HP MediaSmart DVD - Need to Update Bluray Software - Advice??

Question

Hi Guys,
So has there been any update to this issue after all these months? I recently bought an HP Pavillion Slimline 5500t and when I first got the system about a month ago the Blu Ray player worked although not very well. It skipped and stuttered and had some pixelization issues with a few Bluray Discs. Seems to play non-Bluray fine. Then I got Avatar this past Friday and put the disc in the computer - played fine for about 40 mins - maybe an occasional stutter but nothing I couldn't tolerate. I made no system changes at all and last night (sunday night, two days later) when I insert the same exact bluray disc (Avatar) I get a red screen that says "Your Bluray Software needs to be updated, please contact your manufacturer." 
I call tech support and after 3hrs of doing updates and other stuff I am in the exact same situation as I was before. Only now they tell me they want to do a system recovery back to the day I got the PC which will wipe out all my data and configuration settings. I told them no way. Everything is working perfectly EXCEPT the HP Media Smart DVD software. So why would I blow out my entire system and all the programs I've downloaded.
So I'm now stuck. I like others have said do not want to pay $89.95 for Cyberlink's PowerDVD after I already paid $1200 for this computer with all the upgraded goodies to be able to play BluRay. Very disappointed in HP for not fixing this issue properly. Any advice?
Thanks, Dan
HP Pavillion Slimeline - S5580t - Windows 7

Answer 1

Also reposting another post I left on another thread with more info of my situation:
"But for real. I was trying to explain this issue to my girlfriend last night and she was like, "but my crappy old DVD player has never had an issue playing any DVD I put in it, so why would your $1200 computer have a problem?"
And there we are. I totally agree with her. It is complete BS. Not to mention I took the other poster's advice and downloaded Slysoft and whala...perfect picture quality, no encryption or "need to update your software" errors at all.
So this is 100% a licensing / copyright update issue and HP / Cyberlink are just behind the curve. What I can't understand is how can Netflix and others be sending out discs that don't work in people's stand alone Bluray players?? And if they do in fact work in the stand alone players then why in the hell would they NOT work in a high speed / media center spec built always online always connected computer which could download new codecs/updates every single day if it required to do so??
I don't get it. I'm gonna complain to HP today because this is 100% a licensing issue. And to think they almost had me roll back my whole **bleep** computer and delete all my files and settings. All I had to do was a 10sec download and everything works perfectly. But I don't want to pay for Slysoft...its F-ing expensive. I'm pissed."
HP Pavillion Slimeline - S5580t - Windows 7