Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Blu-ray with no OSD?

This is topic Blu-ray with no OSD? in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Michael Stuart (Member # 6790) on 03-20-2012, 06:05 PM:

Hi folks!

I currently have a Pioneer BDP-V6000 giving me some trouble, so I am looking to see what others use for Blu-ray players? I know OPPO is a great deck, but without the ability to turn off OSD it wont work for me. Thanks in advance!

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 03-20-2012, 06:18 PM:

Give the Sony BDP-S580 (or the current version)...it can turn the OSD off...loads reasonably fast and is pretty cheap.

-Steve

Posted by Jake Spell (Member # 5294) on 03-20-2012, 06:36 PM:

I agree with Steve, we use a Sony that has been dropped several times and still works flawlessly. You can disable the screen saver and OSD completely though it still does auto power off.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 03-20-2012, 07:18 PM:

That Sony is OK. The major limitation that I found with it was that it cannot output both HDMI and composite video at the same time. That makes it impossible to use with a D-cinema projector's DVI input and a non-HDCP-compliant monitor. Obviously, this is a nonissue if you are using the component output or have an HDMI-capable monitor.

The other two issues that I have with it is that it does not have a six-channel audio output and it will power off after being paused for a period of time (~10 minutes or so).

None of these issues is a deal-breaker, and it is a reasonable unit. I have been searching in vain for a Blu-Ray player that does everyhing that I want for cinema use, and have come up short so far. The Oppo comes very close, but the on-screen display cannot be disabled (which is a deal-breaker for me). Same for the $800 Denon. The Panasonic BD-030 is pretty good, but is out of production, and I am told that the sound quality is poor when using the 6-channel audio output.

Someone, please make me a player that has the above-mentioned features and I will gladly pay $500-1000 for it, and will tell half a dozen other places to buy one, too.

Posted by Tommy Zackariasson (Member # 6505) on 03-21-2012, 12:30 PM:

Hi

Over here in Sweden the films are never dubbed (exept for kids films) so our only choice is Oppo, because it is the only one(?) that can elevate the subtitles when in scope. Maybe if all of us oppo-owners here on the forum would request a feature to disable the OSD, it could happen in future firware versions?

/Tommy

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 03-21-2012, 08:03 PM:

Most Philips BluRay players also offer subtitle shift, and the better ones also have discrete analog 5.1/7.1 outputs. Don't know about OSD or play/pause issues of these.

What exactly is the problem with the OSD? Our Sony 550 has the OSD configurable - yet we use an HDMI Switcher and preview monitor to prepare screenings.

Once the main feature has started and the Player switched on the projector input, there is no need for us to do anything on the player that brings up an OSD.

Unlimited Play-Pause is more important for us.

A request to Oppo to disble OSD could be very useful.

- Carsten

Posted by Michael Stuart (Member # 6790) on 03-22-2012, 08:59 AM:

I picked up the Sony-S590 and other than a very annoying menu when there is no disc pending it seems to work well. It can turn off OSD and screen saver, and it will pause for about 20 minutes until it shuts off. The benefit is that when powered back up, when you press play it will start from the previous pause point.

I contacted OPPO and they have no plans to turn off OSD. They believe that it is a "necessary feature for use in troubleshooting", and gave me some examples of how they feel about the intelligence of their customers. They don't want the business from the Dcinema industry and made that perfectly clear to me. Shame.

Still looking for the perfect player [Frown]

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 03-22-2012, 01:43 PM:

Wow, Oppo sounds like a real stick in the mud. Why not have it as an option for users that want the feature? That response from them is laughable.

AJG

Posted by David Buckley (Member # 2600) on 03-22-2012, 07:33 PM:

Many of the low cost Panasonic blu-rays can have their OSD disabled.

It may be more than you want to pay, and do more than you need, but the Tascam BD-R2000 is worth a look. It's a proper professional-level tool.

I've not seen this actual model myself, (ie buyer beware!) but have used the DVD predecessor, the Tascam DV-D01 and it does allow OSD to be killed completely, and the manual for the BD-R2000 says it can have OSD switched off. Also the DVD player will pause forever, unlike many players that get bored with being paused and either go back to the menu or just start playing, so presumably the blu-ray player will too.

Posted by Jeffry L. Johnson (Member # 453) on 03-26-2012, 10:27 AM:

The Tascam BD-R2000 looks like a clone of the JVC SR-HD1500 which also has the option to turn off OSD. But these blu-ray recorders list for over $2,000!

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 03-29-2012, 06:59 AM:

Which real issues did anyone experience with OSD in real life under typical cinema use?

- Carsten

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 03-29-2012, 08:39 AM:

Well, the most basic problem is that most BR players will display a giant "PLAY" or right-arrow on the screen when one hits "play" to play the disk (or, more commonly, take it out of pause mode). This leaves one with the unpleasant choice of either showing this on the screen or cutting off the opening fade-in of whatever is being shown.

Similarly, when a disk stops, the default splash screen for most players (usually featuring the manufacturer's logo). This is unacceptable in a theatre (it's bad enough at home). I have yet to see a player that can be configured to display a black background in such cases. Better disks are authored with a few seconds of black at the end, which mostly avoids this problem, but it does not help if playback fails mid-show.

Finally, in the case of having to enable or disable subtitles mid-show, most players will display "SUB1" (or similar) when the "subtitle" button on the remote control is pressed. While this should be done before the screening, it is sometimes forgotten and needs to be done after a show start. In those cases, one is again left with the unpleasant choice of having to show this on screen or having to momentarily close the douser while making this change.

All of this relates to the idea that we should not be advertising to the public that we are charging them money to watch a consumer-grade home format in a theatre. We should not be doing this anyway. When it is necessary, however, we should at least not broadcast that fact on screen.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 03-29-2012, 10:23 AM:

What I'd like to see is a second video output, just simple composite video would do, which still has the on-screen display even when it's turned off on the main output, but that's probably too much to hope for on a consumer format.

Posted by Bernie Anderson Jr (Member # 410) on 03-29-2012, 01:32 PM:

The sad part is, my Toshiba HD-DVD A2 did all of this: turned off the OSD, Output to HDMI and Component output to the a video monitor at the same time and a black screen on stop. Too bad, its only HD DVD. Personally, I thought that format was better than Bluray. Oh well. Have not found a bluray player that can do it all either.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 03-29-2012, 03:12 PM:

Certainly good to have the OSD disabled. But one shouldn't restrict one's choices only because of that feature. I think there are more important ones.

We have an HDMI switcher between Bluray-Player and projector. Whatever needs to be done with the OSD visible is only happing on the preview monitor, not on screen. As most movies have all sorts of extra material, disclaimers, etc before the main feature, we always find a few seconds of black to do a clean start.

The end of the movie could indeed be a problem, because no player will simply go to black there, even with OSD disabled, it will revert to the basic media menu.

What I usually do is, switch device display to remaining play time and set a timer on my smartphone a minute or so shorter than that. So I can be back at the machine before the movie ends.

Wondering wether the DLNA enabled players would offer some kind of generic control interface including playtime feedback. Panasonic players offer a remote app for iPhones with a Playtime display and CueToFeature.

- Carsten

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 04-02-2012, 01:44 AM:

quote: Carsten Kurz
The end of the movie could indeed be a problem, because no player will simply go to black there, even with OSD disabled, it will revert to the basic media menu.

Very good motivation to rip the feature off the BluRay and author one without all the menu and other gack and with plenty of black before and after the feature. And if you are authoring a "show version," you can then add theatre as well as sound format snipes so you come pretty close to it looking like a regular cinema presentation and not some home theatre show. I would even put a number 3 cue mark in black before the first frame, just for old time sake. [thumbsup]

Posted by Bernie Anderson Jr (Member # 410) on 04-02-2012, 06:55 AM:

If you're going to go that far to rip a blurry, then you might as well keep it on the computer and play it back using VLC or Niceplayer and then you can put it in a play list. I do something similar at home and it works well.