Saturday, June 13, 2009

The PS3 PAL lockout saga continues

7:21 PM / Blu-ray / Comments9 Comments

Blu-ray
Blu-ray

An addendum to yesterday's post about the recent Playstation 3 firmware update that locks out discs with 50 Hz content: it appears that the situation may be slightly less clear-cut. Land of Whimsy reader FoxyMulder reports that some discs that contain 50 Hz content (such as the French release of Mr. & Mrs. Smith) still start up in his PS3 despite the system having been updated to the latest firmware. Trying to access the 50 Hz content on the disc spits out the same "Error code 80029946" message as The Descent, but at least the disc actually starts and can play the film.

It appears, therefore, that the issue is not discs that contain 50 Hz content full stop but rather discs that have 50 Hz in the pre-menu screen. In the past, if the PlayStation 3 came across 50 Hz content, such as a copyright warning screen or company logo, it would simply skip past it. Likewise, when previously attempting to play a PAL bonus feature, the screen would just go black for a couple of seconds and then jump back to the menu. Now, however, rather than just ignoring the incompatible material, the PS3 stops stone dead and throws a hissy-fit. According to PowerDVD, the warning screen at the beginning of The Descent's start-up routine is 50 Hz, so it looks as if it's the culprit.

I don't expect anyone at Sony is reading this blog, but if they are, here's a message for them: PUT IT BACK. In an ideal world, a US (or Canadian, or Japanese, or...) PS3 would be able to play both NTSC and PAL content (and, if we're pipe-dreaming, would accept discs coded for Region B and C as well), but here in grim, inconvenient reality, just skipping the unplayable material was vastly preferable to the situation we have now. Even though the situation doesn't really affect me, I'm still angry on behalf of those who don't have a dedicated 50 Hz-compatible player. Likewise, I'm angry about having functionality from the player I bought removed behind my back. Come on, guys, do the decent thing and give us back the what we used to have.

 
9 Comments

1. Josh said:

Yeah, it used to try to skip over unplayable material, but now shoots out an error instead.

The most frustrating thing about this is if you rip the 50hz Blurays, they will play fine! The PS3 plays the 50hz content perfectly from an external HD. There are some issues with that in addition to the fact that you have to spend a while ripping it. You can't play the subtitles along with these videos, for example.

(Posted on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 7:48 PM)

2. FoxyMulder said:

I have almost made my mind up to buy a Panasonic BD-80 for discs from Region B and i hope that includes Australian discs so my Descent will play. Is Australia Region B ? I could Google it but i'm about to sign off for a while so figure i'll just ask.

Your brother had a good write up about an earlier Panasonic BD-35 and i think the BD-80 uses the same chipset but with some added refinements and additional features and i was thinking about it anyways due to the fact Fox region code so many titles which means it's hard to rent out and simply buying everything is way too expensive not to mention there are so many discs i would like to see but not buy.

The only slight niggle about the BD-80 is i have read some comments suggesting it has a little noise reduction which decreases grain and detail levels slightly but that was just the opinion of someone on AVS so maybe it doesn't as most seem happy with it apart from the freeze problems which seem to affect the american decks only. ( I hope )

I was just wondering though if a list could be compiled with all titles which used to play on the American playstation but now don't as that could help people avoid buying those films until or if a firmware upgrade solves the issue.

(Posted on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 7:48 PM)

3. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Australia is a Region B territory, yes.

As for the BD-80, I know absolutely nothing about it, so I'm afraid I can't comment on it.

(Posted on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 8:45 PM)

4. LGans316 said:

3 cheers to Shadow for bringing this issue into the limelight. Glad that I didn't upgrade my PS3 from version 2.6x else I couldn't have played the excellent Pan's Labyrinth BLU that I bought from UK.

A real shame on you Sony. Get it fixed soon or you will lose many loyal customers who use PS3 solely for playing Blu-rays.

Foxy,

I bought a brand new modded Panasonic DMP-BD80 that I found at ebay.co.uk for 395 quids. Quite expensive but this was the cheapest deal I found for this player.

I will be checking the player in depth next weekend. Let me know if you want me to check anything specific. Don't worry, I have learned a lot about DNR.

(Posted on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 9:18 PM)

5. BobaFett said:

Sounds interesting, LGans316. I'm also curious about any DNR the DMP-BD80 might add, so be sure to leave a comment about it when you've checked the player.

(Posted on Sunday, June 14, 2009 at 2:05 AM)

6. Peter von Frosta said:

Isn't that violating the BD specs if they're unable to play 50hz content?

(Posted on Sunday, June 14, 2009 at 11:27 AM)

7. Christopher D. Jacobson said:

Which firmware update is this that's causing the troubles? My new, out-of-the-box PS3 that I just received today is Version 2.60, so I'm hoping the problem is with 2.70 or later.

(Posted on Saturday, July 11, 2009 at 3:37 AM)

8. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Chris:

Posters on the AVS thread using the 2.60 firmware appear to be getting The Descent to play with no problems, so it looks as if the problem affects 2.70 onwards.

Bear in mind, however, that discs are eventually going to come along that will refuse to play unless you upgrade (Ghostbusters, for example, requires version 2.60 or later), so it's unlikely that you'll be able to simply keep the default firmware for all eternity.

(Posted on Saturday, July 11, 2009 at 7:19 AM)

9. Christopher D. Jacobson said:

Well, I'll stick with it for some time, at least, until a new disc (whether movie or game) comes along that I need an update for, ha ha. I may just go ahead and order the Australian BDs for The Descent and The Transformers: The Movie. Hopefully when I do need to update, this PAL lockout thing won't be an issue. I suppose it's inevitable that I may need to eventually buy a Region B player.

(Posted on Saturday, July 11, 2009 at 11:00 PM)

 
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