What is BluRay Lite?

[ensaburnur]

What is Blu ray lite?

[Insomniac]

Mounting a BD-ISO file and playing the largest m2ts file from the BDSTREAM folder.
i.e. no BluRay menus.
Having full BluRay menus is protected by copyright and requires licensing. These licenses are generally not granted unless one has a BD player as part of the device itself, apparently as part of the anti-piracy protection campaign.

[ensaburnur]

So, with the latest Mede8er firmware, instead of the actual blu ray menu, you get a generic menu?

[mysticc]

So this means Mede8er will never have BR-menus for ISOs or folders ?

Mounting a BD-ISO file and playing the largest m2ts file from the BDSTREAM folder.
i.e. no BluRay menus.
Having full BluRay menus is protected by copyright and requires licensing. These licenses are generally not granted unless one has a BD player as part of the device itself, apparently as part of the anti-piracy protection campaign.

[Insomniac]

So, with the latest Mede8er firmware, instead of the actual blu ray menu, you get a generic menu?

You get no menu - the firmware just launches and plays the largest movie file contained in the ISO.

So this means Mede8er will never have BR-menus for ISOs or folders ?

Not unless someone figures out a way to get this right and Realtek implements it in their SDK source, or the BD licensing gets relaxed, and again, Realtek incorporates this functionality in the core code.

[fchef]

Mounting a BD-ISO file and playing the largest m2ts file from the BDSTREAM folder.
i.e. no BluRay menus.
Having full BluRay menus is protected by copyright and requires licensing. These licenses are generally not granted unless one has a BD player as part of the device itself, apparently as part of the anti-piracy protection campaign.

I wonder why Sigma based media players have full support? No anti-piracy protection there?

[Maasbommel]

What sigma player to you have and probably this has an Blu Ray player built in?

[mysticc]

What sigma player to you have and probably this has an Blu Ray player built in?

Dune Base 3.0 has full menus with BRs nd has no player build in.

[ensaburnur]

The HDI Dune players use the Sigma chipset. The Dune Prime does have a blu-ray drive built in, so it does have a license. The other model is the DuneHD Base which does not have a bulit-in blu ray drive, but it does a 3.5 inch hard drive bay built in instead. Both models play blu ray isos/folders/structures with full menu support.
I asked about the blu ray lite because I want to rip by blu ray tv shows to isos and want to be able to find the episodes I want quickly and easily. Some of these tv shows are/will be complete series, so being able to navigate the episodes easily will be very important to me. I don't neccessarily need a menu for movies since I'm going to watch one movie per disc. There aren't many options out there for me, but the Mede8er seems to be a very stable and reliable product, according to customer and professional reviews. I also like to fact that it already has a nice built-in GUI. It kinda reminds me of the AppleTV, another product I liked , but without the video codec limitations.

[Insomniac]

My understanding is that the full BD menu will not be available unless a BD player is part of the design - not sure how that unit gets it right if this is the case.
Either way, Realtek-based firmware doesn't have this capability yet - when they do, there will be some form of license payable to incorporate it into firmware.
I'm not sure how they intend to handle multiple-episode BD-disks in the future. It's not an area that the Mede8er devs have control over.

[ensaburnur]

I understand. I may still get a couple of Mede8ers just based on the statements I made above, and the fact that you can create your own folders of content to navigate (a folder for music videos. tv shows, porn...I mean family videos etc.). The HDI Dunes are great in being able to play blu ray rips true to the disc, but, since it uses MyMovies for metadata, it won't handle tv show rips with full metadata, since MyMovies caters to movies, not tv.  Also, it lacks portability, which the Mede8er seems to do better and the stock interface is bland. Which leads me to say again, that the Mede8er has a nice built-in GUI! That may not mean much to many, since we've become used to MyMovies, YAMJ, XBMC etc.. But for me, not having to fiddle aroung with learning how to install and mangage software on the pc, NAS and/or the streamer itself is a big plus! And with YAMJ being on Mede8er's road map anyway, along with the ablity to use Tvixie, Movie GUI etc., you have many options.

[mysticc]

My understanding is that the full BD menu will not be available unless a BD player is part of the design - not sure how that unit gets it right if this is the case.

It is the case.
So there are ways and it can be done,........ as soon as Realtek delivers the basis.
HDI`s guys surely aren`t smarter than the Mede8er-guys :-)

Hmm, but in case this is only about licensing and costs (Realtk or Mede8er has to pay ? ) this may be an explanation why there is nothing n the pipeline.

[Maasbommel]

Dune Base 3.0 has full menus with BRs nd has no player build in.

Ok, but price is starting from around € 329 for a unit like this without HDD installed.
So you have to pay double the price of a mede8er to get this kind of feature.....

[mysticc]

Ok, but price is starting from around € 329 for a unit like this without HDD installed.
So you have to pay double the price of a mede8er to get this kind of feature.....

Only unless you do the same calculation.
Why not afford these costs and go to market with a price-breaking device offering BD-menus.
As there are conventional BD-players out there for 100€ costs for licensing are very unlikely to double the price of Mede8er.

Any logical failure in my thoughts?

[Insomniac]

 o Conventional BD players obviously have BD optical drive - no restrictions there.
 o Mede8er does not have built-in optical drive - restrictions apply

 o Conventional BD players are by nature assumed to be able to handle original BD disks including full menus.
 o Mede8ers are not advertised with BD functionality in original design - first mention is in a firmware update which is considered an enhancement, added-on to the original spec - and then this is only referred to as BD-'Lite', even in the reviews. Mede8er speaks very openly and clearly about this distinction so that there is no confusion, misinterpretation or misrepresentation.

Hopefully Realtek come up with a solution, and if and when there is one THEN a decision will need to be taken as to whether this can be incorporated and at what cost. Consider that this was not part of original design spec and hence such license fee was not factored in to selling price. License will need be payable by Mede8er for EVERY unit to have left factory, not just as of specific date as every unit will then have this capability if such facility is developed and included in Mede8er firmware. Would all Mede8er owners be happy to cough up additional fee for future firmware release including this feature? I think not. Either way, we are not there yet...