Samsung BD P1500 1080p Blu ray Player

plays Blu-ray high-definition discs (selectable output resolution: 1080p signals available through HDMI output only; 720p/1080i signals available through HDMI or component video) * plays BD-ROM and BD-R & BD-RE * plays DVD-Video and DVD-R & DVD-RW * plays audio CD and CD-R & CD-RW * selectable 720p/1080i/1080p video upconversion for DVD (upconverted video available through HDMI output only) *

User Ratings and Reviews

1 Star Played DVD’s, but would not play Blu-Ray
Amazon was great, got me the unit in 2-days. Everything was great, it worked on all CD’s and DVDs so the kids where happy. But then my box set of 007 Blu-ray disk arrived and they didn’t work. I tried three disk and they would load the menu, I choose something, and then it would restart the menu. I was lucky to have a wireless internal connection from my DVR sitting right there and decided to try to upgrade the firmware. It took 3 reboots to get the network working on the player, but it finally connected their site. I took over an hour to download the firmware, and my DSL line is 1-MB/s. When the upgrade finished the BLu-Ray disk started to work. It’s a below average player and I shouldn’t have to upgrade it to play Blu-Ray disk. I should have stuck with plan A, just buy a PS3.

5 Stars Blu-Ray does not limit you to Blu-Ray!
I have a 2-year old Sony NS3100ES receiver that plays every format and outputs stereo or 5.1 surround sound. The picture is clear and the sound is impeccable. Why would I go out and spend literally $300 to $1,000 for a player that plays Blu-Ray discs?

Samsung’s BD-P1500 is sleek, compact and has so many more functions than other players. It will play regular DVD’s, CD’, SACD’s, DVD-R, DVD-RW, home made DVD’s and much more. The HDMI to HDMI cable is the best to use if your television has that port, as it carries the most data most efficiently (you can buy it here on Amazon). You can also connect to a regular TV or sound system with R/B/G cables (video) and R/W cables (audio). Whatever connection or system, it will play stereo to surround sound.

The entire world of Blu-Ray discs is another topic. They have a new optical disc format with over five and a half times the storage capacity of a standard DVD. This means you have more data and extras (like a storyboard guide at the bottom of the screen, display the title list, repeat play to specific points on the Blu-Ray disc, changing the camera angel of the movie, `bookmark’ a specific scene spot and much more). There is also a LAN/Ethernet terminal output for updating software from Samsung (most electronic companies upgrade to improve quality over time).

The biggest selling point of all is the massive amount of data that can be played compared to regular DVD players. The picture is SO amazingly crisp (a Full 1080/24p True Cinema picture), I’d much rather prefer viewing a Blu-Ray disc over a regular DVD. The sound is crystal clear (Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD), either in stereo, 5.1 or 7.1 (something I never thought could be improved upon with my Sony DVD player). Now at this price, you can have the new experience of Blu-Ray entertainment. It seems that prices do come down and quality does go up.

Note: Most of the on-line rental companies (Netflix, Blockbuster, etc.) have most of the Blu-Ray discs in stock!

5 Stars AWESOME BLURAY PLAYER!!!
This is an excellent bluray player. I must say that the picture quality is just amazing. At first I was worried about getting the Samsung BD-P1500 bluray player because a lot of reviews complained that it freezes,skips chapters, or stops accepting discs. I’ve had mines for almost two weeks and haven’t experienced a single problem at all, and I didn’t even have to update it with the firmware. All the movies I played on it work perfectly and the dvd 1080p upscaling is excellent. All my dvds look fantastic and have better picture quality than before. Setup was a breeze; I connected this bluray player via 1.3 hdmi cable to my Samsung LN46a650 LCD tv. I watched Planet Earth Bluray and I was just blown away! The picture was so mesmerizing and just beautiful. This bluray player is definitely a winner. Overall I’m extremely happy with this bluray player!

5 Stars Great BD player, great price
Great BD player and at a great price. If you are in the market for an HDTV you can get a combo deal on Amazon for an additional $200 off making this BD player basically free. You cant go wrong!

1 Star Lemon
Had to return the item because it would freeze during play and I had to shut down the entire system. Downloading firmware did not help.

Electronics Expo authorized the return and it went smoothly.

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Panasonic DMP BD35K 1080p Blu ray Player

Your 1080p widescreen HDTV is not being maximized unless you add a Blu-Ray player to it. The Panasonic DMP-BD35K 1080p Blu-Ray Player is a highly affordable way of viewing the latest Blu-Ray discs that deliver clear, ultrasharp and vivid images of new and favorite movies. Blu-ray means incredible full-HD images, breathtaking sound and 5x the data capacity of DVDs. Now Blu-ray means something else too: an entirely new movie-viewing experience, made possible by Final Standard Profile, which adds features never seen before, like four Picture-in-Picture modes including Enhanced Commentary (from directors and actors), Backstage Pass, Peek Behind the Animation and Audio Mixing. It will also play your current DVD discs (albeit at lower resolutions) and CD discs. The only disc that the DMPBD35 won’t play is DiVX (Panasonic DMP-BD55K will play DiVX). So make everyday a special holiday when you watch discs on your HDTV played by the Panasonic DMP-BD35K 1080p Blu-Ray Player. Advanced Picture Processing for 1080p (including 1080p/24 output for Blu-ray and standard DVD) On-board decoding or bitstreaming of 5.1 and 7.1-channel high bit rate audio including Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio and DTS-HD Master Audio (via HDMI output only) VieraLink – Control your Panasonic Viera TV and DVD player with just one remote SD Memory Card Slot – Enjoy Precious Memories on your screen (Photos and Video) Approximate Unit Dimensions (H x W x D) 2-5/16” x 16-15/16” x 12-5/8”; Weight 7.3 lbs

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Blu-Ray Picture is Amazing
I was not planning on getting a blu-ray player, but this came free with the Panasonic TV we ordered on Amazon (at the time). How can you beat that!!

Needless to say, we will never go back to regular DVD! We watched Tropic Thunder the other night, the colors were so bright and the picture almost seemed 3-D at times.

Had it not been free, I might have considered a player with a few more options (or a PS3), but for a pretty basic player, works like a charm.

2 Stars Upconversion of DVDs not available on component outputs
There is much to love about this player but buyer beware. The upconversion of DVDs is only possible with the HDMI output. If you need to use the component outputs as I do, your DVDs will play at 480P not 720P or 1080P.

The network interface was trivial to setup and I was immediately able to update my firmware revision. Very nice.

5 Stars Great Upgrade from Last Year’s Blu Ray Players
I had a Sony Blu Ray Player I purchased last year. While I had generally no complaints about the player, it unfortunately did not pass a DTS Master Audio signal (only the base DTS code) to my receivier. Therefore, I upgraded this year. Based on a lot of the reviews here and on other sites, I went with the Panasonic BD35K. The first unit I received I had to return because it would not read any disc. As usual, Amazon made that easy and painless. The second unit works great. I connected via HDMI cable to my Sony receiver which can decode all the new Dolby and DTS codecs. Another HDMI cable goes from the receiver to the Sony SXRD TV. The blu ray disc films seem somewhat sharper to me than when played on the prior blu ray player. The up-convert of regular DVD discs is excellent; even better than last year’s Sony. The load times are much faster than my older blu ray player. I do not have the player connected directly to the internet so updated the firmware via file transfer, which was simple and quick. Overall, I could not be more pleased with the upgrade. Whether the unit is better than the Sony 350 which is slightly less expensive, I cannot say. I am certainly satisifed with the Sony gear I have, but I am glad I gave the Panasonic unit a try.

4 Stars Good Product
I bought this product based on the reviews from [...]. It was a good price and a profile 2.0 player. It has network support for easy firmware updates and additional content. The player is not sluggish at all. I first plugged it in with component cables and there was a noticeable line refresh problem so I connected with an HDMI cable and the problem is gone. You might want to consider BD55K. I did not troubleshoot the problem. It could have been the component cables. I inserted my SDHC card and it viewed pictures ok but would not show or play .AVI files…bummer!

5 Stars Operates as designed
Great player, great price. I fail to see why a person would spend more. I watched Wall-e and Tropic Thunder on my 60″ Sony KDS2000 in full 1080p – what can can I say – it blows you away. The picture quality is beautiful. The sound through my Pioneer 1018 Receiver is also incredible. The player operates without a glitch and synced seamlessly with my other components. Load time, though I didn’t time it – was certainly reasonable. My first venture into Bluray and I’m going to find it difficult to ever watch or listen to a movie in another format. Good stuff. As a bonus, it came double boxed in a flawless shipping carton. Love Amazon.

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Sony BDP S550 1080p Blu ray Player

BD-Live Ready / Full HD 1080p/24p and 60p AVC-HD w/x.v.Color Output / Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD / 1080p HD Upscaling / BRAVIA Sync / HDMI

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Outstanding
This blu ray player is at the top of the food chain. Not only does it have bd live, it comes with a usb card to store content. The menu is easy to navigate and it gives brilliant video and audio. Sony has done it again.

5 Stars It does the job well
I have had my Sony Bdp-s550 for a little over a month now. I have it running through a Denon 4306 AVR which does not decode the lossless audio. The s-550 will decode the audio and send it out through HDMI in which the receiver will show MULTI CH or over anolog outs which shows up as EXT IN on my receiver. It is BD Live, but does not have Wi Fi which is something I would like to see on the expensive models. The sound and the picture are wonderful to my eyes. For Video I use the Sony VPL-VW100 Projector onto a 106″ Stewart Filmscreen. I also have a PS3 that now resides in my bedroom.

5 Stars Superior product
terrific, best H.D picture I have ever seen Hooked up to a sony es 5300 and sony xbr 5. Easy ,Hdmi cable does it all. Sound full 7.1 surround ( unbeliveable) took 5 minutes to install and have it up and running perfectly………………

5 Stars AWESOME!!
I am so glad I waited for this player. The picture and sound are fantastic and I couldn’t be happier. The only “issue” I had was the memory card which came with the player. It had an intermittent contact problem that I tracked down to the card itself. I talked to no less than 4 different customer service representatives before I found one who instructed me to send JUST the memory card to their service facility. The others wanted me to box up the whole player and send it back, all for a $12 memory card. Once the card was received by the service center, the technician called to verify the problem and my troubleshooting steps. He not only sent me a new memory card but 3 movies for my trouble. Though frustrating at times, ALL the customer service agents were very polite and wanted to help. But if the issue isn’t “in the script”, it seemed to cause a lot of confusion.

5 Stars Simply the best
There’s no better unit out on the market at this time for the money. This upconverts you old dvd’s and cd’s to spectacular video and sounds.

and Amazon is the place to buy it with free S+H.

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Panasonic DMP BD55K 1080p Blu Ray Player

BD-Live: Enjoy Additional Content via Internet (requires optional SD card) / PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus / Also plays DVD, CD, DiVX

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Best Blu-ray Player and I’ve tried Three
Pros: Excellent Picture Quality for both Blu-ray’s and Standard DVD’s. Sound using analog output sounds amazing. It’s 2.0 right out of the box. Can play pretty much anything. Has lot os extras in menu to work with. Slick and pretty dang cool to look at.

Cons: Not really a con but it uses SD cards rather than USB. But I guess that’s actually a good thing so you can view photos and such.

Summary: I have tried three different players. I have a Samsung TV and thought that it would be a good thing to have a Samsung Blu-ray to go along with it. I had immediate problems with it. I then tried the Sony 350 which I had problems and some personal dislikes so I returned that one. After realizing I just needed to spend the money I went and picked up the Panny BD55. It is worth every penny. It surpases the picture quality and the sound quality of boththe Samsung 1500 and the Sony 350. The analogs out are great for anyone with an older receiver. The sound is fantastic. I picked up the incredible Hulk on Blu-ray and it was shaking the room. The menu is great and has tons of settings for those of us who like to tweak things. It is a beautiful looking player which you can easily find yourself staring at it. One thing that was very surprising is that the Vierra link works with My Samsung LN46A650 AnyNet function so the Blu-ray player and my tv will interact with one another. I turn the player on and the tv will turn on and change to the Blu-ray source. I turn the TV off and the player will turn off. It’s pretty nifty. All in all it’s a great player and probably the best that’s out there right now. If you have the money go for it, it’s worth it. If you don’t need the analog out go for it’s little brother the BD35.

5 Stars Incredible
The picture the BD55 player puts out along with the sound quality will blow you away. There is no downside to this player. I never knew my Sony HDTV could look so good.

5 Stars Amazing
Starts up fast, upconverts great, sound is amazing. Easy to use … As soon as I got it I upgraded from ver 1.0 of the firmware to 1.5 (worth knowing its there). 1080 over component for blu ray DVDs or non HMDI tvs and 480 over component for non blu ray dvds

5 Stars Best Blu-ray Bang for the Buck
Many people have been waiting a long time for a Blu-ray Disc player like the DMP-BD55 to come along: one that supports native decoding and bitstreaming of *all* of the high definition audio formats (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, multi-channel PCM), with full Profile 1.1 and 2.0 support (BonusView and BD-Live), with reasonably fast loading times and good BD-Java interactivity, with outstanding Blu-ray Disc image quality and acceptable upconversion of standard DVDs. And I’m happy to say the BD55 satifies on all of these levels.

Although some say the PS3 is still the best Blu-ray Disc player, the PS3 lacks bitstreaming support for DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD (which some people want), and it does not integrate as well with a home theater system due to its lack of IR or RF remote control support. Yes I know all about the Nyko IR remote for the PS3, but that is missing some core controls like POWER so it will not get you the whole way there. Also, the BD55 (and its little brother, the equally impressive BD35) are actually less expensive than the PS3, and they’ve come a long way in disc loading and boot-up times such that these new BD players actually load some discs a little bit *faster* than the PS3 (details below). The PS3 still wins in overall boot-up time and in loading and interaction with BD-Java discs, but the new Panasonics are among the first to give the PS3 a run for its money in this department.

Where the BD55 wins over virtually all of the competition (including the PS3) is in its treatment of Blu-ray Discs, both from a picture performance standpoint and in the audio department. On the “big picture” front, the unit includes Panasonic’s newly improved UniPhier chip which intelligently upconverts the native 4:2:0 encoding on a Blu-ray discs to 4:4:4 output. What this means from a layman’s perspective is that the player restores missing color detail to each pixel in the 1920×1080 image. And while this doesn’t make a big difference on smaller sized screens, it does noticeably improve color detail on the larger flat panel and projection screens which you’re likely to find in a home theater system. Also, the BD55 has enhanced SD upconversion over its predecessors that makes watching DVDs a lot more enjoyable. It’s not quite the equal the the best upconverting DVD players on the market, but it’s not that far off either.

On the sound front, the BD55 includes 5.1 and 7.1-channel analog outputs with full decoding of multi-channel PCM, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. This makes it an excellent choice to add to a high-end multi-channel preamp/processor or receiver which lacks HDMI inputs. The multi-channel analog output allows you to take full advantage of the latest and greatest audio formats available on Blu-ray Disc. If you haven’t heard these new formats yet, you’re in for a treat as they exactly match the original studio recordings in quality and it can give your home theater system quite a work out! The BD55 is one of very few players on the market today that offers this feature (multi-channel analog out). The PS3 does not offer this. And while the Samsung BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 do offer multi-channel analog outputs, they do not currently offer native decoding of DTS-HD Master Audio (though there is some conflicting information as to whether this may be delivered in the future via a firmware upgrade).

For those with more modern surround sound equipment, the BD55 can output multi-channel Blu-ray Discs and DVDs in the native “bitstream” or it can decode the bitstream to full resolution uncompressed PCM. The choice is yours based on the capabilities of your specific home theater system.

One of the first things we measured when we got the BD55 in for review was the boot-up and disc-loading time. First and second generation BD players were painfully slow to boot up and to load discs. While the BD55 does take 24 seconds to boot up (vs. the PS3’s 9 seconds), the BD55 was actually quicker to load a standard (non-Java) Blu-ray Disc than the PS3 – about 9 seconds faster, to be precise – and it was about 6 seconds faster to load a standard DVD. For a BD Java-heavy disc like “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” the BD55 loaded up the disc in about 45 seconds, which is only about 5 seconds slower than the PS3. The PS3, with its super-fast Cell processor, is still better (and quicker) in its interactivity with BD-Java-based menus and BD-Live, but the BD55 is certainly in the same ballpark. What’s important here is that the delays in playback are short enough that they won’t bother most people, and the huge improvement in picture and sound quality over standard DVD make Blu-ray playback on the BD55 worth the wait.

The DMP-BD55 is by no means a “perfect” player – all CE components have their quirks. SD conversion on specialized upconverting DVD players such as the higher end Oppo players or the Silicon Optix HQV-based players is definitely better than the SD upconversion on the BD55, but not so much as to bother me (and I’m pretty picky). Overall, the BD55 provides one of the stongest feature sets and performance packages available today, and it does it at a price in line with most home theater fans’ budgets. So it gets my enthusiastic recommendation.

More information is available in our full review on Big Picture Big Sound.

5 Stars Really happy with this player
I’m really glad I waited for this model. Using the 8ch analog outputs it allows me to use my old Yamaha reciever that I really have grown to love the sound from. When on the analog output it gives channel volume adjustments within the player. It also simultaneously outputs optical digital so for the older formats I can let the reciever do the decoding and use the 5.1 features there. The configuration and menu features are great. Load times are fast enough for me. This is my first blu-ray player so I don’t have comparisons. The pic quality is fantastic. I’m running mine at 720P as I have a 720P projector, so I can’t speak to the 1080P features. For my set up this is a major upgrade. The upconverting to 720P for standard DVDs, mp3 and audio playback are all smooth and great sounding as well.

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Panasonic DMP BD30K 1080p Blu ray Disc Player

The DMP-BD30 is the next generation High Definition 1080p Blu-ray Disc player. It is the first Blu-ray player to be introduced with Final Standard Profile, which adds a variety of new and enhanced features to the Blu-ray arena and one that separates the Panasonic Blu-ray player from the rest of the field. Also unique to the DMP-BD30 is the inclusion of an SD Memory Card slot for playback of High Definition content recorded in the AVCHD format. The SD slot also allows for viewing of digital still images recorded to an SD Memory Card.Final Standard Profile is an advanced function added to the Blu-ray standard, which opens the door to new functions such as Picture-in-Picture (which displays a second image in a sub window) and Audio Mixing (allows the consumer to switch the sound between the main and sub windows).The inclusion of a multi-function SD Card slot is another new addition to the Panasonic Blu-ray player. Coupled with the AVCHD codec, the DMP-BD30 allows for images recorded on a high capacity HD SD card to be outputted directly from the player’s HDMI terminal in their original 1080p form. To further benefit the user, the DMP-BD30 provides an AVCHD Direct Navigator function that makes it easy to search for particular scenes. The player can also play back JPEG still images on an SD card, such as those recorded with a Panasonic Lumix digital camera. The DMP-BD30 converts the images to 1920×1080 resolution, ideal for viewing on a1080p HD Plasma and output them through the HDMI terminal.Like its predecessor, the DMP-DB30 features the EZ-Sync HDAVI Control that allows the consumer to operate their Panasonic home theater system with one remote. With one touch of the EZ-Sync button, all the components turn on, the correct TV input is chosen, the TV’s built-in speakers are muted and the home theater starts playback.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars first blu ray
Does everything i wanted it for. right now it is just hooked to a tv, no surround. works great, easy to set up and use. later it will be hooked to a panasonic tv. would buy again. also compared prices and this dvd player was $[...] MORE at [...]- just fyi.

3 Stars Some important features missing versus DVD players
I will say I am impressed with the audio/video quality of this machine. However, it seems that the more sophisticated user interface features depend upon the disk, not the machine, so some features like stop-resume described in the manual may not (and often don’t) work. Furthermore, basics like resuming playback after switching off power are missing. This is a damn nuisance – each time you switch the power on you have to go through the entire disk initialization (quite slow at 30 seconds), and then through the forced copyright warnings, and then through the chapters to find your previous position – about 1.5 minutes total. The controls also seem to have a slow response (~1 second) in many cases. This is like going back to the stone age after using a recent DVD player.

Furthermore my DVD player has a 5-disk carousel (essential if different family members watch different films), and it can remember the last played position for up to 500 movies. When are they going to make carousel players for blu-ray? It may seem that I am unjustly picking on this player if others lack these same features – but it is my first player, and I can only write as I find.

5 Stars Excellent image, easy to use
Made my choice on this product over a SONY model.

First time set up is really easy — plug in and change a few on-screen menu items, that’s it! Only the audio part took another try to output Dolby 5.1.

Test the machine on BBC’s Planet Earth, really crisp images and vivid colors.

5 Stars My first Blu-Ray
This is my first Blu-Ray player. I purchased it after updating from a 27″ CRT to a 50″ Plasma. I bought this around the first of September from Amazon and I was very pleased with their customer service. Fast shipping on the product and no issues with it working. I chose this player based on reviews from [...]

The menus were really easy to navigate for set-up of first time features. Remote buttons are well labeled. I am most impressed with this player due to it’s short load times. After putting in a movie I am at the main menu usually within 20 seconds. Some movies take a little longer but not much. I was really concerned about this when purchasing the player because I’d read several comments about some players taking minutes to load.

Picture quality and colors are great. This is my first HD television and Blu-Ray player so I cannot compare it to others, but for a first set-up I am more than satisfied. I’ve seen some upconversion of SD material that was really good, and some that was mediocre at best so I think the quality of the source material has a huge impact on upconversion quality.

Recently Panasonic has released the BD-35 so these units are going obsolete. The price of them should fall pretty low soon when the stores get desperate to close them out so keep an eye out.

5 Stars Better than 1080p?
I don’t know sony does it(blue ray).But now I know how they won the HD war.This player was as cheap as the sony and all aspects of it’s operation and function’installation,and set up are simple and quick.Picture is amazing,even compared to 1080p satellite!

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