Blu Ray Fail

Talk about music, movies, television, books, and other media. No religious or political discussion allowed.
User avatar
VideoGameCritic
Site Admin
Posts: 18074
Joined: April 1st, 2015, 7:23 pm

Blu Ray Fail

Postby VideoGameCritic » August 19th, 2018, 9:36 pm

So I've been having difficulty using Blu Rays with my PS3 lately because apparently it needs to update the encryption key which requires a system update (which I am doing now). From what I understand, all Blu Ray players are like this. I'm sorry, but there is no satisfactory reason you should have to update the software that plays a damn disc.

What a crock of [expletive]. The reason I buy physical media is so I won't be at the mercy of a remote server. I can watch what I want any time. The concept that I have to regularly check in for an update defeats the purpose. And here's a shocker - how many of us were aware of this restriction when we purchased our Blu Ray Player. As usual, these companies pulled the wool over our eyes, and now we're left to do "maintenance" on these devices. That really makes me mad!

Are Ultra HD blu rays the same way? I guess we'll find out in a few years when our discs stop working.

Thoughts?

User avatar
pacman000
Posts: 1137
Joined: December 30th, 2015, 9:04 am

Re: Blu Ray Fail

Postby pacman000 » August 19th, 2018, 10:57 pm

Updatable encryption methods were requested by film companies to help thwart piracy.

I buy discs because my internet's lousy, so updates annoy me.

But we're at these companies' mercy if we want their products...

User avatar
Gentlegamer
Posts: 784
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 1:01 am

Re: Blu Ray Fail

Postby Gentlegamer » August 20th, 2018, 7:13 am

Why are you putting anything other than game discs in your PS3? You're just asking for the drive to fail.

Voor
Posts: 1553
Joined: April 14th, 2015, 8:08 pm

Re: Blu Ray Fail

Postby Voor » August 20th, 2018, 7:18 am

We’ve had multiple BluRay players in my house, and they are easily the most inconsistent electronic devices ever. Performance rates vary, prone to freezing up for no reason, etc. I have a Panasonic and a Sony. It seemed to read discs OK, but using it for Netflix, etc was a nightmare.

It was such a relief to finally get a Smart TV with all that stuff built into it.

User avatar
ptdebate
Posts: 1072
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 8:39 pm

Re: Blu Ray Fail

Postby ptdebate » August 20th, 2018, 7:21 am

Good morning Critic,

I have to agree with you that this is kind of BS. I imagine this is an effort on the part of the publishers to constantly update the copy protection on their discs to stay ahead of pirates. That does nothing to prevent illegal downloads once a rip is inevitably circulated however, and in fact only serves to frustrate the end user.

I'm not sure if it is for the same reason, but one thing we noticed on our recent trip to Japan was that DVDs and good old-fashioned CD-ROMs are still highly valued. New movies printed in the DVD format command a full $30 price tag and are collected and held onto, not simply cast aside in favor of the superseding technology. This is despite the fact that, not only is Japan the most technologically advanced country on Earth, but also that the Blu-Ray format itself was invented in Japan. Despite the ubiquity and quality of high-speed internet, there is still a strong presence of offline media.

User avatar
Rev
Posts: 1487
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 7:31 pm

Re: Blu Ray Fail

Postby Rev » August 20th, 2018, 9:10 am

I've had similar experiences to Voor on Blu Ray players.I've been through about 5-6 Blu Ray players in the last 5 years because the stupid things keep breaking. The two main issues I always seem to have is that the Blu rays stop loading (but DVDs loaded fine) and individual discs not read but everything else works fine. I've had the same $20 DVD player for about 10 years but have not had the same luck with Blu Rays. What has worked great for me is my PS3 and PS4 consoles. However, I do not want to put any stress on the consoles by using them as a full time Blu Ray player so I always try and use an actual Blu Ray player.

While I may dislike Blu Ray players quality, I do have to say that having one in the bedroom is nice. I use it to watch streaming services and even the cheapest ones at Walmart work way better than the old Roku boxes and stuff.

User avatar
ptdebate
Posts: 1072
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 8:39 pm

Re: Blu Ray Fail

Postby ptdebate » August 20th, 2018, 10:19 am

Gentlegamer wrote:Why are you putting anything other than game discs in your PS3? You're just asking for the drive to fail.


Yes and no. Early PS3 consoles had faulty drives, but as far as I can tell the PS3 Slim and Super Slim models are very reliable. I've had a Super Slim since 2012 that has been heavily used for all kinds of media and shows no signs of giving up.

Honestly, the PS3 SS is the most reliable disc player I've ever owned. The only downside is that you can't find them new anymore. If I could, I'd be tempted to stock up a few extra consoles just in case.

User avatar
Retro STrife
Posts: 2520
Joined: August 3rd, 2015, 7:40 pm

Re: Blu Ray Fail

Postby Retro STrife » August 20th, 2018, 10:40 am

Just to clarify... does this mean that your blu ray player would be useless now if you didn't have an internet connection available to download the update? And/or that it could be useless in 10 years when the PS3 servers are done and the system might not connect online anymore? I'd hope at a minimum that the blu ray discs contain the update too, so that an internet connection isn't required, though it sounds like that isn't the case.

User avatar
pacman000
Posts: 1137
Joined: December 30th, 2015, 9:04 am

Re: Blu Ray Fail

Postby pacman000 » August 20th, 2018, 10:46 am

You can install updates from a thumb drive. You just need an internet-connected PC to download them.

Sneakernet! The Return!

Tron
Posts: 870
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 8:02 pm

Re: Blu Ray Fail

Postby Tron » August 20th, 2018, 3:09 pm

Wow that totally sucks. I’ve been slowly transitioning from dvd to Blu-ray, but after reading this I’m second guessing if I should. I’ve been planning on buying the Twilight Zone series on blue ray since reviews have stated that the visual clarity is much better than dvd, but if I’m going to have to update the discs online then forget about it. Is there any way to know which Blu-ray Discs require maintenance? Like how games state if internet is required.


Return to “Other Media”