I think it's fair to say that every player and every manufacturer have had problems with some discs.
Perhaps the biggest difference we'll see is in the speed of response from the manufacturers with firmware updates.
Steve W
Not for my Sony S350 (and I assume the S550). I am still running on the original firmware and it has played every old and new released BD I have put in it.
I will never get these cheap branded players because of this problem. I don't want to have a new BD and left waiting for the manufacturer to sort out a new firmware.
It's not just the cheap branded players that have problems that require/d FW updates to play certain discs correctly. mentioning no names Pioneer
Probably due to naivety, I bought a Technika Blu-Ray player from Tesco yesterday - didn't give it too much thought really.
It didn't work for the first two Blu-ray discs I tried ('Quantum of Solace' and 'Taken'). In each case, selecting 'play' and pressing 'enter' from the main disc menu just ends up reloading the menu, with a message "Loading the title" and a circulating dots image on the screen, which then takes you back to the disc menu. I have been able to play a couple of other Blu-ray discs (eg. BBC Planet Earth) and some DVDs without this problem.
So I took it back, and Tesco replaced it with no questions asked. But these discs don't work on the replacement either. Trying to find out what the problem might be, I read on another forum that Quantum of Solace has not been working on several leading brand players due to firmware compatibility issues. Perhaps that is the problem here? But I have no idea where to get firmware updates for this player or how to install them.
Nor do I think I should have to. It should go without saying that users of well-designed consumer electronics products should NEVER be exposed to problems to do with firmware. I don't want a product (either the player or the discs), where compatibility is not immediately apparent and simple to understand.
When it works, it is fine - good sound and picture - and I would not be able to tell it apart from the Sony player I have at my other house. It does seem to take a long time to get started.
You know, it's a funny thing.
Every time a decent 'cheap' player comes along (it used to be the Sammy BD-P1500, now it's the Technika and the Bush) someone pops up saying how much trouble they've had...and regularly it's someone who's popped out of nowhere and has 1 or 2 posts to their name, whilst most 'seasoned vetrans' at these forums appear to have no trouble with them.
Pure coincidence, of course.
Steve W
I don't think the Bush's problems were imaginary, and it wouldn't surprise me if this player was built on the same Broadcom reference platform, as the Bond movie menu thing is very similar to the problem the Bush had.You know, it's a funny thing.
Every time a decent 'cheap' player comes along (it used to be the Sammy BD-P1500, now it's the Technika and the Bush) someone pops up saying how much trouble they've had...and regularly it's someone who's popped out of nowhere and has 1 or 2 posts to their name, whilst most 'seasoned vetrans' at these forums appear to have no trouble with them.
Pure coincidence, of course.
Steve W
I don't think the Bush's problems were imaginary, and it wouldn't surprise me if this player was built on the same Broadcom reference platform, as the Bond movie menu thing is very similar to the problem the Bush had.
It's not just the cheap branded players that have problems that require/d FW updates to play certain discs correctly. mentioning no names Pioneer
as for updating firmware on the technika... is it simply a matter of sticking an ethernet cable in and choosing to update?
a friend of mine has the technika bluray player, bought from tesco. at first most discs would play but recently some of the newer titles wouldnt play.
i noticed that the discs which wouldnt play were BD-50 dual-layer format and the ones which played never had this info on the back.
im assuming that bd-50 dual layer is a new format for recent BD's and maybe not compatible with the technika?
as for updating firmware on the technika... is it simply a matter of sticking an ethernet cable in and choosing to update?
...It didn't work for the first two Blu-ray discs I tried ('Quantum of Solace' and 'Taken'). In each case, selecting 'play' and pressing 'enter' from the main disc menu just ends up reloading the menu, with a message "Loading the title" and a circulating dots image on the screen, which then takes you back to the disc menu. I have been able to play a couple of other Blu-ray discs (eg. BBC Planet Earth) and some DVDs without this problem.