Pioneer Blu-ray players 2011 - BDP-140/BDP-440/BDP-LX55/BDP-53FD - Page 51

NFS/SMB access. I have BD ISOs and 3DBD ISOs stored on my NAS and with CWF4.03 there's no way I can access them over network. CWF5.01 enables this feature, and what I have been reading on some other forums, with users having 5.01, the player handles SMB very well (even for streaming 3DBDISO)

4.04 has:

Posted play files via NFS
Posted play files via SMB / CIFS


5.01 has:

Corrected deficiencies firmware 4.4
Improved playback of files via NFS
Improved playback of files via SMB / CIFS
Fixed to work with external subtitles
Supports up to 18 external subtitle files
Changed key to sign the firmware
Change your security code activation firmware 1 1 2 2
Change the password to change the region 5 5 6 6
There can not be rolled back to the old firmware
The algorithm activation firmware. The activation code can only be bought on a Chinese website
Increased recognition speed USB device is 10 times
Faster loading video from USB 2 times
Fixed to work with external subtitles
Fixed. The player is not overloaded after flashing
Fixed. When multiple files with external subtitle file is loaded by default, the same name as the video

There is a 5.05 too.. I don't know what that has..

The BDP-140 doesn't support DVD-A. 99% of all retail DVD-A discs are encrypted with CPPM encryption. DVD-A players usually decode CPPM in hardware, thus DVD-A support can not easily be added through firmware. The CPPM encryption has been hacked, but the BDP-140 firmware ROM is likely not large enough to hold additional CPPM decryption code.

The chinese firmware adds partial DVD-A support. Unencrypted discs (usually home made / pirated discs from torrent sites) will play, but most retail discs will not.

A workaround is to use DVDFAB ( http://www.dvdfab.com/ ) to decrypt the retail disc, then burn a "backup". The backup disc will play.

I hope I'm not offending anyone by pointing out that there seems to be activation free custom firmware (4.03) available for both BDP-140 and BDP-440:

BDP-140
http://www.4shared.com/rar/OUIC4q0H/BDP-140_SP_Activation_Free.html
http://narod.ru/disk/63736146001.5239bf6d1ef31eaa3ed9c9aec094c124/BDP-140_SP_Activation_Free.rar.html

BDP-440
http://rusfolder.com/33432265

Not tested by me.

I'd be careful about posting Firmware you haven't tested.. I've read on other forums about people "Bricking" their players with the Activation Free Firmware..
Edited by MortUK74 - 12/18/12 at 2:29am

I got rid of it by renaming the bin file to "SP" instead of version number. Means: the file you download is called BDP-440_V02.19.bin but you need to rename it to BDP-440_SP.bin

Thats it!

Any comments on this? Did someone make the same experience?

BIG THX

MKV is a container format, not a video format. Inside the MKV file there could be anything. Thus you can't expect every MKV file out there to work on the Pioneer. You can try to remux the MKV with a newer version of mkvmerge, possibly removing potentially problematic subs/chapter files as well. If that doesn't work you'll have to re-encode either the video or the audio or both.

http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/

Hi there,

Just to point the activation free firmware available on these sites DO work well at least for the BDP-140 which I have tried it on.

Also there is also other forum relating to this subject (see: http://forum.ixbt.com/topic.cgi?id=60:3651-93) which might also be useful as a member ace of snakes has done a whole run down on the CFW and their differences which might be useful to others.

I've got the BDP 140 running the original firmware. If I upgrade the firmware, is it possible to downgrade back later?

Thank You

Upgraded to the activation free 4.03 today. Pioneer web apps are all gone. Is it possible to bring netflix back? So far only 2 out of 5 dvd audio disks play. Sacd and Sacd - r play fine. I can't get sacd to output via optical. Standard cd's play via optical but not sacd. Anyone get their bdp 140 to output sacd via optical? Flac plays without renaming and flac 5.1 plays via streaming rom Serviio. Overall the player seems more responsive.

This seems to be a common issue with this firmware with regards to DVD-A discs. I suppose the primary objective of the firmware is to make the player region-free for Blu-ray which is why i wanted it and does very well. Loosing tv streaming/ apps is no great loss as Pioneer are well behind the market in this area and if you have a decent 3D TV it's probably something you have already.

Would loves to get hold of the bdp-150 firmware, especially 5.01 to try, I guess it's a matter of time when a activation-free version becomes available. Here's to dreaming. lol!

You're talking about this one, does it work fine are you able to roll back to the original FW?

Edited by Tompa - 1/3/13 at 7:16am

5.01 has not been hacked yet and probably will never be. however if you have bdp-450 with cfw 4.04 (which requires activation. Activation free 4.04 is very buggy so don't use it even if you can find it on the i-net) you can run NFS with BDISO support over your network.

I have only tried the 140 version which worked fine.

Hello,

My BDP-140 is arriving tommorrow. I decided to purchase this device right after I saw this topic. So, thanks everybody who share their experiences.

My main interest is this Custom Fw of course.

Thanks in advance if you can give me some help for the questions below.

1- Could you please explain the install methode of this Chinese FW ? (I have already downloaded 4.03 free activation)

2- Is it safe to install this free activated 4.03 CFW? According to what i understood, no more action will be necessary for activating it. It's already full version and free.

3- After installing CFW 4.03, do i need to make any extra action for removing region limitation or disabling Cinavia?

4- Could you please also explain how can i downgrade to any older Official FW ?

Thanks again.

Hi my main piece of advice is to make sure you know where the language change option is when I installed cfw 4.03 it defaulted to chinese language.

1 It is recomened that you set the unit to default settings ,The cfw installs the same as original firmware just follow pioneers instructions.

2 Ive only had player 3 days 3d bd isos tried worked with menus and remembered where I stopped watching.

3 For region changing go to intial settings sreen enter 3344 and you can change dvd to 0 for region free and change bluray 1 for a 2 for b 4 for c.On original firmware 8520 will show this screen but I couldnt change anything but mine was already set to 0 for dvd.

4 As long as you dont update to the latest firmware. 1.10 and 1.17 are ok I think. Mine was on 1.10 installed the cfw twice because I thought maybe the first version I tried may have only had chinese language but got the same with my second try and finally found the language option nobody pointed this out clearly on anything I had read berfore trying cfw.
Edited by springmaker - 1/4/13 at 9:57pm

@springmaker, Thank you.

I installed CFW 4.03 without any problem.

I changed region code easily.

I managed to play 5x 3D Bluray.iso with full menu:) Just one of them didn't work. It's Masagascar 3. Normally it was ok in my Himedia 900 3D media player. I have no idea why it didn't work

However I have 2 big problems.

1- External subtitles are OK and working. But Turkish special characters like ğ,ç,İ,ş are not working.

In initial Menu ı made these below,

-Language>Subtitle - Turkish (I'm not sure this option make any affect)
-Playback> Subtitle Charset - ISO1254 (This code is for Turkish alphabet characters)

I think IS01254 option doesn't work in external subtitles. Because I see Chinese characters. Do you have any idea to fix this?

2- In Blu-ray ISO DTS HD Mstr and Dolby Tru HD audios are working very well.

However in .mkv , I can only get Dolby Digital or DTS. When the audio is set to DTS HD Mstr, there's no audio???

Special character issue is really extremely important for me. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

I have funny problem with my LX-55. I connect via HDMI main into TV, and with HDMI sub to receiver. When I play BD disk with multichannel pcm i have 96/24 (if it is). But when I play dvd audio disk I only have 48 for surrround sound. When I tried stereo track I have 192 kHz normaly. If I connecto main HDMI to receiver, then from receiver to TV I have multichannel PCM 96 kHz. DTS HD Masetr plays fine on both HDMI if is 96kHz. Anybody have this problem? I never find that the limitation on sub HDMI output is 48 kHz for LPCM surround sound.

Madagascar works fine on my BDP-140 with 4.03. Probably problem with ISO. Check the source (I have no clue where you got it from , but if you have the original BD - rip it with ANY DVDHD to ISO and check again). DTS HD Mstr works fine. What audio output settings you did set for BD ISO? PCM or bistream?
Not sure about subs but external subs I think should be in unicode.

Thanks for your reply.

-Subtitle issue is solved. I just saved the .srt subtitle wih "Unicode" encoding. And all special characters are visible now. And subtile appears fantastic. Decrease/increase size, changing color and location is possible also. It's beyond my expectations.

-"Madagascar 3 : Europe's Most Wanted 3D Bluray.iso" release is the only one not working. It was HD-China release I suppose. It was working ok with my 3D media player Himedia 900a. Anyway, no big deal. It's just 1 movie.

-To avoid any misunderstanding, HD audio with Blu-ray .iso s are working good. All audio is set to Bitstream. BDP-140 transmits the the HD audio lossless and DTS-HD MSTR or Dolby Tru HD signs appear on my Pioneer 920 AVR.

However, if I play .mkv file, there's no audio when the movie's audio is DTS-HD Mstr.

Simply, HD audio is OK for BLU-RAY. But there's no sound when it's .MKV

***

I'd like to ask one more thing. When I put a BLU-RAY Disk to BDP-140, is there any chance to apply/choose a external subtitle from a USB drive? B

The SACD format isn't compatible with optical/coaxial digital out. It won't work on any player. The official excuse is a lack of bandwidth, as 5.1 uncompressed digital audio isn't supported by the SPDIF standard. Copy protection is obviously the main reason though.

The Pioneer doesn't support HD audio inside mkv's, even with the custom firmware. A possible workaround is to use tsmuxer and remux the mkv into a BDMV folder. This only takes a couple of minutes.

AFAIK external subtitles only work with BD iso's.

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/tsMuxeR

My 140 does output 2CH PCM 88.2kHz from SACDs, as I already posted before, using official firmware. Sony BDPs have been outputting 2CH PCM 44.1kHz from SACDs for the last 3 years. Tested using a non-hybrid SACD so no chance it's playing the CD layer. The limitation for MCH is SPDIF interface, I believe.

Did you turn off HDMI to get the optical output? I've got both enabled. I'm sending hdmi bitstream straight to my onkyo 609. Sending the bitstream doesn't use the audyssey filtering. Sometimes I would like to send 2 ch out of optical to a different input on the receiver and use the audyssey room corruption.

thank you

I don't remember having specifically to turn off HDMI audio out (no harm trying that), but you should set PCM under Audio Out>Digital Output (digital means optical here). You can't send DSD bitstream over optical.

I had the same problem with the Madagascar 3 iso. Solved it by running it through DVDFab 8.2.2.2qt - I selected movie only & DTSHD only. Works fine now.

I discovered that external subtitles with Blu-ray video discs are applicable. It doesn't matter if it's a copy Blu-ray disc or original Blu-ray disc.

Just put the .srt file with naming it "Sub.srt" into root of a USB flashdrive. When you started to play a Blu-ray disc you'll see that external subtitle is appearing with remote's Subtitle button, under "Other" section.

This is a magnificent feature. No other player can do any thing like that.

Been reading as much as possible on the russian site for CFW, translation is ok, but I have some questions;

-From a vanilla BDP-150, shall I just flash CFW 5.08 then I will get instructions on how to activate from the player?
-Guys on ebay seem to be selling the 4.03 CFW. Are there any difference for me to fix this myself directly from the chinese?
-After activating, will I be able to flash all the new versions free of charge?
-Except for the riddance of cinavia and region free zones, does the cfw at all change BD disc playback, or is it mostly hdd based changes?

I can get a 150 cheap, so this seems like a good way to go.

To play 2 ch sacd through optical I had to turn hdmi off. Analog won't play at all for sacd. cd's play fine. Has anyone had any luck with hdmi and analog out?

Thanks