The fact that your BD player still seems to be malfunctioning wonders me. I'm fairly sure you got a lemon. Be prepared to scrounge up your receipt and go back for an exchange (maybe for a PS3 ... but that's another topic entirely
).
One last idea before giving up on your current BD player --- perform a firmware update on it. The BD-P1500 should have an ethernet
and a USB slot on the back of it for this purpose. Your manual should explain the update process thoroughly.
Let us know what comes of your day's experiments.