Iron Man Bluray only compatible with PS3?

[QuantumFluxx]

Well today a bluray copy of Iron Man fell into my lap and I hunkered down to watch it on my father's BDP-1500 Samsung Bluray player. Inside the case was a piece of paper which stated the following:

This Blu-ray Disc is manufactured to the highest quality available. It is possible this Blu-ray Disc was manufactured after your Blu-ray Disc player. To ensure the best possible viewing experience, your Bluray Disc player may need a firmware or software update. Please consult your hardware manufacturer's website for the latest firmware or software version and, if an upgrade is available, we suggest that you follow its installation instructions.

Now the front of the case boasts about its awesome BD-Live experience which means its obviously a Bluray 2.0 disc. Now from what I thought I understood about the 2.0 vs 1.0 shenanigans, is a player with only 1.0 compliance will only be able to just watch the movie and view whatever features are on the disc, but with no ability to download extra features from the internet. This is something I didn't think mattered to much to someone who doesn't watch many special features on movies anyways.

Well I popped the feature disc into the player (it's a two disc set), and got the usual loading screen at the start of Bluray discs, and then just black. We let it sit for a good 5-10 minutes and the disc just would not load. We checked to make sure it was clean and tried again, still wouldn't load. So I dragged my laptop out, connected the Bluray player to the internet and downloaded the newest firmware update, which Samsung claims to have released on 08/08/08. I put the disc in after the update and still got a black screen that went nowhere.

So I then decided to try the special feature disc out, and it loaded fine. So I took the feature disc down to my room and put it in my PS3, and sure enough, it worked fine. I ended up having to drag the PS3 upstairs to watch the movie.

Now my main reasons for this post are as follows:

1. Has anyone else had this problem if you've recieved early copies as well, or is this a problem unique to samsung players?
2. If this is strictly because the BDP-1500 doesn't currently support 2.0, can I expect future movies to be this strict on requirements as well?

The way I understood it, people who bought their Bluray players before 2008 that werent PS3's are completely S.O.L. in regards to 2.0 compliance, and if this is the strict future of Bluray, theres going to be a lot of early adopter anger over this. I don't see how it can be plausible to completely shut out the consumers who adopted early. Now I'm not too worried about that particular model of Samsung player as it has the hardware necessary to make it 2.0 compliant whenever Samsung gets a firmware update out to support it, but what about all the people with earlier versions? I know the PS3 is the best bluray player in terms of future-proofing, but this can't be right.

I've tried doing some google researching but I can't find any mention of Iron Man Blu-ray featuring some kind of new features that make it incompatible with older players. Anyone else have any ideas or experience on the matter? Maybe find a news site I overlooked with info on this?

If this is the future of bluray, I'm glad I own a PS3 >.<

[TheIgster]

Well it had better work on my 1500 since I just bought the 1500 a couple of weeks ago and I plan on buying Iron Man when it comes out.

Don't really know what to think of this. Samsung does say that with a firmware upgrade (coming soon), the 1500 will be upgraded to profile 2.0.

[QuantumFluxx]

Yeah I just need to ammend my previous post with a bit of new information, when I did the firmware update via the internet it didn't download the newest firmware, it just grabbed the next firmware in the steps towards the newest. So I downloaded the absolute newest the 08/08/08 version 1.3 firmware from samsung and loaded it onto my USB drive, stuck it in the player and updated.

Unfortunately, this still did not fix the problem, as the movie still would not load.

I can only hope that Samsung has a firmware update coming out soon, as in their defense, the movie isn't actually coming out until Sept 30th. If they don't have one by then though, I think people may be in for some grief.

This may also just be an issue with the 1500 itself as well, just some wierd compatibility problem with it, whereas say a Sony or Phillips model may have no issues with newest firmware. I don't know, I just found it odd that the disc came with a warning about compatibility when I've not seen any other BD movies do this.

[TheIgster]

I've seen that warning with just about all discs I've purchased, so I wouldn't worry about that.

I won't be a happy camper if I buy Iron Man when it comes out and it won't play on my JUST PURCHASED BD player though.

[QuantumFluxx]

Yeah I can imagine. The only bright side is, if this is a 2.0 compliance issue, as least you and my father will eventually be able to play the movie whenever samsung releases the update that enables it.

The irony is my father originally had the BD-P1400, last years model which didn't have any possible future with 2.0 as it lacked storage space among other features that are required for 2.0 to work. I tried telling him about the lack of 2.0 and he brushed me off saying he didnt care about special features, which was a valid point if you don't care about them, so what if you can't download more? Who'da thunk they'd alienate all their early supporters by basically paper-weighting their investments.

[rfielder]

You mean a Blu-Ray 2.0 movie is not backwards compatible at all? That is just plain stupid with a capital "stupe"!

It would make sense if the 2.0 features are not available on an older player, but not being able to view the movie at all is a surprise. Not a nice surprise at that!

[JohnnyCanuck]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Profile 2.0 movies are backwards compatible. There are already several out that seem to have no problem with the majority of players (I know ... I've played them on 1.1 players). However, there have always been movies (in any profile) that have issues with certain players.

What we have here is an issue between a single movie and one player. Given that the movie is not out for retail sale for another two weeks, we have no idea whether it's one single player (i.e. defective), the whole model, or Samsung players in general. Also, since the movie is not released, I have a source question about the disc being tried ... is a legitimate retail pressing?

[Luis_A51]

All blurays are compatible with all players. THeres no need to worry.

The problem is some manufacturers do not keep their firmware up to date. Samsung is famous for being incredibly slow at releasing firmware updates.

In the past, some new releases did not work on Samsung players for months after release because Samsung was very slow at releasing updates. This might be another case of this.

[QuantumFluxx]

Yes Johnny, the movie is a legitimate retail press of the disc.

I admit it could just be a Samsung issue or just that specific model. As far as the player itself being defective, I would hope not, as it plays all other bluray discs fine and hasn't shown an issue with something until now.

[jeneral]

The fact that a firmware upgrade is ever required is a major stumbling block to the mass adoption of Bluray. Not everyone has internet. Even fewer people understand the term 'firmware'. If Sony wants this format to supplant DVD, they need to lock down the specs and bite the bullet if their encryption gets compromised. Myself, as well as most readers on this forum, have no trouble with patches, fixes, etc... Joe-Six Pack expects to buy or rent a movie without dealing with such issues.

[Blackburst]

I agree. The average person just wants to turn on the TV and slap on a disc to watch. They shouldn't have to deal with "firmware", updates etc. If this continues, and SONY and company can't correct this sort of problem, then they can expect Blu-Ray to be nothing more than a niche format.

As for the "Iron Man" disc in question. Perhaps it's the disc. Try to play the disc on another stand alone Blu player. No PS3, and see if it works.

I've got the Samsung BD-UP5000, and I was going to buy "Iron Man". But, if this problem is for real. Then I just might buy the DVD version and have my machine upconvert it.

[TheIgster]

I didn't want to take a chance. If this is going to be an ongoing Samsung issue (I thought things had finally been worked out with them), then I simply don't want to have to worry about popping in a disc and it not playing and waiting for new firmware.

I was within the time frame to exchange my 1500 and that's what I did. I picked up the Sony BDP-S350 for $49 more today with the exchange. Rumour has it the 350 will be going down in price very soon, so I will most likely be able to get that $49 back on a price match in the next 30 days.

[QuantumFluxx]

Unfortunately I don't have access to another Stand-alone player. Everyone I know either cant afford to make the HD switch and leeches off us, or doesn't care enough about picture quality to actually make a purchase.

[Toolatecrew]

It may just be an issue with this one disc. There is widespread documented reports of Iron Man BR having incorrect flags that cause AVR and Processors to engage Dynamic compression to on. Inother words simply playing Iron Man makes the AVR think you engaged night mode making the difference between loud and soft less and basically ruining the HD Audio expereince. the soultion is to turn the dynamic compression in the PS3, Aver Processor whatever to off (not auto). Neverthe less it seems like this particular disc has at least one issue and maybe more.

Maybe Sony kicked them some bux to show people there is noreason to spend the same amount of $ on a standalone BR when you could have a PS3?

[57]

There are several other threads in this forum about the same sort of firmware issues. This is not new and is a very sad situation.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=88411

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=90921