Popcorn Hour - Full BD Menu support Going

[manny9]

If anyone is planning to buy popcorn hour this is the time. As you might know Sony is aggressively pushing Cinavia encryption for all the devices coming out post 2012. If they need Blu ray license they need to implement Cinavia. I don't know much abt Cinavia but this is a audio encryption where the player will mute the audio if its ripped or recorded via hadicam....but at least Sony relented and given permission to media player manufactures to play blu ray rips without Cinavia and blu ray license. the only catch is you will not be able to play full Bluray menus. So there will never be a media player in future which will implement full BD menu support if it doesn't implement Cinavia, which means BD ISO will not work. I know you can get rid of the BD menus and save almost of 50% in file size (20 GB as apposed to 40 GB full BD rip), but i have few movies which is worth having 40GB size...

PCH has announced a new model A-400 which can play 3D ISO with new sigma SMP8911 processor. The specs really looks impressive but this doesn't have blu ray license hence no Cinavia and hence no full BD menu support.

I just hope my A-210 will not give up on me

 

[srinisundar]

Already encryption is there in sony discs, few of the pirated Blu-ray from sony catalog will not play properly ONLY in sony BD players. Others players will play fluently.

It is matter of encryption software to remove all bugs and related to the player which is going to play the media.

 

[manny9]

Yes your are correct. The one such example is "The other Guys'. The reason only Sony is not playing pirated version is that it has got the firmware update. My PS3 was playing such rips but now its not after the firmware upgrade.

But this problem will not go away. What Sony has done is any blu ray player or media player models released after 2012 need to implement Cinavia if they have to get blu ray license installed in the devices. Also there are asking all blu ray/media player manufactures to send out firmware upgrade....soon lot of us will start facing this issue...best thing is to not to upgrade the firmware and hope your player continues to run...

But if you are buying a newer model then it will have Cinavia. I think its best to buy a media player which has full BD support for iso now, because they might go away...or if someone breaks Cinavia...

 

[sribuddy]

Guys. I have a question here not relating to BD menu.. I have a Seagate theater+ media player which obviously does not play HD audio, so when I rip from 50gB blu-ray using DVDFAB, I remove dts/dolby HD audio and rip as DD to my hard disk.

I have couple of questions here on Media players:
(a) would it be wise to buy something like ASUS which plays 7.1 audio (HD audio), just becasue we want to retain HD sound in our rip? Is the investment worth?
(b) Having decided to invest on another Media player, which would be the options to go for. considering all the encryption around BD menu support is under question.

If I play a rip, I should feel like playing BD with all menu options. As simple as that.

All suggestions welcome!!

 

[manny9]

I don't have much knowledge about other players but all my bluray rips are in DTS-HD/7.1 and plays in my PCH A210. It depends, i like to retain untouched audio and video but most downscale them to save HDD space. If you are not a extreme audio/video expert i don't think you will notice much. I'm not but still love 1080p and untouched audio

Popcorn hour has another option to downmix the audio even though its 7.1 if you are playing in TV withourt AMP

If you like BD menu this is the time to buy, soon all media player will remove this feature. Better buy a good media player and keep it now...

 

[technobhatt]

I have a question....
Does it apply on players only or TVs as well ?
I mean...let's say I have a player which is not restricted due to Cinavia; but I have a TV which has Cinavia feature enabled.
In that case, will my player be able to play .MKV Bluray rips on TV....??
or TV's Cinavia will restrict Audio/Video ??

 

[mgdelhi]

Is the PCH only player that supports Blu Ray ISO with BD Menus ?

If yes, all models of PCH support BD Menus?

If not, which other players support BD menus?

 

[dranil]

Dune players support BD menu.

 

[mgdelhi]

Dune players support BD menu.

PCH players don't ?

 

[sarge_in]

Netgear NTV550 also supports BD menus, though there is no more development happening on this.

 

[manny9]

As of today all models of PCH support full blu ray menu but the new models coming out will not, starting from their new model A-400. This applies to all media player due to Sony's Cinavia encryption.

 

[manny9]

@technobhatt sorry i just saw your question. As for as I know Cinavia and blu ray license applies only to the devices which can play either a blu ray disk or blu ray files. So this is not related to any TV since they are not playback devices like a bluray player or a media player. This is my understanding , someone can correct me if I am wrong.

The general rule is as long as your player is not Cinavia implemented then it will play bluray menus on rips. But in future if not immediately if any blu ray player or media player need blu ray playback license from Sony it will be forced to implement Cinavia. But all is not lost in these players, they can opt out of having these only it will not play bluray menus, movie will play just fine. If they implement Cinavia the whole concept of media player is gone as Cinavia will stop it from playing any rips....hopefully someone will come with a "work around" for this....

I am planning to buy new PCH A-400 model in couple of months (yet to launch), once I get it i will test and share the feedback...