Apple Thoughts: Sony Wraps Blu Ray Firmware ISO in Windows EXE

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.