Remember when DVD-type players didn’t require “firmware updates?” Ahh, those halcyon days of um, last year…

Welcome to blu-ray, where you need to make sure your player has the latest firmware update or your legally purchased disc simply won’t play. How fun.

From Ars Technica:

…two new Blu-ray titles that have just been released–Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer and The Day After Tomorrow. Both of these titles have been reported to exhibit various degrees of failure on some Blu-ray players. Some refuse to play until after an interminable two-minute delay, others skip randomly making watching the movie futile, and then there is this [message from Fox].

How nice of Fox to include a link to their web site in this helpful and friendly message! Unfortunately for the owners of the player in question, the second-generation Samsung BD-P1200, there is no new firmware to download for the player. Visiting the URL listed above–which after a maze of redirects and confusing menus finally does get you to Samsung’s BD-P1200 firmware page–will give you no satisfaction. The latest firmware listed there is the same 1.0 version that shipped with the player. The same fate is in store for owners of LG’s first-generation dual-format BH100 player.

We just have one question: What are the odds that Samsung and other manufacturers of blu-ray players are always going to be ready with new firmware for all of the players they have ever manufactured?

New Blu-ray discs with BD+ DRM failing to play on some devices [Ars Technica]
(Photo:Engadget)

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