My first red screen of death!

Well, it finally happened. After I was so happy to pick up "Silence of the Lambs" on blu-ray, it just so happens my LG BH200 gave me the red screen of death! Meaning, it was time for a firmware upgrade . . . mainly because that's what the red screen of death was telling me to do.

Ok, here goes: Upon seeing this, I went to the LG site, found the support area for upgrading software and upon getting there I had to put in four pieces of info for a search. Hence, why not just have a search field where I could simply type in "BH200" and call it good? Instead, you have to tell a few other fields product type, model type and OS type before it will do a search. In other words, all fields are required. . . Again, does anyone but me not see the stupidity in this? Also, keep in mind, I'm simply just trying to get a firmware upgrade. I thus imagine that there would never be two or three different products by LG that go under "BH200"?

Anyway, my journey finally led me to get to the latest download for a firmware upgrade. Oh, boy, I was so excited! However, there were a few bumps along the way: In the search area, no matter how I picked the three model types, product crap and name of machine, it kept telling me no results found! This became frustrating and Mr. Self-important, has to have the last word, Timmy, began to chat with an online support member. Myself and the charming assistant couldn't figure out what was wrong. In fact, at the beginning of the chat, she tells me to go to the URL of their main site. I then respond with, "How do you think I got here in the first place?"

Finally, I did get to download the latest firmware. I followed the directions to the "T", read all the PDF Docs to the letter and burned the firmware to a CD -- which I should note that their PDF Doc said you could burn it to a CD or DVD. And why not? The BH200 is a multi-disc player that can read CD data discs. Nevertheless, once I followed the directions and placed the firmware disc into the machine . . . nothing? That's right, nothing happened. You see, from this point I'm supposed to get a screen that says "Upgrade new Software". However, on my machine, nothing happened. All I could see was the main home menu, and from what was described to happen from the directions, I should have seen a window that asks me to upgrade the firmware. Instead, I got nothing!

From there, I went through technical support a couple times, burned CDs a couple more times and still had no success. Finally, support tells me I need to burn the firmware upgrade on a DVD. I ask, "Then why does your manual say CD or DVD? The response from India is, "That's what our technical team says to do." How nice is that? Keep in mind, I'm about 45-minutes into this already.

I have no blank DVDs to burn, so what's my solution!? I take the LG BH200 out of the entertainment system and bring it into the office where I can hook it up to the network! Oh, and it all hooked up the way it should, as the network connection worked without fail. However, once I arrived at the "options" menu, the menu selection for "Network Update" on my machine did not exist, even though it showed that it should in the manual. Now it was back to tech support to ask why?

After putting me on hold for a good 10-minutes, they finally told me they would just mail out a DVD copy of the firmware upgrade. There never was any straight answer as to why my machine was not displaying the same menu as in their manual, but there was a lot of, "We know sir, we're working on it."

As much as a nightmare this turned out to be, I did have the charming correspondent from India laughing. I said, "Admit it, you know this firmware crap is a very bad idea!?" Admittedly, I, too, was laughing as I said this. I told her, "It's not that doing what was directed was difficult, it's just that what was directed did not work." The directions on how to do this were very clear on their site -- it could have been a lot more user friendly -- however, overall the path was clear. The problem is what they said to do simply did not work.

My gripe here would be, what if it was my parents that had to do this? I know for a fact that my Dad would be so pissed to the point of throwing the machine across the room! I explained to the support person how annoying this will be to people with the lack of knowledge in the electronics filed . . . which we all know there are millions of those kind of folks. Their response . . . "We are aware of this sir, and we're working on it".

Thanks for nothing . . .

Well, hate to say I told you so . . . but I TOLD YOU SO! Firmware is and will be the stupidest idea to ever linger in the electronics/entertainment world! We never had this issue with DVD, but welcome to the world of Blu-ray. In the meantime, I won't be able to catch "Silence of the Lambs" for at least 7 to 10 business days, as I wait for the precious firmware upgrade to arrive.

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[Post edited by Tim Raynor on Mar 5, 2009 - CST 11:18 PM]

Tim,

You should write a screenplay based on your experiences with customer service based in India and call it "Slumdog Firmware Upgrade". (Y)

Quote:
Tim,

You should write a screenplay based on your experiences with customer service based in India and call it "Slumdog Firmware Upgrade". (Y)

LMAO!!!

That's funny because it's true!

(tense music)

(tim is wiping his forehead while holding a phone to his ear.)

"is that your final upgrade?"

"yes."

"i'm sorry, that's incorrect."

(the red screen of death appears again.)

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[Post edited by posters5 on Mar 5, 2009 - CST 11:41 PM]

LMAO!!!

Ok, can I blame SONY . . . just a little bit?

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[Post edited by Tim Raynor on Mar 5, 2009 - CST 11:50 PM]

Tim,

Just to be clear, your player would not play "Silence of the Lambs" at all without a firmware upgrade, but your player plays everything else?

So, what's the deal with this new Blu-ray disc? What's it got going on that your player won't play it? And will other players play it, I wonder? (I was thinking of getting "Lambs." Now I'm hesitant.)

John

Quote:
Just to be clear, your player would not play "Silence of the Lambs" at all without a firmware upgrade, but your player plays everything else?

Yes, you are correct, it plays everything except "Lambs". I know "Silence of the Lambs" just came out this month, so it is a new blu-ray feature. As soon as I put it in the player, I got the red screen of death. From what info I could find on the web, it points out that some of the new Blu-rays have upgraded JAVA material that requires firmware upgrade. However, what might seem simple to nerds like us turned out to be a nightmare on LG's part. Now, I'm not saying my player sucks and I've been clearly happy with it's performance. The gripe here is if an IT guy like me has a struggle with something that should be as simple as combing my hair, then just imagine what a pain this firmware upgrade crap will be for people with limited skill in the IT area.

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[Post edited by Tim Raynor on Mar 6, 2009 - CST 12:49 AM]

it'll be funny if the funai clones can play this title w/o problems.

I went to Frickers tonight and watched my hometown U.D. Flyers get beat on a VERY nice L.G. monitor (lcd). They were even broadcasting in HD! It was soo bright,clear,sharp, that i had to look away every now and then. (however this wasnt a problem because of the tits) Life is GOOD!

The Flyers sure got dumped on last night. Jokinen made one hell of a pressence!

Tim, I hear you loud and clear. I remember loading my first firmware on my philips divx dvd player. I went through five or six revisions of firmware from philips to get one that actually played divx movies... IT even advertises divx playback on the box?

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[Post edited by ReaggieP on Mar 6, 2009 - CST 7:28 AM]