I first got my PS3 slim a few years ago through a packaged Sony deal including a LCD TV, a free movie and game. I thought the PS3 was the perfect solution for a blu-ray player. It could even access a media server on my network, as well as something that could play games. An all-win scenario for a low cost packaged price.
But as of late, the one thing I used my PS3 the most for started failing, playing blu-ray movies. At first it was just one or two blu-ray movies I had issues with, so I blamed it on the publisher for not following standards or putting too much copyright protection garbage on the disc. Even though that probably had some truth in it (as it makes those discs harder to read), I started having more issues. I got to the point where very few blu-ray movies would be recognized by the PS3 at all. But... the PS3 never had an issue with any game discs, not even once.
I started searching Google for hours on end trying to figure out what the problem was. Most topics said the blu-ray laser was going out and needed to be replaced. But was that the issue? My PS3 games (which are blu-rays) play just fine. Blu-ray laser issues were always described by users having issues with any blu-ray disc, movies and games, as well as getting actual error messages. I was not convinced that was my issue.
Further Googling found some information that seemed like the perfect answer. A firmware update released by Sony for the PS3 is breaking how the PS3 reads blu-ray movies. Many users started to have issues after firmware updates. This started to make some sense, how could one piece of firmware be used on all the models and different hardware configurations of PS3s out there? Surely Sony could easily screw this one up, causing the issue.
So I was left with two possible solutions, which I need to test. Replace my blu-ray laser to see if that solves the issue, or wipe my PS3 back to factory defaults to see if it reads discs again. It is hard to choose which one to do. The blu-ray laser would cost money, as low as $30 on Ebay. Wiping my PS3 was free to do, but with the ridiculous Sony restrictions on downloaded games onto PS3 systems, I was very hesitant to do that, as I didn't want to loose some games I had currently on my PS3. Even PSN forums were no help in figuring out if a restore would work or not for downloaded games, or if that would count against the download limit. I didn't want to take the chance.
Further diagnosis was in order. I spent several days inserting and ejecting countless blu-ray movies and games I had available. I started to see a trend. After looking up the details of all the blu-ray movies I started to see I was having most of my issues with dual-layer blu-ray movies. Single layer blu-ray movies (which tend to be older movies, but not necessarily) were playing just fine. I then researched PS3 games. I turns out most PS3 games are single layer blu-rays, except for a few. Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy XIII, and Uncharted 3 are all dual layer blu-rays. I had access to MGS4, and that was a great test, cause that game came out just after the launch of the PS3. When I tried the game, guess what, it did the same thing as a blu-ray movie, it couldn't read it. Bingo, that was the issue, dual layer blu-rays. I should also mention that after my PS3 got "warmed up" it tended to have have better luck recognizing dual-layer blu-rays, but it wasn't consistent enough to make a final conclusion that a warmed up PS3 worked better or not.
But why was dual-layer an issue? This still seemed to be an open question that could be answered by a failing blu-ray laser or a firmware update. Since my problem seemed to be getting worse, I am leaning towards the blu-ray laser getting weak, and dual layer blu-rays are simply harder to read than single layer ones. It seems more likely Sony put the cheapest Chinese made piece of crap hardware in the machine as possible to keep costs down. And now this hardware is failing, much, much sooner than it should. Which is definitely true in my case as I don't use my PS3 all that often. I play movies once in a while, and play games once in a while. I don't use it on a daily basis by any means. So this makes this situation even more sad.
Ultimately I decided to make a video showcasing my problem, since there doesn't seem to be any good information out there about my exact issue. An issue that many other people are having as of late. My next step is to replace the laser. I will post another video and blog with my results.
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Dave
Wrote on 06/22/16 at 02:25 PM CT
... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATk-7qob_C4
Link for my other post.
As a professional chemist, I can tell you the issue is NOT with firmware or the actual laser power. The problem is with the detector that senses the laser beam. CD/DVD use a red laser, which is relatively low energy and so the detector has a really long life. BluRay is called that because it uses a blue laser instead of red. Blue is very high energy, for the same type of detector. So it is equivalent to staring at the sun with your naked eye. Do it for long enough and you will go blind. Same issue here: marathon bluray sessions shorten the lifetime of your sensors and eventually burn it out. It will still play CD and DVD in most cases, but to play bluray again you will need a replacement SENSOR for the laser, which is usually included in the laser bundle. The reason dual layer goes bad first is because it requires a higher fidelity of data sensing than single layer, with a half-blind sensor your system sees both layers as one fuzzy layer instead of two separate layers so it gets confused. Like an old man trying to read a book without his glasses. So yeah, laser sensor is likely the problem. From a professional chemist who has worked with optics technology in college. Peace out.
Helpful post. Have just started having the same issues which seems to be linked to dual layer bd films. When are you planning on posting your next blog entry on this issue?
