BD-UP5000 problem discs - Page 33

Kiss the Dragon and Phone Booth checked out fine. Watching Sherlock Holmes now. Background graphic on menu came up just fine. No frame skipping of problems I can detect. It is a rental from BlockBastard and says that on the disc. It contains way too many non-skippable previews on the 1st of the disc that I had to FF through. Other than that it's great. It is much more enjoyable on BD than on DVD (and I watched a compressed screener with 2.0 sound so it is a vast improvement).

EDIT: After playing a while I did see some frame skips. From reading on the Internet with my googelers I see that this is apparently a bad disc. It has problems in most players with the skipping. Not sure if anyone has found a solution if it is even possible and also not sure if Warner has issues an updated disc.

I was reading and apparently all the older Sammy players have the problem as well as many other brands. Seems like Sony,including the PS3, Oppo and a couple other brands are ok with it. I remember reading on the p1200 forum recently that folks there can't even play it with the latest and greatest firmware for it.

Works fine on 1.4 FW. Most likely on 1.5 as well, but didn't install it yet.

I haven't either and like Devansowhat I also had problems with 1.3. I do have something odd to report however and that is that I own to SD's: one is Rebecca and the other Barry Lyndon. Neither would play with 1.4 and simply said "cannot read region code." When I loaded 1.5 I tried them and they both played! A couple of days later I tried them both again and neither would play. A day later I tried them again and they would play? Now once again they will not play. I have done nothing to the player and made no change of any kind and wonder if I have entered the twilight zone. Any thoughts Kludge or Vinnie? (and surely Barry Lyndon deserves a blue ray release....where is it?)

That is very odd behavior. I have never seen anything like that. I have seen an "unable to play this disc" error or some sort when I have tried to play PAL DVDs. Most of the DVDs that end up in my hands anymore, never reach it to the Sammy, what does is a region free rip that gets played (at least in the old days). Now it is usually some ISO I grabbed and avoid SD at all costs (about as low as I go is a single-layer ISO of a BD rip). I have been watching all the seasons of Arrested Development in real DVDs, rips of said discs and the occasional ISO of them. The real ones play for the most part just fine. They are loaners from the library and one set I got was trashed and skipped. I do have a bunch of real DVDs (not anywhere near my HD/BD/DT collection) and I did try a few just to make sure my favorite movies that haven't released on BD yet still play. I'm sure I would recall if some did not play. I know Stand by Me plays, I think that was the latest "special" edition of the same old crap (I own all 3 versions). I need to check a few others like The Razors Edge, Legend etc. and make sure they play under 1.5, but were fine under 1.4 before and over the past 2 years I have played more SD DVDs than I have HD or BD.

Are you sure those are region 1 or region free discs? Perhaps the Sammy has a problem with reading the region code from older media? Are the discs clean? Could also be a problem with it reading region free discs, but I've thrown a bunch of those at it under 1.4 with no issues and a few just to test with 1.5 when I started getting reports of DVD/DVD-r issues.

Barry Lyndon shows it is region 1. There is probably a region 2 PAL version as well. Which Rebecca do you have? I assume it is the Hitchcock, but there are a zillion versions of that one. And yes they need to complete the Kubrick collection in HD formats I think just BL and Lolita are left to release. Oh, I guess there is A.I. but that released after his death and not sure how much he really was involved.

Another possibility is that you are playing a DVD that is confusing the Sammy into working/not-working then when you try to play one of those discs it either works or does not. Try to remember what you did durning the entire power on session when it works and does not. You may have uncovered a bug in either the firmware and/or loader code or possibly in the loader itself. I've never studied up on how region codes are read and stored on those "old fashioned" DVDs other than how to remove the codes to make them region free with ripping software.

Wall Street and Butch and Sundance check out. However, as reported on the owners thread, I'm having trouble with a scratched rental of LEG from NetFlix. It plays with some difficulty on my LG BH200, but will not load at all on the Sammy (neither of my units or under 1.4 or 1.5), just keeps seeking and chugging. Guessing it is a bad disc. Will request a replacement and see if that works. In the meantime has anyone played that disc? LEG = League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

EDIT: I searched and someone said that LEG played fine back in the 1.3 days, so it is either a bad disc OR it was broke in 1.4?

Yes Kludge, both are Region 1 discs. I can play them both on my Panasonic recorder with no problems. And yes, I washed both of them twice. Still says "unable to read disc" or "cannot read Region Code." I tried a reset but nothing happened. I am wondering if there could be a question of humidity or possibly powerline fluctuations. Strange isn't it? And by the way....no problem with The Razor's Edge (early Tyrone Power version) which is a damned good flic.

I just loaded up 20-25 MGM, WB and a few other random DVDs I had laying around in my main tired 1.5 updated player. No problem with any of them. These (except for one) are dirt old releases that I bought for $1 each in the by-monthly clearance sale at a local media shop. Most of them are the dual sided ones (both MGM and WB) with 4:3 on one side and WS on the other and most are not in that great of condition but were fine. If I had any DVDs that would not play I would expect them to be these. Just checked what I had lying around that had not been put in Case Logic sleeves yet. I picked the MGM and WB since Rebecca is on MGM and Barry Lyndon on WB (or it might be the other way around). These are all region 1. I do have a couple TV box sets purchased from the same source that are region 0. I forgot to check those. I will when I have the player on again. RIght now I need to finish cleaning out the DVR.

Perhaps it is laser rot? Or your DVD laser is having issues. Have you cleaned the laser with a dry cleaning disc or opened up the unit and cleaned the lasers? Did your player lock up during the update to 1.5? Sorry if I asked that before. I did not try these in 1.4 at all (that's too much work ;-)

Broken arrow, ice ace 2, transporter 2, jewel of the Nile, unfaithful and LEG all play fine in 1.5.

For the Johnny Depp fans, Alice in Wonderland plays in 1.5.

Rick

What about 1.4. Buhler?, Buhler?

Flight of the Phoenix and bulletproof monk both check out in case anyone cares.

I could not get Zombieland (netflix) to load v1.5 tonight. I did confirm on 2 other players the disc works.

Also can't believe the NIN (Nine Inch Nails) HD DVD concert still does not work on this player. I don't think it worked ever on any firmware. Annoying as hell as my LG BH200 appears to have died tonight for BD & HD DVD playback (DVD still works) so I put the 5000 in it's place and 2 of the first 3 movies I tried froze the player. Needless to say the 5000 came back out and I put my trusty Panasonic BD35 & Toshiba HDD3 back into service. I can only hope one day Samsung fixes this damn thing, I am a fool for buying either of the combo players but I also did not see HD DVD dying so soon and we all know once it did the support for these things came to a screatching hault.

No problems here. My used copy of ZL plays fine on mine even before cleaning some grimy fingerprints off of it from the previous owner. I don't think I have even ever had it in the player, opened up the store seal the other day to check the digi copy expire date (I've let a few of these lapse, but now that I have an iPad I am redeeming them).

My player has been a little sensitive to grime and scratches in the past (1.3), but just things like a blob of something on my brand new copy of The Transporter made it sputter a bit the other night. Ejected, cleaned off the spot and it played fine (whatever was on it was no opaque and I would not have expected any player to chug through that, esp, with BD and the packed pits on these things).

I have only ran into one NF disc that would not play (LEG) (other than the new 1.5 Fox problems) and I've been having a stream of 3 from both BB and NF going in and out of here like a revolving door this past couple weeks. I've been lazy this past week and have not ran them back to the mailman or PO right after verifying so it's slowed down the past couple days. Most of them are very clean and I've only seen a few scratches, except for the 1st copy of LEG that was very dirty and scratched before I cleaned it. Even after a good washing and polish with my trusty blend it did not want to play. Replacement worked just fine.

NIN plays fine as well. You just have to insert another playable HD (any will do) before you load it up (keeps the underage kiddies from viewing that stuff ;-) It's a pain, but at least it plays and is one of the more interesting HDs out there.

Hope your troubles go away. I hate it when everything decides to break all at once on the holiday weekend.

Will have to give the HD DVD work around a try for NIN (good to know, thanks for the tip). Still something that should have been fixed long ago. Will give ZL another shot on the 5000 to see if I get the same result as earlier.

Rocky, Romancing the Stone, Rising Sun and Dreamscape (not a fox title) all check out. That concludes all the Fox testing, for now, that I care to do. All problem titles have been reported to Samsung and I have lost count of the total, but I think it is around 15 now. I will enquire on the status since it has been a couple weeks since I have heard back.

Since it appears that I talking to myself (which is normal for me) on this forum, I have to reply to my own post ;-)

I lied. Forgot that Windtalkers was still in my queue and waiting for me today. It plays just fine. I think that is now the end of my testing. Will be nice to actually watch some movies for a change.

Mr. Kludge,

A word of sincere thanks to you for all that you are doing for us BD-UP5000 owners. I own two that I would like to update the firmware on but I'm staying at 1.3 because it is the least problematic for me. 1.4 introduced some annoying audio glitches with some of my concert HD DVDs that have a DTS-HD MA audio track.

Any new word from Samsung yet on whether they are going to at least address all of the new issues created with 1.5 ?

For what it's worth, I played the Family Guy "Something Something" 2nd Star Wars parody Blu on 1.5 the other day without issue. Nobody asked, but it is a FOX disc that still works.

Are there any discs left to test that might be suspect? Most of the ones I've seen discussed that I have are already tested, though I had found a couple myself (like I Robot) when Mr Kludge was already testing/posting those problems at first.

You may be talking to yourself, but if it makes you feel any better, several of us are actually listening...

By the way keep up the good work, thanks...

All of this should not take this long to repair the problems.

I wish I knew the answer to that question.

Read back in my posts over the past few weeks. I've probably verified close to 50 fox titles. About 15 don't play due to 2 common issues. One more common which I call the sunshine issue (looping menu video with no menu) and the castaway issue where you never even get that far. Most are titles that were released on Dtheater d-vhs with a couple exceptions. I have checked all discs from speed through master and commander with maybe 5-6 exceptions of titles I will never view. If you are wounding about a title just ask me and I will know. I did not check titles that were reported as working by someone but did verify all reported bad discs so I could report to Sammy.

My guess is that it will be a while before we see an update. In the meantime enjoy avatar then regress back. I haven't ran into any newer than avatrar discs that don't play on 1.4, yet. I have assurances from Sammy that a fix is in the works. If not I'm writing the press. Of us operations about this issue since I now own 3 players and 5 loaders total. Another option is the one I am taking and that is leaving one player at 1.4 for the affected movies or use another player for those and then just keep your main player on 1.5. Personally I will have all 3 of the most recent updates running once the new one hits. For regression testing.

One reason it will be a whiile is that I have reported some system and HD issues to Sammy as well and have asked that they address all issues and take their time doing regression testing this time rather than release yet another bunk problem release. It should be worth the wait. Eventually there will be another popular release that requires mass updates and then they will have to release it. 1.4 took 3 months to release after the Jack Ryan.movies had problems and it was a couple months if I remember right when for your eyes only did not play which forced updates for both issues and I'm sure others. Don't hold your breath on the 24fps issue. Personally I just want the movies to play and can live without that as long as 24fps is fine on bd.

Today I watched Pandorum on regular DVD and had an audio-video freeze of about 5secs. or so and then it resumed normaly. This could have been a layer change as it was about 20→30 mins. from the end. It is brand new and I don't remember my 5k doing this before except with DVD-R on fw1.3.

Ya, but that does not include many that came out after MaCFSotW, however I do have alot from then on as well. Fox did not release much before Speed. There is a bunch of crap in between those two as well that I have not checked (the 6 or so titles). It may be more, but there are very few in there that I would suspect that don't play and if they had problems it would be one of the common 2 issues. I have rented a bunch recently that are not really recent but after the problem period (like Romancing the Stone and it's sequel) and they all check out fine.

Fox has some of the best movies out there, but they also seem to have some of the worst crap in the universe, more so than any other major studio IMOHO.

That's because you are watching inferior SD DVD on a great HDP and you are being punished for it Besides that movie is currently running on one of the premium cable channels (can't remember if it is Starzz or HBO).

I actually had a day a few weeks ago when my son and I were watching Arrested Development (I think it was season 1, discs 2 and 3 and I think it was only with the original real DVDs checked out from the library that were in bad shape). Were getting freezes and skipping every few min. I ripped a couple and they played fine. Then the next day I watched the remaining episodes on the real DVDs and went back a little and things were fine. I think the auto laser, RPM selection etc. can get confused at times esp. with the red laser (which I think does HD as well? One laser stays red all the time and the blue goes back and fourth from red to blue so I'm not 100%.
sure which LED laster is responsible for DVD and CD?).

Just today I tried to play my in very bad shape Elizabeth the Golden Age dual sided HD on startup on my original main player and it choked badly on it. I turned it off and we went to lunch/dinner, came back and all was fine.

Been messing with loaders quite a bit these past couple weeks and I have learned that the Sammy combo drive has an automatic laser alignment mechanism, primarily for HD. If you try to play a slightly bad, dirty or scratched disc before a clean one or vise versa, sometimes things get funky. I think this process only happens at power up and works quite well with a decent loader with nothing in the drive. It must also perform it, if there is a disc in the drive, since that is how I used to always power up. My original player soldiers right through the scratch on Elizabeth with out a pause (most of the time). Two brand new loaders and the even more recent manufactured one on my spare unit, can play through the radial scratch, but most of the time skips many frames in the process. I have one loader (mothballed today) that won't even mount that disc and several other Universal titles. Esp. combos. But at times, mounts most of them and plays without issues.