Samsung BDP1400 Disussion Thread - Page 322

OK, so what does the 1400/1500 offer that the Sony S350 doesn't and vice versa?

Seeing how they will both be the same price come Black Friday

I dont think the 1400 offers anything that the s350 doesnt, unless you want to count the long load times and stupid 5 minute pause issue here

The s350 does everything the 1400 does - same bitstreaming support (all codecs) as our 1400, same decoding support (all but DTSMA) and has 5.1 analogue outs. It then adds profile 1.1 (and i think 2.0 once you add a USB stick for memory, though not sure if it also needs a FW update to enable 2.0 features?) and also should load discs faster and has a quick start up feature to power on faster as well. Plus it isnt made by Samsung which many in this thread would consider to be a bonus!

That said, my 1400 has been flawless so far, and im not interested in PiP/bonus features etc - just interested in watching the main movie, and bitstrewaming the codecs to my 705. So i wouldnt bother upgrading at this point, but thats also because the price of the s350 runs $400 AUD over here... if it was $200 it would be pretty tempting though (and move the 1400 to the bedroom) - Id want to find out just how much faster the s350 loads discs and allows me to pause more than 5 minutes, first though.

My parents actually just bought an s350 so at some point ill have a play with theirs and see what it's like


The 1500 would be very similar, though i dont think it is profile 2 but may have a promised FW update... though after our experiences with 1400 FW updates and in Australia at least it was promised it would get a 1.1 update which never eventuated, id be wary of trusting Samsung to make good on FW promises, particularly in any timely fashion, and particularly being in Australia as ours comes AFTER the US version normally as well (if it ever does!)

The s350 does not do slow mo or frame advance and that was one of the big reasons I opted for the Panasonic BD35. Also because the BD35 will read DVD RAM.

I'm still thinking you missed my point... you're asking, on a Samsung thread, if a sony product is better Seems to me that you should do the homework by going to the Sony thread, and more importantly, compare the sales brochures for each model that you are considering

I am a satisfied 1400 owner It plays all the BDs I throw at it. It has not-exactly-infrequent firmware updates that I get via ethernet. I have absolutely no knowledge of the Sony 350, and minimal knowledge of the Samsung 1500.

I think its a valid thing to post in here, considering he is also a 1400 owner and looking for anyone who may have upgraded to a newer gen player and/or is considering the same things. What better place to find out if people are "jumping ship" from the 1400 than to ask in the 1400 thread itself?

Dont get me wrong, i do also think people need to read the other threads and do their own research on features etc, but surely its a valid conversation topic to compare this player to others.

I don't think you have to wait that long. 192 bux plus free shipping now, here:

http://www.macmall.com/macmall/searc...s&id=223354848

search for MacMall Part#: 7529079

I think upgrading from the 1400 to the Sony 350 is worthy of a serious consideration and a strong contender. It is prudent that you understand your needs out of your new player, the features and so forth, e.g. 5.1 analog vs. 7.1. and also if DVD upconversion PQ is important to you or not.

I'm just excited the prices of good name brand BD players are finally dropping to something reasonable...

I'm missing the point everytime you mention another Samsuk product!

I hear you buddy. Can't complain about the 1400 itself, just the Samsung Custome Don't Care, Don't give a ratass attitude department. That is why the upgrade for Barney from the 1400 a reasonably price BD player (<200 bux, <149 bux desired) that meets most of, if not all, of Barney's requirement. #1 criteria, Not another Samsung product!

well looks like ive jinxed myself as ive just encountered the first movie my 1400 has problems with. "Doomsday" would not work - it took ages to load the menu which was just chunky/laggy as - the player was so bogged down trying to run the damn menu that it wouldnt respond to remote commands etc. It took literally a couple of minutes of chunky/slow menu animations to even display the PLAY SCENES SETUP etc menu items, but then it wouldnt let me select any of them. I also tried pressing play chapter skip etc o nthe remote and it just didnt do anything. ewven pressing eject took a good 30 seconds before it even decided to eject the disc. Took it back to the video store and tried it in their PS3 there - it loaded in seconds and the menu ran smooth as silk, was able to select the menu items and the movie played fine.

Im still on FW 1.8 on my 1400 because 1.9 hasnt been released in Australia yet. It would be interesting to see if you guys in the states on 1.9 have issues with Doomsday or not.

I have loved my 1400 up to this point as it's been flawless for many months, and more than 50 blurays... but now to encounter a situation that is possibly fixed by FW if it ever comes out, but more than likely just due to the POS processing power of the player i can see how other people who have had problems for whatever reason (unlucky to get a dud unit out of the box, or encountering new movies that dont work until a FW upgrade) have been quite frustrated It's funny - we seem to be getting new releases on BD a fair bit quicker on Australia these days than in times gone by, so perhaps i have been isolated from the newer discs not working until FW upgrade is avaialble, as by the time the movies are out here, the firmware is also out. But sometimes we go months after a US firmware release before the Aussie version comes out, if we ever even get it. I think there was a period there where you guys had 3 releases and we didnt get any, were still on 1.04 or 1.05 then finally jumped to 1.8

Its funny all it takes is this one incident now im seriously considering getting a new player

If I jumped ship, I'd not be reading posts on this thread... that was my reasoning. If he has a 1400 and if he wants info about a Sony 350, then it's completely logical to expect that info on the Sony 350 thread, no??? I actually don't care if he posts here, I was trying to get him closer to what he wanted, and to get him to take a bit of personal responsibility for getting his info...

try cleaning the doomsday disc. i've been able to play everything including the new bond blu-rays on my 1400 with fw 1.8; but first, i clean them by fogging with breath and wiping gently with clean, very soft, quilted paper towel. seems to have helped. so far.

I am a 1400 owner so I posted my question in this thread. I wanted to find out from other 1400 owners who possibly had first hand experience or even owned a 350 if they considered it a worthy upgrade. I suppose I could have looked at the data sheets and compaired both or went to a store and looked at them side by side but I decided to post a question in this forum as I see there are many knowledgeable BR owners who have hands on experience. I suppose I should have realistically posted this in both threads as it pertains to both BR players....but wouldn't that be considered cross posting?!?

Anyways, I've had my 1400 for 6 months and have not had an issue with it. Saw the $180 price tag of the 350 and was interested. Does the 350 have a better upconverting chip than the 1400/1500?

One of the members here (Lausbach) owns a 1400 and did own a 350 too. I think he said that he returned the 350 in exchange for the 550 because he wanted the analog outputs. Maybe he will comment on the comparison when he reads the thread.
Personally, I have no first hand knowledge of the 350, but I do hear through the grapevine that the new Sony players, as well as the new Panasonic players, are very good units.

Larry's said he's vacationing in the big gulley in AZ, remember?

I think he mentioned to me that Sony wasn't very "understanding" in his request to return his 350 for a 550 and still keep his 150 bux rebate. He wanted 7.1 analog versus the 350's 5.1 and the ability to decode everything, including master audio.

With the economy the way it is, I agreed with Larry that the company like Sony should be a little bit "lenient" in consumer requests.

Better is very subjective. Fact is the 350 and 1400 has the same SoC made by Sigma Designs, SMP-834xxxx some number Rev C. The 550 thread is discussing it's chipset and outdated info points to the same Rev C chipset.

If all is true, then I don't expect the Sony's to be better than our 1400 at the upconversion of DVD's PQ department. Again "better" is very subjective, and I hope it's not the same chipset on the 550.

I'm pretty sure it was confirmed that the S350/S550 uses a NEC's MC-10068F1 chip not a Sigma chip.

brotha from downunda, I thought I had done a 1400 review on Doomsday. Musta got wiped out with the last AVS Forum matrix glitch? No issue with Doomsday on 1.8? at the time. Doomsday includes all 3 BD regions or just a different region between the US (1) and the Australian/Asia (3) discs?

Probably need to ask Samsung for a FW fix?

what chart are you looking at?

I do remember that buddy, but since he didn't put that in the public eye, then neither did I.

This is what I gather after following the S350/S550 owners thread. Also Blu-ray.com updated the info for these players. Before they listed the Sigma chip in question and now they list NEC's solution.

Hope you right buddy. Seriously, that site you mentioned had the 550 with the Sigma Designs SoC just last week.

This UK is what I'm been following. Needless to say, and like I jus' said, "outdated" info big time.

http://www.idoblu.co.uk/page2%20Blu-ray%20Players.html

Barney, I just did a quick & dirty view of Polar Express 3D BD... the 3D sucks (it's the RED/BLUE type, not the polarized type), at least in the first few minutes. Are you planning to do a review???

my rental subscription ended last week with the 1408 boomoo . also unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, it's Barney's family HD DVD week . Monday and Tuesday was disc 1 and 2 of Battlestar Gallactica . Wow! Saw the 2-3 hour DVD and now just getting back into with the HD DVD and that's one fantastic episode (season 1).

Anyhoo, I would highly likely do the Journey to the Center of Earth 3D boomoo technical review in a week or two. I'm more in excited about next month's release of Wall E and December release of Narnia: Caspian Prince (7.1 surrounds). Can't wait!

Polor Express, I think I got that on HD... maybe? Was the 3D boomoo version that different and boomoo collection worthy?

Oh man!... I can't wait for Wall-E either. I went to see it in the theater and had to leave after the first 10 minutes because of a family emergency .
I am a HUGE Pixar fan! Shhhh, don't tell anyone that I'm 35 and still watch cartoons. I just tell everyone that the wall of animated movies are for the kids .
Prince Caspian should be pretty darn good too. I haven't seen it yet.
Wall-E is a "must buy on release day". Narnia... the wife will probably rent that in SD and I'll buy the Blu version later.
...more animated fun... don't forget about Kung Fu Panda

yeah i tried cleaning it both with breath fog, and hot water - it seemed to run the menu a little better but still very chunky and impossible for the player to accept any commands to play the movie etc. The problem really seemed to be the 1400's piss poor processing power couldnt handle the menu which is this spinning city scape thing, with video grabs from the movie playing on all the sides of the thing as it's spinning. Its probably one of the more elaborate menus ive encountered. Maybe the disc being dirty doesnt help things, but I took it back to the video store and they popped it in their PS3 and it ran beautifully smooth... perhaps its a case of the PS3 being more forgiving of a blemish or dirty disc, but whatever the reason is, I am not going to be too happy if it is even slightly likely that ill get a movie home only to find it wont play in my 1400. Admittedly this is the first occurence, but after having 60+ successes this is earth shattering and im now going to worry EVERY time i get a disc, if it will play or not.

It's quite funny actually, my girlfriend was actually quite disappointed by it too - previously when id mentioned there were new gen players coming out but didnt have alot more features than what we already had, so we probably wouldnt bother upgrading yet... she actually rang me today saying she'd rung some stores and got some prices on a Sony S550 when it is released here soon... I told her we probably could get by with the S530 so she wants to get one this weekend. Now it's actually ME saying i dont know if we should spend $400 on one right now


Yeah i did search for Doomsday in this thread, was only 4 hits back in June or so, so I dunno - when was it actually released over there?

So Barney do you remember if your 1400 struggled to play the menu smoothly? I will have to find out if our Region B release is different to Region A. I ended up swapping it out for a regular DVD version and thought the movie was very good Very MadMax like, mixed with 28 Days Later etc hehe

I like the pixar stuff too, and never got to see Wall-E so that should be good. Though i imagine it will still be a while before it is released over here

On the Prince Caspian front, i must say it was a total let down when we saw that at the cinema, though perhaps its just a personal taste thing? That said, I quite liked the first movie, and had read all the books when i was a kid... maybe thats why i liked the first movie as it was a reminder of the series, but then when you get down to it, it is kind of a kids movie (not in a good way like Pixar stuff though!) and I was not impressed at all by Caspian. Interested to hear what others think - im not sure if it was a bad movie, or i just like the first Narnia for the novelty factor

Comfirmed!!!

Blu-ray insider kjack (who works for Sigma Designs) took the cover off and took some pictures. He is the person who seems to keep track of all Blu-ray players at blu-ray.com website and had them update the info.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...5#post14960425

post with pictures:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...7#post14960747

Only viewed 5-minutes so far... I think it's better in 2D on my 52" Sony. I was hoping you'd try it out on your ankle-biters to see if they thought the 3D was cool... I'm not too excited by it. I actually saw some 3D porn in San Francisco in 1978 that had better "popping out of the screen" stuff . Heck, even Michael Jackson's 3D movie in Disneyland was better... but that was the polarized-type glasses 3D, not the RED/BLUE glasses 3D.

I just watched Journey to the Center etc. BD. Kind of a dumb flick, but fun parts (not as good as Patton ). It's on the way back to Netflix.

Smarty, your secret's safe with me I'm a lot older than 35, and my favorites of my collection are the cartoons too (Monsters, Inc., Ice Age, any of the original Disneys though Dumbo is prob the fave there)

Polarized 3D with the shutter glasses is the ONLY way to go.
Red/Blue 3D is dead, and should remain dead.
Warner Brothers, what is wrong with you?! First you KILL HD-DVD, and now you're trying to push this FAKE 3D stuff at us. Disgraceful...