Anyone here have a Sharp BD-HP21??

[Blondebomber4]

Ditto to all of the above. At first I thought the issues we due to our installation, or bad discs. After calling Sharp and hearing we need a firmware update that may, or may not, be here this week, we realized the issue is not going away.
We bought the BD HP21U on Black Friday for $169 and it's been nothing but trouble i.e. slow to load and doesn't play movies like Prince Caspian or Traitor. We're going to return the player and upgrade to Panasonic or Sony because these models receive good feedback on this forum.

[Lolee]

Posted 12/14

Originally Posted by JVAN

Here is the reply from Sharp. I'm impressed that they actually replied to an e-mail sent the same day, and on a Sunday!

Thank you for your email concerning your Sharp BLU-Ray player. I am sorry to hear about your difficulties with playing Prince Caspian & Wall-E on BLU-Ray. As new titles are released, and new software features and functions are included with new titles, some features and functions are not supported by the current firmware version of your player. This can result in problems with the playback of the movie.

Please continue to check the http://www.sharpusa.com/products/Typ...86,229,00.html website for updates as they are made available to address this situation.

I appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to resolve the playback problem.

They must use a form letter because it is the same as I received today (1/2/09).

Thank you for your email concerning your Sharp BLU-Ray player. I am sorry to hear about your difficulties with playing Prince Caspian on BLU-Ray. As new titles are released, and new software features and functions are included with new titles, some features and functions are not supported by the current firmware version of your player. This can result in problems with the playback of the movie.

Please continue to check the http://www.sharpusa.com/products/Typ...86,229,00.html website for updates as they are made available to address this situation.

I appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to resolve the playback problem.

Paul McNamara

Customer Assistance Center

Only two of eight movies we played have not worked - Prince Caspian and The new Xfiles. Hopefully they fix this soon. I wonder if any other players have issues with these movies.

[gfish]

I have issues with the mummy, first the sound cuts then the movie freezes. Anyone else with this issue?

[mds]

I can vouch for you guys now. I posted a couple days ago about not being able to get sound coming out of the optical port, and I just concluded last night that it is indeed faulty.
However, the load times seemed pretty quick for me, only trying Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
Both also played flawlessly.
I'll be returning mine on Tuesday.

[wgc628]

I bought one of these for Christmas and have had all the same issues described here. Anyone know when Sharp is planning to release the new firmware update?

[lbevil]

Up until a few weeks ago, I was patiently waiting for Sharp to update its firmware. Then I decided to pick up a Panasonic DMP-35 payer that I caught on sale for $249, updated to their latest firmware and watched Narnia: Prince Caspian last night. No problems. I had hoped to return my Sharp player for a refund, but waited too late. So, I'll continue to wait for their new firmware update and then use the Sharp as a backup to my Panasonic. It's hard to understand what is taking Sharp so long to get it right, particularly since the latest Panasonic firmware update came out in October 2008 and it played Prince Caspian with no problem.

[fuglybastard]

I read on the futureshop website in Canada and read a comment that Sharp is releasing the updated firmware on Jan 13th. We'll have to wait and see.

[disappointed_in_Shar]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jessica Gonzalez" <JGonzale@sharpsec.com>
To: xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 1:05:11 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: case#xxxxxxx

Hello,



I have received your response regarding your satisfactory with our email response. Per our techs here the unit is not physically capable of receiving this update, only the newer models.



Thank you,



Jessica Gonzalez

Customer Service Specialist

Sharp Electronics Corporation

1300 Naperville Dr

Romeoville,IL 60446

phone(800)237-4277

[newbluman28]

Originally Posted by disappointed_in_Shar

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jessica Gonzalez" <JGonzale@sharpsec.com>
To: xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 1:05:11 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: case#xxxxxxx

Hello,



I have received your response regarding your satisfactory with our email response. Per our techs here the unit is not physically capable of receiving this update, only the newer models.



Thank you,



Jessica Gonzalez

Customer Service Specialist

Sharp Electronics Corporation

1300 Naperville Dr

Romeoville,IL 60446

phone(800)237-4277

Elaborate, please. Which unit is this email from Sharp referencing? (BD_HP21U??) Un-fricken-believable!! I returned my Sharp BD player around the beginning of December, but this topic is still making me mad as hell! Around Dec.6, they told me the firmware update would be available withing a couple weeks. Here it is, January 15, and STILL NO FIRMWARE UPDATE!!! What gives, Sharp??

[newbluman28]

I first contacted Sharp in the beginning of December about issues with my BD-HP21U Blu Ray disc player playing movies like Wanted, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and Wall-E. I was told a firmware update was needed and that one should be available within a couple weeks. It is now January 15, still no firmware update, and I am seriously regretting the purchase of this player. I will not consider Sharp for any of my future electronics purchases. Can you please let me know when this firmware update will be released.

The above is a copy of an email I submitted to Sharp via their website. I will let you know what the response is. Horrible, horrible customer service!!

[disappointed_in_Shar]

"Elaborate, please. Which unit is this email from Sharp referencing? (BD_HP21U??) Un-fricken-believable!! I returned my Sharp BD player around the beginning of December, but this topic is still making me mad as hell! Around Dec.6, they told me the firmware update would be available withing a couple weeks. Here it is, January 15, and STILL NO FIRMWARE UPDATE!!! What gives, Sharp??"

Yes, it is the BD-HP21. I immediately called 1-800-BE-SHARP and asked if there would be an update. Nick said "two weeks" -- so I told him Jessica said there wouldn't be one, and who could I talk to for an accurate answer. He said he didn't know, so I asked him if the "techs" had given him this estimate. He said NO, that it was just what he had been told to say. He put me on with his supervisor, Cindy. Cindy and I had a heated discussion as I tried to explain to her that I can't afford to have unplayable discs, and wouldn't know I couldn't play them until I OPENED them and tried, at which time I couldn't return them. She told me that Jessica would have better information than she did. I'm so mad I could throw the darn thing in the creek. I'm not as mad about the lack of technical support as I am about getting the runaround from customer support.

[disappointed_in_Shar]

BTW - I sent my emails to these guys in case they are interested.

http://classcounsel.com/

[newbluman28]

Thank you for contacting Sharp Electronics Corporation's AQUOS support.
Dear Mr. ******,
Unfortunately we do not have an estimated time when the new firmware will be available. We are still in the process of completing it. When available it will be listed on our website, www.sharpusa.com. I'm sorry for any inconvenience.
I would like to know what you thought about your satisfaction with your email experience. Please click the survey link http://surveys.affina.com/metaSurvey...cgi?idx=A5QQ8H to complete our online customer satisfaction survey.

Erika Bobo
Customer Assistance Center

This is the email I received about 20 minutes ago from Sharp in response to the email I sent them. So, did everyone hang on to their Sharp BD player, or did you guys exchange it for something else?

[lbevil]

Originally Posted by disappointed_in_Shar

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jessica Gonzalez" <JGonzale@sharpsec.com>
To: xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 1:05:11 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: case#xxxxxxx

Hello,



I have received your response regarding your satisfactory with our email response. Per our techs here the unit is not physically capable of receiving this update, only the newer models.



Thank you,



Jessica Gonzalez

Customer Service Specialist

Sharp Electronics Corporation

1300 Naperville Dr

Romeoville,IL 60446

phone(800)237-4277

Since the response from Jessica Gonzalez of Sharp stated that the BD-HP21U could not be updated with the new firmware update, I sent her an email and asked if Sharp would consider allowing me to upgrade to the next generation Sharp Blu-Ray that will accept the update. Told her I was willing to spend the difference between the two list prices. Seems like a fair proposal if Sharp can not/will not update the HP21u to allow it to play Narnia: Prince Caspian. It's been four days now and haven't heard back from Sharp as yet.

[NovaBomb]

Anyone get a weird strobe light affect somethings on this machine?? a friend has one and he gets this sometimes. He already returned it for another one and it does the same thing.

[brynm]

I haven't noticed the strobe effect.

I had called about two weeks ago about this problem and was told there would be a new update by Jan. 13th or 14th. I had sent in a complaint to Sharp just before the weekend about not being able to play movies like Wall-E. I made it very clear that I had upgraded the firmware to the newest one on the website but still had trouble, and how disappointed I was with this product. Stupid me I believed there would be a new update coming and didn't return the machine, I am now out of the timeframe where I could return it.

This was Sharps response to my email:

Dear Bryn,

Please accept our apologies for the difficulties you are having in playing the movie Wall-E on Blu-ray. After extensive testing with this movie, we have found that our blu-ray player will play this movie successfully with the current firmware version. This can be downloaded from the following web site:

http://www.sharpusa.com/products/Typ...86,229,00.html

Should you continue to have playback difficulties with this title after updating the player, we recommend first trying a different copy of the movie on Blu-ray as the disk you have may be flawed. If you have already tried this, please call us at 1-800-237-4277 to speak to a representative for further assistance.

We appreciate the opportunity to provide you with this information. If you need additional information please include all information from prior e-mail messages and replies.





Gary Dunaway

Customer Care Specialist

Customer Care Centre

Sharp Electronics Of Canada Ltd.

Are people still having problems with this movie? I haven't tried Prince Caspian yet, are there any other problem movies?

[Ashamed Pegasus]

I was unaware of all these issues with the 21U... Bought mine little over a month ago and have hardly used it... If I have the same problems with the discs already mentioned it's going back... There's absolutely no excuse to take that long to come out with a firmware update...

The pisser is I only paid $162 for it on sale, and to get another one will cost about $100 more...

[fuglybastard]

I returned mine today, didn't want to risk any other problems and my 30 days to return is up in 3 days. Ended up getting the Sony s350, what a difference, faster, smaller and actually looks better. I ended up only having to pay $100 extra, but at least I can watch all movies now (Wall-E) looks amazing in HD. I would never recommend a Sharp Blu-Ray to anyone, TV's are great, but that's it.

[GMPowertrain]

So I found another movie that won't work: Open Season. Locks up after 4 minutes. So basically now I can't play any movies produced by Columbia Pictures or Universal studios, as every one I have tried will garunteed lock up at some point during the movie.

It is so annoying to rent a video and not be able to watch the whole thing, and every time I contact sharp it's the same story, "we know but it's not our fault, its the movie companies that change the format, please wait for the firmware update". Well thats a heap of crap. It's been nearly 3 months since the last firmware update and still nothing. I'm sure to be called a "Blu-ray Disc" there is a format that must be used, and the movie companies aren't just randomly changing the format. If they were then why aren't the other brand Blu-ray players having this issue. Sharp you are a piece of junk company that released a product to the market too early while it was underdeveloped, and now we the consumers are the biggest suckers of all.

I'm going to beg Sears tomorrow to take back my unit, but I doubt they will do anything for me as it's been nearly 90 days now.

[proxpilot]

I have yet to have a problem with mine. i have Leatherheads, and the new Mummy are both Universal