Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[ldoodle]

full disc playback

Does that explain why I don't get menus when watching Bluray movies (bdmv folder rips) - just goes straight to the film. Is this 'feature' coming?

[Jong]

Yes it does. I am not aware of any plans for full menu support, including Java, as you get with PDVD or Arcsoft or your stand-alone DVD player.

However, if you right click on a bluray while playing or assign the DVD menu to a key and press that you can see a text only menu listing titles on the disc, with duration. Unfortunately there are no proper names for the titles, so unless you know the length of what you want to see you have to guess! But it is a good first start.

It is possible support for non-Java menus, as on some discs and as can be provided by AnyDVD for Java discs, might be added as it is already in beta in the open source community on XBMC.

But, full menus (and 3D support) would require a collaboration with Cyberlink or Arcsoft. Since their own media Mangement tools are so pitiful I think it could be a win-win for JRiver and who they chose, but for sure I would want JRiver to remain independent. I hate to think what Arcsoft or Cyberlink would do if they got control of Media Center!!!  it would be carnage!

[ldoodle]

Not that i'm complaining, but what is the difficulty in getting Bluray disc menus to work?

[Jong]

I think there are big licence fees to pay, so you need a large customer base and JRiver would need an additional payment by us I am sure. But I'm OK with that! I'd prefer it to buying TMT6, or whatever.

Also, there are probably all kinds of rules about what they must do to stop DRM evasion which JRiver might have to sign up to  (Cinavia?!). I'm not sure. If so, it is a non-starter as it would stop them using RO, amongst other things. We would only know about that if JRiver try, or of course if they have tried already.

[ldoodle]

Ah OK. I think that's why Windows Media Center can't play back Blu-rays as well.

But it would be nice for an official comment from J River. A simple "yes/no/maybe/yes but we'd have to charge more" is fine 

I'm with Jong in that I would pay a supplement to have it if needed.

[audioriver]

It'd be interesting to know whether it's this kind of complicated BD-menu/Java compliance that unavoidably makes PowerDVD/TMT such unstable pieces of software, or is it just sloppy programming on the respective software companies part.

[Jong]

I think it is a bit of both. Their video renderering is still very primitive compared to MadVR, but they need to use an overlay surface, I believe, to avoid the potential for copying and they are probably concerned to have the maximum hardware compatibility, so cannot assume strong, new PCs. All this means they are much more susceptible to judder.

Also, the problem with the Java discs is essentially the player becomes the disc itself! The thing we know of as the player, e.g. PDVD, is really just providing rendering and I/O services to the program ON THE DISC. A lot of the problems are due to rogue disc code, some of which is written to only run on PCs, as extra protection against copying, so doesn't affect stand-alones. This is probably the main reason why so many wanted HDDVD to win the format war, but it was not to be.