I’ve had a Sony blue ray player for a few years now. Always works great.
But I have never upgraded it. I have no need to. I use it to watch movies and it does that great. There is a legal compatibility thing here. I rememder dealing with it regarding “Compact Cassettes” back in the 1970’s. To carry that label a cassette player had to play any cassette and a cassette had to play in any cassette deck. It was an issue with the four track cassette recorders because they used all four tracks to record in one direction.
I’ve assumed the same is true with Blue Ray, DVD, Laserdisk, etc. That is, if your player is a blue ray player, it MUST be able to play all blue ray discs, and if you have a blue ray disc, it must be able to play in any blue ray player.
Of course, I could be wrong about this, but if this compatibility is non-existent, it would kill sales of the format. That is the whole point of compatibility.
On a scale of 1 to 100, given the economic, political and social issues of the day, I'm unable to muster any concern.
Good luck with DVD.
Lately, playing newly purchased DVDs and even DVDs from Netflix means having to listen to previews and other commercials (in addition to the usual Gestapo copyright violation threat) before being allowed by the DVD format to access the actual movie.
Hubby is the expert in this stuff, not me. But I think you need to get a dedicated blue ray player. We had a lot of problems when he was running the TV through a computer. The TV part worked OK, but with the blue rays we always had trouble.
That being said, although he refuses to watch any TV that is not in HD I don’t think he’s too crazy about the blue ray format.
Now, Directv needs to get game show network in HD (we had it with comcast) so that he doesn’t yell at me when I watch it.
I will say that technology that does not work as advertised really stinks. And that was not generally a problem back in the old, analog days. Things might break down, but they didn’t just NOT WORK.
My wife bought me a Blu-ray machine for Christmas (Samsung).
I took it out of the box, found a place for it in our entertainment center, went to store the following day for an HDMI cable, hooked everything up and turned the machine on.
Upon pressing the remote to open the tray, the tray came out and dropped onto the floor in from of the Blu-ray player.
I then unhooked everything, put the machine back in the box and we returned it to the store. I did not get a replacement.
I am still using my old tape player.
In fact I got a new one the other day from Salvation Army store for $4.50 plays the old tapes just fine.
They feel you don't own those warez/media you just pay rent on them.
And at that price, they are disposable.
Yep, I know what you are talking about from the problems friends have reported with top of the line players. They are the ones who are running into the most compatibility problems.
New bluray players are cheap. Why try to upgrade a DVD player?
Never-ever a problem with the 4 or 5 I have in various equipment. Laptops other computers and free standing units we have in the house.
You can get one for well under $100.
I have an older Panasonic BD player, had to send an e-mail to Panasonic requesting a software update once, no other issue at all. My BD library is now bigger than my DVD at over 800 discs. I will never go 3D, hate the whole concept, there thats my rant for the day.
I suggest the OP communicate with others over at the AVS Forums.
I have no problems with our Sony BR player or any of the other attachments to our TV including an Android on a stick device. All play 1080 no problem, same with Netflix or other streaming content.
What DOES give me a headache is the dang “soap opera effect” because of higher refresh rates. Our 52” Sharp has a beautiful picture but after awhile the soap opera effect becomes irritating.
I’m getting used to it but it’s taking me a long time.
Stop using VGA to connect your PC to your TV, and start using HDMI, and your BluRay movies will work again.
Buy a PS3 Player and then get Netflix ($8), Hulu Plus ($8) and Amazon Instant Video ($77/year)and you will have ZERO need for the Blu Ray Player. I have done this and do not have a single regret. Worried about money? Get rid of cable and just spend 16 dollars a month for Netflix and Hulu Plus and 77 dollars a year for the Amazon. Way cheaper than cable and you still get to watch current TV shows without commercials...a bonus!
Never bought one of those machines! Why? Remember Betamax and VHS? That’s why!
Am I the only one that does not notice a big difference between a plain DVD and a blue ray? I have a 47” Visio and a Playstation 3.
Buy yourself a stand-alone blu-ray player. No more problems.
Oh mannnn SING IT BROTHER! PRAISE the Lord and pass the peas!
I am soo sick and tired of Cyberlink/PowerDVD. A few years about I purchased a $600 video card because it was top of the line and was 100% bluray compatible. Worked perfectly, even though I had to update it to play new movies grumble grumble grumble!
Up until last year when they decided to stop updating the keys for my version. Now they want me to buy a new version of PowerDVD in order to play BluRay! And of course there are no free versions or discounted upgrades. They want me to shell out another $100 bucks for this new software. And the software wont run at all anymore. So I can’t play any DVD’s or Blurays using PowerDVD. I have had it with them! I wont buy their new crappy software! GGGRRRRRRRR
The book is better.
My older Panasonic requires a broadband connection for its occasional firmware update, as I posted yesterday I had to e-mail Panasonic for a software upgrade disc, but though my house has no broadband my cellphone the Galaxy does have the optional wi fi hotspt, so after some thinking I went to Walmart and they had a more modern version BD Panasonic player with wi-fi, and it was marked down from 4100 to $70.
So I bought it yesterday, got the password thing all set up with my phone, it got its latest version, it loads much faster than the old player and has a ton of options like Netflix Youtube and such, now I can if I choose select more content online while I’m watching certain movies.
I learned that with HDTV. I could only take so much trouble from my converter box, so eventually I went and bought a new television set.
I still have trouble with reception, but I've done my bit for the economy.