My guess would be a bad player. Something to consider:
BluRay is an evolving standard, I think there's another release of the standard coming out in the near future that enables some online content. I really hope that the older players will be able to play a newer disc but just not get the new content, but I wouldn't place any money on what Sony does with the standard. If I were to buy a BluRay player today, I'd fork out the extra for a Sony PlayStation 3. It's expensive and has a proprietary RF remote (yes, it's actually Bluetooth but if they're the ONLY Bluetooth device out there that still means proprietary in my book!) instead of having a more reasonable IR receiver so using a universal remote is out without some special adapters. But it's also one of the few players that is both hardware ready for an Internet connection (which it currently uses for games) and has been firmware upgradeable through the BluRay standards so far (past performance is not an indication of future features, of course).
Of course, the alternative is the Microsoft route, forget about the moderate increase in BluRay quality as well as buying individual DVDs and go for a NetFlix account for ~$10/month and have their entire library streamed directly to an XBox 360. This is great for people with broadband Internet, not such a reasonable idea for people on dialup.