BD-UP5000 Universal Player Samsung [OFFICIAL OWNERS THREAD] & FAQ - Page 437

I moved from any area with a Blockbuster in 2011, so I've been doing without their brick & mortar for over a year now. I just looked it up (thanks to your cue) and saw they're gonna' reduce the # of stores to 500 nationwide. That's only an average of 10 per state, with of course the more populous states having the majority. I can't imagine the B&M portion of that business will be around for many more years.

Both Airplane! and The Paperboy loaded and played, but Paperboy is a Millennium release and is DDTHD, so it had numerous audio drops and it does not have that much action. The dropouts were during music scenes and when there was any shouting. These DDTHD issues are getting worse not better over time.

Hi all. It's been a while. I have been traveling and dealing with other issues and haven't had much time for movies. Anyhow, both Killer Joe and Flight (both Universal if I remember right) loaded and played just fine. However Gamer did not. It came in the mail quite a while ago and when I tried it over the weekend it would not play in the Sammy or my new Yammy. The disc was damaged and appeared to have been resurfaced? Anyhow, I tried to polish it, but the radial haze/marks/scuffing would not completely come off. Strange since the marks were not at the inner or outer edge of the disc, but I could not see and there was obviously damage there. Anyhow, obviously a defective disc (and a defective movie from what I understand). I only had it in my queue to remind me to rent it one of these times, but BB decided to randomly send me that title. Got a free rental out of both the mix up and the bad disc, hence the two movies I was able to watch this weekend.

Killer Joe was Lionsgate and Flight was Paramount actually, but it's all academic anyway. At least Lionsgate has returned to utilizing lossless audio on their rental discs.

Hi Mr Kludge

A few pages back you mentioned something about resetting a player back to factory "by brute force" have you ever accomplished this? If so, how?

Also, is there a way to identify what version firmware we have? I bought one of these on ebay, and I feel like I made a mistake. I have quite a few HD-DVD's that have an assortment of problems, some seem outrageously grainy, and a few that dont load at all. eg. Willy WOnka doesnt load, Werewolf in Paris, heavy pixilation, Polar Express freezes throughout movie, Good Fellas starts pixilating like halfway through the movie. It seems as though most BD's play without issue on this player.

A just tried a couple Disney BD's , Toy Story 3 and Prince of Persia, and they seem to be fine. Does that mean I dont have the newest firmware? 1.6?

S/W 100601.01_8109_0924.11_xaa
Region A/1 (BD/DVD)

Thanks for anyone that replies, its nice to see some people still care about this player and the HD/DVD format.
Edited by ITALIAN926 - 2/20/13 at 12:22am

^Do you have another HD DVD player to test those discs? They all sound like Warner going by memory, which have been noted to degrade (we can blame the particular disc replicator chosen by Warner on this one since it doesn't seem nearly as common with other studio releases). You can read all about it here: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1332907/having-very-bad-luck-with-warner-hd-dvds

Holy cow, I cant believe it. I sent my up5000 to Samsung for repair along with 5 HD-DVD's, 4 of them Warner being Warner, the other a dual format Werewolf in London. All discs looks MINT. They "could not fix" the player and refunded my money, and sent the player back. I have purchased a Toshiba A20 on ebay to play these discs, it will be here Friday. Now it seems theres nothing wrong with the up5000 afterall? Someone at Samsung should know about the Warner problem, they spent a lot of time and energy trying to fix my player.

As far as my software version, I ISO'd 1.6 and installed, It was odd, it said do you want to replace (same version) with (same version) I said Yes and installed, and now the software says 100601.01_0321_0924.11_xaa

^Wow, you and Samsung did all that in the span of 13 hours? J/K

And re: the firmware ID, that is odd. I don't have the player any longer so I don't recall the firmware ID (it is probably posted prior in this thread).

I knew it was a longshot, but since they couldnt fix the player physically, I started investigating firmware issues on my own. Thanks for that info re: Warner discs, Im just floored.

Correct on both accounts. That's what I get for trying to post quickly between meetings and by memory.

The only ways I know or resetting are to 1) pull the plug and 2) hold down the >>| button while on and no disc in to cold start and reset to factory. Your firmware is 1.6, but your loader code is different from what you end up with after a consumer update. I suspect that Samsung corrected this when it was in their hands. They are the only ones that have the loader only update code. They might have also installed a different loader in your machine. Hard to tell. To get all the firmware info hold sown the info button on the remote while the tray is ejected and it will tell you the version for each element.

You are now at what the rest of us would be at. Did the discs act the same after you updated? I would re-try your Disney titles to be sure. It is a possibility that the loader code you ended up with after repair was the one from 1.4, which in theory may play some Disney titles under 1.6. However the only one you mentioned that would be suspect was Toy Story 3 and I can't recall if that one plays under 1.6 or not?

One thing to watch out for is a haze that can form on your HD-DVD discs. This is due to some chemical reaction with the case and the discs. It is easily removed with eyeglass cleaner and a soft cloth. I have heard about the HD Disc rot issue, but my self and a couple fellow HD collectors have not ran into it. I have ran into the haze and it is in fact on my Goodffellas on the edges but it still plays fine. I checked out Wonka and Goodfellas and had no issues. I thought I owned Polar Express, but apparently I never bought it on HD since I have the analog 3D version on BD and don't really care for the film anyhow, I just got it for the 3D. I have Werewolf... but it's sealed. I remember checking out the titles you mention and some others for someone else that was having issues with the same titles. Perhaps you ended up with their player or certain 5ks just have issues with certain WB titles? I am currently watching Kiss Kiss Bang Bang hybrid since it is probably the most important HD to me. Still plays great after all these years. I did not get around to watching it over the holidays. Also several of the HDs I tried tonight have scratches on them, but still play fine. I haven't had a HD in my player for quite some time.

If you like you could send me one or two of the discs that don't play for you and I can check them out to be sure. I seriously doubt that it is disc rot. If and when I run into one I will get the A35 out of the mothballs and try it there. Do you have your A20 yet? Did they play there?

my Wonka rarely loads and will not play through the whole movie the 2 times it did load; Dukes of Hazard won't load at all; both won't load at all on my Toshiba HD-XA2 or A30, either

Have you checked them for haze? It is hard to see if it is all over the disc. I wonder what the factors are for this premature failure of the discs? I remember you mentioning these. I don't think I own Dukes.

NO, but I will

Well, I tried your suggestion, I tried with windex, basically the same result. Willy Wonka, Blood Diamond, and Phantom of the Opera dont load at all. Blood Diamond was factory sealed. I tried cleaning Good fellas and Polar Express,pixilating movies, same result. Pixilation and freezing, and they always occur at the same places. Good Fellas is good for 1hr 2 minutes and 56 seconds, and like clockwork, starts freezing/pixilating for the rest of the movie. Polar Express pixilates from about 6 minutes in, and all the way through.

The A20 should be here soon and I'll know for sure if I can eliminate the up5000, but yesterday I bought a broken up5000 (broken loader) and moved my drive to it, same results. Thanx for that offer good man, but I think the A20 will give me a determination.

^The pixelation problem sounds like the behavior of a Willy Wonka disc that I'd purchased via Amazon while the format war was at its peak. The LG BH200 I also had tolerated it better, but it still ultimately gave that player issues as well. The disc itself had no visual evidence of damage either. I believe Amazon sent me a replacement, which played without issue.

Windex won't do the job. The only thing I have found that works for the haze without polishing with small scratches and swirls is spectacle cleaner like you buy at Sam's Club or Costco. For really problematic discs I use an optical polisher like scratch-out or even car polish that is slightly abrasive, but as I say that leaves small scratches etc. I can tell pretty easily if the haze is present. My guess is that either your loader is going South or your discs are indeed bad, but I bet you find most play without problem in your new machine, providing it's loader is in good condition. HD-DVD failures are the most common I have seen in the 5K, though I have seen plenty of loaders loose BD capability also, in fact my last two failures in my main player were on the BD side.

Both Chernobyl Diaries and Cosmopolis loaded and played for me yesterday. Chernobyl was dirty and I did not clean it well and it had a few seconds of glitchiness about a half hour in. I am sure it was grime, marks etc on the disc. I didn't care since it was boring and yet another random title from the bottom of my queue.

lots of haze on Willy Wonka, almost like fingerprints...one spot on Dukes, which came off with lens cleaning cloth...

The Kingdom, a Universal Combo disc, played with only a couple of minor glitches on the HD DVD side...Dukes: This disc can not be played. ERROR CODE 0x000000ff

Wonka won't load...
Edited by SanchoPanza - 2/27/13 at 6:59pm

In my experience the haze I get will not come off with a cleaning cloth, in fact makes it worse. I have seen both a dry, crusty white haze and a more oily type marks that look like dots or like you say fingerprints, without the swirls. Also get small marks at the edge of the disc. You did not say if you cleaned your Wonka. I assume you did.

This all makes me wonder how many of my vast collection won't play? The majority of them are still sealed and others are still sealed in used store packaging. I got lazy at one point and stopped opening up the used ones. I don't have all that many that are like that. Most if not all of the used ones I have purchased online I have tried at one point or another in case I had to send them back or ask for a refund. My assumption is that the ones that are factory sealed are still ok, but you never know. I have yet to run into a domestic disc that won't play even after a cleaning (on a good loader). I have a few used/previously viewed/rented discs I bought on blowout at a local rental store. One or two of those are hammered and have minor glitches. I have two copies of The Island import and the UK one will only play on my A35, but the Italian version (disc is identical in look and content, just the artwork on the case is different) plays fine despite having many small scratches.

Anyhow, you might try spectacle cleaner (the kind with some sort of alcohol in it) on some of your problem discs and see if it helps. Sometimes I have to clean my hazed discs, sometimes not, but generally I clean them if they are dirty since it is easier on the laser.

I'll try the eyeglass cleaner, mainly because I wear glasses, so can make it do double duty.

Boy o boy. My A20 came in , and several of the HDDVDs that did not load on the up5000, plays fine on the A20. The pixelalation that occured on 2nd half of Good Fellas is not there with the A20. A sealed Blood Diamond still wont load on the A20, and the pixelation on Polar Express is still there, in fact, like 5 chapters are unplayable, and it stops the player.
What I find strange is that I moved the UP5000 loader to another UP5000, and it was the same result. How could that type of problem (good fellas at 1:02:58 seconds) happen on two different units, same loader?. Could a bad loader be the culprit for such an exact problem?

Anyway, the UP5000 seems to be OK on most HD-DVDs. and Im still looking for my "perfect" combination. I just bought ANOTHER UP5000 that had a broken front display, but supposedly plays perfect. I'll see how THAT goes. Im also PO'd off at the TrueHD audio dropouts, so Im also considering finding a Toshiba HD-XA2.

So, I really have no answers. It seems to be a combination of a bad loader , and I have to clean the discs ?

you can have my Blood Diamond; I replaced it in the Red2Blu program...

I'm on my 2nd BD-UP5000; also have an A30 and Toshiba HD-XA2...

I'll try to clean mine with lense cleaner and see if it helps. I might have ONE good up5000, an up5000 with a bad loader, a good Toshiba A20 , a bad A20, an up5000 on the way with a cracked display, and Im thinking about an XA2 to go with a separate blu ray LOL. I have a good A20 whose loader can be used for the XA2 as a backup.

Do we believe the up5000 will get firmware upgrades for the trueHD problem? I just tried TopGun HD-DVD and White Noise HD-DVD and the Dolby-TrueHD dropouts are unbelievable.



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edit: Well, I "cleaned" the discs with Eyeglass lens cleaner, no difference. On the up5000 Warner: House of Wax, Willy Wonka, Phantom of the Opera,Blood Diamond dont load ......Universal Combo format American Warewolf, Knocked Up, dont load
Heavy Pixilation : Batman Begins, Polar Express, GoodFellas. Light pixelation throughout Space Cowboys, Perfect STorm, 300, Superman the Movie, Troy.

23 Warner HD-DVDs seemed ok.

Now on the A20, all loaded EXCEPT Blood Diamond, Polar Express missing chapters, the ones I listed with "light pililation" I have not checked. Id imagine theyd be OK since the worst offenders passed the test.

Ugh.
Edited by ITALIAN926 - 2/28/13 at 7:27pm

What version of firmware are you running? mrkludge helped me out with the latest. I've no problems with TrueHD dropouts on Top Gun, or otherwise...but, I ONLY use it to play HD DVD's that don't have a time bar built in; all the rest I use the HD-XA2. Blu rays, I use LGBD670 3D, or a couple of Samsungs, or my HTPC. I figure they can be replaced much easier. But, I still want the LG Combo, Onkyo, A35, A3, Venturer and RCA...did I miss any? LoL!!!

I'll try White Noise and let you know.

The Top Gun dropouts didnt start for me until like 20 minutes into the movie. Im running the latest firmware on both up5000's, downloaded iso disc from Samsung site.

Now you have me thinking of switching the loader to the unit again to see if that resolves the TopGon TrueHD problem Im having lol



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Edit: swapped loaders AGAIN, and Im still having excessive drop outs TrueHD, the 6.1 DTS on that same disc sounds perfect all the way thru. So, maybe I have a bad loader that cant do TrueHD sound and certain Warner movies have issues with this loader as well. lol. I'll see what happens when the next 5k comes on Monday.
Edited by ITALIAN926 - 2/28/13 at 8:33pm