Theoretically, good, practical Poor

A little over a year I had decided at last to jump on the HD train, and zuzulegen a Blu-ray player. After some discussion, I seemed to have a good and reasonable 3100/12 Blu-ray player with the Philips BDP found. After a firmware update was nachgeschoben after playback problems with the Avatar Extended Special Edition prompt which quickly corrected the problems. "Good service", I thought. Unfortunately, I did not know then that a few months later following firmware update (May 2011) would be the last of its kind.

Although the player does a good job most of the time, it came as it had come. In summer 2011, appeared with Battle: Los Angeles, the first Blu-ray movie, whose acceptance of the players refused with the lapidary words "Unknown Disc". On three other players from other manufacturers, this Blu-ray, however, ran without any problems, so it was at the Philips device.

Then I contacted the Philips Service and informed these about the problem, and apparently a firmware was necessary to ensure the playback of newer titles. Unfortunately, this is a typical problem of the Blu-ray standard and the manufacturers have really to publish committed has regularly updates altered copy protection mechanisms. Anyway you look thanked for pointing out and assured me that they would take care of it. After a month without a reply I asked again after and was told that no one knew how long the software department would need, but one would come forward.

That was the end of July 2011. Meanwhile, we have the end of March 2012, and of course has since done nothing. No further response from the Philips customer service and of course no other firmware update, though now more films have been added that do not or will not play faulty while they work on the players from other manufacturers without problems. Here, the previously problematic films at a glance:

- Battle: Los Angeles = will not play ("Unknown Disc")
- The Runaways = will not play ("Unknown Disc")
- The Thing (2011) = does not play ("Unknown Disc")
- Green Hornet = playback problems and dropouts in the last 20 minutes
- Conan (2011) = playback problems and dropouts in the last 20 minutes
- Transformers 3 = sporadic image stuttering and audio dropouts in HD sound
- Super 8 = sound skips HD sound

and other movies would surely follow if I did not replace the player soon against a Samsung player.

After this experience, I can now and in the future only strongly advise against the purchase of a Philips Blu-ray player. Since the Blu-ray standard, due to the frequent changes adopted in the copy protection requires regular firmware updates, you should opt only for producers who also comply with this obligation and update not let their customers out in the cold. From my perspective, Philips does not belong uniquely to this group of producers.