but others perhaps couldn't care less.
Posted on: 26 November 2010 by Dungassin
I use the remove disc and switch off option (by which I mean standby) all the time with DVDs. It's the best way to watch DVDs of TV series. After all, who wants to watch 4 episodes of CSI etc on the trot? 2 at a time is usually enough for me, which is why I often find myself watching 3 series at the same time (well, not exactly at the same time, but I'm sure you know what I mean. Winker)
Posted on: 26 November 2010 by TomK
Just checked four significant Warner Bros BDs: Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Superman The Movie, and Superman Returns. The Batman movies have bookmarks but no resume while Superman resumes but doesn't bookmark, and only resumes until the disk is ejected.

So much for that theory then. As a highly educated scientific person you should know better than to trust what you read on an internet message board.
Cool
Posted on: 27 November 2010 by Dungassin
I think it's all a bit random. Even discs from the same studio don't seem to behave in a consistent fashion. Luckily enough, Supernatural series 4 on bluray does resume (one of the series I am currently watching). I'll just continue to use PAUSE rather than stop when I go for my dinner etc. Smile