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Blu-ray Players Issue Update to Fix Pirates of the Caribbean Disc Playback
Posted by Seamus Byrne at 8:40 AM on May 26, 2007
If you've just purchased the first two Pirates movies on Blu-ray in order to get psyched up for the third one, you probably came up with a whole lot less Johnny Depp and a whole lot more firmware problems than you expected. Apparently at least two players—Samsung's BD-P1200 and Sony's BDP-S1—have difficulty playing back the first two movies. And by difficulty, we mean they throw up their hands and give up like a fat man at the starting line of a 10K.
Samsung's already released a firmware update here, which fixes the problem. You can either burn the firmware update onto CD or download it via the BD-P1200's LAN connection. Which brings us to another point. Why isn't the Ethernet in the Blu-ray spec?
The Sony BDP-S1 is one of the few players that don't have a mandatory Ethernet port. Unlike HD DVD, which makes Internet connectivity mandatory, Blu-ray doesn't tells player makers to go nuts and put it in if they want. That means disc manufacturers can't count on the Ethernet being there for firmware updates (well, individual companies can, because they can make all their players Ethernet-enabled).
What does this mean to you? It means that part of the Blu-ray spec is lacking. This is similar to the way PS3 developers can count on there being a hard drive in every PS3 (even the cheaper $499 edition), Xbox developers can't. This affects development in game consoles, and to a lesser extent affects Blu-ray players. You can't automatically download new features for discs like you can on HD DVD players because there's no Ethernet port.
Firmware Update [Samsung]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
Ash
Posted May 26, 2007 3:38 PM
But will it play pirated copies?
Penguinister
Posted May 27, 2007 1:35 PM
Having firmware upgrades for home consumer hardware is a manufacturers wet dream especially with the formats such as DRM not being static. What will happen is Version 1.6 media device crippler (DRM) will come out in 2 years, then like the PC industry consumers will be a forced to upgrade to a new unit with another pile of $$$ missing from their wallet.
Ray
Posted August 9, 2007 10:57 AM
The Samsung BD-P1000 does not play "Pirates" either or "Flightplan for that matter.
Not good enough when you pay 1000's and get crap. Try to get Samsung in Australia to do anything and you will be rudly answered and just fobbed off.
Five times I have rung Samsung and each time have been told to go to a repair centre with it for a fix, well I have taken it to 2 different Samsung repair centres only to be told they know nothing of a fix for the BD-P1000.
First and last product I will buy of Samsungs.
mary
Posted January 28, 2008 10:52 AM
my samsung blu-ray DVD player does not play pirattes of the caribbean 3. I just purchased it at blockbuster and it gave me problems the first time and then they told me to try a different copy so i did and it still didn't work so i just want to know why it dosn't work.
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