New Blu-Ray movies failing on some players. - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Bobblehead · 10-09-2007, 12:34 PM

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Case in point: two new Blu-ray titles that have just been released—Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer and The Day After Tomorrow. Both of these titles have been reported to exhibit various degrees of failure on some Blu-ray players.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...e-devices.html

So in order to play these on some players you will need to do a firmware upgrade (if available - on some of these players it is not yet possible).

This is exactly the type of thing that will kill the format if it starts to occur with any regularity.

ken0042 · 10-09-2007, 12:45 PM

You or I may have no issues with doing a firmware update on a DVD player. But to the average person it might be more than they would want to/ be able to do.

I can just imagine trying to talk my mom through doing an update like this over the phone.

Burninator · 10-09-2007, 12:46 PM

Those Blu-ray players are doing them a favour by not allowing them to watch The Day After Tomorrow.

underGRADFlame · 10-09-2007, 12:49 PM

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Originally Posted by Burninator

Those Blu-ray players are doing them a favour by not allowing them to watch The Day After Tomorrow.

Bobblehead · 10-09-2007, 01:05 PM

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Originally Posted by ken0042

You or I may have no issues with doing a firmware update on a DVD player. But to the average person it might be more than they would want to/ be able to do.

I can just imagine trying to talk my mom through doing an update like this over the phone.

If the firmware is even available:

Quote:

Unfortunately for the owners of the player in question, the second-generation Samsung BD-P1200, there is no new firmware to download for the player. Visiting the URL listed above—which after a maze of redirects and confusing menus finally does get you to Samsung's BD-P1200 firmware page—will give you no satisfaction. The latest firmware listed there is the same 1.0 version that shipped with the player. The same fate is in store for owners of LG's first-generation dual-format BH100 player.

People complained about not knowing how to set the time on VCRs. There have been surveys that show that a large percentage of people don't have their HD TVs hooked up to receive HD signals.

Requiring a firmware upgrade is just crazy. And theoretically this can happen every time they update the DRM keys to try and combat hackers. They are going to combat their own customers.

Bertuzzied · 10-09-2007, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Burninator

Those Blu-ray players are doing them a favour by not allowing them to watch The Day After Tomorrow.

Hmmm. I just bought this on Blu Ray in the buy/sell forum from here. I guess we'll see if it works or not. hehe

mykalberta · 10-09-2007, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

If the firmware is even available:

People complained about not knowing how to set the time on VCRs. There have been surveys that show that a large percentage of people don't have their HD TVs hooked up to receive HD signals.

Requiring a firmware upgrade is just crazy. And theoretically this can happen every time they update the DRM keys to try and combat hackers. They are going to combat their own customers.

Agreed, the only way for them to combat it is to send firmware updates via regular mail. You cannot expect someone to purchase an item with no internet connection and then expect they will burn firmware to a CD to update their player - an update that could brick their box.

llama64 · 10-09-2007, 02:09 PM

This is why I use DVD. There is no reason to get a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player. DVD's work, are available for rent anywhere I go and I don't have to deal with a butt load of content protection crap.

I might buy in when the studios stop being jerks about copyright protection.

TurnedTheCorner · 10-09-2007, 03:14 PM

I miss when these kind of components were plug and play. This is the ugly side of convergence I guess. I shouldn't have to be looking online for firware to burn, or a networking expert to bridge my AV equipment to my wireless network for this stuff to work properly.

I sympathize with this, I have ran into similar updating problems with my HD-DVD player. Though thankfully I have not had problems playing a disc yet.

Draug · 10-09-2007, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...e-devices.html

So in order to play these on some players you will need to do a firmware upgrade (if available - on some of these players it is not yet possible).

This is exactly the type of thing that will kill the format if it starts to occur with any regularity.

It happens with both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, infortunately. It is one of the reasons I am happy with my PS3 as a Blu-Ray player. The PS3 alerts when a new update is ready, and has an interface for downloading it. I assume the HD-DVD add-on to the xbox is similar. Of course, the option to hook into one's internet connection is mandatory and some people might have technical issues with that. My PC and A/V equipment are all interconnected, so it wasnt an issue for me. Longterm, I wonder what effect this will have on the standalone A/V equipment market - if a person needs to connect all the A/V equipment to the internet anyway, why not just build high end Home Theater PC's?

Firmware updates are inconvienent, but honestly, I doubt they will dissapear. Look at the gaming industry, for example. Once the industry was able to patch PC games, it became common place. So much so that some people dont even buy a new game until the first patch is released that fixes the biggest release date issues.

Tyler · 10-09-2007, 04:48 PM

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Originally Posted by llama64

This is why I use DVD. There is no reason to get a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player.

Do you own one? Have you watched an entire movie on a high-definition media player?

Sure there are hassles and growing pains now, but movies look brilliant on them, and they are certainly not going away.

Burninator · 10-09-2007, 04:56 PM

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Originally Posted by Tyler

Do you own one? Have you watched an entire movie on a high-definition media player?

Sure there are hassles and growing pains now, but movies look brilliant on them, and they are certainly not going away.

Yeah they aren't going anywhere. VHS worked fine too, and there were lots to rent. We could have just stopped there. But one of the advantages from VHS to DVD was the step up in quality. This setup up in quality is similar; very noticeable.

I wish one of these formats would take the crown already. I would like to buy a High Definition player, but don't want to get stuck with the format that doesn't survive. Of course people like me are the ones that prolong the format wars because we wait until one is the dominate format before purchasing. So I wonder with this current battle, will one win? Or will they stalemate and both will be around forcing new movies to be released in HD-DVD and Blu-ray?

Burninator · 10-09-2007, 05:05 PM

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Originally Posted by Kobatuzzied

Hmmm. I just bought this on Blu Ray in the buy/sell forum from here. I guess we'll see if it works or not. hehe

Oooh. Can't say that I approve of that purchase. But my favourite part of that movie is when global warming is literally chasing them down the street. Just all kinds of excellent.

Bertuzzied · 10-09-2007, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Burninator

Oooh. Can't say that I approve of that purchase. But my favourite part of that movie is when global warming is literally chasing them down the street. Just all kinds of excellent.

Yes but global warming is in high def so it's all good. Besides i can count the number of wrinkles on Bill Pullman. hehe

MacDougalbry · 10-09-2007, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyler

Do you own one? Have you watched an entire movie on a high-definition media player?

Sure there are hassles and growing pains now, but movies look brilliant on them, and they are certainly not going away.

I have one. HD-DVD. We finally got the theatre room set up downstairs. It is awesome. In the words of my wife (originally skeptical of this whole project), "the sound and picture is exactly like a real movie theatre!" In a head-to-head comparison with a regular DVD, the regular DVD looks blurry by comparison. And this is on a cheap $599 1080i projector. We will probably never be going to a real movie theatre again.

No need to wait for one format to win, if you watch the sales closely, the Toshiba A2 projector comes on sale occasionally for $199 with 3 free movies. It requires a firmware upgrade, but has a built in ethernet port to take care of that, or you can burn the upgrade to a CD, stick it in the player, and the upgrade starts automatically. (Really not that hard.)

Reaper · 10-09-2007, 09:07 PM

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Originally Posted by Kobatuzzied

Yes but global warming is in high def so it's all good. Besides i can count the number of wrinkles on Bill Pullman. hehe

Bill Pullman? You must have bought the ID (Impersonated Definition) instead of HD. He isn't even in the movie.

Bertuzzied · 10-09-2007, 10:10 PM

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Originally Posted by Reaper

Bill Pullman? You must have bought the ID (Impersonated Definition) instead of HD. He isn't even in the movie.

Oh crap. Dennis Quaid. They all look the same to me. hehe

Hack&Lube · 10-10-2007, 02:31 AM

Definetely, like if you have a car recall you will get a letter in the mail. Whenever a blu-ray player needs an update, you should just get an update disc in the mail (hey, if AOL could do it every week, why can't Samsung do it like once every 6 months?) that less technically inclined people could just pop into the player.

Teh_Bandwagoner · 10-10-2007, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Burninator

Oooh. Can't say that I approve of that purchase. But my favourite part of that movie is when global warming is literally chasing them down the street. Just all kinds of excellent.

Dear Die Hard,

You rock. Especially when that guy was on the roof.

P.S. Do you know Mad Max?