DVD Polizei

So, this is odd. Recently, my BDP-93 stopped playing my Fox Blu-ray discs. John Wayne Collection...nada. Can't get past the loading screen. I, Robot, same thing, won't even boot up.

A few others won't play as well and I'll get a list going once I go through my collection.

No visible appearance of rotting.

Wish I had another BD player to test but I don't, however, the Oppo plays the Fox DVDs just fine.

PhantomStranger

Fox is by far the most aggressive studio at using updated encryption keys for their BDs. Is a newer firmware available for the machine? I've heard no cases of failures from Fox pressings.

DVD Polizei

Yeah, I have the latest firmware. What's odd is that these have played just fine in the past, but just over the last week, it'll freeze up. I was curious and took my Alien Quad set out and played a movie...no go. But then I played the extras BD disc...it was just fine. So, I'm not sure what's going on.

The Passion Of The Christ (Definitive Edition): Blu-ray won't play. DVD will play.
The Day The Earth Stood Still (3-Disc Edition): Remake and original Blu-ray discs will not play.

Giles

for some reason my LG player played 'Last of the Mohicans' just once and now can't even load up - it's just a blank screen ...

Josh-da-man

Blu-ray is a tetchy format.

DVD Polizei

Which is obvious why DVD is still the king. And why I won't change my username.

morriscroy

It would be quite surprising if the player keys were cracked for a standalone bluray player which doesn't allow custom programmed code to be imported and executed. (The Sony Playstation and computer based bluray player software, are both completely different beasts).

The one thing which makes bluray's aacs system more effective than dvd's css system, is that aacs has an effective "traitor tracing" scheme while css doesn't have much of one. (The css encryption algorithm can be easily cracked by brute force, without knowing any player keys).

The "traitor tracing" scheme of aacs is what makes it an endless arms race between AACS-LA and the hackers.

DvdClon

A new firmware version was released yesterday (10/27/2014).
It doesn't mention resolving any Fox problems, though.

On Sunday, someone on AVSForum reported problems playing Fox Blus.
That wasn't you, was it?

DVD Polizei

Nope. Gonna get a can of air tonight and blow my Oppo. I'll update how that goes.

DVD Polizei

UPDATE: Didn't work. Looks like I'm going to get a Blu-ray player that actually works for $50 and probably send the BDP-93 for service.

Mr. Salty

Contact Oppo's customer service. They've been very good about getting back to people who have questions and problems. And not just some flack, but an engineer who knows what he's talking about. Their customer service really is unmatched.

DVD Polizei

Yeah, I think I'm going to be sending it in. Recommendations were to clean the laser lens, and the persistent storage deletion. Network settings and so forth. So far, no go. If all my other non-Fox BDs are playing just fine and one Fox BD is working surprisingly, then what could it be that Fox BDs are making the player not play them?

I'm also getting a sub-$100 BD player as a backup.

rw2516

Don't know if this has anything to do with your problem or not. There seems to be a widespread problem with X-Men: Days of Future Passed BD from Fox. A lot of people are getting can't read messages with various brands, including Oppo. Appears a lot worse with players over two years old. Compatibility/encryption issue. Not sure if any updates have fix yet.
I have no idea if this is technically possible,
1. Trying to play Days of Future Passed does something to player to affect the encryption of all Fox discs trying to be played? Did you try to play Days of Future Passed before this started?
2. Something coming in over the internet concerning encryption? Could try disconnecting player from internet and see if Fox discs play. Long shot but I'd try it before sending player in. Nothing to lose.

Spiky

Do you have mods on the Oppo? I have problems with one Disney disc because of the region free hardware. I have to remove it to play that disc.

Josh-da-man

I believe that the blu-ray format has the ability to put updated encryption codes and firmware updates onto discs. So if Fox updated their encryption codes they could put them on all of their new discs, which would then load into any player that that disc is put in. If there is some kind of bug in the codes, it could then cause playback problems if there is a compatibility issue with older discs. It could also only affect certain models of players instead of being an across the board problem.

rw2516

"I purchased the blu ray four times, would not work. I called my blu ray player company, OPPO and before I could finish the sentence he finished it for me..."the disc will not read." Apparently this is a major issue he stated and that if you own ANY blu ray player older than two years it will not play in it. Fox used some new technology which only is readable in new players, and Fox is aware of the issue. That being said, and being I was not planning on buying a new OPPO I am stuck with a DVD version. I have informed Amazon of what I was told and hopefully they will place a notice on this item"

The above is from an Amazon review of Days of Future Passed. I'd definitely call Oppo and see if this new Fox crap could have anything to do with your problem, one way or another.

Spiky

Guess I'm glad I didn't buy that, nearly did at Target, they wouldn't work with me, I guarantee.

DVD Polizei

No, I do not. I was thinking of doing it though. I'm gonna scrap that idea, as the mod is $100 and I don't want to fork out anything extra on this player at the moment.

Very interesting.

Yeah, what I don't understand is this just happened over the last few weeks.

FYI, I came across The Americans, and it plays just fine. But not a few dozen other Fox BDs which used to be problem-free.

I mean, really, what happened? Did Fox's servers connect to my machine and technically screw it up? And why is this limited to an Oppo? I've ranted before about the removal of certain features as per studios' wishes, and I have to wonder if Oppo's machines are just open to anything a studio wants.

And I certainly will not be purchasing another Oppo just to make sure my discs play properly. $500 per every few years is expensive.

BuckNaked2k

I got the mod sent to me from 220 Electronics and installed it myself. It was $50 and a great investment. I have yet to encounter a disc that won't play.

rw2516

It's not just Oppo. All brands are having problems with the latest Fox encryption, older players at least.

DVD Polizei

On those other players, are discs that once played just fine, now not playing as well, or is it just new movies that will not play from the start.

PhantomStranger

Each Blu-ray pressing uses a set of pre-programmed encryption keys, which the player is supposed to look for each time a BD gets played. Fox is the one studio that regularly changes their keys, which makes ripping their BDs a little harder. Older players often can't read these sequences correctly until the player gets a firmware update.

bunkaroo

I still use mt 83 since it's modded for region free but I got stuck not being able to play X-Men DOFP last night. I just popped it in my PS4 instead but pretty annoying since 83's don't get firmware updates anymore.

rw2516

I was curious why the X-Men BD had so many negative reviews and clicked on them. Majority were about the disc not playing in several different brands of players. It appears the problem is mostly with players two years old, and models no longer updated. Seems same think happened last year with The Wolverine BD. Reading about it I thought of this thread and your problem. Wondered if you tried the X-Men disc and it could have uploaded this new encryption to the player so that it applies the new encryption to all Fox discs put in the player. If you didn't try to play it, then this wouldn't be the problem.
I would think it has something to do with it because I think it odd that a player would quit playing discs from just one studio unless it was firmware/encryption related. Also the fact that this happened to you shortly after this X-Men title was released.
What put you on to it was only Fox discs? After first disc didn't play the very next one you tried to watch just happened to be Fox and you got suspicious? Some time went by and the next time a disc happened to be Fox you remember a previous Fox disc that wouldn't play sometime ago?
This is a big title with lot of casual watchers/buyers and could take time for them to click to the fact that other Fox discs won't play, if that is what's causing your problem. You discovered something wrong because you're into BD.

DVD Polizei

It was just an accident I stumbled onto this as I wanted to watch some movies from the John Wayne Collection. Put one movie in...didn't play. Put other movies from that collection in the player...didn't play. So, then I tried another Fox movie...didn't play.

I even put in an older title, Mirrors, and that doesn't play either.

What's weird is that The Americans plays just fine.

I haven't tried The Wolverine or any X-Men movies, but all have played just fine in the past. Will try those next.