How to update your Blu-ray player to play Avatar

Even though my Blu-ray player is brand new, purchased at Target two days ago, it still wouldn't play Avatar. If you are unable to play Avatar on your Blu-ray player, you will need to update the firmware of your player. Here is how you do it for a Samsung, which is what I have.

The Samsung Blu-ray Resource Center.

Go to The Samsung Blu Ray Resource Center. Don't bother looking for your player on the web page, mine wasn't there, either. Set aside about an hour to do this, take a deep breath, and click on their Live Blu-ray Support Live Chat. Trust me, this is complex and these people will help you! Have a pen and paper handy by your TV, you will need to write down a lot of stuff. Of course, the first person to chat with you can't help you, so you will be switched. I chatted with a total of four people, so be prepared to repeat your questions over and over and over again. But it will work! Be sure to ask for the instructions, which downloads as a PDF. Print them out and look at the steps there.

USB Flash drive.

You will need a USB flash drive - which is how I did it, and it worked. They will instruct you to download a file and copy it onto the flash drive. To insert the flash drive into the Blu Ray player, look for where the Wireless LAN goes it. No, the instruction manual doesn't say anything about a USB port, but believe me, it's there. By the way, the file is only 13 MB so you won't have any trouble putting it on an inexpensive flash drive. Some people call them thumb drives, by the way.

The process is tedious, but the Samsung chat people stayed online with me while I did the update. After you do it once, be sure to go back right away do it again, like the instructions say. You know, "lather, rinse, repeat". But this time you should actually do it.

Keep in mind that your Blu-ray player is a hard drive, a sort of a mini-computer. And people like James Cameron can put things on Blu-ray discs without asking permission from Blu-ray player manufacturers like Samsung. That's what the problem is. This will probably continue for a few years so you will have to keep doing this. It's a hassle, but the Blu-ray picture is gorgeous!

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