Earlier quoted context omitted.
That doesn’t work if your BluRay player requires an internet connection. Yes, they exist.
Please do name and shame.
Every player whose key has been blacklisted. Owning BluRay is a poison pill.
Samsung Blu-ray players bricked because of an XML config file
51–60 of 181 posts
Re: Samsung Blu-ray players bricked because of an XML config file
#52Programming errors happen, but thats why I don't get, that companies still use programming languages, where such errors result in a crash vs. an error which can be handled and recovered from. A faulty XML file shouldn't render the whole machine unusable.
Whether it's an Exception or a segfault, the application still crashes because its input is in a bad state. This class of problem is not restricted to memory-unsafe languages.
Re: Samsung Blu-ray players bricked because of an XML config file
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a pretty horrid way. It used to be a time where you could just run a recovery partition to reinstall your operating system outside of re partitioning your hard drive.
I've seen non-Mac laptops ship with a recovery partition but: 1. The recovery partition takes up some space, and 2. You (or malware) can mess up the recovery partition, and 3. The recovery partition doesn't exist if just upgraded the storage (e.g. replace the HDD with an SSD). Macbooks have other failings (e.g. increasingly hard to upgrade/replace hardware yourself) but the operating system recovery works better than…
Modern Dell systems support Internet recovery at least in the business class line. Just tested it a few weeks ago on a Dell all-in-one.
Re: Samsung Blu-ray players bricked because of an XML config file
#54One thing you have to understand is that these internet-connected Blu-ray players in question are programmed to log their activities and send copies of this information to Samsung.
In some ways, this is even more disturbing than the bricking.
Only corporate greed can create a media player that watches you and needs constant firmware updates.
I have a VCR and DVD player which still work, and things like this are the reason I'm not buying any newer standalone players.
It reminds me of this old meme (I'm not aware of a Blu-ray version): https://files-cdn.sharenator.com/pirate-dvds-s800x825-43988....
Re: Samsung Blu-ray players bricked because of an XML config file
#55That's why: " What does a factory reset entail?" is a fascinating question. Everyone assumes you'll lose your settings during a factory reset, but what isn't as clear cut: Does it revert the firmware to whatever it was shipped with (bugs and all)? Some vendors do, but most vendors do not. A legitimate factory reset (inc. firmware) mechanism or USB boot/reflash would have likely saved Samsung considerable amounts of m…
If you could factory-reset to the original firmware on internal ROM (with buggy xml parser), wouldn’t you still get stuck in the boot loop?
They way I understood it, the write up in the article says that the XML is downloaded and parsed during boot.
Edit: I guess if you disabled network access you could boot. Derp
Re: Samsung Blu-ray players bricked because of an XML config file
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
> still use programming languages, where such errors result in Unfortunately no language or other framework or system can completely do away with programming logic errors.
But that is the point I was trying to make. No language can save you from logic errors, but a lot of languages let you recover from errors in functions. The simplest way is exception handling in Java like try { parse(xmlFile) } catch ( ... ) {.... } There is no reason the device should get in an undefined state if parsing that file fails or even completely crash.
But not having a `try...catch` for such events is a kind of logic error.
The choice of programming language only gets you so far - it's up to the developers to actually handle errors in a meaningful way.
Re: Samsung Blu-ray players bricked because of an XML config file
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Device manufactures can't make money from customers if studios blacklist their players.
Isn’t all this crazy when pirates can just download the damn movie with no problem. They are just punishing the paying customer. I have a plex server and have zero issues.
Copyright theater.
Re: Samsung Blu-ray players bricked because of an XML config file
#58That's why: " What does a factory reset entail?" is a fascinating question. Everyone assumes you'll lose your settings during a factory reset, but what isn't as clear cut: Does it revert the firmware to whatever it was shipped with (bugs and all)? Some vendors do, but most vendors do not. A legitimate factory reset (inc. firmware) mechanism or USB boot/reflash would have likely saved Samsung considerable amounts of m…
If you could factory-reset to the original firmware on internal ROM (with buggy xml parser), wouldn’t you still get stuck in the boot loop? They way I understood it, the write up in the article says that the XML is downloaded and parsed during boot. Edit: I guess if you disabled network access you could boot. Derp
If they included a factory reset, a good one besides being accessible early in the boot process, would erase and restore the filesystem on the flash chip to how it originally shipped. So that policy file will either be erased or a safe default.
Then you just keep it offline until Samsung fixes the file on their server so you don't have to reset it again. They fixed it a few days later so it is safe now, so even old firmware should be safe to go online.
Re: Samsung Blu-ray players bricked because of an XML config file
#59Re: Samsung Blu-ray players bricked because of an XML config file
#60One thing you have to understand is that these internet-connected Blu-ray players in question are programmed to log their activities and send copies of this information to Samsung. In some ways, this is even more disturbing than the bricking. Only corporate greed can create a media player that watches you and needs constant firmware updates. I have a VCR and DVD player which still work, and things like this are the r…
I have been wondering for the past two decades: when will media companies will realize that better quality == sales? This sort of happened with iTunes Store when they got rid of DRM on the audio tracks, and with streaming video services (though the quality is severely lacking compared to Blu-Ray/HQ ripped Blu-Ray).
You still get the best experience (and quality) going through BitTorrent.