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Samsung bd-h8500m soon to lose access to BBC iplayer on 6th. December

(Topic created on: 12-11-2019 10:54 PM)
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Bigpathome
Student
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Hi, I've done a search of topics and, whilst there are some posts from smart TV owners on this subject, I can find no posts regarding smart TV recorders/blu-ray players losing BBC iPlayer on 6th. December. I have contected BBC with a request to know what technical changes have caused my samsung bd-h8500m (purchased in 2017) to become obsolete so soon.

The bland answer that came back from the BBC was "From the 6th December iPlayer will no longer be available on some Samsung devices as they are unable to support the technical requirements needed to keep iPlayer going. ".

So, over to Samsung; whay has my bd-h8500m become obsolete (as far as BBC iplayer is concerned), so quickly? What technical changes/requirements in the app have caused my device to fail?

5 REPLIES 5
swiss_steve
First Poster
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Yes, I would like to know what Samsung will do about this. I have two Samsung Smart TV's and BluRay player, which all fall into the 'unsupported' category..... Samsung should realise that such issues influence consumer choice when purchasing such products, and hence do something constructive about it.

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Bigpathome
Student
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Hi Steve,
You are so right. I am about to choose a new smart TV for work. I love the Samsung TV's picture quality, but I am really reluctant to go ahead with the purchase just in case at a cost of £400+ the set becomes obsolete. Both Sony and Toshiba are in the frame and the decision might go their way yet.
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David145
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Totally agree with your comments. Come on Samsung wake up and support your products.

I am guessing that the problem is the BBC iplayer app has not been updated to allow users to sign in on this hardware!

There is no facility within teh hardware to update individual apps.

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murkle
First Poster
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As of this morning, my TV (UE39F5300AKXXU) isn't playing anything from iPlayer. 

iPlayer displays a message saying to update firmware (done) but nothing about that fact it won't work. The BBC are trying to blame Samsung... but the TV isn't what's changed

"From Friday 6 December, BBC iPlayer is no longer available on some Samsung devices (listed below) as they are unable to support the technical requirements needed to keep BBC iPlayer going. Despite the challenge, we work hard to keep BBC iPlayer working on as many devices as possible (which you can explore on our supported devices page). Please contact Samsung to find out more: www.samsung.com/uk/info/contactus"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/questions/recent-changes-to-iplayer/samsung-closure-2019


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DizzyIzzy
First Poster
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I had hoped we'd dodged this as our Bluray Player continued to work fine until 10th December.

 

When I started getting messages that BBC iPlayer would no longer be available I checked the BBC website and there was no info at all.  I see now that they have specifically stated which players will no longer be supported.  And it seems a complete lottery.  And in fact if I'd bought the previous model we'd be fine,  which makes no sense at all.

 

As we don't have a TV we rely on our player to access all our streamed content and now pay a full TV licence for the privilege  (I know a lot don't)  I am living with a pretty irrate husband at the moment.  I am not too chuffed either.

 

Has anyone made any progress with Customer Services?

 

I notice on John Lewis's website it now specifically states:  Please note: A Smart Blu-Ray Player is a platform that can run 3rd party Apps. 3rd party content providers may remove Apps from the Smart TV platform or stop supporting them at any time, and we cannot guarantee an App’s availability. When new Smart Blu-Ray Player products are launched, there may be also be a delay before certain Apps become available. Availability of Apps is not included within the terms of the manufacturer’s warranty, or the John Lewis 2-year Guarantee for audio visual products, or the 5-year Guarantee for TVs.

 

I don't believe it said that when we bought ours  just over 2 years ago, and in fairness if it had,  I would have thought that would have related to the more obscure apps - not the major ones.  Having researched what is currently on the market, it also seems a lottery as to which apps come automatically loaded,  so we could find another player that supports the BBC - but not Netflix,  but the info is poor. 

 

Bearing in mind streamed content is clearly  they way things are heading and the "terrestrial" stations are joining together to rival Netflix  this is not acceptable.  We don't have a TV because we don't need one but we are being penalised for that.

 

The Screen Mirroring has never worked - so hooking up a laptop to watch BBC is going to be a pain and I'm not sure the HDMI socket will survive continually changing between the two.  I am going to try downloading a programme via my pc on to a usb and see if it will play it that way - but I'm not hopeful.

 

It would be great to know if ayone has found a way around all this.  Apart from the obvious - DVDs!

 

I feel like a Luddite - but life was so much simpler with 4 channels!

 

Happy watching!

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