Do I ABSOLUTELY HAVE to update my Blu-ray player to watch Blu-rays?

I already own a Sony Blu-ray player and update it whenever i notice there's an update available. I've always assumed the updates were for the player itself. So if Sony decided to add feature X or Y to their players, all they would need to do is put it in an update. Or if they wanted to fix a bug/glitch, they do that through an update. However, today my brother told me something slightly contrary that he heard from a friend as well as a salesman.

According to my brother's "buddy" and the "expert" at Sears, the Blu-ray technology itself is frequently improved and added upon as well as made more anti-piracy as time goes on. The updates are for the players, but for the technology also. The "expert" at Sears even went as far to say that it's possible to buy a Blu-ray player and a Blu-ray movie on the same day and not be able to play it if you don't have the right updates installed on the player. Basically, if you buy a player today, and never connect it to the internet for updates, one day you'll be unable to play Blu-rays. My brother is convinced he has to have the internet in order to use a Blu-ray player for the long-term.

This sounds like complete nonsense to me. I mean, I'm willing to accept that I'm wrong, but this just seems a little too far out for me to accept. I also just flat out don't trust most of what the salespeople at big box electronics stores have to say. (There's been far too many times when they've told me something that I know to be wrong.) I love my brother, but everyone in our family knows he greatly exaggerates or just flat out lies about a lot of things. So I'm always skeptical about things he says that don't seem quite right.

My question is, do any of you know if this is true? Do you HAVE to update Blu-ray players just to watch Blu-rays?

 

As far as I am aware, all Blu-Ray disks are made with different digital content. Some are basic but some are more advanced. The technology is constantly changing. If you buy a movie in BR that came out before BR existed, like an old Disney movie or something, then chances are it will work perfect fine. However, buy a brand new big hit film such as a new James Bond or Mission Impossible or Twilight etc and it may not work if you have not completed the updates. Some will, some won't. You won't have any issues until you have an issue... make sense?

So in a nutshell, yes your buddy is correct that the updates are highly recommended. Doesn't mean that all new movies wont work, just means some content or features may not work or you may have issues. Depends on the movie.

I do not own or use Blu-Ray, but I am highly trained in this field and that's my best answer for you.

 

Immediately after reading this I remembered something that happened to me when I bought my BR player several years ago. I rented a BR and 15 minutes into it a picture-in-picture window popped up with cast commentary. No matter what I did. I couldn't get it to go away. After an update, the movie worked fine. Is this the type of thing you're referring to? Or will sometimes the movie just glitch out altogether and not even play? Or is the myriad of potential issues so large you want to tell me "Don't ask me specifics. Just do the damn updates."

 

Short answer, yep. My mother in law had this issue, her blu-ray player didn't update one time, and she was getting blu-rays from netflix, that wouldn't play at all. She thought it was their discs, so kept sending them back saying defective. Turned out, wasn't the disc, after trouble shooting with netflix and Sony. Dumb to me, not everyone has Wi-Fi or an easy way to have the internet hooked up to a blu-ray player.

 

Yeah, it's pretty dumb to require an Internet connection. I get why its required, i just don't like it. My parents for instance have really fast and reliable internet service, but not wifi. So if they were to get a Blu-ray player, they'd either have to get a new router or a really long Ethernet cable just to watch movies.

 

While I would never call the people at Sears "experts", the guy is right. As newer disc come out, they have newer AACS and BD+ encryption keys. If you're player can't decode the new keys, you can't play the encrypted content on the disc. Also, I don't know about Sony Blu-Ray players, but some Blu-Rays come with PS3 updates on the disc if the software isn't new enough to play the disc.

 

Well damn. It looks like I was wrong. Thanks for setting me straight guys.

 

I just encountered this as well, with rented movies they are now holding back content to get you to purchase the real thing. Most rental bluerays don't have special features anymore.

 

Yeah that's a good example. Not all issues will be like this, sometimes the disk won't even read without the updates. But content such as cast commentary and interactive features can have issues without updates.