Vincent Ferrari
03-16-2009, 08:00 PM
<p><img height="264" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1237166972.usr18053.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" width="595" /></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>I'm sorry, but does this really make sense to anyone?</p><p><MORE />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.</p><p>1. Download and install <a href="http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html" target="_blank">The Unarchiver</a> 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.</p><p>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).</p><p>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).</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Shame on you Sony.</p><p> </p><p> </p>