Dexter Seasons 1-6 BD-LIVE feature can damage the Blu-ray formats reputation

[HDTV1080P]

Dexter Seasons 1-6 is an excellent example on how the BD-LIVE feature can damage the Blu-ray formats reputation

I am not against the BD-LIVE feature when it’s reliable and offers some nice features. Some Blu-ray titles from some studios offer additional audio commentary tracks as a streaming or downloaded feature over BD-LIVE 6 months or so after the Blu-ray physical disc is released (That is a good example of BD-LIVE). There are some studios like 20th Century Fox that uses BD-LIVE in a positive way by offering several HD movie trailers and several HD bonus features that can be downloaded to a 2TB e-SATA hard drive that is connected to an OPPO BDP-93 Blu-ray player.

I am not a Dexter fan but one of my family members likes Dexter and they own seasons 1-6 on Blu-ray since it is one of their favorite series. This thread is about how Showtime Entertainment/Paramount Home Video has used the BD-LIVE feature in a very negative way to upset some consumers that own Blu-ray players. It should be mentioned that Dexter seasons 1-6 contains almost no bonus feature on the physical Blu-ray discs except for rare examples like season one which has an audio commentary track. So the BD-LIVE feature becomes an extremely important feature for seasons 1-6 for those consumers that want to watch exclusive bonus features.

Dexter season 4, season 5, and season 6 will load directly to the BD-LIVE main menu instead of the Blu-ray discs main menu when the Blu-ray disc is inserted in a Blu-ray player. So every time a consumer inserts Blu-ray disc number 1, number 2, or number 3 for season 4, season 5, and season 6 they are forced to see the BD-LIVE main menu instead of the Blu-ray discs main menu. To play any of the episodes for season 4, season 5, and season 6 of Dexter the consumer needs to push the buttons on the remote control and select the Main Menu option so the Blu-ray discs main menu will load. To make matters worse some older Blu-ray players have loading problems with Dexter season 4, season 5, and season 6 and it can take several minutes for the BD-LIVE screen to load and then another several minutes for the consumer to exit to the Main Menu to watch a Dexter episode (A very high-end fast computer with a BD-ROM drive can load the Dexter discs in a few seconds).

The Dexter season 4, season 5, and season 6 BD-LIVE feature has also caused problems with Blu-ray players not even being able to load these 3 seasons at all when BD-LIVE network access is turned on. OPPO Digital INC on August 14th 2012 came out with a firmware update for the OPPO BDP-93/95 that allowed consumers for the first time to load Dexter season 4, season 5, and season 6 when BD-LIVE network access is turned on. I can understand why the average consumer still collects DVD discs since they do not have to deal with all kinds of loading problems that the 6 year old Blu-ray format still has for some Blu-ray titles.

99.9% of the consumers do not want their Blu-ray player automatically going to the BD-LIVE main menu screen when they insert any Dexter season 4, season 5, and season 6 Blu-ray disc. Consumers want to watch the episodes first. They do not want to have to exit out of the BD-LIVE menu to get to the Dexter Blu-ray discs main menu every time discs number 1, number 2, and number 3 is inserted. In the past BD-LIVE portal to the Internet was an optional feature that consumers manually clicked on after they finished watching the episodes.

If Showtime Entertainment/Paramount Home Video wanted to use the BD-LIVE feature on Dexter season 4, season 5, and season 6 then they should have only offered a manual option for consumers to launch the BD-LIVE feature instead of Showtime Entertainment/Paramount Home Video forcing the BD-LIVE main menu screen to load when any Blu-ray disc for seasons 4-6 is inserted into a Blu-ray player.

Dexter season 4, season 5, and season 6 contains exclusive BD-LIVE content that consumers can stream over the Internet. The BD-LIVE Showtime features include behind the scenes 480i MPEG-4/AVC Dexter interviews with the cast along with many hours from other Showtime programs that are shown at 480i using MPEG-4/AVC. Showtime offers a few complete preview episodes of some of their other Network TV series in hopes that consumers will become interested in other Showtime programs.

Dexter season 1, season 2, and season 3 Blu-ray discs BD-LIVE interface is much better but there is no working BD-LIVE content to currently watch

Showtime Entertainment/Paramount Home Video correctly designed the interfaces for seasons 1-3 of Dexter. For seasons 1-3 of Dexter each Blu-ray discs loads to the Blu-ray discs main menu when the Blu-ray discs are inserted in the Blu-ray player (That’s how every Blu-ray disc should work). BD-LIVE for seasons 1-3 requires the consumer to manually select the BD-LIVE feature from a option on the Blu-ray discs main menu to launch the Internet based BD-LIVE feature. For example season 2 uses a unique looking download interface that allows consumers to download higher quality 480i bonus material to their Blu-ray players internal or external storage location (higher quality compared to low bit rate 480i streaming). Season 1 and 3 of Dexter share the exact same BD-LIVE download interface but the interface is different when compared to season 2.

The problem is the BD-LIVE 480i Dexter interviews and 480i Showtime preview episodes are disabled for seasons 1-3 of Dexter. For Dexter season 2 on Blu-ray there is an Episodes and Trailers section that will access BD-LIVE. The problem is all the bonus features for season 2 on Blu-ray can no longer be played over BD-LIVE since Showtime has pulled the server that was handling the BD-LIVE downloads for Dexter season 2. Then for the Dexter season 1 and season 3 download interface Showtime Entertainment/Paramount Home Video has never offered any bonus features for seasons 1 and 3 and most likely will never do so. Its been over 3 years since Showtime Entertainment/Paramount Home Video released season 1 and 3 of Dexter on Blu-ray and they have never offered any BD-LIVE features at all for those two seasons even though the Blu-ray discs contain the BD-LIVE download interface:

The following is a quote from season 1 review of Dexter

“standard bonuses are a couple of commentaries ported over from the DVDs.”

“The rest of the bonus features are only accessible online via a BD-Live capable Blu-ray player. This content was supposed to be available on January 6, 2009, but as of this writing Paramount still hasn’t put anything up yet. I can’t give any ratings for what isn’t there, but I can tell you whats supposed to be here eventually.”

The following is a quote from season 3 review of Dexter

“The Complete Third Season' sinks to a new low. All that's here is a BD-Live portal which technically is supposed to include novel excerpts, cast interviews, and bonus episodes from other Showtime series, however there wasn't anything there the last time I checked. This really could have (and should have) been handled much better. Very disappointing indeed.”

In summary

So even though Dexter seasons 1-3 use a much better BD-LIVE download interface that requires the consumer to manually launch the BD-LIVE feature, it is totally useless since for over 3 years there has not been any downloadable BD-LIVE content for seasons 1 and 3. Plus season 2 downloadable bonus features were pulled from the server which makes season 2 BD-LIVE features totally useless also.

Seasons 4-6 of Dexter do contain active streaming content currently. However when it comes to Dexter seasons 4-6 those 3 seasons use a streaming BD-LIVE interface that launches the BD-LIVE main menu automatically every time a Blu-ray disc is inserted. People want to go to the main Blu-ray disc menu when a Blu-ray disc is inserted and they do not want the online BD-LIVE internet connection to automatically load the BD-LIVE menu every time a Blu-ray disc is inserted.

The solution to this problem is to do the following for Season 7 of Dexter on Blu-ray

Seasons 1-3 used the best interface for BD-LIVE but since BD-LIVE is not being supported at all for those seasons then the same thing could happen in the future for seasons 4-6. Consumers are getting tired of the BD-LIVE feature from Showtime Entertainment/Paramount Home Video and BD-LIVE has turned into a big negative of the Blu-ray format because of loading problems and studios not supporting the BD-LIVE feature properly.

The BD-LIVE feature should not even be used at all for season 7 of Dexter. For season 7 of Dexter Showtime Entertainment/Paramount Home Video should raise the list price of Dexter season 7 by $5.00 in order to pay for a 4th bonus disc. Then Dexter Season 7 should include a 4th bonus disc on either Blu-ray or DVD that contains all the extra features. If the bonus features are only going to be 480i quality then a dual layer 8.5GB DVD might be all that is needed. If the bonus features are going to contain more than 8.5GB’s of 480i data then a 25GB or 50GB Blu-ray disc should be used. The ideal bonus features should be on a 50GB Blu-ray disc in true HD quality.

[victimofthecity]

...Um I didn't really know this was a huge issue? And also, no thanks for the price hike. I'd rather push some buttons to get to the episodes then pay five dollars more for some content I probably won't even want to watch.

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by victimofthecity

...Um I didn't really know this was a huge issue? And also, no thanks for the price hike. I'd rather push some buttons to get to the episodes then pay five dollars more for some content I probably won't even want to watch.

The other options are to either offer no bonus disc with no price hike or to start supporting BD-LIVE properly like other studios do.

[Red's got the Blu's]

Huh, I've never watched the series and figured at some point I'd blind buy it when I see a real good sale, after reading this I think I'll be staying far away no matter the price point.

[Cahleb]

What? I am not reading all of that. Can someone post a smaller rundown?

[mzupeman]

Originally Posted by Cahleb

What? I am not reading all of that. Can someone post a smaller rundown?

The OP basically wrote a novel out of this. May I remind the OP by the way of the quote, "If you can't explain it simply, then you don't understand it well enough"? (May be slightly paraphrased)

He's saying that all the special features that are included ON DISC on the DVD sets, are only available via BD-Live access on the Blu-ray sets. This is true. It can be frustrating but the extras aren't usually worthwhile anyway.

He also complains that having BD-Live access turned on, has caused some consumsers problems loading the discs. Wow... imagine that? We can just turn it off!!!

I can't believe he had to write so much just to get those points across. Insanity.

[KilloWertz]

Originally Posted by Red's got the Blu's

Huh, I've never watched the series and figured at some point I'd blind buy it when I see a real good sale, after reading this I think I'll be staying far away no matter the price point.

The series is good enough and is very solid on Blu-ray, so I think it's still worth it even without any working special features beyond commentaries on half the series so far. It does really suck that they put almost all of the features on BD-Live since there are several features I will never see now, but again, you shouldn't miss out on the show because of it.

[Red's got the Blu's]

Originally Posted by KilloWertz

The series is good enough and is very solid on Blu-ray, so I think it's still worth it even without any working special features beyond commentaries on half the series so far. It does really suck that they put almost all of the features on BD-Live since there are several features I will never see now, but again, you shouldn't miss out on the show because of it.

Eh, I watched like the first five minutes of the pilot a year or so back and it seemed really cheesy to me. Quite a few people have told me it gets better but between that and this I think I can wait until the put out editions with the special features on the disc.

Also

[Show spoiler]I'm trying to send a message that this is unacceptable.

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

The BD-LIVE feature should not even be used at all for season 7 of Dexter. For season 7 of Dexter Showtime Entertainment/Paramount Home Video should raise the list price of Dexter season 7 by $5.00 in order to pay for a 4th bonus disc. Then Dexter Season 7 should include a 4th bonus disc on either Blu-ray or DVD that contains all the extra features.

And Paramount have done exactly this will all the UK Region B releases of the series. Season 4 in particular, has a finale episode commentary with John Lithgow and the director of the episode, which, to my knowledge, has not been made available in the US at all. My understanding is that most or all of the non-US season sets in all countries (Paramount is completing a dissemination of season 1-3 catalog releases across Europe and Australia presently) have an extra disc with the bonus features from that season.

I can't understand why they insist on releasing the show in this bizarre format in the USA, especially when they see fit to release it properly everywhere else...