Official Samsung BD-C5500 master owner's thread - Page 12

Well if "there is a bug with Netflix" then I'd say the problem would be with Netflix. How do you know it's a Netflix issue and not with the player?

It's not a bug to have to activate a player with a code. The bug is losing the activation without any identifiable reason and having to reactivate the device again and again. At least for me the computer is always on and only a room away. It's not hard to do, but I am tired of having to do it so often and since it seems to be related to this particular player I will reluctantly return it and get a different brand.

Maybe ask about Netflix on another brand avsforum thread (e.g., Panasonic BD-60/80 thread). /Dan

I don't know the cause. Netflix claims that it is a Samsung problem. Samsung doesn't respond to my contacts.

I know enough about computers to know that this is simply an identification issue. When the user navigates to Netflix, the Netflix software is looking for the Samsung player to identify itself with a unique code so Netflix can make sure that the user is actually a Netflix customer. For some reason the player is losing the code, or Netflix is somehow losing the code in its database.

The player has a MAC address, it also has a IP address, and it would be a simple matter to put an identification file in its memory, or even have a hardware chip with the unique identifier. This is the type of issue that any competent designer would resolve in an afternoon.

What Netflix tells me is that Samsung has been working on the problem for months with Netflix's help but they have not been able to resolve it. I suspect this is the typical type of BS that gets put on the customer service representatives' computer screens. It is inconceivable that this problem would take months to work out, unless the basic design of the player is so deficient that it doesn't have a MAC address, reliable memory, or a firmware chip identifier.

As a result, my advice to anyone would be simply not purchase the player. We know how responsive consumer products companies are to problems uncovered after release. We all know about the Samsung plasma buzz, the Panasonic rising black levels, the incessant MS Windows bugs, the iPhone 4 antenna, etc. I have no confidence that either Samsung or Netflix will solve the problem.

I am anxious to hear about other people's experiences with this. Maybe the problem doesn't affect all the units and that mine would qualify for warranty exchange. Maybe someone finds a hack to fix it. Maybe someone knows the email addess of the CTO of Samsung and I can send him a nice email everytime it happens to me.

Roccol-

This sounds like a mismatch with surround-sound decoding or formats. Check what format(s) the Samsung player is outputting from its optical port. If it is set to bitstream, try setting it to PCM or another choice. Also, I don't remember if there is a "downmix" or similar option in the audio menu(s), but you can look for that as well, and try turning it on (or off). You may also need to look at the audio options in the TV set itself, and turn off any "virtual surround" or similar functions. Send another message here with any results you get.

Just got my BD-C5500 today. I had the same problem and figured it out. When watching a DVD file, hit the "TOOLS" button on the remote, got to "Picture Setting", and turn up the "Noise Reduction" to high. This should fix it.

I've had the exact same thing happen to me with the BD-C5500 on many occasions. I will pause a blu-ray movie and come back after 5 to 10 minutes and attempt to play the movie again, only to find out that the player has completely frozen. The only way to unfreeze it is to power off the player, and then turn it back on.

I've found this to be mostly the case with playing blu-ray discs (not all of them though). It doesn't happen with DVDs.

About a different problem that I had written about earlier (No audio with mp4 playback), that problem was solved with the 1012.6 firmware update. Apparently enough people complained to Samsung that they were compelled to release a fix for it.

Now I hope they will fix this annoying freezing problem when pausing blu-ray discs.

Wonder if a BD-Live problem? Try turning that off and see if the problem goes away. At least a datapoint for Samsung if it does help since you might not want to leave it off. /Dan

I'm not sure what the tv has to do with any of this. I keep the tv volume at zero. I have hdmi going from bdc5500 to TV. I have optical from bdc5500 to digital receiver.

I have the receiver set to auto surround and the bdc5500 set to bitstream. When I try setting it to pcm, I get great voice dialogue, but only 2.1 sound. The only other sound option is for true hd and down mixing. My receiver doesn't support true hd. I will check the down mixing.

Well I'm afraid I have tried every audio setting to no avail.

If I set the bdc to pcm, I only get 2.1 sound although the dialog is perfect.

If I set the bdc to bitstream(the proper setting), my amp lights with dts or Dolby Digital, but the voices are all drowned out.

I pumped my center channel all the way up, still doesn't do much. I then plugged in my cheap zenith dvd player and I have no sound problems at all.
I have tested Blu Rays, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, etc. No luck. I even tried a HDX from Vudu, same sound problems. I guess I am out of luck.If anyone has any other ideas, let me know. I am not going to waste my time with Samsung Support. I have been down that road before. Thanks.

I'm glad I bought this with my Chase Sapphire Card as I will be able to get a refund before 90 days.

I have the Samsung BD-C5500 connected to a brand-new Denon 1910 receiver (it can decode all the newest audio formats) via HDMI, and HDMI from the receiver to a few-years-old samsung 56" DLP. The picture output from Blu Ray is great and I love the MKV support, but I'm having an issue with the audio output format.

Regardless of whether I set the BDP to output audio in PCM, Bitstrem (Re-encode), or Bitstream (Audiophile), and on any Audio track I choose from several blu-ray and DVD Titles (I've tried DD 5.1, DTS, DTS MA among others), the receiver is only getting in a "PCM 48kHz 2/0/.0" signal on the HDMI. I have checked all the receiver settings and the HDMI cable itself and don't believe they are the cause of the problem, as I have connected XBox 360 to same cable and receiver input and it plays DD 5.1 just fine.

I've read elsewhere that it could be an HDMI handshake issue, but cant seem to find any people reporting similar issues.

Any help would be appreciated.

MAKE sure you have downsampling turned off.

Yep. For the other options, I have PCM Downsampling turned off, Dynamic Range Control off (though I've tried it on too).

One thing that I wondered about, though, is the setting called "Downmixing Mode". The only options I am able to select from this menu are "Normal Stereo" whose description states "Downmix multi-channel audio into normal stereo. Choose if connected equipment
does not support virtual surround function," and "Surround compatible" whose description is "Downmix the multi-channel audio into surround compatible stereo. Choose when connected to equipment that supports the virtual surround function such as Dolby Pro Logic."

It seems like there should be a third option for No downmixing, that allows discrete 5.1 output. Is there something I'm missing here?

Also, I currently have DTS Neo:6 disabled on the BDP, but I have tried it on also to no avail...

Maybe try posting over at the CNET Samsung Forum. They have a Samsung Tech that answers some of the posts.

I have given up on this player. I have had the player plugged in for 25 days and have had to re-activate Netflix six times. The re-activations either came before a required firmware update (the firmware has been updated twice), or they were not tied to any apparent event at all. That said, at least in my situation, the firmware updates did not knock out the Netflix registration as others have experienced. I am taking this player back and will be trying the LG BD570.

Generally, I like the Netflix streaming service.

I use it with a Samsung C5500. The bug is that in order to set up the device you have to enter a special code at the Netflix website on your computer. That makes sense -- Netflix wants to make sure that the BD player matches to a Netflix customer.

That's not a big deal, except every week or two Netflix will refuse to stream video unless I enter a new code. This means that I have to get up from my couch, go over to the computer, wait for it to boot, open a browser, go to Netflix, login, navigate to the account information, search around to find out where I'm supposed to put the code, then enter the code, and then return to the couch.

Firmware updates make no difference. It's unclear whether Netflix is somehow losing whatever unique identifier matches to my DVD player, or whether the DVD player is losing the unique identifier, or something else. This whole thing baffles me since it isn't hard to uniquely identify a BD player. The player has a MAC address, it also has a IP address, and it would be a simple matter to put an identification file in its memory, or even have a hardware chip with the unique identifier. This is the type of issue that any competent designer would resolve in an afternoon.

Netflix says that it is a Samsung problem and that they have been working on it "for months." Samsung refuses to answer support emails. I have no idea whose problem it is. All I know is that if I were to shop for a Blu-ray player again, I would not buy a Samsung.

I'm curious: is this happening to other Samsung models with Netflix, or other brands of BD players that have integrated Netflix service? How often does it happen to you? There is a guy on the Samsung C5500 thread who says Netflix has demanded reauthorization six times in 25 days.

Ignore the prior post. I tried to create a new thread for the re-authorization issue but the powers that be moved it back here. Too bad, as it would be very helpful to know whether this problem happens with Netflix and other BD players.

Maybe post in the media streaming forum and don't push it so much as a Samsung issue

Well, I believe I discovered what's causing the problem: I have the AVR connected to the TV with an HDMI to DVI cable (since HDMI input to TV doesn't seem to work, and I never play audio through the TV anyway), and it seems this cable is making the BDP think that the ultimate audio source is only 2-channel capable. When I disconnect the HDMI out from the AVR, all the audio formats work perfectly (I just get no picture). And when I unplug the HDMI I currently have connected from XBOX and use it to go from the AVR to the TV with a HDMI > DVI adapter on the end, it also works fine.

So it looks like I would be able to fix the problem permanently and leave my XBOX connected by just buying another HDMI cable, but I was hoping someone might have another suggestion to help me solve this problem and not add any more red to my balance sheet.

Thanks!

Good you found your problem.

Order your HDMI from Monoprice DO NOT buy from a store...... that will help your balance sheet at least!

I'm doubtful of when, if ever, Hulu Plus will come to the 5500. Two weeks ago the Hulu Plus webpage, "Devices" tab, had a link under the Samsung Blu-Ray section to find supported devices. If you followed that link you came to a Samsung list that included the 5500. Well, that link has been removed and all you see is the BD-C6900. Also you see that Sony and other players are not scheduled to have Hulu Plus until "Fall 2010" or later -- this implies a discouragingly slow roll out effort to Blu-Ray players.

Samsung have issued new firmware for the BD-C5500


[EDIT] Just updated all 4 of my BD-C5500's and Netflix registration was OK both BEFORE and AFTER the upgrade.

I apologize if this has been mentioned before, I swear I did a search and found nothing. But how do I use the CinemaNow feature of this device? I know it says it's "CinemaNow ready" so I assume I have to install something....any ideas?

So there you are..... who knows when, if ever, they will get around to the 5500? They don't plan to support other popular player brands (e.g., Sony) until fall 2010 or early 2011 according to their Devices page.

It appears that only the Samsung "3D" players (which includes for example the 5900 in addition to the 6900) currently support not only Hulu Plus but also CinemaNow and FaceBook, as shown on this Samsung chart:

Well, it turns out the problem came back and now the HDMI cable with HDMI > DVI converter doesn't work anymore...

After much more searching I've found older posts with similar, though not identical, issues. In those cases, it appears that the DVI connection messes up the HDCP process and messes up the audio. In those other cases, though, they lost audio altogether (so I guess I can consider myself lucky, right?)

Having a better idea of what's going on, I was hoping someone might have a suggestion for something I could do.

And unless somebody does, I guess my options right now seem like (1) return blu ray player and get another, hoping this issue doesn't persist, (2) get the HDMI port in the TV fixed, or (3) live with only 2-channel audio.

3 isn't really something I'm considering, and I would prefer 2 if I was confident that I could get it done myself since it's hard to fit a 56" DLP into a car and/or ship it anywhere for repair. And I'm not sure how likely it is that getting a new BDP would resolve this issue in the first place. Does anyone else use HDMI to DVI from receiver to TV and have it work fine (hoping it's just my particular unit)?

Seems I'm running short on options...

I believe CinemanNow is using Divx streams so you u need to get the Divx code number generated by the player and register it with CinemaNow. Somewhere it the settings is the option to get the Divx code. And I believe you also download the movie which is encrypted to that code and will only play on that player. That's how Divx DRM worked on my old DVD player and rented movies. It could be played off the computer over the network or on a disk or memory stick.

It would be nice from Samsung to provide a little bit more details regarding the MKV improvements.

Thanks for the update


I also discovered MKV files encoded with mkvmerge 4.X.0 libebml v1.0.0 + libmatroska v1.0.0 have some issues with the audio. I've tested some web-dll using the libebml v1.0.0 + libmatroska v1.0.0 and while the image is crystal clear the audio track was not played. I remuxed it using mkvmerge 3.0.0 (GUI) using libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1 with different options.

The video files contain only 1 audio track in AC3 5.1 and using V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC. Both files have the audio track set with no default. I tested with and without the track set as default but nothing changed.
Test:

- File 1 Audio track not set to default (using libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1): Passed
- File 1 Audio track set to default (using libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1): Passed
- File 1 Audio track not default (using libebml v1.0.0 + libmatroska v1.0.0): Failed

I was unable to test the libebml v1.0.0 + libmatroska v1.0.0 with the track set as default as I only have the mkvtoolnix stock from Ubuntu installed.

Remuxing a 22 minutes episode of 621M take about 12 seconds so not a big deal. I also tested some episode from iTunes using AAC instead of AC3 and it worked fine. So far the only issues I got was the one using libebml v1.0.0 + libmatroska v1.0.0 and DTS-MA variable rate. Rest passed fine.

I tried to upgrade but got a message about the version not matching

I got a samsung 5500 from costco.

Firmware update, samsung website does not recagonise my player lol.

I can use MKV/HIGH DEF audio , DTS too, down mixed from NTFS hard drive but ts, m2ts is no go! Any advise ???

All mine are the BD-C5500C from Costco and had no issues upgrading via Internet

Mine is the same. I had tried several times unsuccessfully before, but today it upgraded without a problem.

Edit: Well, it apparently upgraded but now it won't play any DVDs (I get a popup saying "The disc cannot be played. Please check the TV system"). Videos streamed from my networked computers wouldn't play but after power cycling the player they work again.

Edit: I tried a commercial DVD and a Blu-ray disc and they both would play, but the ones I burned here (DVD+R and DVD-R) would not.