How do you explain your love of physical media in an era of streaming? (1 Viewer)

[Jeffrey D]

IF you're gonna do that, you might wanna actually open them up and test them out (every once in a good while) and probably keep their firmware updated.

Since I already keep 2 players in use in my HT setup anyway (and also have 2 others lying around), I'll probably hold off until one or two die off or something (and/or when there's reasonably reliable rumor/news that Panasonic's exiting the market) -- I have a Panny 420 and a Sony X700 for UHD and a couple Oppos for universal BD (and region-free capability).



I may start buying a backup BD drive or two as well before long, probably including 4K-capable ones.

In the long run, I may indeed switch to ripping everything I care all that much about (or would likely revisit frequently enough) for a local NAS streaming setup and cut down on (at least primary) disc storage space needs further. I keep revisiting the idea every now and again, but just haven't felt quite the need nor desire to do that so far...

_Man_

Yes I probably should test both out at my first convenience, to make sure they do play. Firmware updates- never have had to do that yet.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Yes I probably should test both out at my first convenience, to make sure they do play. Firmware updates- never have had to do that yet.

You have never updated the firmware on a player? That's odd - - I can't remember the last disc player I owned that never had a fw upgrade issued. All three of the current players in my equipment rack - - Panny 820, Sony X800 and OPPO 980H - - have been upgraded multiple times. Have you ever checked your players to see if a fw upgrade was available?

 

[Jeffrey D]

You have never updated the firmware on a player? That's odd - - I can't remember the last disc player I owned that never had a fw upgrade issued. All three of the current players in my equipment rack - - Panny 820, Sony X800 and OPPO 980H - - have been upgraded multiple times. Have you ever checked your players to see if a fw upgrade was available?

No I haven’t checked about firmware. Wouldn’t know how to do it.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

No I haven’t checked about firmware. Wouldn’t know how to do it.

There should be an option in the setup menu system for the player to check for a firmware update. You need to attach the player to your wifi network first, which should also be in the setup menu. Each manufacturer's menu system is different, but it shouldn't be difficult to find.

 

[Jeffrey D]

There should be an option in the setup menu system for the player to check for a firmware update. You need to attach the player to your wifi network first, which should also be in the setup menu. Each manufacturer's menu system is different, but it shouldn't be difficult to find.

WiFi- I don’t have access.

 

[Malcolm R]

WiFi- I don’t have access.

Most players have instructions for an alternate method of firmware update by thumb drive or disc (you would download the file from the manufacturer's web site to the drive/disc, then insert that into the player).

It makes me nervous when my equipment has NOT updated firmware in a while, as it makes me think the manufacturer has stopped support for my component.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

FWIW, I actually rarely update my players' firmware either (and much prefer to not "fix what ain't broke" in most such cases). Don't recall if I've bothered at all for my Panny 420, but I really also haven't used it that much either since I've been mostly just streaming ever since I started using that Panny about 2 years ago -- I did update the old Sony X700 while that was my main 4K player for a year or two.

I tend not to bother updating until I actually find the need... and I haven't really run into any discs that definitely required that on any of my players for many years now...

BUT if you're just gonna keep backup players around unused (just in case) in part because of this concern about the industry (or specific companies) abandoning physical media, then it'd probably make sense to not just wait for a problem to show up before updating the firmware. Afterall, if they do abandon players, they'll probably abandon such support before long as well... and you can't be too sure how suddenly the latter could happen (before you realize and have enough opp to do so).

Also, the mechanical parts may need some (at least) sporadic usage to keep them fully functional, so probably good to fire them up for a test run once in a good while -- maybe just once every half year to a year would do...

_Man_

 

[jcroy]

Also, the mechanical parts may need some (at least) sporadic usage to keep them fully functional, so probably good to fire them up for a test run once in a good while -- maybe just once every half year to a year would do...

This is a good point.

As a recent case of this, awhile ago I purchased some complete tv series dvd sets which summed up to around sixty dvd discs. So ripping these sixty discs to the computer, I used 12 different dvd-rom drives which did five dvd discs at a time in batches.

For the next dvd sets I purchase, it will be done using different dvd-rom drives which I have not ran in over a year. (ie. Not the 12 dvd-rom rives I used awhile ago for that above mentioned sixty discs).

 

[YANG]

...As a recent case of this, awhile ago I purchased some complete tv series dvd sets which summed up to around sixty dvd discs... ...

wow!!! that sounds X-Filey...

 

[jcroy]

wow!!! that sounds X-Filey...

Actually not too surprising. It was two different tv shows with over 7 seasons (per show) with twenty two+ episodes (each around 43-45 minutes) per season.