Blu-ray Review HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Twilight Zone Season 1 Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Nelson, a new firmware update is available from Sony...try it! I haven't done it yet. Your story of Wish is the EXACT same as mine. Stops at the midway point.

 

[Nelson Au]

Eric, that's a surprise. I hadn't checked Sony's site for any updates.

I'll hook mine up to the web a little later this evening and see if it helps and report back! I'm wishing one Big Tall Wish!

 

Very cool, Nelson! Let me know!

 

[Nelson Au]

Well, another theory down the drain!

I updated from firmware 020 to 021. The Big Tall Wish still won't play past the mid point break. And the next episode, A Nice Place to Visit also will not play.

And here's an interesting find, I still have the first set I got from Amazon. I am waiting for the last minute to return it so I could test it. It also freezes and won't play the same Big Tall Wish and the episode after it. However, Long Live Walter Jameson, which froze momentarily will play okay on that first set after this latest firmware update.

So now we know of three copies with the same problem on 2 Sony players of the same model.

I wonder if another firmware will fix this.

 

That's too bad. I don't know what else to do. I emailed IMAGE, but I don't know that I will hear back. I remember contacting them when the Twilight Zone DE Season One was released on dvd because one of the cases was damaged and they sent a new one out within days. So they were good about CS back then. I don't know about now.

 

[Nelson Au]

One thing you pointed out Eric, while many here has said all 5 discs play for them, not all the episodes work.

I asked on another thread for them to report here and see if they have any issues. Because I am still going through my set, I have not seen every single episode and all 5 discs will load. So perhaps not everyone has seen The Big Tall Wish.

I'll do some more research and see if I can find a contact at Image. And perhaps someone at Sony too.

It's obviously not a isolated incident if 2 people has the identical experience and I happen to have another set on hand to check and show that 3 copies has the same problem! I understand this could prove that it's a Sony issue too since you and I have the same player and I experienced the same problem with the same firmware version you have. But now that I updated the firmware to a newer then yours, I still have the same problem.

 

I had watched all episodes up to Big Tall Wish and they all played fine. Now during Walter there were some faint almost audio pops or dropouts but it could be in the film itself and not my copies. Since it is on the same disc, it doesn't really matter. This week, I will be watching the remaining episodes.

 

[RickER]

OK, i got season 1 cause it was cheap. Went to The Big Tall Wish, freezes at 12:30 seconds at the TZ bumper, just like you guys. From that point on, any episode after with freeze up. Back it goes for a refund. Sony BDP 1000ES plays everything else i throw at it. Firmware is the latest too, just about 2 weeks ago it updated.

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey Rick, Thanks for letting us know of your experience. For me, only one episode after Big Tall Wish will not play, the others after that will play.

I'm not going to send my set back for a return just yet. I'm betting that eventually this will get fixed either by firmware or Image. I'm going to see if I can try my set on another machine. If others can play this set on other machines, it's odd that others cannot. So it might be a player issue.

 

[RickER]

I see that Amazon is not selling them...again!

How is it Image isn't saying anything? Head in the sand will not help. And if Amazon will not sell it, until they fix the problem, so much for TZ on Blu. Cause i have not seen it in any store.

This is sad, the episodes look amazing! But i am also glad i still have my DVDs!

 

[Christian Preischl]

I agree. The absolute and total silence exhibited by Image on this matter is very disappointing to say the least. And given the rather high price these sets have to begin with I certainly have no interest in purchasing any further possible duds.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Christian Preischl
I agree. The absolute and total silence exhibited by Image on this matter is very disappointing to say the least.

Yep. I know I was saying that the problem could be firmware but there's alot of problems for it to just be firmware. I'll be the first guy to say "Well, give it some time for them to get things in order before making any type of statement or recall" but the set has been out for a month & a half and that's more than enough time for them to at least say that they're looking into all the problems. I don't own the set yet (I've seen my buddy's copy and according to him, all the discs work fine) and planned on trying to get it for Christmas but I'm going to wait rather than gamble that I don't get a messed up set.

 

[phil*]

I have just downloaded and installed Sony Firmware Update 5.50 (October 14,2010.)on my Sony BDP-S300....same problems as before..discs 1,2 and 5 play fine,but discs 3 & 4 won't load. As I suspected,this is NOT a firmware issue,because if it was,NONE of the discs would play.Image Entertainment has a problem on its hands,one that is only getting worse the longer they refuse to acknowledge it.

 

[Nelson Au]

I called Image Entertainment directly this morning to try to speak to someone about it. The receptionist would not direct me to someone, and took my name and number and said someone will call me back. I asked her if someone really would call. She said yes.

I'll let you know if I do hear from them. In the mean time, I'm going to put some heat on Amazon too to see if they'll contact Image as I bought from them.

I may email Image too if I don't hear soon.

 

[Doug Wallen]

I have e-mailed Image twice so far and still have not heard from them. Do they even have customer service?

I have downloaded the latest firmware for my Samsung 1500 and after I loaded disc 4, I still received the "Disc will not load/play error!"

Why oh why will Image not address these issues? I hope they figure out what to do and let us know. Are you listening Image?

Doug

 

[Nelson Au]

When I spoke to Image today, the receptionist told me that they don't deal with consumers, just the companies that distribute their products. And I can see that, they don't actually sell to us direct. I still hope a rep there will call me back and listen to our problems with this set.

But I agree it's still no excuse to not answer questions from the end user. I wondering if the HTF has any connections to help us out with.

 

[LeoA]

That's nonsense, most companies don't sell directly to their customers and it's hardly an excuse. Would be like calling up Nintendo for warranty support on a game console bought from a Wal-Mart and being refused since Nintendo doesn't have a chain of stores nationwide selling their products or a online store.

 

[RickER]

Originally Posted by Nelson Au
When I spoke to Image today, the receptionist told me that they don't deal with consumers, just the companies that distribute their products. And I can see that, they don't actually sell to us direct. I still hope a rep there will call me back and listen to our problems with this set.

But I agree it's still no excuse to not answer questions from the end user. I wondering if the HTF has any connections to help us out with.

Well, then i guess that street can work 2 ways.

I will not deal with Image. So i guess my days of buying anything they put out is done.

Actually, from what i hear, Image was very close to going under a few months back. Seems they may still be close to it the way they act.

 

[Nelson Au]

I am not holding out much hope that Image will return my call. I think it's bad too that they don't have a customer service rep.

After reading about the issues that Robert Harris reported on playback issues with the new Alien Anthology blu ray set and his comments to not pass that set up, I am feeling that perhaps it could be a firmware issue we are experiencing with The twilight Zone.

Mr. Harris explained that it's a very high quality set well worth owning, but he thinks the playback issues on his Oppo player are firmware related due to the fancy bells and whistles on that set. One could be the anti-piracy software used could be new. Perhaps the Twilight Zone has some new encodes that the players can't deal with.

I've sent an email to Sony to see if they are working on any new firmware updates that might resolve the playback problems on The Twilight Zone. I want to hang onto my set and not return it just yet. Perhaps it's not a defect, but just too new processes the firmware can't deal with. I am hoping anyway! So far, I've experienced two episodes that won't play. I still have a few to go to be sure they are the only ones. So it's still possible it's a defect. I hope it's as simple as a firmware update.

I wish i could wish it to be fixed!

EDIT: One another thread, Brandon had this to say about the TZ:

No, the Twilight Zone discs are authored with HDMV, not Java, and I can't see Image using an extensive BD+ encode. Plus, some people have a Disc 4 that players fine and others don't on the same player with the same latest firmware. TZ is almost assuredly a replication run issue.

This is a disappointment if this is the case.

 

[Doug Wallen]

I did return my set as I had contacted Image twice with no comment from their side. I had upgraded my firmware with the latest updates and nothing worked. I really wanted to keep this set, but it seems like it is not to be. I did contact Image to explain why I was returning this set.

I still do not expect to receive any comment from them.

Doug