Proud Capitalist

can't get updates? Is that true?

Can you add a wireless receiver to it to pick up wireless network?

Or do you have to connect it to a cable internet?

peter d

Not true. Some players can handle updates via USB, burned to disc or ethernet cable.

chart2006

There are many different types of BD players available today and that will increase even more so over time. Most original BD players only supported BD profile 1.0 which doesn’t allow for the updated 1.1 or higher media. Currently BD profile 2.0 is the latest one but in all reality the only difference is the availability of the internet through your BD player. This is usually called BD live 2.0 while the physical disks themselves are 1.1.

Even some of the original 1.1 BD players don’t have Ethernet connections for high speed internet. The players that started the use of Ethernet generally only have them for firmware updates whereas the players that support BD live 2.0 use them to access the internet for media purposes such as YouTube.

My BD player is nearly a year old as of black Friday. So being an original 1.1 it does not have the Ethernet connection nor a USB connection to update the firmware. Unfortunately in that many of the original BD players lacked the capability for firmware updates which can cause many issue. However firmware updates aren’t restricted to the players capability to access the internet or the use of a flash drive. For example my first understanding of my BD player was that I could not update the firmware because there simply wasn’t a way but through careful research I learned that it’s nearly similar to update a bios on a computer. You download the update, extract the .bin file then load it onto a CD and let the player play it as if it were a CD. Sure enough after doing so I was able to update the firmware of my player to the most current updates.

In other words yes some of the earliest players have no way of updating the firmware but many if not all current players have some way to do that whether it be via internet directly through an Ethernet connection, USB flash drive, CD/DVD media, or SD cards.
As for wireless this is something that’s only become available through high end BD players. You do NOT need a wireless connection. This is simply there for convenience sake as opposed to running Cat5e cable all through your room.