Ever since the Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray player launched there have been rumors that it did not ship with the ability to read 50GB discs based on a passage in the manual which only cited 25GB compatibility.. Over at The Digital Bits, they cite unnamed sources from as recently as two weeks ago stating that dual-layer 50GB discs weren't available for testing (even though it was
originally delayed for further compatibility testing) before the player launched and now that there are, they just don't work. The good news would be that this is apparently fixable via a
firmware update like another
BD-P1000 problem we've heard about; but this problem is figuring into the delay of not only dual-layer movies, but other upcoming standalone Blu-ray players as well. Firmware update or not, we're pretty sure early adopting Blu-ray buyers didn't spend $1000 to only be able to read 25GB discs. We'd love to confirm or deny these rumors, in fact, we'll just go grab a dual-layer movie release and put it in right now...oh. Like so many other things about this format war we'll have to wait and see.
posted August 29th 2006 8:19AM
I can sense some serious Blu-ray bashing coming from the HD-DVD fans!
Sounds to me like this player was a bit of a rush job to put it mildly. Still, I don't think it changes much in terms of the format war outcome if indeed the problem can be fixed with a firmware update.
It's an HD-DVD conspiracy to keep blu-ray down! Just kidding. Yet another teething problem for blu-ray. It seems blu-ray may have been released too early in order to stop HD-DVD from having the market to themselves until blu-ray was fully developed with dual-layer dics and advanced codecs.
This is no different than the Toshiba player needing a fw upgrade to use the TrueHD aduio etc. First gen. players are gonna have issues no matter what media they're playin'.
At least Toshiba was intelligent enough to build in a "firmware update" feature in their player. All you have to do is connect the HD-DVD players to your Internet router or cable modem, hit the update button, and your box has the latest firmware with all the latest features and fixes.
In contrast, the Samsung has no such feature. It doesn't even have an ethernet port. For now, you've got to send the player in to Samsung to get it fixed, in which case you may not even get your original player back.
Ken: That's not actually true. Firmware updates cna be done via CD-R as well. The sharpness problem, however, seems to be something that may require hardware replacement.
Jay,
It should be possible to update via CD/DVD, but Samsung is telling people they have to send the player back for the sharpness issue, which is supposed to be a firmware fix.
There are already BD-R 50GB available along with the burners. Why can't just somone burn one and try on the player? I know the processes aren't the same, but at least it'll show if the samsung player can read both layers.