Tweet blu-ray player help/query

The last 2 blu-ray discs I've purchased won't play in my player. I get an incompatable disc message and it pops the disc out. It's a Sharp, the TV is also a sharp quattron. I've tried upgrading the firmware, machine says no need.

I fear I either have a buggy machine, or need a new one.

Anyone have a similar problem? Now I'm wondering which player I should buy, especially because I want to stream amazon prime. Sharp does not play with amazon. Help!

Really sounds like you got a bad machine. You should contact Sharp about it or the place where you bought it. They should at least give you advice on contacting the maker.
I've always had good luck with Samsung. They seem to be doing most things right these days. Although I'm sure there's somebody somewhere who got a buggy Samsung and is railing against them!

My Panasonic streams amazon prime and I've never had a problem with it playing any discs. You should be able to find a list of prime compatible devices at the amazon site.

Is yours an older player? I had a Panasonic that was several years old and wouldn't play Disney's Alice in Wonderland despite my having its latest firmware upgrade, but after several months and several exchanges of correspondence, they hadn't issued any upgrade by the time I had decided I wanted a new player anyway. If yours is also an older unit, perhaps they're not supporting it any longer.

If you intend to buy a new blu-ray player, wait until Black Friday, November 23. Another site, slickdeals.net, should have postings about any blu-ray player deals. A good site for reviews of blu-ray players is the member comments section of Amazon.com for the blu-ray players on sale there. Not all discs are made equal, so the problem you have may be related to bad luck in getting two bum blu-rays in a row.

Is yours an older player? I had a Panasonic that was several years old and wouldn't play Disney's Alice in Wonderland despite my having its latest firmware upgrade, but after several months and several exchanges of correspondence, they hadn't issued any upgrade by the time I had decided I wanted a new player anyway. If yours is also an older unit, perhaps they're not supporting it any longer.

I think older Blu-ray players (except for Sony's Playstation 3) are not powerful enough to play 3D movies so if your copy of Alice is the 3D version it's understandable why an older player is not able to play it and why there is not an update for it. The same could be valid for the 2 discs rudyfan has mentioned if they are 3D films...

To update, after toying with the idea of a roku, I bought a Sony BD player and am really happy with it. Works flawlessly and also allows for amazon prime streaming as well as Netflix and all kinds of other things. Plays blu-rays flawlessly, too. If I am so inclined, I can also surf the web, but not so inclined!

[Christopher Jacobs]

Is yours an older player? I had a Panasonic that was several years old and wouldn't play Disney's Alice in Wonderland despite my having its latest firmware upgrade, but after several months and several exchanges of correspondence, they hadn't issued any upgrade by the time I had decided I wanted a new player anyway. If yours is also an older unit, perhaps they're not supporting it any longer.

I think older Blu-ray players (except for Sony's Playstation 3) are not powerful enough to play 3D movies so if your copy of Alice is the 3D version it's understandable why an older player is not able to play it and why there is not an update for it. The same could be valid for the 2 discs rudyfan has mentioned if they are 3D films...

Disney's ALICE IN WONDERLAND (at least the one 99.9% most likely to be discussed in this forum) was made in 1951 before even the first 3-D craze, and I don't think it's been post-converted that I've heard.

No Blu-ray player from any manufacturer or date will play a 3-D Blu-ray disc unless either it is a 3-D Blu-ray player or the disc happens to be a combination 2-D/3-D compatible disc (which is fairly rare), and in the latter case it must be a 3-D Blu-ray player in order to play the disc in 3-D, but a regular Blu-ray player can still play the 2-D version.

I've found that Blu-ray standards have been changing so fast over the past five years that various discs, new and old, will play perfectly on some machines, freeze up, skip, run only in slow-motion, or have out-of-sync audio on others, and not play at all on others, whether or not the machines themselves are five years old, three years old, or one year old, with or without firmware revisions. Many also have problems when players are connected to the internet, even though they like to check automatically for internet content. It's best not to have players connected to the internet for everyday use, unless, perhaps it is one of the very latest models. Most discs do play on most machines, but there have been more exceptions lately that play most reliably on the newest players. When they work right, though, they sure look great with the image projected ten feet wide!

Disney's ALICE IN WONDERLAND (at least the one 99.9% most likely to be discussed in this forum) was made in 1951 before even the first 3-D craze, and I don't think it's been post-converted that I've heard.

I think Tim Burton's 3D version is also Disney's and although less sutiable for this forum there is some possibility that it has been the one in question (although I suppose it's not).

No Blu-ray player from any manufacturer or date will play a 3-D Blu-ray disc unless either it is a 3-D Blu-ray player or the disc happens to be a combination 2-D/3-D compatible disc (which is fairly rare), and in the latter case it must be a 3-D Blu-ray player in order to play the disc in 3-D, but a regular Blu-ray player can still play the 2-D version.

This is almost correct. PlayStation 3 was not a Blu-ray 3D player but with an update it became able to play Blu-ray 3D discs with some limitations (mostly audio related). I haven't heard of other Blu-ray players capable of doing it though. But as I've mentioned the reason is mainly related to their shortage of processing power, it's not a hardware related issue. And since PS3 was powereful enough Sony were able to offer an update doing the trick.

I've found that Blu-ray standards have been changing so fast over the past five years that various discs, new and old, will play perfectly on some machines, freeze up, skip, run only in slow-motion, or have out-of-sync audio on others, and not play at all on others, whether or not the machines themselves are five years old, three years old, or one year old, with or without firmware revisions. Many also have problems when players are connected to the internet, even though they like to check automatically for internet content. It's best not to have players connected to the internet for everyday use, unless, perhaps it is one of the very latest models. Most discs do play on most machines, but there have been more exceptions lately that play most reliably on the newest players. When they work right, though, they sure look great with the image projected ten feet wide!

I think these constant changes as well as the fees required by the Blu-ray license holders are the main reasons for the relatively small share of Blu-ray discs. Despite offering several times better quality compared to DVDs, BDs are still not very popular and I don't see how this situation will be changed if the companies behind Blu-ray technology do not take some appropriate measures.

To update, after toying with the idea of a roku, I bought a Sony BD player and am really happy with it.

I've always been really happy with my Sony BD player. One thing I love is that, since my TV and soundbar are also Sony products, they all tie in to one remote device.

On the other hand, I do have two discs (which of course are among my favorite films) that the player no longer recognizes, much as you initially described. Sony has instructions for updating firmware and for "resetting" the machine on their website, but those haven't helped me yet.

One thing that I have run into on Sony players is if you play 4X3 DVDs on them it's hard to get them to play in the proper aspect ratio.

[Christopher Jacobs]

One thing that I have run into on Sony players is if you play 4X3 DVDs on them it's hard to get them to play in the proper aspect ratio.

I haven't had a problem with my two Sony Blu-ray players, but you've got to go into the setup menu. Bruce Calvert noted in another thread that the options are counter-intuitively named, so you need to play around with them to get the effect you want.

Both Sony players also seem to downconvert multi-track Dolby Tru HD and DTS-HD tracks to PCM by default. This is actually useful for me on mono films, as my A/V receiver will not process those formats so that 2.0 mono collapses to the center speaker and subwoofer, and will only play them through the right and left front speakers, but 2.0 PCM or lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks can be decoded into 5.1 or 1.1 mono depending on how they were recorded. For 5.1 and 7.1 lossless tracks I use an LG or an Insignia Blu-ray player.

One thing that I have run into on Sony players is if you play 4X3 DVDs on them it's hard to get them to play in the proper aspect ratio.

Keep in mind that you want the aspect ratio setting of the player to be the shape of your TV screen, not the intended shape of the film. Usually that means 16x9 if you have a wide-screen set, but there are usually variations of that which will stretch 4x3 images; often those are called "full" or "wide," but, as Christopher notes, the designations often have confusing names.

Also, your TV itself probably has aspect ratio settings; between the two units there are probably dozens of combinations that will get things wrong, but only one that'll get it right. You just have to experiment.