Ask questions to Blu-ray BD-J insider "Talkstr8t"

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by Talkstr8t

Also lots of work on the BD-Live front, to the point that streaming is commonplace (Netflix on the PS3 is the best example of this).

Wait, what? Netflix on PS3 is a BD-J app?

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Icemage

Wait, what? Netflix on PS3 is a BD-J app?

yup, it use BD live https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=3693 it should work with any internet connected BD live player that has the storage requirements. It is a simple way to give PS3 netflix streaming access while not breaking the agreement with MS (it is not the console that has access but the BD player built into it)

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

yup, it use BD live https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=3693 it should work with any internet connected BD live player that has the storage requirements. It is a simple way to give PS3 netflix streaming access while not braking the agreement with MS (it is not the console that has access but the BD player built into it)

How could it slow down the agreement?

Sorry, the English major in me came out. I'll give you a break.

In essence, anything streaming from Netflix is like a giant trailer (one of the things streamed from BD-Live sites).

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

the English major in me came out.

no prob, spell checkers don't catch stuff like that and I am bad with typos.

[Talkstr8t]

Hi, Chris,

Originally Posted by blindcat87

I didn't know if this really falls into your range since you are the Java guy, but I know you know a lot of the authoring community, and was hoping you might be able to get some word out on this if it is possible. It doesn't take a lot of work to make Flash or Java applications blind accessible for the PC, all of the controls just need to be properly labelled so that they can be found and recognized by the screen reader.

You're correct that this really has nothing to do with the Blu-ray side of things, but I can appreciate the difficulty it causes for you. My father was a rehabilitation counselor for the blind for most of my life, so I have some familiarity with the challenges the blind community faces. Should I have an audience with those in a position to address this I'll certainly plead your case!

Best,

- Talk

[Talkstr8t]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

yup, it use BD live https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=3693 it should work with any internet connected BD live player that has the storage requirements.

It should, but I've yet to hear of a non-PS3 upon which it works. My guess is the application is currently checking to see if it's running on a PS3, and if not it doesn't function. As to why, it's been speculated that perhaps Sony has an exclusive with Netflix for some period of time, or perhaps Netflix didn't have time to QA the application on all the standalone players, so they disabled support until that could be done. Since the BD-Live application appears to be launching fine, they could do a seamless update to the app once they've completed their quality control and it would just "start working" on the non-PS3 Blu-ray Disc players. It certainly seems it would be in Netflix' best interests for this disc to work on all BD-Live players, not just PS3's.

- Talk

[Jeff Kleist]

Sony helped finance the Netflix disc, so they probably have some kind of window

As soon as the disc hit, I got on the phone with some people and we came to the same conclusion as Talk, that the disc is doing a hardware check, but that the base code should function with any 2.0 player down the line once that window has expired and the code is tweaked for any bugs that crop up.

Netflix is definately not the only streaming site that's looking at loading BD-J apps for their services onto discs (no not Hulu, at least not yet because they're only licensed for computer based playback)

[ckenisell]

Originally Posted by Talkstr8t

Nothing earth-shattering, but we're seeing the authoring maturing nicely, to where many BD-J discs auto-resume, etc.

Disney's doing an awesome job with this. I wish the programmers would share their code and we'd get auto-resume on every title. BD-J or not.

[blindcat87]

Thanks Talk,

I figured it wasn't really your department, but wasn't sure there was an insider here who's department it was. With A/V stuff, both hardware and software, what we blind fans have to face is that it really isn't something that occurs naturally to think that this is something a lot of blind folks might be interested in. The home computer industry started thinking of blind consumers really not all that long after home computers came about, but look at how many generations of MP3 players we went through before accessibility started to become a real concept, outside of some players with no screen which were accessible by default and some open source alternative firmware for some players called Rock Box, the 4th Gen iPod Nano was the first intentionally accessible player.

I think it is even harder to equate movies and blind fans. Way back when I went to see 'Die Another Day' in the theater, when exiting after the movie, some teenager sarcastically said to me "Enjoy _seeing_ the movie?" My response was "I was sighted when I went in there, but after seeing Halle Berry in that bikini, man now II need this." and I put my cane out in demonstration. The kid didn't have a comeback to that one. This has, of course, become my favorite tale of running into the surprise one can encounter at being a blind movie fan.

Anyway, most of us who are visually impaired HT fans appreciate just knowing that there are those in the industry such as yourself that realize that we are out there and that are willing to pass the word along when the opportunity arises. The current state of technology is opening up a lot of opportunities to make the hobby more accessible. There is a gadget being developed right now jointly by the UK's RNIB and some US corporate interests that is supposed to take advantage of the trend towards everything in home audio and video being networkable that can network with a user's system and use a built in OCR unit to read everything from setup menus to cable/sattelite programming and schedule information. Pretty cool stuff.

Again, thanks for being willing to pass the word along, most especially since it is not something in your part of the format. Also, would like to say that we all appreciate the people like your dad that do a tough and often underappreciated job. I used to work as both an adaptive technologist and a teacher at a summer program for blind youth, it can be tough, but very rewarding work.

Thanks,
Chris

Originally Posted by Talkstr8t

Hi, Chris,

You're correct that this really has nothing to do with the Blu-ray side of things, but I can appreciate the difficulty it causes for you. My father was a rehabilitation counselor for the blind for most of my life, so I have some familiarity with the challenges the blind community faces. Should I have an audience with those in a position to address this I'll certainly plead your case!

Best,

- Talk

[eldin]

Hi Talkstr8t - Can you tell me a little bit about the cost structure of professional BD authoring and feature development? Specifically, I'm looking for some info on what studios typically spend on the special features (menus, BD-J, BD-Live, etc.)

Thanks!

[Talkstr8t]

Hi, Eldin,

Originally Posted by eldin

Can you tell me a little bit about the cost structure of professional BD authoring and feature development? Specifically, I'm looking for some info on what studios typically spend on the special features (menus, BD-J, BD-Live, etc.)

Unfortunately, I don't have current information on this. It's certainly much lower than it was a year or two ago, since most of the studios have no created libraries of code which they can reuse from disc to disc with only minimal new development work required. Also, due to economic challenges, my sense is fewer titles are getting the "special treatment" with regards to live director events, etc., than they were in the past.

- Talk

[ice4351]

I am moving to Thailand soon. Will my Blu Rays from the USA play on a Thai Blu Ray player and Thai TV? If not would they play on a region free Blu Ray player and a Thai TV?

[jdc115]

Originally Posted by ice4351

I am moving to Thailand soon. Will my Blu Rays from the USA play on a Thai Blu Ray player and Thai TV? If not would they play on a region free Blu Ray player and a Thai TV?

It shouldn't be a problem, SE Asia is region A. You will probably find the BD expensive in Thailand so buy what you want before you go over.

[Talkstr8t]

Thanks, JDC. It's possible your player won't work with 50Hz titles which you acquire in SE Asia, however - you could check the list at https://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-pl...atibility.html or perhaps ask Insider Keith Jack. I'm also not certain that all Thai TV's will accept 60Hz input.

- Talk

[dave nault]

two movies are shown available to order on Blu-ray but are not listed at Blu-ray.com. why is this. movie one is called menino no espelho 2014 also listed as the boy in the mirror. at amazon it is available in Blu-ray as a region free Blu-ray. granted it is very expensive to order. I believe it is from brazil but it does not show even listed on the Blu-ray.com website anywhere. not on the brazil, uk, united states or Canada. how is this possible. the second movie was actually sent to my attention by amazon and is called flight of the navigator. I believe it's a Disney movie but on Blu-ray.com it is listed but there is no release date. again how is this movie available to purchase on Blu-ray from amazon. hope you can explain my confusion. awaiting your response. dave nault

[TheLaughingMann]

Originally Posted by ckenisell

Disney's doing an awesome job with this. I wish the programmers would share their code and we'd get auto-resume on every title. BD-J or not.

I would give to have BD-J have a universal auto-resume setting across all Blu-Ray players. I have yet to test out the bulk of my Blu collection to see which are BD-J and which are not...but I found that HBO titles are BD-J. And if you ever gotta pause anywhere, going from the beginning and finding your place is a pain.

[ydtparts]

i`m look it!

ความรู้ที่คุ้มค่าดู

[JediSenshi]

I have just borrowed Rogue One from my local library & unable to find how to watch the extras. I do get menus for Play, Scene selection & Setup & Setup only deals with languages & subtitles. This is the second bluray I have borrowed from them. Does the library lock the extra content so one is forced to buy the movie for the extras? Is there anyway to access the extras content?

[PaulGo]

Originally Posted by JediSenshi

I have just borrowed Rogue One from my local library & unable to find how to watch the extras. I do get menus for Play, Scene selection & Setup & Setup only deals with languages & subtitles. This is the second bluray I have borrowed from them. Does the library lock the extra content so one is forced to buy the movie for the extras? Is there anyway to access the extras content?

The library version is probably the same as the rental version which also does not have the extra content.