While I don't particularly consider myself a Trekkie, when I first got into, ahem, HD DVD, I was quite excited and impressed by Star Trek: The Original Series--Season 1. It looked and sounded fantastic, and the extra features were terrific. I was really looking forward to season 2 on HD DVD.

Three weeks later, HD DVD effectively dropped dead.

I eventually bought a Blu-ray player and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, just shy of two years since I bought that misbegotten HD DVD of Season 1, Season 2 finally arrives on Blu-ray. I stick disc one into my player and a Paramount teaser plugs all the wonderful Star Trek titles coming to Blu-ray.

Finally, the menu screen appears. Select episode. I press the first episode and then...nothing. The menu choices disappear while the animated menu animates away.

Sigh, firmware again, I assume. I go on-line. Download the latest firmware. Install it in my player. Reboot, stick the Star Trek disc back in again and...nothing. Same problem. It just won't play.

A quick check around the Net reveals myriad other customers with older Panasonic players are having the same problem -- even after installing the latest firmware.

So now what? Wait two months for enough angry customers demanding the problem be fixed that better firmware is offered?

For Panasonic and/or Paramount and/or CBS and/or Amazon to tell me I'm S.O.L.?

I waited nearly two years for this?

God, I hate this shit.


"Kha-a-a-a-a-a-a-an!"

This is the frustration of Blu-ray. I have three players and have run across several discs that wouldn't play in the Sharp or the LG, but played fine in the others two.

Most have been fixed by firmware, but not all and sometimes even the ones that get fixed take months for new firmware to hit. Sad that all this new tech can't get the most important feature right. Being able to actually play the disc you bought.

A friend of mine is looking to buy a second player and I suggested getting an entirely different brand for the second one just to have back up in cases like this.

Even though I have zero interest in video games, I'm tempted to get a PS3 simply because they seem to be able to play just about everything.

I have owned a PS3 since early 2007 and have never had any issues with a BD.

I even saw a SONY Blu-ray player not be able to play a Sound Stage SD. It played fine in a 10 year old POS SD player but not in the latest and agreatest BD player. A freakin' SD of all things!

I may go PS3 at some point too

have never had one firmware or non playable disc issue on my samsung bd-p 1500 or 1600 and i made it through all the discs on my star trek season 2 with no issues also

Well, mine played fine but I got a "Network connection failed" so I can't access BD-Live features.

I was able to play season 2 on my panasonic 80 player. I did have the network failed. but when I went to the bdlive connection then I was able to connect to it.

Jacob

double post

Jacob

deja vu all over again

deja vu all over again

I didn't really hear about issues with TOS Season 1, so I'm not sure what this deja vu is all about, and I've got no playback problems on my Oppo.

Panasonic owners having problems with S2 seem not to have experienced any problems with S1. (I myself didn't buy S1 on Blu-ray as I was satisfied with my HD DVD.)

At this point it's not clear what the problem is, but hopefully Panasonic and/or CBS/Paramount will address it sometime this week.

I said deja vu because of Jacob's double post

please.. this is about the star trek season 2 problem.. not about my double post.

Jacob

Don't sweat it, just bustin your balls. No harm done.

I see what you did there


I see what you did there

Yep - FWIW, I've had zero problems with playing blu-rays on my PS3.

Same here. It is still my main player and I've never had a disc not play correctly on it in nearly 3 years of use. Too bad the standalones can't be more reliable.

So is the BD30 supposedly affected?

I did not find the remark that funny to begin with. i was trying to help the other person about the problem on the star trek season 2 blurays.

be mindful that some are not able to read humor.

Jacob

Never had any problems playing any disc in my HTPC with my LG HD/Blu combo drive. It can rip and burn too.

Especially the humorless.

C'mon JACOB. That was kinda funny.

Anyway, I bought the PS3 as well because I didn't want to deal with any issues. It seems like the best thing to do in terms of preventing frustrations.

Well, here we are more than a week post-release, and not a peep from Panasonic, Paramount, or CBS about this issue, and -- for shame! -- not a mention from any of the Blu-ray news sites, though readers on forums like this one are still looking for answers.

It's not clear exactly how many players/customers are being effected by this, but if we consumers as a whole don't start demanding the studios and manufacturers address these problems in a timely and public matter, they'll just keep doing it again-and-again. Don't know about you, but I don't want to have to buy a new player every two years because they're too lazy/greedy to be bothered with quality control.

Your player may be next.

+1 And the ability to wirelessly update the firmware certainly doesn't hurt. A lot of the time, an update will be triggered when a disc that requires the update is put in the player.