Firmware change?

December 10, 2010 5:43 PM

Is there a mod for my Samsung BluRay player that will let me steam everything, not just the Pandora/Blockbuster/Netflix/YouTube that it streams? It's connected wirelessly to the web, can it be changed to point to another URL?
posted by fixedgear to computers & internet (5 answers total)

do you have the actual model number? that would be helpful. I doubt you could do much more than add DNLA streaming of local media...
posted by jrishel at 6:01 PM on December 10, 2010

I'm pretty sure the player uses H.264 to obtain streaming content rather than port 80 like your computer's web browser. It also doesn't have a proper browser that can render HTML, Javascript, etc so you wouldn't be able to look at websites anyway.
posted by Burhanistan at 6:06 PM on December 10, 2010

Also, the YouTube and other streaming video sites that you can access from the BluRay are actually Java applications running on the Samsung unit that simply stream content from the sites directly, which is different from going to YouTube from a computer web browser that downloads headers and other page elements that form the interface.
posted by Burhanistan at 6:18 PM on December 10, 2010

It uses various apps to do Netflix, YouTube, etc. Think like iOS apps, except that they're Samsung apps.

You would have to find firmware that included a web browser or configurable media player or something, which would be a fairly substantial project (not impossible, but I'm doubtful anyone has spent the time required to implement a web browser on top of Samsung's box).
posted by wildcrdj at 6:20 PM on December 10, 2010

Seeing as how even one of Samsung's own firmware updates managed to render my Samsung blu-ray into a brick, be aware that fooling with the firmware is risky business.
posted by randomkeystrike at 8:19 PM on December 10, 2010