Does BD-Live even work anymore?

[FragnitoM]

I have two players and neither will access BD-live content. I’ve tried contacting the manufacturer (Sony & LG) for support and they told me to contact bd-live support for which they told me they didn’t know how to contact them

[Dailyan]

BD-Live was discontinued years ago (sometime in 2014 I believe).

[AmishParadise]

BD-Live? Oh, is that what the ethernet jack on the back of my Blu-ray player was for. Who knew.

[FragnitoM]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

BD-Live was discontinued years ago (sometime in 2014 I believe).

Okay thanks. I wish Sony had just told me that instead of them going through all the resets and crap with me

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

BD-Live was discontinued years ago (sometime in 2014 I believe).

Studios were still using it in 2016, but I'm not sure if any recent releases are using that feature. Some studios may have discontinued features to certain titles and/or shut down their servers while others continued to use it.

EDIT: It seems Universal is still listing BD-Live on some of their recent releases.

[FragnitoM]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Studios were still using it in 2016, but I'm not sure if any recent releases are using that feature. Some studios may have discontinued features to certain titles and/or shut down their servers while others continued to use it.

EDIT: It seems Universal is still listing BD-Live on some of their recent releases.

I was trying with an older Sony title and it would not connect. If they have shut down servers for bd-live that would make sense why it won’t work on 2 different players

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by FragnitoM

I was trying with an older Sony title and it would not connect. If they have shut down servers for bd-live that would make sense why it won’t work on 2 different players

I believe Sony (studio) discontinued the use of BD-Live years ago. For clarification though, the feature is dependent on the individual studio maintaining the servers for their releases.

[slimdude]

BD-Live always have been problematic to the point that it was totally useless as tits on a bull from the git go. That was a feature on Blu-ray Players that should've been discontinued, and nobody would've missed it. Most Blu-rays doesn't even have BD-Live anyway.

[DNSK]

The old commercials for BD-Live already feel a bit nostalgic.

[lemonski]

It was a dumb idea in the first place, IIRC BD added it to the spec in response to HD-DVD touting it as the next greatest thing since sliced bread. No-one came up with any compelling uses for it, and it was easy to predict it would be abandoned. Once you’ve bought the disc and studios have your money, providing server farms and content for no additional income is just an ongoing cost centre.

[orangerunner]

I seem to recall many early Blu-ray players had constant firmware upgrades due to constantly patching holes in the BD Live software.

Not that I personally used it but it was an early lesson to never trust the "cloud" for continuing to provide a service you paid for.

[rdodolak]

An interesting capability I don't believe I ever saw implemented was the ability to download subtitles not on the physical discs and to be able to play them while watching said movie. I think a lot more people would have found this useful had they made it available.

[TravisTylerBlack]

I thought BD Live was pretty much dead by around 2014? The whole idea seemed a bit ill conceived from the beginning and I honestly can’t recall successfully accessing it even once. Though I do recall several Universal title menus displaying text urging me to connect my player to the internet in order to get the “full BD-Live experience” hahah

Disney had an awful version of their own going to back 2010 with their “Virtual Vault” that was quite painful to load and navigate. Movies Anywhere fills most of that gap now I suppose.

[sfmarine]

Good ‘ol BD-Live. I watched Dexter recently and almost every single special feature was only accessible through Live so I missed out on all that extra content. It’s a real bummer that they axed it, but it never really took off.

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by lemonski

It was a dumb idea in the first place, IIRC BD added it to the spec in response to HD-DVD touting it as the next greatest thing since sliced bread. No-one came up with any compelling uses for it, and it was easy to predict it would be abandoned. Once you’ve bought the disc and studios have your money, providing server farms and content for no additional income is just an ongoing cost centre.

I hear BD-Live and I get an anxiety nervous twitch in my face as I flash back to the initial release of Fantasia on Blu-Ray, with all the old bonus features from the Fantasia Anthology DVD locked to BD-Live (even though they were actually present on the disc, just inaccessible). Nobody could watch them without waiting an interminable amount of time for the selected feature to load.

[sfmarine]

I feel your pain.....hopefully the Fantasia signature edition will bring back those exclusive bonus features.

Loving that Chief Inspector Dreyfus gif though

[Network23]

I rememberr the BD live on universal titles always in the menus and that spinny lil glboe in the upper right on some titles.

[BuraddoRun]

Good riddance! Locking material on a PHYSICAL purchase is ridiculous. What would have been a cool use for it would be special events. Like, watch your movie on a certain anniversary date/time and hear new, live commentary. Something like that would have been neat. Or pop in your movie on a certain day to see a sneak preview trailer for an upcoming sequel. Stuff like that.

[koberulz]

I've never even known what BD-Live was or did, TBH.

[The Mad Kiwi]

Originally Posted by BuraddoRun

Good riddance! Locking material on a PHYSICAL purchase is ridiculous. What would have been a cool use for it would be special events. Like, watch your movie on a certain anniversary date/time and hear new, live commentary. Something like that would have been neat. Or pop in your movie on a certain day to see a sneak preview trailer for an upcoming sequel. Stuff like that.

That right there was the only time I've seen BD-Live used right. The original release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince allowed you access to a live Q&A and commentary with director David Yates and actor Daniel Radcliffe the weekend after the release, and then they streamed a special sneak peek of Deathly Hallows afterwards. Special events like this are the only time BD-Live makes sense, but now we're in an era where live Twitter watchparties and sites like Rabbit (which now got retooled as Kast) take the place of that sort of thing. And honestly, those are a much smoother and less clunky way to do the same thing.