Possible solution for "freezing" problems with bluray players

[Jase Fox]

As you are well aware some bluray players tend to freeze during playback! Mine inc & theres alot of threads on here from frustrated people who have this problem from there players. Some say a firmware upgrade may cure the problem? But id spoken to alot of people at my local hifi store & on here that say it doesnt make any difference at all, ive had my Pioneer LX70a for 5mths now & for the 1st month it seemed fine but then the freezing issue reared its ugly head, however this problem is in the troubleshooting guide of the manual to my player & it tells you to unplug it at the mains & plug back in again, reboot it!! Anyway so what i thought id do is everytime im about to watch a movie i decided id unplug it at the mains & plug it back in again then start my player as normal.... well up to now after watching loads of blus & standard dvds i can say that it seems to be working!!! It made sense to do this afterall the freezing problem is the same as a satellite box crashing so why not reboot beforehand? So id strongly recommend to any1 with this problem to try it, to some it maybe a pain to have to keep unplugging etc but at least itd be better than having to do it halfway through your movie.

[Sylin]

Seems like an overly-complex and time-consuming activity that isn't necessary. Why not just reboot it IF it freezes?

Reasonably speaking, if you're having THAT much trouble with your player freezing, something is probably wrong with it. I had an S300 that froze once. My PS3 has frozen once. And I've watched dozens of movies on both machines.

[Jase Fox]

Originally Posted by Sylin

Seems like an overly-complex and time-consuming activity that isn't necessary. Why not just reboot it IF it freezes?

Reasonably speaking, if you're having THAT much trouble with your player freezing, something is probably wrong with it. I had an S300 that froze once. My PS3 has frozen once. And I've watched dozens of movies on both machines.

I see exactly what your saying Sylin, even though i wouldnt say unplugging & plugging back in is time consuming but more of inconvenience! & ive never had to do anything like that before & ive had loads of dvd players over the years and theyve all worked fine. But yes i take on board what your saying about the fact my player could be faulty but this is the 2nd player ive had as the other one used to freeze & when this problem is in the troubleshooting section in the manual they dont look at it as a major problem they simply tell u to just do what it says & thats reboot..... what a pain it is!!!!

[Sonny]

Sounds like crap to me. If they put that in the manual ......& your on your 2nd one......DE DAA DEEEE

[rragland]

Originally Posted by Jase Fox

As you are well aware some bluray players tend to freeze during playback! Mine inc & theres alot of threads on here from frustrated people who have this problem from there players. Some say a firmware upgrade may cure the problem? But id spoken to alot of people at my local hifi store & on here that say it doesnt make any difference at all, ive had my Pioneer LX70a for 5mths now & for the 1st month it seemed fine but then the freezing issue reared its ugly head, however this problem is in the troubleshooting guide of the manual to my player & it tells you to unplug it at the mains & plug back in again, reboot it!! Anyway so what i thought id do is everytime im about to watch a movie i decided id unplug it at the mains & plug it back in again then start my player as normal.... well up to now after watching loads of blus & standard dvds i can say that it seems to be working!!! It made sense to do this afterall the freezing problem is the same as a satellite box crashing so why not reboot beforehand? So id strongly recommend to any1 with this problem to try it, to some it maybe a pain to have to keep unplugging etc but at least itd be better than having to do it halfway through your movie.

I think it is absoulutely ridiculous for a manufacturer to expect a consumer to go through such an abnormal procedure to get their player to operate properly. If the stupid thing doesn't work, do not take it to market.

BTW, I am one of those frustrated people who has posted threads related to this issue. In fact, that is the reason I was directed to this site in the first place.

[CtotheP]

I couldn't agree more. I actually boxed up my BDP-S500 last night to send into Sony today. I think it's 100% unacceptable.

[Lucy Diamond]

It happens.

Between the freezing, the Java slowdown and the overall shittyness of Tombraider, I almost cried when I first got my Player. It seemed like such a step back.

BUT...time went on and things got better.
Mine hasn't frozen since lastnight (Lethal Weapon froze on me)


Look at it this way...these first players we all bought are a part of history and they are the pack animals that we are building our next gen collections on. Next time around, it will be much better...the new machines will eventually be cheaper and faster and flawless and when we get them, most of us will have 200+ Blus to test them out with!!!

[RJBmk]

Originally Posted by rragland

I think it is absoulutely ridiculous for a manufacturer to expect a consumer to go through such an abnormal procedure to get their player to operate properly. If the stupid thing doesn't work, do not take it to market.

BTW, I am one of those frustrated people who has posted threads related to this issue. In fact, that is the reason I was directed to this site in the first place.

I have a Sharp BD-HP20U and it has a big problem with freezing up. It won't play Planet Earth, Gatica and tonight my new Golden Compass. It will play Ratatouille, Flight Plan and Invasion, also any standard DVD. When it starts the freezing/skipping problem it gets progressively worse and gets to a point where it won't respond to any command. Often the freeze is followed by an uncommanded return to the start. When I can eventually convince it to release the disc and I power down/up and perform a reboot, it will then pronounce that the disc in Incompatible. Thereafter it takes a long (hour) total system power down to get it to even read the disc. It never gives a pixellated picture. I have just installed the latest software rev. and it has not improved the situation. I will not buy any more Blu-Ray discs!
In five calls to Sharp I got nowhere and was told I couldn't talk to a technical person "because of National Security"!! I am a professional Military Avionics video display engineer!! Go figure!

[syncguy]

Looks like the PS3 is a better proposition.

[Kirsty_Mc]

My Tip:

Make sure the disc is spotlessly clean before you insert it into the machine. My BDP-S500 used to freeze quite regularly until I instigated a super cleanliness regime. The Problem also manifested itself on my PC drive (Sony BWU-100A), though to a lesser extent.

As far as the PC is concerned, WinDVD greatly improved on reliability generally, but I believe cleanliness is the biggest issue.

Look at it this way... These players use a blue laser which resolves smaller pits closer together on the disc. Therefore they will equally well resolve much smaller pieces of dirt on the disc surface. IMO the BDP-S500 is one of the best PQ machines on the market... PQ well abve a PS3... with this improvement in PQ it seems that it is a little more fussy about dirt on the disc.

Cleanliness is next to godliness (if you believe in such things).

[rragland]

Originally Posted by Kirsty_Mc

My Tip:

Make sure the disc is spotlessly clean before you insert it into the machine. My BDP-S500 used to freeze quite regularly until I instigated a super cleanliness regime. The Problem also manifested itself on my PC drive (Sony BWU-100A), though to a lesser extent.

As far as the PC is concerned, WinDVD greatly improved on reliability generally, but I believe cleanliness is the biggest issue.

Look at it this way... These players use a blue laser which resolves smaller pits closer together on the disc. Therefore they will equally well resolve much smaller pieces of dirt on the disc surface. IMO the BDP-S500 is one of the best PQ machines on the market... PQ well abve a PS3... with this improvement in PQ it seems that it is a little more fussy about dirt on the disc.

Cleanliness is next to godliness (if you believe in such things).

How much cleaner can a brand-new, freshly opened Blu-ray Disc, such as my "Memoirs of a Geisha" get. It froze the first time I played it.

[Leon Liew]

Originally Posted by RJBmk

I have a Sharp BD-HP20U and it has a big problem with freezing up. It won't play Planet Earth, Gatica and tonight my new Golden Compass. It will play Ratatouille, Flight Plan and Invasion, also any standard DVD. When it starts the freezing/skipping problem it gets progressively worse and gets to a point where it won't respond to any command. Often the freeze is followed by an uncommanded return to the start. When I can eventually convince it to release the disc and I power down/up and perform a reboot, it will then pronounce that the disc in Incompatible. Thereafter it takes a long (hour) total system power down to get it to even read the disc. It never gives a pixellated picture. I have just installed the latest software rev. and it has not improved the situation. I will not buy any more Blu-Ray discs!
In five calls to Sharp I got nowhere and was told I couldn't talk to a technical person "because of National Security"!! I am a professional Military Avionics video display engineer!! Go figure!

I also have the Sharp BD-HP20A but the problem is not the freezing part.
So far all BD titles I bought could play until I pop in Man on Fire.

It started off nicely until it arrive at the menus to initiate playback.But the
icons for 'Play,scene selection features etc' were nowhere to be seen. I tried
pushing enter,top menu pop menu buttons but nothing. Its only after I power
down then power up again that the icons appeared.

Sometimes very confuse with this new BD technology. Have no such
problem with my SD DVD players.Pop in the disc and all system goes.

Perhaps the BD technology needs time to mature hopefully newer generation
players won't take time even to start up.

[Jase Fox]

Originally Posted by Leon Liew

I also have the Sharp BD-HP20A but the problem is not the freezing part.
So far all BD titles I bought could play until I pop in Man on Fire.

It started off nicely until it arrive at the menus to initiate playback.But the
icons for 'Play,scene selection features etc' were nowhere to be seen. I tried
pushing enter,top menu pop menu buttons but nothing. Its only after I power
down then power up again that the icons appeared.

Sometimes very confuse with this new BD technology. Have no such
problem with my SD DVD players.Pop in the disc and all system goes.

Perhaps the BD technology needs time to mature hopefully newer generation
players won't take time even to start up.

I absolutely agree with you 100% Leon!! As i strongly believe that the 1st batch of bluray players arnt there yet, i think i went into it to prematurely, mind you i was warned from a very good friend that they had crashing issues, but did i listen?? nope!! roll on the next gen!!

[DIY_HD]

It would seem logical that the engineers who design these devices actually own one. And statistically, at least one of them would have experienced this freezing phenomenon by now. And with all the Tech Support calls they must have received, you would think they have figured out what is causing this and fixed it by now.

It is also possible that they have not yet identified the cause, or they have identified the cause, but haven't developed a solution to the problem. Say Kirsty_Mc is right and dust is the problem. How can you prevent dust from entering the unit? That blue beam must be extremely narrow. How small of a dust particle can block the beam? And what can they do about it?

Perhaps they can put filters on the air vents and add a high-performance fan that blows all the dust off the laser lens and the disc each time a disc is inserted, then it slows to a cooling speed.

The other side of this issue is do all manufacturer BPs have this problem? If not, why not? Does it just happen with those so infrequently that no one complains? If it only does it once; it was just a "glitch".

I have my eye on the new Sony BDP-S550, due out August-September timeframe. I hope they have the bugs (or should I say, dust-bunnies) worked out by then.

Any electro-mechanical engineers out there have any insight into this problem?

[jsteinhauer]

Originally Posted by rragland

How much cleaner can a brand-new, freshly opened Blu-ray Disc, such as my "Memoirs of a Geisha" get. It froze the first time I played it.

When I played my brand new, never been opened copy of Saw IV, it froze. Examined the disc and found a big nasty fingerprint on the good surface. It can happen.


On another note, the prospect of powering down your machines completely between uses is not such a bad idea. If you powered down all of your "standby" electronics and appliances you would save a bit of money over the course of a year. I would not be surprised, either, if the current energy crunch persists, as it is likely to, if this type of power draw did not become a point of legislation.

[Octavio]

Originally Posted by Sylin

Seems like an overly-complex and time-consuming activity that isn't necessary. Why not just reboot it IF it freezes?

Reasonably speaking, if you're having THAT much trouble with your player freezing, something is probably wrong with it. I had an S300 that froze once. My PS3 has frozen once. And I've watched dozens of movies on both machines.

I was starting to believe that I've been a lucky bastard because my "primitive" S300 haven't frozen not even once!, of course I apply the firmware updates as soon as they are released. In addition I don't have my S300 on Stand By mode. I just turn off the machine. Could be that the reason?

Until now the only problems I've had are the slow loading times with BD-J's, something that with the latest firmware update have improved a lot.

Anyway my beloved S300 doesn't decode internally DTS MA, and Dolby TrueHD can only be sent as LPCM thru HDMI. So, I'll upgrade my player next christmas perhaps... unless a new firmware adds DTS MA! then I'd reconsider it. I am not into PiP and BD-Live stuff, I just want the best pq and audio.

[Jimbow]

Originally Posted by Jase Fox

As you are well aware some bluray players tend to freeze during playback! Mine inc & theres alot of threads on here from frustrated people who have this problem from there players. Some say a firmware upgrade may cure the problem? But id spoken to alot of people at my local hifi store & on here that say it doesnt make any difference at all, ive had my Pioneer LX70a for 5mths now & for the 1st month it seemed fine but then the freezing issue reared its ugly head, however this problem is in the troubleshooting guide of the manual to my player & it tells you to unplug it at the mains & plug back in again, reboot it!! Anyway so what i thought id do is everytime im about to watch a movie i decided id unplug it at the mains & plug it back in again then start my player as normal.... well up to now after watching loads of blus & standard dvds i can say that it seems to be working!!! It made sense to do this afterall the freezing problem is the same as a satellite box crashing so why not reboot beforehand? So id strongly recommend to any1 with this problem to try it, to some it maybe a pain to have to keep unplugging etc but at least itd be better than having to do it halfway through your movie.

It can also be the HD cable. I had a freezing problem and a black out problem. I thought it was the blu ray player but it was the cable. I tried it on my PS3 and it did the same thing. And I know the PS3 is a very powerful machine. So I took the HD cable back, swapped it for another one (same brand) and it worked fine. I just hope it lasts longer than the other one(only six months)!

[LordoftheRings]

Me, I simply buy another player. ...I don't like struggling in life.

[ECrispy]

Brand new LG 550 player. Brand new Avatar blu-ray. Damn thing froze up after 1/2 way thru the movie and started to stutter. I had no choice but to restart. It happened a few more times but I was able to finish it.

I don't have a lot of movies (only 5) so maybe this is limited to Avatar. But its happening at different points with a new disc, so I'm sure its a Java/BR problem and not hardware issues. I really wish we could get rid of Java/DRM and the constant need for fw updates.

[gordonthefree33]

I have a Panasonic blu-ray player SCBTT273P, I had been trying to open a port on my blu ray player for netflix, so I was going to see if I could change the IP of the blu ray to static through the internet connections settings, but it wanted me to update the firmware version, so I did, and it got to 100 percent, and went to a black screen at first I thought it was reloading, but it was just sitting there, and the blu-ray player was flashing " UPDS/5" over and over and over again, then I unplugged it and plugged it back in and turned it back on, and it did the same thing immediately started flashing that error code, my TV won't even get a signal from it! HELP!