[Vincent Ferrari]

Let's face it.  One of the harsh realities of having a Mac is that sometimes some dopey companies make decisions that, to say the least, defy all semblances of logic.  Take for instance, Sony.  A friend of mine has a Sony BDP-S300 Blu Ray player. Of course it won’t play some newer movies, and since he doesn’t have an ethernet jack on his, that means he has to burn a disc with the firmware update, drop it in the player, and let it roll. He had some issues with burning the disc, and he tweeted that he needed a Windows PC to do it. No problem, I have Parallels, so I decided I would see if I could help out. I went to Sony’s page for the firmware update and was surprised to see the downloads were only for Windows-based PC’s.

Since I have parallels, this isn't really an issue for me, so I grabbed the file, and extracted it, and lo and behold what do I see?  An ISO file!  That's right, Sony packed an industry standard ISO file inside a Windows self-extractor.  For what reason?  Darned if I know, they just decided that only Windows users should be able to update their Blu-Ray players, I guess.  Linux and Mac users?  Well, despite the fact that the firmware is inside an industry-standard ISO, you can't play because you didn't succumb to the Redmond Kool-Aid.

I'm sorry, but does this really make sense to anyone?

If you're plagued with a Sony BDP-S300 or some other Sony Blu Ray player that can't be updated via OS X, I have a solution and it involves very few steps and demonstrably worked today.

1.  Download and install The Unarchiver for OS X.  In fact, whether or not you want to break open Sony's stupidity, download it anyway; it kicks butt and is much more capable than anything built into OS X.

2.  Download your appropriate firmware version.  If you notice, the EXE is a compressed package.  Clicking it will extract the ISO trapped inside by Windows code (as if it's a standard archive).

3.  Burn the ISO using your favorite ISO-burner OR use Disk Utility on the Mac (Pop a blank in, run Disk Utility, Open the disk image, burn it to the blank).

4.  Pop the burned CD / DVD into your Blu Ray player and revel in the fact that you're smarter than the dopes at Sony.

I wouldn't care if the updates were Windows only and included some proprietary disc-making software that they didn't bother writing for the Mac.  I understand that not all companies are going to bother with our corner of the universe (or our even-more oppressed Linux brethren) but when you take a standard file that everyone can use and encapsulate it in a stupid bit of unnecessary code, it just screams of utter cluelessness.

Shame on you Sony.

 

 

[Vincent Ferrari]

Let's face it.  One of the harsh realities of having a Mac is that sometimes some dopey companies make decisions that, to say the least, defy all semblances of logic.  Take for instance, Sony.  A friend of mine has a Sony BDP-S300 Blu Ray player. Of course it won’t play some newer movies, and since he doesn’t have an ethernet jack on his, that means he has to burn a disc with the firmware update, drop it in the player, and let it roll. He had some issues with burning the disc, and he tweeted that he needed a Windows PC to do it. No problem, I have Parallels, so I decided I would see if I could help out. I went to Sony’s page for the firmware update and was surprised to see the downloads were only for Windows-based PC’s.

Since I have parallels, this isn't really an issue for me, so I grabbed the file, and extracted it, and lo and behold what do I see?  An ISO file!  That's right, Sony packed an industry standard ISO file inside a Windows self-extractor.  For what reason?  Darned if I know, they just decided that only Windows users should be able to update their Blu-Ray players, I guess.  Linux and Mac users?  Well, despite the fact that the firmware is inside an industry-standard ISO, you can't play because you didn't succumb to the Redmond Kool-Aid.

I'm sorry, but does this really make sense to anyone?

If you're plagued with a Sony BDP-S300 or some other Sony Blu Ray player that can't be updated via OS X, I have a solution and it involves very few steps and demonstrably worked today.

1.  Download and install The Unarchiver for OS X.  In fact, whether or not you want to break open Sony's stupidity, download it anyway; it kicks butt and is much more capable than anything built into OS X.

2.  Download your appropriate firmware version.  If you notice, the EXE is a compressed package.  Clicking it will extract the ISO trapped inside by Windows code (as if it's a standard archive).

3.  Burn the ISO using your favorite ISO-burner OR use Disk Utility on the Mac (Pop a blank in, run Disk Utility, Open the disk image, burn it to the blank).

4.  Pop the burned CD / DVD into your Blu Ray player and revel in the fact that you're smarter than the dopes at Sony.

I wouldn't care if the updates were Windows only and included some proprietary disc-making software that they didn't bother writing for the Mac.  I understand that not all companies are going to bother with our corner of the universe (or our even-more oppressed Linux brethren) but when you take a standard file that everyone can use and encapsulate it in a stupid bit of unnecessary code, it just screams of utter cluelessness.

Shame on you Sony.

 

 

[doogald]

It's much easier to install rootkits with .exe wrappers than just providing .iso downloads.

[Vincent Ferrari]

Originally Posted by doogald

It's much easier to install rootkits with .exe wrappers than just providing .iso downloads.

Good one, man

[Macguy59]

Originally Posted by doogald

It's much easier to install rootkits with .exe wrappers than just providing .iso downloads.

Dang it. Now I have to clean iced tea off my lappie screen

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by Vincent Ferrari

...and lo and behold what do I see? An ISO file! That's right, Sony packed an industry standard ISO file inside a Windows self-extractor. For what reason? Darned if I know, they just decided that only Windows users should be able to update their Blu-Ray players, I guess.

That's about as idiotic as when companies ZIP up single JPEGs, MPEGs, and other compressed file formats - few people understand the concept of a compressed file, so we get stupidity like this.

But hey, it's Sony, did you expect anything else?

[Hageliam]

Few years down the road here. You all probably know this already. Seems Sony wraps the firmware upgrades in .zip files these days. Though they still refuse to acknowledge the Mac. You know, makers of iPhone, iPad, not as if these items were made by Atari. With the .zip though, it's much easier if you have Toast.

I downloaded the latest firmware upgrade for the Sony BDP-S370, choosing Windows 7 (ha-ha) as selected operating system. Unzipped it (either Stuffit or Unarchiver), saved the two MSB03 files to a folder named any old thing on the desktop. Cranked up Toast, set it to Data and Mac & PC, dragged the two files there, burnt the CD and inserted it into the Blu-Ray player. Upgrade went flawlessly. Beats waiting two weeks for Sony to send a CD.

Cheers...