My samsung bd-p1500 blu-ray player won't play blu-ray discs on regular ones... was having all sorts of troubles with it finally updated the firmware and now it won't play any blu-ray discs

Try a factory reset.

With no disc in the player turn it on and when it displays "no disc" press and hold the FFW/Skip button on the unit for about 10 seconds. It should then say "Reset" on the players LCD display. NB: You have to hold the button when the "no disc" message is displayed otherwise I don't think it works.

Doing this fixed the same problem with mine after a firmware update.

I'm having the same problem. had my Blu-ray and my cable box plugged into my reciever. Blu-ray kept cutting out and not finding a signal while watching my Rome DVDs. I swapped HDMI cables by just switch which cable went out of my blu-ray ( I didn't change what ports they were plugged into on the reciever. That cleared up that problem. I'd assume it was a faulty HDMI cable except that it works fine on the cable box. Anyways, we were watching Iron Man on Blue-Ray and it starts to skip about 2 thirds through the movie. Same as you I updated the firmware, disabled BC-Live, No luck Don't know if the problem is hte Bluray player , the reciever or what. Everything is up to date so I don't get it at all.