Customer Reviews

Samsung HT-BD2ET Blu-ray Home Theater System

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

In terms of looks it's a pretty sleek-looking system (although a bit wide). The video and the sound are both awesome, in my opinion. For an "all-in-1", it's impressive. But there are major problems that make me regret buying it. Here's a few:

1) very long load times. It's taken 3 or 4 minutes for it to load a blu-ray disc.

2) will not play some blu-ray discs. It took several tries for it to play Dark Knight and Happenings. And it will not play The Best of Sound Stage at all, even with latest firmware.

3) the anynet+ feature is very flawed. It's supposed to work with other Samsung products (like my HDTV). But when it is turned on, I can only use the TV remote, I can't use the Blu-Ray remote (or its unique features). I ended up turning it off.

4) When first turned on, it looks for a disc to play, and if there isn't one, it automatically turns off. For some reason, I have to turn it back on again for it to stay on (we use it to play the sound from the HDTV).

Update: I have now had this for about 7 months. So, some updates from my previous review. It still takes a long time to load. Several minutes. But, I have learned to be patient, and my patience has been rewarded. Other than the few disks I mentioned before, it has played every other Blu-Ray we put in it.

My #4 complaint above turned out to be due to the Anynet+ feature. Once I turned off Anynet+, this problem went away. The Anynet+ feature really is far more trouble than it is worth.

I don't regret having the system any more -- as I said before, the video and sound, especially the sound, are amazing. The system can handle the most intense explosions and make you feel like you are really in the middle of it.

Because it is an all-in-1, I really enjoy running the radio during the day. Sounds great, (even if it is just radio).

Finally, I wish it was BD-Live compatible. But it's not.

We bought this system from Fry's Electronics for 599.00, without checking any reviews, and that made me nervous. We hooked up our system which was pretty simple and was delighted to find that it performed perfectly. I read the reviews on Amazon and I can say we have not experienced any of issues mentioned. We have used it for 4 days now and still have no complaints. The DVD's load faster than our old player and that includes Blu-ray. I would not hesitate to buy this product, it offers great sound, fantastic video and looks great. FYI: We bought the warranty with complete replacement for an additional cost of 89.00 so even if we do experience any of these problems we simply return it and get a new unit.

A Blu-Ray player is, ultimately, only as good as its firmware. On a five star rating system, I'd rate this player 3.5, but the firmware is a good, solid 1.

As several other reviewers have mentioned, Blu-Ray discs take three to five minutes to load. While that seems very long to me, this unit is my first Blu-Ray player, so I have no basis for comparison. I have no way to tell whether this load time is standard for Blu-Ray players or not - but if this is unusually slow, it could probably be addressed with a firmware update.

Which brings up the main reason that I rate this system so low. I'm typing this review at the end of December 2009. I've had problems playing two recently-released Blu-Ray discs - one of them would never display the disc menu at all, and the other would lock up as soon as I selected the 'Play' option from the menu. Normally, these kind of problems indicate that the player needs a firmware update, so I followed the procedure to update the firmware only to find that I already had the most recent version.

I called Samsung technical support. They verified that my firmware version was, indeed, the most recent update, released in March of this year, and that, based on the problem that I reported, my only solution was to wait for the next firmware update. I asked when the next update might be released, and was told that I could expect it in January, because firmware updates are released every three months.

Me: Wait...every three months? But it's been nine months since your last update.
Support: Yes, sir. But the next update should be in January, based on the release schedule.
Me: But you're obviously not meeting this schedule. If updates are supposed to be released every three months, you've missed three updates.
Support: We're sorry for the inconvience.
Me: This means that any disc that's been released in the last nine months might fail.
Support: Yes. But that will be fixed with the January firmware update.
Me: Which I have no confidence in receiving.
Support: We're sorry for the inconvenience.

When I continued to express my disappointment and frustration with this issue, I was transferred to Samsung's second-tier support. At this level, I was talking to an actual technician. While he understood the issue, he pretty much reiterated the "solution" that was offered by the front-line support representative. He repeated that updates are released every three months, despite my reminder that the last one was nine months ago.

As of the time that I'm writing this review, this player might fail completely on any disc released after March 2009. That makes the purchase of any new disc a $20 - $40 gamble. When I pointed that out to the second-tier support technician, his response was "Well, SOME of the new discs will play. It all depends on the features of the individual disc." True enough - but I have no way of knowing which will work and which won't. Why would I buy any new disc, knowing that it may not play?

Since Samsung has fallen so far behind their firmware release schedule, I honestly wonder whether they've abandoned support for this player. I've written to their corporate customer service group to ask that specific question. When (if?) I hear back from them, I'll update this review.

In the meantime, if you're looking for a Blu-Ray system, I'd recommend finding one with more recent firmware.


*** edit 1/31/2010 ***
I never did get a response from Samsung, but they DID release a firmware update for this player on Jan 22nd 2010, according to their support website.

Based strictly on the picture and sound of the system itself, I'd rate this system at three or four stars, but my experience with the EXTREME delay in firmware updates combined with my less-than-satisfactory experience with Samsung's customer support has me leaving my review at one star. This may not be fair - the equipment itself is fine for an entry-level home theater system, but many people who are considering a purchase tend to seek out the best and worst reviews as part of their evaluation. By leaving my rating at one star, I can pass the warning that, while the system itself is acceptable, the firmware updates may not be reliable.

*** edit 4/22/2010 ***
The latest: I replaced the Samsung player with an LG that streams Netflix and other online sources in January, before the latest Samsung firmware update. I saw on the Samsung tech support site that the update had released, but I didn't hook the player back up to install it. I was going to give the player to my sister next week, though, so I plugged it in yesterday to install the update.

The installation failed. When I tried the update process, the player displayed a message stating that the player already has the most recent firmware.

I'm officially done. I'll BUY a different brand to give my sister rather than handing her this thing.

Attractive unit, and it seems to do what it was meant to do. However, there are some problems...if Samsung could fix a couple of these with a firmware update, I would be satisfied with the product.

* first and foremost, *there is no equalizer settings, or even a simple bass and treble control with this product*! I thought that on a system that plays CD's and has an FM tuner built in, that at least there would be a bass/treble control. I've never seen a unit that plays any audio without this. So I can't get sparkling highs or deep lows with this unit. You can crank up the subwoofer a little, but that's a crude way of doing it. The treble cannot be emphasized. If they would just add the common "jazz/rock/classical" settings, I would be OK. I find myself pining for my old receiver that this replaced, that had an equalizer built-in. This shortcoming makes this unit a poor replacement for your old stereo system.

* in adjusting the gain for the speakers, you can't hear what you are doing as you are doing it. This makes adjustment an arduous process.

* discs take entirely too long to load. My old vanilla DVD player can have a DVD ready for watching in 1/3 of the time.

* the size of the unit is very odd, and I have to remove a door to my entertainment center and turn it on the diagonal to get the thing in and out. This, obviously, is time consuming and annoying. It is entirely too wide and too deep; I don't see why they couldn't have added two inches of height in favor of having a width that is the same as conventional audio components.

* nonconventional speaker connections. I couldn't use my original speaker wire, but had to use what is in the box. If you damage a wire, you'll have to do some wire splicing to use the samsung connector. Ugh.

Even with the above problems, I plan to keep the unit, but it does aggravate me every time I want to listen to a CD. I've spent too much time running wire to undo it all, and I'm tired of shopping for A/V equipment. It does sound nice [UPDATE: I'm revising "nice" to "average"] as a home theater so far, although I've still struggling to find a balance where the music/sound effects don't overwhelm the dialogue.

We have had the product since January of 2009. Started having problems in March with it not playing some BR dvd's. Samsung sent us the FW upgrade and that fixed things for a little while.

Towards the end of summer it again refused to play some BR movies so we called Samsung again and they said they would send us out the "newest FW upgrade" well--they neglected to look in our customer file to see that we had already received the ONE AND ONLY FW upgrade so we got a duplicate that was useless. We called Samsung and they said that a new FW upgrade hadnt been released yet and they had no timeline on when one would be.

About a month and a half later it started to lock up in the middle of movies, skip horribly, not load the menu screen, and make rattling and grinding noises. Called Samsung and sent it into their repair facility, CVE Inc. and they lost my unit for about a week and said that they didnt receive it--I told Samsung I had the UPS shipping conf # that they DID sign for it and then CVE found it...ironic.
Anyway, they "fixed it" sent it back. Still wouldnt play movies, locked up, skipped and made funky noises--called Samsung AGAIN and this time was fed up and talked to someone in their ECR (executive customer relations) dept to "resolve the issue". I told the guy that I didnt want to mess with it anymore and just wanted and exchange for a DIFFERENT MODEL or my $$ back--he said that I had to have it "repaired" twice before they would consider that--Ok, fine--sent it back to CVE, Inc.--they lost my unit AGAIN for 9 days and then when I threatened to call the BBB or Attny General they found it--again ironic. Then the rep made the comment that put the cherry on the top, "Maam, if we DO decide to replace your unit, it will be with a refurbished unit." Are you freaking kidding me--$700 so I can end up with someone elses broken down "fixed" unit---I DONT THINK SO!!

I am currently waiting to get my unit back. I was smart this time and marked my unit to make sure they were sending me mine back since they lost mine the 1st time I shipped it--I wanted to make sure I didnt get someone elses problem. In closing, DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT, IT SUCKS AND THE SAMSUNG SUPPORT SUCKS AND THEIR REPAIR FACILITY CVE, INC SUCKS.

This is my 2nd home theater and it is awesome. The sound is unbelievable and the blu ray picture quality is just what I expected. My husband set it up in no time. I am so pleased with this product.

Bought the item, set it up, and enjoyed the surround sound with HDTV. Tried using Blu-Ray, and one of the speakers started popping and crackling. Called Samsung's Help Line, was told it must be the receiver/Blu-Ray player since the popping/crackling didn't occur when I used my TV. Took the entire system back to the store and exchanged it. Set up the new system, everything worked great from the TV audio; tried to play a different Blu-Ray, then the entire sound system stopped working. I couldn't get sound to play through the speakers from the TV audio or even the systems "Sound Test". I do not recommend this product.

i bought this system in november. Played dvd great, did not play blue rays. Talked to tech support. Mailed it in before 1st week of decemeber to samsung to fix. Returned to me the first week in january after repairs and still does not play blue rays. Shipping caused scratches (poor packing on samsung part). Spent 4 hours on the phone yesterday explaining (complaining) that it does not work and i wanted it fixed. Mailing it back for repairs tomorrow.

Do not buy this product.

I bought the HT-BD2E over two years ago. This BR player has a great picture and sound, when it plays the disc. When I first got it, it would not play half the discs I tried. Did some research and the firmware needs to be updated occasionally to keep up with the different disc formats and such. But the firmware is nearly impossible to upgrade. It simply will not recognize the internet. I tried burning the firmware to a disc to update and that didn't work either. Somehow, after much frustration and effort, I got it to update the firmware using the LAN connection in early 2010 and it plays more discs now. But I tried to upgrade the firmware recently because I read there was a new version, and had no luck. It simply will not recognize the LAN connection. It is incredibly slow to load a disc, but have no experience with other players to know if this is simply due to the huge amount of data on the BR disc. This product has been nothing but a hassle and my wife wants me to throw it away and get another. But I paid $700 for it and am too stubborn to give up on it. So I just live with the frustration. I will never buy a Samsung product again. They should never had put such a piece of junk on the market, but having done so they should provide a replacement for everyone who ever purchased one.

Paired with my Samsung HDTV, the Samsung HT-BD2E home theater system in a box started off great. Eight months later, while watching a Blu-ray disc, the units audio signal became out of sync with the visual signal. Sent it back for repairs and it worked for another six months until the same problem resurfaced. This time it was out of warranty and the cost to repair was half the cost of a new unit. Regular DVDs still worked OK until the unit completely shutdown four months later. Piece of junk! To top it all off, Samsung customer service was pathetic. As much as I enjoy my Samsung HDTV, I will never buy another Samsung Blu-ray player or home theater system again.