Samsung BD1500, anyone have review?

Chris Gerhard

Was the problem Prestige a Blu-ray disc or DVD? I own the DVD, not the Blu-ray but can sure check the DVD with the Samsung BD-P1200. In either event, let us know what you think after you have had some time to play with the player. It is getting good reviews based on what I have been reading, which of course is good news for those of us that want this format to succeed.

Chris

nlitend1

I have had this player for 2 weeks. I lucked out because I had originally gone to get the 1400 on sale but the store was out and was subing this one instead. Score! I find the upscale to be very good, of course this depends on original DVD recording quaility. BD is outstanding, National Treasure was a pleasure to watch. FYI my display is Samsung LNT4669 (1080p 120hz). Just watched Vantage Point (rented) and there was one skip about half way through. Only problem with this player so far. I have been watching about 2hrs/day of CSI on DVD since getting this player and have not had any issues. Surprised that no 5.1 analog outs but should have had 7.1 anyway if anything. Currently running optical audio, sounds good. Happy to get into the 1080p game...

Disclamer: IMO

E55 KEV

Have any other 1500 owners programmed the remote to operate their tv successfully? My tv code takes then quits then causes the BD player to stop responding to remote.

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SNAP

I have the Onkyo 705 receiver and it claims to decode DTS-HD-MA. So if I buy the 1500 will I be able to get DTS-HD-MA??

hatt

Yes, should be no problem.

SNAP

THX Hatt......w/so many BD's now coming out in DTS-MA I'm thinking of upgrading from the Sony 300 to the Sammy 1500 so your input really helps.

hatt

The Sony 350 and Panasonic BD30 should also be considered. Only $50 more(or same price depending on retailer) than the 1500, although the BD30 is not believed capable of being upgraded to BD-Live, if that matters to you.

SNAP

Do they internally decode Master Audio or will the Onkyo do it?

hatt

Nope, they will bitstream it over HDMI to the Onkyo just as the Samsung 1500 will. Sony and Panasonic seem to have better firmware support vs Samsung which would lead me to their players over the Samsung at the same cost. If you already have a Sony 300 that plays fine, I'd hold off a little while and hit a sale or maybe even a newer player that could be out.

SNAP

I just called a friend of mine who works in a PC Richard store here in NJ tells me he just got them in and they look great. I used to work there and still get stuff about 2% over cost. I'll go check it out tonite.

Chris Gerhard

The BD-P1500 sure looks like a better deal than the Panasonic DMP-BD30 to me. It is hard to imagine that a Samsung player could be recommended based on the struggles Samsung has had getting their players to work acceptably but the company seems to have gotten it right. If this will be updated to Profile 2.0 and Samsung can continue to keep it updated to play all discs, there sure appears to be nothing wrong this time. Other than updating the profile, it may not even require additional firmware updates.

Chris

SNAP

I bought the Sony 350 last nite at PC Richard for $318.00. I hooked it up and it looks and sounds great. The Onkyo 705 decoded the TrueHD & DTS-MA codecs and they showed up on the Onkyo display. I demoed both the DTS-MA & TrueHD audio from Close Encounters and the TreueHD actually sounded better. The player is not as tall as the 300 and is much shallower. I was impressed.

Chris Gerhard

There is really no difference between lossless LPCM, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA given exactly the same data encoded properly on any of the three, at least that is how I hear it. Of course any given title that has both compressed codecs could have done something differently or even incorrectly to account for any perceived difference between the two. I really wish only one of the three had been used to keep things simpler and allow less expensive hardware, but that isn't what happened for whatever reason and we have what we have. Why any title would include two of the three in English isn't easily understood by me. I finally have the ability to decode all with a player or bitstream all to a Yamaha HDMI 1.3a decoder. I haven't determined what I prefer yet, internal decoding or bitstream, but I have determined the difference isn't enough to care much about.

Whether or not you believe you prefer Dobly TrueHD of course doesn't matter and that Sony should be excellent regardless.

Chris

SNAP

You're right Chris & thanks for the reply.

I probably would not have noticed the audio difference if both of them werent on the same disc so it was easy to A-B. But the TrueHD was noticably louder & clearer. Even my wife noticed it and she rarely notices anything in this regard. I too was surprised that they included both of those codecs on the same disc. We were watching the Special Edition version of the 3 movies included in this set.

PFC5

That is why it appears to sound better I think. When something is louder it usually sounds better/clearer. What likely happened is that the DtHD soundtrack was encoded at a higher db level than the DTS-HD MA for some reason. Why did they do this? I don't know, but it is the likely reason.

If you have a SPL meter (everyone should to calibrate the sound properly) you need to set them at the same DB level to compare them fairly. I think if you do this any different would likely disappear.

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