Universal Studios was the last major studio to support BD-LIVE up until the year 2021 - Blu-ray Forum

HDTV1080P · 07-28-2021, 10:37 AM

The Blu-ray format first came out in the year 2006. Two years later in 2008 the first profile 2.0 BD-LIVE Blu-ray enabled titles appeared on the market. At one time BD-LIVE was so popular that almost every major studio offered Blu-ray titles with the BD-LIVE feature. BD-LIVE would offer online streaming commentary tracks that synced up with the Blu-ray main video, plus streaming extra features, and streaming movie trailers.

However, several years ago Sony and some other major studios as a cost cutting decision turned off their BD-LIVE servers so that the BD-LIVE function would no longer work on the Blu-ray titles that they released. However Universal Studios up until the year 2021 was the last major studio still supporting the BD-LIVE feature with streaming new release trailers and other BD-LIVE content. However, I discovered just recently that as a cost cutting decision Universal Studios has turned off their BD-LIVE main server sometime in the last few months. One can no longer access any Universal movie trailers and other streaming content from the main server. However, on select Blu-ray titles like Fast Five one can manually toggle off and on the BD-LIVE ticker to see a written description of select Universal movie titles that can be read in the upper right hand corner of the screen. This must be one of the BD-LIVE servers that Universal forgot to turn off since other Blu-ray titles when toggling off and on the ticket does not connect to any Universal BD-LIVE server.

I well miss BD-LIVE. A few years ago almost every standard Blu-ray disc from Universal Studios showed trailers of the latest movies being shown in the movie theater if ones Blu-ray player was connected to the Internet and had BD-LIVE feature turned on. While it is technically possible to use BD-LIVE with the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format and Blu-ray 3D format, no studio to my knowledge every used BD-LIVE for 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D discs, just standard Blu-ray discs were used for BD-LIVE.

While its true that every major studio has now turned off their BD-LIVE feature including Universals main BD-LIVE server just recently in the year 2021. There are a select few smaller studios that still have their BD-LIVE server up and running at least partially. For example the Showtime Blu-ray titles that use the BD-LIVE feature still have a active BD-LIVE server up and running, but its only partially working since some of the BD-LIVE content cannot be accessed.

Its too bad BD-LIVE is on life support. The quality of the streams were mainly 720P using 2.0 DTS stereo. Technically BD-LIVE could have been used with 4K streams with surround sound on the 4K Blu-ray format, but no studio decided to do so. Also to make Blu-ray players cheaper in price no standalone Blu-ray player currently in production has a minimum of 1GB of internal persistent storage to use BD-LIVE like many older models offered, instead one has to purchase a minimum of 1GB USB stick, SD card, or external USB hard drive to use the BD-LIVE feature, bookmarks, and resume play feature.

I well miss BD-LIVE, Universal did the best job of supporting the BD-LIVE servers up until the year 2021. Some small studios like Showtime still partially use the BD-LIVE feature for legacy Blu-ray titles. For all new Universal Blu-ray titles BD-LIVE is not even an option. In fact from all new Blu-ray titles being released from every studio that I know, BD-LIVE is no longer an option. Its just to hard to get BD-LIVE feature to work from current in production Blu-ray players including 4K Blu-ray players, consumers have to go buy a external 1GB or larger storage drive and turn on the feature in the menu and make sure their player is connected to the Internet.

BD-LIVE could have been and should have been an awesome feature (like streaming commentary tracks), but BD-LIVE ended up being another failed feature that did not get used to often by consumers that own Blu-ray players.

Wendell R. Breland · 07-28-2021, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

BD-LIVE could have been and should have been an awesome feature (like streaming commentary tracks), but BD-LIVE ended up being another failed feature that did not get used to often by consumers that own Blu-ray players.

IIRC in the early days when a disc started up it would activate BD-LIVE. For us it was very irritating so the player was not connected to the internet. For years now all our players has had the option to disable BD-LIVE which I do.

HDTV1080P · 07-28-2021, 10:52 PM

When BD-LIVE was first introduced with a firmware update to the PS3 in 2008 it worked good and fast from testimonies of consumers that used it on the PS3. However, it was not until 2010 with standalone Blu-ray players was BD-LIVE a faster and more bug free experience from some Blu-ray players. PowerDVD 21 Ultra is super fast and works real good with BD-LIVE for the small amount of studios that still support BD-LIVE.

If one is using the 2016 OPPO UDP-203 or any modern 4K Blu-ray player the BD-LIVE feature is super fast and easy to use. When BD-LIVE first launched in 2008 there was all kinds of technically problems with standalone Blu-ray players that first used the feature around the year 2009. When the BD-LIVE feature was fixed and working fine years later, there was not enough studios that wanted to support the feature anymore, so BD-LIVE slowly died. While its true that a streaming app on a Roku Ultra device is more reliable than BD-LIVE, the studios and the BDA had the opportunity to really improve on the BD-LIVE feature with the launch of super-fast more powerful 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players that could handle fast 4K streams with surround sound, but there was no interest in improving and bringing back the BD-LIVE feature. Too much negative feedback from the 2008 BD-LIVE launch. Really sad since I have been using BD-LIVE since 2010 with no major problems. A total of 11 years of using BD-LIVE with mostly Universal Studios Blu-ray titles was flawless on my Panasonic, Sony, and OPPO players over the years. I guess I well be one of the few people that well miss BD-LIVE. Some of my old Blu-ray discs lost their bonus BD-LIVE commentary streaming feature that synced up with the Blu-ray disc video. It was not used that much but sometimes the studio for hit Blu-ray titles would offer additional commentary tracks from other actors, and crews that were part of the movie. Also I liked the streaming HD movie trailers that automatically use to play when a Universal Blu-ray disc was inserted (a different set of trailers would play every time the disc was inserted), now I have to watch the default decade old trailers on the Blu-ray disc that does have better picture and sound when compared to streaming.

Geode · 08-03-2021, 04:46 AM

I never tried BD LIVE since I never had a player wired up to access online content. If I attempted it now are there any discs that can access content?

unberechenbar · 08-03-2021, 04:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geode

I never tried BD LIVE since I never had a player wired up to access online content. If I attempted it now are there any discs that can access content?

Don't think so since apparently all the BD LIVE servers are offline now.

Vilya · 08-03-2021, 06:29 AM

BD Live was just a marketing gimmick that people tired of almost instantly. Good riddance.

BD Live simply used the internet to connect to movie trailers. BD Live had to launch first when loading a disc and the reward for waiting was advertising. Any internet or network issues made that wait even longer.

I do not buy blu-rays to be made to wait for connection to an adbot before I can play my disc.

If I want to see ads for other movies, I can do that online anytime. I never wanted my blu-ray player to force feed me trailers. The ones that are recorded on the disc itself can be easily bypassed; the menu or chapter skip buttons make doing so fast & simple.

I disabled BD Live years ago on every player that I own; it was an utterly worthless feature well deserving of its death. If it has a grave, show me where that I may relieve myself upon it.

bhampton · 08-03-2021, 01:55 PM

Ha,

My disc player doesn't have internet access privileges. Neither does my AVR. If I see there is a FW update I hook them up temporarily.

My home network has enough devices to manage with phones, tablets and so on. I think on average there's 20 gizmos most of the time. (currently 16)

-Brian

SleazyForWeasley · 08-03-2021, 02:03 PM

Universal still have the worst disc menus, especially 4K UHD discs. Use your words. Am I supposed to know what those little icons are?

HDTV1080P · 08-03-2021, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geode

I never tried BD LIVE since I never had a player wired up to access online content. If I attempted it now are there any discs that can access content?

Its like trying to find a needle in a haystack to find a working BD-LIVE server since all the major studios are not supporting BD-LIVE anymore. However some old Showtime TV series on Blu-ray still have some partially working BD-LIVE servers and menus working but many of the selections on the screen to play the bonus BD-LIVE streaming features is not working. One can no longer access any Universal movie trailers and other streaming content from the main server. However, on select Blu-ray titles like Fast Five one can manually toggle off and on the BD-LIVE ticker to see a written description of select Universal movie titles that can be read in the upper right hand corner of the screen. This must be one of the BD-LIVE servers that Universal forgot to turn off since other Blu-ray titles when toggling off and on the ticket does not connect to any Universal BD-LIVE server.

All new Blu-ray players still support BD-LIVE, its up to the studios if they want to bring the feature back. BD-LIVE sometimes had 1080P with surround sound, but most of the time BD-LIVE was 720P with 2.0 DTS stereo for Universal movie trailers. Technically it would be possible for the studios to release 4K Blu-ray titles and to offer 4K streaming bonus content with surround sound using BD-LIVE but that was never done.

On my 2016 OPPO UDP-203 Blu-ray player with 1GB of internal memory for BD-LIVE and a attached USB 3.0 2TB hard drive (The OPPO can have a total of 3 16TB hard drives attached at once). Most people in all 50 states have access to a minimum of 1,000Mbps if they choose to subscribe to 1GB Internet service. Technically since I have Internet download speeds of around 920Mbps, the studios could use BD-LIVE to stream 4K Blu-ray images with lossless audio by using only 150Mbps per each stream. Or the studios could allow a encrypted Blu-ray image download to one of the 3 16TB hard drives connected to the OPPO. So the technology exists today to offer a newer improved version of BD-LIVE that could offer the exact same 4K Blu-ray image quality with 100GB downloads or live 150Mbps streams. The studios would just need to invest in faster servers and the Blu-ray player manufactories would just need to have a minimum of a 1,000Mbps ethernet jack on the Blu-ray player like the 2016 OPPO UDP-203.

Vilya · 08-03-2021, 10:00 PM

^BD Live failed.

Accept the finality and make peace with it. Henceforth let it be known as BD Dead.

1 Gbps internet service? Access isn't the issue. Yeah, it's available here even in my tiny village, but it costs $140 per month AND it requires that I use their hardware at an additional monthly fee. No chance in hell will I pay that much nor do I need it to stream in 4K. No streaming service offering 4K content recommends any speed above 30 Mbps; some recommend half that. If I had a family of 10 all streaming 4K at the same time I would need only about a third of that 1 Gbps service. It's overkill.

Internet speed isn't the problem here; it's the unreliability. Who cares how fast your internet is when it's down? Also meaningless if the server that you are trying to connect to is overwhelmed, or, in the case of BD Dead, when the servers are turned off...permanently.

Connecting 48 TB of external hard drive space to an Oppo 203 is also overkill and this capability has nothing to do with BD Dead. Go with something akin to a Plex server solution if you want to download, or rip, and store a lot of content.

HDTV1080P · 08-03-2021, 10:12 PM

Almost all Internet provides allow one to own their own equipment like router, modem, and other equipment to avoid the rental of equipment fee. Getting 10,000Mbps upload and 10,000Mbps download speed can be costly in big cities since that level of service can cost around $399 a month. 2,000Mbps upload and 2,000Mbps download is a lot cheaper in large cities. However when it comes to 1,000Mps upload and 1,000Mbps download the Internet plans are normally under $100 even in some rural areas of America. Many area of the country offer 1Gbps Internet for around $70 a month (sometimes cheaper).

BD-LIVE is currently dead but the studios can resurrect that small feature of the Blu-ray format at any time. Also if the BD Association every decides to offer 4K Blu-ray streams at 150Mbps, if someone wants to subscribe to a 300Mbps Internet service package instead of a 1,000Mbps package, then 300Mbps would be fast enough for two separate 4K Blu-ray streams in the same house. Many Internet provides that offer true 1000Mbps upload and 1000Mbps download, the entry level Internet plans start at 250Mbps or 300Mbps.

Vilya · 08-03-2021, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

Getting 10,000Mbps upload and 10,000Mbps download speed can be costly in big cities since that level of service can cost around $399 a month. 2,000Mbps upload and 2,000Mbps download is a lot cheaper in large cities. However when it comes to 1,000Mps upload and 1,000Mbps download the Internet plans are normally under $100 even in some rural areas of the America. Many area of the country offer 1Gbps Internet for around $70 a month (sometimes cheaper).

BD-LIVE is currently dead but the studios can resurrect that small feature of the Blu-ray format at any time. Also if the BD every decides to offer 4K Blu-ray streams at 150Mbps, if someone wants to subscribe to a 300Mbps Internet service package instead of a 1,000Mbps, then 300Mpbs would be fast enough for two separate 4K Blu-ray streams in the same house. Many Internet provides that offer true 1000Mbps upload and 1000Mbps download, there entry level Internet plans start at 250Mbps or 300Mbps.

Try pricing that 1 Gbps internet service in a rural area like mine where there is only ONE service provider. Monopolies do as they please. A lot of those low prices are temporary teaser rates that can double when the promo period ends usually within a year's time. Price aside, these speeds are entirely unnecessary for the vast majority of home users. A waste of money for most.

A lot of "ifs" in your second paragraph. There is no indication whatsoever that any studio or streaming service intends to increase their bitrates, not even slightly yet alone 5 to 10 fold like you are hallucinating about. BD Dead is dead because nobody wanted it in the first place. People do not like forced ads at any resolution or at any bitrate level. BD Dead would have died at even 8K resolution with a 600 Mbps bitrate. People dislike ads being shoved in their face with a purchased product and if that is all that BD Dead has to offer, it will remain dead.

HDTV1080P · 08-03-2021, 10:30 PM

I do not consider movie trailers for the latest hit movies to be advertisements. Its not like I am watching soap or car commercials, I am seeing previews of what the latest movies in the theater are going to be. BD-LIVE also offered feature bonus material like interviews and streaming commentary tracks.

It’s a non-issue now unless the studios decide to bring the feature back. BD-LIVE is no more.

Vilya · 08-03-2021, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

I do not consider movie trailers for the latest hit movies to be advertisements. Its not like I am watching soap or car commercials, I am seeing previews of what the latest movies in the theater are going to be. BD-LIVE also offered feature bonus material like interviews and streaming commentary tracks.

It’s a non-issue now unless the studios decide to bring the feature back. BD-LIVE is no more.

Consider mandatory trailers to be anything that you like; it does not change what they are (ads) or how people reacted to waiting for them to load when they just wanted to watch the damn movie on their disc.

Actual extra features, like commentaries, etc, were exceedingly rare with BD DEAD and even these failed to help the doomed idea. Why? Because most people did not want to listen to long commentaries or to watch "making of" extra features. Some people feel that these ruin the magic of the movie. Those that do enjoy extras wanted them to be on the disc itself so that they would not disappear as those offered via BD Dead have now done. Having extras available only online angered many disc buyers. Discs are supposed to be a permanent product, extras included, and the extras should not be an ephemeral studio whim.

unberechenbar · 08-04-2021, 03:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vilya

No streaming service offering 4K content recommends any speed above 30 Mbps; some recommend half that.

Not technically a streaming service but Bravia Core recommends an Internet speed of 115MB/s for streaming in the highest quality possible.

Vilya · 08-04-2021, 03:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unberechenbar

Not technically a streaming service but Bravia Core recommends an Internet speed of 115MB/s for streaming in the highest quality possible.

I never mention Bravia Core because only those that own the latest Sony TVs can avail themselves of it.

unberechenbar · 08-04-2021, 06:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vilya

I never mention Bravia Core because only those that own the latest Sony TVs can avail themselves of it.

Fair enough. I do hope it is still around when I buy a new TV in a few years.

Anthony P · 08-22-2021, 01:55 PM

never used it, don't care

Shane Rollins · 08-29-2021, 11:47 PM

I remember in the old days I saw an ad that said I could meet the cast and crew of Harry Potter over BD-Live. When I finally got the ability to do BD-Live, it was a giant ad. They knew how to screw a gullible kid. The only release I have that has it off the top of my head is Heavy Metal, but I think the old Digibook of A Clockwork Orange has it too. That BD-Live might even have the 40 minutes of deleted scenes on it.

Just ****ing with you. It’s the same ads as every other BD-Live feature. Aren’t I cute?

I’ll see what happens with my BD-Live discs.

HDTV1080P · 08-29-2021, 11:53 PM

Good luck trying to find a BD-LIVE title that is operational. No major studio supports it anymore, however a few small studios still have BD-LIVE servers up and running at least partially.

07-28-2021, 10:37 AM	#1
HDTV1080P Blu-ray Knight Top contributor Member since:Jan 2007 Blu-ray reviews: 205	Universal Studios was the last major studio to support BD-LIVE up until the year 2021 The Blu-ray format first came out in the year 2006. Two years later in 2008 the first profile 2.0 BD-LIVE Blu-ray enabled titles appeared on the market. At one time BD-LIVE was so popular that almost every major studio offered Blu-ray titles with the BD-LIVE feature. BD-LIVE would offer online streaming commentary tracks that synced up with the Blu-ray main video, plus streaming extra features, and streaming movie trailers. However, several years ago Sony and some other major studios as a cost cutting decision turned off their BD-LIVE servers so that the BD-LIVE function would no longer work on the Blu-ray titles that they released. However Universal Studios up until the year 2021 was the last major studio still supporting the BD-LIVE feature with streaming new release trailers and other BD-LIVE content. However, I discovered just recently that as a cost cutting decision Universal Studios has turned off their BD-LIVE main server sometime in the last few months. One can no longer access any Universal movie trailers and other streaming content from the main server. However, on select Blu-ray titles like Fast Five one can manually toggle off and on the BD-LIVE ticker to see a written description of select Universal movie titles that can be read in the upper right hand corner of the screen. This must be one of the BD-LIVE servers that Universal forgot to turn off since other Blu-ray titles when toggling off and on the ticket does not connect to any Universal BD-LIVE server. I well miss BD-LIVE. A few years ago almost every standard Blu-ray disc from Universal Studios showed trailers of the latest movies being shown in the movie theater if ones Blu-ray player was connected to the Internet and had BD-LIVE feature turned on. While it is technically possible to use BD-LIVE with the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format and Blu-ray 3D format, no studio to my knowledge every used BD-LIVE for 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D discs, just standard Blu-ray discs were used for BD-LIVE. While its true that every major studio has now turned off their BD-LIVE feature including Universals main BD-LIVE server just recently in the year 2021. There are a select few smaller studios that still have their BD-LIVE server up and running at least partially. For example the Showtime Blu-ray titles that use the BD-LIVE feature still have a active BD-LIVE server up and running, but its only partially working since some of the BD-LIVE content cannot be accessed. Its too bad BD-LIVE is on life support. The quality of the streams were mainly 720P using 2.0 DTS stereo. Technically BD-LIVE could have been used with 4K streams with surround sound on the 4K Blu-ray format, but no studio decided to do so. Also to make Blu-ray players cheaper in price no standalone Blu-ray player currently in production has a minimum of 1GB of internal persistent storage to use BD-LIVE like many older models offered, instead one has to purchase a minimum of 1GB USB stick, SD card, or external USB hard drive to use the BD-LIVE feature, bookmarks, and resume play feature. I well miss BD-LIVE, Universal did the best job of supporting the BD-LIVE servers up until the year 2021. Some small studios like Showtime still partially use the BD-LIVE feature for legacy Blu-ray titles. For all new Universal Blu-ray titles BD-LIVE is not even an option. In fact from all new Blu-ray titles being released from every studio that I know, BD-LIVE is no longer an option. Its just to hard to get BD-LIVE feature to work from current in production Blu-ray players including 4K Blu-ray players, consumers have to go buy a external 1GB or larger storage drive and turn on the feature in the menu and make sure their player is connected to the Internet. BD-LIVE could have been and should have been an awesome feature (like streaming commentary tracks), but BD-LIVE ended up being another failed feature that did not get used to often by consumers that own Blu-ray players. Last edited by HDTV1080P; 07-28-2021 at 10:49 AM.

07-28-2021, 10:52 PM	#3
HDTV1080P Blu-ray Knight Top contributor Member since:Jan 2007 Blu-ray reviews: 205	When BD-LIVE was first introduced with a firmware update to the PS3 in 2008 it worked good and fast from testimonies of consumers that used it on the PS3. However, it was not until 2010 with standalone Blu-ray players was BD-LIVE a faster and more bug free experience from some Blu-ray players. PowerDVD 21 Ultra is super fast and works real good with BD-LIVE for the small amount of studios that still support BD-LIVE. If one is using the 2016 OPPO UDP-203 or any modern 4K Blu-ray player the BD-LIVE feature is super fast and easy to use. When BD-LIVE first launched in 2008 there was all kinds of technically problems with standalone Blu-ray players that first used the feature around the year 2009. When the BD-LIVE feature was fixed and working fine years later, there was not enough studios that wanted to support the feature anymore, so BD-LIVE slowly died. While its true that a streaming app on a Roku Ultra device is more reliable than BD-LIVE, the studios and the BDA had the opportunity to really improve on the BD-LIVE feature with the launch of super-fast more powerful 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players that could handle fast 4K streams with surround sound, but there was no interest in improving and bringing back the BD-LIVE feature. Too much negative feedback from the 2008 BD-LIVE launch. Really sad since I have been using BD-LIVE since 2010 with no major problems. A total of 11 years of using BD-LIVE with mostly Universal Studios Blu-ray titles was flawless on my Panasonic, Sony, and OPPO players over the years. I guess I well be one of the few people that well miss BD-LIVE. Some of my old Blu-ray discs lost their bonus BD-LIVE commentary streaming feature that synced up with the Blu-ray disc video. It was not used that much but sometimes the studio for hit Blu-ray titles would offer additional commentary tracks from other actors, and crews that were part of the movie. Also I liked the streaming HD movie trailers that automatically use to play when a Universal Blu-ray disc was inserted (a different set of trailers would play every time the disc was inserted), now I have to watch the default decade old trailers on the Blu-ray disc that does have better picture and sound when compared to streaming. Last edited by HDTV1080P; 07-28-2021 at 10:56 PM.

08-03-2021, 06:29 AM	#6
Vilya Blu-ray Baron Top contributor Member since:Sep 2011 Location:The Shady Rest Hotel 4K collection:513 Blu-ray collection:4682 DVD collection:3706 Digital collection:1265 Blu-ray reviews:3 Trading Score:12	BD Live was just a marketing gimmick that people tired of almost instantly. Good riddance. BD Live simply used the internet to connect to movie trailers. BD Live had to launch first when loading a disc and the reward for waiting was advertising. Any internet or network issues made that wait even longer. I do not buy blu-rays to be made to wait for connection to an adbot before I can play my disc. If I want to see ads for other movies, I can do that online anytime. I never wanted my blu-ray player to force feed me trailers. The ones that are recorded on the disc itself can be easily bypassed; the menu or chapter skip buttons make doing so fast & simple. I disabled BD Live years ago on every player that I own; it was an utterly worthless feature well deserving of its death. If it has a grave, show me where that I may relieve myself upon it. Last edited by Vilya; 08-03-2021 at 06:47 AM.

08-03-2021, 01:55 PM	#7
bhampton Blu-ray Baron Member since:Aug 2007 4K collection:617 Blu-ray collection:2127 DVD collection:38 Blu-ray reviews: 5 Trading Score:18	Ha, My disc player doesn't have internet access privileges. Neither does my AVR. If I see there is a FW update I hook them up temporarily. My home network has enough devices to manage with phones, tablets and so on. I think on average there's 20 gizmos most of the time. (currently 16) -Brian Last edited by bhampton; 08-03-2021 at 02:00 PM.

08-03-2021, 10:12 PM	#11
HDTV1080P Blu-ray Knight Top contributor Member since:Jan 2007 Blu-ray reviews: 205	Almost all Internet provides allow one to own their own equipment like router, modem, and other equipment to avoid the rental of equipment fee. Getting 10,000Mbps upload and 10,000Mbps download speed can be costly in big cities since that level of service can cost around $399 a month. 2,000Mbps upload and 2,000Mbps download is a lot cheaper in large cities. However when it comes to 1,000Mps upload and 1,000Mbps download the Internet plans are normally under $100 even in some rural areas of America. Many area of the country offer 1Gbps Internet for around $70 a month (sometimes cheaper). BD-LIVE is currently dead but the studios can resurrect that small feature of the Blu-ray format at any time. Also if the BD Association every decides to offer 4K Blu-ray streams at 150Mbps, if someone wants to subscribe to a 300Mbps Internet service package instead of a 1,000Mbps package, then 300Mbps would be fast enough for two separate 4K Blu-ray streams in the same house. Many Internet provides that offer true 1000Mbps upload and 1000Mbps download, the entry level Internet plans start at 250Mbps or 300Mbps. Last edited by HDTV1080P; 08-03-2021 at 10:22 PM.

08-03-2021, 04:46 AM	#4
Geode Expert Member Top contributor Member since:Jun 2011 Location:Bangkok, Thailand 4K collection:108 Blu-ray collection:2191 DVD collection:428 Blu-ray reviews:3	I never tried BD LIVE since I never had a player wired up to access online content. If I attempted it now are there any discs that can access content?

08-03-2021, 02:03 PM	#8
SleazyForWeasley Blu-ray Guru Member since:Oct 2011 Location:330-hio 4K collection:126 Blu-ray collection:726 DVD collection:114 iTunes collection:18 Prime collection:1 Blu-ray reviews:3	Universal still have the worst disc menus, especially 4K UHD discs. Use your words. Am I supposed to know what those little icons are?

08-03-2021, 10:00 PM	#10
Vilya Blu-ray Baron Top contributor Member since:Sep 2011 Location:The Shady Rest Hotel 4K collection:513 Blu-ray collection:4682 DVD collection:3706 Digital collection:1265 Blu-ray reviews:3 Trading Score:12	^BD Live failed. Accept the finality and make peace with it. Henceforth let it be known as BD Dead. 1 Gbps internet service? Access isn't the issue. Yeah, it's available here even in my tiny village, but it costs $140 per month AND it requires that I use their hardware at an additional monthly fee. No chance in hell will I pay that much nor do I need it to stream in 4K. No streaming service offering 4K content recommends any speed above 30 Mbps; some recommend half that. If I had a family of 10 all streaming 4K at the same time I would need only about a third of that 1 Gbps service. It's overkill. Internet speed isn't the problem here; it's the unreliability. Who cares how fast your internet is when it's down? Also meaningless if the server that you are trying to connect to is overwhelmed, or, in the case of BD Dead, when the servers are turned off...permanently. Connecting 48 TB of external hard drive space to an Oppo 203 is also overkill and this capability has nothing to do with BD Dead. Go with something akin to a Plex server solution if you want to download, or rip, and store a lot of content.

08-03-2021, 10:30 PM	#13
HDTV1080P Blu-ray Knight Top contributor Member since:Jan 2007 Blu-ray reviews: 205	I do not consider movie trailers for the latest hit movies to be advertisements. Its not like I am watching soap or car commercials, I am seeing previews of what the latest movies in the theater are going to be. BD-LIVE also offered feature bonus material like interviews and streaming commentary tracks. It’s a non-issue now unless the studios decide to bring the feature back. BD-LIVE is no more.

08-22-2021, 01:55 PM	#18
Anthony P Blu-ray Count Member since:Jul 2007 Location:Montreal, Canada	never used it, don't care

08-29-2021, 11:47 PM	#19
Shane Rollins Power Member Top contributor Member since:Jun 2020 4K collection:5 Blu-ray collection:87	I remember in the old days I saw an ad that said I could meet the cast and crew of Harry Potter over BD-Live. When I finally got the ability to do BD-Live, it was a giant ad. They knew how to screw a gullible kid. The only release I have that has it off the top of my head is Heavy Metal, but I think the old Digibook of A Clockwork Orange has it too. That BD-Live might even have the 40 minutes of deleted scenes on it. Just ****ing with you. It’s the same ads as every other BD-Live feature. Aren’t I cute? I’ll see what happens with my BD-Live discs.

08-29-2021, 11:53 PM	#20
HDTV1080P Blu-ray Knight Top contributor Member since:Jan 2007 Blu-ray reviews: 205	Good luck trying to find a BD-LIVE title that is operational. No major studio supports it anymore, however a few small studios still have BD-LIVE servers up and running at least partially.

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