anyone know anything about blu ray players?

[TorchTheWitch]

Suddenly mine refuses to play any DVD even a brand new fresh out of the package DVD, and I get an error message that says something like "can't load, check disk". After this happened with about 10 different DVD's I tried one after the other just to see if they'd play including the brand new one, the problem is obviously not the DVD's but something that's wrong with the player.

It worked just fine earlier tonight and just suddenly started doing this. I did a live chat with samsung tech support, and they seem convinced that the problem is because I need to upgrade the player's software, but how can that be the problem when it worked just fine an hour before and then just suddenly started doing this?

This player is only about a couple years old, too.

[Locut0s]

1. Does it still play Blu-Ray discs or does it refuse to play all discs? nt.

[TorchTheWitch]

2. I never play any blu ray discs in it - I don't have any

I've only ever used it to play DVD discs.

This is so weird because it worked just fine all day and just suddenly this happened, so I tried several other discs and it did it with every one of them.

[Locut0s]

3. Is it possible for you to upgrade the firmware?...

If the player is connected to the internet you can do it directly from the player. If not you may have to download the firmware onto a USB stick and do it that way.

I agree it seems odd that it would be a firmware issue if it happened all of a sudden. However it can't hurt to upgrade the firmware and it's possible it would fix it.

Did you unplug the player, leave it unplugged for a few mins and plug it back in? It's not likely to fix anything but it's possible that the player never fully shuts off and only goes into a sleep mode when you turn it off. If that were the case unplugging it would power cycle it and might fix it.

[TorchTheWitch]

4. it's not connected to the computer at all

I'd have to get a usb flash drive and put the update on from my computer upstairs then go downstairs and plug it into the usb port on the player (I always wondered why there was a usb port on the front of the player). Since I don't have a usb flash drive I'll have to buy one. Do you know about how much they cost? Or if there's different ones and I'd have to get something specific?

I did unplug it but I'm not sure for how long. Somewhere on the intertubes it was suggested that I manually clean the optical head, so I had to unplug the player and put it on the floor to open it up... except once inside I couldn't see anything that wasn't entirely encased in plastic with no way to open it, so I have no idea how one would go about manually cleaning anything. I sometimes use a cd/dvd disc cleaner, but it never seemed to work right, and I just found out that they usually don't work on blu ray machines because of something to do with the tracks not matching up with the little cleaning brushes on the disc cleaner. I'm more inclined to think that the problem is the optical head needing to be clean with them so susceptible to dust, but I have no idea how to do that since the disk cleaner doesn't seem to have been doing anything all this time, and I don't see any way that it's possible to do it manually.

With my old dvd players whenever I got that same error message saying the disc won't load and needs to be checked it's either because the disc is dirty or the optical head is. With them I could just run the disk cleaner, and that always worked if it wasn't the dvd itself that was dirty, but now I find out that they don't work for blu rays, and I can't find any disc cleaners specifically for blu rays.

We do have massive dust issues in these houses since they're right off a main road with 24 hour traffic that during the day is really heavy. The dust isn't like the usual gray/white dust either, it's dirt - it turns into mud if you wet it. I've always had to scrupulously clean the inside of the computer and vacuum out the air holes frequently because of the crazy amount of dust this place accumulates.

I'm much more inclined to think that it needs a disc cleaning inside the player, but there doesn't seem to be any way to do it either with a disc cleaner or manually. I can't understand how they can make blu rays you have no way to clean the the damn thing especially when they're so sensitive to dust.

Now I wish I had just gotten a regular DVD player but the blu ray was a gift, so I really can't complain.

[Locut0s]

5. You can get cans of compressed air...

You can get cans of compressed air at a local electronics store but they often charge way too much for them, like $20 which isn't worth it. If you find a can for cheap though they are good for cleaning out dust in these types of situations. Personally I would probably disassemble the player to clean it but I'm not suggesting you do that as it would void the warranty and you never know, you could damage it.

USB sticks are fairly cheap. You can get a small 2 to 4gb one for less than $10.

[TorchTheWitch]

8. I do the compressed air thing all the time

Since I'm familiar with how dusty it gets in this house I'm paranoid about the electronic equipment especially the computer, so I'm constantly making sure that dust isn't getting into anything and staying there accumulating for a long time.

I guess I'll get a blu ray disk cleaner for cleaning the lens and the usb flash drive to upgrade the software, and hope either or or both work. I'm more inclined to think it's a dust problem... maybe it happened suddenly because a bitty little hair got in there on the lens and the compressed air isn't budging it or something. Considering that all this time I've been using the regular cd/dvd disk cleaner and it wasn't bloody doing anything since the tracks don't match up on a blu ray player, then the lens has probably never gotten cleaned for the couple of years I've had it in this dust bin. Any time in the past with my old dvd players any time i got this message that the dvd disk was dirty it wasn't the dvd but the lens that needed cleaning.

[jakeXT]

7. I know that Blu-ray players use a different laser color, but the cleaning disc seems to be the same

http://www.amazon.com/Maxell-BR-LC-Blu-ray-Cleaner-190054/dp/B00178HN0O

Maybe it's just so dirty that the disc isn't read at all, then you could try the compressed air, vacuum cleaner or other methods.

There are times when a cleaning disc simply won't work. For instance if your lens is already so dirty it won't read the starting track, then you won't be able to use the disc.
http://voices.yahoo.com/how-clean-blu-ray-drive-6198090.html

[TorchTheWitch]

9. already done all that

I use the compressed air frequently anyway. I also used the disc cleaner frequently but I knew it wasn't working right since every time it told me to proceed to track whatever the machine made a lot of weird noises and nothing else ever happened. Now I find out that the regular cd/dvd disc cleaners don't usually fit blu ray machines because the tracks don't match up. All this time I thought the lens was being cleaned but it probably never was.

I also can't physically get to the lens to clean it manually as all these articles describe in taking the machine apart because the whole unit is one hunk of plastic once you get in there that there's no way to get into it to get to the lens. I imagine they make them this way on purpose so you can't clean or replace your lens and have to buy a new machine. All three of my old dvd players were the same - you couldn't physically get to the lens to clean it though you could open the machine and replace other stuff in there.

At this point I think I'm just going to get a new machine - the same one can be had for not much more than both the disc cleaner and the flash drive will, and I have no way of knowing whether or not either of them will fix the problem with this machine anyway.

[BobUp]

6. anyone know anything about blu ray players?

Yes, they're expensive, and so are the discs.

here's a Samsung forum, might, might not help...

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=170483

Possibly find a Coby or Magnavox dvd player for about 20 bucks, dollar store specials?

[Locut0s]

10. Prices have come down a lot...

Not quite where DVD players are/were but getting there.

Same for the discs.

[BobUp]

11. My DVD player

has whiskers on it, it's that old. I occasionally need to use one of those CD cleaners like the OP described with the little brush on it. Still works pretty good.

Yeah, my VHS tapes are aged, too, pretty soon, I won't be able to watch those at all, deterioration I fear.

[TorchTheWitch]

12. Well, I solved the problem with the blue ray player

Got a new and better one.

The lens was damaged in the other one. Lesson learned - don't use a regular cd/dvd lens cleaner on a blu ray... the tracks don't often match, and it can damage the lens.

Though I got the new one hooked up and it works, for some reason the tv won't let me get out of the set up menu. Pressing, exit, return, ok, menu, or whatever does nothing at all. Not even turning the tv off gets me out of it. I'm forever stuck in setting up apps whatever the hell that is and I had no intension to set up anything more than to play the damn dvd's. I tried both the tv remote and the blu ray remote and nothing. I can't get the hell out of that stupid apps menu no matter what the hell buttons I press.

[Locut0s]

13. Is this a menu on the DVD player of the TV?

Sorry I'm a bit confused. You mentioned apps. Would this be a "smart TV" with apps? In which case it's the apps setup menu for the TV. Or is this a menu on the DVD player? Unplugging either / both doesn't solve the issue?

[TorchTheWitch]

14. It's the tv - I think

I did see something at some point that said "smart tv" but I don't know what that is. I only use the tv to watch DVD's with the blue ray player. I refuse to buy cable, and even free tv doesn't really work because it can never find the most basic area channels but provides me with a bunch of Spanish language soap operas, weirdo religious channels and other oddball channels... but I don't care since I don't bother with regular tv anyway.

I only had to go into the set up on the tv to associate the new blu ray hookup to the HDMI cord, which I was surprised I had to do since it already did that with the old blu ray that went tits up, but whatever. Once doing that I could then watch DVD's with the blu ray on the tv, but damned if I could figure out how to get the hell out of the set up menu. Eventually I found myself in some menu having to do with apps (though I have no idea what that is and I'm not interested anyway) and found that no matter what the hell button I pressed either with the remote for the tv or the one for the blu ray I couldn't get out of it. I turned off both the tv and blu ray player and turned them back on, then tried unplugging both but was right back at the apps menu again.

The manuals for the tv and the blu ray player say that all you have to do to get out of any menu is to press the Exit button, but I did that to no avail. I tried every damn button on both remotes but nothing doing... I'm trapped in this stupid app set up menu and can't figure out how the hell to get out or get out of set up all together.

Incidentally, the Exit button on both remotes works just fine to exit out of other menus but not the app menu for some reason so there can't be anything wrong with the buttons on either of the remotes.

I'm completely stumped.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

15. I had the same thing happen with a samsung.

It was wifi capable and upgraded it's software automatically. Apparently samsung's upgrades are pretty sloppy in terms of being backwards compatible and often will make older disks fail to play. The next update might fix it. For mine, I didn't care to wait as I'd about had it at that point with all things samsung.

[TorchTheWitch]

16. problem solved

See my post #12. Lens got damaged, bought new blu ray player.

As for the software for the old machine, mine didn't upgrade automatically. It did need to be upgraded, but you have to download it from the internet, put it on a USB flash drive (which I don't have) and plug it into the player which then runs the update automatically once you plug in the flash drive. That wasn't the problem with my machine though. The lens just went...



Or perhaps....