Here is my review:
I received and hooked up my Samsung 1500. My receiver is an Onkyo 605 which I will bitstream to, and my video source is a Mitsubishi 4900 1080p projector throwing to a 100" screen. I am sitting 11.5ft away from the center of the screen. I do have ambient light control, and to compare I am the previous owner of a Samsung 1000 which I sold for a PS3. Here is what I have found so far:
Setup: Setup was a snap. First I installed the latest firmware (2.0) via USB. No surprises here. After the firmware update and reboot I configured the date, time, and language. I then disabled screen messaging, selected Bitstream Audiophile for the audio choice, disabled dynamic compression under audio (I hate that this is set to "on" be default), and disabled PCM downsampling. I did not set this up on the network as I will not be using this player for BD Live. I thought the menus were easy to navigate and straightforward. Not nearly as many options and features as the PS3, but I think many people that are not techies will prefer Samsung's simpler menu and straightforward approach.
Load times: Huge improvement over the Samsung 1000. Slightly slower than the PS3 (Sleeping Beauty was much slower, but Iron Man and Indy 4 load times were pretty close to the PS3). DVD load times were snappy. No complaints here. I would say it is faster than my Toshiba HD-A2 player and slightly slower than the PS3. If someone is coming from a Samsung 1000/1200/1400, Sony S300, or other gen 1 BD SAL players the 1500 will seem lightning fast.
BD movies tested:
Iron Man (approx 30 mins)
Sleeping Beauty (approx 15 mins)
Indy 4 (approx 30 mins)
For Your Eyes Only (could not get disc menu to load)
Ratatouille (approx 15 mins)
DVD's tested:
Star Wars Episode 3 (approx 10 mins)
Chicken Run (approx 10 mins)
Lion King (approx 10 mins)
LOTR Return Of The King (approx 10 mins)
Performance: I felt the PQ was very close to my PS3 with regards to BD playback. I might give a slight edge to the PS3, but it is most likely too close to call. PQ for DVD playback was slightly below the PS3 and A2, but ever so slightly. I felt it was better than the Samsung 1000, but I am trying to go off of memory. I would say it is an average upscaler. AQ was on par with the PS3. I did not really notice any advantage to bitstraming vs decoding in the PS3 and sending out PCM. Both players sound terrific.
Playback Issues: Every disc loaded and played perfect with the exception to "For Your Eyes Only". That movie would load the Interpol warning screen and then would refuse to do load the menu and the screen would stay black. A quick search revealed several other players (Panasonic BD10A, LG200) were having the exact same issue, so it could be an authoring issue on the disc (although the PS3 loaded and played the movie without a hitch). So at this point in time I cannot blame Samsung too much here, but it is discouraging as the PS3 could play it. Everything else played perfect without any audio or video glitches.
So far I am quite pleased with the performance of the player for the price I paid. It is a sharp looking player although the screen is a little too dim for me on the front of the player even on the bright setting. It is definitely a little louder than the PS3 with regards to the drive reading the BD discs. But once the discs load, the player is silent. I have the other Bond movies and Hulk coming tomorrow and I will do some more tests throughout the week. Apparently people were only having an issue with For Your Eyes Only and not the other Bond movies, so I may call MGM and ask for an exchange if a new disc is authored that addresses the issue (unless Samsung fixes it).
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