Samsung can go sit on a rusty cactus...

"BaconSandwich is tasty." (baconsandwich)
06/17/2020 at 23:05 • Filed to: None

We had a pair of B lu-ray players - ( BD-J5700) die in one day. Kids went to go watch something this morning, and the first one started into a reboot cycle before it could even finish loading the main menu. We grabbed the other one from upstairs (same make/model), and tried plugging it in, and it did the exact same thing - constantly rebooting without even letting the main menu load. We tried switching locations, power sockets, unplugging network cables, video cables, you name it. Nothing worked. We eventually resorted to popping the one apart to get a disk back out. Now you tell me - having two Blu-ray players with the exact make/model die in the exact same way - and you tell me it isn’t a software problem? Yeah, right. We did nothing to provoke this. We didn’t do any firmware updates, no mishandling/mistreatment... we didn’t even load a disk into the one machine, and it started doing the same thing.

I want to permanently ban my household from buying anything with the Samsung name on it.

DISCUSSION (35)

bob and john > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/17/2020 at 23:13

my opinion...

banning a whole company because of ONE software glitch that is in ONE model...is frankly, fucking stupid.

if I were to do that with anything, Id allow myself to live with a rock and a piece of string. and the string is expendable.

wafflesnfalafel > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/17/2020 at 23:16

Y ou might googlize that issue with the individual model numbers. We had a 42" TV do that a couple times and it was a software update/reset issue (been working fine now for over a year - knock on wood.) I understand it is somewhat more common with Samsung stuff and that is just to much of a koinkydink that both of yours did the same thing at the same time...

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/17/2020 at 23:17

Well I have had four phones and none have ever broken before I replaced them. There are always lemons. I haven’t had an actual disk to play a movie on is many years, I lived overseas and started downloading and I never stopped because I watch a lot of foreign stuff I can’t get here.

Roadkilled > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/17/2020 at 23:24

It may not be a software issue. It’s possible that there was a power surge or a transient due to lightning or something else. If it were a software glitch, there would likely be a lot of people on the internet screaming about it.

Europe requires products to pass electromagnetic immunity testing before they can be placed on the market. The U.S. and Canada don’t. Many companies use the same design for both regions. However, you can make a product slightly cheaper by eliminating some of the protective circuitry. Samsung may do that for DVD players sold in regions that don’t require immunity testing.

I’ve seen power line transients that only damage one or two products. It doesn’t take much to protect products, but it can add a few cents to the cost, and some companies will cut cost everywhere they can.

I am iNARTE certified, but I can’t make specific EMC declarations about a product without seeing the design. This is just speculation.

facw > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/17/2020 at 23:25

My past two phones have been Samsungs. I wasn’t terribly impressed with the Galaxy S7, which was definitely a mixed bag, but I’m very happy with Galaxy S10 (I think my biggest complaint is that they got rid of the ability to turn off their stupid icon backgrounds, which... really isn’t that big of a complaint).

On the other hand my current TV is a Samsung, and I am not fond. I don’t need ads on the homescreen or Samsung relentlessly pushing their TV+ service (to the point of adding it back to home screen repeatedly after I have removed it). It’s just aggressively bad. I also hate the filters it applies to video by default, but at least you can turn those off.

SmugAardvark > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/17/2020 at 23:28

Try turning it on and holding down the eject button until it does a hard reset. I want to say 15 seconds, but that’s an educated guess.

It might work, it might not work. But it’s an easy enough thing to try if you have not already.

OPPOsaurus WRX > Roadkilled
06/17/2020 at 23:32

The coolest thing about OPPO is that no matter what subject, there is a legit expert every time even tho it's just a car blog.

facw > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
06/17/2020 at 23:38

Yeah, I’m not sure I’ve watched a movie on disc since I gave up Netflix’s mail service circa 2011. My HTPC has a Blu-ray/HD- DVD combo drive, but I’m pretty sure I don’t even have player software installed, and presumably it can’t play UHD Blu-rays anyway.

WildlyMild > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/17/2020 at 23:55

Mom’s tab3 had a “feature” where it bricked itself after a while. Google revealed it was a timed event. Instructions were to take apart and unplug a connector on the motherboard, plug it back in and reassemble. Worked awesome and didn’t delete anything. “Feature”.

Exploding washing machines? Black screened phones? 2 year $400 microwaves? Ext ect ect. They’re so focused on being the newest they have quality issues.

We’ve been samsung free and happy for about 4 years and haven’t had any random failures since.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/17/2020 at 23:56

Did you try a different disc?

PyroHoltz f@h Oppo 261120 > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/18/2020 at 00:32

I have not been a fan of Samsung hardware and their software is worse. I suggest you dump all disc content and find a suitable replacement. Moving on will allow you to avoid this problem.

Chariotoflove > bob and john
06/18/2020 at 00:38

Oh, he’s just frustrated. I’d give him room for a little rant.

Chariotoflove > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/18/2020 at 00:41

Samsung is so huge and makes so many things. Some of their stuff is well rated, and some of it is cheap junk. I’ve had some of the cheap junk too, and it’s frustrating when it dies on you at just the wrong moment. But hey, at least it’s cheap to get a new one. I think I’d try another model too, just because.

shop-teacher > OPPOsaurus WRX
06/18/2020 at 07:37

Its amazing. Another reason why this place is the best

shop-teacher > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/18/2020 at 07:40

Our Samsung Blue Ray player was a pile. After a while it would only play DVDs, no Blue Ray. I replaced it with a Sony several years ago. No problems since.

VincentMalamute-Kim > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/20/2020 at 13:29

You’re a trailblazer. Everyone else got hit two days later. I assume you’ve seen this by now? In case you haven’t:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/samsung-blu-ray-players-are-rebooting-in-a-loop-and-nobody-knows-why/

No solution yet but I’d bet one is coming.

smobgirl > VincentMalamute-Kim
06/20/2020 at 22:49

Hah. I just went looking for this post to share the same article.

Brickman > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/21/2020 at 14:41

I read that you arent the only one. Seems to be a problem with the expried SSL certificate or some crap

https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/20/21297854/samsung-blu-ray-problems-ssl-firmware

Roadkilled > Roadkilled
06/22/2020 at 09:27

I retract my earlier comments. It appears to clearly be a software issue.

https://gizmodo.com/samsung-blu-ray-players-are-getting-stuck-in-endless-st-1844112447

You just appear to have one of the earliest instances of this issue. ZDNet thinks it’s an expired SSL certificate, so there may be hope for a recovery.

I’m not sure I would be as negative about Samsung as you are, but I can see them getting to where Microsoft was in the 1990s. They own so much of the market that they won’t see a hit to sales until enough customers run into these types of problems.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
06/22/2020 at 17:11

I guess my luck has been really hit/miss. But two exact Blu-ray players in the same day, that were the same make/model really irked me. Especially after hearing about the Samsung bug that supposedly bricked a bunch of phones in China because of a bug in their code dealing with the Chinese lunar calendar.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > facw
06/22/2020 at 17:12

Unfortunately we have a pretty healthy collection of DVDs and Blu-rays. It has definitely come in handy on occasion - e.g.: wanting to share a show with a friend/family member who doesn’t have Netflix.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Roadkilled
06/22/2020 at 17:13

Maybe. I just find it particularly odd that nothing else in the house has been affected, if that’s the case. Just the two players - one of which was powered off when the other one started glitching. I suppose it could have been in some sort of sleep mode, and still nailed by whatever it was.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Roadkilled
06/22/2020 at 17:19

Oh wow. That makes a lot more sense now. Hopefully they can be resurrected.

Unfortunately Mrs. BaconSandwhich has already bought one to replace the two that died. But maybe it’ll save me from having to buy another one...

BaconSandwich is tasty. > bob and john
06/22/2020 at 17:24

That was a bit of an overreaction on my part, I will admit. It’s just been a really frustrating week:
- Monday evening: computer blue-screens. Automatic startup repair fails. Left it for the evening because I didn’t want to deal with it:
- Tuesday: Have to roll back to a previous restore point to get computer to boot. Old tablet we have (also a Samsung) having charging issues, and dies.
- Wednesday morning: 2 Blu-ray players die. Computer has more issues. Had to use Mrs. BaconSandwich’s laptop to hop on a work call (working from home). 30 seconds into the call, it blue screens. Thankfully rebooted fine.
- Thursday: More computer problems. Started ordering parts for a new machine (current machine is almost 11 years old)
- Saturday: computer dies again (after getting back from the computer store to buy new parts). Had to reinstall Windows 10 (restore points wouldn’t work this time, and no other recovery options worked).

It’s been a challenging week.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > VincentMalamute-Kim
06/22/2020 at 17:25

I hadn’t seen that yet. Thanks for letting me know!

BaconSandwich is tasty. > facw
06/22/2020 at 17:26

When it comes time to eventually buy a new TV, I’d be tempted to go with the dumbest “business” style TV I can get - something with a decent panel, but no other “smart” features. I don’t want all that garbage built in.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > SmugAardvark
06/22/2020 at 17:27

Tried that, and a handful of other things. Looks like others have found that it’s a software issue on Samsung’s end of things.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Chariotoflove
06/22/2020 at 17:27

In this case, it wasn’t so cheap. Mrs. BaconSandwich splurged on a new player (Panasonic), which was probably the price of 2-3 of the existing Samsung players. :(

BaconSandwich is tasty. > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
06/22/2020 at 17:28

I would have... if it would have booted long enough to actually eject a disk. We ended up having to take apart one of them that had a disk in it.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > wafflesnfalafel
06/22/2020 at 17:28

Tried that. Looks like we were hit by a bug a bit earlier than others: https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/20/21297854/samsung-blu-ray-problems-ssl-firmware

Chariotoflove > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/22/2020 at 20:52

Given the disposable nature of todays home electronics, I hope this doesn't disappoint.

bob and john > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/24/2020 at 10:59

mmm dont blame you then. Everything comes in 3s eh? I count 5...6 if you seperate the 2 DVDs....so you should be good

SmugAardvark > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/24/2020 at 19:09

Yup, I actually just read an article about it on The Verge yesterday. If I remember correctly, it had something to do with expired SSL certificates.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Chariotoflove
06/26/2020 at 21:46

Some days the idea of becoming a hermit does sound appealing.

Chariotoflove > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/26/2020 at 21:50

Very.