Fox dreaming of a future where Blu-ray movies load faster, are judged by the content of their character(s)

At least someone is (seemingly) listening to our Blu-ray gripes. /Film hit a Fox hosted press summit and heard exactly the things we've been waiting to hear: a future where "advanced" Blu-ray players can do what DVD players have done for years: automatically resume play where we left off on all players, dramatically reduced load times and a live demo of the IMDB Live Lookup feature available on the Wolverine release. The company has nabbed a researcher from Panasonic, Joe McCrossan, who is heading up the efforts to improve viewer's experience and tossing around long promised buzzwords like iPhone connectivity and Digital Copy along with the previously mentioned features under development -- if he succeeds on making them reality we'll rename an Engadget editor Joe in his honor, and it might not even be the one already named Joe.

[Thanks, chevelleman]

[kcmurphy88 Posted Oct 1st 2009 11:31AM]

It sure would be nice if the discs booted to the menu, so I could choose among "Play Movie", "Set Options", "Watch Previews", "View Legal Disclaimers", "See Studio Logo Again", etc.

As it stands with some studios (e.g. Disney), there is over 10 minutes of material before the copy-protect starts.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 1st 2009 12:40PM]

You want to see legal disclaimers and studio logos?

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 1st 2009 1:41PM]

yes. He was totally serious about that...

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 1st 2009 8:48PM]

I agree. I'd love to start directly to the menu and get rid of some of the disclaimers. Sure, you can keep the copyright one, but, that's all I need to really see. I don't care much if Lionsgate, Fox, Sony Pictures or Disney made the damn movie and sure as heck don't want to see previews for the rest of my life about what was coming out the month after I bought my blu-ray. I want to watch the movie.

I'm scared to see the iPhone connectivity added. What's that, another 1-2 minutes on the bootup time to load the java extensions for iPhone connectivity?

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 1st 2009 11:43AM]

The load times can be so horrendous I've actually given up on watching the movie. Sleeping Beauty was like that. On my PS3 the first time we tried to watch it, it was 20 minutes and still no menu screen when we gave up for the night and tried again later.

It's like we're going backwards in time. Instead of spending the time fast forwarding through the previews on a VHS we are greeted with loading screens.

Another nice thing would be an option to turn off all the transitions. It's cool and all the first time but when you have to watch 15 seconds of video between each menu item it drives one crazy.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 1st 2009 12:04PM]

My same dream, its good we are sharing :D

[DrXym Posted Oct 1st 2009 2:00PM]

If studios need a clue how to launch BDs (or DVDs), just look at The Dark Knight and you will learn all you need to know: Person inserts disc, movie plays. It's not hard is it?

Instead some studios seem DETERMINED to trip you up for minutes before grudgingly letting you play what you stuck the disk in for. Iron Man wants you to download some stupid BD-Live stuff, other apps throw up user agreements, Disney inflicts trailers. The sad part is none of this is necessary or desirable. It's only there because marketing idiots want to boost hits for the online store, or exaggerate metrics by inflicting mandatory actions on users.

If I want to watch some stupid trailers, put a link in the menus that point to them and let me choose. If I want to go online, put a link that leads to it. Forcing this shit on people just annoys them. In my case it annoys me enough that it affects my purchase decisions. Forcing people through some mandatory sales pitch in this day and age is just rude.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 3rd 2009 1:12PM]

Yeah, WB seems to be the only studio moving in the right direction with regards to BD playback. No trailers, no BDLive and no menu when you load the disc.