Official Samsung BD-C5500 master owner's thread - Page 52

Once again, I'm apologise for asking about an off-topic item, but I'm looking for a service manual for the Magnavox VH8000, NOT a Samsung BD-C550. Thank you.

I've checked several factory parts distributors and some manual sites and found no manuals. In fact none of them even show any parts available except for an occasional remote control.

If this was produced as an "exchange model" then they may not have even written a service manual. (common situation with Sony and Hitachi) Repairs in this case may be limited to finding bad capacitors or substituting small fans. Drive units on brands/models that are available usually cost more than the original retail price.

The common choice is between multichannel PCM (audio decoded in the player), and "bitstream" (mostly used to allow Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA decoding to be done in a receiver/amplifier). The multichannel PCM option is required if you want to use any of the audio picture-in-picture-type features. The only advantage to "bitstream" is so you can see the sound formats on the front panel of your receiver/amplifier.

The Magnavox VH8000 is the first-ever Laser Disc player, sold from 1978 to 1980. (Yes, off-topic here, except that both machines play movies on laser-read discs. ) Even Sams Photofacts, which once sold a service manual for that model, no longer lists the "video disc player" category in their indexes. I am working with furchtbar via private messages now. Thanks.

Unfortunately, I didn't start doing Magnavox warranty service until 1981 and the LV players had been removed from automatic manual subscription by then.

Did they manufacture the unit or did it come from Panasonic like all of the VCRs?

The early Magnavox Laser Disc players were made by Philips. The first ones may have been made in the USA, and later ones were made in Belgium if I remember right. The next generation of Magnavox players were re-badged Pioneer-built machines, starting around late 1981 or in 1982.

Can someone please clarify something for me? I have this BD player and stream Netflix on it. According to Netflix, the video is 720p.

http://support.netflix.com/en/node/500#gsc.tab=0

Under "Subtitles & Audio", it says "None Available". Does that mean that audio is output as 2 channel stereo or does it mean that no data is available? I currently have this BD player connected via HDMI to a Samsung HW-E450 soundbar that processes Dolby Digital/DTS (not Dolby Digital+).

I want to update to a source that will stream Netflix at 1080p. I was looking at some newer model Samsung BD players (wife wants Samsung). The current player itself is fine when playing disks so I was also looking at getting a Roku 2 XS for streaming purposes instead of just replacing the BD player. I love the features of the Roku 2 XS but it apparently only outputs DD+ audio for Netflix. Since my soundbar can't handle that, it looks like I will only get 2 channel stereo. What I am currently getting audio-wise when streaming from my BD player is fine.

Ultimately, I want to upgrade to 1080p Netflix streaming while getting the same audio quality or better that I am currently getting. I apologize for drifting slightly off topic but does anyone know what my audio output would be when streaming Netflix through my soundbar with the BD-C5500, the Roku 2 XS, and any of the newer Samsung 3D BD players (BD-E6500, BD-ES6000, or BD-E5900)?

Sorry for babbling. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Just trying to help: You know that if your HD display's native resolution is 1080p, then it scales every incoming resolution to 1080p, right? I don't think you'll notice the difference with your 720p Roku vs a 1080p Roku. IMHO.

Thanks for the reply. Are you saying that I shouldn't notice a difference between video quality from my BD player when streaming Netflix (720p) and watching a blu ray movie (1080p)? If so, I definitely do.

Thanks for the link to the Netflix model support chart Doctego. Both my Blu-Ray players (Samsung BD-C5500) and Toshiba BDX2200) only support 720p and 2-channel sound according to the Netflix tables, but that's not a big deal for me. On both my TVs the combination of screen size and viewing distance are such that the standard charts say that I shouldn't be able to distinguish 720 from 1080, and that's true. Sure I can see a difference if I put my nose up to the screen, but I'm not watching from that distance. As for the audio, my AV receiver shows DD Pro Cinema and generates a reasonable facsimile of surround sound.

Sorry Doctego, about an hour or so after posting my reply, I realized I had mistakenly referred to "your 720p Roku" versus referring to your BD player's Netflix app at 720p. Just to be clear: I don't think you'll notice the difference between your BD player's Netflix app outputing 720p versus a 720p Roku or a 1080p Roku. The overall video quality of a BD movie shot in 1080p may be better, but the actual difference in the resolution detail between 720p and 1080p is hardly noticeable to the eye at the ususal viewing distance for your screen size. My Roku is a very early model and outputs up to 720p depending on the movie and the available bandwith along with 5.1 audio. Most of the time it provides an excellent Netflix 720p picture scaled up on my 1080p display as does my Samsund BD player's Netflix app. I would not buy a new Roku just because it can output 1080p vs 720p. However, if my old Roku were to bite the dust, then I probably would buy the newest 1080p Roku, but it really depends on how the newest Roku box is configured. Some newer Rokus have significantly fewer connection options and features compared to older Rokus. Again, one man's opinion.
Edited by Sgooter - 2/9/13 at 4:31pm

If what you're saying is true and my current BD player only outputs 2 channel stereo sound, that helps a lot. While I would love more, what I currently have is good enough. It sounds really good through my soundbar. If I ever decide to go with a Roku (or any other device that would only output 2 channel stereo sound), at least I know that I won't be disappointed.

Thanks for the clarification. I mistakenly omitted another issue with my current BD player. It doesn't have built-in wireless so I had to buy the dongle. For some reason, it takes between 7-10 minutes before it connects to my router. Once connected, it's fine. That annoyance is what led me to look at newer players with built-in wifi and that's where I noticed that my player only does Netflix in 720p.

I would love to see that chart about screen size and viewing distances if someone can provide a link. My LED screen size is 46" and my viewing distance is 13'. We have a long L-shaped couch with a chaise at the end so my wife typically views from 6-7'.

Lately I'm finding some movies on Netflix that won't play properly on the BD-C5500. At some point in the movie it stops and says "rebuffering", and it can't ever get past that point. On a PC or on my Toshiba Blu-Ray player (which appears to use the exact same Netflix client) I can resume playback and continue just fine, but the Samsung Netflix player will not proceed past that point in the movie. It has happened with half a dozen movies so far over the last few months. I've reported it to Netflix a couple of times, and made sure that they understood the issue on interactive chat, but nothing gets fixed. It's getting to be a bit annoying!

I've been having a problem playing BD's on this player. Namely, when I have a BD paused for an extended amount out time (long enough for the screen saver to pop up) and then try to resume playing, the device freezes up. The only way to play the movie is to restart the player. I have tried resuming the BD by pressing pause, play, and enter (the button in the middle of the directional arrows)...no luck.

Any thoughts?

Doubt that this is your problem, but I have to push the Play arrow twice, once to make the screen saver disappear, and again to actually start play. Since I rarely pause things that long I am always surprised that it doesn't start playing right away, so there is a brief pause between my clicks of the Play button.

Hello

I have some questions about this player, which I had for a while, but only recently started using for playing DLNA content over the network. I use Serviio as the DLNS source (no transcoding, just direct file sharing)

1. To my surprise, as I read in this thread, this player can play VOB files, even though they are not officially supported. And indeed, once I added some VOB files to my shared video folders, they became visible from the player. However, when I start playback of any VOB file, the player immediately says "Not Supported Audio Codec". After that message the video plays fine, but with no audio. Positioning in the video also works fine (rewind, forward, specific time). According to MediaInfo, all the VOB files I tried playing use AC3 audio codec. Needless to say, it should be supported. What could be the problem here?

2. I tried remuxing my VOB files to MKV format using mkvmerge utility from mkvtoolnix package (version 6.1.0). It creates an MKV file, which is also seen by the player. Moreover, the file plays perfectly fine, with both video and audio. There's no message about unsupported audio codec (even though audio codec remains the same - AC3 - go figure). However, when I try any sort of manual positioning in the video (rewind, forward, specific time), the playback immediately gets stuck. I.e. once I touch the button the frame immediately freezes and remains frozen indefinitely. It is not possible to resume playback. It gets stuck forever.

The player itself does not hang though. If I press "Return" button on the remote, it throws me back to the file list and I can start playback again (from the beginning, of course). What could be the problem here?

3. I have quite a few pre-made MKV files downloaded from the Net. They also play fine, but with most of these files the player originally refuses to support manual positioning - the positioning commands are simply disabled. (Note that this is different from problem 2. There's no freezing. Positioning commands are simply ignored by the player.) In order to fix it I have to remux these MKV files through mkvmerge with '--clusters-in-meta-seek' parameter. This always reliably fixes the positioning problem with pre-made MKV files. Once processed in this manner, such files play fine in my player with no problems of any kind.

Note that the positioning problem I describe in 3 is different from the one I describe in 2. The problem 3, as I said above, is easily fixed by mkvmerge with '--clusters-in-meta-seek'. At the same time I know of no fix for the problem 2. The aforementioned '--clusters-in-meta-seek' parameter does not help here. Every time I create MKV from VOB, the resultant file suffers from problem 2.

Maybe someone can suggest some solution for problems 1 and 2.

Thank you,
Andrey
Edited by AndreyT - 4/27/13 at 1:45pm

RE: 1 - Is there more than on audio track in the VOB? - Have you tried changing the file extension from .VOB to .MPG?

Thanks for posting this info AndreyT
I was looking for a solution to seeking while playing a mkv..
A couple of questions tho.
Do you have to add this option via 'add command line options' each time? or is there an easier way?

"I've been pretty happy with Netflix on the BD-C5500. The Netflix video quality from the Samsung player is excellent, and it's really convenient for me with a one-button Netflix startup programmed on my Harmony remote."

I am trying to create the one button Netflix startup on my Harmony remote. Could you share the steps it took. I have everything set but the command to get to Netflix. I now to the Blu-ray startup screen and can't get it to Netflix.

Thanks,

John

To get to Netflix you need to insert a delay of at least 10 seconds for startup, then issue Up, Right (to get to Netflix on the home page menu), then Enter. You can only do that at the start of a discrete Activity (Watch Netflix) since Harmony doesn't allow macros generally, but does allow a sequence of setup commands when starting an activity.

Specifically, I set up my Harmony Remote using the older web page at harmonyremote.com (not MyHarmony.com like the newer versions, which has less flexibility). Create the Watch Netflix activity, add the devices, set the power-up order to have the C5500 turn on first (for the startup time delay), then run the activity setup Wizard until you get to the final step "Review the settings for this activity". This is where you can add any number of additional setup commands for any device included in the activity, including a Pause of up to 10 seconds (I actually use 15 by inserting two Pause commands in a row, just to be sure that the C5500 is up and connected). After the pause, when the menu is on the screen, it's Up and Right to highlight Netflix, Enter to launch it. Make sure you keep the remote pointed at the unit for the final commands after the pause.
Edited by amesdp - 5/13/13 at 7:45am

Anyone else having issues playing Disney Bluray's after the most recent FW upgrade? My son loves Lion King and since the firmware updated a few days ago the disc won't even load any more. I know it's not the disc as it plays fine in other players and played fine before the update. Does anyone know if this is a common problem? Thanks

My player no longer seems to wanna play my blue ray discs. It either spins a lot and tries real hard and gives up or it freezes and skips and then gives up and ejects the disc. It plays regular DVDs fine... for now. Is it a lost cause?

Pretty much. Other Samsung BD owners have reported the same thing. My D6700 does it also. Usually, after two attempts, I shut it off, wipe the disc, and then turn it back on. That often does it, but sometimes it takes repeated tries. Samsung players are not known for their longevity.

Any other experiences with firmware release 1028 yet? As usual the Samsung release notes just say: "Improve specific disc's playback capability".

Kudos to Samsung for still releasing firmware updates for this 3-year-old model, but maybe we are at the point now where the ongoing changes to attempt to work around crazy new Blu-Ray disc copy protection schemes break as many discs as they fix.

In the GUI front for mkvmerge you can go to Muxing -> Add Command Line Options, and then in the dialog window that appears write --clusters-in-meta-seek as command line option, check the Save as default for new jobs box and hit OK. From this moment onwards the --clusters-in-meta-seek option will always be added automatically for all mkvmerge jobs executed through the GUI.

Thanks.
How do you add chapters to an mkv for this player? I tried a free app 'mkv chapterizer' and it works when I playback on a PC using VLC but not on the Samsung..

No chapter support for mkv or mp4 on the C5500 (e.g., like Handbrake can generate). It's ignored in mkv,, causes errors in mp4.

Thanks.. next question. Is there any way to copy an avchd to a flash drive so it will play & navigate with chapters?
Is there any way/container that will play via flash drive with navigation.?

I just sprayed a few blasts of canned air in it through the tray opening and it's doing a little bit better. Maybe a cleaning disc will help? Why would the player play DVDs but have problems with the BLUs?