Anyone here have a Sharp BD-HP21??

[EightBall]

The thing is frustrating me. I bought 21 and Troy and they worked fine w/o any firmware updates. I buy Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and it only plays the advertisments and never gets to the title screen or movie. So I update the player's firmware and still the same result. I also thought it was the disc so I switched it out for another copy: same thing.

Am I the only one with this player having problems with this? I can't find anything anywhere about this problem.

[Bad8511]

I have this player and have had no issues. It does take a while to load the disc but thats it.

[Bran]

I'm really confused. Bought this player three weeks ago and nothing but trouble. Thinking that the first unit was faulty, went back to the store and exchanged it for new one. Same thing. It takes 8 - 10 seconds to start playing BD previews. To load the movie, once you select "Play", takes anywhere between 45 seconds and 2 minutes. Couldn't wait for Disney's WALL-E to come out. Player correctly loaded previews in usual 8 - 10 seconds, but was never able to load the movie itself. It is advertised it can play slide show of JPEG files. I tried JPG, JPEG on CD-R, CD+R, DVD-R, DVD+R, with images sorted in folders or without folders always with the same result - player reports "DISC CANNOT BE READ". My JPG files were original Canon 20D JPG files. I tried to convert files to JPG using Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 - with same result. All reviews I read are great. I am yet to see the greatness of this player.

[brad24bit]

I've had it for a few weeks now, no issues at all. It is a bit slow loading a disc, but i'm used to it.

[lbevil]

I recently purchased this Blu-Ray DVD Player and initially had problems playing a few Blu-Ray disc, ie Top Gun. I noticed the item on the scree about downloading the latest firmware update and did so, I downloaded and installed Sharp's update dated Nov 6, 2008. Those initial discs that would not play, were now able to load successfully and play. However, I just tried to play Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and the main feature would not play. The upcoming ads would play, however. I also checked out Disc 2 and it would not fully load. I just sent a note to Sharp asking if a further firmware update is in the offing, noting that the aforementioned Blu-Ray disc would not play. I have Wall-E too, but have not tried to play it yet.

[trr3601]

I also have the same player, i've updated it & it wont get past 4:55 into the previews. I've even tried renting another Narnia 2 and it stopped at the same place.

[EightBall]

Originally Posted by trr3601

I also have the same player, i've updated it & it wont get past 4:55 into the previews. I've even tried renting another Narnia 2 and it stopped at the same place.

Exactly! It always stops at 4:55

[newbluman28]

So Frustrating!!! I've owned the BDHP21U for a couple weeks now and have loved it, until this! We purchased Narnia 2 last evening and cannot watch it. I also did the update to the latest firmware, dated Nov. 6, 2008 and still no dice. Same problem as y'all, stops at 4:55. I sent Sharp an email and plan to call them after they open this morning.

[Bad8511]

I've played Wall-E with no problems. I don't have the other movie.

[newbluman28]

OK, as soon as Sharp's technical support opened this morning (which was 10 AM E.S.T) I called them and explained the issue. They took down all my information and said that they are working on developing a firmware for this issue. They were already aware of the problem, so obviously they've already gotten calls regarding the "Prince Caspian" BD. They said to check back the website in a couple weeks as their developers need to figure out where and what the problem is and then develop a firmware update to fix it. I guess that's the answer I figured I get, but is sucks having to wait for things like this. Never had to this with DVD's!! My 10 year old DVD player plays brand new movies with no issues. Ugh!!

[Bad8511]

Glad to hear. I'm sure you know you can't compare your reg DVD player to a BP. You are going to have problems with new technology just give it time. In a few years Blu-ray will be just like DVD in ease of use.

[dogbert0228]

I've had this player for 3 weeks and it has been great for BluRays and regular DVDs. I just received the new BluRay Godfather Collection in the mail. The first hour and 28 minutes are great, but when Sonny comes out of the restaurant bathroom, there is pixelation distortion and the picture and the disc plays choppy so the sound is off, too. Following this scene it works great again. Brand new disc from Amazon. Anyone else? Here are the pictures:

[GMPowertrain]

I've had the same problem with Bridge to Terabithia and The Spiderwick Chronicles, however Bee Movie worked fine. It usually happens about 10-15 minutes into the movie where it starts pixelating and freezing up. The only way to get past it is to skip to the next chapter. I've updated my firmware, I've reset the unit, I've pulled the plug on it and let it sit, but all to no avail. This is sounding more and more like a generic fault of blu-ray technology at the moment. Alot of players are reporting similar issues on different movies. I can only hope that they resolve this in a timely manner. Dropping $200 on something, I should hope the technology is proven out enough to be stable.

If anyone can find a fix for this issue, please feel free to spread the word.

[lbevil]

I received an email from Sharp about this problem with Prince Caspian and they asked me to call their customer service Monday morning. I see that's already been done as reported in an earlier entry. So, guess I'll just wait a while and keep checking their website for the latest update. I did play WALL-E okay. The only other complaint I have on this player is that it loads rather slowly on some blu-ray discs, ie Patton. BTW, mine also stops at 4:55 on Prince Caspian.

[dogbert0228]

Originally Posted by GMPowertrain

I've had the same problem with Bridge to Terabithia and The Spiderwick Chronicles, however Bee Movie worked fine. It usually happens about 10-15 minutes into the movie where it starts pixelating and freezing up. The only way to get past it is to skip to the next chapter. I've updated my firmware, I've reset the unit, I've pulled the plug on it and let it sit, but all to no avail. This is sounding more and more like a generic fault of blu-ray technology at the moment. Alot of players are reporting similar issues on different movies. I can only hope that they resolve this in a timely manner. Dropping $200 on something, I should hope the technology is proven out enough to be stable.

If anyone can find a fix for this issue, please feel free to spread the word.

Knowing that it is the player, a new player with new firmware, is infuriating. It is a new technology, but it just makes damn sense for machines and their discs to be compatible, especially given the claim of "quality" and "perfection" when it comes to BluRay. So now I have to wait another year or two to afford a 2nd BluRay player to fully enjoy The Godfather. Knowing it isn't just this player is only semi-reassuring. Thanks for the info.

[MegaMember]

I've looked everywhere, and haven't gotten a solid answer:

I know that this Sharp BD-HP21U player has both Dolby True HD and DTS-HD MA, but can it only bitstream the signal or also decode them? I know it can bitstream because my Onkyo TX-SR705 displays correctly for movies that are HD-MA 7.1 (The Bank Job) and Dolby True HD (Hancock). Can this player also internally decode?

Another note, somewhere I read that DTS-HD MA is only output at 48 kHz. What does this mean??

[hosergotsharp]

This will sound like a broken record, but I'm so glad I read some of the others. Yes, it stopped at 4:55, we did the f/w update, messed around with menu's, rented Fantastic Four which played fine. My wife bought the disk, so we'l hold on to it to see if another f/w update comes out.

Question, when I went to blockbuster, they have a VERY limited selection of Blu-Ray disc's for rent and only one copy of each, why isn't this catching on?
Didn't think folks would spend 20-30$ on new ones...wondering if the industry
is flounding on software issues...like this one.

I have a 52 inch Sharp Aquos and just got the Aquos Blu-Ray player, so I joined this forum, figure it might be a long relationship. Thanks...

[hosergotsharp]

Also, looking for some feedback on this, I played TrueLies and Polar express and the video quality over HDMI is really crappy, any thoughts? I thought it was supposed to upconvert. Try setting the video to a lower resolution?

[newbluman28]

I'm a very impatient person, and did not want to sit around and wait for Sharp to have updated firmware. So, I returned my Sharp BD player to Best Buy and traded up to the Sony BDP-S350. MUCH BETTER, imho. Played Prince Caspian straight out of the box, menus look a lot better, better load times, and it has BD Live capabilites. I've never been that fond of Sharp products when it came to electronics for the last 20 years. I guess this just affirms my feelings about Sharp. I just hope Best Buy drops the price of that Sony within the next 30 days so I can get some $$$ back. They had the player for $199 on Black Friday and I paid $300 for it.

[Bran]

Mmmmm interesting...

It doesn't play as expected (or at all):

WALL-E - Disney
Prince Caspian - Disney
Bridge to Terabithia - Disney
Sleeping Beauty - Disney
The Spiderwick Chronicles - Paramount
The Godfather - Paramount

and it does play everything else correctly.

Coincidence? Conspiracy? These two studios must be doing something to their BDs that this player doesn't like. Having said that, Sharp IS responsible to work with whomever it takes to fix this...