The Official Samsung BD-P1500 Owner's Thread - Page 2

SONY players are very slow to load BD JAVA even S500 is very slow, Panasonic BDP30 is really fast in loading comparable to PS3. S350 will be the base model.

NO Fan, mine has been on now about 6 hrs and its warm on top.

I picked a BD-P1500 up at BB yesterday. I have a BD-UP5000 that I'm still waiting for Samsung to do me right by, and wanted to see what their latest player was like.

For me, the 1500 is very impressive. So much so that I'm considering selling the 5000 and keeping the 1500. Here's why:

1) Its fast. Loading BD discs is much faster on the 1500 than the 5000.
2) Bitstream Audiophile actually works . On the 5000, only 2-channel TrueHD is supported via bitstream, and nothing beyond DTS-Core via bitstream. I have a Denon 3808 AVR, so I don't need decoding on the player, but I would like my BD player to fully bitstream all the advanced codecs. The 1500 scores on this point, right out of the box.
3) No fan. The 5000 has a fan that can be heard 10ft back on the couch (when no content is playing). I've also seen some glitching on the 5000 when I had poor ventilation for it. The 1500 gets warm, but does not seem as affected by heat as the 5000.

Other 5000 owners or those considering it may be affected by other factors when comparing to players like the 1500:

1) SD upscaling. I have an Oppo 983, so I don't plan to ever use the 1500 for SD DVD -- the Oppo 983 is amazing at this, surpassing even the Reon-equipped 5000 in my judgement. I know that for many people, this will be a consideration, but for me, it is not.
2) HD-DVD support. I don't own any HD-DVD's, so losing that capability that the 5000 has really doesn't affect me. All my hi-def disc content comes from Netflix and Blockbuster, and they are all BD now.
3) Profile 1.0/1.1/2.0. I have no interest in BonusView (profile 1.1) or BD-Live (profile 2.0), at all. I just want the disc to play, and don't care about extras. From what I read, even a profile 1.0 player will be able to play a BD-Live disc's title track, so I think the profile politics is a bunch of BS .

My plan is to continue to eval the 1500 until my 30 days is up, then decide whether to keep it or not. My decision will be driven purely by whether the rumoured 5000 firmware update is out, and whether it enables bitstream 5.1 TrueHD and DTS-HDMA. If it does, I'll probably return the 1500 since I don't think I could get enough of my initial investment out of the 5000 and with the addition of full bitstream capability, it would make more sense to keep it.

My $0.02...
-shoek

My walmart here didn't have it, but BB did and i was able to use a 12% off coupon. Probably could have shaved off another $10 or so but I didn't want to wait till Walmart stocked it.

My local Wal*Mart didn't have any on the shelves although I asked and they had one left in the lock-up. She asked if I'd be interested in it and I politely said yes. So far I have only tested bitstreaming TrueHD (Audiophile) and it worked like a champ.

The lack of a fan is great but it's so light I was afraid to sit my TiVoHD on top of it and it's not even heavy! Also the display can be dimmed but I would like to be able to completely turn it off (not that it's bright by any measure).

So I picked one up the other day--my first Blu-ray player. For the most part I've been very happy, but tonight I was getting a strange glitch while watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The picture would sort of lock up/skip. The player was making an interesting noise like it was trying to access the disc. These skips are completely random and unrepeatable.

I don't want to sound any alarm bells because it could just be a defective disc. I've had no other problems with any of the other Blu-ray discs I picked up. Might also have been heat related because the player had been going for awhile and was a little warm even in a well ventilated area. I am heading out of town for a few days, but I'll investigate more when I get back.

Anyone else have a similar issue now or with a past player?

Dave

I'd like to hear more about the SD upconversion. Has anyone run any benchmark scenes or tests?

Thanks,

I tried watching Black Hawk Down with the lossless PCM soundtrack...no sound. I wasn't getting any menu audio, either. I've watched other movies with the lossless PCM, and didn't have any problems.

Mine played fine on the BD-P1500. I will say it doesn't have the quietest drive for random access. However it seems fine when playing the movie.

I was impressed with the A30 on upconversion, so you are saying that the 1500 has better upconversion than the A30?



I am also looking for SD-DVD upconversion. I just bought an Oppo 980H which is a nice machine for SD-DVD's and use my BD30 for Blu's. But if I can return the Oppo for a full refund and sell the BD30......I would love to have 1 machine do both.

Have you (for the rest of us) compared your BD-P1500's DVD upscaling to the benchmark abilities of your Oppo? It would be much appreciated!

I have been asking the same thing on multiple boards about the SD-DVD upconversion and nobody can really answer. One poster above says that it is on par with his A30, which is a good thing. I would love to have 1 player to play BD and SD-DVD.

I did some fairly quick comparison on a SD DVD we watched last night. I decided to use the 1500 to watch the movie. The 1500 is set for 1080p. About 5 minutes in, I was feeling like the image was a bit on the "soft" side, even for DVD. I stopped the movie (wife was pissed) and put it in my HD-A35, which I usually use for SD DVD set to 1080i. The A35 was sharper with slightly better detail. I did not switch the 1500 to 1080i to compare in that mode, but 1080p was not what I consider acceptible for DVD upconversion.

Good thing it's so good on Blu-ray and I already have a good upscaling DVD player.

Thanks Robert, am I better off sticking with my Oppo 980H and BD30 combo of players than going the route of just getting the BDP1500 to do both? I had an A30 at one time and liked it's upconversion.

Well, the only real advantage the 1500 has over the BD30 for Blu-ray is the it can be updated to Profile 2.0. This is assuming you are bitstreaming audio to a HDMI 1.3 receiver. The 1500 does do TrueHD decoding, but still has to be HDMI for multichannel.

I have no personal experience with the Oppo 980, but I do know their reputation and I'm fairly certain that is a better DVD player than either the BD30 or 1500.

So, yeah, there's your answer.

Finally our local BB have them in stock, they have 1 in display (not plug to any tv) and 1 more in a box. I will find out tonight if it is anything like my bd30 the one that I returned last month. I was originally waiting for s350 since Robert G, gave a very convincing and positive review I decided to buy the unit.

Please post your impressions here. I will be interested to see how another former BD30 owner likes this new Samsung.

Please, please, to all of us with the great dilemma to got for a new gen Blu-ray player or the Oppo 983 (which none of us must forget is a great player for a dying format), could you do some proper tests against your Samsung BD-P1500 about the Upconversion issue?
We will appreciate that too much.

I had a 30 and replaced it with the 1500. The 1500 is sleeker, faster, has no dropouts with true HD and has no annoying bright blue light. Both remotes are awful but I think the 1500 is a much better buy than the 30 and $150 cheaper as well.

I just bought mine today and when I hooked it up via component (No HDMI cable yet) the menu image was real shaky/jittery and then the menu screen got kinda distorted at the top right side?

My Luck Sucks! Do you think the HDMI cable might fix this or should I return to Walmart?

give a good monoprice HDMI cable a try first. If that doesn't work, return, return, return...

Just got this player today from walmart. I drove 1 hour each way to get it. It replaces a sharp blu-ray which was a good machine for me until i got an integra 9.8 processor. Since i got the processor i have been dying to hear the high res audio through my system. Long story short the samsung is fantastic. When i hit the eject button the door magically opens almost instantly. That alone is almost worth the price of admission. I also own 3 HD players and have used a sony bd for a whioe and none of them are nearly as fast powering up, ejecting or loading as the 1500. As far as Dts hd and dolby true are concerned from the bried time i have spent watching a few disks i have to say that there really is a substantial difference from dolby digital.
For the price at walmart this machine is a steal. I was hesitant to buy a samsung because of all the poor reviews of their past machines but the 1500 seems absolutely rock solid.

I played some of bluray disc with sammy 1500 I noticed right away that the loading time is quicker compare to the other SA player I think the boot time is faster than the bd30, PQ wise compare to bd30 they are the same I am glad I returned my OB bd30 and got this one instead brand new for the same price (349). I watched about 10 minutes of this bluray movies 300, SAW IV, FANTASTIC FOUR, LIVE FREE OR DIE PotC and the sd dvd movies I tried is rush hour 3 and jurassic park III (I tried old movies to make sure I like the upconversion) with the bluray disc all movies looks amazing I watched all of this too when I got my bd30 and I know that bd30 is great player and I think sammy 1500 is right on the same level of bd30 one thing that I like more with 1500 is the upconversion it does a great job with the sd dvd I tried. And there is way to go back when you press stop just press the menu in the remote and click on video and it will bring you back where you stopped. I did not try any Bonus view yet. Setting is easy. And does dts hd ma 5.1, 7.1 and truehd it feels good seeing those audio codecs lit up gain in my Onkyo receiver. So for those who are waiting for the s350 or for those who just bought their bd30 and still have a window to return it and save some money I telling you, you will not get disappointed with sammy 1500 this is only my suggestion please don't make a big deal out of this suggestion. This is a steal for the 348.00 WAL-MART although I got mine with BB I still got it for the 349.00 by getting qualified with hd premier advantage plus I was able to use my giftcard of 50.00 so total of 300.00 for me. I am very impressed with this 1500 once you powered on and oh try to press eject to power on the tray comes out really fast, definitely faster than my bd10a. it is faster than any SA standalone player I think. The one that amaze me also is once you eject a bluray disc and put in another bluray disc in a few seconds the FBI WARNING comes out right away I don't know if someone else notice that. Like I said above I tried about 10 minutes of so for every movie I mentioned above. 300 looks really really good and sounds really good with truehd. I am very very happy with this purchased I hope I don't experience any problem down the road. I will closely watch this thread and check problem reports so I encourage every owner to chime in if you noticed something unusual. This unit does a superb job in both bluray and sd dvd. I would highly recommend it, to be honest this unit is very light I don't know if that is good or not but who cares as long as it can deliver PQ and AQ.

NOTE:

My display in my dedicated hometheater is only mits hd1000u 720p/1080i and chooses 1080i for the movies I mentioned above projecting it on 106" screen. That is the same thing when I had my bd30. I am yet to connect this to my TH46pz80U 1080p panel in our bedroom.

Could you tell as some more about the upconversion issue?.
Are you able to compare the Sammy against the acclaimed Oppo 983?

I'm considering upgrading to this player but I have a question for those of you owners out there. One really, really annoying problem with my BD-P1000 is that if it is turned on without the TV on, or without the receiver on it throws it's self into 1080i mode and will not flip back to 1080p automatically, you need to reset it manually. Does the 1500 reset to 1080p automatically when it detects a 1080p TV connected?

How does the BD-P1500 handle Hi-rez audio through optical, does it convert it down to DD 5.1, DTS 5.1 or DD 2.0?

I don't even see it listed on Walmart's site.

EvlAsh I can't answer your question entirely (I don't have the player yet), but I can tell you that the lossless audio codecs will always be "down-converted" to standard Dolby Digital or DTS when using optical connections. This is done because optical and digital coaxial can't carry enough bandwidth for Dolby True HD,DTS HD Master Audio or Uncompressed PCM.

As far as to whether it will be 5.1 or 2.0 I can't say. Hope this helps you out some.

Dont have Oppo 983 but I do have a2 and a30 and the sammy 1500 right there does a very good job upconverting also, I tried the rush hour 3 and jurassic park 3 both old movies at first when I saw the FBI WARNING I was disappointed because it is soft and kind of not upconverted but once the movie started playing you could see the big difference from FBI WARNING to the movie itself. I took some photos from both bLURAY and SD DVD movies but they too big files so could not upload it I will have to check my digital camera's resolution and try again uploading tonight.



I am connected via hdmi and I will try this tonight.

NOTE:

My display in my dedicated hometheater is only mits hd1000u 720p/1080i and chooses 1080i for the movies I mentioned above projecting it on 106" screen. That is the same thing when I had my bd30. I am yet to connect this to my TH46pz80U 1080p panel in our bedroom.

Maybe someone else have a 1080p display that could give more details in picture quality. As for the audio quality all I can say is this unit handles the dts hd ma, truehd and pcm very well connected to my Onkyo 705 or maybe safe to say that my Onkyo does a superb job decoding the advanced audio codecs in the sammy 1500.