Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: What is wrong with my Blue Ray player (s)

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 02-02-2012, 02:30 PM:

I have two Panasonic Blue-Ray players and only recently started to have some problem
with my primary player when it would at times not read a BD at start up. When the problem occurs, I would get a message that reads something like this.-- "Cannot read- Please check disc". When this occurs, I would just start over and in most cases, the machine would read the disc. There would be times when I would have to try two or three times before I can play the disc. There is however one disc that would not play at all no matter how much I try. It is BARAKA. After I started the SAMSARA thread, I wanted to watch Ron Fricke's original movie and found I had problem playing the disc. Thinking there was something was wrong with my player, I tried To play the disc on my other Panasonic this morning and the same thing occured on that machine too. I watched BARAKA many time on both of these players and never had a problem before. The primary player is fine when I play DVDs. The start up glitch only occurs when I play Blue-Rays discs.

Does anyone have any idea what is wrong with my BD players or the BARAKA disc?

-Claue

Posted by Victor Liorentas (Member # 5272) on 02-02-2012, 03:12 PM:

Other than dirt or finger prints on the disc it could be that the players need a firmware update.Do you have then connected to the internet?
I have some discs that would not play until I got the latest firmware update.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 02-02-2012, 04:53 PM:

There are no fingerprints on the BARAKA disc, Victor and it played fine on both players in the past so I do not think it is a firmware issue.

-Claude

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 02-02-2012, 06:12 PM:

Claude, I've had a disc or two that would not load on Bluray players. I would clean the disc and wipe it, just like eye glasses. Most of those discs had no fingerprints on them. And try the loading process again. And 99% of the time it would work. I have two Panasonics and three Sonys in service here.

Posted by Bruce Hansen (Member # 281) on 02-02-2012, 06:25 PM:

Your problem could be a dirty lens. You can VERY GENTLY clean it with a cotton swab with a drop of alcohol on it. Be very careful. The lens moves. If you push too hard, or force the lens too far, that may damage it. The BARAKA disc may just need a good cleaning, even if it looks clean. BTW, it is easer to read a DVD than a Blu-Ray.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 02-02-2012, 06:37 PM:

True, BR's have a much finer "pit and valley" arrangement than the DVD's contain..thus, cleaninless is the top factor here for both disc and lens.

...and firmware issues are not uncommon either. Some players needs the upgrades since "Blu-ray" is a registered system and they could be changing information slightly on the discs themselves for the units needing the upgrades to play.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 02-10-2012, 04:10 PM:

After making repeated attempts to clean my BARAKA BD disc even though it did not appear to be dirty, I never got it to play at all. I have also been having problems with brand new new discs such as THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA 25th anniversary at the Royal Albert Hall. I was able to play that disc after trying about five times. It took LADY AND THE TRAMP four attempts before it would play.

After much consideration, I thought this could be a firmware issue so I called Panasonic and told them the problem I was having and they told me it is possible for a player to have problems getting a disc to play or refuse to play even though they had played perfectly in the past if my machine was not updated with the latest firm ware. After I was told this, I provided Panasonic with the model and serial numbers of both of my BD players and found I would have a problem dealing with their customer service. I had no problem when I asked Panasonic for a current firmware for my first player after a year of use and all I was asked to do was provide panasonic with the model and the serial number of the player and a current firmware was promptly sent to me. It was not that easy this time. IN ADDITION TO THE MODEL AND SERIAL NUMBER, THE @$%#&* IDIOTS WANT ME TO PROVIDE THEM WITH THE NUMBER OF THE FIRMWARE THAT THE MACHINE CAME WITH. I told the customer service personal, I was not asked to do this the last time and why now? She replied that this was always company policy. My brother has a SONY BD player and he gets new firmware all the time for his machine by providing SONY the model and serial number of his machine and the approximate month and year of his last firmware update and that was all. THe Panasonic (DMP-BD655P-K) I am now using was purchased sometimes around December 2010, and the latest firmware update for it was July 2011. It is obvious my machine needs a update but in order to get it, Panasonic needs the f---- original firmware number from the player. I have always been pleased with Panasonic but the way I feel about them now, THEY SUCK!

-Claude

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 02-10-2012, 04:20 PM:

Are you unable to connect your Panasonic player to your LAN or WIFI? Because it can update the firmware itself with an internet connection.

edit: nevermind about the WIFI. Apparently it's only "wifi-ready" in that you can buy an adapter from them but you can still hook it up to a LAN for an update.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 02-10-2012, 04:39 PM:

Chris,

I am not a very technical person regarding connecting a BD player to the internet and have found just having Panasonic send me a disc with the current firmware a simple solution I can deal with. They did this once for me before without 'hassling' me and cannot understand why I have to provide them with information I feel is not relevant in order to get the current firmware.

-Claude

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 02-10-2012, 06:44 PM:

1) Connecting that player to the internet is done exactly the same way as connecting your computer. It uses the same kind of cabling and everything. You just put a cable in the LAN port and connect it to your router.
2) The person asking you might have meant to ask what version of the firmware your player has now rather than the one it had initially, although I doubt it.
3) You can also avoid waiting for them to send you a disk since they provide a download that you'd stick on a blank CD yourself, although it seems that they only support windows so if you're on a mac, it won't work.

You go to http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/bd/download/bd45_65_85/north_america/index.html click the link for the 655P which downloads an executable. Double-click and it creates a file PANA_DVD.FRM. Now stick a blank CD in your burner, right click on the file and choose "send to" and select the burner drive. Now you'll have a disk that's the same as the one they'd send you without going through their stupid hoops.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-11-2012, 12:22 AM:

Do you smoke, Claude? Smoke can damage electronics. Also, I'm not sure how Panasonic would expect anyone to know the version of firmware that the player came installed with. I'm not even sure what relevance that would have. What matters is the version of the firmware it has now.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-11-2012, 10:58 AM:

For whatever it's worth, I have had success using lens cleaner (Rosco brand, if it matters) and lens paper for cleaning DVDs and Blu-Rays. I don't know if this has any long-term negative effect on the life of the disc, but it has been known to make a finger-print-y or otherwise dirty disk playable.

Posted by Bruce Hansen (Member # 281) on 02-12-2012, 04:50 PM:

This is why I call Panasonic, PAINasonic.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 02-12-2012, 06:45 PM:

I use to smoke a pipe and cigars when I was younger but no longer do, Joe.

I am planning to buy a new player very soon because I do not want to be faced with not being able to play BD s I already have in my collection as well as new discs because of firmware issue. When I get a new player, it will not be a Pain asonic -Good one, Bruce. The machine I get will either be a Sony or a Samsung. I have been very impressed with Samsung because I have a HDTV and a Galaxie G4 smartphone from T-Mobile and they were both made by that company. Although my HDTV is not a 3-D set, the new player I will get will be a 3-D machine in anticipation of the day I buy a 3-D display. I am already buying BDs of movies that come with a regular BD as well as a 3-D version of movies I enjoyed in that format in a theatre . By the way, can a 3-D player, play a 3-D and display an image on a standard HDTV? I am sure it can and the image probably will look like a blurred double image one sees in a theatre without glasses.

-Claude

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-12-2012, 07:01 PM:

Sony has given me nothing but trouble year after year in everything they make.

I only have early experience with Samsung blu-ray players and they were awful. I'm sure they have gotten better though.

I have YET to find a disc the Panasonic blu-ray players won't play, and we've got hundreds in the field. I've also yet to have one fail. Again, hundreds.

I think you just got lucky Claude.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-12-2012, 08:06 PM:

Thus far, our Sony BDP-S5x0 players have been pretty solid for us. One can also get the icons off the screen with them too.

I'm still waiting for a real professional BluRay player...thus far, all have been consumer jobs with a rack kit.

-Steve

Posted by Victor Liorentas (Member # 5272) on 02-12-2012, 08:45 PM:

One thing to keep in mind with Blu-ray and buying new movies in the future is the firmware updates never seem to stop.

So I would suggest trying a firmware upgrade on the Panasonic.
On my Sony ps3 it is very easy.With everything on,Sony menu on screen,I connect the internet cable to the player and it shows on screen and walks you through the procedure.I am guessing the Panasonic will do the same?
It's very simple on the ps3 anyhow.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-13-2012, 12:41 AM:

Oh how I wish the blu-ray standard mandated some sort of no-bs playback option, stripped of all but a text menu directory. It would never need "firmware upgrades" and would put an end to all of the cutesy bullshit that makes me detest the blu-ray format.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-13-2012, 12:59 AM:

It definitely seems wrong that after I pay for a disc that they disable my buttons that allow me to not watch the ads that I don't want...I just want to see the movie.

Heck this may be a reason some people don't get the legit discs...they want to avoid the harassment that are the ads before the main menu comes up.

-Steve

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-13-2012, 03:46 AM:

A legitimate reason for piracy right there.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-13-2012, 05:46 AM:

Claude - to be fair, a lot of modern consumer electronics products do need their firmware updated regularly, and I don't think it's completely unreasonable for Panasonic to expect the customers of their BD players to do this (or at least, accept that if they don't, they will encounter an increasing list of discs they can't play). I recently went through this saga with my Blackberry mobile phone (when I switched phone companies but kept the same handset, the new phone company needed the phone to have a newer version of the software in it), and the process took half a day out of my life, all told (including a bizarre phone conversation with someone in a Mumbai call centre who had a thick Indian accent but insisted that his name was Dave and that he was a Manchester United supporter!).

The advantage of this is that manufacturers can add new software functionality and iron out bugs without you having to buy a whole new machine, but the downside is that you have to faff about updating the software every now and again.

My fiancee had this problem with her BD player (sorry Brad, but it's a Sony!) about a year ago - it wouldn't play whatever was the latest thing she got from Netflix. So I bought her a 30-foot ethernet cable. We managed to tuck most of it out of sight behind furniture, and connect the thing permanently to her router. Every so often the player announces that it needs to update, does so, reboots and off it goes again. If you can stand it, my advice would be to do something similar.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 02-13-2012, 05:09 PM:

Thanks for your suggestions, everyone. I actually have no problem with Panasonic because that is the reason I bought a 2nd machine a little over a year after I purchased my first player. The thing that angered me very much last week was when the girl at the Panasonic customer service department insisted I provide her with the current Version number of the firmware in both of my machines now. I feel the information she is asking is not relevant because I did not have to provide Panasonic with it when I got a current firmware update about a year after I purchased my first machine.

-Claude

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 02-13-2012, 06:58 PM:

First off, I understand how you would need firmware upgrades for NEW blu-rays that you purchase, but why would you need an upgrade to play a disc that played before? Either the firmware works for a particular disc or it doesn't. Unless it has a built in date clock to make it stop after such and such a date, if it played a disc once, it should always play that disc, no?

And Claude, don't judge Panasonic by some half-wit they have answering the phones. With most of these companies, people in customer service are the weakest link by far. And how are you supposed to know what the firmware was when the machine was purchased? You should have just looked at the menu to see what the current firmware is and given her that number, as if it would make any difference.

Do they really want people to have to jump through these kinds of hoops to make their hardware work? Half my relatives are 12vers -- all the electronics that they own flash 12:00. How will these people ever be able to update firmware if they have to find numbers from the first version when they purchased the device? Some can't even find the manual. It's needlessly idiotic.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 02-13-2012, 07:19 PM:

quote: Frank Angel
why would you need an upgrade to play a disc that played before? Either the firmware works for a particular disc or it doesn't.

1) The firmware could have a bug that is intermittently triggered even with the same disc.
2) It's possible to play a disc on one firmware, update it later since a new disc came out, then find out that the old one fails on it (since they can't try out every single disc out there).

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 02-13-2012, 07:31 PM:

quote: Steve Guttag
It definitely seems wrong that after I pay for a disc that they disable my buttons that allow me to not watch the ads that I don't want...I just want to see the movie.

After you put the disc in, wait for it to spin up with your finger on the STOP button. The split-second the player's screen saver drops (or just before, if you can time it correctly), push STOP, wait for the screen saver to return, push STOP again, then push PLAY. It should go right to the movie without all the ads and bullshit beforehand.

This works on almost every disc I try it on.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-13-2012, 09:27 PM:

quote: Frank Angel
First off, I understand how you would need firmware upgrades for NEW blu-rays that you purchase

I don't. Why would anyone make a disc that cannot be played with the most basic firmware possible? I understand if certain "special features" (which a whopping 1% of the audience actually use) might require updated firmware, but I really don't get why simply playing back HD material (which the player was designed to do from the beginning) would require it.

Posted by Jeff Taylor (Member # 443) on 03-01-2012, 09:46 AM:

I have a Samsung Blu Ray which is about a year old now. Yesterday I finally bought the adapter to hook it to the network for Netflix and it immediately launched into nearly an hour of upgrades. The only changes I could see after it finished were that Blockbuster and Pandora also showed up on the list of on-line services.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 03-01-2012, 02:16 PM:

The Blu-ray disc format has a few "catch 22" situations, with the firmware topic being one of the biggest.

I'd much rather have the capability of updating a player's firmware than not due to the potential of bugs.

Most DVD players had firmware that users could not update. If the player had problems the only solutions were to live with the problem, send it off for expensive repair or replace it with a different player. I spent over $400 on my first DVD player, a Sony unit with built-in Dolby Digital decoding and 5.1 analog outputs. I got less than 2 years of life from the thing before replacing it with a Pioneer 5-disc DVD changer (that lasted about 5 years before the carousel started crapping out). During playback the Sony DVD player would sometimes develop a lip sync problem with certain discs and the problem would worsen until audio and video would just hang. Sometimes pausing the disc would clear up the problem. Other discs, particularly any Warner Bros. DVD, would play perfectly. The Sony DVD player locked up on the layer change of the Criterion version of The Rock; that's when I bought the Pioneer DVD as a replacement. I don't know for certain, but I think the problem with that Sony DVD player could have been solved with a firmware update.

I think the Blu-ray player manufacturers are trying at least a little to make it easy to update firmware on Blu-ray players that is as long as the player is connected to the Internet. Sony's Playstation 3 will tell you a firmware update is available (or required) during start-up. I'm guessing quite a few Blu-ray player owners don't have their machines hooked online and that can make a firmware update a much bigger challenge to users who aren't very computer literate. The PS3 is still simple to update using a computer and USB thumb drive; just get the folders and file names organized correctly. I had to burn some strangely formatted CD-R disc to update the firmware on a Panasonic Blu-ray player (despite the machine having a SD card slot). Not a user friendly procedure.

Software-based Blu-ray players on computers can be a chore to update. Often it involves downloading and re-installing the entire software player application than merely applying a patch to it. I've had to do that a couple of times already with the copy of PowerDVD on my notebook computer.

Some firmware updates solve bugs or add useful, new capabilities to a machine. Unfortunately, it seems most Blu-ray player updates are merely updates to the Blu-ray copy protection system that lately just gets cracked and cracked again. I have to wonder why Hollywood even bothers. Movies are targeted the most by pirates during their theatrical release. The demand is going to drop once the video is available to rent or buy and drop farther still as the retail disc becomes cheaper to buy. It's easier and faster for me to rent something from a video store than spend hours downloading it and trying to successfully burn it to a DVD or Blu-ray. Lately Internet Service Providers have been sticking users with bandwidth limits and throttling connections. Overall, the act of downloading a pirated Blu-ray movie is pretty impractical.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 04-12-2012, 02:26 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
I'm guessing quite a few Blu-ray player owners don't have their machines hooked online and that can make a firmware update a much bigger challenge to users who aren't very computer literate.

And also where the player is in use out of reach of an Internet connection. In the theatre at the university where I work, there is an ethernet jack in the booth, but in order to get from it to the Internet you have to go through all sorts of authentication crap first that the player simply cannot do: it requires settings and parameters to be reconfigured that are fixed and cannot be changed in any of the player's option screens. Thankfully there is an alternative, which is to download the firmware somewhere else, burn it onto a disc and then update the player with the disc; but there are probably many models of player which don't give you that alternative.