BD-UP5000 Universal Player Samsung [OFFICIAL OWNERS THREAD] & FAQ - Page 61

I finally got my 5000 home and hooked up, but I can't get it to work! The first thing I did was put in the Happy Feet HD DVD. It started up and seemed to play fine. Then I flipped the disc over to the regular DVD side (combo disc) and the player tried to play it for a minute and then spit it out saying the disc could not be played. Okay, I grabbed a few more plain old regular DVDs, but none of them would play. I put in Shrek 3 on HD DVD and that wouldn't play either. Just to make sure I'm not going crazy, I put the HD DVD side of Happy Feet back in and that won't play now either! I don't have any Blu-Ray movies yet, but I can't get this thing to play ANY HD DVDs or regular DVDs since the two minute Happy Feet test that worked. Any suggestions or is this player that I've been waiting so long for toast?

Is it spitting the discs out each time and giving an error message, or are you just getting a blank screen?

-Robb

It spits the disc out each time and displays a message on the screen that says "This disc cannot be played." If Happy Feet didn't work that first time, I would think that the player is just bad. But I had 2 minutes of a working player.

Try the factory reset (hold down the right directional button on the front panel for 5 seconds).

I have calibrated mine with DVE hd-dvd and it works fine....one issue though. When the calibration screens are up, the pic occasionally drops out then comes back. I believe they programed the disc to replay the screens every few seconds to get it to continually play (one of the guys who worked on the disc told me this....and its why that disc was initially delayed a month or 2). I think this is the problem and the 5000 isnt handling it properly.

Not a huge issue because you can still calibrate it. With HDMI and Component, I saw all 3 black lines....so, it does seem to pass blacker than black.

I just tried it. It didn't look like it did anything, but when I go into the menu I see that it did reset the settings. Still no luck playing any discs though.

Its important to me too....IMO, the topic is fine to discuss, but the occasional speculation by people who do not own the player or are mad about the lack of advanced audio support should be avoided unless there are facts to support it.

If someone has info that is speculative and not based in facts should create a new thread about the topic. I would think this thread is more informative in nature.

Unplug power cord, leave it unplugged for 15-20 seconds, then plug it back in. See if that helps.

Rock,

If posting your calibrated settings isn't too much trouble would you mind putting them up. I am always curious to benchmark my settings against others.

Thanks in advance.

Brian

Done. Still not working. Man, I was really looking forward to playing with this thing tonight.

Is your Bourne Ultimatum copy your own privately purchased copy, or is it from one of the large national mail-delivery chains?
It seems like that could possibly be the difference in why some of us can get Bourne Ultimatum to play and some of us cannot.

Has anyboy been able to play a mail-order copy of Bourne Ultimatum?
OR has anybody NOT been able to play a privately purchased copy of Bourne Ultimatum???

Read the manual. You need to change some settings for Combo discs. I remember seeing this when reading the manual earlier- mine is on the way

My wife and I watched Elizabeth (1998) HDDVD last night on the 5000. The picture was stunning. But the "default" sound for the HDDVD was selected as TrueHD., which as we know is presently 2 channel from the 5000. I changed it to the disk's multichannel option and then everything was fine. But it is clear that the 5000's firmware, the HD DVD's software, and the receiver's firmware need to talk to each other more seamlessly. i.e. I should be able to set the "preference order" of the audio format and then just have the player automagically select the right format on the disk. Seems silly that we have to tell the player each time which audio format on-disk to use every time.

I would assume that Samsung has set TrueHD as the default since it is better than the other alternatives on the disk. But right now, using the firmware in the player, it isn't (since it only does 2 channel), and so they should have changed the preference. In any case, we users should be able to set the preference-order once and for all based on the rest of our system's capabilities and then the player select the appropriate audio track based on that preference-order list.


end of soapbox

Scott

I just took a look at the data sheet link you gave us. Under the "Audio Decoder Formats" specifications for DTS stuff, it only says "DTS and DTS HD".
It has no mention of "DTS HD MA".
Now this worries me.
They can really say now that they cannot imlement support for bitstreaming DTS HD MA?
I bought this player in anticipation to use it as a high quality "Hi-Definition Audio" player to listen to music as my first priority. So it really concerns me and my situation now. I was all ready going to keep it and not bother with the shady BB4B outfit to do a return. I hope I don't have to return this player because of this last minute discovery of misadvertised half truths.

I've tried several regular DVDs as well as several HD DVDs that are not combo discs. Nothing is working.

There is a setting for "Twin Format" discs. But I don't see how that would apply to combo discs since the DVD and HD DVD formats are on different sides of the disc.

TiVoHD, if it played a disc once and then does not play it any longer, turn the power off on the unit then power it back on to do a complete logic reboot. It works for me when I get the occassional disc hang up in my unit.
Let us know if that works for you.
Also, probably don't have to say this, but I will anyway, just in case... try cleaning your DVD discs and make sure they are spotless clean.

I have a similar problem with this particular Blu-Ray disk. I try to play the movie, but I get commentary with no sound. I got the DVD in the Trilogy pack. I took it back to Best Buy and got another box set, same problem. Either I am just lucky with bad recorded media, or the player cannot handle this disk particular menu format. I have played others in the box set with no problem. My next trick is to take it back to Best Buy and see if it works on the floor model players. Also, I need to check if there is a firmware upgrade from Samsung. Time to hook-up the ethernet cable....

I've turned it off and even left it unplugged for about 30 minutes, but still no dice. I've tried upwards of 10 standard DVDs and 5 HD DVDs, but I just keep getting the same error message. I'm beginning to think that the player is seriously screwed and the fact that I was able to play the first disc I put in for a couple of minutes was just a fluke.

I'm with you and I also bought my player at BB4B. The rumor mill is spitting out bad things and based upon HD-DVD and BR specs there is no requirement for Samsung to do anything more with the audio then they have already done.

Sounds like you should exchange for another player.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking at this point. I just wish that someplace near me had it in stock so I could swap it right away.

So RockStrongo... where is the FUD you speak of, please give some examples??

The fact that using the standards we have for HD-DVD and BD, only 2-channel TRUEHD is require, and DTS HD MA is optional?

The fact that Broadcom BCM7440 chip advertises it's capabilities of delivering the lossless formats - but fails to state if this is stereo or multichannel?

The fact that Broadcom BCM7440 is only used on 3 players as it is - BH100, BH200 and BD5000 (all dual-format) and none of them produce multichannel lossless?

The fact that Broadcom BCM7440 doesn't even hint DTS HD MA format at all on it's brochure, and only highlights that it is able to play the mandatory formats (which is: 2-channel TrueHD).

Your first comment about excluding people who do not own this unit is plain dumb - you'll limit the information to the few brave people who went ahead and bought it, or "don't care about advanced audio", or people who don't use google.

After all this, I wanted this player too and wanted it to be THE Player. If any of the above information changes - I will buy it. So .. what are the posts which only provide Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt?

From Samsung's release notes:

The BDA mandate took some of the mystery out of the BD-UP5000's functionality. The player was originally scheduled for an October 2007 release which would bring it under the Profile 1.1 deadline. But, Samsung stated the this player would not in fact meet this hardware spec.

Interestingly enough, Samsung's release noted that while the 5000 will meet the hardware spec for Profile 1.1, a January 2008 firmware update will be required before the player will actually "allow playback of Profile 1.1 discs."

Sounds to me like Samsung knew all along the player would have an issue with 1.1 discs. Why they rushed it to market before this was addressed, no one knows but Samsung. This will take care of the BD playback issues but there is no mention of the advanced audio deficiencies. Maybe they'll add the fix for that too while they're at it.

I hope Samsung has the wherewithall to make it up to its loyal customer base that gave them a chance and bought their product. I had doubts about it in the beginning and even tried to cancel my order with BB4B after reports started coming out about the quirks. But BB4B forced their hand on many of us that cancelled, ignored our cancellation requests and shipped out all of these units to us anyway. So I did not want to really deal with them tying up my $790.00 waiting for the "refused delivery" and full return refund process that I am sure that they will put us all through, and I kept the player on faith because I read that Samsung reps said it will have a firmware update to fix the bitstreaming of HD audio. Reference this CNET report:
http://reviews.cnet.com/video-player...-32553618.html
update: Here is another mention (hyping?) up firmware updat support for DTS-HD-MA:
http://www.news.com/8300-10784_3-7-0.html?keyword=combo

Here is another review saying there will be an update to support all HD bitstream audio:
http://hdguru.com/?p=184

Here is a review that mentions the fireware update due in Jan 2008 but only says to make it Profile 1.1 capable (whatever that means):
http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/10/24...-for-december/

Anyway, I am still hoping that the reports are honest and true... but that Broadcom Data Spec sheet on the chip concerns me because it does not specifically state it supports DTS HD MA audio. It says it supports True HD but not DTS HD MA. That raises an eyebrow...

Here is another link about the Broadcom specs... notice it does not say support for DTS-HD-MA neither!!!!
http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=1047516
I excerpt that part here for you:

"...The BCM7440 also supports a wide variety of mandatory audio and video compression standards required for Blu-ray and HD DVD optical disc formats, including H.264/AVC, VC-1, MPEG-2, Dolby® Digital Plus, Dolby Tru-HD and DTS-HD. The Blu-ray/HD DVD SoC also provides full backwards compatibility for current DVD video titles as well as DVD-R, DVD-VR and audio CDs."

Update again: I found this from PCWorld magazine online report (not too promising outlook...):
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/004989.html

The posts that I speak of are the ones where people are stating that they don't want this player because of x, y or z (most common is the lack of advanced audio). Im not going to hunt through the thread and find them. If you have been paying attention to this thread then you would understand.

As the mod has stated (several times due to issues in this thread), this thread is for owner to discuss current issues with the player and have people ask them specific questions. Thats why its a sticky.

We all know that it does not support advanced audio codecs right now....so there really isnt much more to discuss on that. If people want to speculate on if it will in the future or never will, then another thread needs to be opened for that (or I bet there is already one out there). Its a dead horse in this thread though.

This is the last im gonna say about it, because if I continue, im adding to the problem. I think the mod needs to clean this thread up (this post included).

Rock,

I see your point but a good portion of those most concerned are indeed owners, myself included. As we owners know the advanced codes are indeed an issue. I welcome any news regarding info from Samsung or Engagdet, or whoever when it involves what I feel is the biggest issue this player has.

Also a very valid point was made recently, that being there is no player with this chip that can decode full multichannel advanced codecs. If this debate leads to confirmation from Broadcom or Samsung and I can get my $800 back before it's too late I'll be happy with this potential "FUD"

Agreed, my friend! It would render my Integra 9.8 worthless with this player. I don't call that "FUD". I have owned it since October...waiting for this player.

Precisely! Me too! It would render my purchase of the $1980.00 Onkyo NR-905 wasted for what I wanted it for! To play and experience the latest high-definition audio.

Yourself and I seem to run in the same HT circles. Dare I ask do you have Axiom speakers and an SVS sub?

The contradictory information coming from various Samsung reps is astounding. The specs on the Samsung website clearly list DTS-HD as a supported format, and the PDF spec sheet for this unit actually lists BOTH "DTS-HD" and "DTS-MA" as supported audio codecs that will be "upgradeable by firmware." The statement quoted above is 100% incompatible with these other statements, which are in WRITING. I just don't see how the quote above can be accurate when Samsung has released multiple documents saying otherwise.

Even though I don't think the quote is accurate, thanks for posting it jlstang95 -- it's still interesting to hear about these sort of statements.

Larry