- Full HD 1080p
- BD Live 2.0 Ready
- Ethernet and USB for firmware upgrades
- Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital True-HD
- DTS-HD upgradable
Product Features |
Technical Details
- Brand Name: Samsung
- Model: BD-2500
- Warranty: 1 year parts and 90 days labor warranty backed by Samsung toll-free support.
| This Product Is ENERGY STAR® Qualified Products that earn the ENERGY STAR prevent greenhouse gas emissions by meeting strict energy-efficiency guidelines set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy--plus they help us all save money while making a difference. Find out more about ENERGY STAR. |
Product Details
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Product Description
Amazon.com
Amazon.com Product Description Samsung's BD-P2500 is BD-Live 2.0 Ready with an ethernet port so you can enjoy special interactive features, download extra content from the internet, and more. It has 1Gb of onboard memory and a USB port for memory expansion. You’ll enjoy bold color and crisp details with full 1080p resolution. The BD-P2500 also offers breakthrough enhancements such as Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) processing and 7.1-Channel analog audio outputs creating a powerful HD audio-visual experience. Plays Blu-ray discs, upscales standard DVDs, and is compatible with BD-ROM, DVD-ROM, DVD-R (V mode only), DVD-RW (V/VR mode), Audio CD, CD-R, CD-RW, and AVCHD discs. Movie night just got even more exciting - with the highest-quality audio and an incredible picture.
Bonus View
Design
What is Blu-ray?
Blu-ray is a new optical disc format with over five and a half times the storage capacity of a standard DVD (25 GB versus 4.5 GB). A dual-layer Blu-ray disc can hold up to 50 GB of information. With that increased storage, movie studios can finally provide movies on disc in high definition, offering 6x the resolution or image detail of DVD and up to 8 channels of lossless (better than CD quality) digital sound. The new format can also provide interactive features that go well above anything ever offered before.
Is Blu-ray different than HDTV?
HDTV, or high definition television, is a new broadcasting format that offers widescreen, high resolution images offering 6x the resolution or image detail of DVD, with up to 5.1 channels of digital audio. Until now, the signals were only available through over the air transmissions (via an antenna), or through digital cable and satellite signals. You can not get HD signals from a standard video tape or DVD. An HDTV is a high resolution video display that is capable of receiving and displaying these HDTV broadcasts or images. Blu-ray is a complement to your HDTV. It's a disc media format that has enough storage to include an entire movie, plus soundtracks and bonus materials, recorded in the high definition format. You can play Blu-ray discs back on your HDTV and see the same, if not better image and sound quality as you do from HDTV broadcasts.
What kind of TV do I need to enjoy Blu-ray?
You can play back Blu-ray movies on any TV with composite video or better inputs (not RF), but to get a worthwhile benefit from the format over DVD you'll want to have a high-definition television, or HDTV, with a vertical resolution higher than 480p, and preferably higher than 720p. Most Blu-ray titles can deliver an image with a vertical resolution of 1080i or 1080p. The more horizontal resolution the TV can reproduce, up to 1920 lines or pixels, the better.
How are Blu-ray discs different than regular DVDs?
Blu-ray discs are the same size as DVD or CD, but use a blue* laser to store and read data as opposed to the red laser used in DVDs and CDs. The blue laser's shorter wavelength, combined with a smaller aperture lens and a thinner cover layer on the disc makes it possible to create a smaller beam spot size capable of storing and reading much more, smaller information on the disc. A single-layer Blu-ray disc can hold 25 GB worth of data, compared to 4.5 on a standard DVD. A dual layer BD disc holds up to 50 GB. This translates into the ability to store a full 1080p HD image. This has a resolution consisting of 1920 by 1080 progressively scanned pixels, compared to standard DVD's 720 by 480 pixels. In addition, Blu-ray has much wider bandwidth than DVD, delivering signals at speeds up to 48 Mbps, six times faster than DVD's 8 Mbps, and nearly 2.5 times the data of an HDTV broadcast's 19.2 Mbps. *technically, it's violet, but who's keeping track?
Will Blu-ray discs play in my current DVD player?
No. You will need a Blu-ray player to be able to read the smaller, denser information found on a Blu-ray disc.
Will I be able to play standar DVDs on my Samsung Blu-ray player?
Yes. Blu-ray players are backwards compatible with your standard DVDs. They can also play CDs.
Is Blu-ray the same as HD DVD?
No. HD DVD was a competing format with less storage capacity than Blu-ray. With Toshiba, its primary champion announcing on February 19, 2008 that they would end production of HD DVD products, the few companies that were supporting the format announced that they would instead create products for the Blu-ray format.
What does up-conversion mean?
Consumers have over 50 years worth of material in standard definition formats. Up-conversion is the process of taking that existing, standard definition material and converting it (lines and pixels are copied to some degree) to the higher resolution needed to display those signals on an HDTV. When done well, the process can often improve picture quality, though it can't increase actual resolution. The quality of the up-converter, included in everything from up-converting standard DVD players to Blu-ray players and HDTVs, can often determine the quality of the picture.
What kind of cables, connections do I need to have to make Blu-ray work?
You will need either a 3-wire analog component (typically labeled Y, Pr and Pb) or an HDMI digital video connection between the BD player and the TV. The HDMI connection is preferable. Not only will it provide better image quality, but it will pass along higher resolution audio and control information, as well. You may get limited up-conversion options with standard DVDs when using the component connection.
What is firmware and do I need it?
Firmware is like computer software, or the instruction set in the player that tells the hardware what to do under various conditions. Insert a disc, and the firmware tells the player to read the disc. Press the Play button and the firmware tells the player to play the movie. Generally speaking, the firmware is invisible to the end user. But Blu-ray keeps evolving, and new features keep being created. With each new feature that a movie studio comes up with, hardware manufacturers have to release new instruction sets, or firmware, to deal with it. Samsung's ability to easily update the firmware in their BD players makes them one of the best in the business.
Who supports Blu-ray?
At this point, nearly everyone supports Blu-ray. All the major movie studios have announced that they would support Blu-ray with both new and catalog titles. Thousands of movies and music videos are already available. Most major electronics manufacturers have been supporting Blu-ray since the format's beginning.
Can I rent movies on Blu-ray?
Yes. Blockbuster, Hollywood Video and Netflix, among other places, offer Blu-ray titles for rent.
Are my regular DVDs obsolete?
Not by the definition Merriam Webster would use. You can still play your regular DVDs on your Blu-ray disc player, so they're still useful, but you'll want to replace them with Blu-ray versions as they become available in the new format so that you can enjoy the improved image and sound quality.
Is the only benefit to Blu-ray the video quality? Why should I upgrade to Blu-ray?
You will probably upgrade because of the video quality, but you may also appreciate the improved sound quality available on some players as well as the advanced interactive features. Blu-ray offers the latest generation audio codecs that can play back up to 8 channels of surround sound with improved audio quality over that of standard 5.1 digital soundtracks. This includes Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS High Resolution and DTS Master Audio. Blu-ray also offers advanced bonus features that can include interactive game features or picture-in-picture commentary tracks, not to mention additional features that could be downloaded after the disc has been produced.
Do I need to buy a new home theater system?
You don't need a new audio system, but you should at least have a surround system (five speakers and ideally a subwoofer) with Dolby Digital or DTS audio decoding to hear the theater-like audio experience that is available on Blu-ray. Some BD players offer more advanced audio codecs that provide even better quality sound through up to 8 channels of surround.
What do all these audio formats mean?
You can hear better-than theater-like audio at home. As George Lucas has said, sound is 50% of the movie experience. With the right audio equipment, you can hear up to 7.1 channels of sound that is no different than what the recording engineers heard in the mixing room.
What's the benefit of 24p?
Movies are recorded on film at 24 frames per second (fps). Video is recorded and played back at 60 frames per second. Movies must be converted to 60 frames before being played back on your TV. Blu-ray discs record movie content in the original 24 frame format, and convert the signal within the player to output at 60 fps for standard HDTVs. Some current HDTVs, like Samsung's Auto Motion Plus 120Hz models, and undoubtedly more future ones, can accept and play back the 24 frame signal without the intermediary conversion to 60 fps, which can offer a smoother, more natural-looking image.
What does Profile 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 mean?
Blu-ray's specifications for video are broken into three profiles, each with its own set of hardware and software requirements. Profile 1.0 gave hardware manufacturers a grace period to create players that were capable of Blu-ray video playback, but didn't need to meet the final standard profile requirements. This grace period ended October 31, 2007. These players, while not able to take advantage of all of Blu-ray's promised extra content, will provide full 1080p video playback.
Profile 1.1, also known as BonusView, makes certain requirements mandatory: picture-in-picture, secondary audio mixing, a minimum of 256MB of memory (built-in or removable), and the incorporation of a virtual file system. Players created and sold after October 31, 2007 are required to meet the Profile 1.1 specification, and therefore will take advantage of 1.1-enabled bonus materials on certain BD discs.
BD-Live (Profile 2.0) makes mandatory all parts of Profile 1.1, but increases the memory requirement to 1GB and adds the hardware requirement of a network connection. This specification enables the even-more interactive web-based bonus material found on discs that provide such content.
Key Features
Total BD Profile Compatibility right out of the box, lets you instantly enjoy the latest interactive features available, including BD Live (Profile 2.0) and Bonus View (Profile 1.1)- Lots of Memory and Easy Upgradeability: The BD-P2500 comes with a built-in, wired Ethernet connection, 1GB of internal flash memory, and a USB port for memory expansion
- Full HD 1080p
- HQV processing chip for the highest quality viewing of Blu-ray discs, upconversion of standard DVDs, and viewing of JPEG images
- HDMI 1.3 output with xvYCC Deep Color support, and a 24fps film mode, exhibiting smoother, more natural playback of film-based material.
- 7.1-Channel Dolby TrueHD Sound and dts-HD Master Audio capable of decoding the latest high-resolution digital multichannel audio soundtracks
HQV Video Processor
In a perfect world, every disc’s image that passed through your Blu-ray disc player into your HDTV would offer immaculate 1080p video with flawless color, impeccable detail, and nary a bit of pesky video noise. In the real world, though, pristine source material isn’t available for every Blu-ray disc—due to age or neglect of the original elements—and there are plenty of movies and TV shows on DVD that you’ll still want to watch on your Blu-ray player. HQV video processing is a great way of elevating those less-than-perfect video sources to a new level, and ensuring that you’re getting the most out of your beautiful high-definition video display.
To do this, the HQV video processors built into better Blu-ray players employ sophisticated algorithms to alleviate the problems that often plague less-than-perfect video sources. HQV processors analyze multiple video fields at once to determine where frames match up and where they don’t, and even which objects are in motion within those frames. In analyzing the video signal over time, the processor also determines the proper frame rate or refresh rate of the original video signal—whether it’s a 24 fps film source or a 30 fps video source, for example—and makes sure that it is dealt with properly. HQV video processors are also great at minimizing video noise without scrubbing the image of all its fine detail, as well as restoring some of the detail that’s lost as a result of aggressive video filtering during the Blu-ray or DVD mastering process. And unlike some competing video processors, HQV processors boast enough processing power to keep up with the multiple video streams (picture-in-picture and split screen) found on many new Blu-ray discs.
Stream Netflix Movies Right Over Your Player
 | Netflix, the world’s largest online movie rental service, has a library of more than 12,000 movies and television episodes available for streaming. You must be a Netflix subscriber in order to receive streaming video service. For Netflix customers you simply need to activate your new BluRay player to your existing Netflix account. Non-Netflix customers must first sign up for Netflix in order to utilize this feature-there is a monthly cost. |
BD-Live
 BD-Live is a Blu-ray feature that enables you to access special content via an internet-connected Blu-ray player. Because it's not coded into the disc, BD-Live content is always updated, always fresh. With BD-Live, your Blu-ray disc is different every time you view it.Check out the latest previews, download special scenes, exclusive features and ringtones, and participate in online communities or games. As BD-Live continues to grow and expand, even more features will become available, customizing features and content to your location or preferences. Now, your disc k |
Bonus View
| Blu-ray Disc has 5x more storage capacity than DVD, which allows more content to fit on the disc. The extra storage capacity also means more room for special features like inline navigation, Bonus View, interactive games, deleted scenes, director commentary and more | |
Navigate to special features, other scenes, or settings without leaving the content you are watching. | Bonus View lets you watch special features and commentary inline without leaving the movie. |
High Definition Soundtrack Support and Output
Providing a truly immersive HD home theater experience, Samsung's BD-P2500 is capable of decoding the latest high-resolution digital multichannel audio soundtracks available. Out of the box, the player can output Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and dts as an uncompressed PCM signal, as a bitstream, or via the 7.1 analog outputs for cinematic sound that is comparable with the latest movie theaters. Additionally, dts-HD HR (High Resolution) decoding will become available with a firmware upgrade in the fall. The BD-P2500 will also pass these and dts-HD MA (Master Audio) as a bitstream output to a separate, external surround sound decoder.
HDMI Features
x.v Color
 RGB Color Range |  xvYCC Color Range | Thanks to the adoption of a newly approved international color standard called xvYCC (an option in the HDMI v1.3 spec, the color space has been greatly expanded. All Sony XBR HDTVs support the xvYCC color profile (Extended YCC Colorimetry for Video Applications), or "x.v. color" for short. Standard RGB color space allows the display of a portion of the colors that are viewable to the human eye. The next generation "xvYCC" color space actually offers an available range of colors that exceeds what human eyes can recognize.
|
Deep Color
 | So, where x.v. color expands the available range of colors your HDTV can display, Deep Color increases the number of colors your HDTV can display within that range, for smoother transitions from color to color.
|
Specifications
Design
- Piano black with chrome accents and touch pad controls
A/V Features
- Compatible with BD Profile 2.0 (BD Live), Profile 1.1 (Bonus View), and Profile 1.0 interactivity features
- 1GB internal flash memory for BD Live
- Award-winning Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) processing
- 24fps film mode
- xvYCC Deep Color
- Selectable DVD upconversion (720p / 1080i / 1080p)
- Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD decoding
- dts-HD HR decoding via firmware update in the fall
- Dolby Digital Plus™, Dolby TrueHD, dts-HD HR / MA bitstream output
A/V Connections
- 1 HDMI version 1.3 output with CEC (Anynet+)
- 1 component output
- 1 composite output
- 7.1-Channel analog audio outputs
- 1 optical digital audio output
- 1 Ethernet connection (for interactivity features and firmware upgrades only)
- 1 USB connection (for memory expansion and firmware upgrades only)
Playable Media
- BD-ROM, DVD-ROM, DVD-R (V mode only), DVD-RW (V/VR mode), Audio CD, CD-R, CD-RW, AVCHD disc
Answers to Basic Questions About Blu-ray
What is Blu-ray?
Blu-ray is a new optical disc format with over five and a half times the storage capacity of a standard DVD (25 GB versus 4.5 GB). A dual-layer Blu-ray disc can hold up to 50 GB of information. With that increased storage, movie studios can finally provide movies on disc in high definition, offering 6x the resolution or image detail of DVD and up to 8 channels of lossless (better than CD quality) digital sound. The new format can also provide interactive features that go well above anything ever offered before.
Is Blu-ray different than HDTV?
HDTV, or high definition television, is a new broadcasting format that offers widescreen, high resolution images offering 6x the resolution or image detail of DVD, with up to 5.1 channels of digital audio. Until now, the signals were only available through over the air transmissions (via an antenna), or through digital cable and satellite signals. You can not get HD signals from a standard video tape or DVD. An HDTV is a high resolution video display that is capable of receiving and displaying these HDTV broadcasts or images. Blu-ray is a complement to your HDTV. It's a disc media format that has enough storage to include an entire movie, plus soundtracks and bonus materials, recorded in the high definition format. You can play Blu-ray discs back on your HDTV and see the same, if not better image and sound quality as you do from HDTV broadcasts.
What kind of TV do I need to enjoy Blu-ray?
You can play back Blu-ray movies on any TV with composite video or better inputs (not RF), but to get a worthwhile benefit from the format over DVD you'll want to have a high-definition television, or HDTV, with a vertical resolution higher than 480p, and preferably higher than 720p. Most Blu-ray titles can deliver an image with a vertical resolution of 1080i or 1080p. The more horizontal resolution the TV can reproduce, up to 1920 lines or pixels, the better.
How are Blu-ray discs different than regular DVDs?
Blu-ray discs are the same size as DVD or CD, but use a blue* laser to store and read data as opposed to the red laser used in DVDs and CDs. The blue laser's shorter wavelength, combined with a smaller aperture lens and a thinner cover layer on the disc makes it possible to create a smaller beam spot size capable of storing and reading much more, smaller information on the disc. A single-layer Blu-ray disc can hold 25 GB worth of data, compared to 4.5 on a standard DVD. A dual layer BD disc holds up to 50 GB. This translates into the ability to store a full 1080p HD image. This has a resolution consisting of 1920 by 1080 progressively scanned pixels, compared to standard DVD's 720 by 480 pixels. In addition, Blu-ray has much wider bandwidth than DVD, delivering signals at speeds up to 48 Mbps, six times faster than DVD's 8 Mbps, and nearly 2.5 times the data of an HDTV broadcast's 19.2 Mbps. *technically, it's violet, but who's keeping track?
Will Blu-ray discs play in my current DVD player?
No. You will need a Blu-ray player to be able to read the smaller, denser information found on a Blu-ray disc.
Will I be able to play standar DVDs on my Samsung Blu-ray player?
Yes. Blu-ray players are backwards compatible with your standard DVDs. They can also play CDs.
Is Blu-ray the same as HD DVD?
No. HD DVD was a competing format with less storage capacity than Blu-ray. With Toshiba, its primary champion announcing on February 19, 2008 that they would end production of HD DVD products, the few companies that were supporting the format announced that they would instead create products for the Blu-ray format.
What does up-conversion mean?
Consumers have over 50 years worth of material in standard definition formats. Up-conversion is the process of taking that existing, standard definition material and converting it (lines and pixels are copied to some degree) to the higher resolution needed to display those signals on an HDTV. When done well, the process can often improve picture quality, though it can't increase actual resolution. The quality of the up-converter, included in everything from up-converting standard DVD players to Blu-ray players and HDTVs, can often determine the quality of the picture.
What kind of cables, connections do I need to have to make Blu-ray work?
You will need either a 3-wire analog component (typically labeled Y, Pr and Pb) or an HDMI digital video connection between the BD player and the TV. The HDMI connection is preferable. Not only will it provide better image quality, but it will pass along higher resolution audio and control information, as well. You may get limited up-conversion options with standard DVDs when using the component connection.
What is firmware and do I need it?
Firmware is like computer software, or the instruction set in the player that tells the hardware what to do under various conditions. Insert a disc, and the firmware tells the player to read the disc. Press the Play button and the firmware tells the player to play the movie. Generally speaking, the firmware is invisible to the end user. But Blu-ray keeps evolving, and new features keep being created. With each new feature that a movie studio comes up with, hardware manufacturers have to release new instruction sets, or firmware, to deal with it. Samsung's ability to easily update the firmware in their BD players makes them one of the best in the business.
Who supports Blu-ray?
At this point, nearly everyone supports Blu-ray. All the major movie studios have announced that they would support Blu-ray with both new and catalog titles. Thousands of movies and music videos are already available. Most major electronics manufacturers have been supporting Blu-ray since the format's beginning.
Can I rent movies on Blu-ray?
Yes. Blockbuster, Hollywood Video and Netflix, among other places, offer Blu-ray titles for rent.
Are my regular DVDs obsolete?
Not by the definition Merriam Webster would use. You can still play your regular DVDs on your Blu-ray disc player, so they're still useful, but you'll want to replace them with Blu-ray versions as they become available in the new format so that you can enjoy the improved image and sound quality.
Is the only benefit to Blu-ray the video quality? Why should I upgrade to Blu-ray?
You will probably upgrade because of the video quality, but you may also appreciate the improved sound quality available on some players as well as the advanced interactive features. Blu-ray offers the latest generation audio codecs that can play back up to 8 channels of surround sound with improved audio quality over that of standard 5.1 digital soundtracks. This includes Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS High Resolution and DTS Master Audio. Blu-ray also offers advanced bonus features that can include interactive game features or picture-in-picture commentary tracks, not to mention additional features that could be downloaded after the disc has been produced.
Do I need to buy a new home theater system?
You don't need a new audio system, but you should at least have a surround system (five speakers and ideally a subwoofer) with Dolby Digital or DTS audio decoding to hear the theater-like audio experience that is available on Blu-ray. Some BD players offer more advanced audio codecs that provide even better quality sound through up to 8 channels of surround.
What do all these audio formats mean?
You can hear better-than theater-like audio at home. As George Lucas has said, sound is 50% of the movie experience. With the right audio equipment, you can hear up to 7.1 channels of sound that is no different than what the recording engineers heard in the mixing room.
What's the benefit of 24p?
Movies are recorded on film at 24 frames per second (fps). Video is recorded and played back at 60 frames per second. Movies must be converted to 60 frames before being played back on your TV. Blu-ray discs record movie content in the original 24 frame format, and convert the signal within the player to output at 60 fps for standard HDTVs. Some current HDTVs, like Samsung's Auto Motion Plus 120Hz models, and undoubtedly more future ones, can accept and play back the 24 frame signal without the intermediary conversion to 60 fps, which can offer a smoother, more natural-looking image.
What does Profile 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 mean?
Blu-ray's specifications for video are broken into three profiles, each with its own set of hardware and software requirements. Profile 1.0 gave hardware manufacturers a grace period to create players that were capable of Blu-ray video playback, but didn't need to meet the final standard profile requirements. This grace period ended October 31, 2007. These players, while not able to take advantage of all of Blu-ray's promised extra content, will provide full 1080p video playback.
Profile 1.1, also known as BonusView, makes certain requirements mandatory: picture-in-picture, secondary audio mixing, a minimum of 256MB of memory (built-in or removable), and the incorporation of a virtual file system. Players created and sold after October 31, 2007 are required to meet the Profile 1.1 specification, and therefore will take advantage of 1.1-enabled bonus materials on certain BD discs.
BD-Live (Profile 2.0) makes mandatory all parts of Profile 1.1, but increases the memory requirement to 1GB and adds the hardware requirement of a network connection. This specification enables the even-more interactive web-based bonus material found on discs that provide such content.
Product Description
The ultimate interactive experience is here. The Samsung BD-P2500 is BD-Live 2.0 Ready so you can enjoy special interactive features, download extra content from the internet and more. You¿ll also enjoy bold color and crisp details with full 1080p resolution. Movie night just got even more exciting - with the highest-quality audio and an incredible picture.
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
178 of 180 people found the following review helpful
By M. D. Cosby
Very happy with this purchase! I'm glad to see Amazon has them back in stock. I have never had a problem with another seller - but I do prefer Amazon. I got my unit from a local retailer who I had a discount code for. With tax etc. I ended up paying what I would have paid on amazon. Unfortunately amazon now charges tax for us New York residents (not amazon's choice...)
I digress.
I was initially going to buy the BD-P1500 just for it's price point, but was drawn to this model when I found out about the Netflix feature.
The unit was well packed (nice to see manufacturers getting more conscious about being "green" with packing).
The unit is smaller than I expected and seems sturdy.
Box contained:
Player with permanently attached cord
Remote with batteries (aaa)
One AV cable (RCA red/yellow/white)
User guide
The anynet+ feature is nice if you have other Samsung components. I have a Samsung TV and because I used an HDMI cable to connect, the TV and Blu-ray player "talk" to each other. The player turns the TV on automatically and switches it to the correct input which is a nice convenience.
NETFLIX! This feature is so cool! The picture quality was amazing. I have the player connected to my linksys router with a cable using the net port on the back. I suppose you could do this wirelessly with some extra components. You have to log into netflix and cue movies on your PC, and then you can watch them on your TV through the player. It works really well. Note that this feature requires a firmware upgrade (see below for my complaint about this...)
Picture and sound quality seems wonderful!
Two small quirks/complaints:
1) Load time: It takes a good minute or so for a blu-ray disk to load initially. Once loaded response time is great, but that initial load time is long
2) Firmware upgrade: I connected the unit to my router and went to setup to have it check for an upgrade and was told that I already had the latest firmware, which I know I did not. If you turn the player on and don't see the Netflix logo on the home screen, you probably don't have the latest firmware. I went to the Samsung website, downloaded an update file which I then had to burn to a CD. Putting the CD in the player then sucessfully updated the firmware. I am not sure why the net upgrade option didn't work, but I have seen other users complain about this online. A mild annoyance. The CD upgrade took about 5 minutes. It is also upgradable by USB using a flash drive.
All in all, I am very happy with this!
I digress.
I was initially going to buy the BD-P1500 just for it's price point, but was drawn to this model when I found out about the Netflix feature.
The unit was well packed (nice to see manufacturers getting more conscious about being "green" with packing).
The unit is smaller than I expected and seems sturdy.
Box contained:
Player with permanently attached cord
Remote with batteries (aaa)
One AV cable (RCA red/yellow/white)
User guide
The anynet+ feature is nice if you have other Samsung components. I have a Samsung TV and because I used an HDMI cable to connect, the TV and Blu-ray player "talk" to each other. The player turns the TV on automatically and switches it to the correct input which is a nice convenience.
NETFLIX! This feature is so cool! The picture quality was amazing. I have the player connected to my linksys router with a cable using the net port on the back. I suppose you could do this wirelessly with some extra components. You have to log into netflix and cue movies on your PC, and then you can watch them on your TV through the player. It works really well. Note that this feature requires a firmware upgrade (see below for my complaint about this...)
Picture and sound quality seems wonderful!
Two small quirks/complaints:
1) Load time: It takes a good minute or so for a blu-ray disk to load initially. Once loaded response time is great, but that initial load time is long
2) Firmware upgrade: I connected the unit to my router and went to setup to have it check for an upgrade and was told that I already had the latest firmware, which I know I did not. If you turn the player on and don't see the Netflix logo on the home screen, you probably don't have the latest firmware. I went to the Samsung website, downloaded an update file which I then had to burn to a CD. Putting the CD in the player then sucessfully updated the firmware. I am not sure why the net upgrade option didn't work, but I have seen other users complain about this online. A mild annoyance. The CD upgrade took about 5 minutes. It is also upgradable by USB using a flash drive.
All in all, I am very happy with this!
98 of 100 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best feature-set for the money, vastly improved quality control from Samsung
November 14, 2008
I went to the big-box stores ready to buy a new Blu-Ray(BD)player and figured I would make my final decision of either the Panasonic BD-50 or the Sony BDP-S550 once I got there, as these are the two most popular BD players that offer what I want. Analog outputs were a must for me, since my Onkyo receiver only has HDMI passthrough. But surprisngly the one that caught my eye was the Samsung BDP-2500 for $75 less than either of the other models. It seemingly offered every feature that I needed/wanted including 7.1 analog outputs, USB and ethernet ports and now had a firmware update available with the Netflix streaming "Watch-now" Service to boot, which was a feature that greatly interested me on the pricier LG BD-300, the only other player to offer this feature so far. So with a 15% coupon that the big-box store mailed me to thank me for my purchase of my Samsung LN52A650, I picked it up for under $300, not bad since retail was $500 on this machine under 2 months ago. My only other BD player that I have owned to date is my PS3, so I don't have a ton of experience evaluating BD player quality. But here are my early impressions; The Samsung BD picture is equal to if not slightly better than the PS3. Not only my own impression but 3 adult family members who have watched numerous movies on each player, on my TV, so that says something. But while BD quality is fairly close wit h a slight edge to the BDP-2500, where the BDP-2500 shines is Standard-Def(SD) movies. The upscaling is simply amazing. It is not even close, it simply blows away the PS3 in this category. For the technical types out there, this is due to the Samsung's use of the Reon HQV video-processing chip. The chip is critically-acclaimed in tech circles and is used in Denon and some Toshiba BD players. So if you feel you will continue watching your collection of standard-def DVD's, this machine scores big points here.
To address one of the other reviews that the buyer had issues with firmware updates. I have had no problem whatsoever with either the process of upgrading the firmware nor any issues with the player's performance after upgrading. I personally recommend using the USB upgrade method over the network and CD methods. After the upgrade, Netflix Streaming video worked very good, although it should be noted that the Netflix streaming system does not stream in HD quality at this point. It is similiar in quality to a standard DVD.At some point, I'm sure it will go to HD, but don't know when. It's just nice to have fairly future-proof player for when it does. I know that Samsung has had some issues with previous BD players such as the BDP-1200 and even the current BDP-1500, but from what I've read and experienced, this machine is a marked improvement and hopefully approaches the awesome quality of their LCD TV line.
To address one of the other reviews that the buyer had issues with firmware updates. I have had no problem whatsoever with either the process of upgrading the firmware nor any issues with the player's performance after upgrading. I personally recommend using the USB upgrade method over the network and CD methods. After the upgrade, Netflix Streaming video worked very good, although it should be noted that the Netflix streaming system does not stream in HD quality at this point. It is similiar in quality to a standard DVD.At some point, I'm sure it will go to HD, but don't know when. It's just nice to have fairly future-proof player for when it does. I know that Samsung has had some issues with previous BD players such as the BDP-1200 and even the current BDP-1500, but from what I've read and experienced, this machine is a marked improvement and hopefully approaches the awesome quality of their LCD TV line.
51 of 54 people found the following review helpful
By T. Seymour
I decided not to skimp and not buy one of the "cheapo" entry level bluray players after hearing how slow most were and also how most were stripped of inputs and other functions.After doing alot of research, talking with a friend who bought this bluray player, and after trying out several units in the stores themselves, i decided that the Samsung BD-P2500 was the best Bluray player features/quality vs. cost and i've been extremely happy with the player since the day i picked it up.Not only is the color,picture, dvd upscaling better than most other bluray players, it blows away the new Sony BD350 AND BD550.
One piece of advice.The BD-P2500 IS NOT for the novice or someone that doesn't want to spend the extra money(over a bargain/starter bluray player)for a Home Theater quality,profile 2.0 Bluray player.It has ALOT of features that require some learning to get to know how to use(
like the ability to upgrade the firmware with a usb 2.0 memory stick and pc.
One piece of advice.The BD-P2500 IS NOT for the novice or someone that doesn't want to spend the extra money(over a bargain/starter bluray player)for a Home Theater quality,profile 2.0 Bluray player.It has ALOT of features that require some learning to get to know how to use(
like the ability to upgrade the firmware with a usb 2.0 memory stick and pc.
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