Some ‘Avatar’ Fans Struggle With Blu-Ray
I came across this article Saturday morning while getting ready to head out to Los Angeles and I smirkingly found it hilarious. I remember standing in line at Best Buy on April 22nd when I bought the infamous Avatar Blu-ray and the cashier told me that I need to do a firmware update so it plays okay. I smiled and said “You mean on all five of my players?” She laughed. Low and behold I went home that night and popped it into my Playstation 3 and Panny players and no firmware updates were required. It played fine. Sometimes I think that consumers don’t understand the technology they buy. Okay. I said that wrong. MOST consumers have no clue what a firmware update even is. Even if you don’t have an Internet connected player it is your responsiblity to keep up with firmware updates as they are posted on the manufacturer’s websites. Come on people. Did you expect your Blu-ray discs to just play? There’s no such thing as the simple life anymore. Anyway, I thought I would share the below article in its entirety. Enjoy!
An unusual glitch has angered some “Avatar” Blu-ray owners. For these unlucky people, since the disc won’t play on their Blu-ray players, their new “Avatar” Blu-ray serves no real purpose other than to sit idly on the coffee table.
“When 3 out of 3 players in my house (Denon, Samsung and PC) won’t play it, then 20th Century Fox should be slapped with losses on this one,” said one irritated customer.
In reality, the disc works fine; the problem stems from the Blu-ray players themselves. In order to run optimally, the firmware for these fancy Blu-ray machines needs to be updated regularly via a download from the Web. (“Firmware” is the program that controls the performance of an electronic device, which would be, in this case, the playback of a Blu-ray disc.)
If a Blu-ray player owner doesn’t have a home Internet connection, the chances are good the player’s firmware will be out of date. Thus making “Avatar” — a movie that prides itself on being presented with only the most cutting edge of technology — unplayable with the older firmware. The problem isn’t unique to “Avatar,” but the movie’s popularity has made those complaints among the loudest.
Unfortunately, people without an Internet connection probably aren’t reading this particular story — or the hundreds of other pieces instructing new Blu-ray player owners on how to upgrade. So they’re not aware of the root of a problem.
But while they may not have home access to the Internet, they likely do have a telephone. And they’ve been using their phone to flood retailers with angry calls.
Bring home Avatar today on Blu-ray!
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