Question for the Techies - Samsung Blu-Ray player

[58limited]

I have a Samsung Blu-Ray player that I bought in 2009, model HT-BD7200. This week, I bought three new blu-ray disks and none of them will load and play. The blu-rays I bought a year or more ago will play. I updated the firmware today and that did not work. I got on Samsung's chat help and they had me do a reset and disable BD-Live. None of that helped. They basically said that I cannot watch these movies right now but they took the information on the movies as well as my player and sent them to their tech support group to use in future firmware upgrades. What do you guys think? Am I being fed a line of BS?

DVDs work fine in this machine, but even with the blu-rays I bought in the last two years I sometimes have to load them two or three times to get them to play. The three new ones will not play at all.

 

[sudsmaster]

If the machine has a memory card slot (like SD) try putting a blank one in. It might help. My theory is that some machines use the card to store playback information.

Other than that, I guess you might have to wait for Samsung to issue another firmware update. I suspect they are not BS'ing you. Blu-Ray was kind of shaky to start out, and perhaps the machine was designed to an earlier more limited standard.

OTOH, a quick Google search of "blu-ray issues samsung" reveals a LOT of complaints about Samsung Blu-ray players and various later releases of Blu-ray movies.

 

[DADoES]

 
Likely it's not BS.  Software (disc content) does occasionally revise, requiring firmware updates.  I have a BD-P5190 that has updated maybe 4 times.  It wouldn't play some format or other of non-BluRay recorded discs prior to one of the updates.  Thus far there've been maybe two instances of rented BluRay discs refusing to play.  Several instances of flaky discs that stall on the initial load, requiring eject and reload or power-off/on without ejecting.

 

[kb0nes]

David,

First off I will admit that I don't own a Samsung BD player, although I have used one a few times. I have a Denon unit that is about the age of yours, I've had more then 100 BD's through it and never once a hiccough.

Did your unit have an active Internet connection at the time of the failures? I'm not sure how this could cause any issues but it might be interesting for the sake of science to break the connection and repeat the test. I have never used a BD player with an active Internet connection. I do know that many BD's are web interactive and perhaps there is a communications failure somewhere. I'm quite pleased to have a player that can't "talk" to the outside World lol

It isn't very satisfying to hear the line come from Samsung that you "can't watch those movies now", they really need to try a bit harder. I am quite pleased with Samsung's TV's and monitors, but I don't think I'd buy any other product from them personally.

Check back and let us know if you get it sorted out!

 

[a440]

David,

Keep your Samsung player, and push the issue with them.

Many DVD / Blu-Ray players are obsolete now. Mostly because the owners gave up and did not fight the issue. Those players were actually some of the best manufactured. Beefy to the max! In every way! It was very disappointing to see huge companies such as Panasonic, Pioneer (Panasonic built), RCA, etc... that refused to send out an update to these players. They could have. They did not want to research nor pay. I could go on about this but I won't.

Keep your Samsung and push it with them. I have even heard of companies that would convince the person to send in their units and have it "Upgraded". And for a price. Nah. This is their issues.

Another aggravating part is this...Your movie would play fine in your BD player. The updates are usually for all of the Ad and Link Contents! It's freaking Gross! It would be so simple to have programed these early players to be able to skip over "added" content such as ads and crap, and still be able to see your movie content. Many people would not put up with this if it concerned PC / MAC upgrade issues. Why put up with it with DVD / Blu-Ray players or many Digital Televisions? It's all Digital, Software.

It's all about money!
Stick it to them!
My 2 Cents Worth.
Brent

 

[arbilab]

Compatibility is like, so 90s. (Extreme sarcasm) Y2K was real, we're just now finding out.

 

[paulg]

A440 is correct

Push the issue with the manufacturer by calling their hotline periodically. Get a case number!
Disc incompatibility is reported everyday. However, the engineers who can adjust the firmware are not in the USA but probably in Korea or China. Unfortunately you have to wait your turn for them to address your disc titles among the many reports they get everyday.
I don't work for SAMSUNG but probably these same engineers are being pushed to "finish up" the latest models and adjusting older units to play troublesome discs is not their first priority. If SAMSUNG didn't make the player but sublet the task to another manufacturer you now have to deal with a bucket-brigade of engineers.
This issue is common among DVD/BLU-RAY manufacturers.
Aggravating? Yes. But that is the way it goes at this state of the technology.
FYI: When reporting a DVD / BLU-RAY issue, read the disc and packaging and try to find out who actually pressed the disc. Also check to see if there are codes around the center hole. A particular movie title may be pressed by different companies therefore some discs may work and others may not. Tell the phone clerk this info when you call. You may need a magnifying glass to see these codes when pressed into the disc.

 

[58limited]

Thanks for all of the input. I do intend to push this, I get really ticked off by tech that is considered obsolete after three years and not supported. The only problem is I have low tolerance for wasting my time on the phone or on internet chat with tech support. I still have to call Time Warner about their internet modem, it suddenly quit working with my Linksys wireless router. Three hours on the phone with Linksys and they said it must be a setting has changed in my modem.

My Blu-Ray is not hooked up to the internet and never has been. My TV is a Samsung 240Hz LED that I bought at the same time. It actually has a little problem occasionally: The screen will go black and the only thing I can do is unplug it for 5 minutes - I guess it has to reset. It only does this a couple of times a year. My computer monitors (I have two on my Dell) are both Samsung that I bought last year, no problems with them.

 

[DADoES]

 
My Samsung BluRay is connected online.  It can stream Netflix, YouTube, and Pandora.  Originally also had Blockbuster streaming but the last firmware update zapped Blockbuster, which I never used anyway.  Being that it's connected, it also automatically checks for firmware/OS updates.

 

[a440]

I would say that 95% of consumers that have this issue think the player is Kaput, and throw it away. They don't even know what an upgrade is.
No matter how I look at the situation I think it is a racket with Manufactures of these units. They don't care if you only used the unit 2 years and junked it. They just want you to buy another. If they did care, the players design would say "Software Upgrade Needed" on your screen when a non compatible disc was inserted.
It has also been ages since I have seen the "warning" slips in Blu-Ray disc. The one that told stated 'your software might need to be updated to play this disc'.
I would tell them in a sweet voice when you call; "If you don't have an upgrade to my player that is only 3 years old, then I guess you need to just replace it with your newest model at your expense".

 

[gansky1]

Keep after them!

I have two Sony BD/DVD players, both WiFi connected and there are updates that come up periodically on the earlier Sony in the living room. I have been unable to get the new Sony to connect with Amazon video service. They both are blaming each other and I ran out of time so that issue remains unresolved but I've had no trouble playing any new discs or the DVDs we've had for years on either player.

 

[58limited]

One of my faults when dealing with technology issues is getting pissed and not dealing with it for a while. I am just now e-mailing Samsung about this and how I believe it is an unacceptable situation. I sent a transcript of the online chat tech. support session too. I dug out my receipts. I paid $575.00 for this Blu-Ray theater system 3/12/2010. That is a lot of money and I expect this system to play any blu-ray that I purchase. I told them to fix the issue or send me another unit at their expense. With all of the posts on the web about similar problems that can easily be found via Google, I mentioned how easy it would be to organize a class-action suit.

 

[mattl]

You said your bd player is not and has not been online, often a simple download fixes the problem. Before spending hours on the phone try doing an update and see if its resolved...

 

[58limited]

As I said in the first post, I downloaded the firmware update and it did not solve the problem. This was the only update that was available on their support page.

 

[58limited]

Here is an update: Samsung asked that I buy a cleaning disk and run it to clean the optic reader. The cleaning disk didn't want to load and run either but I was able to get it to run - in Spanish language mode. I ran it several times. This did not change anything, disks still wouldn't play. I bought a few more Blu-ray movies that were on sale, they didn't want to load even after I ran the cleaning disk. Then I got an idea. I took the cleaning spray I bought for the screen of the  LED TV and cleaned each disk. That helped a lot - even the new ones fresh out of the package that had no finger prints at all wouldn't play but they do now since I cleaned them - factory residues? Some disks are still persnickety though. I found that I can use the skip ahead button to skip to the ending time mark of the previews (they won't load and play and the disk will not load beyond the time mark) and then turn the player off. When I turn it back on, the disk will then load from that time mark to the disk menu. Sometimes it takes two or three tries but I have now watched all of the new disks I bought.

 

Now if I could get the stupid wireless router problem on my computer system fixed. Time Warner ran a modem check and said the modem is fine. I exchanged the router two weeks ago with no results. Today, on the advice of Linksys online tech support, I traded it in on the next higher model - they said that the model I had couldn't handle the speed of the modem when I upgraded my internet service - I did not change modems, Time Warner just "flipped a switch" to increase my speed (phone support with Linksys later told me that info was false, my old router was indeed capable of handling the speed). Anyway, this router won't work either. It has been determined that the modem port is defective, even though it works when wired directly to my computer. It just does not connect correctly to the router. The router itself works, I successfully connected to it with my wireless laptop. So, Monday I will exchange the modem. I'm not holding my breath that this will work but who knows?

 

Next up is troubleshooting my 4 1/2 year old Whirlpool Convertible Deepfreeze/Refrigerator. It died two weeks ago. And people wonder why I mostly use 60 year old appliances - they still work!

 

[58limited]

Update on router/modem issue: exchanged the modem and everything works fine.