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General discussion

Do Blu Ray players "expire"? (no more firmware updates)

Sep 15, 2015 11:21PM PDT

I just popped in season 5 of Adventure Time, and the ads play, then the menu screen appears. The music plays, but the episode selection does not show up. I did some googleing, and it seems this is a problem that some people are having with their players (the discs are not faulty).

Is my player too old? The most recent firmware update is from 2013. I have BD-D5700-ZA.

I'm a little annoyed that an expensive Blu Ray player will not play new Blu Ray discs. My mindset is very much planted in the VHS era. Is this an adjustment I have to make? Will I have to buy a new player every three years?

Discussion is locked

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An industry issue.
Sep 16, 2015 5:39AM PDT

As you discovered BluRay has a rather nasty feature of studios able to issue a new DRM and break older players. I'm not going to dive into how it works or why.

So yes is the simple answer and so far no one has made a good court case about the issue you noted. That said I don't collect BluRay titles often. I read a lot when BluRay came out and decided they were looney.

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RE: Blu-ray Discs
Sep 17, 2015 9:14AM PDT

I'm sorry to hear about the trouble you're having. Does the disc have any BD Live features on it? If so try disabling those, and see if it will play.


Regards,
HD Tech

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Nope
Sep 17, 2015 6:50PM PDT

I turned off BD Live on my player, and that did not solve the problem.