Alright- so I have spent the wee hours of the morning in trial and error and wanted to share with all of you some simple tips to save you time if you need to do a firmware update for your brand new (or not so new) HD DVD devices.
These rules work for both Toshiba HD DVD players and the Sony Blu-Ray DVD players.
Both systems utilize not only the standard dvd type technology but a series of sophisticated java tools to enhance your viewing and allow you to use all of the special features you are paying for on these disks.
Periodically you will need to upgrade the software on your player that controls how it treats disks. This software that is installed into the memory that controls your player is called “firmware”.
By going to your manufacturers support website you can download firmware updates. Follow all of the instructions to the letter and you should be ok.
Firmware update info/download sources:
Blu-Ray Support for the US from Sony: http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/select-system.pl?PRODTYPE=78&NAVDISP=homeav
HD-DVD Support for the US from Toshiba: http://www.tacpservice.toshiba.com/ConsumerProductSupport/productupdatesandnotices.asp
My tips:
Do not bother burning the updates to a CD. This is more trouble than it is worth as both my Blu-Ray and HD are picky about what brands of CDs I feed them. Use a DVD-R format blank disk that is nice and clean and fresh from your spindle of new disks.
Use my trusty friend DVD-Decrypter to burn the update disk.
You will be downloading an ISO disk image file, most standard programs that Windows VISTA comes loaded with do not handle ISO files very well. Go into the menu on DVD-Decrypter, select MODE ISO WRITE
Pick your ISO file that you have downloaded and extracted as your source file in DVD-Decrypter, and then tell it to burn a disk. DO NOT NAME the disk- allow your program to assign the name based upon the file name.
Wait patiently for DVD-Decrypter to completely finish- takes 5-10 minutes and that is it.
Then follow your manufacturers instructions and any prompts for doing your upgrade. Once complete your system will be better than ever with the latest and greatest tools.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for the info, I was hoping to put together an article about updating your hd dvd player firmware myself as well. I think this touches some good key notes about the process and may eliminate some user error
[...] what model you buy that you have the latest firmware for the player. Need help with this? Click HERE for my guide to upgrading your [...]
[...] what model you buy that you have the latest firmware for the player. Need help with this? Click HERE for my guide to upgrading your [...]