We have been getting a variety of reports from quite a few sources saying that the latest Blu-ray releases of the James Bond 007 movies are having problems playing on a variety of Blu-ray players. It seems that quite a few players are affected and there is no real pattern here.

We have received reports of Panasonic, Pioneer, Samsung, and Sony units being unable to play the discs. Depending on which version of the player you have and which firmware happens to be in that particular player has the most to do with the issues.

Some users that have Profile 2.0 Blu-ray players are able to go into the menu and activate the update firmware option and get the firmware updated right away if the player is connected to the Internet. Those that have older players will have to either contact the manufacturer’s customer service and request a firmware update disc, or you might be able to download the firmware from the manufacturer’s site and burn it on to a disc and flash the firmware yourself.

According to some reports, however, the latest firmware that might be available currently from the manufacturer might not fix the problem. Some users report that they have the latest firmware, only to discover that the discs still do not work. In this case you will be stuck waiting for the manufacturer to release a new firmware update for your particular player model.

We have touched base with several contacts that are telling us that the majority of the manufacturers are now aware of the problem and working on testing their players for compatibility, and working on issuing firmware updates to player models that need them. Most manufacturers that have players that need updates expect to have them available in the next couple of weeks.

As with any new technology there are going to be bumps in the road. It just would help if the Blu-ray format would stop being such a moving target and stabilize a little bit more.