Disney Virtual Vault Dead???

[FruityOatyBar]

I was watching Pocahontas last night and went to check out the Virtual Vault afterwards, but it wouldn't open. I got a message saying that my player wasn't connected to the internet so the features couldn't be accessed. That seemed odd. I had even downloaded a firmware update just the previous day but I checked via my players network setting anyway and everything seemed in order.

Next I checked the Virtual Vault on my Fantasia disc and got another error message. This one said that the feature needed local storage and though my player supported the feature, all the local storage was used up. Again this doesn't make sense as I only bought this player a few weeks ago and don't have anything at all (besides the OS) stored on it.

So I'm wondering is anyone else having trouble with the Virtual Vault or know what may be going on? Has Disney killed the Virtual Vault?

[PuppyJonathan]

I just don't think you have internet access, works fine (Fantasia) on my laptop when I checked a week ago

[FruityOatyBar]

Originally Posted by PuppyJonathan

I just don't think you have internet access, works fine (Fantasia) on my laptop when I checked a week ago

Well I've since checked again and my Blu-ray player definitely has a connection to the internet so why the Virtual Vault is not working for me I don't know.

Any one else experiencing a similar problem?

[ilovenola2]

Originally Posted by FruityOatyBar

Well I've since checked again and my Blu-ray player definitely has a connection to the internet so why the Virtual Vault is not working for me I don't know.

Any one else experiencing a similar problem?

I have NEVER been able to download the "Virtual Vault" contents for the Fantasia set. I've tried on two different computers with two different (high-speed) internet providers and two different Panny blu-ray players. Just will NOT do it. Period.

I have saved my DVD set of "The Fantasia Anthology" for the extras disc that SHOULD have been included on the Fantasia/F2000 blu-ray!!

[disneyfreak]

Originally Posted by ilovenola2

I have NEVER been able to download the "Virtual Vault" contents for the Fantasia set. I've tried on two different computers with two different (high-speed) internet providers and two different Panny blu-ray players. Just will NOT do it. Period.

I have saved my DVD set of "The Fantasia Anthology" for the extras disc that SHOULD have been included on the Fantasia/F2000 blu-ray!!

To be frank, we could have had it worse. They could have put both movies on one disc and gave us no bonus features.

[stts651]

More proof that CLOUD STORAGE is STUPID

[MacEachaidh]

Originally Posted by stts651

More proof that CLOUD STORAGE is STUPID

+1. Though I would have said short-sighted rather than stupid.

It's like BDLive — they haggled over shared specifications, they marketed it as a sales incentive and a bonus feature on their discs, and then non-one's bothered to put any effort into it, other than perhaps to upload more ads about more things they want you to buy.

I'm in Australia, and half the time on these things, even on the discs that are marketed and sold in my region, I get greeted with messages that the content hasn't been enabled for my region. It was a rotten idea to start with, that by lack of effort and due diligence has turned into a scam.

[RebelPrince1986]

I get the same message on Virtual Vault titles... but I still get the personalized menu on Sleeping Beauty and can open up BD-Live features on other discs... It's only Virtual Vault that gives me a problem.

[HDMe]

And people love the idea of streaming/cloud replacing physical media.

Soon as the cloud server goes or the authentication server goes... you can't play stuff you thought you paid to watch whenever. Hopefully consumers will remember this enough to keep physical media as the main delivery mechanism.

[FruityOatyBar]

Originally Posted by RebelPrince1986

I get the same message on Virtual Vault titles... but I still get the personalized menu on Sleeping Beauty and can open up BD-Live features on other discs... It's only Virtual Vault that gives me a problem.

I'm experiencing the same thing. The only reason I can think why the Sleeping Beauty features would work and the others would not is that Disney turned off the servers.

Digital distribution has a lot of benefits, but Disney cutting things off like this so soon (Pocahontas was released to BD in August 2012) really undermines any trust in the service. I know I won't be trusting Disney in these areas in the future. Thankfully, Apple has proven much better with this sort of thing. I'm still able to stream movies and TV shows I purchased from them 4-5 years ago.

[Rizor]

Good thing I kept my old DVDs. I knew Disney would eventually stop caring and the features wouldn't be up forever. But I do expect them to return for the time being....

[insomniac013]

Originally Posted by FruityOatyBar

I'm experiencing the same thing. The only reason I can think why the Sleeping Beauty features would work and the others would not is that Disney turned off the servers.

Digital distribution has a lot of benefits, but Disney cutting things off like this so soon (Pocahontas was released to BD in August 2012) really undermines any trust in the service. I know I won't be trusting Disney in these areas in the future. Thankfully, Apple has proven much better with this sort of thing. I'm still able to stream movies and TV shows I purchased from them 4-5 years ago.

Current Disney = Cutting costs anywhere they can

God i miss their DVD days...

[PuppyJonathan]

Originally Posted by insomniac013

Current Disney = Cutting costs anywhere they can

God i miss their DVD days...

I miss their earlier DVD days, I'm looking back at all their dvds before 2004 and I am completely impressed with the quality of those releases

[Clark Kent]

No studio will maintain web servers for special bonus content. The percentage of people that actually use that content is amazingly small, in the single digits. It was horribly shortsighted by Disney to ever include bonus features this way, but it was primarily designed as a bulletin point to advertise.

[bookcase]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

No studio will maintain web servers for special bonus content. The percentage of people that actually use that content is amazingly small, in the single digits. It was horribly shortsighted by Disney to ever include bonus features this way, but it was primarily designed as a bulletin point to advertise.

Personally, if an extra isn't on a disc, I don't intend to seek it out -- except for bonus content that comes with iTunes digital copies, which I can easily stream to my Apple TV. Disney's Virtual Vault = BD Live, in my eyes, and I never had an interest in it.

[FruityOatyBar]

What makes this sting even more is that Disney is trying to hide the end of Virtual Vault with error messages that make the user think something is wrong when it is not. They're lying to their customers. Why not just put up a message that says. "Unfortunately the Disney Virtual Vault is no longer being supported. We hope you continue to enjoy the other bonus features on this disc."

Instead they decided to twist the knife.

Real classy Disney.

[ScottDS]

I did a Google search and why wasn't I surprised to find this thread?

I just purchased a new Blu-Ray player and tried the Vault feature on Fantasia 2000. I got the error message described above, so I tested the Internet connection and was even able to connect to Netflix.

It's definitely on Disney's end. Hopefully they'll revisit these titles in the future with all the bonus materials intact. (I don't care if they're on a DVD, either.)

[8traxrule]

Tried the BD-Live stuff on Pinocchio recently and that didn't work either.

Truly insulting is my 3D disc of "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs", from SONY, the main company behind the Blu-Ray format, now will not load at all as long as BD-Live is enabled on my player! They'd gotten rid of their regular BD-Live portal a while ago, changing it to just a screen saying "For information about new releases, visit Sonypictures.com" but apparently even that is gone now. When this disc is first loaded, it keeps trying to reach a server that isn't there anymore, and just keeps on trying for eternity. I've got some 3D IMAX titles from Image that do the same thing- if I have to default to keeping BD-Live turned off on my player, that'll just give other companies less incentive to use that on their new releases even if they might have something actually worthwhile in mind.

Needless to say all the "internet connected" features on HD-DVDs no longer work.

[biomerge]

They were stupid to ever include content in this format; it just makes the Blu-ray released titles quite worthless - Fantasia/Fantasia 2000, The Lion King and Pocahontas to name a few are pretty bare bones without the classic content.

[WCD199317]

Originally Posted by biomerge

They were stupid to ever include content in this format; it just makes the Blu-ray released titles quite worthless - Fantasia/Fantasia 2000, The Lion King and Pocahontas to name a few are pretty bare bones without the classic content.

The Blu-ray UK in Pocahontas included all the classics DVD bonus features of the disc (except the trailers, feature of premiere in Central Park) and not in Virtual Vault like in US.