CES: 5500 Dual Announced - Page 3

Why would you need a Reon HQV chip if you're going to be playing HD-DVD and BD discs? Maybe I'm missing something, but I honestly don't see the fuss over the Reon chip unless you're going to stick with your standard DVD's. And in that case, just get an Oppo upconverting DVD player.

Simple. A lot of people want one player that does everything. And it will be a long, long time before some of those DVD titles are on Blu-ray. Also, if you are really into HD you probably have a TV that benefits from a decent DVD player.

Man, it's always something. I want/need both the great upconversion of my SD collection from the 5000, and also internal decoding of the new audio formats from the 5500. What an unfortunate scenario.

For those us us that have a decent amount of SD DVDs the Reon is essential to watching the DVDs that are not on either of the formats. I have a decent amount of Discs and really I want to watch them in the best available way.

The whole point of having a new player is so that we dont have to rely on more equipment. I for one am trying to have less not more machines. Adding an Oppo means another 1-200$ and another HDMI connection, and another place on your rack\\stand\\ect. When space gets to be a premium less is sometimes more.

Would you settle for a Samsung BD-UP6500

http://asia.cnet.com/crave/2008/01/0...-feature-hqv-/

DISCLAIMER: I can find no mention of this player anywhere other than this. Thus there is no confirmation of the above story. Skepticism meter turned on full.

This is mentioned in the 5k owners thread. Ironically enough the 6500 is claimed to do everything the 5k was supposed to do.

Yes but the gentleman who mentioned it is quoting the same source, CNET Asia, so there is still no confirmation of the story. Also, as mentioned above, a lot can happen between now, and a year from now. This player may, indeed, see the light of day (I hope so). On the other hand, it may not. IMHO, it's much too early to count on it at this point.

I also own the Onkyo 875 so, while at CES, I spoke with the Samsung rep who was covering the 5500 at the booth. The unit definitely will not have the HQV Reon processor (which you and I shouldn't care because we already have it and why pay for it twice.) It does not have analog outputs. It will have onboard decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTSHD but can also bitstream the signal via HDMI without decoding to your 875 for processing (ala Toshiba XA2 or HD-A35). He confirmed the list price of $599 and stated that the unit was scheduled for release in May 2008. If all this stuff works, it seems like it could be a nice match for the 875. Frankly, with all of the issues that newly released players seem to have these days, even if it does hit the shelves in May, I'll probably wait a few months to decide whether to purchase while I follow the threads that will inevitably emerge in this forum.

What's the BIG improvement the 5500 can make over the previous combos?
That is: PQ, access to content, audio formats, that kind of stuff...

I don't think analog outs are the answer, most would/should use digital.
REON, isn't a BIG deal, cause pre/pro's & display's have it.
Sure a price drop would be nice, butt considering you get "two" HD players for <$600US that's not bad.
Just what quality/feature will be missing from this unit, that would make one decide two separate HD format players are the way too go?
Thanks.

How about being able to put a disc in, of any format, and not having audio/visual/lockup issues?

It's the sole reason I tossed mine for a PS3/A35/Oppo 3-1HDMI splitter.....

Seggers

Does anyone think this will be addressed properly?
I know of a lot of dissatisfied 5000 owners.
Or, are combo's a no go (nova )?
Thanks.

We shall see. Apparently, there is a NEW firmware update soon to be released to the masses.

Thanks.
And this FW update 'suppossedly' does address "all" playback problems?
Well, maybe a ray of sunshine for all the 5000 owners (those that haven't giving up & return them anyway! ) & us 'future' 5500 owners!

I have no idea what it will/won't address. However, I would assume it would fix the playability issues not fixed last week. Anything else, including anything that may show up on new releases, will be just gravy.

and by "future" 5500 user, do you mean Christmas 2008?

sincerely,

a 5000 user (or sucker?? We shall see)

How can you have a firmware update on a machine that has yet been released. After all, this thread is about the 5500, no?

Good point!............ but hopefully the 5500 will benefit from the firmware upgrades that are made for the 5000. My concern is that the 5500 will never see the light of day. Even though a Samsung rep at CES told me that it will release in May (see my post #68 above), I think it is unlikely that Samsung will be willing to incur the considerable expense to manufacture and market this product if demand for HD DVD dissolves over the next few months. Because of the similarity to the 5000, they may have invested a relatively modest amount of time and money on design and prototype efforts up to this point.

BIG ED,

I dont think in the near future you are going to have a player that plays ALL titles flawlessly. There are always going to be those discs that cause issues until the discs that are being produced are more or less the same. The least problematic player is the Ps3, but there are drawbacks to that as well. Problem discs are just something owners are going to have to deal with until the proccess of creating discs becomes more uniform.

Hey all-- I didnt read the whole thread here, but was at CEs and saw all three 5500 demo units in action. The 5500 has the Blu Ray 1.1 spec and I thought the 5000 did not. There was something about , I am not sure, maybe the video processing, that makes the 5000 more expensive.

The Korean engineer for Samsung who was stationed there quietly told me SAmsung was not allowed to demonstrate HD-DVD advanced features on the 5500 at CEs ( the thing can play them all but Blu Ray players can't actually do anything like what HD-DVD does yet-- the 1.1 spec should bring Blu Ray closer however).

I would DEFINETLY wait for the 5500 and some actual user reviews.