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This is true. They don't need an always on connection, but you may need a firmware update to play a "new" disc. It's the reason my only bluray player is a PS3 (it very likely sucks more power to play a disc, but it's very likely to get an update, and very unlikely to be hardware constrained or unable to support an update).

Most likely, your old player didn't support the "latest-and-greatest" DRM crap so you had to update. And, fortunately, your player had the update available... You could have been left in the cold.

Quoted from the first link:
One of the main reasons include copy protection. The Blu-ray format utilizes a variety of copy protection methods such as DRM (Digital Rights Management) and AACS (Advanced Access Content System) to prevent Blu-ray Disc movies from being pirated.

What Is Firmware And Why Are Updates Needed? : Bluray Players ...

A quote from the second link:
Sometimes, manufacturers just stop supporting their products, even models only a few years old.

Blu-ray Player Firmware Upgrade Issues | HD Guru

I do, and that was quite much my point, when I mentioned the 'extreme' resolution.

I know what digital corruption looks like, both partial corruption and full. 'Partial' usually not being very far away from 'full' -- when error correction bits start to fail, they usually do so catastrophically. Therefore, as my point was, SNR means a lot when you're driving the picture at the limits of your cable. I think we agree, but are having some communication issues.

'Buy the cheapest cable you can. If it works, you're good to go.'

Please cite, because I can cite a buttload of sources that back up what I say.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimum_HDTV_viewing_distance

http://hdguru.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/hdtv_distance_chart.pdf

http://www.hdhes.com/tv/hdtvviewdistance.aspx

any my favorite that a lot of people have tested and in fact have found to be accurate.

http://carltonbale.com/1080p-does-matter

Sorry but you perceive sharpness. put up a real resolution chart and try again. Because this is what I have done as well as others and their findings fit mine.

42" TV at 12 feet is SDTV to your eyes no matter what the signal.

Problem is that normal viewing distances is too far. Sorry but 12 feet from your 42" plasma mounted 6 feet off the ground above the fireplace is the WORST way to watch it.

a 42" HDTV, 720p is 7 feet. 1080p is 5 feet. Problem is consumers either ignore it or take the word of the clueless idiot selling the TV at best buy that it will look fantastic at any distance.

http://hdguru.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/hdtv_distance_chart.pdf

Thus 90% of people that own a 1080p set cant see that it's any better than a 480p set. and this is why a regular DVD looks as good as a BluRay to most people.

45 days ship and wait vs within a week in your house. The warranty is generally better than the factory one.

Better yet, the cheaper brands (think house brands like Insignia, Dynex, Apex and the like) warranty terms can be quite horrible. Sure it's a 1 year parts/90 days labor, but after 90 days, it can be $200 just to see what's wrong. Further, you have to ship the product to the factory (if you're lucky, it's in the country, if not, well, have fun shipping it back to China!). Oh yeah, it'll cost you $100 to ship that TV back, so it's already $300 spent before you even can get it fixed. At least some extended warranties allow you to take it back to the store, and they'll ship it back for you. Or hell, sometimes they'll come to you and fix it there.

It's all a benefits vs cost thing. Sometimes it's worth it (or essential - think financing - you want the warranty to cover at least the finance period).

HD Guru has a writeup on bargain-brand HDTV warranties.

And yes, warranty support is one of the most expensive parts of anything manufactured today. So building it into everyone's product just means someone else will come about and offer a shorter warranty but lower cost.

I stand corrected - evidently, the display tech is not an issue:

http://hdguru.com/ces-2009-3d-hdtv-flat-panels-are-coming/345/

The underlying mechanism is, obviously, different and they refer to it as "image persistence"; but LCD burn in is definitely available. This is a piece on it. Googling "LCD burn in" will pull up loads more. If you really want to see it for yourself, check out kiosks, library public computers, and other systems that spend most of their lives displaying the same image. It does happen.