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I hate new technology. No, that's not right. I like
new technology but I hate the way that companies prefer
to put things out without correcting their mistakes or taking
responsibility for their in/actions. What brings this to
mind are two recent events; 1) I finally gave in and got
my twin boys the X-Box 360. I hesitated about getting this
because I've always believed that there should be ONE gaming
system out there vs. multiple ones but I'm not the only
consumer and I'm not the company being paid on developing
the hardware to play this stuff. So I unpack this and set
it up for them to play. My son puts in "Halo-2". ***
Nothing happened. 
After numerous and frustrating phone calls with the
idiots at Microsoft I determine that X-Box 360 is not backwards
compatible with previous Microsoft creations UNLESS you
spend the extra green on an outside hard drive with enough
memory to hold the upgrade (this after being directed by
numerous incompetent Microsoft employees on the phone to
burn a disc on my computer only to find out…it wouldn't
upload anyway). ***
My second frustration was with James Bond and the recently
reissued Blu-ray discs put out by Fox for MGM/UA. I had
the most recent firmware upgrade on my Blu-ray player so
I was confident that any one of the discs would play. They
didn't. I should note that I watch a lot of these on my
stand-alone player NOT a Playstation 3 for my own sanity.
***
Just in case there was another upgrade I attached my
Blu-ray player to the internet to receive the latest upgrade.
I was confident that the problem would be fixed in a half
hour and I'd be able to watch my discs. It was a pain in
the butt sure but there was an easy fix at hand. ***
There wasn't one for these discs. ***
I was going to have to wait for the company that makes
my Blu-ray player to have an available update online before
playing something I just paid money for. That seems kind
of screwy doesn't it? I understand that Sony rushed Blu-ray
to market so that HD-DVD wouldn't win the format war but
the one issue that I never had with DVD was an incompatibility
issue with a DVD. ***
This reminds me of the alcoholic who after going through
rehab goes home only to find that a family member STILL
has the house stocked with booze. It's a simple problem
to correct but we have one major corporation enabling another
major corporation by making excuses for not doing the right
thing. ***
It seems to me that even though the firmware wasn't
finalized for stand-alone players (and, in fact, that manufacturers
were selling machines that wouldn't be able to play all
special features) that it is the responbility of the manufacturer
of the Blu-ray disc to make sure to include a firmware update
that automatically updates the player. It shouldn't fall
to consumers to have to constantly have to update their
firmware on their Blu-ray players because the format was
immature--everything should play and be backwards compatible
if it says Blu-ray on the disc and on the machine. ***
I was willing to accept that my stand-alone player
wouldn't be able to play ALL special features (although
the ramifications of that are just now starting to sink
in as I tried to watch "The Thing" from Universal) as long
as I could watch the bloody movie. I've changed my mind
some what. I think that if not all special features can
play on a early Blu-ray player, the least the studio could
do is include the special features in a fashion so that
you can watch them without the pip option. That can be in
the form of a second disc or just a making the altering
the main menu so that you can watch them without watching
the film at the same time. Since that's how things were
done on DVD I suspect that most people who purchase 1.0
or 1.1 machines are going to feel the same way. ***
When CD's were first introduced there was the Red Book
Standard that insured that ALL CD players could play ALL
CDs that had the Compact Disc label. That was part of the
licensing deal to insure that the format succeeded. Philips
wisely licensed this out to manufacturers to make sure that
the players would always play new and old stuff. It seems
to me that if Sony wants Blu-ray to succeed they should
have thought all this stuff out rather than wait until consumers
reject a new format in frustration during what amounts to
a recession or, at the very least, the beginning of a depression.
It's just clumsy and idiotic to do other wise. To win the
format war that they lost before with Beta vs. VHS, Sony
should insist that all manufacturers have the option on
the DVD to upgrade the firmware and have the devices automatically
reject the update if it has a newer more recent firmware
upload. ***
Instead, what's happened is that the average American
who couldn't figure out how to program a VCR much less figure
out why their Blu-ray player won't play, has become their
own incompetent electronics repair expert. Providing telephone
operators with a book of references to help those buying
Blu-ray players and discs doesn't solve the problem. It's
like putting wallpaper over a hole in the wall. It looks
nice but the hole is STILL there and will remind you it
is there every time it rains or the wind kicks up. If you're
in luck it won't happen very often but it will happen. What
happens instead is you get folks who get disenchanted with
this new device and return it or there end up being needless
and expensive returns to the place where you bought the
disc, waiting in lines, have the clerk glare at you as they
try and figure out whether or not you're pulling a scam
and returns from retailers by the boatload. It's example
of a poorly designed and manufactured disc and of a manufacturer
who doesn't live up to their part of the bargain when a
consumer buys their product. The one advantage (RIP) of
HD-DVD is that the specs were in place BEFORE it was launched
and there weren't quite as many major glitches as this.
The consumer has to waste their time, energy and money by
going back and forth to retailers. If this idiocy doesn't
sink Blu-ray, it will certainly make the consumer more cynical
and less apt to try something new which will, ultimately,
impact ALL new technologies for home video that manufacturers
roll out. ***
Heck, I love new technology but if I get frustrated
the average consumer will feel even more frustrated as they
have to do firmware upgrades, figure out why their player
isn't working and, essentially, be an unpaid member of the
"Brand" team. That's just dumb. It's an example of poor
planning and economics. ---
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