SONY BDP-S301 Freezes

[rserkes]

I've read the "sticky" thread on this forum about the BDP-S300/301 and I am still confused. Three in-a-row DVD movies (rented from Netflix) caused my player to freeze. By that I mean it just stopped playing and wouldn't respond to either the remote or the buttons on the player. To get the disk out I had to unplug the player to get it to power down and then plug it back in. Two of these movies were Blu-Ray and one was SD. I assumed it was the player since I couldn't imagine getting three in-a-row bad disks so I returned the player to the seller for an exchange.

The first two movies I played on the new unit worked fine and then last night I had a freeze on the new player. Again, it wouldn't respond to either the remote or he buttons so I had to unplug it. Now I'm confused as to whether or not it's the player(s) or the rental disks.

The first unit came with firmware v3.3 which I upgraded to v3.7 and then v3.8. The second unit came with v3.7 and I haven't upgraded to v3.8 thinking that might be he problem .. but it still froze with v3.7.

In a nutshell, could someone please tell me what's going on and what I can do to view these movies? What's the fix? I'm about ready to return the second until and get a plane vanilla DVD player and watch movies in SD until the technology gets the bugs worked out. Or is it just SONY? Are other manufacturers having this same problem?

If it means anything, I always clean the disks with an optical cleaner and an optical grade towel before playing them. It doesn't seem to matter, though.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

[Blu-Raider]

Do you have a "new" Blu you can put in the player? I've had a couple of problems with rentals but when I put in one of my own like-new discs it plays perfectly.

It it freezes with a "new" disc you've got problems.

[krazeyeyez]

mine locked up with id4 a few times but has played it a few times without problem as well, same can be said about quite a few other discs, some rentals, some new, some old.

[rserkes]

Originally Posted by Blu-Raider

Do you have a "new" Blu you can put in the player? I've had a couple of problems with rentals but when I put in one of my own like-new discs it plays perfectly.

It it freezes with a "new" disc you've got problems.

No, I don't. I watch a movie once and that's it so it doesn't make sense for me to buy any. Netflix is great.

[tonyjk3]

Yeah, we rented the Game Plan and I sent it back and requested a new one because it froze. The second one worked perfectly. I am thinking of not doing blu ray rentals and just renting standard def and if I like the movie or it looks good buy it on Blu.

[Blu-Raider]

Originally Posted by rserkes

No, I don't. I watch a movie once and that's it so it doesn't make sense for me to buy any. Netflix is great.

Whatever. I was just trying to help you diagnose your player.

[rserkes]

Originally Posted by Blu-Raider

Whatever. I was just trying to help you diagnose your player.

I know you were and thank you. If my response seemed curt that was inadvertent. I appreciate all the help I can get.

[rserkes]

I just received a response from SONY's tech support. They told me to upgrade the firmware from v3.7 to v3.8. But my first player had v3.8 and it choked on three disks in a row.

I'll upgrade to v3.8 tonight but I don't have high hopes that it will do the trick.

[CtotheP]

I've got the S500 with the latest firmware and it's frozen numerous times w/ Netflix rentals. I started wiping them down w/ a soft cloth before watching them, and everything was fine.....UNTIL I watched "There Will Be Blood" last night (SD disc, not even Blu-Ray) and the movie froze about an hour into it.

I'm really bummed.

[Synaptic Reality]

Originally Posted by rserkes

I've read the "sticky" thread on this forum about the BDP-S300/301 and I am still confused. Three in-a-row DVD movies (rented from Netflix) caused my player to freeze. By that I mean it just stopped playing and wouldn't respond to either the remote or the buttons on the player. To get the disk out I had to unplug the player to get it to power down and then plug it back in. Two of these movies were Blu-Ray and one was SD. I assumed it was the player since I couldn't imagine getting three in-a-row bad disks so I returned the player to the seller for an exchange.

The first two movies I played on the new unit worked fine and then last night I had a freeze on the new player. Again, it wouldn't respond to either the remote or he buttons so I had to unplug it. Now I'm confused as to whether or not it's the player(s) or the rental disks.

The first unit came with firmware v3.3 which I upgraded to v3.7 and then v3.8. The second unit came with v3.7 and I haven't upgraded to v3.8 thinking that might be he problem .. but it still froze with v3.7.

In a nutshell, could someone please tell me what's going on and what I can do to view these movies? What's the fix? I'm about ready to return the second until and get a plane vanilla DVD player and watch movies in SD until the technology gets the bugs worked out. Or is it just SONY? Are other manufacturers having this same problem?

If it means anything, I always clean the disks with an optical cleaner and an optical grade towel before playing them. It doesn't seem to matter, though.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

I also have the S301 and have had freezing issues like you mention above, just less frequent. Once mine freezes, I have to pull the cord as well. I looked into it and SONY told me to update the firmware (a good place to start), however it did not help. They offered to fix it but it didn't happen often enough (except for when I wanted to show off the capabilities of Blu-ray ).

Since then, I bought a PS3 and have not had a single problem, I don't use it for games just Blu playback. My lady and I love it! As a result, I'm starting to think it may be an issue inherent with the S301. Perhaps return it for another BD player? If your not opposed to having a "gaming system", you may want to check out a PS3 or wait until the Panasonic BD-50 comes out.

Hopefully the update fixed it and I hope you don't get too frustrated that you turn away from Blu-ray altogether. Once you get things dialed in, you'll never look back.

[rserkes]

After loading the firmware upgrade to v3.8 I slid in a Blu-Ray movie. And before I did I carefully cleaned it with optical cleaner and an optical cloth. Everything worked just fine. I even got to watch the special features. But I had been doing this on the first player and it hung up several times on both Blu-Ray and SD disks. Perhaps it's because the Netflix rentals are used so much and people aren't careful. If the disks are dirty or even slightly warped they won't play properly. I guess that's just something I'll have to accept about Netflix. However, before I bought the SONY I never had a skipping or freezing problem with my old SD player. The SONYs are too sensitive or are still works-in-progress.

As to the suggestion about the PS3 unit, I've already brought this up with my wife. She said to me, "You want to put a PS3 in our TV room?" And then gave me THE LOOK. If you're a married man you know what THE LOOK is so I dropped the subject.

Thanks to all for you suggestions.

[TK421]

Originally Posted by rserkes

I've read the "sticky" thread on this forum about the BDP-S300/301 and I am still confused. Three in-a-row DVD movies (rented from Netflix) caused my player to freeze. By that I mean it just stopped playing and wouldn't respond to either the remote or the buttons on the player. To get the disk out I had to unplug the player to get it to power down and then plug it back in. Two of these movies were Blu-Ray and one was SD. I assumed it was the player since I couldn't imagine getting three in-a-row bad disks so I returned the player to the seller for an exchange.

The first two movies I played on the new unit worked fine and then last night I had a freeze on the new player. Again, it wouldn't respond to either the remote or he buttons so I had to unplug it. Now I'm confused as to whether or not it's the player(s) or the rental disks.

The first unit came with firmware v3.3 which I upgraded to v3.7 and then v3.8. The second unit came with v3.7 and I haven't upgraded to v3.8 thinking that might be he problem .. but it still froze with v3.7.

In a nutshell, could someone please tell me what's going on and what I can do to view these movies? What's the fix? I'm about ready to return the second until and get a plane vanilla DVD player and watch movies in SD until the technology gets the bugs worked out. Or is it just SONY? Are other manufacturers having this same problem?

If it means anything, I always clean the disks with an optical cleaner and an optical grade towel before playing them. It doesn't seem to matter, though.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

i have a a S500 works flawlessly and my PS3 well "enough said"

Sony is releasing the new S350 and S550 both of which have ether port on them and are profile 2.0 BD-Live ready.

Check these out, you will not be dissappointed !!!

[rserkes]

Here's the final chapter of my saga, I hope. I returned the first unit and exchanged it for a second unit on 4/5/08. It came with firmware v3.7 which I left alone until I started having the same problems I was having with the first unit. An email to SONY got me a reply from tech support telling me to upgrade to v3.8. I did.

Some movies (both SD and Blu-Ray) played fairly well only skipping now and then. I found that I could back up the DVD to an earlier place in the movie and try again and this seemed to work. And a brand new Blu-Ray movie played flawlessly. But last night I tried playing a movie and it refused to go past a specific place on the DVD. Then the player wouldn't respond to the remote nor to the buttons on the player including the power button. I had to unplug the unit and plug it back in to get the tray to open.

Out of curiosity I hooked up my old SD player (purchased in March of 2004) to see what would happen. The disk played without any problems whatsoever. I then put the disk back in the SONY S301 and it locked up on me again at the same place in the movie requiring me to unplug the player from the wall outlet and plugging it back in just to get the buttons to let me open the tray and retrieve the disk.

That's it! This morning I returned the second unit to the retailer for a full refund. I'm not down on Blu-Ray nor am I down on SONY. But I'm going to do my homework and be very careful about what I buy to replace the BDP-S301.

[THE STUD]

That's too bad, I bought the s-301 from costco, I think it freezed 2 times in the first week I owned it, and almost four months later, it's been flawless with brand new movies, I think it's been incredible for that reason. It's too bad you're having issues with it. I haven't even touched the firmware, bought it in January

[rserkes]

Originally Posted by THE STUD

That's too bad, I bought the s-301 from costco, I think it freezed 2 times in the first week I owned it, and almost four months later, it's been flawless with brand new movies, I think it's been incredible for that reason. It's too bad you're having issues with it. I haven't even touched the firmware, bought it in January

I don't buy new movies because I'm not the kind who watches a movie more than once. The new movie that played flawlessly was a freebie from SONY for buying the original unit.

My movies come from Netflix and there's no way to know how many times a Netflix disk has been used. It shouldn't really matter since a DVD disk isn't touched by anything in the player but people aren't always careful how they handle the disks. Some of the disk I've received had obvious scratches in them and all of them were splotched with something or other. That's why I always clean a disk before using it.

I don't have an exact count, but more than half the disks gave me trouble with pixelation, skipping, or freeze ups. And two actually caused the player to jam up so bad it wouldn't respond to either the remote or the buttons on the player. If the S301 is that sensitive to grime on a disk even after it's been cleaned then I don't want to mess with it. I need a more robust player that can handle some imperfections on the disk.

Like I said, I'm not down on SONY. If I can be assured that a different SONY model will not balk at a little scratch here and there I'll buy it. But for now, I'm doing my homework and checking on this forum.

[THE STUD]

Originally Posted by rserkes

I don't buy new movies because I'm not the kind who watches a movie more than once. The new movie that played flawlessly was a freebie from SONY for buying the original unit.

My movies come from Netflix and there's no way to know how many times a Netflix disk has been used. It shouldn't really matter since a DVD disk isn't touched by anything in the player but people aren't always careful how they handle the disks. Some of the disk I've received had obvious scratches in them and all of them were splotched with something or other. That's why I always clean a disk before using it.

I don't have an exact count, but more than half the disks gave me trouble with pixelation, skipping, or freeze ups. And two actually caused the player to jam up so bad it wouldn't respond to either the remote or the buttons on the player. If the S301 is that sensitive to grime on a disk even after it's been cleaned then I don't want to mess with it. I need a more robust player that can handle some imperfections on the disk.

Like I said, I'm not down on SONY. If I can be assured that a different SONY model will not balk at a little scratch here and there I'll buy it. But for now, I'm doing my homework and checking on this forum.

Oh, now I got ya, I thought your machine was spazzing out on new discs. Well, I mean even on my Marantz DVD player, some DVD's freeze it up too, but I guess not real often, I'm sure it's still some of these early generation players! The s-301 really is just the 2nd gen player, but I'll have to see what happens to mine if I start renting from Netflix, so far my rentals from Hollywood have been fine. Who knows, bad luck?

[Lucy Diamond]

I have this player and I feel you.

Check the disc surface for scratches.

3.80 is the way to go. Don't even try Coyote ugly, Hidalgo or Spiderman III without it unless you want to pack a lunch waiting for the load times.

When this happens (and this IS in the manual) walk up to the player and press and HOLD the power button until the player powers down.

That is the proper way to handle it and the issue should clear up after a while. Mine went about 5 months with no freezing until last night (Lethal Weapon)

Good luck and be patient,

[rserkes]

Originally Posted by Lucy Diamond

I have this player and I feel you.

Check the disc surface for scratches.

3.80 is the way to go. Don't even try Coyote ugly, Hidalgo or Spiderman III without it unless you want to pack a lunch waiting for the load times.

When this happens (and this IS in the manual) walk up to the player and press and HOLD the power button until the player powers down.

That is the proper way to handle it and the issue should clear up after a while. Mine went about 5 months with no freezing until last night (Lethal Weapon)

Good luck and be patient,

Thanks for the suggestions but I've already returned the second unit to the retailer.

I think another issue might be the quality of the blank disk that's used to make a copy from the master. I've found that generic DVD blanks can act stupid but if I pay a little more for a respected brand name I don't have problems. I don't know if this was the issue or not.

[manvantar]

I had The freeze on a few of the Netflix rentals. Particularly Die hard, Pirates of the Caribbean Black Pearl, Independence day & others. I called Sony Support & they said this is common problem with Netflix Blu-Ray rentals Because Netflix mass Duplicates their Discs. So what you're renting is a Cheap 2nd rate Copy of a Copy knock off that has been Mass produced most likely made in Tiawan or some off world Colony using the cheapest quality discs & worst quality control. All the rentals I made from Hollywood Video worked fine. The problem has nothing to do with the BD-S301? I don't know if I'm completly buying into this explanation. The main reason I bought the unit was so I could play Netflix Rentals. Now I have to pay through the nose on Hollwood Video rentals. Thats not right!!! When Sony sells this Blu Ray player they should print on the box NOTE: THIS UNIT WILL NOT PLAY NETFLIX RENTALS!

[rserkes]

Originally Posted by manvantar

I had The freeze on a few of the Netflix rentals. Particularly Die hard, Pirates of the Caribbean Black Pearl, Independence day & others. I called Sony Support & they said this is common problem with Netflix Blu-Ray rentals Because Netflix mass Duplicates their Discs. So what you're renting is a Cheap 2nd rate Copy of a Copy knock off that has been Mass produced most likely made in Tiawan or some off world Colony using the cheapest quality discs & worst quality control. All the rentals I made from Hollywood Video worked fine. The problem has nothing to do with the BD-S301? I don't know if I'm completly buying into this explanation. The main reason I bought the unit was so I could play Netflix Rentals. Now I have to pay through the nose on Hollwood Video rentals. Thats not right!!! When Sony sells this Blu Ray player they should print on the box NOTE: THIS UNIT WILL NOT PLAY NETFLIX RENTALS!

The Netflix rental that prompted me to take back the second unit wasn't a Blu-Ray, just a good old fashioned SD. For that matter, the disk that prompted me to take back the first unit was also SD. Not that the Blu-Ray disks played without problems, because they didn't. They would skip and pixilate. Your explanation of how Netflix makes so many copies still holds true. I just want a player that can handle less-than-pristine disks and the BDP-S301 doesn't see to fit that bill.

While I'm deciding what to do I've been using my old SD player and it hasn't choked on a Netflix disk yet.