Phillips DVD825 firmware updates (1 Viewer)

[NeilO]

I was wondering if anyone here has tried a firmware update on a Phillips DVD825 DVD-player.

I have had some problems with the player as mentioned in these threads:

Dead Zone Season 2 problems

and

Roger Rabbit problems

I noticed in rec.video.dvd.players
this note from 2000 and just saw
an interesting website which talks about some firmware updates.

Anyway, before I try it out, I'd like to know if there is anything I should be aware of.

Thanks,

Neil

 

[NeilO]

I was wondering if anyone here has tried a firmware update on a Phillips DVD825 DVD-player.

I have had some problems with the player as mentioned in these threads:

Dead Zone Season 2 problems

and

Roger Rabbit problems

I noticed in rec.video.dvd.players
this note from 2000 and just saw
an interesting website which talks about some firmware updates.

Anyway, before I try it out, I'd like to know if there is anything I should be aware of.

Thanks,

Neil

 

[NeilO]

Well, I tried out the firmware update, but I am not sure whether it fixed anything. Are there some readings on the DVD display that it is supposed to say or not say when the update occurs? I was a bit worried seeing dUd appear as part of one thing, but maybe it is supposed to say that.

The firmware reading used to say 9.21991102P5 and now says 9.28000818P5, so at least that was changed.

Unfortunately, when I tried a disc from The Dead Zone Season 2, the same problem as mentioned above occurred. I tried the disc in another player we have and it worked nominally. From the note mentioned above from rec.video.dvd.players that I was hoping to see some change like that. I put The Matrix in, but the layer pause seemed to be about the same as I remembered from before.

If anyone has any insight I'd like to know.

Thanks,

Neil

 

[NeilO]

Well, I tried out the firmware update, but I am not sure whether it fixed anything. Are there some readings on the DVD display that it is supposed to say or not say when the update occurs? I was a bit worried seeing dUd appear as part of one thing, but maybe it is supposed to say that.

The firmware reading used to say 9.21991102P5 and now says 9.28000818P5, so at least that was changed.

Unfortunately, when I tried a disc from The Dead Zone Season 2, the same problem as mentioned above occurred. I tried the disc in another player we have and it worked nominally. From the note mentioned above from rec.video.dvd.players that I was hoping to see some change like that. I put The Matrix in, but the layer pause seemed to be about the same as I remembered from before.

If anyone has any insight I'd like to know.

Thanks,

Neil

 

[NeilO]

I burned another CD just in case that was the problem and this time I watched all the symbols go by while it was updating.

It first went through

drA 1 then with 2 3 and 4
dLA and a whole bunch of symbols including a round of E_ _ 01 which then advanced to E _ _ 13 it put and end then and went
dLA dn2
end
dLA 0
dLA dUd -
another round of DlA E _ _ 0 through 14
and more stuff. It finally did close, read DrA, done and open.

I presume it was supposed to do all of this which I saw.

Unfortunately, it still doesn't seem to make any diffenence. The layer change of Roger Rabbit still makes it go back to the menu screen. The Dead Zone problems are still the same. I tried another player we have and both DVDs played as I would have expected.

I noticed that there were other firmware updates between 9.21 and 9.28. Should I have installed those first?

If anyone has any insight I'd like to know.

Thanks,

Neil

 

[NeilO]

I burned another CD just in case that was the problem and this time I watched all the symbols go by while it was updating.

It first went through

drA 1 then with 2 3 and 4
dLA and a whole bunch of symbols including a round of E_ _ 01 which then advanced to E _ _ 13 it put and end then and went
dLA dn2
end
dLA 0
dLA dUd -
another round of DlA E _ _ 0 through 14
and more stuff. It finally did close, read DrA, done and open.

I presume it was supposed to do all of this which I saw.

Unfortunately, it still doesn't seem to make any diffenence. The layer change of Roger Rabbit still makes it go back to the menu screen. The Dead Zone problems are still the same. I tried another player we have and both DVDs played as I would have expected.

I noticed that there were other firmware updates between 9.21 and 9.28. Should I have installed those first?

If anyone has any insight I'd like to know.

Thanks,

Neil

 

[NeilO]

Another followup on fun with my DVD825. Last night I was watching West Side Story and after it did the layer change problems started. It started to inexplicably start skipping a few words here and there. We removed the DVD and went to another player and watched the rest of the scene.

I then remembered that when I bought my speakers from Etronics they sent along a free CD-player cleaner CD. I thought it was worth trying, and so I put it in my DVD825. It went through the cycle and then I tried West Side Story again and the scene after the layer change worked perfectly.

I tried the Dead Zone, but the same problem with menu access was still there.

I then tried Who Framed Roger Rabbit and to my delight, for the first time ever on the DVD825, it navigated through the layer change without going back to menu. So, it seems that one of my problems was a need of cleaning. It could be that the firmware update also helped. I hope that the other problems we had been seeing of later with reading material on the second layer has now been resolved (such as my daughter had seen problems with the Gilmore Girls disc during the layer change in episode 3 on most dics recently).

 

[NeilO]

Another followup on fun with my DVD825. Last night I was watching West Side Story and after it did the layer change problems started. It started to inexplicably start skipping a few words here and there. We removed the DVD and went to another player and watched the rest of the scene.

I then remembered that when I bought my speakers from Etronics they sent along a free CD-player cleaner CD. I thought it was worth trying, and so I put it in my DVD825. It went through the cycle and then I tried West Side Story again and the scene after the layer change worked perfectly.

I tried the Dead Zone, but the same problem with menu access was still there.

I then tried Who Framed Roger Rabbit and to my delight, for the first time ever on the DVD825, it navigated through the layer change without going back to menu. So, it seems that one of my problems was a need of cleaning. It could be that the firmware update also helped. I hope that the other problems we had been seeing of later with reading material on the second layer has now been resolved (such as my daughter had seen problems with the Gilmore Girls disc during the layer change in episode 3 on most dics recently).