Are BD-Live download times bogging down your Iron Man experience?
By Darren Murph 
posted Sep 30th 2008 9:10PM
posted Sep 30th 2008 9:10PM
[Thanks, Mark]
posted Sep 30th 2008 9:10PM
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It's happening. I put my Iron Man disc into my PS3 and is just sits at the "blue chest loading screen." As of 8PM CST I can't get any further.
Disc 2 plays just fine.
I can't speak for the muffled TrueHD soundtrack.
Tried it again. It took 6 minutes, but it finally came up. Happy as a clam.
The muffled TrueHD soundtrack is a result of Dynamic Range Compression. The DRC was accidentally flagged to "on" in the mastering process, and was one reason the disc was recalled.
Avoid the DRC muffled audio issue by deactivating DRC it in your player's setup menu (not the disc menu, but the player menu.)
Guess Paramount underestimated the number of BD-Live players that would be hitting their server on release day.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to force BD-Live content download needs a nice long talking to. I don't recall having this problem with internet based HD DVD content as it was only pulled on demand, not upon insert.
Is this a Profile 2.0 spec problem, a stupid default setting on BD-Live capable players or something that the disc is forcing?
I put the movie into my PS3 at around 1:00PM Eastern time, and it still took almost 5 minutes to download. I can't even imagine how long it must be taking right now, in the evening when everyone wants to watch it after work.
Actually, from reading AVSForum, it seems like some folks are reporting load times of up to an hour, some still to no avail.
Paramount and other Hollywood studios seriously need to look at this example and change the BD-Live content download to trigger only when a user selects BD-Live from the disc menu. Also had this problem with Transformers on Blu-ray.
Note: It seems the file is 12MB in size.
So far the my copy has been on the Blue Ring of Death for 45 minutes. Blu-ray.com is reporting this same thing in their forums.
i disabled the internet on my ps3 and am watching the movie now.
goodluck!
I cannot get mine to work. Been trying for the last hour. I can bypass the blue ring of death and watch the movie fine though...
My biggest beef with it is that Paramount does not clue us into what is happening when the Blue Chest Loading Screen shows up after running the disc for the first time. I had no idea that anything was downloading and thought my PS3 had crashed. So, I turned off my player and tried again with the same results. Before getting too upset, I thought I'd check online at the AVS forum to find out more about this. After finding out that all that was happening was an internet download, I was pretty ticked. Couldn't Paramount have placed a simple message under the Blue Chest piece, stating "please wait a couple minutes as we are downloading BD-Live content to your player". Perhaps even a download status showing what percentage is currently downloaded. Would have avoided a lot of confusion and frustration.
I remember Paramount saying what a PIG blu ray was to work with and java was such an over complicated and expensive part of the process, perhaps you need to point the finger at fony and the other cartel members for releasing this under developed, expensive and over complicated buggy format on the unsuspecting public in the first place!
downloadzrule, Java is not hard to work with so quit with the absurd statements and stop blaming the platform. Its up to Paramount to adequately test their own servers and their own code before they release it. They should be telling users what is happening rather than just appearing to hang, they should show a progress indicator, they should allow users to skip the download and they should gracefully recover from connection failures or timeouts. On the server side they should provide adequate server bandwidth to cope with the connections. These are issues for Paramount to sort out, nothing to do with the platform.
DrXym,
A lot of folks in the industry have commented about how much easier Microsoft's HDi platform was to work with than BD Java - BD Java generally requires a lot more code than HDi did, and is a lot more resource intensive. One main reason the Matrix Trilogy wasn't released on BD at the same time as HD DVD (more than a year ago) was the lack of tools to create the same type of functionality on both interactivity platforms.
I'm sure this will improve over time, but on this issue, you're letting your blue Kool-Aid preference show.
TrentD,
I have to disagree with you. DrXym may very well be a Blu-ray "fanboy" (geez, I really hate that term), but he's right about one thing. Personally, I have no idea which format is easier for programmers to use, so he could be a little biased there, but he is absolutely correct about Paramount dropping the ball here. They should have done a better job making sure their product was ready before rushing it to market.
TrentD, I'm a sure a lot of people in the industry would also comment that ActionScript is hard to work with, but there is still piles of Flash content out there. Why? Because most authoring tools like DreamWeaver put a nice interface over the ActionScript so authors don't have to worry about it for the most part unless you have explicit reason to.
The same goes for HDi and BD-J. People would be building stuff in Scenarist or similar and it really it wouldn't matter most of the time what it was outputting. You would design your menus and effects in the tool and the tool would spit out the content. For the most part it doesn't matter what format the content ends up in.
There is also little reason that HDi couldn't be middleware sitting over BD-J. BD-J is Java and it could readily parse XML and provide a runtime for JS. I've said it repeatedly in the past. BD-J might be much more powerful than HDi, but it wouldn't hurt to have some middleware for common stuff like menus and so on.
And at the end of the day, this is Paramount's screw-up. It wouldn't be hard to put up a box saying "Please wait downloading content" with a progress indicator, or even moving the BD-Live connect out to a menu item where it is voluntary, thus lowering number of clicks and lightening the server load. If they didn't do that its their own damned fault.
More reasons why I'm glad to have a decent 1.0 player... It might not be wicked fast, but at least I don't have to deal with content downloads (that I'm not interested in to be honest anyway)
I had problems with my disc... I initially thought I purchased the defective copy after looking at the UPC code on the back cover but later found out that the "good" UPC code was located on a sticker on the plastic packaging (definitely more cost effective for Paramount than replacing the actual covers).
My disc was stuck on the "Blue Ring of Death" for about 10 minutes when I finally gave up and decided to turn off BD Live on my PS3. The disc now loads up fine and I plan to turn on BD Live later this week when all the new Iron Man disc owners stop hogging all of the bandwidth...
yeah- i have a PS3 but could care less for the 2.0 download stuff. who cares about free low quality games and the other crap they're trying to convince us is worth the extra bucks... i just want the high quality picture. don't waste my money on stuff i'll say "cool" to once, then never look at again...
Another blu-ray feature to turn off. If you can.
Epic Fail for BD live 2.my nuts. They really dropped the ball on this release. I had to change the settings on my PS3 to confirm BD internet connection, and then you could tell it not to connect. Movie plays right away.
I cannot understand for the life of me why they made it so that the disc prompts your player to connect to the internet automatically. Folks don't know whats going on with their disc, and will assume the disc is broke, or their players crashed. My wife bought it while I was at work and couldn;t get it to play. When she told me about it, I suspected it had something to do with the BD live feature.
This is the kind of shit that will piss off the average buyer. IT needs to be simple and work when you put the disc in. BD live. Friend of mine called me up because he was having this problem on his PS3, and had to talk him through the settings to get it to bypass the internet connection.
You can bet a lot of folks will be returning the movie believing their disc is defective.
Once you do get to watch the movie, it looks spectacular. I did notice some sound drops here and there... cant say it was muddled ... though I will pay closer attention on a second viewing.
BD-Live = waste of time and energy. Thank you HD-DVD for this trojan bomb.
Yeah, no one wants this useless next generation download feature, ..................other than the massive amounts of people overloading the system of course.
A clogged server doesn't mean great value, most likely poor execution. And what for? Most likely garbage that you'll never use more than once
It also goes to show that the only people watching the movie are the PS3 fanboys, there the only ones with internet connected profile 2.0 players, if you believe the hype, PS3 ray is going to overtake DVD anytime now, ........... thanks Warner, never in any of our life times!
DVD4ME, stop with the stupid comments. The disk is automatically connecting, it's not by the user's choice. The disk is running a Java app which tests for BD-Live and automatically downloads content. All PS3s are BD-Live enabled, so it means millions of owners will automatically connect to Paramount's server whether they wanted to or not. The solution is to disable BD-Live on the PS3, but it is clearly Paramount's goof to begin with. It's also IMO incredibly intrusive that a disk "phones home" just by playing it. BD-Live should be configurable on a per disk basis and only enabled with consent.
Also, only 1/3 of HD DVD Transformers owners bothered to connect once and only 1/3 of those bothered a second time. This on a platform with mandatory ethernet connection when it was primarily used by internet savvy early adopters. BD-Live *is* a waste of time and will continue to be until studios start making compelling use of it. Sticking up a bunch of silly gimmicks up on a server or phoning home is not a compelling use of the connectivity.
Crazy stuff. Gave up on my PS3 pulled the network cable to get around the download. Just wanted to movie.
I couldn't get Iron Man on Blu-ray because I was told by the person at blockbuster that it was recalled because they were defected which is why they weren't on the shelves.
Let's see.
The biggest Blu-Ray release to date. Check
Very Cool BD-Live Content. Check
Extra server capacity for the first 4 weeks of release to handle the anticipated load. Oh, Guess they forgot something.
It's not the content, it's the lack of capacity.
Hmmm. I really want Blu-Ray to succeed. I really do. It's things like this that serve as a reminder that the format is still not ready for primetime.
Definitely. As an HD fan, I think there must be a disc-based product on the market and since HD DVD is dead, everyone reading this blog should be rooting for Blu-ray to succeed.
Don't get me wrong, I think digital downloads are great and may very well be the only format in the future, but there are too many people who currently need a physical product to hold in their hand. I'm not saying that's my preference, but most people I know do feel that way. My feeling is that digital downloads have too many roadblocks for now. For example, if I download a movie on my Xbox360, I can't take that movie with me to a friend's house. Worse yet, if my Xbox360 dies or the time comes when the next generation of consoles is released, I'll probably lose that movie for good. Now, if downloads can be burned on to a disc or transferred to a flash drive for playback on multiple devices, that's a completely different story.
Like I said, I am a big fan of high definition and I really hate when I'm forced to watch anything in standard definition (actually, my biggest beef is with watching anything not in widescreen format, but they usually go hand-in-hand). Because widespread adoption of digital downloads seems to be so far off at the moment, Blu-ray is really our only viable option at the moment. I'm not worried, but if it doesn't succeed like DVD did, it could be killed off like HD DVD. If that were to happen, I'm sure companies would be very hesitant to introduce another disc based format to take its place or be its successor.
Admittedly, I don't have a Blu-ray player, but at this point that's really only because of its price. I'm not a fan of Sony, so yes - I was rooting for HD DVD to win out between the two, but since that didn't happen, I have to suck it up and move on. I really can't afford any big purchases right now, but when I can, I would like to own a Blu-ray player... though it probably won't be a Sony brand.
I played it in my old sony 300, and was surprised how quick it loaded as this is a really slow player. Though I agree, they should not start loading this stuff from the internet until someone requests or initializes it...
LOL And I was so mad when I got home with iron man today! I thought my PS3 took a poop till I read online about the BD-Live business.
I told myself, this didnt happen on HD-DVD!! I was so mad :) But I pulled out my network cable and disabled networking as well, Iron Man loaded within seconds (as ussual on the PS3).
It's now a quarter to midnight Pacific and my disc is simply not recognizing my internet connection on my PS3 now. Didn't have any problems loading the movie before and it plays fine, but just for giggles tried out the BD Live stuff and- zip. No internet connection, it says. So I go back to the PS3 menu and make sure I'm connected, then try again. Nope. So, it looks like they're having the servers boot off PS3s? I dunno.
So, lemme get this straight- the studio was balking at paying Favreau more money to direct the next one, and here they go and rush the disc out before a full road test, costing them HOW MUCH MORE MONEY???? Good job, suits.
You know guys, when Stark says "you gotta run before you can walk", that's a movie. Real world? Test this shit out before you release it. If this happens with The Dark Knight disc there's gonna be some angry little Joker wannabes out there.
I just tried to load the BD Live features manually on my 2.43 firmware PS3 through the special features menu on disc 1, and I was told that my player was not online or not bd live compatible. Maybe the server is turning everyone away for a while...
I have the Samsung P1500, and have no internet hooked up to my BD player, so therefore I shouldn't have a problem, right?!!!!?
I orded mine from Amazon, and haven't recieved mine yet.
Muffled sound can be "fixed" by turning DRC (Dynamic Range Control) of on your player/reciever.
If set to Auto the movie enables DRC.
I ran into this issue. I had to turn my Blu-Ray player's settings to "Wide Range" and switch the receiver to Off. The problem is that my receiver switches back to Auto every time it's turned off.
Same here pretty much having the same problem with my PS3 here and keep asking it to retry and after about 50-15 mins of the blue chest loading screen or black screen it just jumps back to the PS3 main interface.
I got home sometime around 5 and popped in Iron Man it took about 25 minutes to download the blu-ray live stuff but it works.
I downloaded Ironman on iTunes. Near HD Quality and the sound is fantastic.
How can you be on this website writing a post when you're blind AND deaf? AMAZING!!
Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean you downloaded a copy that is "near HD quality?" Did you download a DVD quality (480p) copy or did you download some special halfway version (600p?) that is higher than DVD, but lower than 720p?
I've never downloaded anything from iTunes, but I'd bet the version they're offering (if it's not 720p) is the 480p, DVD quality version. However, if you downloaded a 720p version then you do have an HD version. Of course, it's not a 1080p, Blu-ray version, but that would still be classified as an HD copy.
Like I said, my guess is that you downloaded a 480p, DVD quality version, so I'm just confused as to why you would say you downloaded a copy that is "near HD quality."
iTunes may offer a 720p version of Iron Man but due to the limitations of Apple TV that's as good as you're going to get. Quality of video and audio would also be significantly lower than Blu Ray too.
Personally quality wouldn't bother me for a rental but it sure as hell would if I was stupid enough to buy the movie from iTunes.
I pre-ordered mine from Amazon. It should be here before the weekend. Hopefully, all the bandwidth issues should be gone by then.
And for all of those who say that extras are a waste-- I love BD-Live stuff, as I did the HD DVD internet extras (and super-edition DVD multi-disc extras)-- as long as they're more compelling than garbage like ringtones and icons.
While I could care less whether the extras are there, as long as they aren't shoving it down our players automatically, it's not an issue. You should be able to prompt it to download somewhere in the EXTRAS menu. If it's an interactive feature, then you alert the consumer that a download is necessary in order to experience this feature. This would prevent folks from thinking the movie crashed their players, or the disc is defective.
I remember having the same problem with Batman begins on HD DVD. I couldn't get the movie to play, even after making sure I had the latest firmware; so I returned my first copy of it thinking it was the disc. When it happened with the replacement disc, I decided to take the ethernet cable off the player and lo! It played like a charm. I'm just not all for this internet connectivity shit, I just want the movie to play.
It's great to have the option of upgrading a players firmware and improve its performance using an ethernet connection. But for movies, it needs to be better thought out and carefully integrated so that it's simple to just pop the movie in and play, and allow the extra content to be available upon request.
The post mentioned muted audio and the source and fix have been identified. There appears to be a flag encoded on the disk that causes receivers to automatically turn on Dynamic Range Control.
Turning off the DRC resolves the issue.
I hope this helps 1) Clean disc 2) If you have wireless router check your firewall settings.
3) Reset modem and router.
From my experience the disc was dirty so ps3 kept trying to read. When BD Live first downloads it asks if you want to download the content or not!
I hope this helps!
Have to love all these bells and whistles.... THAT DON'T WORK. I picked up the movie last night, put it in the player, and watched a black screen for a good thirty minutes. I have a BD 1.0 player so who knows WTF was wrong with it. Bought it at Wal-Mart, so that was even more fun trying to return an open Blu-Ray movie. After 30 minutes and 3 managers, I succeeded. Now we'll see if the new copy I bought and a different store, not Wal-Mart, works any better. Otherwise Paramount can't kiss my a$$ on any future purchases.
I got back from work, and went straight to Wal-Mart to purchase my copy of Ironman on Tuesday. I was informed (by the resident moron) that there were no copies on the shelves because the product was re-called due to not being able to play on the ps3. I called Target and was put on hold for almost twenty minutes while the associate went to check if they had any copies in stock. (I was able to drive to Target from Wal-Mart in that time and found their phone off the hook on my call after exactly 18 minutes and 36 seconds). I found the disc on their shelf, paid for it, went home and put it directly into my ps3. I didn't change any settings beforehand, because I didn't expect any issues, and watched the entire movie in its full glory and didn't have one single issue. I have recieved bd-live content before, but I didn't have one single hic-cup in loading, playing, or completely enjoying this movie. It sucks that everyone else seems to be having issues, but my experience was one of the best I have had on blu so far. (except, of course, for the morons who work at stupid retail chains and have absolutely no sense of customer satisfaction what-so-ever)
Blu Ray Disc ladies and gentlemen. Other then all this BS, the True HD track is outstanding! Why go to the theaters?