Samsung Blu-ray BDP-1000 - First End User Reports - OWNERS ONLY! - Page 2

Please tell me you can turn off those Lights!!!

Darth:

Hijacking your thread to become the "official" Samsung player thread. You started off with some good pics, and it has avoided straying from the topic - which for the official thread - should remain focused on the player itself.

Added this to the first post:
Please keep this thread isolated to reports of the new Samsung Blu-ray player only. Questions and comments related to those reports are fine, but find a different thread if discussions head into off-topic territory.

Thread title edited and thread stickied.

Not my personal end-user review (yet!), but here's two from the wolly world of blogs:

Gizmodo
C|Net

Quote
"CNET's Dan Ackerman and I had also burned a BD-RE (Blu-ray rewriteable) disc of 1080p test clips from DVE Pro and other sources using the Sony VAIO RC310G and its Ulead BD DiscRecorder software, which is designed to create discs that can be played on set-top units such as the Samsung. Although the disc played fine on the VAIO using the InterVideo WinDVD software player, the Samsung spit it back as unplayable. Of course, with first-gen authoring software and hardware, the fault might not be the Samsung's."

Samsung couldn't read BD-RE SL? This is news.
Also the writer thought HD DVD was in MPEG4.

Thats great, but I wanted to know if you can turn of those big blue lights, not what you are doing so you don't see them. Thanks!

Question for you. Did the Samsung player include the Memento movie and a special demo disc that contained a few trailers, a Black Crowes concert?

Bill

find this odd, that after 36 responses for this thread offers very little if any discussion with regards to actual PQ for HD or SD-DVD. What gives?
One user can't even get a simple response about if you can even turn off the annoying blue light.

I recall a simular thread opened for HD-DVD and even for the first couple of end users they were discribing their opinon mainly about the PQ. Even if they only had SD-DVD.

I was tempted to order one from CircuitCity.com last night since I had a 10% off coupon, though I decided not go go through with it due to the fact that I have no idea when the thing will actually ship.

During lunch I decided to stop at a metro-Atlanta big box retailer (who will remain nameless) and what do you know? They have one Samsung Blu-ray player sitting on a high shelf (about 9 feet off the ground) above their TV's.

I paced around wondering if I should ask one of the sales guys to get it down for me, though I was concerned that they would say "We can't sell that until such-and-such-a-date"

So, I waited until the 3 sales guys were out of sight, boosted myself up using the base that the TV's were displayed on, and just BARELY slid the player down. Fortunately, I was nimble enough not to drop the thing or fall on my face.

Concerned that a manager or rep would notice the player and stop me, I held it on the side so the plain white bottom faced outward. I made a quick lap around the dvd players and movies hoping to find ANY Blu-ray title, though there weren't any out. I quickly proceeded to the front only to find 1 line open and a half-dozen people in line. I set the player down as not to reveal what it was (white bottom facing out, top facing the cash registers), waited an agonizing 5 minutes (thankfully they opened two more lines), paid, and walked to my car quickly but calmly.

I checked over my shoulder to make sure no one was chasing me... fortunately, they weren't. The player now sits in the trunk of my car and I have another 4 agonizing hours of work, then 40minutes of traffic, before I can hook it up.

Since I have a HD-A1, I am thinking about posting a quick video review/comparison on YouTube. Anyone interested?

"....During lunch I decided to stop at a metro-Atlanta big box retailer (who will remain nameless) ... I quickly proceeded to the front only to find 1 line open and a half-dozen people in line..."

Best Buy?

OK, so should I use the Sammy or the Toshiba to upconvert my regular DVDs.

Rafael

Well, I don't know if I would consider that gizmodo blog an actual "review," considering this quote:

If you have both. try them and see which you prefer....

Very much appreciated

To the owners:
Does it do variable speed (slo-mo) playback on the HD disks, and how about frame by frame advance? Does it skip to chapters flawlessly? I just want to know how basic DVD functions work other than just "play."

Moderator

STOP

before you post: are you providing Sammy BD user reports or directly related issues?

if no, do not post here

Any lockups or sound drops? Also, is there a way to check for firmware version?

Here are some important things I'd like to learn about the Sammy:

* Can it output a proper 1080p signal with real frame information from 1080p24 film-based encodings? (ie, no bobbing to "fake" 1080p???) Can this be set to 1080p24 in addition to 1080i60 and 1080p60?

* How does it's upconversion for SD material compare?

* Audio performance? Codec support?

Can the blue lights on the front panel be turned off?

Could be

Couple observations based off of a brief session with SD playback:

HDMI Disconnect:
Unlike the Toshiba HD-A1, disconnecting the HDMI cable will not cause the unit to stop playback.

Parental Control:*
Everytime that I turned Off the BDP-1000 with Invader Zim in the unit, my Parental Control would kick in, asking me for a password. If I failed the password (three times) then tried playback again, it worked without the Parental Control kicking in. If I turned Off the playe without the disc in, then put it into the unit after booting, no Parental Control Error.

Subtitles:*
The unit is always display subtitles, despite me not altering the "Automatic" setting on the unit. I have to cycle through the Subtitles each time I play a disc to get rid of them. Setting the unit to English Subtitles also did not help.

DVD+R DL Media:
Sevral discs would not load the Menu's correctly. Press Disc Menu would show "Menu" on the front LCD, but the video was frozen on the last image. However, the unit is not frozen. Simply press "Forward" and you will get to the proper menu. Rinse and repeat until you get into the actual film.

DVD MP3 Media:
- Navigationaly it is annoying. Unless I am missing something, there is no way to do a Page Up and Page Down through the window. This can make navigating a pain in the ass.
- However, they do allow you to make Playlists (which is nice).

*Added 4:32 PM

barhoram,

I can't see anywhere to turn off the lights. You can only Dim the LCD.

NemoZorro,

I did not see an option. Likely the codes which worked for the other Samsung units will work on the BDP-1000.

I have not run a full test on the upscaling capability, but it is on par with the Toshiba HD-A1 with my Incredibles tests (Chapter 2 has some nice stained glass which causes video errors in many DVD units, including the OPDV971H - my main machine).

I have note done a re-calibration of the display (Panasonic TH-42PX50U) to account for the Samsung yet, so I won't be making any formal posts about its upscaling capabilities until later (and most likely when I have it set up on the Optoma H78 projector).

EDIT for clarification.

Just received my Samsung. I have only played one SD disc so far (don't have any BD discs). My inital impression is good, the upconversion is excellent from what I've seen so far. I tested boot time by pressing the 'Open' button on the front with the player powered off and timed how long it took for the drawer to open (27 seconds), I then time from pushing the 'Close' button to when the first video began to play (25 seconds). This is not bad at all compared to my Tosh. A1 (open to drawer out time of 44 seconds).

For comparisons sake, my SD DVD player is a Krell Showcase which is a SUPERB DVD player, and at 480P it still beats the A1 upconverting, but my initial impression is the Sammy is slightly better than the Krell. Of course all of this is pretty much meaningless until I can get a BD disc in there.

Charles

Amir's impressions (as reported) were that the upscaling of SD material was visibly softer than the Tosh unit. It would be great if someone could directly compare!

Why would the MPEG decoder chip tell you anything about the upscaling capability?

--
Steve

Sorry, for some reason I posted the wrong information to my reply (what I posted was an entirely different conversation all together). Damned tabbed browsing. Edited post.

It sits in the trunk of my car at the moment. Need to either convince the wife to let me open it, or back it goes...

It is my understanding that the Samsung player is based on the Sony Reference design and will be quite similar an offering to what Sony has coming out later in the year. Has anyone else heard this?

Sony is using Pio's reference design,last time I heard. Samsung uses their own OPU and Broadcom 7411. Sony uses Sigma Design SoC and an OPU which doesn't support CD?

I watched about 30 minutes of a SD DVD (no BDs to try), compared to the Toshiba the picture was a disappointment. I guess it's possible that the TV needs to be calibrated for the Samsung but I did not recalibrate it for the Toshiba either.

The Samsung picture was not as sharp/detailed and the colors seemed off. It's hard to describe. With the Toshiba the picture seemed very natural, I remember thinking it was like watching a film. With the Samsung the picture seemed forced.

I'm sorry if this does not make sense. I will likely watch some more tomorrow and see if I can explain the differences better.

Gosh, I am glad I am not married. You work hard, you should have your toys. One guy on the forum made the comment to the effect she doesn't complain about the number of my toys, and I don't complain about the number of her shoes, new furniture purchase, new car she bought on impluse, etc.