Blu-ray branding on cover art

[_Seth]

In the early releases of Blu-ray we used to see a lot of the cover art framed in heavy Blu-ray branding. I'm probably in a minority, but I really liked this! There's just something so slick about it. XD What were your thoughts?

[Magyalmar]

It should be punished by catapult.

[Cremildo]

It ruined the cover art. Pointless.

[Billz]

Bloody awful.

[Porco Azzurro]

It would be an understatement to say I am not a fan of that kind of thing.

[Ste7en]

It looked shite. Like those crappy Universal menus.Speaking of which, am I the only one who sits there thinking "WTF does * mean?" and don't get me started on that Universal screen saver. Took me ages to figure out how to switch that off

And that 'Full HD 1080p' logo looks like something off a Scotch blank VHS

[Sky_Captain]

One of many hilarious early BD quirks, thankfully consigned to the dustbin of history.

[Scottishguy]

Disney have since reprinted them minus the whole branding gimmick.

[David M]

I liked it, not from an aesthetic point of view because it did occupy a lot of the cover, but as an early adopter it made the whole thing feel new and magical.

[agenda]

Painfully HORRIBLE, absolutely nothing but disgusting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! By the way, I own Flightplan with that cover, and I hate it more and more these days. Who ever made those, and the one who said YES to the final products, should be fired, to say at least.

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by David M

I liked it, not from an aesthetic point of view because it did occupy a lot of the cover, but as an early adopter it made the whole thing feel new and magical.

I still get a kick out of seeing some old sealed Blu with the sticker "THIS DISC PLAYS IN A PLAYSTATION 3" (or something along those lines) on it.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by David M

I liked it, not from an aesthetic point of view because it did occupy a lot of the cover, but as an early adopter it made the whole thing feel new and magical.

I wouldn't have minded if it had been a slip cover with the actual cover underneath, but some of the early Disney releases* looked like budget titles for what was a new premium format.

I've got a copy of Hitchhiker's Guide where they've escaped onto the banner, that one isn't too bad.

*Funny as a lot of them had nice foil covers.

[drush9999]

Originally Posted by Ste7en

It looked shite. Like those crappy Universal menus.Speaking of which, am I the only one who sits there thinking "WTF does * mean?" and don't get me started on that Universal screen saver. Took me ages to figure out how to switch that off

And that 'Full HD 1080p' logo looks like something off a Scotch blank VHS

Did you ever figure out what * meant?

[Billz]

Originally Posted by Ste7en

and don't get me started on that Universal screen saver. Took me ages to figure out how to switch that off

YOU CAN SWITCH THAT OFF?!?
HOOOOWWWWW?????

[Ste7en]

Originally Posted by drush9999

Did you ever figure out what * meant?

I think I did... but I can't remember what it was now

Originally Posted by Billz

YOU CAN SWITCH THAT OFF?!?
HOOOOWWWWW?????

You have to press 'up' on your remote. If it ever came on I had to power down my player then try to find where I was once rebooted.

Then one day someone on another forum said "You have to press up on your remote. Everyone knows that". Apparently any direction button, enter or pop-up menu button works. But I think it can differ from machine to machine. Enter didn't work on my old Sony, so I've just stuck with 'up'.

[Rutger Lundgren]

Terrible, just terrible. There's nothing slick about it whatsoever.

[LMFAObros]

I think the aussie ones were even worse

[_Seth]

Originally Posted by Ste7en

It looked shite. Like those crappy Universal menus.Speaking of which, am I the only one who sits there thinking "WTF does * mean?" and don't get me started on that Universal screen saver. Took me ages to figure out how to switch that off

Oh yeah, all of that was horrible! At least the earlier Universal menus used actual words instead of icons.

Originally Posted by David M

it made the whole thing feel new and magical.

Aha, that's probably why I like them. That magic hasn't worn off. XD

Originally Posted by Dailyan

I still get a kick out of seeing some old sealed Blu with the sticker "THIS DISC PLAYS IN A PLAYSTATION 3" (or something along those lines) on it.

That's always mildly amusing as time goes on. Interestingly the 2 Blu-rays that I have which feature this are the only 2 that don't have disc start icons when on the PlayStation main menu.

Originally Posted by LMFAObros

I think the aussie ones were even worse

Apart from the age rating, the Blu-ray branding doesn't seem to occupy that much real estate.

[Hintermann]

I dislike any sort of branding on the front cover art. They can do all that on the back.

To me, the only think acceptable on the front cover would be the movie title and a tiny company logo in the upper left corner - like Criterion's stylized 'C'.

There have been several instances where other considerations (price, A-V quality etc) being exactly or even nearly the same, I have made the choice because of the cover art. To me, it's like owning a small painting. I have also rejected a BD because of cover art that I did not like when there was an equivalent choice.

A few years ago I opted to get Twilight Time's Rollerball BD rather than the Arrow one; TT's cover was good but nothing special but Arrow's cover for that film was awful.

Similarly, I felt that the "kissing scene" cover used for the 4K edition of La La Land in the UK release was awful. I wanted the better known "dancing scene" and so got mine from Canada even though the standard BD in the pack was Region A locked. The funny thing is that it cost me £1.59 less despite added postage.

[_Seth]

Although I despise the uniform art style that some Blu-rays have: