Pausing Blu-rays

[DGates01]

As much as I love Blu-rays, I do like some of the simplicities of DVD's when using a standard DVD player. For instance, when pausing a DVD, it could time out, go into screensaver and even power down the unit. But you hit play, and the unit powers up and then the movie will start right back where it left off.

With my Blu-ray experience with 3 different brands, once a BD times out of screensaver, your saved spot is gone for good. I know we can add a bookmark that our players will remember, but we still have to put up with all the stuff at the beginning (FBI warning, studio not responsible for commentary, yada, yada, yaga) before we can ever get to those bookmarks.

[cricepng]

Originally Posted by DGates01

As much as I love Blu-rays, I do like some of the simplicities of DVD's when using a standard DVD player. For instance, when pausing a DVD, it could time out, go into screensaver and even power down the unit. But you hit play, and the unit powers up and then the movie will start right back where it left off.

With my Blu-ray experience with 3 different brands, once a BD times out of screensaver, your saved spot is gone for good. I know we can add a bookmark that our players will remember, but we still have to put up with all the stuff at the beginning (FBI warning, studio not responsible for commentary, yada, yada, yaga) before we can ever get to those bookmarks.

A select few BDs will resume, but Netflix resumes all the time. Maybe everyone should just give up on BDs and use streaming media only. jk

[DGates01]

I know Netflix does. Very handy!

It's just annoying. Don't know why DVD's will but BD's won't. I may be watching a BD, and then I want to catch a few minutes of a newscast or something, but when I'm back to the disc, I have to wait out all that preliminary stuff again.

[crazyBLUE]

If I sit down to watch a movie it is to watch the movie & not to go do something in the middle for however long. If I have to pause the movie it is a few minuets to do what ever I need to do ( snack / restroom ). Streaming is not an option for me because I have spent far to much money on the HT to downgrade by watching Netflix

As for the previews ~ When I toss the disc in I am still getting ready & by the time they are over I am ready for the movie Life is to short to complain about that & there is a forward button on the remote

[MrFattBill]

Originally Posted by crazyBLUE

If I sit down to watch a movie it is to watch the movie & not to go do something in the middle for however long. If I have to pause the movie it is a few minuets to do what ever I need to do ( snack / restroom ). Streaming is not an option for me because I have spent far to much money on the HT to downgrade by watching Netflix

As for the previews ~ When I toss the disc in I am still getting ready & by the time they are over I am ready for the movie Life is to short to complain about that & there is a forward button on the remote

Funny, I sat down yesterday morning to watch The Hobbit and about 20 minutes in decided I wanted breakfast from Chic-fil-a so I hit pause and hopped in the car. I was gone for about 15 minutes and when I returned the movie was exactly where I had left it

I let the previews and such play while everything warms up.

Bill

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by crazyBLUE

If I sit down to watch a movie it is to watch the movie & not to go do something in the middle for however long. If I have to pause the movie it is a few minuets to do what ever I need to do ( snack / restroom ). Streaming is not an option for me because I have spent far to much money on the HT to downgrade by watching Netflix

As for the previews ~ When I toss the disc in I am still getting ready & by the time they are over I am ready for the movie Life is to short to complain about that & there is a forward button on the remote

This +1000

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by crazyBLUE

If I sit down to watch a movie it is to watch the movie & not to go do something in the middle for however long. If I have to pause the movie it is a few minuets to do what ever I need to do ( snack / restroom ). Streaming is not an option for me because I have spent far to much money on the HT to downgrade by watching Netflix

As for the previews ~ When I toss the disc in I am still getting ready & by the time they are over I am ready for the movie Life is to short to complain about that & there is a forward button on the remote

agree 100% I don't get why it is such an issue with some. The few times I needed to stop a movie midway I found I got a much better experience starting from scratch than where I left off.

[cricepng]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

agree 100% I don't get why it is such an issue with some. The few times I needed to stop a movie midway I found I got a much better experience starting from scratch than where I left off.

We actually have lives that are not centered around just watching movies! With young children, emergencies arise that require attention. In June I will be moving back to a country where the power is almost guaranteed to go off during the span of a movie. If we started from scratch every time we had to pause a movie for an extended period of time, we'd never see the last half of almost anything.

So you don't get why it is an issue, it doesn't mean that it can't be an issue for others. I'm glad that you don't have to stop much in the middle of a movie. Some of us aren't so lucky.

[DGates01]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

The few times I needed to stop a movie midway I found I got a much better experience starting from scratch than where I left off.

Isn't that what people with Alzheimer's do?

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by taxitodd

i couldn't agree more.

+1

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by TaxiTodd

I couldn't agree more.

Originally Posted by Steedeel

+1

+2

[cricepng]

Originally Posted by DGates01

I know Netflix does. Very handy!

It's just annoying. Don't know why DVD's will but BD's won't. I may be watching a BD, and then I want to catch a few minutes of a newscast or something, but when I'm back to the disc, I have to wait out all that preliminary stuff again.

My Netflix comment was purely as a joke. I could have just as easily recommended VHS as they also remember where you last left off.

[DGates01]

In regards to knocking Netflix. It's cool, no biggie. But not too long ago I got to see Panic Room streamed in high definition. And it looked really good. But it's a movie you still can't get on Blu ray.

But back to the subject matter. Why are Blu ray's so ridiculously hard to resume.

[hometheatergeek]

Originally Posted by DGates01

In regards to knocking Netflix. It's cool, no biggie. But not too long ago I got to see Panic Room streamed in high definition. And it looked really good. But it's a movie you still can't get on Blu ray.

But back to the subject matter. Why are Blu ray's so ridiculously hard to resume.

Which BD player do you have? The reason I am asking is some players have built in memory and other players require either a USB stick or SD memory card inserted in the slot. I have a Panasonic BD-35 which requires a SD card and almost all new blu-ray release will write to the card to where you stop a movie. I have even went back to watch a movie 2 weeks later after the BD has been removed and other movies watched instead and when I put the other movie back in a prompt comes up asking me if I want to resume play from the last time I watched it.

[Cevolution]

Originally Posted by jvonl

In my case at least it is not a question of the player or the tv shutting off; it is a question of resuming play after pausing. I hit pause. When I return the screen saver is playing. I hit play and the disc goes back to the beginning or will not play at all - it freezes, and then I have to start over. Not always, but often enough to be annoying. I will try to keep track and see if it a particular studio. If I return and the screen saver is gone, I have to start over. I understand that may be the player having a time limit for pause. I support blu-ray because of the picture, but mostly for the lossless audio. I have zero interest in bd-live or any of the other "features" the techies thought I should have. I believe that the consumer is better served by simplicity that works, not features that detract from my ability to simply play the movie of my choice without complications.

The fact is that the problem you are having (and some others) with your player, where it is starting some films from the beginning and freezing after unpausing from screen saver mode, is still a feature issue or defect with your specific model player, it's not the fault of blu-ray technology itself like the OP has suggested, therefore it should be the manufacturer of your player that you are displeased with. I own 1250+ blu-rays and 6 blu-ray players to view them with, and none of them have this issue that you have described. As for BD-live, sure that is amongst the specs for blu-ray, however the feature can easily be turned off where it has no effect whatsoever on playback of discs. I've never used BD-live, and have always had the feature turned off, in fact I don't have my players automatically connected to the internet either. None of the players I own are complicated to use, they offer the same simplistic way to view blu-rays as any other player. Obviously your debacle lies with your player, so if you are unhappy with it, then maybe you should possibly look into purchasing a different brand or model player with similarities in "simplicity", that doesn't have the same issue as your current player

Edit: BTW, what screen saver are you referring to, the screen saver of your brand of blu-ray player, or the screen saver that for example Universal Studios uses for their discs? If you are referring to the screen saver on blu discs from particular studios where that studios logo is displayed on the screen, these can be resumed instead of having to start the film from the beginning. However the button function to do this is different for various players. For example some players require you to hit the enter button, others one of the directional arrow buttons, or even the pop-up menu button. So if this is what is happening I would recommended trying a few buttons on your remote, or alternatively check your players user manual for info, which may offer some insight.

[hometheatergeek]

You are right on the mark Cevolution. Pausing a movie on different players and the movie not starting back up properly is the player and not the BD. If any of you are having issues with the player turning off after a period of time then you need to dig around in your menu to disable the automatic power off when the player has been inactive for a period of time. It also took me awhile to figure out how to get my Panasonic player to resume play from when I paused a Universal movie. I tried the enter button and the play button but the only thing that worked on my player was the directional button. Not very intuitive if you ask me, so I can understand why some ppl are annoyed with pausing a movie and having to start back over. But the bottom line is most current players will resume at the point that was paused with the automatic power off is set properly or with the newer BD releases you can now stop the movie instead of pause and the BD will ask you if you want to resume.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Third world problems...

[JakeOx]

We run a small community cinema and use either Blu-ray or DVD media to show the films. We don't have the funding to move to streaming or equivalent digital media.

Our current set up means we can either show a film from the Blu-ray player or a Powerpoint presentation from a PC and this is switchable.

We have a break half way through the film for comfort breaks, drinks, raffle etc and we pause the film so we can restart from where we paused. The screen is switched to a Powerpoint display during pause so there is no problem with burning a screen with a static image.

Problem - sometimes the pause function doesn't work and when we go back to restart the film the player has either resumed play or has reset to the start of the film. Neither of these is acceptable as we then have to search back to the break point which spoils continuity.

Questions - is the issue with media or player (or even both!?)
The player is about 10 years old - will a new Blu-ray player be any better?
Is there an industry standard length of time for a Pause function?

Any guidance will be appreciated.

[AmishParadise]

Regarding resuming playback after pressing stop...
If any of the below User Operations (UO) are prohibited for a given playlist (MPLS) it will not be possible to resume playback after pressing, "Stop". This is the case for both HDMV and BD-J based Blu-ray's.

UO20: Forward Play
UO19: Backward Play
UO18: Resume
UO17: Move up selected button
UO16: Move down selected button
UO15: Move left selected button
UO14: Move right selected button
UO13: Select button
UO12: Activate button
UO11: Select and activate button

Other restrictions could prevent BD-J based Blu-ray's from resuming playback. I can't speak to that as I've only created HDMV based Blu-ray's myself. When doing so I'm always careful to not prohibit any of the above UO's if the given playlist is used to play a movie or TV episode for example.

BDedit is a free application which provides for viewing what UO's may be prohibited for a given playlist (MPLS). Just browse to the Blu-ray's "BDMV" folder using BDedit and go to the "PLAYLIST" tab. From the "PLAYLIST" tab each playlist (MPLS) can be selected. A long series of checkboxes towards the top of the application (AppInfoPlaylist) indicate which UO's are prohibited. If the given Blu-ray is being read off a hard drive one can change what UO's are prohibited if any, then saving the changes.

[Vrooom]

Originally Posted by JakeOx

We run a small community cinema and use either Blu-ray or DVD media to show the films. We don't have the funding to move to streaming or equivalent digital media.

Our current set up means we can either show a film from the Blu-ray player or a Powerpoint presentation from a PC and this is switchable.

We have a break half way through the film for comfort breaks, drinks, raffle etc and we pause the film so we can restart from where we paused. The screen is switched to a Powerpoint display during pause so there is no problem with burning a screen with a static image.

Problem - sometimes the pause function doesn't work and when we go back to restart the film the player has either resumed play or has reset to the start of the film. Neither of these is acceptable as we then have to search back to the break point which spoils continuity.

Questions - is the issue with media or player (or even both!?)
The player is about 10 years old - will a new Blu-ray player be any better?
Is there an industry standard length of time for a Pause function?

Any guidance will be appreciated.

To me the inability to have pause/stop and resume with BD like we always had with DVD is the most inexplicable thing ever. How did this ever pass quality control from Sony when they were developing this tech?