The Latest on Blu-ray Silver Surfer "Issues"

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The blogs and message boards have been buzzing lately with complaints about "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" not working in some Blu-ray players. Specifically, reports of problems with the Samsung BD-P1200 and LG BH100 dual-format player have been surfacing.

So what´s the problem, and how widespread is it?

We put in a call to Steven Feldstein, Senior Vice President of Corporate & Marketing Communications at Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, and Feldstein assured DVDTOWN that Fox thoroughly researched the technology before releasing the latest round of titles.

"Everything played perfectly when we tested it on every available machine," including the BD-P1200 and LG BH100, Feldstein said. He added that Fox´s research people told him the players they used had the latest firmware installed, and so the problem doesn´t appear to be widespread--that it´s early versions of the players that seem to be incompatible. Some players won´t play the movie, others have troubles with the bonus features. Newer products rolling off the line are apparently fine.

According to Feldstein, both Samsung and LG have already developed firmware upgrades and should be going public with them very soon (see below). "With firmware upgrades, everything plays beautifully," Feldstein said.

"Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" boasts cutting-edge technology, driven by BD-Java and incorporating BD+ for copyright protection. While some disgruntled Samsung and LG owners have been pointing the finger at the new encryption technology, "BD+ is not the culprit," Feldstein said.

"BD+ allows us to be able to release our titles in Hi-Def, and to continue to do so," Feldstein said. "Each film is an asset, and unfortunately Hi-Definition master is the best source there is for pirates."

HD technology is still in its infancy, and Feldstein admitted "We´re trying to push the envelope."

Of course, that´s nothing new. When DVDs were first introduced, not every player was able to play every disc. Even as recently as several years ago, there were still reports of certain releases just not playing on some machines. It may be a pain for those unlucky consumers who have the players that aren´t able to play a title, but it seems to go with the territory as the home entertainment industry continues to grow and develop new technologies.

"Hopefully this will keep people educated that there may come a time when they need to upgrade their players or get frequent firmware upgrades," Feldstein said.

This just in from Samsung:

Starting on Friday, 10/12/07, the firmware update will be available on www.samsung.com for users to download, burn to disc, and load into the player. Owners of the BD-P1200 will have the option to do the update via the player´s Ethernet connection. This firmware update will resolve freezing issues experienced when viewing Fox titles and their BD+ features. Details are as follows:

BD-P1000 Firmware Update
This firmware update provides the following benefits:
·Enhanced Blu-ray movie title playability regarding BD+

BD-P1200 Firmware Update
The firmware update provides the following benefits:
·Improves playback compatibility in some movies
·Enhanced Blu-ray movie title playability regarding BD+
·Enhanced performance of in-movie games
·Fixing audio noise in some movies

No word, as yet, from LG.

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