New Samsung Blu Ray player really really lacking.

[ghostman1960]

I got the wife a Samsung Blu Ray player and the movie Avatar for Christmas. This is our first Blu Ray player and I thought it would be plug and play like a regular DVD player. Wrong. It did not come with a HDMI cable. All that it came with was the basic RCA jacks for left-right sound and one for video. Just like a basic DVD player. I noticed that you could plug RGB cables into it for Hi def so luckily I had some of those to hook it up with. Not as good as the HDMI hook up but they will have to do for now.

Then when we popped the DVD in the player to watch the movie and it said it did not have enough memory for the movie to play correctly and I needed to add 1 gig for it to work. I furiously checked the manual to find out how to add the memory but it said NOTHING about the subject at all. I looked on the player and found a USB port on the thing and figured out that I had to add the memory there. Luckily the CVS by my house was open so I ran over and got a 2 gig memory stick for it. I got it home and inserted it and figured it out in settings how to configure it to watch the movie.

Well we plop the movie back in the player and then it says I need to hook it up to the internet for a software upgrade. The box said it had a wifi connection so I figured I would just have to enter my router password and go from there. Not. A little digging in the manual and it said it was wireless compatible but I had to buy an adapter for it to make it wireless. Well out comes the 20 foot cable to attach it to the router across the room to get the software update.

After about three hours of fiddling around with this thing we finally got to watch the movie. I really like the picture and sound quality but all in all it has been a less than satisfactory experience with my first blu ray player.

[rjacobs]

Nothing comes with cables anymore, nothing. So thats no surprise. If you want cheap, good quality cables go to mono-price.com. Get the 24awg cables. They are comparable to monster but 1/10 the cost.

I got my folks a Samsung Blu-Ray player for xmas and I made sure I paid extra for the one that had the wi-fi built in. They had some that did not. I made sure I got one that did.

The memory thing doesnt make any sense. I have older dvd players which I am sure have zero memory in them, but they work. I wonder if a setting was off or something or if the memory was perhaps for the software update.

New technology gets more and more complicated all the damn time.

[jaydoc1]

My house is fully stocked with Samsung flat screens. The first Samsung Blu-Ray player I purchased, however, is also the last. I purchased the top model but it just is not functional.

It requires I reconnect to my wireless network every time I turn it on. It will not store settings.

Once connected the network services are spotty at best and it frequently disconnects.

The kicker, though, is that when I downloaded the recommended update, it froze while installing it. I now own a very expensive brick. I've been informed by my local retailer that this problem requires that it is sent back to Samsung rather than exchanged in-store.

Most modern electronics function so flawlessly that when a top tier item like this functions poorly it is just unacceptable.

[Left Sig]

I have the same Samsung blu-ray player as the OP and it works fine. I bought it because it was inexpensive, and because it would work well with a 32" Samsung HDTV that is pretty much dedicated to my son's Wii system.

I didn't want to pay extra for Wi-Fi because it is generally bad for Netflix streaming (Wi-Fi effective speeds are nowhere near the theoretical speeds, even with "n" devices), and REALLY bad for firmware updates because of the likelihood of "bricking" the unit. After lots of experimentation, I've found that hardwire is best - so I use Netgear Powerline adapters to get from my router to 3 A/V systems.

I also have plenty of USB memory sticks for the BD-Live memory requirement. Most players have 1GB built-in memory but to lower prices, Samsung left out the memory on this player. BD-Live is slow and for the most part it sucks anyway. The extra content isn't worth the time for the download, or having to deal with the cumbersome interfaces on most players.

Now, if the Avatar Blu-ray requires a BD-Live connection, then that is the fault of the disc programmers. I don't think they would do this, so there is probably a way to override it, or simply deactivate BD-Live in the player menu. This is not a Samsung issue.

HDMI cables aren't included because they are the single biggest rip-off scam in consumer electronics now. Best Buy wants $50 per cable and tried to push you into expensive (yet still made in China) Monster cables that top $100. Generic Monoprice.com cables work great and are very inexpensive.

The specs on the player clearly state "Wi-Fi Ready", which means you can buy an $80 Samsung wireless adapter as an add-on. The next Samsung Blu-ray model up in their line has built-in Wi-Fi and was only $30 or so more when I got mine.

All this stuff is clearly explained in the product specs which are available on the internet and also check out Amazon.com product reviews for user opinions.

[pilotguyo540]

The best blu-ray player is the sony play station 3. You don't need any other jacks for audio. You can also stream netflix directly to your TV.

[Left Sig]

PS3 used to be the best. It still is from some points of view, but the Oppo BDP-83 has been at the top for the past one and a half years. And it plays every disc format ever made - including SACD and DVD-Audio.

[Treehopr]

PS3 used to be the best. It still is from some points of view, but the Oppo BDP-83 has been at the top for the past one and a half years. And it plays every disc format ever made - including SACD and DVD-Audio.


Left Sig,

Thanks for the informative posts, I just started shopping for a Blu-Ray player.

What do you think of the Oppo BDP-93?

Not sure if I'll ever use all the capabilities- any other suggestions for just wanting to watch DVD's and the occasional streaming movie?

Thanks

[Left Sig]

Treehopr,

I've had a BDP-83 in my main HT setup (w/46" Sony XBR4 LCD) for 1.5 years. It is an outstanding player - the Anchor Bay video processor provides class-leading DVD upconversion, and it also plays Super Audio CD's, and DVD-Audio discs in full resolution multi-channel surround sound over HDMI. Very few players can do this - and the ones from other manufacturers that do cost a lot more. The BDP-83 is so good, it was re-branded by Lexicon (high end digital audio processor company) and sold for several times the price. Disc load times are comparable to a PS3 too.

I also have the cheaper and smaller BDP-80 and use it on a smaller HDTV (40" Sony XBR4 LCD). It's very good as well, but it doesn't have the BDP-83's video processor so the DVD upconversion isn't quite as good from a theoretical point of view. I haven't noticed a significant difference, though.

However, both the BDP-83 and BDP-80 have been recently discontinued, and neither supports Netflix streaming. I have no experience with the BDP-93, but I expect it will also be an excellent player. However, it does lack the Anchor Bay video processor, which I think was dropped in favor of 3-D support. So I'll have to wait for the reviews to see how good it is.

So for Netflix streaming and on-demand pay-per-view streaming, I have the new version of the AppleTV box on the HDTV's with the Oppo players. It has the best Netflix implementation I've seen. Way better than the PS3 & Wii (have both) and the Samsung player I bought a month ago.

Now, for a more affordable Blu-ray player it's kind of a toss-up. Most all Blu-ray players have virtually identical performance on Blu-ray discs, if you use HDMI connections to a 1080p TV. That's because they are just reading data and sending it to the HDTV with minimal processing. DVD upconversion quality varies more and depends on the quality of the video processor in the player. Cheaper players generally perform lower here, but the difference may or may not be significant to you, depending on the HDTV you are using and it's screen size. Some HDTV's can scale DVD's better than the player, so there's another variable to consider.

Since Sony developed the Blu-ray I would tend to go with one of their newer players. The current line (370/470/570/etc.) has been shown to load discs even faster than the PS3, and they support SACD's. Sony is pretty good about firmware updates for compatibility with new disc releases as well. Just pick the one with the features you want.

In case you are wondering, I bought the Samsung player only because it's being used with a Samsung LCD HDTV, and I wanted the remotes to be interoperable (makes it easier for the kid). And the reason I bought the Samsung HDTV was because it was the only decent 32" that would fit in a very tight space with about 1/8" to spare.

[Treehopr]

Left Sig,

Thanks for the info, I had been looking in to the Apple TV and think I will give that a shot as well as combining it with a Sony Blu-Ray player based on your recommendation.

treehopr