Friday, June 12, 2009

Upgrade at your own peril

6:52 PM / Blu-ray / Comments15 Comments

Blu-ray
Blu-ray

Whoever heard of an upgrade that actually removes features rather than adding them? That's exactly what has happened with the latest firmware for the PlayStation 3, that ugly-looking console that a large number of people happen to use as a Blu-ray player. It seems that the latest firmware, whether inadvertently or otherwise, breaks the playback of discs that contain PAL content on NTSC-territory players. As you may or may not know, PlayStation 3s sold in NTSC areas (such as North America and Japan) are only capable of playing content that is natively 60 Hz or 24p, which is fine in 99% of cases, but means that 50 Hz material simply won't play. While a handful of discs with 50 Hz HD material do exist (such as the UK release of the Wallace & Gromit film A Matter of Loaf and Death), the bulk of 50 Hz content available on BD is limited to standard definition bonus features.

In the past, on such a disc, the PlayStation 3 would play the movie itself absolutely fine. Not any more, though. AV Science Forum member Shadowrage reported the following message when attempting to play his copy of the Australian BD of The Descent:

Error code 80029946

It's not just him. Several other users are reporting the same problem, and a few minutes ago I checked my own copy of The Descent. It's a dud.

What a crock. Generally speaking, people tend to assume that, when they buy a piece of hardware, it will retain the same functionality that it had on the day of purchase, short of it failing. I recently bought a second-hand Region B Panasonic DMP-BD35 player in order to play region-locked titles from Europe and other "B" territories, so I can continue to watch The Descent (and Hannibal, and other titles that contain PAL content). If I only had my PlayStation 3, however, I'd be pissed. Actually, screw that - I am pissed. I just hope this is a temporary glitch that is corrected with the next firmware update, rather than a deliberate attempt on Sony's part to punish those who have the audacity to - gasp! - purchase films from other territories.

Updated Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 07:32 PM: It appears that the situation may be less clear-cut than we first thought. Please see this post for further details.

 
15 Comments

1. Bleddyn Williams said:

I followed this story over at AVS. I don't have my PS3 connected to the internet,so don't know what version of the software I am running. Will check this as soon as I get home.

How horrible that an update could turn your disc into a toaster. I too hope that this was not deliberate on Sony's part.

(Posted on Friday, June 12, 2009 at 9:08 PM)

2. Christopher D. Jacobson said:

What a crock indeed! I don't know if my brother's PS3 has automatic updating enabled or not; hopefully it hasn't upgraded to the new firmware, because I've got a few European BDs, and was planning on buying the Australian BDs for The Descent and The Transformers: The Movie (1986 cartoon).

(Posted on Friday, June 12, 2009 at 9:33 PM)

3. Christopher D. Jacobson said:

Thank goodness, my bro's PS3 has last year's 2.41 firmware. I've disabled Internet connection settings, for now. What a load of bunk.

(Posted on Friday, June 12, 2009 at 9:52 PM)

4. Craig said:

As ever this is a site I keep coming back to, and am glad to see you have a Panny DMP-BD35, which is my player that I watch Blu-ray on. What's your opinion of it, and what TV do you have it connected to?

I don't have a PS3 as I feel the 360 has more to offer games catalogue wise and a better online service.

(Posted on Friday, June 12, 2009 at 10:33 PM)

5. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Craig:

The DMP-BD35 is absolutely fine for my needs. It's not as fast as the PS3 as far as loading and disc navigation are concerned, but it does what it says on the tin and gives me a means of playing Region B titles, which is all I could ask for, really. There's a myth that the more expensive players will deliver better image quality, but it's a load of bunkum, really.

I have it connected to my brother's projection setup (Sony FPL-VW60 pointed at a 123" Da-lite Cinema Vision Perm-Wall surface).

(Posted on Friday, June 12, 2009 at 10:46 PM)

6. Kentai said:

The North American PS3 has always refused to play region free PAL DVDs, even though it's more than happy to playback the very same PAL streams in an MPG container. I'm surprised to hear that it used to play 50hz material on BD, even if it was just menus and the like.

I upgraded my firmware not long ago, so I'm screwed. I always knew I'd need a second player for Region B titles anyway, so while certainly annoying all I was doing was delaying the inevitable.

Wasn't one of the very first BD players - either a Panasonic or a Samsung, I honestly can't remember what - region free until its' first firmware upgrade?

(Posted on Friday, June 12, 2009 at 11:24 PM)

7. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Kentai:

It was never able to play 50 Hz material on BD. It was, however, happy enough to play 24p or 60 Hz material on discs where 50 Hz material existed. Now, it refuses to play the discs full stop, even if the only 50 Hz content is some paltry featurette squirrelled away in the bowels of one of the menus.

And yes, I believe the first Samsung player was region free at the time of its release.

(Posted on Friday, June 12, 2009 at 11:46 PM)

8. Kentai said:

Thanks, now I understand. The PS3 is scanning the Blu-ray for any 50hz material, and then locks the whole disc out when it finds any, rather than just booting it up and then choking on the 50hz material when it gets to it like it had prior to the update.

I wonder if this was done to "prevent" playback issues? By not letting the disc play at all... wait, is that really an improvement? Or does Sony just genuinely hate the idea of Americans buying 50hz friendly BDs?

(Posted on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 1:16 AM)

9. FoxyMulder said:

Thats worrying news as i bought the Australian version of The Descent and also have Mr & Mrs Smith from Germany which has PAL extras on it.

I would hope Sony will fix this otherwise i could have problems.

I am thinking of buying a Panasonic BD-80 to playback UK rental discs from Fox and a few others who region code their material.

Would The Descent play back fine in the Panasonic Uk player ?

(Posted on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 9:08 AM)

10. Christopher D. Jacobson said:

I'm considering buying one of these:

http://www.hkflix.com/hardware/xq/asp/pid.176/qx/details.htm

All-region BD player that's also a PAL-to-NTSC converting region-free DVD player. I'd imagine with this it would also play PAL content on Blu-ray Discs, but I'm not sure how all that works.

Gotta read up on the load speeds and such.

(Posted on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 9:19 AM)

11. FoxyMulder said:

Just tried The Descent and true enough it won't work in my Playstation 40gigabyte player.

But Mr & Mrs Smith which has bags of PAL extras does work in the Playstation.

When i click the extras though i get the same message as i get with The Descent disc.

This suggests to me that The Descent disc has an opening menu which is causing the problem and not the actual film content or extras on the disc.

(Posted on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 9:36 AM)

12. FoxyMulder said:

That reminds me i should have also tested my Australian version of Casino Royale and German edition of Silent Hill but forgot.

Considering Mr & Mrs Smith works i wonder if those do ?

(Posted on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 1:53 PM)

13. FoxyMulder said:

Just thought i would add it's the French directors cut of Mr & Mrs Smith i have and not the German edition.

I am thinking Lionsgate have asked Sony to add something to the firmware to stop Australian editions working on Playstations. Does the UK edition work ?

(Posted on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 2:36 PM)

14. Steini said:

What about european (region B) PS3. Can they play both PAL and NTSC?

(Posted on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 3:40 PM)

15. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Foxy:

There's no PAL content on the Australian Casino Royale or the German Silent Hill, so they won't be affected.

I think you're on to something with Mr. & Mrs. Smith: the problem may not be discs with PAL content full stop but rather ones that contain PAL content in the pre-menu stream, e.g. a copyright screen or logo. Presumably, in the past the PS3 would just skip past elements that are unplayable. (Now that I remember, in the past when trying to access PAL extras, the screen would simply go blank for a couple of seconds and then it would jump back to the menu without playing them, rather than the error message you're reporting when you try to play them.) Now, it refuses to play them at all and spits out an error message.


Steini:

Yes, a Region B PS3 can play both PAL and NTSC material with no problems.

(Posted on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 6:02 PM)

 
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