Anyone else having problems w/ the "Descent" Blu Ray disc not playing?

I had issues with my Sony Vaio (VGN-AR290G) notebook not playing certain Blu Ray titles; that and the fact that it did not play well w/ my Sony 40" XBR2 caused to me ship it back.

I replaced what I hoped to be my Blu Ray player w/ the Sony BDP-S1 (nice) and until last night I've not had a problem but I cannot get the "Descent" to play. Don't want to speculate too much but perhaps all the vaunted extras are too much for my poor BDP-S1?

I should have my PS3 later today and I will try the disc then but I doubt this will make a difference... bummer.

I was really looking forward to this disc as I enjoyed the movie in the theater. Any feedback or suggestions would be most appreciated.

No problems playing it last night on my Sammy w/ upgraded firmware, other than a slower load. I had no problems with Speed either, guess I'm lucky (knock on wood).

There are a few threads about this on avs forum. Apparently it seems as though it won't play on the Sony standalone player because it currently lacks the java based specs which The Descent uses for it IME and other special features. Many are reporting problems with the Sammy player. Some even with current firmware are still unable to play it. However, the disc should play fine on a PS3. I watched it the whole way through yesterday night without a hiccup. The only glitch I encountered was when watching the making of featurettes. The pic only shows on the top half of the screen and is stretched to fill it. Perhaps I need to upgrate to FW 1.32 Let us now how it works out for you, Ronin.

Gonna try to snag this tonight and give it a run on my Panny & Sammy players.

Descent takes a long time to load on the Sammy, but I believe it loads quickly on the PS3.

I watched the Descent on my playstation 3 just fine. If I may say the loading screen came up for just a sec it was like just a flash really.

On a side note, the video codec used is AVC instead of MPEG-2, which was originally the selected choice. Thumbs up to LionsGate for making the switch.

OK, managed to snag a copy at Best Buy today. First off, no problems playing the disc on either my Samsung or Panasonic players. The PIP video feature worked fine on both. However there are a few of differences between the players which may indicate internal processing power. This movie takes longer than regular discs due to the addition of another Loading screen. The Panny loads this faster, about 5-7 seconds so. The main menu features a flashlight beam that shines on your menu selection. On my Panny, the beam circle moves, smoothly and continuosly to your next selection. On the Sammy the beam circle just jumps to the next selection with no beam movement. On the popup menu, while the Panny was originally slightly faster in this regard to the Sammy, it is much more responsive on this disc that the Sammy which has a second delay between moving to the next popup selection. The Panny has no delay (and I understand the PS3 is the same as well). Again, this doesn't affect the movie which plays fine on both machines, along with the PIP commentary.

Anyone know what the mute option does (on both the main and popup menus)?

For some reason, I couldn't select the audio to PCM in the menu setup. I kept hitting the enter button but got no response.

Just finished watching it through on the Panny. Certainly reference quality A/V. The 6.1 PCM is amazing. Tried all the java extras and they worked fine on both players, though the Samsung was a lot less smoother in using the slider control on the Stills Gallery and Cast Bio/Filmographies.

Mr. Cinema, I had no issue with selecting the audio tracks with the Samsung on either the main or popup menus.

Odd note, if you eject the disc and leave the power on the last shot will stay on the screen and you can activate and fully navigate the popup menus without the disc. Once you select something that requires disc access it closes down. The Panny indicates BD-J on the front panel when this is being accessed.

It is the BD-J causing problems with the Sony/Pioneer players. Owners will have to wait for a FW update. The disc should play fine on the Samsung, Phillips, Panasonic, and PS3.

I have had the same problem with the blu ray movie. I had gotten the disc as a gift, popped it in and it would not load or said "the disc cannot be played". I took it back to Circuit City and exchanged it for another one.

Put that one in and got the same thing. I have the Samsung blu ray player and this is the only disc that i have had a problem with. I checked the coding on it and it does read USA region 1.

Is this a bad pressing or some glitch in this disc?

You need to install the latest firmware from the Samsung site (12/17).

Using a PS3 and a Sony 40XBR2 the movie played fine, but had the all the special features squished to the top half of the screen.

Not sure about the squished thing as they all worked fine on my Samsung. Menus were a little sluggish as mentioned, but not a problm for me.

It mutes the popup menu sounds.

Thanks. I have those already disabled via the Panny's setup menu, so I never heard them in the first place.

I'm running "The Descent" on Blu-Ray in my PS3. The movie itself works fine, but when I try to watch the special features ("Beneath the Scenes", outtakes, etc.), the image is squished up to the top half or so of my TV. Has anyone else here experienced this, or does anyone know what the cause may be? Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.

You need to have the latest firmware (1.32) on your PS3.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=777715

Thanks a bunch. My PS3 is acting wonky with the wireless router, so I've been unable to update. Glad to know that the solution is as simple as that. I always get super nervous when dealing with new, expensive hardware and any potential problems that arise.

You can download the update on your pc and use a thumb drive or other removable storage device to install it on your PS3.

Sony has released their first FW update for the BDP-S1 standalone player that fixes the BD-J issue with The Descent among other things:

SONY BDP-S1 1.50 firmware and instructions

From the site:

This utility updates the BDP-S1 firmware to version 1.50 and provides the following benefits:

Improves BD-Java compatibility to enhance interactivity with some BD-ROMs
Enhances playback compatibility with certain BD-ROM format discs
Corrects the output signal status information for audio output and display when Linear PCM 5.1 channel soundtracks are played back via HDMI