Giving up on bluray

Posted by: mikeeschman on 22 April 2010

Just got Avatar on Bluray. Takes over thirty minutes to load and then won't play.

Pioneer Elite Bluray with all software upgrades, absolutely 100% current.

Back to DVD - screw Bluray.
Posted on: 22 April 2010 by {OdS}
Uh Mike, what about getting your Elite (or the disc) back to your dealer? I absolutely agree on the fact that blu-ray sucks from an "established standard" point of view. I'd even say it's plain ridiculous compared to DVD. But it's also a kind of miracle when it works well. I watched Coraline this evening (on my non updated Pioneer LX-71). What an amazement, what a great score it has and how splendid it sounds, thanks to the DTS HD Master Audio stuff.

I'll check Avatar one of these days though.


Christian
Posted on: 22 April 2010 by Naijeru
Avatar is on blu-ray already?
Posted on: 22 April 2010 by TomK
Mike,
Pioneer recently released firmware version 1.65 in Europe and Japan, specifically for Avatar. It has only today been released in the US as far as I know. Have you installed that?
Posted on: 22 April 2010 by Vaughn3D
I just watched Avatar on blu-ray, absolutely stunning.
Posted on: 23 April 2010 by Occean
The moving bluray standard are so frustrating. Sticking to a ps3 and rental discs for the forseeable future, whichb is a shame as I really want a player good enough to feed my av2 with HD audio Red Face(
Posted on: 23 April 2010 by {OdS}
quote:
Originally posted by TomK:
Pioneer recently released firmware version 1.65 in Europe and Japan, specifically for Avatar


Thanks for the info Tom, downloading now.


quote:
Originally posted by Occean:
The moving bluray standard are so frustrating. Sticking to a ps3 and rental discs for the forseeable future, whichb is a shame as I really want a player good enough to feed my av2 with HD audio Red Face


Can't agree more. Don't want to sound like a Pioneer salesman but they do a excellent job at keeping their players up to date. I've more than once had my non updated player working flawlessly at playing a recently released blu-ray when other brands, up to date player would barely play the disc, if playing it all. What about asking for a home demo? I don't think you'd be disappointed by the sound performance.


Christian
Posted on: 23 April 2010 by tonym
Oppo BD83...
Posted on: 23 April 2010 by SC
I just set my watch by you Tony...! Winker
Posted on: 23 April 2010 by mikeeschman
I'll look for the software upgrade.

Thanks.
Posted on: 23 April 2010 by Naijeru
quote:
Originally posted by TomK:
Mike,
Pioneer recently released firmware version 1.65 in Europe and Japan, specifically for Avatar. It has only today been released in the US as far as I know. Have you installed that?

The concept of downloading firmware for a DVD player is offensive to me. The fact that my blu-ray player is a PS3 which has regular downloadable updates anyway masks this problem in my case, but it still pisses me off.
Posted on: 23 April 2010 by winkyincanada
I've never downloaded an update for my Sony, and it continues to work just fine.
Posted on: 23 April 2010 by Hook
quote:
Originally posted by tonym:
Oppo BD83...


Strongly agree. BDP-83 (running latest official firmware) loads Avatar in a couple of minutes max.

Allowed my Pio 141fd to serve up some pretty amazing eye candy this evening.

Hook
Posted on: 23 April 2010 by Hook
quote:
Originally posted by Naijeru:
quote:
Originally posted by TomK:
Mike,
Pioneer recently released firmware version 1.65 in Europe and Japan, specifically for Avatar. It has only today been released in the US as far as I know. Have you installed that?

The concept of downloading firmware for a DVD player is offensive to me. The fact that my blu-ray player is a PS3 which has regular downloadable updates anyway masks this problem in my case, but it still pisses me off.


Agreed, but it is the price we pay for chasing an evolving standard. The studios have not agreed on how to use Java when authoring their Blu Ray discs, and all the manufacturers have no choice but to play catch-up via firmware.

At least on the Oppo BDP-83, even a cave man can do it. Download the firmware directory, copy to a USB stick, insert, go and reboot. A 5-10 minute process, and unless the power goes off, it just works.

Hook
Posted on: 24 April 2010 by tonym
quote:
Originally posted by ghook2020:
[
At least on the Oppo BDP-83, even a cave man can do it. Download the firmware directory, copy to a USB stick, insert, go and reboot. A 5-10 minute process, and unless the power goes off, it just works.

Hook


...or, if your Oppo's hooked up with its ethernet connection, it just updates itself automatically.
Posted on: 24 April 2010 by Hook
quote:
Originally posted by tonym:
quote:
Originally posted by ghook2020:
[
At least on the Oppo BDP-83, even a cave man can do it. Download the firmware directory, copy to a USB stick, insert, go and reboot. A 5-10 minute process, and unless the power goes off, it just works.

Hook


...or, if your Oppo's hooked up with its ethernet connection, it just updates itself automatically.


True!

But in my case, in addition to turning the BD-Live parameter off, also decided not to hook up to the network for fear of BD-Live!

Too many people reporting hangs, or absurdly long delays in loading, due to BD-Live.

And last time I looked, it was nothing more than trailers and advertisements -- nothing worth waiting for.

Have things changed?

Hook
Posted on: 24 April 2010 by {OdS}
quote:
Originally posted by ghook2020:
Agreed, but it is the price we pay for chasing an evolving standard. The studios have not agreed on how to use Java when authoring their Blu Ray discs, and all the manufacturers have no choice but to play catch-up via firmware.


Sad but true. The idea of downloading firmware upgardes for my blu-ray player pisses me off too but I guess this is the price to pay to get such an amazing performance out of the "blu" discs. I can only hope we wont have to bother with such moving standards in the future.
Posted on: 27 April 2010 by Occean
quote:
Originally posted by tonym:
Oppo BD83...


I am very tempted by a 83 or 83SE at the moment. Just very worried about forking out for somethign that is going to be obsolete very quickly - though tbh I am not worried about 3d/
Posted on: 28 April 2010 by Rockingdoc
Updated my Samsung firmware yesterday, but still get the red screen "you need an update" message with Avatar. I think it is unacceptable to release discs which won't play on machines with the latest updates.

I believe all this rapidly changing firmware is only needed by the companies to prevent piracy, not to enhance our viewing.
Posted on: 28 April 2010 by ianmacd
quote:
Originally posted by mikeeschman:
Just got Avatar on Bluray. Takes over thirty minutes to load and then won't play.

Back to DVD - screw Bluray.


Mike

I'm with you on this. I have a £1500.00 Denon 3800BD and the Blu Ray viewing experience over the last 12 months has been painful. I tried to kid myself it was OK but it's been a case of The Emperor's Clothes for me. It really came to a head this Monday with the release of the much anticipated Saving Private Ryan.

All sorts of picture artefacts, banding and a strange "pulsing" brighter every 2 or 3 seconds. And the DVD I have loads in 20 seconds and has no artefacts. I feel such a mug that I have been second buying all my DVDs as Blu Rays.

The main fiasco is setting the Audio Delay on the Denon for lip sync. I wait 5 minutes for SPR to load, watch a short sample from the film, then have to press Stop before I can enter the Denon Setup Menu, make some audio delay adjustments, leave Setup and..... Start the whole reload disk farce again because the disk wont "resume play" from where it was paused. And then if your adjustments aren't quite there, you do the whole thing again. It's a complete joke and I am totally fed up with it - especially as I had such high hopes for SPR being fault free.

I even have films where the lip sync is fine at the beginning of the film and gradually goes out of sync as the film progresses! I am one totally disillusioned Blu Ray fan.

I'm embarrassed when I think how much time I have squandered over the last 12 months messing with settings & configurations. I should have been out in the garden doing something a lot more meaningful.

Regards, Ian
Posted on: 28 April 2010 by BigH47
All I can think off , is to cause as much of a stink as possible. E-Mails ,Letters to manufactures suppliers etc and anti BR posts on all and any forum remotely connected with BR.
Posted on: 28 April 2010 by {OdS}
quote:
Originally posted by BigH47:
All I can think off , is to cause as much of a stink as possible. E-Mails ,Letters to manufactures suppliers etc and anti BR posts on all and any forum remotely connected with BR.


I highly doubt blu-ray technology has anything to do with this mess. Watch for content providers instead. This sounds exactly like crappy DRM stuff on PC games. Might work on your machine if you're lucky. Content providers need to stop thinking every human being is a thief. I can only imagine how hard it is (and how harder it will be) for manufacturers to provide firmware updates on the launch day of new blu-ray releases. This might well alter blu-ray market in favor of digital download (as software on computers are much easier to automaticly update and control).
Posted on: 28 April 2010 by winkyincanada
I would also guess that the ever evolving standard and associated problems has more to do with keeping ahead of the hackers, rather than any actual improvement in the format. I find the slow load times frustrating, but it is only about 20 or 30 seconds on my Sony. Certainly bearable. Newer discs seem to have more intuitive interfaces and the trailers are far less intrusive than they used to be. As I said earlier, I have never updated my firmware (my player is around 2 years old) and it works fine. I've never had a problem with any movie. The latest movie I have played is Hurt Locker and it was just fine.

I will never hook it up to BD-live though. The day they force me to do that is the day I start stealing movies using bittorrent.

Ian, your Denon sounds faulty. There should be no need to put up with that crap.
Posted on: 28 April 2010 by TomK
quote:
Originally posted by ianmacd:
quote:
Originally posted by mikeeschman:
Just got Avatar on Bluray. Takes over thirty minutes to load and then won't play.

Back to DVD - screw Bluray.


Mike

I'm with you on this. I have a £1500.00 Denon 3800BD and the Blu Ray viewing experience over the last 12 months has been painful. I tried to kid myself it was OK but it's been a case of The Emperor's Clothes for me. It really came to a head this Monday with the release of the much anticipated Saving Private Ryan.

All sorts of picture artefacts, banding and a strange "pulsing" brighter every 2 or 3 seconds. And the DVD I have loads in 20 seconds and has no artefacts. I feel such a mug that I have been second buying all my DVDs as Blu Rays.

The main fiasco is setting the Audio Delay on the Denon for lip sync. I wait 5 minutes for SPR to load, watch a short sample from the film, then have to press Stop before I can enter the Denon Setup Menu, make some audio delay adjustments, leave Setup and..... Start the whole reload disk farce again because the disk wont "resume play" from where it was paused. And then if your adjustments aren't quite there, you do the whole thing again. It's a complete joke and I am totally fed up with it - especially as I had such high hopes for SPR being fault free.

I even have films where the lip sync is fine at the beginning of the film and gradually goes out of sync as the film progresses! I am one totally disillusioned Blu Ray fan.

I'm embarrassed when I think how much time I have squandered over the last 12 months messing with settings & configurations. I should have been out in the garden doing something a lot more meaningful.

Regards, Ian


Ian,
I suggest you either return your Denon or have it looked at. I watched Saving Private Ryan tonight on my Pioneer LX-71 and the picture and sound quality were astoundingly good. Simply stunning in fact. 50 seconds to get to the first screen doesn't bother me as I normally load the disc and get a fresh can while all the initial processing is going on.
And why on earth are you going through such contortions re lip sync? I've never had the slightest problem in this area apart from some initial teething problems quickly sorted by bringing the firmware up to date. I think you'll find all this hassle is nothing to do with Blu Ray. I'd say get your player looked at because that's where your problem is.
Posted on: 28 April 2010 by Neill Ferguson
I have a question here and I have never known the answer why do the films take time to load ? When I got my sony player many of the discs wouldn't load I got a firmware update and all has been fine since. I have just always wondered why this happens
Posted on: 29 April 2010 by tonym
When it comes to loading speeds, some machines are much better than others so there's no intrinsic reason why there should be these huge delays other than poor implementation.