The Official Sony BDP-S550 Owner's Thread - Page 130

Well from what i gathered on Wikipedia's site is that cinavia is not compatible with older blu-ray players except the PS3, and i'm assuming that includes the old 60Gb models. Honestly I really don't care if they put it on my player, as long as my purchased movies continue to play.The 550 is almost 5 years so i'm willing to bet the technology in it will not be able to support it. I don't mess with backup copies. All my BDs are purchased.
From wikipedia.... off topic for a sec: Are you from CT?
Edited by DRC72 - 6/24/12 at 2:09pm

I agree with your comments. I'm expecting my players to be incapable of dealing with cinavia (S350, S550, S1000ES) but interested in confirming that before applying any more firmware updates.
off topic . . yes, originally from CT & a UConn graduate - GO HUSKIES!! No men's basketball tournament play this year is a real bummer.

Unfortunately I don't have any backup BD copies to test it out. DVD maybe? How's your 550 been? Mine's been rock solid.

Off topic: Cool!!! Didn't go to UCONN, but I definitely cheer for them. I'm in the Middletown area.

All my players have been excellent including the S550. My only disappointment with it was not being able to effectively use the multi-channel analog connections for lossless audio with my old receiver (a Yamaha RX-V1) due to the anemic LFE signal apparently all blu-ray players put out via analog. The S1000ES became my primary player when I picked it up on closeout from the local BestBuy for $90. And my current receiver (Yamaha RX-V3900) handles the lossless audio codecs so I no longer need to use the analog outputs.
Off topic: originally from Waterbury - then eastern Conn. - transferred to Calif. over 20 years ago. Still have family and friends in Conn. though.

The 10 dB increase that needs to be applied is horrific in that most AVRs are not eben designed to handle it by default. What's up with that? You'd think that the receivers would have a checkbox for the multi-chanel input to icrease LFE by 10 dB or not and be done with it.

The only way for me to do it with my Yamaha RX-V1 was to reduce all channels except LFE by 10db (to bring the LFE into proper balance) and then run the whole system with the amplification that much higher, amplifying noise, etc. along with the now anemic analog audio signals. I decided to skip the idea.

My solution was to but a S590 for $140 and feed SACD through HDMI and get proper bass management, but only after my S550 to starting showing "Unknown disk" errors.

Before I picked up my Pioneer Elite VS-33 last year, I was using my 550 with the Sony ES STR-DA2000ES. receiver using the 7.1 analog outs. The Sony receiver only decoded DD and DTS, so I had no choice but to use the analog outs. Increasing the bass 10db through the receiver yielded pretty good results. Also the 550 handled the digital to analog conversion quite nicely, but since my Pioneer receiver decodes all the lossless codecs, I just have my 550 bitstream directly to my pioneer. I have no need for the analog outs anymore.
Edited by DRC72 - 6/25/12 at 2:02pm

My Sony 550 works for the most part but would not play the movie highlander. My friend as a 350 model and it will play. After the update that i did a few days ago, my player wont even read the disc. Before it would at least play half of the trailer, now it wont play anything. I went out and bought a sony 770 last year and it started craping out but i had a warranty and sent it to sony and they sent me a 780 model so we shall see what happens from here lol.

All i can say is that it made my already kinda screwed up player worse ha ha.

The "sealed" tray assembly opens easily, after which it is quite simple to clean the lenses. Admittedly, it will save alot of time and grief if the lens can be cleaned with a long Q-tip.

Now that I have a replacement S590, I just might try to be more aggressive fixing the S550. It's not like I absolutely need it for the Friday night movie anymore!

quote from the Sony website support forum in response to a question I asked:

Re: BDP-S350, 550 & 1000ES firmware

Postby Mod_Sony_ACS_K52S » Thu Jun 28, 2012 5:06 pm
Hello, If you are asking if we omit disclosure of features, no we do not.

please review the update for the BDP-S390 as an example
http://esupport.sony.com/US/p/swu-downl ... group_id=5

If cinavia is included in a firmware update it will feature this notation:
Note: This update includes Cinavia™ content protection technology. Information about Cinavia technology is provided at the Cinavia Online Consumer Information Center at: http://www.cinavia.com.
the BDP350 firmware Version:026 does not include the Cinavia update.

Hmmm? Now why would they include it in the 550, but not the 350? Maybe the 350 hardware can't handle it?

I don't read it that way. The rep shows an example of what the 390 listing looks like, which has Cinavia, then states that the 350 does not have it, but he does not say that the 550 or the 1000 ES has it.

His reply is not particularly well worded, IMHO.

The Sony web site simply says that the 550 update is for disc compatibility. Taking Sony's example of the 390 at face value, if the 550 had it, they would say so.

Brian

I took his/her post to mean that new firmware that introduces cinavia into a Sony machine will say so in the announcement (as referenced regarding the 390 in the post), and also that the new firmware updates for all 3 machines I asked about are not cinavia infected. Also keep in mind that the firmware files are the same for both the S350 and S550 blu-ray players.
But I suppose the only way to know for sure is to update a player and test it.

I updated mine & everything is fine. I believe there is a date of manufacture cutoff that prevents what you fear.

Sent from my PG06100 using Tapatalk 2

According to what I have read, blu-ray players licensed for production in February 2012 or later MUST include cinavia processing capability. Players licensed prior to that date are not subject to that licensing revision.
So the only question is whether it is possible to infect older players like our S350/550 series with cinavia via a firmware update and if yes - is Sony motivated to bother to do that to their customers since it is not required.
Sony HAS infected their PS3 line of game systems with cinavia via firmware - as well as their x80 and x90 series of standalone players.
Did you test your updated S550 with a backup copy of a cinavia infected title by any chance & have it play all the way without throwing any errors and muting audio?
I'm just curious what you mean by "everything is fine".

Updated my 550 to the latest firmware and have watched my copies of "The losers" and "Battle: Los Angeles", both of which have cinavia protection, with no cinavia warning or audio mute.

My take on this:
Sony has better things to do than waste their time and resources on a device this old with a small remaining user base. It's always about the money. The PS3 is still a current model & deserves attention due to the enormous user base. My main player is now the Oppo 93 & they promised no cinivia. I think you have little to fear in this case.

Excellent - thanks for letting us all know.

Since the PS3 has a pretty powerful computer engine under the covers, it was most likely easily modified to infect it with cinavia. The funny thing is, I always thought the PS3 was a particularly worthy server component and source for home theater, but forcing cinavia onto it would appear to negate its usefulness in that regard to a significant extent. It's no longer the best or most cost effective blu-ray player - so I guess Sony has decided it is simply a game system.
As you suggested, hopefully the pre x80/x90 series of standalone players cannot support cinavia and/or Sony isn't motivated to mess with them unnecessarily. I am perfectly happy with my S1000ES as my primary player, and S550 as a secondary + S350 up in the mountain cabin and hopefully they will all last for many years.

Not that it affects me, but I'm thinking if Sony could, they would infect the older players with cinavia.. I'm willing to bet that the circuitry in the 350 and 550 simply can not support cinavia. Anyhow my 550 has been rock solid, and I'm not looking to upgrade anytime soon.

Confirming & adding to what a couple of folks have reported above:

I downloaded the latest firmware update for the S350/S550 & burned it to a CD-R following Sony's instructions exactly (Windows 7 Pro/64).
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/support-info.pl?template_id=1&info_id=605
I have now installed firmware 026 on both my S350 & S550 with no problems and they both work fine.
I also did some testing and can confirm the players have remained free of cinavia as promised by Sony tech support.

Thanks for your input!

I'm happy I found this site. I'm about ready to drop-kick my Sony BDP-S550 out the window after experiencing "Cannot playback disc" and "Unknown" menu errors on more and more newer BD titles. It started a couple years ago with "Fighter" and then has happened many times since (all on newer titles), with the most recent being "The Hunger Games." So far I'm fully updated with the most recent firmware and I've deleted files in the cache from prior discs. Still running into the same problem. Doesn't happen with standard DVDs, but seems to be only some of the newer BDs. I only connect the player to the internet for firmware updates. I know it's not the BDs themselves because they're brand new and they play fine on my other newer Samsung BD player.

From what I've read/heard so far, I should:

1) Run a lens cleaner through the player
2) Take out the memory card and pop it back in


Am I missing anything? I bought this BD player direct from Sony when it first came out and it was expensive, but I'm almost ready to just chuck it...or at least put it in the kids' room to only play standard DVDs. Thanks in advance!

I have had my Sony player for a few weeks now. It's nothing spectacular but it's a steady, solid performer and does exactly what I hoped, but it didn't provide any operational surprises that were either good or bad. I would have liked a better user interface, but all in all, it works and it's solid.

Hi,

I have an S550 with firmware version 026 and am having trouble playing a recently burned Blu Ray, a problem that I had with the original firmware version it came with, 10: it will show me the top menu but refuse to play any of the titles and it returns back to the top menu. This bluray is burned with the same Pixela ImageMixer 3 that I have used before with success, i.e. other burned blurays play fine. This is in fact the first ever bluray, commercial or not, that I have problems with; I have burned the same bluray three times so far, in case it was the media. Moreover, it plays fine on the computer it was burned. Finally, I tried an S780 with the same results.

Any wild ideas or suggestions? Does the USB flash memory play any role here?

Thanks

Peter
Edited by sanokistoka - 9/10/12 at 6:43am

I'm not familiar with the software you are using, but if your previously burned titles made with the same software still function correctly, I would assume this new title has something different. I would suggest a detailed comparison of your previously made titles that still work correctly vs. this new title. Are the file formats the same? Are the menus the same? Did you use the same software version in both cases (ie. trying to rule out a problem in the software due to a revision)? I would also recommend picking up a small supply of re-usable BD-RE discs for testing and problem analysis. I have some Fujifilm BD-RE media that were reasonably priced and have been working fine in my computer and play fine in all my Sony BD players (including a S550).

Yes I used the same software version as always. All my blurays have just two titles and same menu. However, one of the two titles in the new one is 25fps, the other 29.97 - not sure if this plays a role; but I am unable to play the 29.97fps title as well. I will try BD-REs and get back to you. Since these discs do play on the recording computer fine - in fact with the "old" CyberLink PwerDVD 9 - I am tempted to conclude this is a firmware issue.

Thanks for the response

Peter

Whelp, I've had my first disc playback problem aswell. I tried watching my Amercian Psycho blu-ray Saturday night and it won't freakin play for nothin! I've never had a problem with it before, but now the when the disc menu tries to come up it gives my 550 fits and the menu never fully comes up so you can select play. The disc is still in pristine condition like it brand new. I've cleaned the lens with BD laser lens cleaning disc and doesn't help. Is it possible the last firmware update caused this? I also tried it in the wife's Panny 220 player I bought her a couple months ago and it has the latest firmware and it won't work right on it either. Is it possible Sony and Panasonic both fudged up their latest firmware or is somehow my pristine disc all of sudden shot craps? I don't get it. My 550 has been rock solid and this is my first prob.

-Glen

I am willing to try another software. Any experience with Nero Video 11? It apparently captures from camera, edits nicely and "exports" to Blu-ray disc; I am not, though, convinced that "export to blu-ray disc" actually means burning. Thoughts?