Dragon's Lair may foil your Blu-ray player
by Ludwig Kietzmann 
{ Apr 11th 2007 at 5:46PM }
Earlier this week, Dean Takahashi of The Mercury News asked in his blog, "Can anyone figure out what's going on here?" The question was brought about by the recent Blu-ray release of the arcade's animated reflex-a-thon, Dragon's Lair, as well as the unfortunate observation that it didn't seem to work at all on Dean's Philips player. He also experienced audio issues when placing the disc in his PlayStation 3.We contacted publisher Digital Leisure, hoping to ascertain whether or not this was a widespread issue. While they were unable to replicate the PS3 audio problem, they did note that certain stand-alone drives may be prone to playback issues. If you're at all interested in partaking in Bluth-ray antics, this is the part you'll want to pay attention to.
During restoration and development , Dragon's Lair was tested on the following players: Samsung BD-P1000, Panasonic DMP-BD10, PowerDVD (PC), Sony BDP-S1 and the PlayStation 3. The use of BD-Java in Dragon's Lair is likely the source of problems in other players, as the Blu-ray Association's deadline for mandatory hardware BD-Java support (enabling fancy picture-in-picture features) was only recently set for October 31, 2007. "Due to the lack of Java standardization many players just aren't able to handle proper playback," says the Canadian publisher.
Be sure to consult your manufacturer's website and support forums before you purchase the game -- "There is no way to tell whether a disc will or will not work without trying it out on a player." Excellent. Future firmware updates for your player may improve your chances, but for now, getting it to work is a game of chance. And even if you win, you still get Dragon's Lair.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
sheppy @ Apr 11th 2007 5:49PM
Wait, someone BOUGHT Dragon's Lair?!?
tituspullo @ Apr 11th 2007 5:59PM
i want space ace!
gameclu @ Apr 11th 2007 6:14PM
i want Thayer's Quest!
arrrgh @ Apr 11th 2007 6:31PM
Makes you yearn for a HiDef format with standards that were set BEFORE its release....kinda sounds like...HD-DVD? yeah...wouldn't have had these problems there kids, go team Sony! :P
LueZuve @ Apr 11th 2007 6:43PM
Well, I'm getting the disc. I grew up on Dragon's Lair and Space Ace and am always looking for ways to get them on current systems.
Justin Moravetz @ Apr 11th 2007 7:11PM
to post #4
Why did you guys go with Blu-Ray instead of HD-DVD?
DF: We still do have intentions of coming out with HD-DVD. There are just challenges in terms of the hardware that is out there right now, in terms of compatibility. Similar issues to the BD-J issues, but a little bit more severe. So we're sort of waiting that one out until there is a little bit more maturity. There's a couple of movies out there that aren't running particularly well on HD-DVD. Children of Men is one. The issues are the firmware implementations and the other is the development and technology. I think honestly on the HD side there's a lot more openness and availability of development documentation. I think it falls down a little bit on the firmware implementation. I think all of this would get addressed in the short term. We just have to wait it out a little bit. We don't want to be making the same headlines that Children of Men has. The HD DVD version of Dragon's Lair is about of 99% done.
Jason B @ Apr 11th 2007 7:27PM
and to #6 point,
All HD DVD players have ethernet ports. Thus providing the capability to update firmware of the players for future enhancements or to fix incompatibility issue, etc. Ethernet ports are optional on Blu-ray players so if it doesn't work on the player today it likely never will.
Just something else to think about.
LaughingTarget @ Apr 11th 2007 7:29PM
The only thing we should be thinking about is why the hell are we patching our players? Shouldn't they, you know, work right out of the box?
Jason B @ Apr 11th 2007 7:31PM
Of course they should, but technologies are continuously refined and improved (and sometimes fixed ;-)
Just saying the possibility is there with HD DVD and not necessarily with Blu-ray.
LaughingTarget @ Apr 11th 2007 7:35PM
I understand refinements that make the viewing pleasure more, well, pleasurable, but we do have to realize that companies shouldn't be adding new functionality that makes future software releases unusable with older hardware. My DVD player from 1999 still plays any DVD I stick in it, but that isn't the case with a number of Blu-Ray players.
That is a bad thing and us putting up with it only gives companies the incentive to continually release unfinished crap they'll fix whenever.
Mr Khan @ Apr 11th 2007 7:41PM
Isn't Dean Takahashi a big Microsoft affiliate of some kind? He's always seemed to be linked to breaking some good news involving the 360 and Live for Windows
Although he apparently isn't, if he has a PS3...
Jason B @ Apr 11th 2007 7:49PM
No disagreement here Laughing target. If a company says a player will do something, then it should from the start. The problem with Blu-ray is that they decided to release a product before they had completed their own standards (HDi - wink wink, nudge nudge). And YES! That is a crap way to do business. But even crappier is that there is now way to update many Blu-ray players due to the Ethernet port being optional instead of mandatory.
This is just another reason I don't own a Blu-ray player now. I just hope I don't have to own one in the future either.
Jason B @ Apr 11th 2007 7:50PM
oops, that should have read "no way" not "now way"
why not the LS2/LS7? @ Apr 11th 2007 7:56PM
The BluRay spec already mandates BD-J, the October date is for an enhancement to BD-J which allows full-screen picture-in-picture video overlays instead of just the current spec of small 320x240 (or so) video overlays.
Dragon's Lair likely has no need for large video overlays (it had no video overlays at all in the arcade), so it isn't affected by this.
LaughingTarget:
You are lucky you didn't own one of the DVD players that crashed/locked up with the Matrix. The number of players in customers hands affected by this was far larger than the number of BluRay+HD-DVD customers affected by problems such as listed here.
Jason B:
HDi changes don't affect Blu-Ray, it doesn't have HDi. Also, HD-DVD is dealing with this issue of full-screen overlay video already. There are several HD-DVD players which will never meet the full HD-DVD spec for overlay-video. Search avsforums for more info.
I do agree this makes both formats look a little incomplete right now.
Jason B @ Apr 11th 2007 8:05PM
why not the LS2/LS7 - you are correct!...And I...unfortunately...am just dumb. But my confusing of HDi and BD-J is no excuse...So now...I will retire to my study...and study more!
Justin Moravetz @ Apr 11th 2007 8:12PM
You do realize that the primary function of the ethernet port on an HD-DVD player is for security updates right? It won't improve hardware performance if the hardware simply can't handle it.
horngreen @ Apr 11th 2007 8:23PM
Can you really expect all disc to play on a player that "only" retails for $1000? ; ^)
Aerostratos @ Apr 11th 2007 8:22PM
So why can't they just put any major update needed on a disk. Or make it burnable to a CD-R.
You know download it burn it and then put it in your player. Run the update. Problem solved. No need for the Ethernet port.
Burnt Meatloaf @ Apr 12th 2007 6:12AM
"Lack of Java standardization"
Gee wiz... where have I heard that before?
Java sucks. I hate using it.
leslie kool @ Apr 12th 2007 8:44PM
assome good new let see ported of cobracomand mach 3 astron belt and other laser disc games on blue ray
Talkstr8t @ Apr 12th 2007 9:17PM
Jason B, you got another one wrong as well. EVERY Blu-ray player supports firmware updates, regardless of whether it has an ethernet port. Those which don't are updated by downloading and burning a CD-ROM or receiving a disc in the mail.
Dragon's Lair was written without the author ever accessing the BD-J specification, so it's not surprising it has some compatibility issues. Whatever difficulties they had, however, were apparently more easily dealt with than trying to author the HD DVD version. The author didn't even know Java when he started this project - he bought a book to learn it, then wrote the software. See http://www.blueboard.com/bluray/qa_dragonslair.htm for more background on the author.