Optiarc, Firmware and Spiderman Problems - Blu-ray Forum

Randman · 02-09-2008, 11:06 PM

First off, I wanted to say that when the Optiarc BD ROM BC-5500A ATA Device plays Blu-Rays, it looks great. But therein lies the problem, WHEN it plays. Upon purchasing my new HP laptop with said device installed in it, I also purchased 5 Blu-ray Discs. Con-Air, Training Day, and the Spiderman Box Set, which has all 3 Spiderman videos in it. Con-Air and Training Day looked and played great.

But when it came time to watch the spiderman videos I would insert them, HP Quickplay would auto start, and where the video should have been flashes a Spiderman logo for half an instant (barely noticable) and then goes to a black screen, where it stays that way until i close the program. I even let it sit at the black screen overnight to see if it was a loadtime problem, it wasnt, I woke up 7 hours later to find the same dreary black screen.

Anyone have any clue where i can find Firmware for this device? My laptop is the DV9730NR made by HP. The most im able to find about Optiarc is that they are mainly a Euro company that is part of or was bought buy Sony.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Papi4baby · 02-09-2008, 11:41 PM

Well wish i could help, but mine died on my Acer Laptop, which i will be returning. I will be getting a regular DVD laptop all this Blu-ray in laptops is silly. There's litteraly no support for it, i will just use the rip method demo by Sony and burn it to a DVD and watch it on my laptop

Randman · 02-10-2008, 12:14 AM

Ya, thats what I'm finding out as well, I bought this laptop for my upcoming deployment to Iraq, the last time I was there I found myself wishing I had one. Im not sure if its worth having right now, but I definatly love the looks of the movies in HD.

Allin4greeN · 02-10-2008, 12:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Randman

First off, I wanted to say that when the Optiarc BD ROM BC-5500A ATA Device plays Blu-Rays, it looks great. But therein lies the problem, WHEN it plays. Upon purchasing my new HP laptop with said device installed in it, I also purchased 5 Blu-ray Discs. Con-Air, Training Day, and the Spiderman Box Set, which has all 3 Spiderman videos in it. Con-Air and Training Day looked and played great.

But when it came time to watch the spiderman videos I would insert them, HP Quickplay would auto start, and where the video should have been flashes a Spiderman logo for half an instant (barely noticable) and then goes to a black screen, where it stays that way until i close the program. I even let it sit at the black screen overnight to see if it was a loadtime problem, it wasnt, I woke up 7 hours later to find the same dreary black screen.

Anyone have any clue where i can find Firmware for this device? My laptop is the DV9730NR made by HP. The most im able to find about Optiarc is that they are mainly a Euro company that is part of or was bought buy Sony.

Thanks in advance for any help.

I experienced the exact same problem with that box set on my Dell notebook. It was a software issue. I'm not sure what HP preinstalls but, my Dell was running a super stripped down version of Cyberlink's PowerDVD, called Media Direct. It was garbage.

I didn't feel like wasting time with Dell's tech support so, I just purchased a full version of PowerDVD Ultra. Besides being a tad buggy, I haven't had any problems with it. I believe there are also versions of WinDVD, Nero, and TotalMedia Theatre that will play BD's. By all reports, each of these players has their own variations of bugginess, depending on your PC's configuration.

Randman · 02-10-2008, 02:38 AM

Allin4green, so your saying purchasing a full version of a big name BD player should fix it? Elaborate more on the problem you had and how it has fixed it. Were the BDs not working, then with the new program, they worked fine? If thats the case, I would love to get rid of HP Quickplay, its loadtimes are horrible and even with a laptop with 3 Gigs of ram, its response time is slow.

bad111 · 02-10-2008, 03:12 AM

An up to date software would solve your problems. I'm not sure if HP Quickplay has updates, most have been slow to update their software. Afaik, the most recent update to cyberlinks powerdvd ultra plays everything. Judging from reads and my own experience, the update that brought powerdvd to standard 1.1, will play everything.

Allin4greeN · 02-10-2008, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Randman

Allin4green, so your saying purchasing a full version of a big name BD player should fix it? Elaborate more on the problem you had and how it has fixed it. Were the BDs not working, then with the new program, they worked fine? If thats the case, I would love to get rid of HP Quickplay, its loadtimes are horrible and even with a laptop with 3 Gigs of ram, its response time is slow.

I hesitate to suggest that buying expensive software will be a sure cure, there are just too many variables across PC configurations. However, your brief description of the Spiderman problem exactly matches my experience with Media Direct.

When I first received my new notebook, I attempted to play the Die Hard Collection and the Spiderman Trilogy BD's. Die Hard's played the first time I tried them, then no longer worked at all. I received a variety of error messages, most were related to Region coding. The Spiderman BD's never played, however the extra feature DVD's did. For the SM BD's, a Spidy emblem would flash on the screen then nothing but a black screen...

I contacted Dell tech support and went back and forth via e-mail, chat, and phone for two days. They were useless in addressing BD issues so, I purchased PowerDVD Ultra. I had anticipated having issues with BD playback out of the box, based on the pre-purchase research that I did so, I wasn't very surprised when I ran into problems. At any rate, in my case, upgrading the player software solved my playback issues.

You might try downloading something like the Cyberlink Advisor, to double check your PC's "readiness" for BD playback. You can find the free download here.

Randman · 02-11-2008, 03:41 AM

Since the both of us had the exact same problems, I've decided to go ahead and get rid of HP Quickplay, its unimpressive as it is. Is there an online purchase/download available or did you buy PowerDVD Ultra at a retailer?

Also, thanks for all the help and support.

Allin4greeN · 02-11-2008, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Randman

Since the both of us had the exact same problems, I've decided to go ahead and get rid of HP Quickplay, its unimpressive as it is. Is there an online purchase/download available or did you buy PowerDVD Ultra at a retailer?

Also, thanks for all the help and support.

I downloaded it directly from their web site. I also paid a few extra bucks to have them send the media to me. I like to have a "hard copy" as back up, in case I run into any problems down the road. You can find the download by using the link I provided in my last post.

Good luck, and thanks for serving our country!

Randman · 02-13-2008, 05:29 AM

Thanks for the help and support.

yellowlt4 · 02-13-2008, 08:05 PM

I had this same problem on my Dell with Media Direct and I performed the auto update feature and it downloaded and installed an update and now SM3 plays great.

Allin4greeN · 02-13-2008, 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yellowlt4

I had this same problem on my Dell with Media Direct and I performed the auto update feature and it downloaded and installed an update and now SM3 plays great.

Depends on when the patch was released and when you updated.

I also updated MD after receiving my notebook, back in mid-December but, the patch didn't work for SM at that time. My guess is that Dell released a patch later on that did work.

In any case, I wasn't satisfied with playback from MD on DVD (jaggies) or BD, and there was no support for HD DVD. I also couldn't configure MD for discrete 5.1 output and Dell didn't seem to be very on top of updates or tech support for BD. So, I went with a more "robust" solution. PowerDVD Ultra ain't perfect but, it works much better for my set-up.

hgp · 03-01-2008, 05:08 AM

I had the same problem, no spidey 3 play. I finally found a very in expensive solution.
I updated quickplay and I can see the movie right now
i found it under enhancements when you start the program after you click on the globe on the far right side

Shadyhope · 03-03-2008, 06:39 PM

Hi fellas,

I recently purchased the HP Pavilion DV9730NR with an Optiarc BD-5500A Blu-Ray Disc Combo unit installed in it. I purchased the Blu-Ray movie "3:10 to Yuma" but was unable to sucessfully navigate the menu using HP Quickplay. I was able watch the preview movies but when I got to the actual movie screen, I couldn't use any of the onscreen options. I.E. "Play Movie", "Setup", "Scene Selection" etc...

I contacted HP Support through their Online Chat and also called their Phone Support... Neither of the technicians I spoke with were able to assist me. One suggested I download Intervideo's WinDVD program which I did but it would not install.... Error message popped up stating "Hardware not found".

The disc plays fine on my home's Blu-Ray player so it is not a problem with the disc... Any ideas you fellas might have would be greatly appreciated... I like the machine but purchased it more for the Blu-Ray capabilities that were touted... If I can't use it to watch movies I will be forced to return it..

Jim Wright
tarawacjw@gmail.com

TK421 · 03-03-2008, 07:54 PM

thanks for the help and all the support

Prebsen · 07-20-2008, 09:13 AM

Well as you guys I have the Optiarc BD-Rom.
I have it on the Acer Aspire 5920G version...
I have got a few Blu-Ray's but one is not working, and thats the Rattatouille movie...

The player is showing the screen where it says " This disc will not play, due to the region code settings of the player."

I upgraded the Acer player, but no change...
Then I got the CyberLink PowerDVD TRAIL, but no change..

Now the region of the Blu-Ray is Region 'B' and the others are region '2'...
Does any one know if there is a difference, all the discs are frome Norway...
And the cover is in Norwegian...

If there is no difference, do you know if the PowerDVD trail dosn't work, and if I have to upgrade it to the full version...

Thanks if you can answer somthing!

Gallagher · 12-13-2009, 07:12 PM

[QUOTE=Prebsen;1031917]Well as you guys I have the Optiarc BD-Rom.
I have it on the Acer Aspire 5920G version...
I have got a few Blu-Ray's but one is not working, and thats the Rattatouille movie...

I have the same model of Aspire and just recently (after two years) have run into the issue of Blu-Ray discs not playing. Oddly though, it only fails on Warner Brothers movies.

I bought the new Star Trek movie (Paramount) and it runs great. Looks amazing on the laptop.

I have the boxed set of the Matrix (Warner) and just recently bought all 6 Harry Potter movies (also Warner). Not only do they not play, but if I go to the explorer window, the laptop does not recognize them as media and I get a "please insert disc" window.

The nice thing about CD was that *all* CD players played CDs.
The nice thing about DVD was that *all* DVD players played DVDs.

Blu-ray does not work this way.. the hardware is all over the place; the software is all over the place; Sony does not want support under Linux thereby *forcing* consumers to buy other operating systems. As beautiful as HD is, I think Blu-Ray will be very short lived. Bring on the full digital, streamed and shared.

02-09-2008, 11:06 PM	#1
Randman Junior Member Member since:Feb 2008	Optiarc, Firmware and Spiderman Problems First off, I wanted to say that when the Optiarc BD ROM BC-5500A ATA Device plays Blu-Rays, it looks great. But therein lies the problem, WHEN it plays. Upon purchasing my new HP laptop with said device installed in it, I also purchased 5 Blu-ray Discs. Con-Air, Training Day, and the Spiderman Box Set, which has all 3 Spiderman videos in it. Con-Air and Training Day looked and played great. But when it came time to watch the spiderman videos I would insert them, HP Quickplay would auto start, and where the video should have been flashes a Spiderman logo for half an instant (barely noticable) and then goes to a black screen, where it stays that way until i close the program. I even let it sit at the black screen overnight to see if it was a loadtime problem, it wasnt, I woke up 7 hours later to find the same dreary black screen. Anyone have any clue where i can find Firmware for this device? My laptop is the DV9730NR made by HP. The most im able to find about Optiarc is that they are mainly a Euro company that is part of or was bought buy Sony. Thanks in advance for any help.

03-03-2008, 06:39 PM	#14
Shadyhope New Member Member since:Mar 2008	Optiarc BD-5500a installed in HP Pavilion DV9730NR Hi fellas, I recently purchased the HP Pavilion DV9730NR with an Optiarc BD-5500A Blu-Ray Disc Combo unit installed in it. I purchased the Blu-Ray movie "3:10 to Yuma" but was unable to sucessfully navigate the menu using HP Quickplay. I was able watch the preview movies but when I got to the actual movie screen, I couldn't use any of the onscreen options. I.E. "Play Movie", "Setup", "Scene Selection" etc... I contacted HP Support through their Online Chat and also called their Phone Support... Neither of the technicians I spoke with were able to assist me. One suggested I download Intervideo's WinDVD program which I did but it would not install.... Error message popped up stating "Hardware not found". The disc plays fine on my home's Blu-Ray player so it is not a problem with the disc... Any ideas you fellas might have would be greatly appreciated... I like the machine but purchased it more for the Blu-Ray capabilities that were touted... If I can't use it to watch movies I will be forced to return it.. Jim Wright tarawacjw@gmail.com Last edited by Shadyhope; 03-03-2008 at 06:40 PM. Reason: Changed Subject line

07-20-2008, 09:13 AM	#16
Prebsen New Member Member since:Jul 2008	A little problem... Well as you guys I have the Optiarc BD-Rom. I have it on the Acer Aspire 5920G version... I have got a few Blu-Ray's but one is not working, and thats the Rattatouille movie... The player is showing the screen where it says " This disc will not play, due to the region code settings of the player." I upgraded the Acer player, but no change... Then I got the CyberLink PowerDVD TRAIL, but no change.. Now the region of the Blu-Ray is Region 'B' and the others are region '2'... Does any one know if there is a difference, all the discs are frome Norway... And the cover is in Norwegian... If there is no difference, do you know if the PowerDVD trail dosn't work, and if I have to upgrade it to the full version... Thanks if you can answer somthing!

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02-09-2008, 11:41 PM	#2
Papi4baby Special Member Member since:Aug 2007 Location:That man from Nantucket Blu-ray collection:32	Well wish i could help, but mine died on my Acer Laptop, which i will be returning. I will be getting a regular DVD laptop all this Blu-ray in laptops is silly. There's litteraly no support for it, i will just use the rip method demo by Sony and burn it to a DVD and watch it on my laptop

02-10-2008, 12:14 AM	#3
Randman Junior Member Member since:Feb 2008	Ya, thats what I'm finding out as well, I bought this laptop for my upcoming deployment to Iraq, the last time I was there I found myself wishing I had one. Im not sure if its worth having right now, but I definatly love the looks of the movies in HD.

02-10-2008, 02:38 AM	#5
Randman Junior Member Member since:Feb 2008	Allin4green, so your saying purchasing a full version of a big name BD player should fix it? Elaborate more on the problem you had and how it has fixed it. Were the BDs not working, then with the new program, they worked fine? If thats the case, I would love to get rid of HP Quickplay, its loadtimes are horrible and even with a laptop with 3 Gigs of ram, its response time is slow.

02-10-2008, 03:12 AM	#6
bad111 Member Member since:Sep 2007	An up to date software would solve your problems. I'm not sure if HP Quickplay has updates, most have been slow to update their software. Afaik, the most recent update to cyberlinks powerdvd ultra plays everything. Judging from reads and my own experience, the update that brought powerdvd to standard 1.1, will play everything.

02-11-2008, 03:41 AM	#8
Randman Junior Member Member since:Feb 2008	Since the both of us had the exact same problems, I've decided to go ahead and get rid of HP Quickplay, its unimpressive as it is. Is there an online purchase/download available or did you buy PowerDVD Ultra at a retailer? Also, thanks for all the help and support.

02-13-2008, 05:29 AM	#10
Randman Junior Member Member since:Feb 2008	Thanks for the help and support.

02-13-2008, 08:05 PM	#11
yellowlt4 Active Member Member since:Dec 2007 Trading Score:2	I had this same problem on my Dell with Media Direct and I performed the auto update feature and it downloaded and installed an update and now SM3 plays great.

03-01-2008, 05:08 AM	#13
hgp New Member Member since:Mar 2008	I had the same problem, no spidey 3 play. I finally found a very in expensive solution. I updated quickplay and I can see the movie right now i found it under enhancements when you start the program after you click on the globe on the far right side

03-03-2008, 07:54 PM	#15
TK421 Member Member since:Jan 2008 Location:Ohio Blu-ray reviews:9	thanks for the help and all the support

12-13-2009, 07:12 PM	#17
Gallagher New Member Member since:Dec 2009 Location:Canada	[QUOTE=Prebsen;1031917]Well as you guys I have the Optiarc BD-Rom. I have it on the Acer Aspire 5920G version... I have got a few Blu-Ray's but one is not working, and thats the Rattatouille movie... I have the same model of Aspire and just recently (after two years) have run into the issue of Blu-Ray discs not playing. Oddly though, it only fails on Warner Brothers movies. I bought the new Star Trek movie (Paramount) and it runs great. Looks amazing on the laptop. I have the boxed set of the Matrix (Warner) and just recently bought all 6 Harry Potter movies (also Warner). Not only do they not play, but if I go to the explorer window, the laptop does not recognize them as media and I get a "please insert disc" window. The nice thing about CD was that all CD players played CDs. The nice thing about DVD was that all DVD players played DVDs. Blu-ray does not work this way.. the hardware is all over the place; the software is all over the place; Sony does not want support under Linux thereby forcing consumers to buy other operating systems. As beautiful as HD is, I think Blu-Ray will be very short lived. Bring on the full digital, streamed and shared.

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