Problems with Firmare updates and playback.

[mderemick]

Hello everyone! Before I go on a rant please understand that I am not here to be a fanboy or anything like that, but after having blu ray for over a year now I honestly believe that the technology wasn't ready for consumers.

I really miss my old DVD player. I have had nothing but problems with Blu-Ray since I got my Sharp BD21U along with a new TV about a year and a half ago.

Movies often freeze up on the machine, either causing the machine to stop and re-play the movie from the beginning or it will slowly try to play through the 'bad section' of the disc without audio and in super slo-mo. Af first this really wasn't much of an issue, but recently it's been happening more and more.

At one point, a few months ago, I tried watching Quantum of Solace, which made me do a firmware upgrade on the player. No problem, I've done quite a few firmware upgrades before, this should be a snap. Sure enough the firmware got stuck (at 90%, bricked the machine totally) and I had to fight for weeks with Sharp to get my player fixed. This episode left me with a bad taste in my mouth, but then things got even worse. Since the 'fix' its been almost impossible to watch a movie without it skipping and freezing on 90% of the movies I try to watch.

I check the discs all the time, no scratches - sometimes there will be a fingerprint but even after buffing them out the discs still often freeze up on me. It got to the point that I really thought it was my BD player, so this weekend I went out and bought a PS3 slim.

OK, I hooked it up and played games on it all day (which I like it a lot). Last night my wife wanted to watch Iron Man, and not even 15 minutes into the movie the PS3 froze up completely, to the point that I had to unplug it to reset it (holding power didnt work, controller would not connect, etc).

I tried the disc in both machines with the same result (at least my sharp BD player didn't lock up requiring me to pull the plug on it, but it would stop and restart the movie constantly. It happened in like 6 different parts of the movie, which really takes you out of it.

I've looked online for quite a while and see that skipping and freezing is a pretty common problem. It seems to me that Blu-Ray needed a lot more testing before it was released.

As it is now, it's a totally unreliable way to watch a movie, and I'm seriously considering selling my BD player, my BD movies, cancelling Netflix's Blu Ray service and going back to my tried and true DVD player - sure it won't look as good as BD but honestly I'm tired of missing parts of movies. I know I'll get flamed for this: but I think HD-DVD was a better format at least in terms of reliability. I never had problems with my DVD or HD-DVD players - not even once. Hell, DVD's will play just fine after a lot of abuse, why not BD?

Is it the laser? Maybe it's too fine and sensitive to the smallest dust?

I'm sure im not the only one who wants to riot over this...

Does anyone else feel cheated?

Was anyone able to fix these problems with a disc cleaner or buffer?

[un4gvn94538]

i think most people who have zero issues wont post this fact on the net so i feel its not that common as you think. i havent had issues with playback with 2 ps3's and a panny. but it was frustrating that my panny stopped playing any blu disc (others work fine) after an update.

edit: in turn i did have issues with my hddvd player especially with the double sided ones

[GGX]

I've never had an issue with playback on my PS3. Just as stable as any DVD player.

[Hammie]

I'm sorry to hear about your problems. I personally have never experienced any of the problems you have with any of the BD players I have owned -- PS3, Panasonic BD35, and Oppo BDP-83. It honestly sounds like your TV or HDMI cable may be causing the problems. I have seen issues similar to yours if the signalling get not strong and the HDCP get interrupted. However, I may be wrong and this is not your issue at all. I'm simply speculating.

Regarding the reliability of HD-DVD, did you ever think that maybe that technology would also have the same issues as specs were tweaked and features added? By the way, I personally did not care one way or the other. I waited until after the format war was over before buying my first player. I thought the name HD-DVD was more appropriate, but really never followed either technology to compare which was superior and what each offered.

[Lucy Diamond]

It was tough in the beginning.

Being an early adopter...especially WITHOUT Blu-ray.com...was really hard.

Everything was so smoothe with DvD, but once you get the hang of Blu-ray, nothing can beat it.

I can remember actually taking TOMBRAIDER back to Circuit City, because I thought there was something wrong with the disc..it looked THAT bad.

I remember being able to watch a DvD in about 12 seconds and waiting for my Player to load for 16 minutes thinking "THIS is moving forward!?!?!"

Trust me...alot of us have been where you are.

I'm thinking the Sharp player was a rush job and propbably saved you a lot of money...however...this is what is causing you problems.

Let's start you off fresh. If you want NO problems at all, go pick up a PS3 Slim and enjoy the revolution.

You are not alone...you just need a little help.

Trust me...EVERYTHING is better in Blu

[un4gvn94538]

Originally Posted by Lucy Diamond

It was tough in the beginning.

Being an early adopter...especially WITHOUT Blu-ray.com...was really hard.

Everything was so smoothe with DvD, but once you get the hang of Blu-ray, nothing can beat it.

I can remember actually taking TOMBRAIDER back to Circuit City, because I thought there was something wrong with the disc..it looked THAT bad.

I remember being able to watch a DvD in about 12 seconds and waiting for my Player to load for 16 minutes thinking "THIS is moving forward!?!?!"

Trust me...alot of us have been where you are.

I'm thinking the Sharp player was a rush job and propbably saved you a lot of money...however...this is what is causing you problems.

Let's start you off fresh. If you want NO problems at all, go pick up a PS3 Slim and enjoy the revolution.
You are not alone...you just need a little help.

Trust me...EVERYTHING is better in Blu

he already did. its in the first post

[I-Candy]

I haven't updated my PS3 firmware since day one. After reading a few threads, I'm worried if I do I won't be able to use it anymore. Heard the latest upgrade was a bit of trouble.

Technology is good, but when you have to upgrade software to watch a disc and then you cannot, I think DVD looks better too.

Luckily no problems yet, but I'm waiting for the day when I put in a movie and it won't play, so I'll update the firmware and I'll be screwed.

[Riff Magnum]

Originally Posted by Lucy Diamond

It was tough in the beginning.

Being an early adopter...especially WITHOUT Blu-ray.com...was really hard.

Everything was so smoothe with DvD, but once you get the hang of Blu-ray, nothing can beat it.

I can remember actually taking TOMBRAIDER back to Circuit City, because I thought there was something wrong with the disc..it looked THAT bad.

I remember being able to watch a DvD in about 12 seconds and waiting for my Player to load for 16 minutes thinking "THIS is moving forward!?!?!"

Trust me...alot of us have been where you are.

I'm thinking the Sharp player was a rush job and propbably saved you a lot of money...however...this is what is causing you problems.

Let's start you off fresh. If you want NO problems at all, go pick up a PS3 Slim and enjoy the revolution.

You are not alone...you just need a little help.

Trust me...EVERYTHING is better in Blu

He did pick up a PS3 slim and it's also locking up on him. Bad luck i guess, but i wouldn't blame bluray as a whole. I mean i've had 4 different computers in the last 7 years and you don't see me complaining.........until now. Time to get a Mac i think.

[mderemick]

Well, I know it's not just me. Over the past few months I've done quite a bit of google searches and I can see that people with different players are experiencing the same problems as I am.

As with anything, some people have problems, others do not. It's not as if a single batch of players were to blame. Googling for 'Blu Ray Freezing' or similar searches yields a lot of results.

When I was setting everything up, I bought good HDMI cables and ran them in the wall. I've tried both players on both cables, so I don't think it's my cables. Other HDMI devices work fine - even my PS3 slim was fine as I played on it all day yesterday - no hangups, no freezes. Not until I tried watching a movie did I have trouble.

Personally, I didn't care which format won the recent war, but I did expect the victor to be reliable. I know my HDDVD comments could be taken as flamebait, but I'm strictly speaking from my own personal experience. I just feel it's poor testing on the part of the manufacturers. Although it would be near impossible to get an accurate percentage of the people who are having trouble, I suspect this number to be unreasonably high. Like Xbox 360 ring of death high.

I remember when I was talking to Sharp's tech support, they apparently were having a lot of trouble from their players the week that Quantom of Solace shipped.

[Blu-Benny]

only real problems i had (knock on wood) were w/my samsung 1400 and lack of firmware updates.

dumped it, got a ps3, haven't had any problems since....(knock on wood)

[mderemick]

One thing I just thought of while thinking of firmware upgrades, I did not yet try to update the PS3 slim - I just bought it on saturday but I also got a wireless N (upgrading from B) and hadn't finished setting it up yet.

Besides, I really wanted to play some games on it.

Maybe tonight I'll finish setting up the N and connect my PS3 - then try an upgrade.

To be honest, I thought the PS3 was going to be better than my sharp BD player, but having to pull the plug on a system that's not even a couple of days old makes me cringe.

The one great thing about the PS3 slim over the sharp BD player is the sound quality - I do not have a surround sound system yet and my sharp player was very quiet - I could have the TV at max volume and I still couldn't hear some things.

With PS3, I only needed the volume to be at 1/4 to 1/3 and it was perfect.

Could Netflix be part of the problem? Even though I check the discs before putting them into the player, perhaps it's the transit in the mail that's causing my issues?

Argh this is driving me nuts!

Sorry for the ranting and raving, but I do appreciate everyone's replies as I try to search for a way to overcome this problem.

[killat0n]

Originally Posted by I-Candy

I think DVD looks better too.

As for the topic, I've never had any playback issue with any player, or ever had any problem updating firmware for the last 2 years now.

[VinnAY]

Originally Posted by Blu-Benny

only real problems i had (knock on wood) were w/my samsung 1400 and lack of firmware updates.

dumped it, got a ps3, haven't had any problems since....(knock on wood)

my p1500 doesn't like the extended version of forgetting sarah marshall were as my PS3 plays it without issue. The 1500 was even skipping on the regular version that it's played before w/o issue.

HDDVD on the other, that crap was a nightmare from the beginning.

I agree with the OP that there are reliability issues with the tech for which there should be none. Not as this point.

[un4gvn94538]

Originally Posted by killat0n

As for the topic, I've never had any playback issue with any player, or ever had any problem updating firmware for the last 2 years now.

hes referring to the op stating that it looks better as a technology because its more "stable"

[SkillzthatKillz]

Originally Posted by I-Candy

I haven't updated my PS3 firmware since day one. After reading a few threads, I'm worried if I do I won't be able to use it anymore. Heard the latest upgrade was a bit of trouble.

Technology is good, but when you have to upgrade software to watch a disc and then you cannot, I think DVD looks better too.

Luckily no problems yet, but I'm waiting for the day when I put in a movie and it won't play, so I'll update the firmware and I'll be screwed.

update 3.00 caused some problems but they have since released 3.01 which addressed these issues. you should be able to update your PS3 now worry free

[SkillzthatKillz]

Originally Posted by mderemick

One thing I just thought of while thinking of firmware upgrades, I did not yet try to update the PS3 slim - I just bought it on saturday but I also got a wireless N (upgrading from B) and hadn't finished setting it up yet.

Besides, I really wanted to play some games on it.

Maybe tonight I'll finish setting up the N and connect my PS3 - then try an upgrade.

To be honest, I thought the PS3 was going to be better than my sharp BD player, but having to pull the plug on a system that's not even a couple of days old makes me cringe.

The one great thing about the PS3 slim over the sharp BD player is the sound quality - I do not have a surround sound system yet and my sharp player was very quiet - I could have the TV at max volume and I still couldn't hear some things.

With PS3, I only needed the volume to be at 1/4 to 1/3 and it was perfect.

Could Netflix be part of the problem? Even though I check the discs before putting them into the player, perhaps it's the transit in the mail that's causing my issues?

Argh this is driving me nuts!

Sorry for the ranting and raving, but I do appreciate everyone's replies as I try to search for a way to overcome this problem.

When you get your new wireless system set up, update the firmware on your PS3 to the newest version (3.01 i believe). that should help you out a lot, as the previous version (3.00) was causing problems with some peoples PS3's and i believe that the new slim models all shipped with the bad firmware version. try updating your PS3 then watch a movie and if it still has problems then call Sony and/or post here again. we're here to help mate

[ClaytonMG]

Originally Posted by I-Candy

I haven't updated my PS3 firmware since day one. After reading a few threads, I'm worried if I do I won't be able to use it anymore. Heard the latest upgrade was a bit of trouble.

Technology is good, but when you have to upgrade software to watch a disc and then you cannot, I think DVD looks better too.

Luckily no problems yet, but I'm waiting for the day when I put in a movie and it won't play, so I'll update the firmware and I'll be screwed.

I'm not sure where you get your information, but updating your PS3 is probably a good thing. I don't know when "day one" is for you but if it's been years, you really should look into that as there's been updates to make the player 2.0 compliant.

I've updated my PS3 everytime there's been an update available. There's only been a handful of discs that I've had issues with (the sapphire series discs where you simply delete your data file, and the Pixar discs back in the day with the calibration feature).

As for my BDP-S1, the only disc I've had issues with was The Descent. And Java discs take forever to load. But that's about it.

[Blu3]

Originally Posted by SkillzthatKillz

update 3.00 caused some problems but they have since released 3.01 which addressed these issues. you should be able to update your PS3 now worry free

+1

Re-try Ironman and report back to us.

I think you've had a string of bad luck but hang in there!

[Miller Lite1]

Originally Posted by SkillzthatKillz

update 3.00 caused some problems but they have since released 3.01 which addressed these issues. you should be able to update your PS3 now worry free

I have done all the updates and have never had a Blu-Ray Problem. The only problem I had was when my kid put a game in some gunk and killed the lazer. But walmart took it back because it was just a few months old.

[djc11369]

I don't think Blu-ray should still have this many problems this far into the game. We're not talking first or second generation players that are the only ones having problems. I have a Sony S360 which is much more reliable than the Samsung 1400 it replaced but even with it there are the occasional freeze ups for a short duration during some movies. I've been going more toward downloading HD movies through my AppleTV. I also have the option of downloading from Netflix or Amazon through my TiVo. The picture quality, while not quite as good as Blu-ray, is very good. I don't get the HD audio either but something has to be said for something that just works. We should really be past having to do firmware updates to get a movie to play. The only reason it shouldn't play or play reliably is if it's damaged.