3 Replies Latest reply: Aug 16, 2008 7:30 AM by (Aaron_Stewart) RSS

    Blu-ray Compatibility Testing: Not Encouraging

    Community Member
      Today, I decided to try playing a disc that I created with Encore, a Blu-ray disc that my Sony BDP-S301 reads just fine, at a local Sears consumer electronics showroom.

      They had three Blu-ray disc players:

      Sony BDP-S300
      Samsung
      Sharp Aquos

      I tried the Aquos first, but was dismayed to see that it displayed "cannot play this disc" after a minute of waiting.
      The store salesman suggested I tried the Sony (which I thought was almost a wast of time because MY Sony plays this disc with no issues). To my utter shock, It produced the "cannot play this disc" after a minute of loading.
      Finally, I took it to a Samsung player on another Blu-ray display on the end of an isle. That player did not recognize the disc either.

      So thus far, 3 out of 4 Blu-ray players cannot play a disc authored in Encore. The ONLY player this disc works with is my Sony BDP-S301. Just one model higher than the one in Sears, and that makes the difference between play and no play.

      What this amounts to is that if you're planning to deliver weddings on Blu-ray, be prepared to be doing a lot of refunds and eating the cost of a lot of blank BD-R media.

      This is worse than I every imagined. I really had hoped the days of the Toshiba DVD player of 1998 were long gone. A 25% success rate means that recordable is NOT ready for prime time.
        • 1. Re: Blu-ray Compatibility Testing: Not Encouraging
          The players may not have had proper firmware updates. Perhaps you should try a higher-end store that keeps their players updated. This would explain the problem between your player at home and the one in the store....out of the box = no firmware updates.

          -Aaron
          • 2. Re: Blu-ray Compatibility Testing: Not Encouraging
            Community Member
            For those of us that author, we either have to start a free or nominal fee service to update the firmware in our clients' players, or be faced with a lot of complaints about discs that are not recognized. The reality is, a lot of consumers are going to take it out of the box and use it--they don't know a firmware from a hole in the wall.
            • 3. Re: Blu-ray Compatibility Testing: Not Encouraging
              You are most correct, a lot of consumers are going to take it out of the box and use it, and not know or care about firmware updates. Eventually the problem will be sorted out by manufacturers (indeed I think it mostly already has, most if not all of the new release blu-ray players now support BD-R), this is just the same case when DVD players started getting big, some did not support DVD-Rs or RWs, etc. but most do now. I suppose the solution now would be to set up an email address (thats included in the BD-R packaging) and if people have trouble address them individually by email and inform them of firmware updates.

              All blu-rays that we've released have a CYA statement about firmware updates and a link to the Sony site. If we have several major clients who can't seem to figure it out, have them email their model numbers and ship them a DVD with the update on it with instructions how to use it. I suppose a fee could/should be charged for that.

              Hopefully we'll be out of this awkward phase soon....but only time will tell.