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Curious thing happened on my way to Jupiter Ascending

Crower

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I recently received my 2D version of Jupiter Ascending from Netflix (one of their custom jobs with "Netflix" on the disc) and sat down last night to see if it was worth buying. When I popped it in my stand alone player (Panasonic), the previews played fine, and when they finished and the player attempted to go to the main menu, the picture went to a black screen. All the numbers on the front of the machine went dark like it was off (in fact, when I ejected the disc, the display popped up "Hello" like it does when first turned on), but if that's the case, I usually get a blue screen due to the lack of and HDMI interconnect, so the player was still on but totally locked up somehow.

I tried the disc again and called up the "Top Menu" when the previews started to run, but as soon as the machine tried to pull it up, the same thing happened. I finally gave up, reported the disc bad to Netflix and returned it for another copy.

I'm just wondering if this has something to do with screen pass, or maybe the Dolby Atmos track. Hope if I were to purchase the actual JA disc that this wouldn't happen. Last firmware update for my BD player was made sometime back (no more issued).

Anyone care to chime in. Is this anything AnyDVD HD could deal with (I didn't try it)? Will update this string when I get the next disc.
 
I recently received my 2D version of Jupiter Ascending from Netflix (one of their custom jobs with "Netflix" on the disc) and sat down last night to see if it was worth buying. When I popped it in my stand alone player (Panasonic), the previews played fine, and when they finished and the player attempted to go to the main menu, the picture went to a black screen. All the numbers on the front of the machine went dark like it was off (in fact, when I ejected the disc, the display popped up "Hello" like it does when first turned on), but if that's the case, I usually get a blue screen due to the lack of and HDMI interconnect, so the player was still on but totally locked up somehow.

I tried the disc again and called up the "Top Menu" when the previews started to run, but as soon as the machine tried to pull it up, the same thing happened. I finally gave up, reported the disc bad to Netflix and returned it for another copy.

I'm just wondering if this has something to do with screen pass, or maybe the Dolby Atmos track. Hope if I were to purchase the actual JA disc that this wouldn't happen. Last firmware update for my BD player was made sometime back (no more issued).

Anyone care to chime in. Is this anything AnyDVD HD could deal with (I didn't try it)? Will update this string when I get the next disc.

How about make a log file of the disc and others can chime in....
 
How about make a log file of the disc and others can chime in....

When this issued developed, all I was trying to do was play the disc in my stand-alone BD player and it (cutting a log file) didn't occur to me. When I posted, I had already returned the disc to Netflix with a "bad disc" report. I'm supposed to get the replacement Wednesday (day after tomorrow), so if I have the same problem on that one, I'll create and post a log file.

I guess I was just interested if anyone had any theories as to what was happening since "black screens" have been showing up in various posts although these had to do with ripped discs and not originals being played in stand-alone players. I was wondering if the issue might be related to the same cause (which shouldn't be the case if the studios expect discs to play in stand-alone players without problems), or something Netflix did in cutting their "custom" disc. It was certainly an interesting problem to me.

I will follow-up on my original post as soon as I get the replacement disc and have a chance to look at it.
 
If the original disk refuses to play on your standalone, there is no doubt it is either a defective disk or the player.
Netflix has no significant motivation to publish disks that are not compatible with standalone BD players :).

Although I do wonder if they engineer a certain percentage of bad disks to throttle traffic.
 
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If the original disk refuses to play on your standalone, there is no doubt it is either a defective disk or the player.
Netflix has no significant motivation to publish disks that are not compatible with standalone BD players :).

Although I do wonder if they engineer a certain percentage of bad disks to throttle traffic.

I'm hoping this is a bad re-authoring problem and not an incompatibility of my player with the Atmos audio track Jupiter Ascending is supposed to have, since I have no way of addressing the latter (and I'm not about to buy a new player with Cinavia in it nor am I interested in Dolby Atmos). In my experience, all of the re-authored discs I've received from Netflix have played, though their practice of removing the original content (special features, etc.) is deplorable, so I don't think this is a bad-disc-on-purpose to slow disc traffic. Netflix doesn't provide any on-line contact to report the exact nature of a disc failure other than a check box for "doesn't play properly" which covers a lot of territory. If this is a re-authoring error that they haven't caught (and Jupiter Ascending is a relatively new release for them), I expect the same problem to show up on the replacement disc. Maybe with a log file, the folks here can figure out what's going on. Still, there is relatively little means to get that information to Netflix other than making a phone call since Netflix has no on-line contact provision on their site (undoubtedly to "throttle" complaints:)).
 
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I subbed Netflix for several years although not current. The bad disks almost seemed periodic in frequency. Possibly a coincidence but very suspicious.

Redbox doesn't have that problem as they will credit your account instantly on a complaint and you can rent another movie without waiting for a replacement.
 
I subbed Netflix for several years although not current. The bad disks almost seemed periodic in frequency. Possibly a coincidence but very suspicious.

Redbox doesn't have that problem as they will credit your account instantly on a complaint and you can rent another movie without waiting for a replacement.

Same could be said of Netflix as well so that reply doesn't make sense. You just use the reporting links in Netflix and they send you another copy. You make it sounds as they do nothing. And another point the cost you pay for each RedBox in the end cost more then a subscription from Netflix as well.
 
Relative to what Roycal said:

And I was just about to say something good about Netflix.....................

Usually they're pretty good about replacement discs and send them in addition to the next item in one's Q (still a wait however, unlike Redbox). My notifications have been pretty accurate also, with a given disc arriving on the day they said it would. Well, I guess Jupiter Ascending is just jinxed. The replacement was stated as to arrive today (and I was going to report back on it), but no disc. Maybe tomorrow??

That said, they used to have a three day turn around on discs when they had a center in our state, but they moved that about 600 miles away and now the turn around is about a week (4 discs a month for $11 - does that beat RedBox?). I'm planning to drop them one of these days - just hanging on for some of the old discs they offer (not in Red Box to my knowledge), but those too are becoming hard to get as I've had some titles (regular listings on their site) in my "saved titles" list for a couple of years now with no results on any of them. If they aren't available, Netflix shouldn't list them (other than pre-issues which they WILL have at a future date).

Anyway, maybe I'll find out more about Jupiter Ascending tomorrow.

ADDENDA: Just thought I'd check out my theory this afternoon and stopped by a Redbox on the way back from town. $2.12 rental and it was out of stock. Yup, Jupiter Ascending is jinxed!!!
 
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Crower, Did you get your replacement disk from Netflix yet?

Netflix is a good deal if you can turn around the rentals within a few days and keep it flowing, but if you only rent 1 or 2 disks a week then Redbox is much cheaper. Also, if you join their online thing, they will send you discount codes several times a month. And they will credit you with a free disk for every 10 rentals. I always book online too, there is about 10 redbox's within a few miles so I can always find the latest releases.

I haven't used Netflix rentals for several years, but it used to take forever to get popular new releases. Redbox is never a problem getting the latest release the same day. Also, Redbox rarely has a bad disk with a new release.

The only real advantage that Netflix has over Redbox is selection. If it's on DVD or Bluray, you can usually rent it from Netflix.
 
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I just received the Jupiter Ascending replacement disc this morning. It is also unplayable in my stand-alone player
but it's different from the previous bad disc in that when the previews finish (or I try to bring up the TOP MENU), the
Blu-Ray disc logo flashes momentarily (on a black background), then a short-interval black screen, after which I'm taken back to
the "Warner Bros on clouds" banner screen at the beginning of the disc (after which the previews
begin playing again). When the black screen ends, my player shows the loading disc/reading disc icon, before going back to the Warner screen (just like I had put the disc in for the first time). In any case, no top menu to start the feature, nor does there seem to be any way to get to it.

This time I ripped the logfile which I'm attaching. It will be interesting if anyone here can chime in
on their findings. I think I'll give Netflix a call (in addition to reporting this disc bad AGAIN),
and see what they have to say.

As I mentioned, the only reason I've stayed with Netflix is their older titles. At 4 discs/month from Netflix (about $2.50 a disc - DVDs included), Redbox has them beat so if Redbox carried older titles, I'd drop Neflix in a heartbeat. Could you tell me if Redbox offers the original disc or do they reauthor a "custom" disc like Netflix with the special features removed?

Well, here's the logfile - see what you (as a collective) can interpret.
 

Attachments

  • AnyDVD_7.5.9.0_Info_D_JUPITER_ASCENDING.ziplog
    138 KB · Views: 5
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Just to rule it out, check and make sure that your stand alone player's firmware has been updated to the latest version.
 
Could you tell me if Redbox offers the original disc or do they reauthor a "custom" disc like Netflix with the special features removed?

A lot of the Redbox rentals are just gray labels with "RENTAL" printed on them and usually have no extras. Jupiter Ascending is one of those. It has no extras and just a simple non-java type menu.

Does the disk play on your PC? Do check the F/W on your player but if it's a post Cinavia player, you probably don't want to update it. It's possible that your player is starting to flake out. Often that's how they go by getting finicky with some disks. Or it could be just a batch of bad disks from Netflix.

If it works on your PC (try speedmenus too), try burning it to BD-R and see if that will play on your standalone. Since it's only the main feature, I would recommend making a movie only or speedmenus version. I have had some images with the original menu play ok on a pc only to fail on a standalone.

Otherwise, I recommend booking a Redbox version and move on to the next rental on your queue for Netflix instead of bothering with another turn around. The US disk I rented had no problem.

Update: From your logfile, it looks like you're Netflix version is exactly the same version that I rented from Redbox, no new special protections. So it's either a batch of bad disks or your player. Most likely it's the disks. If it's a problem with the playlist sequence only (and this one is not screenpass protected), then you should be able to easily salvage it by making a movie only or speedmenus backup (assuming no read errors with the main feature which is a single stream file on this one).
 
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Actually this one is a little strange. Speedmenus doesn't work with this one even with my working original menu version. So forget that suggestion.
BDRebuilder should work though but haven't verified that. I still recommend renting a Redbox copy and it should work fine with the original menu.

This one has a few audio only stream files that depend on the original menu to play in the correct order. It confuses the forced Speedmenus setting on AnyDVDHD but handled by BDRebuilder if AnyDVDHD is set to disable speedmenus. This shouldn't be a problem with the original disk playing on a standalone player though :)
 
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Thanks for all the information and suggestions Roycal and Pelvis Popcan. I've been out of town for a couple of days and got away from this for a spell.
I missed the chance by not taking this disc with me since I had the opportunity to try it on an identical player elsewhere - oh well.

I have the last firmware update issued for the machine which is pre-Cinavia (one reason I treasure it). I don't have a computer player to test the disc with so I'm stuck with doing it on a stand-alone player. I have an older player that I think I'll pull out and try the disc on (Netflix's suggestion) and see what that provides. I think also that I'll try your suggestion and get the Redbox version to see if it performs any differently. I'm leaning more towards this being a disc issue since my player hasn't had any problems with other discs, including backups on BD-R media, and the issue occurs at the same location on both the first and the replacement Netflix discs. It is strange though that there is a slightly different behavior between the two in that the first one just killed my player (as if it were turned off) and the second looped to the beginning of the disc. Curiosity is driving me for the most part (and I would like to know if this will be a persistent problem if I were to buy the actual title on BD).

I'll let everyone know what happens with my experimentation in the next few days - have to unwind from my trip first.

My cousin had a good suggestion - I needed to watch the previews more than once to make sure the disc requirement for the viewer didn't call for at least five go-throughs of the previews!!!!!:)
 
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I don't have a computer player to test the disc with so I'm stuck with doing it on a stand-alone player.

Why not download a demo version of PDVD?
http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdvd-ultra/features_en_US.html?&r=1

Also, you can use free WMP or VLC to play just the main stream file (00042.m2ts) to see if the movie is worth buying. Obviously, AnyDVDHD needs to be enabled using WMP or VLC.
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

I agree most likely it's a bad batch of disks since it only fails when trying to load the top menu and the previews play fine. Renting a Redbox version would settle that issue but the retail version is completely different since it has a bunch of extras and likely java menus.

BTW just because it might play properly with menus on a PC doesn't always guarantee that it will play properly on a working standalone. But that condition is very rare and always the disk's fault.
 
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Why not download a demo version of PDVD or TMT?
http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdvd-ultra/features_en_US.html?&r=1
http://www.arcsoft.com/totalmediatheatre/?utm_expid=54193147-49.ka5gGYQFSu6V3nkrsNLz1w.1

Also, you can use free WMP or VLC to play just the main stream file (00042.m2ts) to see if the movie is worth buying. Obviously, AnyDVDHD needs to be enabled using WMP or VLC.
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

I agree most likely it's a bad batch of disks since it only fails when trying to load the top menu and the previews play fine. Renting a Redbox version would settle that issue but the retail version is completely different since it has a bunch of extras and likely java menus.

BTW just because it might play properly with menus on a PC doesn't always guarantee that it will play properly on a working standalone. But that condition is very rare and always the disk's fault.

I'm surprised that the demo link for TotalMedia Theatre still works.

Arcsoft discontinued TotalMedia Theatre last September.

EDIT: I was right. The link does not work at all.
 
I'm surprised that the demo link for TotalMedia Theatre still works.

Arcsoft discontinued TotalMedia Theatre last September.

EDIT: I was right. The link does not work at all.

Absolutely right, I should have checked that TMT link. The download link doesn't work. I deleted that link from my original post above :).
 
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Absolutely right, I should have checked that TMT link. The download link doesn't work. I deleted that link from my original post above :).

Please also delete the mentioning of TMT, since the link only goes toward PowerDVD now.

:)
 
Please also delete the mentioning of TMT, since the link only goes toward PowerDVD now.

:)

Done (I think) now all you have to do is delete the quoted comment where you repeated my original post. or just delete the hyperlinks or the entire quotes :)
Never mind it makes little difference to Crower's problem.
 
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Done (I think) now all you have to do is delete the quoted comment where you repeated my original post. or just delete the hyperlinks or the entire quotes :)
Never mind it makes little difference to Crower's problem.

Got your back.

:)

Enjoy the rest of your day.
 
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