Blu-ray Review HTF Blu-Ray Review: KICKASS Combo Pack (1 Viewer)

[CraigF]

^ I suspect you are on the right track re the erasing of persistent memory. I have had to do that occasionally with my Oppo BDP *after the first time playing* a disc so that I could play it again, or in fact just resume playing where I left off if non-Java. Don't specifically recall it for this disc with the Oppo, but IIRC I had to update the PS3's firmware for it.


This is one of my latest "feel good" movies, meaning the type of movie I throw on when I'm indecisive...I know I'll still be highly amused even after the n-th time seeing it.

 

[Todd Erwin]

I've had some playback issues on various Universal discs on my Panny BD60, mostly with downloading BD-Live updates (even after I've disconnected all of the network options in the player's set up menu).

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Yeah, I anticipated potential problems w/ BD-Live, so I *never* allowed my BD60 to have internet access enabled -- one of the first things I did w/ player setup was to make sure that was disabled completely. And I hadn't had any problems at all loading any other BDs, including many that caused various reported problems, for ~1.5 years until now w/ Kick-Ass -- and I had even been running the player w/ old firmware (ie. v1.6 IIRC) to boot until now.


The only other thing I can think of right now is maybe my player is starting to wear out and get a little flakey, which happened to my now-unused PS3, since the player did have some trouble w/ the opening several minutes of the long making-of doc when I got it to work the one time. I tried doing some digging around, and it seems some folks think the (blue) laser module on some of the Panny players may not last very long. No idea how true that is, but it wouldn't exactly be a first for my family to wear out a player after ~2 years of usage -- might also be that the laser just needs cleaning (eg. older PS3 being a common case) for all I know though I've had other players that lasted longer (eg. my less often used Denon SD2910).


Wonder if trying to reapply the firmware update will reset what's needed for this title to work again. I suppose I can live w/ reapplying the firmware update each time for now since I don't expect to play the disc all that often, but probably wouldn't want that for the long haul in case doing so poses a notable risk of bricking my player...


_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Well, tried pretty much everything I could think of, ie. tried the various possible player resets, unplug player for several minutes, etc, but just couldn't get the player to load the disc again -- and it wouldn't let me reapply the firmware update to see if that might help.


In all this, I did notice that it does a lot of seeking before deciding that it can't read the disc -- maybe that's another indicator that something might actually be wrong w/ the disc itself even though I don't see anything w/ the naked eye.


Maybe I'll try getting it replaced by Amazon although it's been 6-7 months since I bought it -- and then hope that solves it...


_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Originally Posted by ManW_TheUncool


Now, hopefully, the new replacement will work w/out any hitch...


_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Well, I received the BD replacement from Amazon -- kudos to them


_Man_

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

There's a lot of bells and whistles on this one. It takes forever to load to the menu in my Panasonic, but once it does, everything works fine. A LOT of integrated internet content on this one, even with the menus.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Which Panny player do you have? Have you tried loading it a few different times?



I have all the internet stuff disabled from day one on my Panny BD60 -- and I only tried using an SD card at all just to see if that changes anything. The problem I'm experiencing seems to happen *before* it actually starts to load anything -- once the LED display reads "BD" (momentarily) and then the display screen turns black, it loads fine (though yeah, it still takes a while from that point). Most of the time, it seems to do a lot of (relatively noisy) disc seeking and then fails to read the disc further and stops w/ a read error.


And yes, I have the latest firmware v2.5 for my player, which I installed specifically to try to get this title to work.



I'm wondering if anyone else has trouble getting this title to load consistently...


_Man_

 

[Aaron Silverman]

As a former official HTF reviewer, I'm going to unofficially state for the record that this was EASILY the best film of 2010 (at least among the ones I've seen). Spectacular.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Originally Posted by ManW_TheUncool Forcing me to start checking new purchases much sooner than later...


_Man_

 

[CraigF]

^ I suppose you wash those rentals before viewing...I always do and not just when they look disgusting. (Weeds...I'm shocked...next you'll be saying you watch Breaking Bad too...I am still a season behind in both since I buy them and am cheap. ) Have you tried playing any older BDs that you know used to work in the 60? I'm asking because becoming fussier and fussier with BDs is a common symptom of either a dirty laser/lens or a failing one, though there may be no problems at all with any DVDs. Don't underestimate the value of a great and proper lens cleaning, has resurrected a lot of BDPs.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Hmmm... Never thought I needed to wash rentals that look clean (and practically brand new in this case). LOL about renting Weeds though




Anyway, all my other BDs have been working fine in the BD60 in the meantime -- both old and new purchases. I thought maybe it's something specific to recent releases from Lionsgate and Kino, but both Scream and Scream 2 work fine (after a quick test w/ multiple disc loads last night) as does the newly released Buster Keaton Short Films Collection.


It's pretty odd that the failures all seem to happen during some sort of disc recognition pre-loading phase (and after what sounds like a bunch of fairly audible disc seeks), which was why I started suspecting something to do w/ the copy protection scheme being used. I noticed that the BD60's own LED display actually indicates disc format (ie. "BD", "DVD", "SD" for SD card) before it appears to actually start loading disc content (and change its video output accordingly), but it never gets that far for these failed cases. It's definitely very different from other cases where discs are visibly defective or dirty, have some troublesome and/or hefty BD-J, get stuck because of BD-Live, etc, but fail after disc started loading (beyond the disc recognition phase). The error I get seems to indicate as much.


Think I may need to bring a couple of these discs w/ me to test out on some floor samples at a store.


But yeah, I suppose it's possible my player's laser lens is starting to get too dirty (or the laser is starting to die). I think that's probably what happened to my PS3 after ~1.5 year although the old PS3 design probably draws in a lot more dust/dirt. There weren't any reliable BD lens cleaners back when my PS3 stopped working -- based on anecdotes, some of them even seemed to damage the lens. Maybe that's changed now. Any recommendations? If nothing else, that might resurrect my old PS3 as well, which I've been putting off forever now...


_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Had completely forgotten to follow up here (in case anyone's wondering). I picked the following BD lens cleaner to try, but it didn't seem to help any:


http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/592062-REG/Maxell_190054_BR_HD_LC_Blu_ray_HD_DVD_Lens_Cleaner.html


I may consider trying something stronger (and more conventional, eg. w/ brush) later, especially for the old PS3, which has been unable to read any discs at all.


In the meantime, as I mentioned in a separate thread, I ended up picking up an inexpensive new player instead, ie. the Panny BDT110, since I was starting to find some more discs not working w/ the old BD60, including some old ones. The BDT110 seems rather flimsy, but otherwise, it seems to be a substantial upgrade in practical everyday use (at least) w/ much faster load times plus 3D playback -- some also feel its DVD upconversion and BD PQ are better as well though I haven't compared nor noticed.


http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/308854/suggestions-for-a-good-100-125-blu-ray-player#post_3836421


So everything seems fine w/ the BDT110 for the past month now... except now, my Sammy LED DLP seems to have a dead/fried red LED and will need that replaced.


_Man_