Samsung BD-P2500 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player for $349.99

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I've had the BD-P 2500 for over a year now, w/ no problems. (None of the problems that many others have had: no difficulty updating the firmware; no problem w/ the initial netflix registration, no particular problem being finicky about reading discs.) Picture quality great (as I'd expect from any blu-ray player).

One very frustrating thing though: rewinding and fast-forwarding aver very time consuming: If you're watching a disc and miss a word or two and just want to zip back 30sec, it takes me an add'l 30sec or so all together. Maybe I'm spoiled by how well DVRs rewind, but it's quite frustrating. For example, every press of Rewind and FastForward take about a second to take effect (and you're not sure if it actually noticed your button-press). [This is distinct from tedious FF/Rew on netflix, which is also a pain but that the fault of netflix's streaming protocol.]

As others have noted, the remote has some weird buttons (no big deal), but there are other little issues: If you power up the player to watch netflix, and there happens to be a disc already in the player, it will take its time to start up the disc, and there aren't any button-presses to get you out of it, not even "stop" or "bring me to the main netflix-vs-dvd menu". (I even had one disc where I had to wait through one entire preview (30sec) before it would let me press 'stop' on the disc, so I could fire up netflix. Sigh.)

Overall: good basic player, but a better FF/Rew would've gone a long way for an extra star. If I were buying a new player, I'd probably take one with quicker response on those buttons.

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"Samsung BD-P2500 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player" Feature

Full HD 1080p
BD Live 2.0 Ready
Ethernet and USB for firmware upgrades
Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital True-HD
DTS-HD upgradable

"Samsung BD-P2500 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player" Overview

The ultimate interactive experience is here. The Samsung BD-P2500 is BD-Live 2.0 Ready so you can enjoy special interactive features, download extra content from the internet and more. You¿ll also enjoy bold color and crisp details with full 1080p resolution. Movie night just got even more exciting - with the highest-quality audio and an incredible picture.

"Samsung BD-P2500 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player" Specifications

Amazon.com Product Description Samsung's BD-P2500 is BD-Live 2.0 Ready with an ethernet port so you can enjoy special interactive features, download extra content from the internet, and more. It has 1Gb of onboard memory and a USB port for memory expansion. You’ll enjoy bold color and crisp details with full 1080p resolution. The BD-P2500 also offers breakthrough enhancements such as Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) processing and 7.1-Channel analog audio outputs creating a powerful HD audio-visual experience. Plays Blu-ray discs, upscales standard DVDs, and is compatible with BD-ROM, DVD-ROM, DVD-R (V mode only), DVD-RW (V/VR mode), Audio CD, CD-R, CD-RW, and AVCHD discs. Movie night just got even more exciting - with the highest-quality audio and an incredible picture.

Key Features

Total BD Profile Compatibility right out of the box, lets you instantly enjoy the latest interactive features available, including BD Live (Profile 2.0) and Bonus View (Profile 1.1)
Lots of Memory and Easy Upgradeability: The BD-P2500 comes with a built-in, wired Ethernet connection, 1GB of internal flash memory, and a USB port for memory expansion
Full HD 1080p
HQV processing chip for the highest quality viewing of Blu-ray discs, upconversion of standard DVDs, and viewing of JPEG images
HDMI 1.3 output with xvYCC Deep Color support, and a 24fps film mode, exhibiting smoother, more natural playback of film-based material.
7.1-Channel Dolby TrueHD Soundand dts-HD Master Audio capable of decoding the latest high-resolution digital multichannel audio soundtracks

HQV Video Processor

In a perfect world, every disc’s image that passed through your Blu-ray disc player into your HDTV would offer immaculate 1080p video with flawless color, impeccable detail, and nary a bit of pesky video noise. In the real world, though, pristine source material isn’t available for every Blu-ray disc—due to age or neglect of the original elements—and there are plenty of movies and TV shows on DVD that you’ll still want to watch on your Blu-ray player. HQV video processing is a great way of elevating those less-than-perfect video sources to a new level, and ensuring that you’re getting the most out of your beautiful high-definition video display.

To do this, the HQV video processors built into better Blu-ray players employ sophisticated algorithms to alleviate the problems that often plague less-than-perfect video sources. HQV processors analyze multiple video fields at once to determine where frames match up and where they don’t, and even which objects are in motion within those frames. In analyzing the video signal over time, the processor also determines the proper frame rate or refresh rate of the original video signal—whether it’s a 24 fps film source or a 30 fps video source, for example—and makes sure that it is dealt with properly. HQV video processors are also great at minimizing video noise without scrubbing the image of all its fine detail, as well as restoring some of the detail that’s lost as a result of aggressive video filtering during the Blu-ray or DVD mastering process. And unlike some competing video processors, HQV processors boast enough processing power to keep up with the multiple video streams (picture-in-picture and split screen) found on many new Blu-ray discs.

Stream Netflix Movies Right Over Your Player

Netflix, the world’s largest online movie rental service, has a library of more than 12,000 movies and television episodes available for streaming. You must be a Netflix subscriber in order to receive streaming video service. For Netflix customers you simply need to activate your new BluRay player to your existing Netflix account. Non-Netflix customers must first sign up for Netflix in order to utilize this feature-there is a monthly cost.

BD-Live

BD-Live is a Blu-ray feature that enables you to access special content via an internet-connected Blu-ray player. Because it's not coded into the disc, BD-Live content is always updated, always fresh. With BD-Live, your Blu-ray disc is different every time you view it.

Check out the latest previews, download special scenes, exclusive features and ringtones, and participate in online communities or games.

As BD-Live continues to grow and expand, even more features will become available, customizing features and content to your location or preferences. Now, your disc k

Bonus View

Blu-ray Disc has 5x more storage capacity than DVD, which allows more content to fit on the disc. The extra storage capacity also means more room for special features like inline navigation, Bonus View, interactive games, deleted scenes, director commentary and more
Navigate to special features, other scenes, or settings without leaving the content you are watching.	Bonus View lets you watch special features and commentary inline without leaving the movie.

High Definition Soundtrack Support and Output

Providing a truly immersive HD home theater experience, Samsung's BD-P2500 is capable of decoding the latest high-resolution digital multichannel audio soundtracks available. Out of the box, the player can output Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and dts as an uncompressed PCM signal, as a bitstream, or via the 7.1 analog outputs for cinematic sound that is comparable with the latest movie theaters. Additionally, dts-HD HR (High Resolution) decoding will become available with a firmware upgrade in the fall. The BD-P2500 will also pass these and dts-HD MA (Master Audio) as a bitstream output to a separate, external surround sound decoder.

HDMI Features

x.v Color

RGB Color Range

xvYCC Color Range

Thanks to the adoption of a newly approved international color standard called xvYCC (an option in the HDMI v1.3 spec, the color space has been greatly expanded.

All Sony XBR HDTVs support the xvYCC color profile (Extended YCC Colorimetry for Video Applications), or "x.v. color" for short. Standard RGB color space allows the display of a portion of the colors that are viewable to the human eye. The next generation "xvYCC" color space actually offers an available range of colors that exceeds what human eyes can recognize.

Next-generation "xvYCC" color space supports 1.8 times as many colors as existing HDTV signals
Lets HDTVs display colors more accurately
Enables displays with more natural and vivid colors

Deep Color

So, where x.v. color expands the available range of colors your HDTV can display, Deep Color increases the number of colors your HDTV can display within that range, for smoother transitions from color to color.

Lets HDTVs and other displays go from millions of colors to billions of colors
Eliminates on-screen color banding, for smooth tonal transitions and subtle gradations between colors
Enables increased contrast ratio
Can represent many times more shades of gray between black and white

Specifications

Design

Piano black with chrome accents and touch pad controls

A/V Features

Compatible with BD Profile 2.0 (BD Live), Profile 1.1 (Bonus View), and Profile 1.0 interactivity features
1GB internal flash memory for BD Live
Award-winning Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) processing
24fps film mode
xvYCC Deep Color
Selectable DVD upconversion (720p / 1080i / 1080p)
Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD decoding
dts-HD HR decoding via firmware update in the fall
Dolby Digital Plus™, Dolby TrueHD, dts-HD HR / MA bitstream output

A/V Connections

1 HDMI version 1.3 output with CEC (Anynet+)
1 component output
1 composite output
7.1-Channel analog audio outputs
1 optical digital audio output
1 Ethernet connection (for interactivity features and firmware upgrades only)
1 USB connection (for memory expansion and firmware upgrades only)

Playable Media

BD-ROM, DVD-ROM, DVD-R (V mode only), DVD-RW (V/VR mode), Audio CD, CD-R, CD-RW, AVCHD disc

Answers to Basic Questions About Blu-ray

What is Blu-ray?
Blu-ray is a new optical disc format with over five and a half times the storage capacity of a standard DVD (25 GB versus 4.5 GB). A dual-layer Blu-ray disc can hold up to 50 GB of information. With that increased storage, movie studios can finally provide movies on disc in high definition, offering 6x the resolution or image detail of DVD and up to 8 channels of lossless (better than CD quality) digital sound. The new format can also provide interactive features that go well above anything ever offered before.

Is Blu-ray different than HDTV?
HDTV, or high definition television, is a new broadcasting format that offers widescreen, high resolution images offering 6x the resolution or image detail of DVD, with up to 5.1 channels of digital audio. Until now, the signals were only available through over the air transmissions (via an antenna), or through digital cable and satellite signals. You can not get HD signals from a standard video tape or DVD. An HDTV is a high resolution video display that is capable of receiving and displaying these HDTV broadcasts or images. Blu-ray is a complement to your HDTV. It's a disc media format that has enough storage to include an entire movie, plus soundtracks and bonus materials, recorded in the high definition format. You can play Blu-ray discs back on your HDTV and see the same, if not better image and sound quality as you do from HDTV broadcasts.

What kind of TV do I need to enjoy Blu-ray?
You can play back Blu-ray movies on any TV with composite video or better inputs (not RF), but to get a worthwhile benefit from the format over DVD you'll want to have a high-definition television, or HDTV, with a vertical resolution higher than 480p, and preferably higher than 720p. Most Blu-ray titles can deliver an image with a vertical resolution of 1080i or 1080p. The more horizontal resolution the TV can reproduce, up to 1920 lines or pixels, the better.

How are Blu-ray discs different than regular DVDs?
Blu-ray discs are the same size as DVD or CD, but use a blue* laser to store and read data as opposed to the red laser used in DVDs and CDs. The blue laser's shorter wavelength, combined with a smaller aperture lens and a thinner cover layer on the disc makes it possible to create a smaller beam spot size capable of storing and reading much more, smaller information on the disc. A single-layer Blu-ray disc can hold 25 GB worth of data, compared to 4.5 on a standard DVD. A dual layer BD disc holds up to 50 GB. This translates into the ability to store a full 1080p HD image. This has a resolution consisting of 1920 by 1080 progressively scanned pixels, compared to standard DVD's 720 by 480 pixels. In addition, Blu-ray has much wider bandwidth than DVD, delivering signals at speeds up to 48 Mbps, six times faster than DVD's 8 Mbps, and nearly 2.5 times the data of an HDTV broadcast's 19.2 Mbps. *technically, it's violet, but who's keeping track?

Will Blu-ray discs play in my current DVD player?
No. You will need a Blu-ray player to be able to read the smaller, denser information found on a Blu-ray disc.

Will I be able to play standar DVDs on my Samsung Blu-ray player?
Yes. Blu-ray players are backwards compatible with your standard DVDs. They can also play CDs.

Is Blu-ray the same as HD DVD?
No. HD DVD was a competing format with less storage capacity than Blu-ray. With Toshiba, its primary champion announcing on February 19, 2008 that they would end production of HD DVD products, the few companies that were supporting the format announced that they would instead create products for the Blu-ray format.

What does up-conversion mean?
Consumers have over 50 years worth of material in standard definition formats. Up-conversion is the process of taking that existing, standard definition material and converting it (lines and pixels are copied to some degree) to the higher resolution needed to display those signals on an HDTV. When done well, the process can often improve picture quality, though it can't increase actual resolution. The quality of the up-converter, included in everything from up-converting standard DVD players to Blu-ray players and HDTVs, can often determine the quality of the picture.

What kind of cables, connections do I need to have to make Blu-ray work?
You will need either a 3-wire analog component (typically labeled Y, Pr and Pb) or an HDMI digital video connection between the BD player and the TV. The HDMI connection is preferable. Not only will it provide better image quality, but it will pass along higher resolution audio and control information, as well. You may get limited up-conversion options with standard DVDs when using the component connection.

What is firmware and do I need it?
Firmware is like computer software, or the instruction set in the player that tells the hardware what to do under various conditions. Insert a disc, and the firmware tells the player to read the disc. Press the Play button and the firmware tells the player to play the movie. Generally speaking, the firmware is invisible to the end user. But Blu-ray keeps evolving, and new features keep being created. With each new feature that a movie studio comes up with, hardware manufacturers have to release new instruction sets, or firmware, to deal with it. Samsung's ability to easily update the firmware in their BD players makes them one of the best in the business.

Who supports Blu-ray?
At this point, nearly everyone supports Blu-ray. All the major movie studios have announced that they would support Blu-ray with both new and catalog titles. Thousands of movies and music videos are already available. Most major electronics manufacturers have been supporting Blu-ray since the format's beginning.

Can I rent movies on Blu-ray?
Yes. Blockbuster, Hollywood Video and Netflix, among other places, offer Blu-ray titles for rent.

Are my regular DVDs obsolete?
Not by the definition Merriam Webster would use. You can still play your regular DVDs on your Blu-ray disc player, so they're still useful, but you'll want to replace them with Blu-ray versions as they become available in the new format so that you can enjoy the improved image and sound quality.

Is the only benefit to Blu-ray the video quality? Why should I upgrade to Blu-ray?
You will probably upgrade because of the video quality, but you may also appreciate the improved sound quality available on some players as well as the advanced interactive features. Blu-ray offers the latest generation audio codecs that can play back up to 8 channels of surround sound with improved audio quality over that of standard 5.1 digital soundtracks. This includes Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS High Resolution and DTS Master Audio. Blu-ray also offers advanced bonus features that can include interactive game features or picture-in-picture commentary tracks, not to mention additional features that could be downloaded after the disc has been produced.

Do I need to buy a new home theater system?
You don't need a new audio system, but you should at least have a surround system (five speakers and ideally a subwoofer) with Dolby Digital or DTS audio decoding to hear the theater-like audio experience that is available on Blu-ray. Some BD players offer more advanced audio codecs that provide even better quality sound through up to 8 channels of surround.

What do all these audio formats mean?
You can hear better-than theater-like audio at home. As George Lucas has said, sound is 50% of the movie experience. With the right audio equipment, you can hear up to 7.1 channels of sound that is no different than what the recording engineers heard in the mixing room.

What's the benefit of 24p?
Movies are recorded on film at 24 frames per second (fps). Video is recorded and played back at 60 frames per second. Movies must be converted to 60 frames before being played back on your TV. Blu-ray discs record movie content in the original 24 frame format, and convert the signal within the player to output at 60 fps for standard HDTVs. Some current HDTVs, like Samsung's Auto Motion Plus 120Hz models, and undoubtedly more future ones, can accept and play back the 24 frame signal without the intermediary conversion to 60 fps, which can offer a smoother, more natural-looking image.

What does Profile 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 mean?
Blu-ray's specifications for video are broken into three profiles, each with its own set of hardware and software requirements. Profile 1.0 gave hardware manufacturers a grace period to create players that were capable of Blu-ray video playback, but didn't need to meet the final standard profile requirements. This grace period ended October 31, 2007. These players, while not able to take advantage of all of Blu-ray's promised extra content, will provide full 1080p video playback.

Profile 1.1, also known as BonusView, makes certain requirements mandatory: picture-in-picture, secondary audio mixing, a minimum of 256MB of memory (built-in or removable), and the incorporation of a virtual file system. Players created and sold after October 31, 2007 are required to meet the Profile 1.1 specification, and therefore will take advantage of 1.1-enabled bonus materials on certain BD discs.

BD-Live (Profile 2.0) makes mandatory all parts of Profile 1.1, but increases the memory requirement to 1GB and adds the hardware requirement of a network connection. This specification enables the even-more interactive web-based bonus material found on discs that provide such content.

Customer Reviews

Temperamental and short life span - S. Wu - Sunnyvale, CA USA
I have owned my unit for about 18 months by this point. Mostly I stream Netflix movies and occasionally watch Blu-ray discs from Netflix. The streaming element has been very temperamental from the very beginning. The unit receives a wired ethernet connection from my router (receiving high speed cable internet), and I connect it to my TV throught HDMI. Not long after I purchased the unit I noticed that occasionally when I started streaming I had only sound and no video. This could be fixed by powering the unit off and on but not always. I replaced the HDMI cable once but it didn't seem to be the problem.

Playing blu-ray discs has its own share of problems. It takes very long to load a disc, and the playback freezes from time to time. At one point it fails to pay blu-ray discs completely. I had to reset the unit; the reset then caused the streaming part to fail because activation was wiped out. Had to reactivate again. After that the discs could be played but freezes occurred every few minutes.

Not sure if these are general problems with Samsung players but needless to say, do not buy this model.

Fantastic - Farrah Jackson - Mass.
This is a great blu-ray player we love having the Netflix addition - makes having the subscription so much more valuable!

The picture is amazing! Can't imagine not having it.

Great until it dies.. - D. Schwartz - LA, CA
I got this as a present from my wife and I really loved it - until one day when I invited a bunch of friends over to watch a blu-ray I discovered that it had died. I couldn't watch anything other than DVDs, which defeats the point of owning a blu-ray player.

I called Samsung customer support and soon discovered that they only offer a 3 month labor warranty. So, the fact that they provide a 1 year parts warranty is meaningless, as it would cost 85 dollars of labor charges to fix my "under warranty" player.

After an hour of arguing with customer support, I finally got Samsung to cover the entire shipping and labor charges at no cost to me (hint: tell them that you are in the market for another player, that you only own Samsung products, and that their failure to pay for repairs will negatively impact your likelihood of buying future Samsung products or recommending Samsung products).

I just got my blu-ray player back from being repaired and lo and behold, it wasn't fixed. I called customer support and they said that they fixed the player and tested it for 48 hours. I found this curious since I was told by a customer service agent when I sent the player in that my player would be fixed on a certain date in the future and I received an email on that date saying my player was being shipped back to me. Somehow, they managed to fit 48 hours of testing in a 3 hour time period!!

When I called customer service again (hint: talk to executive customer service; regular customer service is in India and is flat out retarded), I pointed out all the problem with Samsung (i.e. they don't test things before sending them back, they lied to me about testing) and they came back with the option of having the player fixed again. I told them that this was less than ideal since they had already screwed up once before and lied about fixing it. They came back with the option of replacement. I took the replacement on the condition that it wasn't a refurbished model. If I actually get a new model (not a refurb), I will be satisfied with executive customer support but will have a bad taste in my mouth from Samsung's products and tech support. In the meantime, I splurged on a new player (LG 570) and I have been very impressed thus far. Samsung has lost my tech loyalty on this one.

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Blu-Ray Disc Player

Monday, September 6, 2010