NEW Philips BDP3000 Blu Ray Player

Richersounds.ie: John

Ash,

have we checked if the firmware upgrade reverses the hach (not that we would have hacked a machine ourselves of course )

ATB,

John Mc

serarra

Good to know that it works. So will not have to keep my old DVD player for playing those american DVDs I own...
And will be able to watch them upscaled! Nice!.


I cannot wait to get my hands on the tv, blueray, etc.:D

The Ritz

AshMiller wrote: »

.......Ritz your right - but once its yours you can do whatever you like to it .............

..And I have done many times, there's four Philips dvd players of various ages handset hacked to MR in our house..... The ones in the two baby Ritz's bedrooms get a particularly hard life and they run faultlessly so that's saying something.

I would expect a full firmware update to reset the region but have encountered updates that make no change from other manufacturers (Denon springs to mind, from the 2xxx series some years ago ?). I guess some further guinea piggery is called for........


Ritz.

dq

AshMiller wrote: »

Hi Hick

This is the link to the latest firmware
http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbint/cpindex.pl?scy=IE&slg=ENG&cat=DVD_HOME_THEATER_CA&sct=DVD_PLAYERS_SU&session=20090813132742_83.70.176.90&grp=HOME_ENTERTAINMENT_GR&ctn=BDP3000/05&mid=Link_Software&hlt=Link_Software

nice an short link that....only release a few weeks back

Ritz your right - but once its yours you can do whatever you like to it - just a disclaimer as this sort of mod'ding isn't officially authorized.

It worked grand on ours in the shop.
atb
Ash

Hi Ash
Purchased the BDP3000/05 last weekend. Kit came with free Slumdog Millionaire. However, PQ is very poor - getting a 'grainy' effect. Checked all connections and have decent HDMI cable etc. Audio is fine (DTS to 6100 soundbar).

Checked for firmware - currently support page has BDP300012-FUS-929312_4452 (22Mb) + BDP300012-FWF-925512_4452 (1Mb). Loaded same onto USB but player will not recognise same. Notice the code name - it has a "12' in it - I believe there is a BDP3000/12 model - so maybe firmware on web site relates to this other model?

Rang Philips support. No advise on PQ issue other than to try another disc. Regarding the Firmware - I have been advised that firmware update via USB not possible ?? Support guy is going to post out a disc with latest firmware. Nothing is the manual about this at all (guy was not sure what the prob with firmware is).

Have you any ideas on the 'grainy' PQ? Any reports on the firmware download/update issue?

I should add that I played a DVD also in the BD player - same grainy issue - when when I play same DVD in the 6100 - it upscales perfectly and PQ is better than the BPD !!

I'm guessing I have a dodgy piece of kit and need to have it replaced. Any ideas/suggestions would be much appreciated.

thanks
d

Richersounds.ie: Ashley

Hi dq

Sorry to hear your having problems with the BDP3000.

I've a couple of questions to ask firstly - How many BR discs have you tried? Slumdog itself is pretty grainy in places on dvd and BR. Have you tried other BR discs on it? (I've got to ask!!!)

What TV have you got the player running into? the reason I ask this is that Philips TVs (and most others) use factory default settings on inputs that havent been used before or that havent been taylored by the user.

Have you set up the TV's picture settings for the HDMI input you have plugged your player into? wind the SHARPNESS down as this can introduce/highlight LOTS of grain present in the image. Check some of the other TV image processing modes as these can usually be turned down or of with a soucre like BR.

The USB input on the back is basically for adding memory for BD-Live content from the net.

Give the update disc a go and let me know how you get on.

I've got to say we havent had any PQ issues with the BDP3000 but please bring it back into the shop and we can have a look at it here for you - I'd love to get this sorted for you.

Phone me on 01 474 0788 if you have any questions

atb
Ash

dq

AshMiller wrote: »

Hi dq

Sorry to hear your having problems with the BDP3000.

I've a couple of questions to ask firstly - How many BR discs have you tried? Slumdog itself is pretty grainy in places on dvd and BR. Have you tried other BR discs on it? (I've got to ask!!!)

What TV have you got the player running into? the reason I ask this is that Philips TVs (and most others) use factory default settings on inputs that havent been used before or that havent been taylored by the user.

Have you set up the TV's picture settings for the HDMI input you have plugged your player into? wind the SHARPNESS down as this can introduce/highlight LOTS of grain present in the image. Check some of the other TV image processing modes as these can usually be turned down or of with a soucre like BR.

The USB input on the back is basically for adding memory for BD-Live content from the net.

Give the update disc a go and let me know how you get on.

I've got to say we havent had any PQ issues with the BDP3000 but please bring it back into the shop and we can have a look at it here for you - I'd love to get this sorted for you.

Phone me on 01 474 0788 if you have any questions

atb
Ash

Thanks for getting back Ash.

Fair question! Have only just tried the one free BR. I do intend to rent different BR movie and see if PQ is better. The reason I jumped to concern is that I had rented this movie on DVD a few months ago and played through the HTS6100 and PQ was excellent. I have a DVD copy of In Bruges and this also appears to have better PQ on the HTS6100 than on the 3000. I could be wrong - hard to tell (gotta unload and reload and then 'compare') - but pretty certain I got that grainy picture again.

LCD is Samsung UE40B7020 (purchased in May - had a craving sickness for HDTV and in the end could not wait for the 9604 series - next time ). Set is not professionally calibrated - but did use recommended settings I found on Avforums.com and these in general seem to suit my viewing preferences. I will play with Sharpness and other settings and see if that helps. Thanks for that suggestion.

I understand the USB can be used for BD-Live content but the manual does ref same as source (as well as 'Network' - have not tried this yet) for firmware updates. As far as you're aware - is the USB source for firmware updates definitely not possible?

Many thanks again Ash. Will check settings/separate movie option and let you know how I get on.

br
d

dq

Interim update:
With reference to the poor picture quality (and my fear the player at fault) - came across this review
http://uk.blu-ray.com/movies/movies.php?id=4323&show=userreviews
where two comments refer to the disappointing/awful PQ.

Will rent another BR this weekend - hopeful that another movie title will deliver the PQ expected.

Just a note to Philips (Ash you may want to pass this on) - if Slumdog Millionaire PQ known to be poor :(then probably best to use some other title for promitional purposes that does not have PQ issues:).

cheers.

Richersounds.ie: Ashley

Hey dq
Slumdog is a enjoyable film just not the best in pq but then Blu Ray does have the ability to show up poor sources. This movie was shot on HD cameras using tape (I'll have to check with our in house film buff, Fergal but I think this is correct as danny Boyle likes tape) and you see the daylight scenes are much better than the night time scenes.

Have you tried a differnet film?
Also please bring the player into us and I'll be happy to plug it into one of our tvs and check it out for you.
Just let me know what day would suit you.

I see these players running films every day and it's a great little machine

Give me a call on 474 0788
Cheers ash

Richersounds.ie: John

dq wrote: »

Interim update:
With reference to the poor picture quality (and my fear the player at fault) - came across this review
http://uk.blu-ray.com/movies/movies.php?id=4323&show=userreviews
where two comments refer to the disappointing/awful PQ.

Will rent another BR this weekend - hopeful that another movie title will deliver the PQ expected.

Just a note to Philips (Ash you may want to pass this on) - if Slumdog Millionaire PQ known to be poor :(then probably best to use some other title for promitional purposes that does not have PQ issues:).

cheers.

DQ,

Fair point re. the Slumdog Blu-Ray - I agree the quality is very poor and specifically grainy - however if you have ANY query with the DVD - why don't you pop it back to us for exchange or refund - we won't quibble in any way we have literally sold many 100's of the BDP3000 and to date we have had 3 returned to us in total!

As regards Slumdog as a promo - yes it would have been better to include a top quality Blu-ray but Slumdog was just released when the deal was done so it was a bit of a scoop and it was a deal done by Philips Ireland - not us and fianally - it was a freebie which we passed onto our Customers so we just could not gripe too much!

Thanks again keep us posted,

ATB,

John Mc

dq

Chaps

Thanks for feedback.

Very happy to report that Dart Knight and King Fu Panda PQ was excellent. So we agree that Slumdog a poor example (great film though) of Blu Ray.

Still waiting on firmware disc from Philips - but remain confused on this point as player does have option to update firmware via USB (and/or Network). Has anyone attempted to update firmware on this player yet?

Final point - some noise from the player as it 'reads' the disc. Getting 'read' noise on all discs played to date. Only noticeable when I have volume turned down low. Anyone notice this?

thanks
d

hick

hey ye I've done it

Make sure you extract the file to the usb, the file you download is zipped, you need to save that to the desktop and extract the files to the usb, should work fine then.

This caught me out the first time, apols if you've already tried this.

PS get Planet Earth, you will never again question spending a penny on your HD setup

dq

hick wrote: »

hey ye I've done it

Make sure you extract the file to the usb, the file you download is zipped, you need to save that to the desktop and extract the files to the usb, should work fine then.

This caught me out the first time, apols if you've already tried this.

PS get Planet Earth, you will never again question spending a penny on your HD setup

Thanks Hick
I had unzipped the files and transferred the .bin files to USB instead of unzipping to the USB. Firmware updates without any fuss.

Thanks for tip on Planet Earth- guessing you're a fan of Natural History. Check this out :eek: from forthcoming series on the Beeb - http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8210000/8210394.stm. Same production team (I think) that did Lost Land of the Jaguar last year.

plazmatick

I've have some issues with this player -

I got it like a month ago, and was doing an evening movie projection for my wife, we played 2001 SO. We got so glad with teh picture and everything, enjoying late evening, while it was raining outside.. After some 6 minutes I got weird noise from 6.5 system and picture went grey noisy (like the TV without program - grey snowy noise). It shut down my LCD and turned it on by itself. After two-three seconds everything is fine - bdp didn't shut down or anything - just playing the movie. All other device that were connected to it went crazy for 1 second, and then, just like nothing happened it went on.
I quit playing, and am a bit afraid to repeat so. Wife thought that our TV went dead, and 6.1 played the most freaky sound ever - glitchy, distorted sound.
Support of the store where I bought it after checking it claims that its probably because of voltage errors - the storm/heavy rain that happened that day. Like - this player is just fine, we test all parameters, voltage, ouptuts, playing media, all is fine sir. Have a nice day.
Hm... I went home, and tried to shut TV down while running and turning it back on - it doesn't turn on by itself like it did that day while watching blu-ray... anyways, pretty weird thing.

one more thing - I didn't apply any patches or hacks and it plays DVDs from region 1! I tried all I've bought in USA and all running like a charm. Still didn't have the courage to play full movies, just for a few minutes. All played fine, no problems at all - no region warning. PS3 refuse to play them due to region lock. What was my conclusion - its probably region free now
and what did I do, ordered some blu-ray lot of ebay, and - my BDP 3000 says - No go! region problem! wtf? Not a single disc out of 6 won't play....
AAAAAaaa... :mad:

Does my BDP has a life of its own or what? Did some thunderstruck that never happened turned device that oughta be my servant and slave into device rights activist with its own intelligence and bizarre sense of humour?

Please help, if anyone knows how and what to say?

Is there any firmware editor, hard core chip modding, cast spells, black voodoo ritual or whatever just to calm the bastard down!

Is it just a coincidence that it happened with HAL computer movie in it?

Richersounds.ie: Kenny

Hi plazmatick.

The Philips BDP3000 is Milti region for standard DVD's only. It will only play region B Blu Ray disks.

Was the unit purchased from ourselves at RicherSounds?

Support of the store where I bought it after checking it claims that its probably because of voltage errors - the storm/heavy rain that happened that day. Like - this player is just fine, we test all parameters, voltage, ouptuts, playing media, all is fine sir. Have a nice day.

If this would be the case you could pop by the store and ask for myself (Kenny) and I can connect it up to our display home cinema set up and test it out playing some Blu Rays. Although from the Quote above it doesn't sound like our advice!!:)

It really does sound like a strange thing for a Blu Ray player to cause:

After some 6 minutes I got weird noise from 6.5 system and picture went grey noisy (like the TV without program - grey snowy noise). It shut down my LCD and turned it on by itself. After two-three seconds everything is fine - bdp didn't shut down or anything - just playing the movie. All other device that were connected to it went crazy for 1 second, and then, just like nothing happened it went on

I could understand the sound glitch if the disk was to skip or freeze up. Did the amp switch off also? Is the Blu Ray connected to the amp then to the screen or direct to the screen? Some amps a have built in HDMI control which if you were to have this function switched on (Only If Blu Ray is connected to Amp then Screen) the Amp would control the power between the Blu Ray, TV and itself. So if the Blu Ray or Amp were to be switched on or off the TV would follow suit. This would also take affect if the signal from the Blu Ray dropped out.

I hope this is of help.

irvine

i live in south africa. just bought BDP 3000. Blu ray discs no problem but when i want to play BBC Life on Land dvd (very expensive) it wont play same with Planet Earth. Other dvd,s play

can anyone help identify problem
thanks in advance

Richersounds.ie (Ashley) wrote: »

Hi Hick

This is the link to the latest firmware
http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbint/cpindex.pl?scy=IE&slg=ENG&cat=DVD_HOME_THEATER_CA&sct=DVD_PLAYERS_SU&session=20090813132742_83.70.176.90&grp=HOME_ENTERTAINMENT_GR&ctn=BDP3000/05&mid=Link_Software&hlt=Link_Software

nice an short link that....only release a few weeks back

Ritz your right - but once its yours you can do whatever you like to it - just a disclaimer as this sort of mod'ding isn't officially authorized.

It worked grand on ours in the shop.
atb
Ash

Richersounds.ie: John

Irvine,

Thanks for the post -

Are the problem BBC DVD's Standard Def DVD's?

What region are they?

Where did you buy the BDP3000 - as in what coutry and what region is it?

Finally we can direct you to a multi region 'hack' for Standard Def DVD's if required - just drop me a PM..

Thanks again and looking forward to hearing from you,

ATB,

John Mc & Crew

The Recliner

Hi

I bought a BDP3000 a couple of weeks from you, watched a couple of Blu-Ray dvd's on it and was very happy with the picture and sound on it

So I went and ordered a load of Blu_Ray's which arrived recently, went to play one of them last night and when the movie played there was no sound, there was sound on the menus etc

The player is connected to the TV (a Philips Cineos also bought from yourselves a coulpe of years ago)) with HDMI

I have had a look at the DVD's and the first couple I watched had stereo on the sound track so I assume that is why there were no problems

All the new ones have a Master Audio track in DTS-HD 5.1 and no stero track in English except for the commentary track ( I could watch them in German, French etc) which is why I assume they don't play sound as the player is hooked up to the TV and I have no surround sound

Does this sound likely? And as I have no surround sound is there any way around this?

Thanks

serarra

The Recliner wrote: »

Hi

I bought a BDP3000 a couple of weeks from you, watched a couple of Blu-Ray dvd's on it and was very happy with the picture and sound on it

So I went and ordered a load of Blu_Ray's which arrived recently, went to play one of them last night and when the movie played there was no sound, there was sound on the menus etc

The player is connected to the TV (a Philips Cineos also bought from yourselves a coulpe of years ago)) with HDMI

I have had a look at the DVD's and the first couple I watched had stereo on the sound track so I assume that is why there were no problems

All the new ones have a Master Audio track in DTS-HD 5.1 and no stero track in English except for the commentary track ( I could watch them in German, French etc) which is why I assume they don't play sound as the player is hooked up to the TV and I have no surround sound

Does this sound likely? And as I have no surround sound is there any way around this?

Thanks

I think the problem you are having is that the blueray player is trying to send the raw data for the sound to the tv.
Go into the configuration in the blueray player, got so sound and look for downsample, I think it is (not in front of player right now and cannot check) It has to be activated. And on the other two options there, you have an option for bitstream, select the other option.

Richersounds.ie: Ashley

Hey,

Please see PM sent to you this am. Let me know if this helps.

Thanks, Nicola.

irvine wrote: »

i live in south africa. just bought BDP 3000. Blu ray discs no problem but when i want to play BBC Life on Land dvd (very expensive) it wont play same with Planet Earth. Other dvd,s play

can anyone help identify problem
thanks in advance

The Recliner

serarra wrote: »

I think the problem you are having is that the blueray player is trying to send the raw data for the sound to the tv.
Go into the configuration in the blueray player, got so sound and look for downsample, I think it is (not in front of player right now and cannot check) It has to be activated. And on the other two options there, you have an option for bitstream, select the other option.

Thanks for the reply

I figured it was something like that but I have tried every possible combination of PCM, Bitstream and Downsampling on/off etc all to no avail

Richersounds.ie: John

The Recliner,

Hope you got sorted - drop us a line if not and we will get you out of trouble.

Not sure if you guys have seen the latest review of the BDP3000 in this months T3 where it mixes it with the big boys from Samsung / Sony / Panasonic / Pioneer & Sharp.

The BDP3000 gets a cracking review at £169.95 ending up with the same rating as the Sony 360 and the Pana BD60 (they are MUCH more expensive!).

Given we are selling the BDP3000 M U C H cheaper than £169.95 - if you have already bought one Guys, be smug......

Keep me posted if we can ever assist,

ATB,

John Mc

irvine

hi
I took BBC Planet earth standard DVD to the store where I bought the problematic Philips BDP 3000 blu ray. The same problem came up on their in store Philips - plays the planet earth intro then gets stuck.

Tried the same dvd's on a sony blu ray.....no problem!! So there must be a peculiar fault in Philips 3000 which I am going to return and get a sony. Pity but I cant buy a product with a glitch

Has anyone else experienced this

regards

Richersounds.ie (John) wrote: »

Irvine,

Thanks for the post -

Are the problem BBC DVD's Standard Def DVD's?

What region are they?

Where did you buy the BDP3000 - as in what coutry and what region is it?

Finally we can direct you to a multi region 'hack' for Standard Def DVD's if required - just drop me a PM..

Thanks again and looking forward to hearing from you,

ATB,

John Mc & Crew

The Recliner

Richersounds.ie (John) wrote: »

The Recliner,

Hope you got sorted - drop us a line if not and we will get you out of trouble.

Not sure if you guys have seen the latest review of the BDP3000 in this months T3 where it mixes it with the big boys from Samsung / Sony / Panasonic / Pioneer & Sharp.

The BDP3000 gets a cracking review at £169.95 ending up with the same rating as the Sony 360 and the Pana BD60 (they are MUCH more expensive!).

Given we are selling the BDP3000 M U C H cheaper than £169.95 - if you have already bought one Guys, be smug......

Keep me posted if we can ever assist,

ATB,

John Mc

Just a word of thanks to Nicola and the guys in the Philips store

Extremely helpful and willing to sort the problem

So I now have a dvd player that I am happy with and all sorted in less than 24 hours, great service and personally I would highly recommend buying off them

floatinghoop

First, hello to Ashley who sold me one of these on Friday. I am very pleased with it, especially having plugged it into my receiver so as to get the audio through my speakers.

However I am having the same problem as irvine, but not with the planet earth dvd's, but with Dr Who -- again, a BBC disk, which seems to me to be informative. Plays the intro, but blanks out and freezes at the moment it should be showing the menu.

I upgraded the software and the problem persists, so it isn't that.

Richersounds.ie: Ashley

Nicola on behalf of Ash

Hi floatinghoop,

hmmm that is a bit strange. We have planet earth running in the shop on 4 different BDP3000 and havn't seen a glitch yet. Is there any way you could pop in with your problem disc and we can try it out in store or even bring your player and we'll see if we can't get you sorted out in a jiffy.

Thanks a mil, Anyone else having any bother feel free to Post, PM, Call (01 4740788) or pop in and we'll do our very best to help you out. Nicola

floatinghoop

Thanks Nicola, I will come in tomorrow with the Dr Whos. In the meantime I will see if this is a problem with all the seasons, or just the season we tried lat night.

coylemj

I was playing the Dark Knight on Blu Ray on my new BDP3000 when I noticed a 'bookmarks' option in the scene selection menu, it turns out that if you have a USB memory stick in the BDP3000 player then you can store multiple bookmarks for each movie that supports this feature. I can't find any mention of this in the user guide, maybe support only came in the last s/w upgrade and it isn't an option for every movie, the Fantasic Four and Slumdog don't offer a bookmark option.

So here's the deal: shove a memory stick in the rear of the player and where the movie supports it you can save a personal bookmark by hitting the green button. It might differ by movie but green works for Dark Knight.

I saved two bookmarks for Dark Knight, then swapped in a different movie, then switched off the player. The next time I put in the Dark Knight disc the bookmarks were still there. When I later extracted the USB memory stick and inserted it in my laptop I could see the bookmarks saved an as XML file so this is a way of saving a permanant bookmark, might be useful if there is a particular spot in a movie which you'd like to use to show off your new BD player or HD TV because otherwise you have to remember the chapter and even then you'd have to FF from the beginning of the chapter to the relevant spot, with bookmarks you can go direct.

irvine

just for info

i took the planet earth discs into the store and we played them on other philips BDP 3000....all with same result = plays intro then freezes ...so i swopped it for the SONY. Although the philips was a really good deal I did not want to invest in a machine that was doing this. All my discs play on the Sony

Richersounds.ie (Ashley) wrote: »

Nicola on behalf of Ash

Hi floatinghoop,

hmmm that is a bit strange. We have planet earth running in the shop on 4 different BDP3000 and havn't seen a glitch yet. Is there any way you could pop in with your problem disc and we can try it out in store or even bring your player and we'll see if we can't get you sorted out in a jiffy.

Thanks a mil, Anyone else having any bother feel free to Post, PM, Call (01 4740788) or pop in and we'll do our very best to help you out. Nicola

AlphaRt

Quick one...

I bought a BDP3000 on Friday last.

Brought it home, plugged it in, connected it to the broadband, voila! everything perfect.
(OK so I had to download three or four software upgrades)

Anyway my thanks to Nicola for the excellent service, (I only went in to collect a pronto!, ended up with a phillips led light, a bluray player and a pronto)

Now to go out and buy a copy of Baraka...

hick

irvine wrote: »

just for info

i took the planet earth discs into the store and we played them on other philips BDP 3000....all with same result = plays intro then freezes ...so i swopped it for the SONY. Although the philips was a really good deal I did not want to invest in a machine that was doing this. All my discs play on the Sony

Just to add my 2 cents, I have planet earth and have played it on my BDP3000 on numerous occasions, in fact it was the first disc I played and I have upgraded the firmware since then too, never any probs with it or any of my other discs.

In fact when i want to show off the blue (but more so the telly) I slap in disc one of planet earth and fast forward to the karaboo migration and then onto the slow motion of the great white coming out of the water...AWESOME!!