The Sony BDP-S370 Thread

[BlueFrankensteinxxx]

Anyone having a problem witht their Sony BDP-S370 player??? Every DvD I play on it, eventhough it looks great, every DvD I insert will start to play, then the screen will flash & go black, then the DvD will start, cutting off a few seconds of the beginning!!! It's pretty annoying, I usually have to pause & skip back to see ALL of the beginning of the movie...any ideas???

[Neutron82]

Originally Posted by BlueFrankensteinxxx

Anyone having a problem witht their Sony BDP-S370 player??? Every DvD I play on it, eventhough it looks great, every DvD I insert will start to play, then the screen will flash & go black, then the DvD will start, cutting off a few seconds of the beginning!!! It's pretty annoying, I usually have to pause & skip back to see ALL of the beginning of the movie...any ideas???

do you have the 24fps setting turned on?... mine will switch back and forth between 60fps and 24fps while playing previews and such and the screen will go black and come back on... it plays the movie at 24fps but it has never cut off any of the movie... not sure if this is your problem but just a thought... does this happen while watching blu's or is it only on dvd's?

[sg123]

Mbr BDP S-370 has worked no problem for like 9 or 10 months now, then friday i went to put in a disc and it just wouldn't play. it couldnt read the disc and the message on the player said INVALID. anyone experience anything like this? I unlugged it until the next day and tried again and same thing.

[threefiftyrocket]

Originally Posted by sg123

Mbr BDP S-370 has worked no problem for like 9 or 10 months now, then friday i went to put in a disc and it just wouldn't play. it couldnt read the disc and the message on the player said INVALID. anyone experience anything like this? I unlugged it until the next day and tried again and same thing.

That's typically the error message I've gotten when I've had DVD players and DVD Roms go bad on my computer. I'm no expert but it sounds like the laser toasted on you on your BD player...

[sg123]

Originally Posted by threefiftyrocket

That's typically the error message I've gotten when I've had DVD players and DVD Roms go bad on my computer. I'm no expert but it sounds like the laser toasted on you on your BD player...

damnit thats the feeling i got too. it kept making the sound like it was struggling and couldnt read it. wtf, it was fine the other day then it just happens like this outta nowhere? thats terrible. anyway thanks for the reply man, if anyone else had experience like this please let me know.

[Cortiz]

Originally Posted by sg123

damnit thats the feeling i got too. it kept making the sound like it was struggling and couldnt read it. wtf, it was fine the other day then it just happens like this outta nowhere? thats terrible. anyway thanks for the reply man, if anyone else had experience like this please let me know.

Is it just only that movie? What about other movies? Have you tried that?

[sg123]

Originally Posted by Cortiz

Is it just only that movie? What about other movies? Have you tried that?

ive actually tried a bunch of movies. movies that worked before and not just wont play at all. it wont load the discs or anything it just makes noises and says invalid or cannot play disc. its insane bcause it was fine on like wednesday, then friday it just doesnt work at all.

[Sauk]

The last two movies I have rented will not play on this. One gave me a huge red screen saying i needed to upgrade firmware to play it and the other just won't play it, black screen.

The one with the warning was Xmen First Class, and the black screen was Green Lantern.

Anyone with any help on this would be great. Why have a dang player if the dang thing won't work! very frustrated right now.

[DA1745]

Originally Posted by sg123

Mbr BDP S-370 has worked no problem for like 9 or 10 months now, then friday i went to put in a disc and it just wouldn't play. it couldnt read the disc and the message on the player said INVALID. anyone experience anything like this? I unlugged it until the next day and tried again and same thing.

Hi, I'm new to posting on this forum/board though I've been reading things from here over the years. I signed up today after I was out here looking for exactly your situation.

I have posted extensively about my issue with a Sony BDP-s560 over on the AVSforum -->In the BDP-s360/BDP-s560 thread, a little in the BDP-s370 thread, & the Sony User Forum (sony's own site).

It doesn't matter that you have a BDP-s370 --> (I also own one of those now too). But what you describe UNKNOWN - INVALID - Cannot operate this Disc when trying to get a Blu-ray to play are posted about all over the internet. One main problem with the internet (though it gives us an amazing ability to post and search) - it's so decentralized in this case that it hurts when people come searching for help it leads people to think this is a very isolated incident when it's not, nothing could be farther from reality. I have read many with this problem that have simply given up; chucked their Blu-ray player and bought anything else but a SONY! I'm not here bashing Sony -- Other models have their issues (sometimes very similar) and I felt like my BDP-s560 was a rock star UNTIL, it popped up a new firmware update is available and I said YES to FW Version ....11.

THE PROBLEM: That a certain percentage of Blu-Ray discs won't be readable by your Sony BR Player.
THE REASON: is still yet to be determined!!!
THEORIES ABOUND!!!!
SONY COMPLETELY CLAMMED UP ABOUT THE ISSUE. their mods won't even respond to posts about it on their threads but they will post everywhere else...

So before I go too much further. let me ask what version of the FIRMWARE do you have currently installed? (can find it under the system settings). And when was the last time you updated? What method did you use?

Originally Posted by threefiftyrocket

That's typically the error message I've gotten when I've had DVD players and DVD Roms go bad on my computer. I'm no expert but it sounds like the laser toasted on you on your BD player...

That is certainly one of the Top 6 or so theories as to why these Sony BR players are giving this UNKNOWN - INVALID - Cannot operate this disc. However, some additional information from my journey.
Bought my BDP-s560 Sept 2010. Used hard wire Ethernet and updated to Version 8 of it's firmware. Then I rented/played wonderfully almost every BR that Redbox ever offered in my area between then and sometime in March 2011.

At some point after the update ver 11 for that model came out in Feb 2011 - my unit prompted me (i had notify left on) and I despite having ZERO problems ever with the unit; went a head with the update (wireless-ly). The progress seemed smooth, the unit completed and did it's shutdown and all seemed fine. I played dvds mostly from Netflix for a while, but W/I a few weeks I picked up some new Blu-rays from Redbox and started getting this UNKNOWN error.

Long process short. The discs were perfect they played just great in my PS3. Time progresses and it works out to about 60-70% of the Blu-rays I try (some that I played just fine with the unit --> prior to the firmware "update" now read as UNKNOWN in this player alone. 100% of DVD's working in it. I follow all the steps, power cycle the unit, shut off internet, clear external memory, remove external memory, reset each component, reset all system settings, do a hard reset of the unit, make sure discs are spotless / w/o scratches. Finally, after this persists, I contact Sony tell them what I did, and do it all over again with them; they tell me I need to send it in. $15 to mail it to Laredo, TX bc it's under warranty but they don't cover s/h to them; I treat my equipment very well so I requested my same unit (verified w/ serial #'s) back.

Detailed letter included is not read by the tech bc the unpacking department is seperate?!? I learn after he calls me to ask what the problem is; I couldn't believe it. What did they have me write out all that information for if they weren't going to read it. He said might have been entered into the computer - but either it's not routine to check or he just didn't bother --instead choosing to call me; so I explain on the phone what the problem is, he says he can't find anything. Though he didn't say what BR's he was testing it with or how many??? After all my unit would play about 3-4 out of 10 discs tried so if they used a standard test BR then... I beg him no matter what at least re-flash the firmware otherwise it's a doorstop for me. They send no notes really on the player just a message on the invoice stating nothing was found.

However, the unit seems to be playing Blu-Rays again! I have so far run into Four discs that it won't read though, since the return.
=The LOTR T.E. Trilogy BR's Discs 1 & 3 unknown and Disc 2 with some button & menu hopping will read and play but not as it should be smooth insertion and play from menu. This is the "old" Blu-ray Trilogy that have been out for over a year + (not the June 28th 2011 LOTR E.E. trilogy discs).
=Limitless, and just recently =X-Men: First Class. I suspect however these are DRM / disc specific updates for the player (I'M Hoping).

If it hadn't been under warranty I would NEVER have paid the $120+ s/h to have them repair it. But my unit was ROCK solid until I performed the firmware update.

Originally Posted by sg123

damnit thats the feeling i got too. it kept making the sound like it was struggling and couldnt read it. wtf, it was fine the other day then it just happens like this outta nowhere? thats terrible. anyway thanks for the reply man, if anyone else had experience like this please let me know.

1) - Problem after Firmware "upgrade" - So I mentioned above that in my case (it appeared) that it was most definitely something going wrong, despite an otherwise seemingly perfect firmware upgrade.
2) But as I was scouring for information back then others whose units were off warranty reported cracking open the units, and cleaning the Blu-ray lens and that restored their units and they no longer had the UNKNOWN issue. --> some tried this with mixed results.
SO COULD THEIR BE MULTIPLE REASONS?!? FOR WHAT's HAPPENING? Others pointed out that who knows what Laredo's repair procedure is, maybe they cleaned the lens??? and it was that & not the Re-flashing of the firmware.
BTW --> those with this problem that have had it long enough to wait for a subsequent release of new firmware. reported that it installed the new firmware correctly --> however it didn't change their problem. If it was only reading 40% of their discs now, after the upgrade to the new firmware it was still only reading 40% of their discs. Point the finger (at least in their case) to something else --> Or some other area related to the firmware that wasn't overwritten.
3) The laser being bad. As a theory again it's plausible however, unless they replaced mine and didn't bother marking it on the invoice of work done, that wasn't what was wrong / or that fixed mine. PLUS
4) There was another anecdotal person posting last week that he took the covers off of his unit and watched it loading several discs. To him it seemed that the UNKNOWN error discs were not getting loaded properly on the spindle; out of balance. He has propped up his unit a bit and now the discs that were previously UKNOWN are now reading. With the cover still on last night I tried 4 different positions to including 90% on it's side to see if I could get mine to load one of the LOTR T.E. disc 1 BR. Never made a difference though I am planning to take the cover off and see what I can see.


What seems clear is that nothing really seems clear / obvious as the cause. In some cases a firmware update REALLY goes wrong and the Unit shows and actual error on the screen; it's clear in that case what the problem is. I should never have used wireless to do the update. I am very impulsive / ADD \ BI-Polar and when the message popped on the screen (connected via Wireless to the internet) I hit YES before my brain had a chance to stop and think/process why that is a bad idea. The safest route is getting the disc mailed from Sony, second safest way is downloading and verifying the burn of the disc, then Ethernet. However, the "problem" has been reported by those using all of those methods, not just wireless updates...So all updates should be treated very cautiously as unlike on a computer they cannot be so easily undone.

Someone was KIND enough to post the SONY Service Menu access procedure. 1) Unplug the unit. 2) press and HOLD: STOP+PLAY+EJECT while you plug in the unit. I posted pictures over on AVSforum threads I mentioned above of what my BDP-s560's looked like and I plan to check out the BDP-s370's as well.
There is a section in there for Version UP(dater) but it stated it was "prohibited". I didn't have a firmware version burned handy and I wasn't willing to test whether it was "prohibited" because it found no disc w/ firmware or whether the function is just locked down. If this is how they overwrite the firmware at the factory it would be great to be able to do this as an end user in case of a bad firmware update.

Originally Posted by Sauk

The last two movies I have rented will not play on this. One gave me a huge red screen saying i needed to upgrade firmware to play it and the other just won't play it, black screen.
The one with the warning was Xmen First Class, and the black screen was Green Lantern.
Anyone with any help on this would be great. Why have a dang player if the dang thing won't work! very frustrated right now.

I haven't tried the Green Lantern (not out on Redbox yet), but I did have the X-men: First class Blu-ray from Redbox home. It was one of the discs that comes up UNKNOWN in my Sony BDP-s560. It played just fine on my Sony BDP-s370 though which has the latest firmware update***

I picked up the Sony BDP-s370 on clearance a few weeks ago. I updated the firmware right away bc if there was an issue I could return it right away to the the store (***I otherwise don't intend to update my firmware(s) anymore without a real specific problem especially if the Blu-Ray disc plays just fine on some other unit I have). It's just not worth the risk. If you have another player in your house you can play it in I would simply use the other player and not let it bother you. If not, then unless you plan to get another player, it sounds like you will be needing to do the update to watch those movies; good luck! See if you can get Sony to mail you out a copy for free if you are still under warranty. Otherwise burn your own copy to upgrade. The vast majority of people have NO ISSUES upgrading so the odds are in your favor.

[Neutron82]

does anyone know where to buy the necessary hardware to modify the s370 to be blu-ray region free??... i know there is a remote hack for dvd's but i'm not concerned with that... i see modded s370's for sale for around $350 which seems a little high... i paid $120 for my s370 and i doubt a small chip would cost $230, and i'm plenty comfortable taking it apart and soldering it myself but i can't find anyone that sells just the parts for this particular player

[shengdanlala]

Is there any way around this, other than having to download and install a conversion program?

[Eye Candy]

Originally Posted by bhampton

Try "pause" it just stops the movie from playing till you're ready to watch again.

Or "menu" to bring up options and special features and stuff like that.

"stop" kind of unloads it and most blu rays won't resume where they were stopped. (A few will.... but not BD-Java based titles which is like all of them now.)

-Brian

I spent some time tonight trying to get a BD to resume play. All my attempts came to naught.

But now, after realizing the difference in the Java-less DVD and the Java Driven BDs.... I see the difference, and I know why I was able to resume play on some disc awhile back.... it was obviously a DVD Disc!

I HATE all BD Java driven Menus..... I don't need (or want) that crap !!! I just want to watch a good movie, and I AM NOT looking to be entertained by a moving menu --- with all of it's darn spoilers !!! I would that there was a "NO Frills" Menu defualt option available for playing all BD discs.

Technology has taken a real couple of steps backward here, imo.

Moving Menus is NOT an acceptable tradeoff for no resume play function.

What or who is drivng this Industry standard ? ? ?

[jyeager11]

Hi,

I am another unfortunate BDP-S370 owner suffering from the world turning to x264 and leaving XViD behind (of course, the BDP-S370 has never been able to read even SMALL x264 files from a USB stick, which has made my life hell lately, as more and more people are switching to that format when encoding video).

Back when I was using Vuze, the BDP-S370 was at least able to play files that were located in Vuze's download folder. However, since switching to uTorrent, I haven't been able to do that.

I'm sure if I were able to stream a x264 file (MKV, MP4) file from my computer instead of a memory stick, the BDP-S370 would be able to play it. But how do I do that?

How do I set up a folder on my computer that the BDP-S370 will recognize and play videos from?

Thanks!

[Trean]

I bought Last of the Mohicans over the holiday. I just went to watch it and the disc states that in order for my, bdp-s370, to play it, I have to upgrade the firmware. However I am at the latest firmware for my player according to support website. I have no clue as to why this disc wouldn't play as it should be compliant with the BD spec and is not 3D so it should be able to be play on my player.

Anyone know how to fix? Or other BDs I will run into this issue with?

[Bradman]

My 370 won't play any of my Planet of the Apes boxset.
Known bug with no fix in that case; may be yours as well.