Want Honest Opinion on player

If you don't have any HD discs yet and don't mind waiting a while for some of the HD-DVD titles to be re-released, buy a Blu-Ray player. If you have a bunch of HD-DVD's already or don't want to wait for HD-DVD exclusives like Transformers and The Matrix to be released on Blu-Ray, buy a dual format player like the 5000.

There is also the LG BH200 dual format player which has the minimum hardware requirements for BD-LIVE (profile 2.0). Both the Samsung BD-UP5000 and BD-UP5500 are only PIP (profile 1.1) players with a firmware upgrade. Of course you would need to wait for June for the Samsung BD-UP5500 that will list for $599.

HD DVD exclusive studios still have the rights to over 11,000 films while BD studio have over 20,000 films in their stable. There is potential for many more BD releases, but if any of those 11,000 HD DVD exclusive films matter to you (say the Bourne Series, Beowuf, American Gangster, Casino, Cloverfield, Star Trek et al) then you are going to need a dual-format player. Universal and Paramount may eventually go neutral, but even when they do some of their HD DVD catalog titles are unlikely to show up on BD. Darkman and Smokey & The Bandit will probably be a LONG time coming to Blu-ray. Heck Warner is moving BD exclusive, but I bet you won't be able to get Forbidden Planet on BD for quite some time if ever.

While I agree with the above, I am going to add a little more. The real question would be how patient are you?. If you are real patient and are willing to wait for the chance of some of the HD DVD exclusives to come out on Blu-ray then you may want to do that. There may be some titles that will never make it on to Blu-ray just because the demand isnt there for the title, also since there have been so many titles released a studio will be playing "catch up" for a long time to get the exclusive titles on Blu-ray. For me personally I like having the ability of not having to wait. If it is an HD DVD exclusive then I can just buy it and know that I will be able to enjoy it now and in the future.

Honestly, the Reon on the 5000 looks absolutely great and your sDVDs cannot look much better. If you're willing to deal with the latest BDs not all playing and for firmware that may or may not fix the problem AND no DTS-MA or full TrueHD then this is the machine for you.

For me, it's just too frustrating. My RMA is on the way.

I would suggest going completely Blu. I am going to buy the latest Denon BD player because it has everything I'm looking for and I trust them more to do it right. On the lower end, I would suggest the Panasonic models 30 or the upcoming 50.
HTH
**UPDATE: latest F/W available tomorrow. TrueHD and DTS-MA by May according to phone talk w/Samsung exec

Does the Reon only provide HDMI SD-upconverted output, not 1080i component? Assume the downrezzing of 1080i true-HD to 540p, using coding flags, still hasn't appeared on virtually all discs playable on the 5000? Thanks to anyone in the know. -- John

My BD-UP5000 only upconverts to 1080i/1080P via HDMI; the component only support up to 480P.

R.L.

Just to reply to the OP...

I received my Sammy 5K yesterday. The device has been wonderful. It played several HD DVDs fine, the Blu Ray titles were also fine. I viewed both Fox and Sony discs. I had some of the issues that people have mentioned, however audio issues were usually resolved by pausing and playing...

The analog outputs work fine as advertised for 5.1.

All in all, everyone has a different threshold for perfection, but my opinion with these players is that a lot of the problems are either greatly exaggerated, or people have much higher expectations than myself.

The quirks I've experienced were fairly trivial and should be easy to remedy with a firmware update. I also was one of the first to own a DirecTV HR20-700 (HD DVR). That device was an absolute piece of junk when it was first released. Daily reboots, lost shows, etc. They've turned that device into a stable and incredibly feature-rich piece of hardware. If DirecTV can manage that feat with something horribly broken, I'm pretty confident Samsung is only one or two firmware releases away from stellar performance given that they're already very close to the finish line.

Also, a friend has a BH200 and I can safely say that I like the Sammy better. I needed the analog outputs since I have a very high quality, but older receiver. I also wanted the Reon for the same reason -- if I had one of new top-end Onkyos I wouldn't need either the Reon or the analog outputs.

Maybe this isn't an option in your world ... but I would consider getting two players. I have 3 HD DVD players and a Panasonic BD10 BD player. They're all fabulous. No issues at this point thanks to all the great FW upgrades on both sides. I have little confidence in Samsung. So if you don't mind having two machines, get one of each. Cost might be less?

I would suggest an A3 and a BD30.

Well, that's not much of an investment in HD DVD, so I'd suggest you go strictly blu.

Judging by reviews and commets here, the best players seem to be the Panasonic BD30 and the PS3. The PS3 doesn't appeal to me, but it has the advantage that its massive processing power allows it to be upgraded to almost any Blu-ray spec, and every disc is tested against it before release.