Customer Reviews

Samsung BD-P1500 1080p Blu-Ray Player With A 1-Year Extended Warranty Service Plan & High Speed HDMI Cable (2 meters)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The bad:

First:
NO AUDIO WITH HDMI. The whole point of the HDMI cable is to have 1 (one) cable to run from one machine to another, right? But with this player, in order to get audio while using HDMI, you need to either plug in the analog RCA (red and white) cables, or a digital audio cable. Unfortunately for me, I am already using the audio-in on my HDMI for a PC (DVI to HDMI, and separate audio out.) I have seen many other people contact Samsung for support, and all got this response.

Second:
The player never remembers where I left off with a movie. With my previous Sony 5 disc DVD player, wherever a disc left off when either pressing "stop" or powering down, is picked up in the same spot when playing again. But for some reason this is intermittent on this player and incredibly frustrating.

Third:
A little complicated, but hear me out: After pressing "play" after rewinding, it takes 3 seconds to get back up to speed and play. But instead of picking up on the timecode where you press play, it uses those few seconds and continues to step forward through the timecode without sending any kind of a signal to watch, making you have to rewind again. This happens often.

Other minor annoyances:
The device is loud;
very slow to load DVD's or Blu-Ray discs;
the fast forward and rewind are very, very slow;
the timecode disappears from the screen while fast forwarding or rewinding, so if you need to FF to a certain time, you are left guessing;
there is no way to navigate any menus without the remote (common on many players, but still frustrating);
pressing the "play" button doesn't close the tray and play a disc, you have to press close first;
pressing the power button while the disc tray is open is tough unless you have the fingers of a 5 year old;
the button response is terrible on the remote (though I have found this to be on ALL Samsung remotes I have used.)

Yes, these can seem pretty nit-picky. But these are the things you run across each and every day with this model, and I have never had this experience with previous DVD players. And all of these issues are problems I have had with both DVD and Blu-Ray discs on this machine.

Sure, Blu-Ray movies look amazing, but I don't think that warrants getting a great review because it did the 1 thing right it was supposed to. Whereas a great, or even nice player, will have all the extra things which make interacting and using the device comfortable and not aggravating.

Bought this player yesterday and had some problems with the install. Plugged the included HDMI cable into my 1080p compatible Onkyo receiver which runs a DVI cable into my older Sony TV (1080i). The player auto-detects the HDMI connection and sets the output to 1080p which my TV doesn't handle so sound but no picture. Connected the player using componet cables so I could do setup and change output to 1080i and reinstalled HDMI cable. Everything was working. There was a firmware update available from Samsung so I downloaded the file on my PC and copied it to a USB flash drive. The player has a USB port so I plugged in the flash drive and in a few minutes the latest firmware installed automatically but I was back to 1080p display. I had to reinstall the componet cables and start the setup again. Samsung doesn't have a solution to this other than what I did. I asked if this is going to reoccur after power outages etc. and they said yes.
The player is working fine now, other than a little noise at startup, and I'm enjoying Blu-Ray movies. I really like the convenience of the USB port for firmware updates.
If you have a 1080p TV, you probably will not encounter this problem with the install.

Because I don't own an LCD or plasma television, and instead own a five-year old HDTV projection set, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the Blu-Ray technology and regular DVDs. I was wrong. The Samsung Blu-Ray delivers extraordinary clarity on any 1080p high-def set. While the picture might not be as sharp as on an LCD, the difference is noticeable.

The Samsung is a great entry in the mid-price category of Blu-Ray players. It has an ethernet connection in the back (you may have to update the firmware) for BD Live, the special feature option that requires an internet connection. Although you don't have to hook this player up to the internet to enjoy the high-def technology of Blu-Ray, those who want to unlock their discs' full capabilities (not on all discs) will want this. In addition to Blu-Ray discs, it can play regular DVDs, DVD-R/RW (as long as they are finalized), and CDs.

The front of this player is solid black, with no display, and a circular control pad for basic operation. As with most electronics these days, you can only access the full range of features from the remote control. The biggest drawback I see with this unit is the audible noise when it seeks the disc. I didn't hear anything during playback, so it didn't interrupt viewing. So far, I haven't noticed any glitches in either audio or video. It read the disc fairly quickly (much more quickly than my Panasonic DVDR does, but that's easy to accomplish), although true videophiles may want a higher end player for even faster reading.

The unit comes standard with a remote control, batteries, and composite cables. This particular vendor includes an essential HDMI cable for plasma and LCD sets, and an extended warranty. If you don't have HDMI on your set, you may need an HDMI to DVI cable -- check your connections. Although the composite cables will work for quick set-up, but they won't fully utilize the player and its high-def capability.

If you are in the market for a Blu-Ray player but don't want to spend a lot of money, this may be the player for you. However, if you're a hardcore videophile with a larger budget, definitely look up to the next price range for a quieter, quicker player.

UPDATE: If you want to stream Netflix to your television, get the next level of Samsung Blu-Ray, the Samsung BD-P2500 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player, which is Netflix-ready.

-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann

This unit is junk. Right out of the box there were issues. No audio for long stretches (HDMI hookup directly to HD TV) or randomly intermittent audio on each and every disc loaded. Would not even play second Blu Ray disc loaded twas a 'normal' BR disc that played in Sony BR player. Will not play ANY DVD video discs at all. Did firmware upgrade ... same problems. Did factory reset ... same problems. Furthermore, Samsung has a lousy warranty, i.e. 90 DAYS, folks, in comparison to Sony and most others that have a warranty of 12 MONTHS (what does this tell you, huh?) Additionally, Samsung's web site (if you have time to maneuver through a myriad of screens and buttons until you eventually get to where you need to be) is poorly designed.

Eventually, if you make it through all the hoops, you find out you have to pay shipping their garbage to them for warranty service. No problem, they will take your credit card online before sending you a shipping label, only you have to enter your credit card info' over an unsecured connection (however, it conveniently warns you that others can gain access to any data you enter ... how nice, ay?)! Regardless, having spent an hour to get to this point, I attempted to enter my credit card info' so that I could pay their required fee for the shipping label to return this POS for WARRANTY service. I tried THREE times, finally quitting after the third attempt when the "loading" screen stayed on for 10 minutes and did nothing, same as the first two times. I eventually had to call them and go over everything again with their sweet representative, only to find out that I had to call back after a few hours AGAIN because NOW it would take them that long to verify my warranty (regardless of the fact that it WAS verified online the night before).

Btw, the techie was nice, but you know what? I don't care how sweet and polite techs are if they cannot offer anything in the way of help. Nice does not fix hardware problems, now does it? I'd rather have a raving maniac on the other end of the line if he/she offers the fix I need!)

Okay, the bottom line, folks: If you've managed to read this far AND you've take the time to read other forums that contain copious amounts of complaint and customer dissatisfaction reviews about this Samsung's BD player, you've just read ANOTHER ONE. What does this tell you? Well, if you still haven't gotten it, here you go ... (now, pay close attention) ... It tells you this:

RUN AWAY from SAMSUNG BLU RAY PLAYERS, RUN FAST, RUN VERY FAST !!!

Samsung BD-P1500 1080p Blu-ray Player This is a great player for and excellent price. It upgrades easily through you internet port and has a wonderful picture quality and superb sound. It is a very nice size and fits unassumingly among you other eletronics. It plays DVD+R despite the fact that the manual said it cannot, both Double Layer DVD+r and Single layer DVD+R. I haven't had a single complaint with this machine and I use it everyday. Check it out for yourself and make your own decision. I am perfectly happy with mine. Blessings

This Blu-Ray player might be OK. I wouldn't know. Since the beginning, the sound would drop out for 5 or 6 seconds every few minutes. With both DVD and Blu-Ray discs. Best Buy says its a "firmware upgrade" issue. Not really. Firmware deals with the Blu-Ray media - not DVD. Blu-Ray is not as stable a media as standard DVD. Anyway, just to be polite, I tried a firmware upgrade. No dice, same issue persists. Factory reset? Same issue. I send the player back to Samsung for their technical expertise. Player returned to me after a week worse than before. Now it doesn't even play regular DVDs? I called 1-800-SAMSUNG. Guess what - they have no idea. The most informed response to my call was "it must have been damaged during shipping. It is a delicate machine. They test everything before it goes out." It was shipped back in a box that was two sizes too big. What did they think was going to happen? Not only does their product stink - their repair and customer service smells just as bad. I'm going to give this thing back to Best Buy and upgrade to a high-end DVD player. At least I know they still work. BTW - the crisp image and brilliant sound doesn't impress me that much. Its not worth all the hassle - firmware upgrades every few months, etc. I think Blu-Ray is a half-baked idea that needs to go back to the R&D department for more testing.

I bought this, because it was the cheapest available Blu-Ray player at the time. I should've waited or been willing to spend more money on a Sony. Anyway, this device only properly loads BD half the time, the other half, the device hangs on a black screen and spins the disc until I power it off. It will crash playing a DVD (the upconvert software must be buggy). The controls are sluggish and unresponsive.

That said, video quality is just fine at 1080p and digital sound (DTS and Dolby) is good.

I've done a ton of research, probably more than I should. Hands down, Samsung is really starting to walk away in the LCD arena. Most reviews I've seen on their LCD's points to this exact player as the one to go for when you are ready.