Last night Michelle and I received the replacement Blu-ray disc for “Salt”. We had returned the first one to Netflix as being unplayable. This second one suffered from exactly the same issue: The disc would churn for the infinite amount of time a Blu-ray disc likes to churn, it put up it’s little custom progress bar (because heaven forbid there would be some consistency in the interface between Blu-ray offerings) which then stops at about the 90% mark.
Of course there is the usual “take the disc out and inspect and/or clean it”, “Turn off the Blu-ray player and restart it”, “Check for updates to the Blu-ray player” and all that hokum.
So I’ve sent this replacement disc back too.
I’ve also gone onto Netflix and adjusted my profile. I’m no longer paying the $4/month premium for Blu-ray access. The money isn’t a big deal, but it seems to me I’m paying extra for everything I dislike about new discs that I have absolutely no use for:
- Super fancy custom menus
- Just give me a “PLAY” option and don’t hide it or delay it. Better yet, just start the damn movie.
- Pop-up windows that block parts of the movie with folks yammering about what a good time they had making the film.
- For some reason this always defaults to on. I need to figure out (it’s different every time) how to “Enable” the feature, then “Disable” it to get it off my screen.
- Extra Features
- I don’t know, am I just from another generation? If I wanted extra features maybe I could just order another disc with only those on it?
- Deleted scenes, in my experience, were deleted because they were awful. If they weren’t awful they’ll be in the director’s cut in a few months and I can watch them in context then
- I really don’t care about the behind the scenes action. I like the *movie* precisely because it is fiction. Except for folks who are intent on becoming videographers, I don’t really see the thrill of the behind the scenes action.
- Stops me from viewing as I see fit.
- Don’t make me watch those stupid warnings, and those cowardly statements about how, even though you’re publishing this Blu-ray and making all kinds of money from it, you take no responsibility for its content.
- Don’t make it hard for me to skip the “coming attractions” I’ve either seen them before or I don’t care
- Do not prevent me from setting bookmarks – how on earth will this jeopardize the profits that are to be made from the sale or rental of this disc?
- (I think this is just my Blu-ray player rather than Blu-ray per se) Why does it ONLY remember the position of ONLY the Blu-ray disc that’s IN THE MACHINE WHEN I TURN IT OFF? I’ve got scads of storage in that player, surely it can remember the last 50 items I put in there so that it can offer to pick up from where I left off?
FYI I have a Samsung BD-P2500 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player if you have ideas about why “Salt” doesn’t play.
I’m now waiting for the non Blu-ray version of “Salt” to arrive so I can watch it.