If you buy the newly released “Iron Man” Blu-ray disc and pop it into your computer, and it starts trying to download some mystery content from the Internet for the next 30-45 minutes, here’s what’s happening and how to turn it off. Thanks, Paramount, for your shoddy “interactive” quiz nonsense.

Sean writes:

Iron Man was released [this week] on DVD and Blu-Ray and there is much ire in the Blu-Ray community regarding the BD-Live aspects of the disc. When the disc is first booted the disc loads some information from the internet and begins an auto download. This load is taking anywhere from 2 minutes to over 45 minutes.

Last night I struggled for over an hour and half trying to get the disc to play, but all I could get was an “Iron Man” heart on my screen that did nothing but flash. I finally consulted the internet and found some advice on a few forums stating that I needed to change the BD-Live function of my player from Auto to Confirm; then to reload the disc and not allow the BD-Live functionality.

There is no warning on the disc that this initial load could take 30+ minutes to load. And what does this time intensive application do? It loads an interactive quiz that viewers may take during the movie. This should be something that is offered after watching the movie for the first time from the menu, not during initial start up.

I wonder how many consumers are taking the discs back to the retailer thinking the disc is broken or defective, only to get home and see the same thing again.

A post on Consumerist could go a long way towards educating the public on another “wonderful” marketing idea.

Done! Change the BD-Live setting on your player from Auto to Confirm so you’re not forced to deal with future auto-connect Blu-ray “features.”

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