Blu-ray Menu System for Movies

[maui2k8]

Having recently liquidated all of my HD DVD collection and player, I made the switch to Blu-Ray about a month ago (Samsung BD-P1500 - so far so good!).

One thing I was curious about were the differences in the menu systems for the movies that are on both HD DVD and Blu-Ray (Warner Brothers). What I noticed is that on HD DVD, most of the menus seemed to scroll up and down smoothly when you viewed the Title Menu while watching a movie. On Blu-Ray they just seem to pop up and then disappear (in other words not as slick). This is in no way a big deal, but was curious if there was a technical reason that HD DVD had a menu system that scrolled up and then down to display and hide where by Blu-Ray just appears then disappears.

Was this one area that HD DVD had more flexibility in their menu system than Blu-Ray or just that Blu-Ray movies just did not implement their menus systems this way?

Thanks!

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by maui2k8

Having recently liquidated all of my HD DVD collection and player, I made the switch to Blu-Ray about a month ago (Samsung BD-P1500 - so far so good!).

One thing I was curious about were the differences in the menu systems for the movies that are on both HD DVD and Blu-Ray (Warner Brothers). What I noticed is that on HD DVD, most of the menus seemed to scroll up and down smoothly when you viewed the Title Menu while watching a movie. On Blu-Ray they just seem to pop up and then disappear (in other words not as slick). This is in no way a big deal, but was curious if there was a technical reason that HD DVD had a menu system that scrolled up and then down to display and hide where by Blu-Ray just appears then disappears.

Was this one area that HD DVD had more flexibility in their menu system than Blu-Ray or just that Blu-Ray movies just did not implement their menus systems this way?

Thanks!

It's player dependent. Some players are better than others. The PS3 is the smoothest and fastest.

If HD DVD had as many CE manufacturers as BD, the same thing will happen.


fuad

[maui2k8]

Thanks for the reply. So on Blu-Ray players the top menu or title menu may or may not scroll up or down depending on the manufacturer of the player? On most HD DVDs they did scroll up and down to appear or disappear but on my Samsung BD-P1500 the menus just pop on and off to appear and disappear with no scrolling motion or swooshing sound like is present on HD DVDs...

Just curious.

[kefrank]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

It's player dependent. Some players are better than others. The PS3 is the smoothest and fastest.

No, I don't think that addresses his question. He's referring to the way WB implemented the menus on Blu-ray vs. on HD DVD. On Blu-ray, when you select something, the menu selection just appears or disappears, even on the PS3 - it doesn't scroll into and out of view like it does on HD DVD. Perhaps the scrolling was easier to implement with HDi than it is with BD-Java. Regardless, it's a pretty minor thing, as the menus are functionally identical.

[WickyWoo]

It's not an easier or harder thing

When you're designing for one set of hardware, you know exactly what you're getting. That's what happens when there's at most 2 models in a single year, you can do that easily. It's the same reason why Apple doesn't have as many compatibility issues, because they tightly control what goes into their systems, which are all made by the same manufacturer. PC is an open architecture with billions if not trillions of possible combinations.

Democracy is by its very nature untidy
With Blu-ray there's a large spectrum of player ability one must account for. Cheaper players will use less powerful processors, and animation takes up a lot of CPU power. If the disc manufacturer wants to, they can make multiple menu sets for the different speeds that the player detects during Java load.

[maui2k8]

I do agree that the menu systems function the same and this is a minor thing... I was just curious to know what the reason may be for the differences in the menu systems and how they appear or disappear. So basically the issue looks like the Studios need to design their discs for the least powerful Blu-Ray player is the bottom line...

That said, have there been any movies created that have one menu system for a certain type of less powerful Blu-Ray player and another menu system for for players with a more powerful processor?

[kefrank]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

It's not an easier or harder thing

When you're designing for one set of hardware, you know exactly what you're getting. That's what happens when there's at most 2 models in a single year, you can do that easily. It's the same reason why Apple doesn't have as many compatibility issues, because they tightly control what goes into their systems, which are all made by the same manufacturer. PC is an open architecture with billions if not trillions of possible combinations.

that certainly makes sense.

perhaps "easier" was not the right term for me to use in my conjecture. my statement was based mostly on experience in software development with both underlying technologies (XML and Java). generally, Java seems to require a little more effort to accomplish the same thing (depending, of course, on what you want to accomplish), so i wondered if WB simply didn't want to make the effort.

ultimately, if different menu schemes can be authored to accommodate various player processing levels and WB chose not to do so, then it would seem to ultimately come down to a lack of effort. i'm not as much of a WB critic as many here, but lack of effort does seem to be a somewhat common theme with them.