A300 Full BD ISO menu navigation support

[Dave_D]

That's why I still recommend you just go with a C200.

The C200 is still an UPGRADE over the A-210 or the A-300 IMHO.

Quote:Oh, another thing that is beyond my comprehension is the following. Say you work for Syabas and you are about to release a new product claiming BDISO compatibility. What would be the first disks that come to mind i order to test your new product? From the top of my head, I'd say Star Wars, the latest Transformers, and Avatar. ALL the above movies fail to play on the A300!!! Does this make any sense? Doesn't it make you wonder what kind of thinking and testing happens within Syabas prior to the release of a product? What disks did they actually test A300 with? Black and white films?

It's not as simple as one would think.

Over the course of my involvement in the beta team, we have found out that even retail BD have differences depending on where it was bought (Region A, B, C).

A good example is LOTR & Star Wars.

Depending on market, some retail versions either had BD language selection problems on the firmware.

Disney BD are notoriously hard for Sigma based BD players to decode properly. They really protect their content from being ripped.

To be fair, standalone players also suffer these issues. The only standalone BD player that has the best compatibility bar none seem to be the Sony Playstation 3 as it has the horsepower to play any BD from whatever manufacturer.

[chris57]

Now I can play Avatar on my A300.

I have the collectors version where you can select from three versions of the film from the BD menu. This is from within NMJ and I had to have Full Navigation set or you get single file player and the movie only no menu.

I also test LOTR Extended Version UK boxset, Bourne Trilogy, and Matrix Trilogy. All BD full backups with encryption and region coding removed. They all played.

How many discs do you have that play v's how many that dont play?

[cutter]

Avatar plays for me as well as long as I don't change the subtitles from within the movie. If I do, the audio is lost. Skipping chapters in order to try to resync audio is not successful. A workaround which works is to pause the movie and hit play again.

I haven't tested all my BDs; I have purchased more than 300 so it would take me days to scan through all my collection. If I had to guess, I'd say anything between 30-50%. The movies that I know for sure they don't work or have problems are below:

The Wolfman (2010), Region B (Stutters to a freeze frame before even reaching the film's main menu)
Super 8, Region B (Stutters to a freeze frame before even reaching the film's main menu)
Transformers Dark of the Moon, Region B (Stutters to a freeze frame before even reaching the film's main menu)
Back to the Future Part I, Region B (Stutters to a freeze frame before even reaching the film's main menu)
In the Realm of the Senses, Region A Criterion Collection (Region Removed, Does not even start, reverts back to Eversion menu or Browser depending on where you start it from)
Mad Men Season 1 Region B (Does not reach main menu)
Mad Men Season 2 Region B (Does not reach main menu)
Mad Men Season 3 Region B (Does not reach main menu)
Avatar, Region B (Movie plays but difficulty when changing audio subtitles, audio is lost, problems fast forward or rewinding etc)
3:10 to Yuma, Region B (Does not reach main menu, hangs on "loading" for at least 3 mins)
Terminator, the Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 1 Region B (A300 does not originally load to the disk's main menu but to an episode submenu)
Terminator, the Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 2 Region B (A300 does not originally load to the disk's main menu but to an episode submenu)

[chris57]

Well 30-50% is far to much.

I'm not seeing it but I dont have any of the discs that you are having problems with apart from Avatar. Subs were OK but I did get the lost of audio (skipped back 30secs via left navpad to fix) and if it plays straight away without displaying the movie then it is not playing back with Full Navigation. That's how I picked up that NMJ is not giving options when you select Prompt for BD Navigation.

However I was breaking the cardinal rule of testing playback. Always use the standard UI to test as Jukeboxes themsleves can be the cause of playback issues.

What setting do you have for BD PiP audio, turn it OFF and try a few of the ones that dont play again. Make sure that you are using the standard Ui and have Full Navigation set. Bluray region you should have set to Region B and you should have 2Gb of storage available via HDD or USB to the player.

[cutter]

Well, I turned BD PiP OFF, confirmed that the navigation is set to Full Menu and tested The Wolman and 3:10 to Yuma directly from the network browser. Unfortunately, there were no changes in behaviour whatsoever. The Wolman takes more than 5 mins to get to the main disk menu and then it stutters to a freeze frame all the way through the main menu and the movie. 3:10 to Yuma seems to hang forever in the movie's "loading" icon.

By the way, apart from forum members, nobody from Syabas seems to monitor or respond to the Bug threads I've logged to the respective section of the forum. Should I log cases with PCH directly from their website or do they read the forums here and are hopefully working on the background?

[chris57]

Syabas are on holiday from 23 December to 2 January 2011.

If you have an issue then you should first log it here in the bug report as you have done. You can then also create a ticket at the PCH website support ticket. What happens between PCH support and you if for you and the PCH website support system. We don't mix the two. they may refer you to the WIKI or the forum like I have done to you to the PCh support section, but we dont quote each other or have any ties between us as we as NMT Owners are independant from Syabas.

We had a beta firmware testing group on the 100 and 200 series. I dont know what Syabas are doing on the 300. If we find out then it may be something you'd like to get involved in.

Remember like Dave_D says there are many different versions of the same bluray. each contry has different parameters and setups. Syabas have to be able to reproduce it in their labs to fix it. So if their copy of say Yume 3.10 when backedup and encryption removed plays then it makes it hard for them to fix.
They do however fix certain discs, if you look at past 200 series firmware release notes you'll see fixes for things like 'Pirates of Caribbean - german edition'.

Sorry to ask but you have set your BD Region on the player havent you, via 'slow,1,6,6,3 or whatever it is, at work but its on the WIKI under BD/DVD Region changes.

[cutter]

Yep, although I bought it from a local reseller, I also made sure to check the region code setting of my A300 and sure enough, it's set to the correct Region for me, Region B.

[chris57]

Did you actually set it though. i ask as I have seen something about the setting being made being a requirement. Region B is I think what they all say when they leave the factory before they have been set to a region.
http://www.networkedmediatank.com/wiki/i...on_Setting

Don't worry you have 5 changes and can reset that via the CSI if you ever use them all.

[cutter]

No i hadn't, so I set it to Region B just to be sure. Tested with the Wolfman again but the result was unfortunately the same.

[m6rtg]

On the Popcorn Hour homepage, the marketing information for the A-300 product boasts the following:

BluRay ISO Support
Never deal with scratched or damaged discs again with support for Blu-ray backup ISO files. With zero loss of movie quality and interactive menu support, you’ll have all the features of Blu-ray without all the hassles of physical media.

As this is in the official product marketing information for the A-300, PCH are obliged to provide this functionality for the A-300. If consumers wanted a refund today, they would be entitled to it. If the issues surrounding the playback of BD.ISO files on the A-300 are not resolved with upcoming firmware releases then consumers are entitled to a refund at any point in accordance with the consumer regulations of the country the goods were sold in (in the UK we have up to 6 years).

[halfelite]

(01-07-2012 03:28 PM)m6rtg Wrote:  On the Popcorn Hour homepage, the marketing information for the A-300 product boasts the following:

BluRay ISO Support
Never deal with scratched or damaged discs again with support for Blu-ray backup ISO files. With zero loss of movie quality and interactive menu support, you’ll have all the features of Blu-ray without all the hassles of physical media.

As this is in the official product marketing information for the A-300, PCH are obliged to provide this functionality for the A-300. If consumers wanted a refund today, they would be entitled to it. If the issues surrounding the playback of BD.ISO files on the A-300 are not resolved with upcoming firmware releases then consumers are entitled to a refund at any point in accordance with the consumer regulations of the country the goods were sold in (in the UK we have up to 6 years).

That is not saying much no where does it say original menus, the bdlite is an interactive menu

[m6rtg]

SimpleBD Nav does not provide all the features of Blu-ray, and the product comparison sheet shows that the A-300 provides Full BD Navigation as per the C-300 http://files.syabas.com/popcornhour/down...n_2011.pdf

Also, the issues with Full BD Nav are not the only issues with BD.ISO playback on the A-300

[cutter]

I can also confirm that. Apart from the official product sheet as provided above by m6rtg, I have the official response from my logged support case from Syabas that A300 supports it.

[Willem53]

(01-08-2012 10:51 AM)m6rtg Wrote:  SimpleBD Nav does not provide all the features of Blu-ray, and the product comparison sheet shows that the A-300 provides Full BD Navigation as per the C-300 http://files.syabas.com/popcornhour/down...n_2011.pdf

Also, the issues with Full BD Nav are not the only issues with BD.ISO playback on the A-300

Haha... marketing sematics.... wonderful... let's split some hair.

all the features of Blu-ray..... does not say all the features of (this particular) Blu-ray... so no trailers, FBI statements...yada yada yada...

it just says all the features of Blu-ray on a simple menu...

Full navigation does not say "with the original menu structure"

Watching the average TV commercial will be much further from the truth that what is stated here..... amazing discoveries..

Ignore marketing.... stick to the facts as told by other users...

[cutter]

No, no, it doesn't say simple menu; it says FULL MENU