All Blu-Ray Players work for me, except Sony

[dancingjew90]

So, I work for a chain of dance studios as their videographer. I film the performances, I make the Blu-Ray's & DVD's, parents enjoy them, and bing bang boom.

Last year, I had no problems at all with parents being able to play their Blu-Ray's. I use Sony PMW-100's, Final Cut Pro X, Compressor & Toast 11 for my workflow, and I haven't changed it since I started. This year, parents with Sony Blu-Ray players haven't been able to play their Blu-Ray (All other brands have worked). The menu comes up for them, but when they press play, the menu stays up the entire time while the sound of the video plays. They're able to skip chapters, but the menu screen just stays there. I've seen it for my own eyes, and I've been troubleshooting this as best I can. Sony hasn't been able to help at all, and I didn't change anything in my workflow (Last year's Blu-Ray works fine, this year's doesn't).

The only thing I can think of is either the Verbatim Blu-Rays I've always used are defective, or something to do with the codecs. Does anybody have an idea? Thanks in advance, hope everyone has a good day.

[smrpix]

Has anything changed on your system since the "good" disks? Is your version of toast still compatible with your current OS?

Since last year's disks play on Sony BRs (if I'm reading that correctly,) it's most likely a software authoring issue. The issue sounds too consistent to be bad disks or bad burns. A Sony firmware update is also not ruled out.

[dancingjew90]

smrpix - Nothing has changed on the system since the good discs. You did read correctly that last year's disks are playing on Sony BR's (The same players that can't play the new discs). While I have done troubleshooting on Toast, I think I'll look at it again to see if I missed anything. I'm using Mac OSX 10.8.5, and I don't believe Toast updated without me knowing. Thank you.

Edit: Just saw the Sony Firmware update. I'll try that as well!

[usually_quiet]

So, I work for a chain of dance studios as their videographer. I film the performances, I make the Blu-Ray's & DVD's, parents enjoy them, and bing bang boom.

Last year, I had no problems at all with parents being able to play their Blu-Ray's. I use Sony PMW-100's, Final Cut Pro X, Compressor & Toast 11 for my workflow, and I haven't changed it since I started. This year, parents with Sony Blu-Ray players haven't been able to play their Blu-Ray (All other brands have worked). The menu comes up for them, but when they press play, the menu stays up the entire time while the sound of the video plays. They're able to skip chapters, but the menu screen just stays there. I've seen it for my own eyes, and I've been troubleshooting this as best I can. Sony hasn't been able to help at all, and I didn't change anything in my workflow (Last year's Blu-Ray works fine, this year's doesn't).

The only thing I can think of is either the Verbatim Blu-Rays I've always used are defective, or something to do with the codecs. Does anybody have an idea? Thanks in advance, hope everyone has a good day.

The symptoms you describe seem more indicative of there being something about the way your discs were authored that Sony players don't understand. It doesn't seem likely the problem lies with your media. Bad media is more likely not play at all or have random errors than to have the same error on every disc, and then only when played on a particular brand of Blu-Ray player. Also, Verbatim's regular (HTL) BD-R has high compatibility and burns well. It has long been known that all LTH media has significant compatibility issues with both burners and players, so I don't expect you are using Verbatim's LTH BD-R.

[Kerry56]

Do the Verbatim Blu-ray discs have the same mid code comparing this year's to last year? Some people have reported getting CMC Magnetics mid codes instead of one of the Verbatim codes.

The symptoms do seem more like an authoring issue than media however.

[jman98]

Well, Verbatim's LTH discs do work pretty in general in my tests and recently made players are actually required to support LTH discs. However, I wouldn't rule out that crazy ass Sony may have botched something and temporarily caused some players to have problems with them, perhaps via a bad firmware update. So if you are using LTH discs, you should tell us.

Also, if you're not telling us something like you actually bought this recent set of Verbatim discs through some shady guy on Ebay who wants half the price that you would normally pay, well, you might have bootleg discs. Higher grade consumer burnable media does get counterfeited, but this should not be a fear via one of the reputable online vendors like Rima.com, Supermediastore.com, Newegg.com, etc.

Unfortunately you're also using a Mac which greatly impacts our ability to help you, but if you have access to Windows PC or a Windows VM on your Mac, install the free ImgBurn and use it to find the media code for your discs and post that here. The media code for the disc will show up in the Device tab when you start ImgBurn and put a disc in the burner. If you don't know what the media code is then just copy everything it tells you in the Device tab and post it here. We can figure it out. Here's an example from a Verbatim BD-R disc I recently burned.
MID: VERBAT-IMe-000

[jman98]

Do the Verbatim Blu-ray discs have the same mid code comparing this year's to last year? Some people have reported getting CMC Magnetics mid codes instead of one of the Verbatim codes.

Great. Now Verbatim is using the bottom feeders like CMC? That's just freakin' great. I haven't seen that yet but I'm not happy at all to hear it's a possibility.

[Kerry56]

I've only seen it from overseas posters so far, and I finally looked at the OP's location. Here in the US he should still be safe using Verbatim.

But I've seen the CMC report from people in India, other parts of Asia and in the UK.

[dancingjew90]

Well, Verbatim's LTH discs do work pretty in general in my tests and recently made players are actually required to support LTH discs. However, I wouldn't rule out that crazy ass Sony may have botched something and temporarily caused some players to have problems with them, perhaps via a bad firmware update. So if you are using LTH discs, you should tell us.

Also, if you're not telling us something like you actually bought this recent set of Verbatim discs through some shady guy on Ebay who wants half the price that you would normally pay, well, you might have bootleg discs. Higher grade consumer burnable media does get counterfeited, but this should not be a fear via one of the reputable online vendors like Rima.com, Supermediastore.com, Newegg.com, etc.

Unfortunately you're also using a Mac which greatly impacts our ability to help you, but if you have access to Windows PC or a Windows VM on your Mac, install the free ImgBurn and use it to find the media code for your discs and post that here. The media code for the disc will show up in the Device tab when you start ImgBurn and put a disc in the burner. If you don't know what the media code is then just copy everything it tells you in the Device tab and post it here. We can figure it out. Here's an example from a Verbatim BD-R disc I recently burned.
MID: VERBAT-IMe-000

I'm using Verbatim HTL BD-R White Inkjet Discs (Don't even know if they have LTH Printable discs), and I've always gotten them from B&H. I'm working on checking the media code, and I'll update in a bit with the info. Thanks for help everybody.

[johns0]

Depending on your sony blu-ray player i wouldn't do a firmware upgrade,with my sony if i update it it will install cinavia.Also my sony plays all my verbatim discs with no issues.

[jman98]

Verbatim DOES make BD-R LTH inkjet printable discs. I've bought them before. They may be a little difficult to find in North America, but they do exist. I bought some from a seller in Japan.