I'm confused ...

[epstewart]

First, thanks for a useful and interesting site.

But I'm wondering...

On the Feature Stats page, releases like "Cars" and "Blow" are shown with a "Yes" for "Pic in Pic" but none for "Bonus View" or "BD Java". But I thought a disc could have "Pic in Pic" only if it has "Bonus View" ... which it can have only if it uses "BD Java".

To me, it doesn't make sense to say a disc has "Pic in Pic" but not "Bonus View" and also "BD Java".

(1) What am I missing?

(2) Are you perhaps putting "Yes" under "BD Java" only when the disc supports (say) pop-up menus?

(3) Would you consider including a column to say whether bookmarks are supported?

Thanks!

[DAve]

I don't think Java is needed for Bonus View (though I could be wrong - I believe it is needed for BD Live though).

Bonus view has a secondary video stream (or two or three) that is standard definition and can be turned on and off.

Some titles had two complete HD encodes, one clean and one with the PiP hard coded into the picture.

These can be viewed on Profile 1.0 players, and are not counted as Bonus View titles.

I believe that Cars and The Descent fall into that category.

[DAve]

As a follow up, Blow does not have a secondary stream.

I don't own this one so I am not sure what the nature of the picture in picture is.

[DAve]

Determining whether bookmarks are supported is tricky.

It is though a useful feature for Java discs since they won't resume where they left off when stopped.

The Java tag simply means that the disc was authored with BD-Java - it is fairly obvious from the file structure on the disc.

This may or may not be obvious to the user in terms of features.

The problem with logging specific features that are not obvious from the disc structure is keeping everything clear.

BD Live, Digital Copy and menu features like Bookmarks fall into this category - they are difficult to maintain an accurate listing for.

[epstewart]

I don't think Java is needed for Bonus View (though I could be wrong - I believe it is needed for BD Live though).

Bonus view has a secondary video stream (or two or three) that is standard definition and can be turned on and off.

Some titles had two complete HD encodes, one clean and one with the PiP hard coded into the picture.

These can be viewed on Profile 1.0 players, and are not counted as Bonus View titles.

I believe that Cars and The Descent fall into that category.

Thanks, DAve!

I wasn't reckoning with the possibility of a separate encode with PIP hard-coded into the picture.

However, I think you may be incorrect about BD-Java not being needed for Bonus View. According to the Wikipedia article on "BD-J" (short for BD-Java),

BD-J allows bonus content on Blu-ray Disc titles to be far more sophisticated than bonus content provided by standard DVD, including network access, picture-in-picture and access to expanded local storage. Collectively, these features (other than internet access) are referred to as "Bonus View", and the addition of internet access is called "BD Live."

That seems to imply that any Blu-ray Disc that has secondary-stream PIP (i.e., not hard-coded) has to use Java.

The Java tag simply means that the disc was authored with BD-Java - it is fairly obvious from the file structure on the disc.

A good point, and one that I missed.

Am I correct in saying that you yourself may have the ability to look at the file structure on a disc? How do you do that?

BD Live, Digital Copy and menu features like Bookmarks fall into this category - they are difficult to maintain an accurate listing for.

I gather that the difficulty arises when you personally don't own the disc, or rent it from Netflix, etc., so that you can inspect it yourself. You are relying (mostly? entirely?) on review sites like High Def Digest, posts to enthusiast forums, and corrections your users post to you, correct?

Anyway, thanks again for a useful site. I particularly like the way you have it set up to show disc prices at Amazon, and also at other online sources through pop-ups that appear when the mouse cursor is over the appropriate icon.

[DAve]

It may well be true that Java is needed to display the secondary stream.

I certainly can't think of any titles that have Bonus View but no Java.

Yes, with a BD-ROM drive in a PC you can look at the file structure.

I own roughly a quarter of the titles

I do rely on studio information, reviews, forum posts and corrections from helpful site users to keep everything as accurate as possible.

Certainly there are errors in there... but I do my best to correct things as I find mistakes...

I am glad that you find it useful

Cheers!