I think I am done with Sony. (1 Viewer)

[Brian Husar]

In the Christmas of 2018 I got a Sony 4K UHD Blu Ray player. A UBP-X700. Dolby vision compatable. It had issues with 4K blu ray discs that were “BD-100”. Not all but some would pause and I would have to eject and it would start up and work fine. But this past year, no matter what I played, the whole damn thing would freeze and I would have to unplug my system. I finally took it to get repaired by Best Buy Geek Squad, and they said they did a firmware update. Strange, the system hasn’t had a firmware update since March 2019. After almost a month, I got the player back 2 weeks ago. Same damn thing happened 10 minutes into Jaws. We swapped it out for the exact same model last Thursday, since that model is everywhere it seems, 10 minutes into Out Of Africa on blu ray the whole system froze. 90 minutes into Apocalypse Now on 4K, it froze. So yesterday we went back to Best Buy and got the latest model. It was an “open box” the manager assured me that “it was checked out and we wouldn’t put anything out that didn’t work”. Well, I got home, hooked up the player, so excited that I could watch the new Hitchcock collection on 4K, and the system needed a firmware update. Fine no problem. Well, the system wouldn’t update the firmware. It failed everytime. When I went to Sony’s website, the firmware my system was trying to install was not even the latest update. So it’s back to Best Buy. They have a simple Panasonic one. I think I am done with the Sony’s, who always made good product and now are going cheap. And don’t even contact support. It’s all generic answers.

 

[John Dirk]

Forgive me for asking the obvious but did you try these discs in another player for comparative purposes?

 

[jcroy]

(From an historical perspective on a tangent).

Back in the dawn of the dvd era circa mid-late 1990s, this was the sort of disc player behavior I feared was going to happen with multi-layer single-sided discs such as DVD9 (later BD50, and now BD66 and BD100). The mechanism for changing between different layers sounded theoretically fine on paper, but I didn't entirely trust it at the time.

EDIT: What confirmed my suspicion at the time, were the first double-sided DVD14 and DVD18 flipper discs I purchased. They were defective and I had to do several exchanges to finally get a copy which was not defective.


What changed my mind about this for DVD9 was when I saw it in action on a computer dvdrom drive, and didn't see any obvious issues unless the disc was defective. (Similar story with seeing BD50 discs played on a computer bdrom drive in action).

Though by the time 4Kbluray was released, I was very skeptical at first when I read the specs for 4Kbluray discs + players and realized computer bdrom drives reading 4Kbluray discs are also completely encrypted at the bus level. This fact and that Sonopress was a huge disc manfucturer of 4Kbluray discs (both BD66 and BD100), immediately turned me off from jumping onto the 4Kbluray treadmill crica 2015-2016. (Sonopress was one of the worst bluray disc manufacturers, which around a decade ago manufactured Criterion bluray discs that prematurely "bronzed" and became unplayable).

 

[jcroy]

I finally took it to get repaired by Best Buy Geek Squad, and they said they did a firmware update. Strange, the system hasn’t had a firmware update since March 2019. After almost a month, I got the player back 2 weeks ago.

Unless I know for sure they have someone on staff at a particular location who knows what they're doing in a particular niche in question, I generally assume those guys at Geek Squad don't know what they're doing for anything non-trivial. Too many horror stories of incompetence and stupidity over the years from local friends/acquaintences who went to them for their tech problems.

These same local friends/acquaintences later came to me asking for help, AFTER their problems were never solved by geeksquad and other "tech help" service shops.

 

[jcroy]

And don’t even contact support. It’s all generic answers.

For the most part.

Most likely it is just a person reading from a prepared script. Completely useless.

 

[Brian Husar]

Unless I know for sure they have someone on staff at a particular location who knows what they're doing in a particular niche in question, I generally assume those guys at Geek Squad don't know what they're doing for anything non-trivial. Too many horror stories of incompetence and stupidity over the years from local friends/acquaintences who went to them for their tech problems.

These same local friends/acquaintences later came to me asking for help, AFTER their problems were never solved by geeksquad and other "tech help" service shops.

Wow. I never knew that.

 

[jcroy]

I looked up the manuals for that Sony UBP-X700 model, and noticed the warranty was only for 1 year.

I've found that once a disc player (of any type) has problems after the warranty expires, it is easier to just buy a new player. The costs and headaches of getting it "fixed" are not worthwhile anymore.

 

[jcroy]

For example, when my computer's dvd-rom drive starts having problems or abruptly dies, it is easier to just buy a new one for $20. (A new computer bdrom drive is around $60-$70 locally).

There is absolutely no point in trying to "fix" a cantankerous or dead disc drive, after the warranty expires in 1 or 2 years.

 

[jcroy]

Wow. I never knew that.

In practice, I've found that this generally applies for ANY and ALL electric / electronic devices. Whether fridges, washing machines, bluray players, large screen tvs, computers, stoves, air conditioners, microwave ovens, etc ...

This type of "made in china" crap is not meant to be fixed at all. It is meant to die after the warranty expires, and just buy a new one to replace it.

 

[jcroy]

For this type of stuff, extended warranties are a complete waste. Basically flushing cash down the toilet.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Though by the time 4Kbluray was released, I was very skeptical at first when I read the specs for 4Kbluray discs + players and realized computer bdrom drives reading 4Kbluray discs are also completely encrypted at the bus level. This fact and that Sonopress was a huge disc manfucturer of 4Kbluray discs (both BD66 and BD100), immediately turned me off from jumping onto the 4Kbluray treadmill crica 2015-2016. (Sonopress was one of the worst bluray disc manufacturers, which around a decade ago manufactured Criterion bluray discs that prematurely "bronzed" and became unplayable).

So you're saying the problem might not be so much the players in question, but the media format itself? Interesting. Although on thought it kind of makes sense, since it would be unusual for one person to see so many hardware failures in such a short period of time...

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[jcroy]

So you're saying the problem might not be so much the players in question, but the media format itself? Interesting. Although on thought it kind of makes sense, since it would be unusual for one person to see so many hardware failures in such a short period of time...

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

Possibly.

http://www.hughsnews.ca/sonopress-tops-ten-million-4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray-discs-0058243

It appers Warner, Universal, Lionsgate, and others were big clients of Sonopress dating back to the 2016-2018 time period.

Dunno about today.

 

[jcroy]

In the case of Sony titles, I suspect their 4Kbluray discs were manufactured at Sony's own Terre Haute, Indiana disc manufacturing plant. Offhand I don't know if they're still doing this, since they shut down their cd/dvd/bluray disc manufacturing operations back in early 2018. Allegedly Sony might still be manufacturing PS4 discs at Terre Haute.

The other big 4Kbluray disc manufacturing operation, is probably Thomson/Technicolor's giant disc manufacturing plant in Guadalajara, Mexico. This is the plant where Warner, Universal, Disney, Paramount and some smaller companies (ie. Cinedigm, etc ...) have been manufacturing all their dvd and bluray discs over the past decade (or longer). After Sony shut down their Terre Haute operation for cd/dvd/bluray discs in early 2018, they moved their then-remaining clients to this giant Technicolor Mexico disc manufacturing plant.

If you ever see any major movies with dvd/bluray/4Kbluray packages which have "made in mexico" printed on the back cover, it is likely manufactured at this Technicolor Mexico plant.

 

[David Norman]

Possibly the media, except the 700 seemed to be notorious for bad behavior and freezing problems as were many of the Samsung and LG early players. The Sony 800 and esp 800M2 seem much less cantankerous and I wouldn't turn one down if offered. That said -- I'd go for the Panasonic's which seems to have the best disc playing reputation even when considering the Oppo.

I really wish Panasonic TV would return to the US. The reviews of the EU models just are too enticing

 

[Brian Husar]

I looked up the manuals for that Sony UBP-X700 model, and noticed the warranty was only for 1 year.

I've found that once a disc player (of any type) has problems after the warranty expires, it is easier to just buy a new player. The costs and headaches of getting it "fixed" are not worthwhile anymore.

The new player of the same model had the same issue. I couldn’t believe it.

 

[Brian Husar]

Possibly the media, except the 700 seemed to be notorious for bad behavior and freezing problems as were many of the Samsung and LG early players. The Sony 800 and esp 800M2 seem much less cantankerous and I wouldn't turn one down if offered. That said -- I'd go for the Panasonic's which seems to have the best disc playing reputation even when considering the Oppo.

I really wish Panasonic TV would return to the US. The reviews of the EU models just are too enticing

They have two Panasonic’s not Dolby Vision but I am kind of done. Give me a player that works.

 

[jcroy]

The new player of the same model had the same issue. I couldn’t believe it.

This sounds like design flaw specific to that model, and possibly other models which used the same underlying mechanical + electronic design for reading 4Kbluray discs.

 

[Brian Husar]

Forgive me for asking the obvious but did you try these discs in another player for comparative purposes?

Yes. My LG. They worked fine. And it was not just on the 4K discs. It did it on normal blu ray and even some CDs.

 

[JohnRice]

Just a note, UHD discs are notorious for having playback problems. A lot of people clean new discs with a microfiber cloth, and that seems to help a lot. The theory is that the manufacturing process leaves a residue on the disc surface and since UHD discs have data so tightly packed it impedes reading the data.

I do that, and I know it seems to have helped. I still get discs that lock up, but after cleaning them again, they always seem to work.

 

[Brian Husar]

Forgive me for asking the obvious but did you try these discs in another player for comparative purposes?

Also, normally, on certain BD 100’s, if the happened with the pause, I could easily eject it, and reinsert the disc and it would have the “auto resume” and it would start and play fine where I left off. Just rewind a bit and it would be fine. This was a total system freeze where I couldn’t eject or even turn off the system without unplugging it. Normal blu rays always worked fine and this was happening on normal blu rays as well, also CDs if I played them.