A class action lawsuit was filed last week by a group of consumers upset with Samsung because their Blu-ray players didn’t play every Blu-ray disc on the market. The suit alleges the players were defective and that Samsung was fully aware of the problem. The group is seeking at least $5,000,000 in damages.
The only player that is reportedly able to play every Blu-ray disc on the market is Sony’s Playstation3 game console, yet even that player has run into some glitches with AVRev.com reviewers.
Early Samsung players, tested by AVRev.com had issues with playing
discs. Some of these issues were corrected by multiple firmware
upgrades. However, the Samsung BDP-1000 in the AVRev.com Reference
System simply failed upon receiving one of these frequent upgrades.
Without the upgrades, load times were slow and compatibility was a
significant issue. With the upgrades some of the problems were solved,
however it was a firmware update that ultimately and fatally injured
our player.
Today, many of the AVRev.com home video reviewers use newer Samsung
players with mostly successful results when playing the newest and most
feature laden Blu-ray titles. This fact likely comes as little solace
to those who bought first generation players to find they won't play
many of the most sought after discs. To compound issues, Samsung can be
difficult to deal with for support thus leaving some consumers feeling
as if the courts are the only place they can get a fair deal.
If this suit is successful, expect other copycat filings for other players by consumers.
Source: Wired.com
