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Call Kurtis: Why Your Samsung Blu-ray Player May Not Play Your Movies

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- If you've purchased a Blu-ray player in the last several years, listen up.

Your expensive gadget may not play your Blu-ray movies.

Samsung, the largest electronic company currently making Blu-ray players, hasn't provided the necessary update to keep some of its players running.

Shane Carlin's three-year old 3D Blu-ray player (model BD-C6900) won't play the latest season of his favorite TV show, Sons of Anarchy.

"See how it's skipping already?" he said, as his TV displayed the apparent pixelated glitch from his Blu-ray player. "It's telling me I need to have the most recent update."

Blu-ray players aren't the same as DVD players. Many require software upgrades to play the newest movies encrypted to prevent piracy. Many companies let you download the update, or they'll send you a DVD with the update on it.

Blu-ray movie discs get stricter and stricter piracy protection as technology develops, so your Blu-ray player needs to keep getting updated or it can't read the disc.

Carlin said Samsung tells him it isn't updating his three-year-old C6900 model anymore, and he's simply out of luck.

"They didn't seem like they were too interested in helping us," he said.

So what if the company never releases the update you need?

Call Kurtis found others online complaining about the same problem.

"That's a big deal," said consumer attorney Stuart Talley.

Companies are required to make sure their products work for a reasonable amount of time, Talley said. He said he believed Samsung should update a three-year-old Blu-ray player.

"They should either update the players or purchase them back from the consumers," he said.

Samsung refused to answer Call Kurtis' questions, instead saying, "Occasionally, disc compatibility issues arise and firmware updates for our Blu-ray players are released."

The company wouldn't reveal why it hadn't released an update for shane's model or if they would.

Fed up with the company, Carlin said he'll need to buy a new Blu-ray player if Samsung doesn't help.

"It upset me," he said.

Samsung has agreed to replace his Blu-ray player after Call Kurtis got involved, but Carlin will need to send in his player to the company first.

Samsung refused to tell us how long it provides updates for its Blu-ray players.

Some Blu-ray boxes mention in small print the discs can "only be played only on licensed devices," but it's not on every box, and if consumers rent from a service like Netflix or Redbox, they may not see the box anyway.

 

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