Customer Reviews

Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-Ray Disc Player

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

I purchased this blu-ray player the day they came out and ended up having to switch it out three times to get one that worked. The first one had a bad drive motor, the second a loose component connector and the third worked but still locked up frequently. The picture quality is only slightly better than many of the "upconversion" dvd players on the market. One reviewer stated that Underworld Evolution and T2 are stunning. While I will admit Underworld looks good, although the regular dvd is not that far behind it in picture quality, T2 has a DTS sound glitch that makes it skip on this player and overall the picture is not much better that the ultimate version out for half the price on regular dvd. The discs at this point are not worth the money, poor transfers overall and few or no special features. Save your money.

So much has been said and written about Blu-ray. So it was with much excitement that I unwrapped my brand new Samsung BD-P1000 on launch day.

Yet, after a weekend during which I tested four Blu-ray movies, as well as several standard DVDs, I couldn't help but be disappointed. In short, one expects this next-generation format to provide spectacular improvements over regular DVD. But, in truth, the differences are so slight that it makes me doubt the format's worth as a movie medium in its early stages.

I'll discuss several things in this review: Aesthetics, ease-of-use, picture and sound quality. (Just so you know, my equipment: A Panasonic plasma television with a resolution of 1024-by-768, as well as an Onkyo 5.1 surround audio system. I connected the player to my television using its HDMI output and optical audio input. I toggled between resolutions of both 1080i and 720p.)

First, aesthetics. Photos don't convey just how pretty this thing is. Its front side has a glassy appearance and looks every bit the high end machine it is. The remote is standard black plastic, fine. When the player is on, its front power button, disc door and circle of manual controls glow a bright neon blue -- lights that could prove a distraction for some.

Second, ease-of-use. Yes, the rumors are true. The player takes about 20 seconds to power up. Blu-ray movies take an additional 20 seconds to boot up. A little annoying, sure. But the wait times are hardly cataclysmic and should not be considered a deal breaker. Standard DVDs, by the way, load quicker.

In the back are all the expected inputs: HDMI, component, S-Video and composite video inputs; coaxial and optical outputs. The machine also has analog 5.1 outputs for those of you who can take advantage of such connections (and the sterling uncompressed audio quality those links provide.)

Third, picture quality. I tested four movies on my machine -- XXX, 50 First Dates, Underworld: Evolution and House of Flying Daggers. To hear boosters tell it, Blu-ray's ace in the hole is its picture quality. After all, the player can deliver a full 1080p picture, a resolution up to five times as good as standard DVDs.

Indeed, the picture does look sharp. But, as we all know, so do standard DVDs, especially on a good DVD player with upconversion capabilities. My eyes saw this: With the exception of a few scenes here and there, each film looked about the same as a regular DVD might look played on a good system.

Perhaps the problem is the source material itself, as some early professional reviews have indicated. A few scenes appeared downright grainy. Of the four movies I watched, 50 First Dates looked the best, with its sunny-day colors and clarity. The first few minutes of Underworld also offer promise as to what Blu-ray might deliver down the road (The movie's first scene is a close-up of a vampire's face -- the detail of which is truly stunning.)

Standard DVDs, meantime, look very sharp, displaying images equivalent to what a good DVD player might provide. Yet, switching between the Blu-ray movies and standard DVDs drove home the point: The difference in quality just isn't that spectacular, at least with the initial roster of Blu-ray titles.

Finally, sound. Each Blu-ray disc is encoded with both traditional Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, an uncompressed PCM 5.1 track and other assorted language tracks. Alas, my older surround system is unable to take advantage of the uncompressed sound. Early reviews laud that track for its quality. For my part, the regular Dolby 5.1 sounded like, well, regular Dolby 5.1 -- good but about the same as on a standard DVD.

In conclusion, as much as I hate to say it, the BD-P1000 experience was underwhelming. Really. Maybe my humble home theater system is simply incapable of unleashing the full power of Blu-ray. I haven't seen Blu-ray movies displayed on a 1080p television, nor have I heard the uncompressed audio quality.

More likely, most of you out there are like me: A home theater amateur intrigued by Blu-ray, yet hesitant about making the investment because of the lukewarm early reviews. My advice: Given its price tag, the lack of content out there and the negligible differences in quality compared with standard DVDs, I'd advise waiting. My hope is that Blu-ray will, indeed, show its true colors one day. Today is not that day.

Over here in Australia, I have just paid [...] for one of the first units to ht the stores and i am absoloutley over the moon with the result. Despite Samsung's suggestion that it would only play region "B" (Australian) discs, it plays all blu-ray discs that I can get my hands on including region "A" (USA and Canada), and I am rapidly building up my library from Amazon.com. The picture is superb, "Under Siege" for example has been rehashed to high def and the picture is just unbelieveable, but you must have a high definition TV to get the result required otherwise don't waste your money. The unit also plays all region 4 discs and all burnt copies including dual layer. Best investment I have made in years.
Ray Duncan
Cairns Australia

Robert Says:

"Can't explain some of the poor reviews other than maybe some people don't know how to properly setup the player."

Robert, Maybe you do not understand the Blu Ray format and how little this player delivers compared to what the Blu Ray format is supposed to deliver. Also, you have not even ackowledged the possible softening bug, although I believe that is a spin from Sony to try and save face from the poor Samsung player *and* the poor initial releases from Sony and Lions Gate. Read the hundreads of reviews that concur that the inital wave of Blu Ray titles as well as the Samsung player itself are a horrible value for the money and of poor quality, NOTHING TO DO WITH SETUP. I reviewed the SAMSUNG on the $10,000 Ruby projector and Stewart filmscreen Studiotek. Everything was properly calibrated using HDMI. Other outputs were also tested. The Samsung is a poor performer and is a completely Generic unit.

Robert Says:

"If you use Standard DVD's and you hookup the system using composite or Y/C connections, the piture will obviously not look as good. For optimum results you need to use HDMI connection, which looks incredible."

NOT TRUE. Even using a reference 1080p system as noted above, the images of the Samsung are substandard however, that is partly due to the poor quality Sony Blu Ray releases and partly the Samsung player.

Robert Says:

"Go to a Best Buy and see it in action and you WILL see the difference. I was leaning toward the Sony player, but it won't be out for a few more weeks and this player has a card reader which the Sony lacks. Being a person who works with video everyday, I can tell you this is one Awesome system. I wonder if the negative comments are coming from the HD-DVD camp???"

Sounds like a Best Buy pitch to me. Are you related to Best Buy? If you read my review of the Toshiba HD-A1, I slammed the A-1 HD-DVD player with a similar review, just check my reviews.

In summary:

1) The Samsung is flimsy with poor build quality for a $1,000.00 player.

2) The Samsung may have a bug contributing to softened pitcure quality.

3) The upconversion of standard DVD's of the Samsung player was inferior to that of the Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD player.

4) No 480i output over HDMI, which is important to those who want to use superior upscaling of external video processors. Very easy to provide, yet overlooked carelessly by Samsung.

5) No 1080p24, 1080p24sf, and 1080p48 output options (in addition to 1080i60 and 1080p60). This player is essentially a 1080i player with a cheap deinterlacer to provide 1080p60. The native 1080p output options should be provided (1080p24).

6) No DD True HD nor DTS Master HD

7) No HDMI 1.3 ... The PS3 will have HDMI 1.3 and will be a lot cheaper.

8) Blu Ray movies are currently terrible single layer 25 GB and using MPEG-2 as well as uncompressed PCM: this is not what Blu Ray should stand for. Blu Ray is supposed to be about using the advanced video codecs: VC-1/MPEG-4 AVC as well as the advanced audio codecs: DD True HD and DTS MAster HD.

9) Even if number 8 happens, there will still be no advantage over HD-DVD unless 50 GB BDROM comes to market.

Right now, I wouldn't touch Blu Ray with a 10 foot pole, especially for the high cost. However, if the laundry list noted above is addressed, Blu Ray may become a superior format. Currently, The Samsung player and initial Blu Ray movies are a TERRIBLE VALUE with poor performance for the money. I highly recommend people not buy into these formats until they deliver on all of the items mentioned above.

No reason to buy any of these early players, especially when the movies give us no reason to do so... Blu Ray can go take a flying leap until the above criteria are met.


1) 50 GB discs available for movies

2) Blu Ray players with 480i output over HDMI

3) 1080p24, 1080p24sf, and 1080p48 output options (in addition to 1080i60 and 1080p60)

4) VC-1/MPEG-4 AVC

5) 5.1 DD True HD or 5.1 DTS Master HD

6) HDMI 1.3

No reason to buy any of these early players, especially when the movies give us no reason to do so... Blu Ray can go take a flying leap until the above criteria are met.

It seems that a lot has been said already.

Since I purchased my HD ready set 5yrs ago, I have been consistantly disappointed with the quality of HD that I've been able to get at home on it. You know how it is, it just never looks as good as it does on the showroom floor... Well, this is what my HD Ready set has been waiting for. Iam fairly certain that an HD-DVD player would look just as good, but have no home experience with one to say.

If you have a sense for new technology that would most likely be the wave of the future, then you'll love this. I was considering waiting till the release of the Sony model which is continually being pushed back. When Samsung released a firmware upgrade for this player that was easily applied by the consumer, well it made a huge plus for me. Add to that, that dispite what it says in the manual, it will play the DVD+R format. Add additionally the suport for popular memory card media even if it's unnecessary, how can you beat it.

Ok, so Iam an early adopter... Technologically speaking, if the HD-DVD camp wins the format war, a BluRay player could probably be modified firmwarewise to play HD-DVDs. It wouldn't shock me if they do it anyway sometime in the future, just because they can. HD-DVD players on the other could not be modified anywise to play a BluRay if the trend goes that way.

The only downside to BluRay is the price IMO... The BluRay camp needs to figure this out soon and start dropping the prices down comparable to HD-DVD and get more product out on the store shelves before this superior format goes the way of the DiVX player.

Every once in a while the BD-P1000 freezes and needs to be reset...but not very often. When I got this player, the picture was good and it had a few quirks and irritations. Since installing the firmware, the picture is excellent and the irritations have mostly gone away. I really like this player and the picture and sound (something I did not expect) are excellent. I will be very content with my BD-P1000 until further advances are made in Blu-ray technology. Since this player has come out there really hasn't been a new model that doesn't have it's own quirks and short-comings. I am very happy with what I have for now.

Overall this blu-ray player has performed above average. It does still need a little work in the video quality as I know some blu-ray disks should look somewhat better than it looks on this Samsung. Hopefully, their upcoming second generation player will take care of these issues. Also no advanced audio codecs are supported.

The VHS vs Betamax comparison does not make sense, they were analogue formats and both stank! For those of you who are not aware, the Blu-ray format allows for more information on a single disk than HD-DVD, however that space is not used to enhance the picture, it's there to store extras such as 'making of' documentaries etc. The actual movie in true HD-1080p takes up same space on both formats. So the question is are you willing to pay more for a blu-ray disk with everything on one disc or 2/3rds the price for an HD-DVD with two disks in the box?

As Toshiba as known for the high quality of their image rendering on DVD players, and they are dedicated to the cheaper but no less high quality HD-DVD format then my money is with the HD-DVD (available on this site, too)

The reason VHS won over Betamax is the same reason the internet took off - cheap porn! Sony worked hard to prevent pornography on Betamax and hence the format died. Though I don't watch porn (well not too much ;-) ) I fully expect the prospect of this kind of entertainment being cheaper on HD-DVD to tip the balance.

Other reasons to avoid Blu-ray are -
1. High price per unit for media at same quality as HD-DVD.
2. Initial releases are not true HD.
3. Region coding on Blu-ray - none on HD-DVD. (VERY IMPORTANT THIS ONE)
4. Manufacturers of good quality rendering players are not supporting Blu-ray.

No, I do not own this particular player - Yes, I have tried both formats in a professional capacity. I do believe it is important people understand that the real difference between the formats for consumer use is the end user gets a better deal with HD-DVD.

I recently purchased the Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-Ray disc player and I paired it with the Sharp Aquos LC-52D62U HD LCD set. All I have to say is that the combination of both is pure eye candy. Whether I play a Blu-Ray disc or a regular DVD movie, the colors are vivid and the picture is as sharp as I have never seen it before. I also had a regular DVD player hooked up to the same HD LCD and the difference in picture quality between it and the Samsung Blu-Ray player is like night and day, so I unhooked the regular DVD player immediately. I also compared the picture quality with that provided by the OPPO OPDV971H Digital HD-Ready Up-Converting DVD player which I bought to upgrade the picture quality of regular DVDs to that of 720p or 1080p before I purchased the HD LCD set; however, the Samsung Blu-Ray machine does a much better job at regular DVD playback. Until the battle of formats between Blu-Ray and HD settles down, I am happy to have purchased the Samsung Blu-Ray player because I get to play Blu-Ray discs and at the same time I am able to enjoy now the extensive collection of regular DVDs I already own.

Earlier reviewers had given this Samsung player somewhat lukewarm reviews.

One thing I learned from those postings is that Blu-ray requires a firmware upgrade. As soon as I had hooked up the player I inserted the upgrade files on a CD which I had downloaded from Samsung. I have had, at least sofar, absolutely no problems. The photographs "jump" at you and you sit there wondering how such magnificant photography could have been attained.

This DVD player is all that I had hoped it would be.