BD-UP5000 Universal Player Samsung [OFFICIAL OWNERS THREAD] & FAQ - Page 396

Not exactly all recent...

But I've recently watched the Family Guy Trilogy, Moulin Rouge, and American Beauty without any problems.

The Trilogy, at least, is recent... and two of the Blus in it are new releases (one entirely new + one new to Blu).

Watched Micmacs without issue last evening. It's a Sony Classic Pictures release and acts all Sony, but WB is also mentioned on the label. I highly recommend this movie. It's Jeunet, so of course it is odd, but not disturbing like City of Lost Children. It's French with English subs, and they talk fast and there is a lot going on so you have to pay close attention to what is happening and not everything they are doing is outright explained as Jeunet can be light on important dialogue opting instead for the audience to get what is going on by the action not the words. Surroundings and establishments more familiar to the French audience adds to the confusion for Americans like me that speak little if any French. This is one movie that could benefit from a good English dub. I might have to rent it again and watch with the commentary. I wanted to get it back to the store to get my queue rolling again.

Makes me wonder if Delicatessen is out on blu yet? I don't think so? EDIT: looked it up, did not know it was out, in the queue now.

Good to hear about Moulin Rouge and American Beauty. The latter is in my queue and the former will be one of these days (I still have 2 open copies of it on DVHS that I have not previewed and will be burned out on that movie after watching them).

Thanks for the suggestions. Powering off/on the AVR or unplugging/plugging the HDMI cable would certainly have been faster than powering off/on the 5k!

Doug

I forgot if I mentioned that I watched the Back to the Future Trilogy without issues. Sorry if I already posted that, but they were good

Also, I watched Futurama Volume 5 recently as well without issues.

I happy to report I've had no issues with any of my HD-DVD'S and BLU-RAY'S after the 1.6 upgrade. God...I love this player Watching King Kong and it never looked better. I saw the blu-ray release and thought it did not hold a candle to the hd-dvd version. This was one of the first movies on hd-dvd and is still top notch compared to some of the newer releases. Avatar was listed as ref. but so does most CGI type movies.

I just bought another BD-UP5000 on Ebay for $158. My original BD-UP5000 had no HDMI output. My question now is does the BD-UP5000 now support all of the new audio formats since doing the 1.6 firmware update or are there some that it still does not support. I was looking at a Sony BDP-S570 for $148 and it looks like a real nice player that supports all of the latest audio formats. I don't have a new receiver yet so I can't really check to see if all of the latest audio formats work once I receive a BD-UP5000 with a working HDMI output.

I've found that you can update from any old version to any new version. You can also update from a newer version to an older version. I've had no problems doing the firmware updates except when updating to 1.2. When I did the 1.2 update after a couple of hours it was still processing the update. I finally had to pull the power plug to get it to stop. When I restarted the player it seemed to work fine and had completed the 1.2 update. I just updated to 1.6 from 1.3 with no problems. As Mr. Kludge told me the firmware updates replace 100% of the old firmware and that's why you can go back to an older version or go from 1.1 to 1.6 with out any problems. I think there was a bug with 1.2 firmware as I tried two different discs that were from two different downloads and both of them would not stop doing the update after several hours and I had to pull the power plug to get it to stop.

Can anyone tell me about their experience with upconverting DVDs with the BD-UP5000. Since my HDMI hasn't been working on my BD-UP5000, I've been unable to upconvert DVDs using the componet video outputs. I do have a Panasonic DMR-EZ28 that upconverts to 1080p and a Toshiba HD-A2 that upconverts to 1080i. While the improvement using these two is noticeable, I've been disapointed overall. I'm hoping once I receive my new BD-UP5000 with a working HDMI output I will see a big improvement in the upconversion of DVDs.

Watched Robin Hood this week and endured multiple audio drop-outs. I naturally came back to this thread to see if this had been previously noted. I found mention several pages back in late September and early October about this movie as well as Iron Man 2. Most of the subsequent discussion focused on Iron Man 2 though.

I wrote down the timecode values of four of these audio drop-outs. They occur (viewing the Theatrical Version) at 00:04:40:13, 00:05:41:20, 00:06:53:22 and 00:08:09:16. All are at shot changes and were repeatable.

I decided to try experimenting with the player menu settings. Under Display Setup I set 'Movie Frame (24Fs)' to On. I played the same 3 1/2 minute section and there were no audio drop-outs. Browsing through this thread, I couldn't find any prior discussion of interaction of audio problems with 24p video settings.

I would be very interested if anyone would be willing to try to duplicate these results by toggling the Movie Frame (24Fs) setting and see if it results in alternately introducing/eliminating audio drop-outs playing movies with DTS-HD MA audio via HDMI.

(My player firmware version is 1.6, resolution set to 1080p, Audio set to Bitstream (Audiophile), HDMI connected to Yamaha AVR then to Samsung plasma.)

The 5k will decode everything except for DTS-HD and I believe that includes both HD-HR and the HD-MA variety. Under any audio option without external decoding you will end up with essentially the core DTS 1.5 stream. If you choose PCM or DTS re-encode the 5k will decode, but if you set it to bitstream your receiver SHOULD pick up the stream and decode for you. It has been a while since I have tried that and haven't had a SP/DIF hooked up from this player in quite some time.

Good call on the new unit. You should be able to use the loader from your old one as a spare and the main and front boards, power supply and remote as well.

This is due to the loader update and is normal. I don't think I ever tried to go back to 1.2 once 1.5 and 1.6 released. I had before to try to get the UFO Showtime HD-DVD to work, but that was fixed in 1.6 so a moot point. Sammy updated the code for the loader in 1.5 (which remains the same for 1.6) and my guess is that the older updater does not know what to do with it since the new version is a lower number than probably what 1.2 loaded. I never kept track of the loader firmware versions, but I run into may different ones when I test loaders. Some of the older code still works ok, others yield either no HD or no BD depending on the player firmware/loader firmware combination. I think I recall the new loader I installed in my main backup machine #3 having code that prevented HD-DVD playback, until I flashed it with either 1.5 or 1.6 again to get the loader working again (I forget what was out when I rebuilt that machine back in the Spring/Fall). The new one I put in my main HT unit did not suffer from that.

The ability of the Silicon Optix Reon processor inside the 5k to upconvert regular DVD is quite striking compared to others I have seen. On my system I am hard pressed to tell the difference between run-of-the-mill BD releases and regular DVD esp. if the source material and DVD itself are high quality. When I first got the 5k I felt silly shelling out the big bucks for BDs at the time since I did not have a HD audio capable AVR. That's why I concentrated on HD-DVD, DVHS and still a little DVD buying. That however has changed now with my newish TV and AVR and I can tell a big difference in video and audio quality with newer releases. Many HDs still look better than recent BDs and DVHS still shines as well. My only gripe in the Sammy implementation is that you can't put it into 24fps mode with DVD. It's not a big deal and I don't view DVD that often, however I am chugging through all 10 seasons of SG:1 (now only midway through disc 2 of season 2). Those DVDs get better with each season, but as with many TV DVD box sets they cram way more episodes on a disc than they should. The quality of those upconverted is far superior to anything you would see on SD broadcast or nonupconverted DVD, but a far cry from the new HD-TV transfer/releases.

Hey PT. Thanks for the post and reminder. I still haven't tried that one. I have forgotten about that release and also forgot to put it in my queue. I will get it soon and check it out. I don't think RH is at RedBox on BD so I will have to pick it up at BB if they still stock it.

Regarding IM 2 I did not have the issues others reported and I always run 24fps and did not bother to mess with it to see if I could reproduce the problem, at least I don't think I did. Did you try setting the audio to PCM to see if that cleared it up as well. That is the current fix for How to Train Your Dragon that also has dropout issues. I own that one, but can't recall if I tried turning off 24fps to see if that resolves it.

As you can tell I have been viewing a lot of optical media lately. I am happy to report no issues with Predators, Flipped or Salt (looking forward to the sequel entitled Pepper ;-). Flipped is WB and the menu graphic and music loaded and played fine. It was a rental with those annoying locked down previews. You can skip through the first couple warning screens, but then when you get to the previews you have to FF as skip, stop, menu, pop-up title menu are locked. You have to eject to stop the disc. Several of the recent WBs I have rented are like this, drives me mad. Anyhow speaking of Flipped, decent film, however I expected a little better out of Rob Reiner as two of my most favorite movies are Stand By Me and The Princess Bride. He seems to do better with other peoples material than his own. Don't get me wrong, it is better than 90% of the other crap out there and it prompted me to buy a cheep used copy of it since I would like to view it a couple more times. I have a soft spot for Madeline Carroll ever since Swing Vote, I think she is one of those up-coming actresses to watch.

I forgot to mention that in the past there have been issues with audio and 24fps for some folks. Probably more discussion on the 5k problem discs thread? I don't recall off hand the titles and f/w versions affected. Also, sure to be more discussion about Robin Hood over there, but I only recall one or two complaints on that one. I wonder if they had a bad batch of discs? I had terrible problems with The Wolfman, also a Universal release, but I don't recall anyone else reporting that one as having dropouts. I could hardly watch the movie it was so bad, for more ways that that.

PT - I don't understand your time codes? I just need HH:MM:SS you seem to have some extra data there I don't understand. Is it title:chapter:min:sec or what? I don't recall the 5k reporting anything sub second and I don't think this movie is 8 hours long. What am I missing? Turns out the RedBox does carry this, so when I am out and about I will pick it up with a "free" rental code. Looking at your codes now based that you mention a 3.5 min. section it must be from 4:40-8:09 or so into the theatrical version?

Maybe it is because I had a good HDTV, but I honestly never saw a big improvement on the upconverting of DVDs.

My old Toshiba TV was component only (not even DVI) so I used my Samsung player with it for quite a while and DVDs looked pretty good.

When that TV failed, and I replaced with a Samsung HDTV that has HDMI... I then was able to see upconverted DVDs by the player... and honestly, I can't say that they look any better to me than they looked before.

I suspect there is a lot of YMMV if people have an HDTV that doesn't handle upconvert well internally, in which case the player does a good job.

I guess what I'm saying it that the player does a good job BUT I also thought my previous HDTV did a good job of upscaling too...

I'm watching through NCIS now... almost done with season one... and there's quite a bit of noise but no Blu-ray releases so you take what you get and I picked up the bulk of these pretty cheaply this holiday season.

I'll try and remember to try some Blu-rays every once in a while to take a TV show break.

Yes, I get the same audio drops when in 60fps mode. I misread your post, watched the first 10-12 min. of the theatrical cut twice and the entire directors extended cut without any drops, then came back her to post the results and realized my error. Odd bug, I don't recall any movie having audio drops with 60fps it's usually the other way around and could explain some random complaints of drops on movies that I have not experienced. May in fact be the case with Iron Man 2? Course there could be many more since I always watch with 24fps enabled.

I also ran into another issue. If I have a DVD in the player, as I usually do recently, when I turn it on this disc will not load. I tried to eject and restart 3 times which usually cures this problem I have ran into on some Universal titles released earlier in the year. WIth this one I had to power cycle the unit. I reproduced the bug when I went back to check in 60fps. The disc I had in was Stargate SG:1 season 2 disc 2. I usually power up, then hit eject when the screen blanks out during the load right after the Samsung splash screen comes up. I guess the partial load of the DVD leaves the player in a strange state. I don't recall this issue with other Univesals that have given me a little grief. I think something similar happened with The Vampires Assistant that I own, but will need to find and try. In that case I could eject and reload, but that may have been before 1.6? I usually don't leave a DVD in unless it is a TV series that I am actively watching on and off.

I will try to report this to Samsung. It's going to be hard to explain. I'm not overly worried about audio drops in 60fps mode, so those of you that have to use 60 may want to report the drops directly to Samsung and I will do the same with both issues.

Makes me wonder how many other movies will audio drop in 60fps. I do have the Defying Gravity TV series on DVD that has at least one audio drop on each episode. Since DVD requires 60fps on this player, I wonder if that is related? I have only had issues with that one set, everything else I have watched on DVD has been fine since 1.6 was installed.

Edit: oh, and I forgot to mention that I figured out the timecodes, I forgot about and did not know yo were using the Universal pop up counter for the references.

Mr. Kludge thanks for all your help and advise; it's been invaluable. Your report on the upconversion quality of the BD-UP5000 is very encouraging. If it hadn't been for the superior upconversion capabilities of the BD-UP5000, I would have just went ahead and bought a Sony BDP-S570 for $143. The BD-UP5000 I bought on Ebay for $159 + $28 shipping appears to be in excellent condition and even came with 16 HD-DVDs. I already had these HD-DVDs but was able to sell them to a friend for $45 making my final cost only $142. Like you advised this makes more sense than getting my other one repaired and I can still use it via the component video outputs to watch Blu-rays at 1080i which I will do from time to time to keep it in good working condition. It had very little use as I only played Blu-rays on it as I have a Toshiba HD-A2 which I use to play my HD-DVDs. And I'll now have a backup of spare parts in near new condition except for the problem with the HDMI not working on the main board.
Thanks

Doesn't the 5K upconvert DVD to the component outputs as well? I've never used comp. on any of my units, always been DVI or HDMI. One of those things I don't know about this player. Anyhow, yes depending on your TV you may or may not see a difference. I have an older Sammy SACD/DVD-Audio player that upscales to 1080i and there is a vast difference between it and the 5K. I assume my Sammy DLP upscales, but I am unsure since 480i and 480p material looks like crap on it. However when I play old VHS tapes upscaled to 480p with my JVC DVHS deck into the component of my Denon AVR-1909 and let it upscale to 1080p I can get almost DVD quality out of the THX widescreen special edition tapes. It is quite amazing how good they look. Most people would be hard pressed to tell a difference.

I'm not sure if this has been covered, but has anyone had any problems with Despicable Me? I just got the disk and halfway through I get audio dropouts and it pauses unexpectedly. I am using the latest firmware on my machine.

Thanks in advance,

Could you elaborate with your audio and video settings? 24fps vrs 60 is important as well as audio mode. Also time stamps would be helpful. Also, what version do you have, the regular or best buy version with movie mode? I own this but have not viewed it on the 5k yet. It played fine in our Lg bh200. I will check it out soon and will be viewing in best buy movie mode where your phone can translate what the minions are saying in 24fps bit streamed mode. Problems cropping up midway with pauses and audio drops esp. after a layer change can be indicative of loader failure, but could also be a disc issue. Also are you sure you are on the latest 1.6 downloaded and burned to a cd and not from the Internet connection of the player?

No upconversion via component of any "protected" disc.

Every once in a while (a couple of my Doctor Who DVDs for instance) were not protected, and I noticed that they were upconverted over component... but most commercial released DVDs are protected, and the Samsung does honor that and won't upconvert over component even though it clearly can.

No issues for me using 24fps mode. Decided to watch without movie mode since it relegates to plain dts only. I did watch the mini movies with move mode. Accidentally played some of the movie I 60fps since I forgot to turn it back on after testing robin the hood. If you can give me a time stamp I can try with 60. I did have some difficulty getting it to play the first time in movie mode. It paused for a long time after play showed up then the counter after I selected continue in the movie mode play screen. Only did it once, getting used to these universal release anomalies.

no problems using 24fps on both of my 5k units. I out put it to my panasonic ae4000 which looks great by the way.

Interesting. I am going to check this again. I thought the 5000 shut down the fun for SD-DVD over component to 480P whether or not there was copy protection.

You speaking of despicable me or 24fps in general?

Oh I forgot about all that bulls*it. I always thought that was silly, same reason you can't output a drm protected movie out the VGA/dvi on an iPad and I suspect better than 480p as well on component since they are afraid of copying. Given that it's relatively easy to rip a DVD/hd/bd these days or save yourself the trouble and just download it from someone that has already done the heavy lifting, pun intended ;-) it's a really lame protection and does nothing.to prevent piracy.

Yeah, I forgot that's another way to test it... Take a movie you own and use a program to make a backup of it... and that backup probably will upconvert over component.

I think I tried that once to see... but couldn't see a difference in picture quality, so I just trashed the copy and went back to watching my normal release discs.

I really should have made a note, though, of the Doctor Who DVDs... There were at least 2 I noted that were upconverting over component and I remember being surprised at seeing the player staying in 1080 mode.

Has anyone here tried a different loader than the stock one?

I have a 5000 that has a bad loader. It would play BR and DVD but not HD DVDs. I took the loader apart trying to fix it but instead I made it worse. LOL Now it won't recognize any discs. I bought a replacement loader on ebay but it turned out to be defective. I have been watching ebay but the last loader sold for over a $100.00!

I was wondering if any other loader would work with the 5000 for at least BR and DVDs. Maybe one from a 1500/1590/1600 would work.