I started this thread because I don't know the facts. Today I heard Scott Wilkinson of Ultimate AV on the radio, talking about Blu-ray. Here are some facts that I didn't know and wouldn't have thought of, that we all should know. As you guys add to this, I can edit this first post to include the whole list in one place. I'll generally use the term BD because it's shorter:

*Features on Blu-ray players are optional, so you have to know what features you want to select a player that will do what you want.
*Some BD movies won't play on BD players. The only likely way to predict this is that new movies are less likely to play on old (out of date) players.
*To do a firmware update to your BD player, you have to download a file, burn it to a disc, and put the disc into the player (I'll add added details as soon as I can, maybe make this a separate category in this post).
*That last item suggests that Blu-ray players are NOT for people who just want to play the darn DVD, but are for people capable of working with computers and burning discs.

And....?

Ernie,

Good Idea. But, I think at least some of the info above is misleading or wrong.

"Some BD movies won't play on BD players." My understanding is that just like every other standard, as long as the movie has the logo, and the player, and they are both licensed, then the player will play the disk. Now... this is fairly new, and like every other new technology in recent times, manufacturers ship product before they work out all the problems. This is the new paridigm, everything is software, and the software can be updated at any time, so ship the hardware ASAP, and use the customers as Beta testers! So, it is possible that an update to a player is necessary to get certain movies to play.

"To do a firmware update to your BD player... burn it to disc..." This is not true of all players. Some have the ability to connect via an RJ45, to the internet, and get the update there.

I think one of the most important things to remember is that BD allows for content protection. (Digital Rights Management.) Right now, the movies have not enabled the protection that is in the standard. When and If they ever do, it is highly likely that the component video output on the player will output a lower resolution signal. This is up to the person who owns the rights to the media, what that resolution will be, and if it will be reduced. With this in mind, I think it prudent to inform your customers that this may happen in the future if hooking units up via component video. It is also prudent to suggest setup's that utilize HDMI, so customers do not encounter problems with their setup no longer working, because the content protection is being turned on.

True, but these players are sold at BB or CC. So you are still going to have a segment of the population that thinks that this player is junk because it won't play X movie and they have no idea that there is a firmware update available or how to do it if it were.

Sony has been really good about sending me update disks for my BDP-S1. I have usually already burned a disk and done the upgrade, but it is nice that Sony sends them out.

This is EXACTLY the kind of information I'm looking for, with specific instances of what doesn't work, or how to make it work, when you can supply them.

But, bcf, Scott was saying that having the logo and the player might not be enough. He was stumped as to how to describe when this might occur except to say that you might expect it with old players and new discs. Please include model numbers if you have them.

I thought I was pretty open about wanting corrections, so pile 'em on, but generalize if what you say is generally true and be specific if it isn't, and say whether it's general or specific. Don't be surprised if a post after Post 1 looks like it refers to something that isn't in Post 1, because I intend to correct Post 1 based on your information. I'll let this go for a while before correcting my post, just to see what develops. This might be a bad idea. Who knows yet?

And, see:

That's exactly why we need to know it...can you write up the process so we can have it here when they come looking for it? (See post or posts by missblonde777 to see what I mean)

Good info to add to Post 1. And what will other brands do? Does this mean it is finally actually necessary to send in the warranty card, or do you register online? How much profit is there in a player so they can keep doing this, or do you get 90 days?

Well, if you want specifics...

The Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray Disc Player that a client had would not play the disc 300 on BD until I had updated the firmware.

The last few BD movies that we've gotten in the shop have had nice little inserts saying that it may not play in your player if you don't update the firmware.

In any case, the firmware update process was a little tedious. Got instructions from sammy. They read like they were written by someone for whom English was a second language. The kicker was that the update file had to be burned to a CD-R as an iso, and recomended that it be burned with Nero 6 Burning ROM.

I am not current on burning standards these days, but a quick attempt to burn the updater with the OSX burn disc utility was unsuccessful. Thank god for limewire. 20min later I had Nero Burning Rom 6 and had the player updating. Has worked fine since then AFAIK, no service calls.

The firmware updates are a great thing to add to your maintenance service visits when sell customers a support contract.

I don't have a ton of experience with Blu-ray, but one thing I've been told is to make you connect it to the network if it has a LAN port. A lot of the slow boot times people have been complaining about are because the player gets stuck hunting for a network connection. If it's present it speeds boot times even if you aren't necessarily using the LAN for anything.

I just installed a BH200 - the LG 2nd gen dual format player if you don't know -

which by the way we have one extra in the shop that we had bought right before HDDVD went bust and I'm sure my boss would want to get rid of it cheap if someone had a large HDDVD collection and a minimum of space... but I digress

In any case, from the reviews I've read, its one of the faster players out there in terms of power on time. It may be, but it's power on time sucks. I had to program an RK1 button that we put in the theater room to send an open command so the damn player would be a lot closer to being ready to open by the time he got there to put in a disc. It's bad enough that I am seriously considering leaving it on all the time.

I have a network connection to it via rear panel RJ-45. Haven't noticed any difference between the start up time pre network and post network but I will check into that next time I'm out there.


In my opinion the BD players are not ready for center stage. I wouldn't install any BD player in a system without a regular 1740 or whatever to pull standard DVD and audio CD duties. The hardware just isn't there yet. Having to add additional artificial delays into power on macros because your disc player takes about 45seconds from power on time to actually putting out a decodeable HDMI signal is FTL.

Well apparently there is a class action law suit against samsung because they stopped releasing firmware updates for their first generation on bd players. These players can not play newer disks.

They can take up to 2 minutes to start up (some- not all).
You cannot stop, pause or even turn off the player (at least the Pioneer Elite), when it is loading.
They can easily lock up, requiring hard re-booting if you Do try to stop pause or play during the loading process.

Which BD players have an ethernet connection? ot counting combo players, since it is reqired by the HD-DVD side, I know of no BD players with ethernet. Except of course the PS3, which has ethernet for gaming first, BD as a bonus.

So, are there any standalone BD players with ethernet? Even the 2k Denon doesn't have it.

What's the deal with this? Just got a call from a great customer that I just installed the Sony S300 unit on (couple of days ago)and I used the discrete "off" command at the end of my macro. He says the unit still says "powering off" on the display. That was 2 days ago that I shut the system down.

Is this problem related to software that needs to be upgraded or is this discrete "off" command bad?(I got it from someone who posted it here at RC) I'll also ask this question again: Can these BD players with fans handle a complete power off (using switched outlet on receiver) or should I just leave them on, using Stop+Stop, then making sure the player is set to shut off if no usage after a certain amount of time?

Now I know why I held off in hooking up these players, besides the fact that it won out over HD-DVD. The Panny BD-30K seemed to be better for integration on the other rooms in his house.

That is 2.0. I am not aware of a wide release of any 2.0 b) player.

The Samsung BD-P1400 has an ethernet jack.

The features needed to watch a movie are all mandatory, the only things that are optional are bonuses some like DTS-MA or DTHD decoding are extremely worth wile but you should still be able to watch every movie on every player.


there is no such thing as an out of date player. Yes a studio could try something new which causes issues on some players and those models need upgrades but that is as far as it goes.

The other side of this coin is that there are some optional features like lossless audio, PiP or internet content that won't be usable on some models.


some can use Etherent, but for the rest the fastest and easiest solution is DL and burn but if you are willing to wait, the manufacturers do send out update disks so it is not the only solution


not really, the issue is that players now can do much much more then DVD. The problems arise when a studio becomes too creative on a title in a way that the manufacturer did not foresee. What further compounds the issues is that because it is now the menu system you can't even get to the movie (so it is not just extras) that get blocked


note: even though every 2.0 player needs a network connection the opposite is not true you can have a network connection be able to DL FW and not be a 2.0 for example just look at the Pioneer Elite BDP-HD1 player that came out in 2006

Ok so when the manufactuer stops providing firmware updates, such as Samsung, what would you call that??????????????????