Olevia BDP-110 Firmware Upgrade

[MBorman]

A couple weeks ago I bought an Olevia BDP-110 player from Target.

It has worked well until tonight when I tried to play the new X-Files I Want To Believe Blu-Ray Disc. Up comes a red screen saying I need to upgrade the firmware on my player. Where can I download this upgrade? I do not see it on this website or Olevia's website. They only have their TV's on Olevia's website.

Mike Borman

[marnold]

Yeah, this feels like a scam. I bought the player but can't watch the film. What gives? Anyone have some advice?

[KUtzman]

Yea im still trying to figure it out myself. Ive tried playing the new Chronicles of Narnia and it just plainly says "unknown" disc. Special feature disc says if it takes a long while to load (Which it only makes it past the disney castle scene) i need to check my Firmware. I swear ive looked on every website and tried callin tech-support for disney and Olevia but all offices are closed.

[marnold]

Do all blu rays have to be upgraded? I get the piracy issue this would help to end, but sheesh . . . If the upgrade was simple, I might stick around. At this rate, I'll go back to DVD for awhile.

[krisjan]

Originally Posted by marnold

Do all blu rays have to be upgraded? I get the piracy issue this would help to end, but sheesh . . . If the upgrade was simple, I might stick around. At this rate, I'll go back to DVD for awhile.

Yes, all BD players still need occaisional FW updates in order to play some of the new BD releases. Like it or not, BD technology is still in the early adopter phase and I think player FW updates will be in the cards for another 6 months before the technology stabilzes and the player and disc manufacturers are all singing from the same hymnal.

I think BD is headed fro a heap of trouble this holiday season with the suddenly low BD player prices enticing more of the average consumer to jump on board only to experience what the posters on this thread have learned: I can't play the BD I just bought!!! Most people aren't willing or even able to to FW updates and they will end up taking their players back to the store (if they even can) with a huge sour taste in their mouths over the technology. DVD starts to look pretty good in light of such troubles.

A family member of mine bought this Olevia player at Target a few weeks ago. While I own 3 different BD players (Samsung, Panasonic and Sony) and am well versed in the technology, he never asked for my advice before buying the Olevia. Had he asked, I would have said NO WAY!! Olevia doesn't make these players - they are OEM'd by some Asian producer (I'm not sure who) and as on poster pointed out, you can't even find them on the Olevia web site. There is no pathway for finding FW updates thay I can find. I'll be watching this thread in case on of you owners get a response from Olevia tech support.

My advice if you are buying now is to stick with the Sony (350, 550) or Panasonic (35, 55) models which are at least 3rd generation or later products from these large CE companies. Both companies have shown top notch tech support for thr BD products. If I were you, I'd return the Olevia and get one of those players.

[leobuck97401]

olevia.supportsync.com is the web site to visit for registration and updates for the olevia bdp-110

[jmkoch]

Originally Posted by krisjan

Yes, all BD players still need occaisional FW updates in order to play some of the new BD releases. Like it or not, BD technology is still in the early adopter phase and I think player FW updates will be in the cards for another 6 months before the technology stabilzes and the player and disc manufacturers are all singing from the same hymnal.

Is this frenzy for firmware updates driven by a pure desire for the industry to provide households with the super-dooper lastest quality video quality?

Or do they change the encryption and formatting every few months to stay a step ahead of the pirate disc vendors?

I doubt the video quality improves at all, or enough that most folks would notice. The "anti-piracy" explanation appears more plausible. However, it also makes playback very unreliable. My impression is that some updates also render the players intolerant of BD+R or BD+RE discs burned by legitimate home video, amateur, or small commercial videographers. It makes it impossible or a huge PITA to share or distribute video on BD discs.

IMHO this will kill the competitiveness of BD relative to other means of distribution.

[mattz]

I'm not having any luck getting this machine to recognize the upgrade either. I look at the files on the CD and it appears to have written correctly.
I'm creating the image using the Nero Burning ROM application.
Has anyone had any luck with this upgrade or have any suggestions?
Thanks
Matt

[krisjan]

Originally Posted by mattz

I'm not having any luck getting this machine to recognize the upgrade either. I look at the files on the CD and it appears to have written correctly.
I'm creating the image using the Nero Burning ROM application.
Has anyone had any luck with this upgrade or have any suggestions?
Thanks
Matt

Did you follow these steps?

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Burn the ISO firmware on a disc.

2. In NO DISC mode, press "SETUP"→"General"→"Update Firmware"→"CDROM", then press "ENTER", the unit's disc tray will open automatically.

3. Put the disc in the tray, press "YES" to start the upgrade.

4. In about 8 minutes, the CD Tray will open automatically. Please take out the disc to finish the upgrade. If the disc tray does not open automatically, please press "OPEN" button on the front panel of the unit.

5. NOTE: after finishing above steps, please power off and then on the unit, the unit should be in working order.

Unlike any other BD players I've encountered, the Olevia requires you to go into the setup menu (see Step 2 above) before putting the FW disc in the machine.

Also, it is not clear from their instructions if the resulting .iso file (which results after unzipping the downloaded .zip file from the web site) should be burned directly to the CD or as an image file. The instructions say burn the iso file to a CD so I would try just burning a data CD of the unzipped file. Good luck.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by krisjan

Also, it is not clear from their instructions if the resulting .iso file (which results after unzipping the downloaded .zip file from the web site) should be burned directly to the CD or as an image file. The instructions say burn the iso file to a CD so I would try just burning a data CD of the unzipped file. Good luck.

It needs to be burned as an image. It won't work if you burn the .iso file directly to the disc.


After burning the disc you should see the following files:

APP.bin
APP.bin.sig
FLASH.bin.sig
JFFS2.bin
JFFS2.bin.sig
KERNEL.bin
KERNEL.bin.sig
updater.sh
updater.sh.sig
XENV.bin
XENV.bin.sig
XLU.bin
XLU.bin.sig
YAMON.bin
YAMON.bin.sig
ZBOOT.bin
ZBOOT.bin.sig

If you don't see these files, but see the updater-Contel-BD100-R1.1-282_42-14.7-081022-Olevia-dts.iso file on the disc then the disc wasn't burned properly as an image.

[krisjan]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

It needs to be burned as an image. It won't work if you burn the .iso file directly to the disc.

Thanks for clarifying. I assume you know this because you successfully updated your player?

[mattz]

Yes, I've followed the instructions, over and over...
I never would have thought to try the ISO file itself, but I took your advice and tried it. That didn't work either. Neither did the zip file.
I've tried all 3 methods multiple times: Creating the CDs from the image, the ISO file and the ZIP file. All 3 get the same error: "Not a firmware disk". The files on the disks are readable on my PC after creating. I've tried different brands of CD-Rs, same result.

[mattz]

Yes rdodolak, I have all the files you listed on the CD. There is one other file there, a 4KB file named 'r...' It is listed first and when viewed with notepad seems to have all the file names and some odd characters. On a different PC the name of the file shows as a square.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by mattz

Yes, I've followed the instructions, over and over...
I never would have thought to try the ISO file itself, but I took your advice and tried it. That didn't work either. Neither did the zip file.
I've tried all 3 methods multiple times: Creating the CDs from the image, the ISO file and the ZIP file. All 3 get the same error: "Not a firmware disk". The files on the disks are readable on my PC after creating. I've tried different brands of CD-Rs, same result.

Is the disc finalized? Have you tried burning to a DVD?

According to this link it only supports a CD-R/RW in the JPEG/MP3 formats:

http://olevia.supportsync.com/article.aspx?id=1011

[GHP619]

Firmware 1.1 update problem. I have the exact same update problem as listed. I did create a image file burned with the listed unzipped files. The system said this was not a firmware file. I suggest we all contact Olevia and request a correct Firmware Update file.

[krisjan]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Is the disc finalized? Have you tried burning to a DVD?

According to this link it only supports a CD-R/RW in the JPEG/MP3 formats:

http://olevia.supportsync.com/article.aspx?id=1011

The instructions specifically call for a CD-R (not a DVD). The other statement applies to formats that the BD-110 will play - it has nothing to do with the format of the FW upgrade disc.

[wruberte]

Filed a support ticket for incompatible Blu-Ray Title "Batman - Dark Knight". After a week of waiting for a message from olevia.supportsync.com, the only message I got was "noted". I left another message on the support ticket for more than a one word response and a committment for addressing the issue, I have requested a committment to updating the firmware to fix the issue. The comment has gone unanswered for three days.

I spent on hold an hour with Olevia Customer Service Phone number which is a different website as it turns out the product is Olevis in name only. Some company in China is responsible for the manufacture and presumably the support.

There is no commitment for correcting the firmware for common titles that are incompatible. Instead I am returning the unit to Target and writing a letter to corporate with a hard-copy of the support ticket notes with the one response and a list of Blu Ray Titles that are incompatible that Target sells to encourage them to pull the whole product line as it is not consistent with the quality brand alternative players that Target sells and the manufacturer warranty and support is not being honored..

[pondera]

I was worried when I first got the blu-ray player because the eject button didn't seem to respond as you said. However, I realized that once you turn the player on you have to wait for the welcome message to go away and for it to say no disc. Once that happens, the eject button works.

I'm sorry to hear that so many people are having problems. I was able to get the firmware disc working on the first try with a standard CD-R and it resolved my issue with 3:10 to Yuma. I didn't have any other issues before that, so I can't speak for any other titles.

I wouldn't even consider returning this player, since from what I can see the only thing I would gain for another $100+ would be perhaps a few seconds of my time before watching a movie.

[danielf]

Can somebody please tell me how to update the firmware, have tried 6 discs, does not work, tells me not a firmware disc, how do you burn as image file.

[BlurayChance]

Originally Posted by danielf

Can somebody please tell me how to update the firmware, have tried 6 discs, does not work, tells me not a firmware disc, how do you burn as image file.

What happens if you put the burned disc into the player before you go into the setup? Does it list the files on the disc?

What brand media did you use? When you burned the disc, did you finalize it?