Standards & Compatibility-Not Even Close

[BroadcastGuy]

After the advertising hype for the new Pirates Blu-Ray DVD’s, I figured why not, I like great video/audio quality, and the hype and the reviews certainly assured that. Neither Pirates disc would play in my new Samsung BDP1200. Thinking there must be a problem with the discs, checked them with my Sony AR290 Blu-Ray notebook, no go either. Then I dug into it. Wow, everyone was having the same problems. Answer? Update the firmware. Samsung update took just short of an hour, and resulted in successful playing of the Pirates discs. However, all the updates in the world would not fix the problem on the Sony laptop. So then I checked the Casino Royale Blu-Ray disc…that was intermittent at best on the Sony laptop. What if I was not technical savvy? What if I was joe consumer that didn’t know an Ethernet connection to update firmware from a dish washer?

People talk about standards and compatibility… come on, Casino Royale was produced by Sony, there is Sony product placement everywhere in the movie, and the Blu-Ray disc is by Sony, yet it won’t play on a Sony product (AR290 laptop)! It won't even work in the same family!

Putting aside all the other issues at hand, if there isn’t basic compatibility, and it remains to be pot-luck even whether a DVD you buy will actually work, then the consumers not only lose, but have already lost.

• Samsung LN-T5265F 52” 1080p
• Samsung LN-T4065F 40” 1080p
• Sharp LC32D62U 32” 1080p
• Samsung BD-P1200 Blu-Ray Player
• Sony KDL40XBR3 40” 1080p
• Sony AR290 Vaio Blu-Ray Notebook
• Pioneer THX
• Onky 7.1