Recommend me a blu-ray player with resume after power off?
 

I got a Sony BDP350 from Amazon yesterday and the resume feature on it doesn't work on blu-ray discs (at least not the first Godfather), but works fine with regular DVDs. I returned it this morning. Any other alternatives out now that can do a good upconvert of old DVDs, has a resume feature for both blu-ray and dvds and has a ethernet port on back for updates? I might just wait until the BDP550 comes out if that's any better.

PS3 does that now for most discs I've tried after you install the most recent BIOS updates. And the upconvert is pretty damn great.

Older Blu-ray discs - ones without BD-J - should resume like DVDs. Most newer BD-J titles allow resuming through the bookmark feature, but there are still some BD-J titles that don't support bookmarking, which means you can't resume. If the BDP350 is anything like the BDP300, though, you lose the ability to resume applicable titles after powering the unit off.

Rather than trying to remember which discs have BD-J and which don't, I just consider the format not to have resume at all. Try it and see, but just tell yourself there's a chance it may not resume (unless you know the disc).

I just don't see how hard it is to make a player that has the resume feature after the power is off. My sony upconverting DVD player remembers where it left off even if I unplug it. I probably will just wait for a player that is right or me. Thanks for the help. Doesn't the pioneer player have resume? The one that's $550 or so?

I don't know either, but it's a different animal from DVD. With BD-J, it's not just reading the disc; it's running a program. I'm not sure why a player couldn't do something like hibernation on computers, where it would write the data in RAM to a chip and reload it when resuming.

Sometimes I wonder if it's a "security" risk, as if the data written on a chip could be used to hack the player.

I think it's the encoding of the Godfather. It wouldn't do it with my Panasonic, but How The West Was Won would.

Unless you're physically unplugging it, it's probably still in stand-by mode.

Not to be too harsh, but just because you don't understand it doesn't mean there aren't technical obstacles that make it difficult, if not impossible, to implement.

I've never understood the hang-up people have with this, maybe because I never cared all that much about the feature with DVD. It takes about 10 seconds to go through the scene selection menus and get back to anywhere in the movie and it's even faster for discs that support bookmarking.

Not to be too harsh, but just because you don't understand why lack of this is annoying, doesn't mean it actually isn't.

My Magnovox BD player resumes on most discs.

Most newer movies are including a bookmark feature to compensate for the lack of resume. I can't believe the resume feature is at the top of anyone's list. You returned the player because of that?

One of my biggest gripes about the PS3 with it's original firmware was the lack of a resume function, even for regular DVDs... this was mostly due to watching TV series on DVD. I can see why this would be an annoyance, though I'm not sure I'd return a player because of it.

The resume function was one of those things that I never really thought about until I realized that my Pioneer DVD player had this function a couple of years ago. It's very useful to have. Certainly not a deal-breaker, but very convenient.

Just realized that my PS3 has that function.

I understand why it would be annoying to some, but I can't see it being anything more than a minor annoyance at best. You really returned a player just because of that? That seems extreme to me, when there are alternative ways to get back to where you were that only take a few more clicks of the remote. I'd be happy to listen to your explanation though, if you'd like to help me understand.

Yes I really did return it because I've gotten so used to my Sony DVD player that can easily pick up at the exact second where I left off, even when I change out discs. I have The Godfather collection and Dawn of the Dead (on order) so I guess I'm going to have to watch my DVD versions until a player comes along that will have a resume feature. I'll wait until the new models come out. I might be picky, but don't understand why a $100 DVD can do this flawlessly, yet a $300 blu ray player can't do this.

I guess I'm still at a loss. If I understand you correctly, you would rather forego all the advantages of Blu-ray than to just re-train yourself to use the bookmarking feature or the scene selection menu?

If you genuinely want to understand the technical reasons why no Blu-ray player has this capability (for all BDs) and possibly never will, you might try one of the insider threads at Blu-ray.com. That might help you decide if you should just go ahead and bite the bullet and live with it.

I'm going to end up getting a blu ray player soon. With Texas Chainsaw Massacre coming out, I'm going to have to deal with it

Discs encoded with BD-Java cannot have the resume-play function, not on any player, ever. It's a limitation of the format design. If you're going to wait for a feature that will never exist on a Blu-ray player, then you're not ever going to own a Blu-ray player.

Thank you for stating that differently. Drexel said as much earlier in the post - it's the disc, not the player - but apparently that didn't come across to others discussing.

Re: Recommend me a blu-ray player with resume after power off?
 

I bought the Sony BDP-S350, and was unpleasantly surprised by the lack of the resume feature on blu-ray movies, or at least the few I've rented since buying the unit. The feature is important for those who don't finish the movie in one sitting. This Forum explained the "why" (due to BD-J). I would think Sony and others could overcome this flaw.

Re: Recommend me a blu-ray player with resume after power off?
 

i could never understand why anyone would not watch an entire movie in one sitting. i could never split up movies like that. changes the whole perspective for me.

TV shows i could understand but it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me.

Re: Recommend me a blu-ray player with resume after power off?
 

Interesting - Star Trek TOS on blu-ray DOES resume in my Sony BDP-S350. I believe the discs do have BDLive functionality - is this synonymous with BD-J?

Re: Recommend me a blu-ray player with resume after power off?
 

BD-Live and BD-J are two different things.

BD-J is used in authoring of the interactive elements like menus and special features.

BD-Live is a the 2.0 spec of Blu-ray Disc and allows for internet connected features.

Re: Recommend me a blu-ray player with resume after power off?
 

I used to do it all the time. If I wanted to watch a movie but never had the time to sit and watch the entire thing (especially when you're talking about the extended versions of Lord of the Rings), or if I was getting sleepy and decided to come back to it later. But then I got into TV on DVD, and I find myself hardly watching my movies (even though I keep buying them), because it's easier for me to watch 45 minutes at a time.