Some movie studios have stopped using the BD-LIVE feature completely (Sony and others

[HDTV1080P]

Some movie studios have stopped using the BD-LIVE feature completely

BD-LIVE is a minor feature of the Blu-ray format that is used by many movie studios like Universal Studios, 20th Century Fox, and many other studios. Some Blu-ray titles with the BD-LIVE feature allow consumers to download or stream bonus features and/or movie trailers over the Internet.

I have noticed that some of the latest Sony and Warner Bros Blu-ray titles do not offer the BD-LIVE feature at all. Not offering the BD-LIVE feature greatly reduces disc loading problems.

The Sony BD-LIVE server has been completely disabled for playing back movie trailers and bonus features

I ran into a New Line Blu-ray title that no longer had a working BD-LIVE feature. Today I tested 5 or more Sony Blu-ray titles and the BD-LIVE server is no longer offering Sony Blu-ray movie trailers or any other bonus features. Instead when one tries to use the BD-LIVE feature on any Sony Blu-ray title they get the following message from the Sony BD-LIVE server:

Quote
“For information about current and upcoming titles from Sony Pictures, visit www.sonypictures.com/bluray “

Perhaps as a cost cutting budget decision Sony might have decided to stop using the BD-LIVE feature. Sony and other studios can always discontinue or reactivate the BD-LIVE feature when every they want as long as the Blu-ray title supports the BD-LIVE feature. For now, Sony is not doing anything with BD-LIVE.

[Villiam Hayes]

I won't miss it,I have never once accessed that feature.

[Member-222782]

Good. With less unnecessary junk, maybe the discs will start loading in seconds instead 3 or 4 minutes. Get rid of Java too.

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by cine74

Good. With less unnecessary junk, maybe the discs will start loading in seconds instead 3 or 4 minutes. Get rid of Java too.

Newer Blu-ray players load in 30 seconds or less. The older Blu-ray players are sometimes very slow with some JAVA code.


When the BD+ copy protection encryption codes are changed on the latest Blu-ray titles it also causes loading problems for consumers that have not installed the latest firmware update. BD+ virtual machine is here to stay.

[charlieray1]

I won't miss it either. The only times I ever tried to use it, it was slooooow and the content wasn't worth the effort.

Lose it.

[critterdvd]

I'm all for less BD-Live. Initially it sounded like a good idea but it has been severely under utilized for the amount of head aches it can cause...

[Tony208]

sounds great

I was smacking my head when some BD-Live "extras" amounted to trailers...

[sk33tr]

Originally Posted by critterdvd

I'm all for less BD-Live. Initially it sounded like a good idea but it has been severely under utilized for the amount of head aches it can cause...

could not agree more with these statements.

i made the mistake of selecting "utilize the bd-live feature" on one of my movies and now it says, "loading a fresh preview from the internet" every time i watch that particular movie. pretty damn annoying, imo.

[Al_The_Strange]

Great, some of us viewers have stopped using BD-Live anyway.

I never once used the thing. It seemed cool a few years ago, but, I dunno... This reminds me of how DVDs used to have lots of DVD-Rom content, then they kinda stopped with that. At least DVD-Rom content was sometimes worthwhile.

[HDTV1080P]

The coolest BD-LIVE feature I have seen is a updated streaming commentary track. 20th Century Fox offers the best BD-LIVE features with the option to download HD bonus features to my 2TB e-SATA hard drive that is connected to my OPPO BDP-93.

Some studios will still be supporting BD-LIVE.

[armenianmovieman]

Anyone know what kind of BD-Live features The 6th Day (2000 Arnold film) had included?


That's going to be one of my first Blu-Rays, and the idea of BD-Live always interested me; apparently the execution left a little something to be desired. lol

[alwaysHD]

[blu-ray_girl_fan]

I wonder if Paramount will remove the online content for "Tropic Thunder"? Funny thing is that the 2-disc DVD set has ALL of the Special Features on disc whereas the Blu-ray requires you to go online to see some of the stuff.

Even without BD Live, Criterion's discs take forever to load. That's one of the reasons why I only have two Criterion titles in my collection.

[Banned User]

They just never really used the LIVE feature for anything worthwhile IMO.

Originally Posted by blu-ray_girl_fan

Even without BD Live, Criterion's discs take forever to load. That's one of the reasons why I only have two Criterion titles in my collection.

I've never had that issue. Criterion titles usually load a lot faster then most other releases I have. They also don't have the 5 or 6 different studio logo, warnings, disclosure screens etc. I guess it could depend on what player you are using.

[HD Goofnut]

BD-Live was useless from the start since sites such as IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes already existed.

[Blu-Benny]

I’ve never used the feature before.

i did have an issue w/Starship Troopers not wanting to load b/c my Panasonic is trying to load the bd-live stuff. I have to put a memory card into my player and that bypasses it.

Never looked for a firmware update for it….i’m just to lazy.

[Rich1983]

I have always though BD LIVE was so stupid. They should just put the bonuses on the disc. I remember when the remake of The Wolf Man came to Blu-ray, and they first announce that it would offer an HD edition of the original. I was so happy until I found out it was a stupid Internet download. I asked the question "What the hell would have been so hard about putting it on the disc?" nobody could answer my question with a logical answer. I also hate having to download upgrades all the time. It is an annoyance and seems to be a slap in the face to honest people who buy discs in order to stop dishonest people who pirate them. I also hear that these download upgrades are starting to cause older Blu-rays to not even work. That is a problem.

[Matt S]

No loss with BD-Live. It was a cool idea, but never implemented very well. And I am tired of my disks updating for 20 seconds

[MikeyHitchFan]

GOOD! I hope all the studios do away with this USELESS feature!!

[PuppyJonathan]

To be honest I only used BD-Live once, and that was on my laptop (it has a bluray drive). As long as older discs can still use it and newer ones don't have it I'll be fine