[SoCalMichael]

My remote control buttons also do not work during bluray playback.  

I use a Flirc with a Harmony Smart Control.

Are you saying that to fix the problem of the remote buttons not working I should create a custom keymap file (as per Keymap (wiki)) and then modify the <videomenu> section of it to assign skipnext, skipprevious, stepforward, stepback, etc. to previously unused keys (which I would then map to remote buttons using Flirc)?

Sorry for the newbie question.

I'm living v.18 so far.  Many thanks.

[bigpen23]

From my experience on v18, the media control buttons work well with pop-menu support for non-java Blu-ray iso. For java Blu-ray iso, you can have either the pop menu or the media control, but not both.

If you choose "show Blu-ray menu" in Disc option, you get the pop up menu, but most of the media control buttons do not work apart from start/stop (not even from the OSD control).

If you choose "play main movie", you get the media control button back, but no pop menu -

Anyone have different experience? Hope this can be fixed in the next update.

[bigpen23]

Seems the media control buttons do not work in Bluray with Java menu, do you have the same experience? Thanks

[Cinephilia]

It's wonderful that you can now bring up the Java disc and pop-up menus, and navigate through them with Kodi. That way you can access all special features on the disc. However, I can hardly believe that for this feature to work you have to forfeit playback control entirely. Play, Pause, FF, REW, Chapter Skip, nothing works at all for me. Not even the keyboard controls work anymore, except M for bringing up the OSD menu. Surely this is not how it's intended to be?

[jjd-uk]

I think you need to toggle between which type of menu is active of either Disc menus or Kodi menus, that's if I've understood the explanations on this thread https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2980094

[Cinephilia]

Thanks for getting back so quickly!

Yes, did read the thread you linked to in its entirety, which had given me hope there's a workaround. However, I never get access to the OSD menu controls, no matter how often I hit the menu (house) button. In fact, the only OSD playback control options I do get are the buttons for Stop and chapter skipping, while only stop works. Chapter skipping doesn't do anything, and what's worse, the movie can't even be paused hitting the space bar.

I was on the latest stable (I think 18.7), and just checked again with Matrix Beta 2. I also installed JDK 11.0.5 as per this post (and pointed the JAVA_HOME and PATH environment variables to it), but it didn't change anything. Really at a loss here, as losing playback controls certainly can't be by design. I would be happy with toggling back and forth OSD and disc menu. As it stands now, all I can do is bring up the disc menu and select items from it, nothing else.

[jjd-uk]

Maybe @fandangos might have some idea of what could be going on.

[Cinephilia]

Can't send him a PM, I guess because I'm a newbie here. Will he be notified of your mentioning him, or shall I post a reply in the thread you linked where he had replied as recently as October?

[jjd-uk]

He should be notified of the @ mention.

[fandangos]

Maybe @fandangos might have some idea of what could be going on.

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=356298

I believe everything I said in that thread applies here.
But the changes I made are only part of Kodi Matrix.

You need to press the home menu button to toggle controls over kodi or the bluray overlay menu.

This will only change when libbluray exposes some kind of information if a bluray is available on screen or not.
Until this happens our only solution is to manually change between kodi osd control or the java menu.

And I've quickly went through this thread here. Hope I'm answering your question properly.

Edit: seen this has been tested by you. I don't think there's much else that can be done.
This was tested, extensively with UHD BD and regular BDs.
It's not the best method but it does work.

Have you tested more than one disc?

If you see a proper chapter count this means Kodi is controlling the disc. so everything you press on the OSD kodi buttons should work.

If it show as zero, this means you need to control with the bluray java menu.

Both methods do work, including very complex disc menus like Alien UHD.
Or even resume features dialogue.

You can have a bad rip, or a improperly coded menu, or things might have changed since last time I worked on this.

[_novalis]

It is very difficult to make general assumptions here.
Because of the nature of how disc menus are working.
There are different methods out there.
Mostly the misbehaviour is caused by bad rips or faulty menu structures as @fandangos said.
In most cases it should work as explained.

But I admit I also have a hard time sometimes when it works, then not, then again on the same one disc. Only a few days ago I had trouble with the Resume popup that appears sometimes if you've watched a disc before.
It just popped up and asked whether I wanted to resume the movie or start from scratch, but Kodi didn't recognise any input.

[fandangos]

This is more an opinion than a tech recommendation.

Yeah, full disc playback is something that I always wanted.
I like that we can have the feeling of original discs and use this for preservation of this kind of media.

But my thoughts about this changed.
I'm not a dev at all, I just do a few things and know people that are willing to help with what I want to do.
I worked really hard to figure out why full discs were not working properly and to have libbluray updated, which Paxxis did in the end.

After going all the way trying this out, today I feel this isn't so important.
Most bluray uses Java for menus and JRE is only possible on Windows and Linux.

Linux doesn't support HDR properly (except on Odroid boxes) and none supports Dolby Vision.

So everything else won't work, like android boxes (shield/fire stick), apple tv, android tvs, phones, tablets, xbox..
None supports Java.

Adding salt to the injury uhd bds have very basic menus and almost no extras. So the amount of content getting released which feels like a menu is worth having is less common now.

And.. after all that, you can play every stream on a disc but not having the menus, which are the simplified menus.

I would love to have proper Dolby Vision, menus and everything in a Android box like the shield. That would be ultimate setup dream but we won't ever get Java on anything else besides windows and linux.

The benefits of playing the main stream are proper playback, chapters and the ability to download subtitles on the go.

So just my personal experience with bluray menus is that while it's very nice to have it, the work involved for it to proper work is something that may not be worth it.

[tehax]

I agree with that but with one exception. The language selection for e.g. Star Wars movies. How do i get without java menu the text at the beginning in German? The available streams do not offer them and with MPC it is also not so easy. I am on Windows and with your help i can select the correct language in the Java menu within Kodi. Thank you.

[Cinephilia]

@fandangos After 9 long years of fiddling around to keep Windows Media Center alive, I've finally decided to make the transition to something adequately modern and more convenient. Your work on getting full Blu-ray discs to work on Kodi has played a large part in that decision, for which I thank you wholeheartedly.

My feelings are very similar to yours. I've always loved the menus on DVDs because they added a certain touch of class and elegance to the whole playback experience. Granted, with all the advances in playback technology, what with modern UIs being able to control virtually everything that menus were primarily designed for, I realize that there is not much need for them anymore. Furthermore, I agree with you that in recent years the studios have put much less effort into menu design. It clearly shows if you compare, for example, the menus of the Home Alone "Family Fun Edition" DVD from 2006, and the 25th Anniversary Remastered Blu-ray edition. The DVD menu was very elaborate, while the Blu-ray menu is rather basic. Another example of how beautiful a menu can look is the 2008 Platinum Edition Blu-ray of Sleeping Beauty. A Short video of it can be seen here: Sleeping Beauty US Blu-Ray Menu Films Disk

However, there are merely practical instances where a disc is authored in a way that makes menus a necessity if you want to access all features on the disc. Playlist obfuscation is one issue, albeit a pretty rare one, but then there are multi-movie discs. How am I supposed to pick the right movie if I am only presented with a playlist full of arbitrary looking titles? The task becomes even more arduous for non-technical people.

The solution you have described extensively would be close to ideal for me: Whenever somebody else is holding the remote, like family or a guest, they can simply use the OSD controls to pause, rewind or enable subtitles. Whenever I want to access the special features, I bring up the BD-J menu and can toggle back and forth as need be. As it is right now however, for many titles I can't control anything but the BD-J menu. No pause, no rewind, no nothing. Your points are all well taken about possible bad rips and so forth, but I don't think that can be the explanation to my problem when it appears with so many of them. I really hope there's just something wrong with my configuration. Allow me to run you through what I've done step by step. Did I forget anything here?
 

1. I'm on Kodi 18.9 Leia x64 with the default skin. Tested on both Windows 7 and 10.
   
2. I installed Java 8 Update 271 and set the environment variables as per your instructions here.
   
3. I enabled "Show Blu-ray menu" under "Settings > Player > Discs > Blu-ray playback mode.
   

The following are my results. I spent a lot of time taking screenshots and describing the exact playback behavior. Unfortunately only 12 images per message are allowed, so I'm going to have to split it up into three separate messages.

A Christmas Carol (1951) [BDMV Folder] [VCI Entertainment]
This is the only disc so far where everything works exactly as you describe it.

As you can see in the above screenshot, the BD-J menu appears automatically at start. No need to hit the menu (house) button in order to bring it up.

Pause, Chapter Skipping and seeking work from the OSD as well as with keyboard controls.

When I hit the space bar, it shows the correct current chapter.

When I bring up the BD-J menu, it shows chapter zero. This is expected as per your description.


Now as for the following titles, playback controls work only partially. Please note my individual references to each screenshot.

Holiday Inn (1942) [ISO] [Universal Studios]

This is my weirdest title. The BD-J disc menu buttons appear right before the end of the Universal intro.

After the intro and inside the Disc Menu, the arrow keys don't work to select an entry. It's actually a non-issue here, since I wouldn't watch the colorized version anyway. Also note that the menu backdrop is all black instead of the usual white picture showing Bing, Fred and Marjorie.

As soon as I hit return, playback starts. Pause and seeking work, while chapter skipping does not. Toggling between OSD and BD-J menus doesn't have any effect on the chapter skip buttons. The arrow keys always bring up and close the pop-up menu.

Current Chapter count is always showing zero on the OSD.

The pop-up menu works, so I could do with this scenario. I could always skip chapters from there, if I ever needed to.

Even the resume feature works from the BD-J menu, which was a pleasant surprise for me.

[Cinephilia]

White Christmas (1954) [ISO] [Paramount Pictures]

The BD-J disc menu comes right up without having to press anything.

Playback works the same as for Holiday Inn, which means no chapter skipping from the OSD.

Again, chapter count is always showing zero.


It's a Wonderful Life (1946) [BDMV Folder] [Paramount Pictures]

Much like with Holiday Inn, part of the BD-J menu appears even before the Paramount intro has ended. Is this expected behavior? Just curious as it's only a cosmetic issue.

Everything normal here.

The disc menu shows up instantly.

All playback controls work, except chapter skipping.



Home Alone (1990) [ISO] [20th Century Fox]

I guess Fox uses similar menu coding to Paramount, as the menu shows up automatically here. It's only a pity it looks so cheap compared to the Special Edition DVD.

Everything OK here, except chapter skipping. I know I'm sounding like a broken record, but just for the record.