Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-Ray DVD Player - It is Relatively Cheap for a Reason
Written: Dec 26 '06 (Updated Nov 26 '07)
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Pros: Excellent Blu-Ray image quality, low price for BR player
Cons: Slow menu navigation, disc load and layer change; standard DVD playback quality
The Bottom Line: If you want to get a Blu-Ray DVD player as cheep as possible, the BD-P1000 may be the only choice. But if you want a good Blue-Ray and...
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| dkozin's Full Review: Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-Ray Player |
The first Blu-Ray High-Definition DVD player on the market was the Samsung DB-P1000. At the time of its introduction it sold for $1,000 and was the first Blu-Ray DVD player that showed people what to expect from the DVD playback: stunning image quality and slow load times.
The P1000 have since dropped in price to mid-$600 range and the firmware update has improved the load times and issues with some of the first examples having noise reduction turned on, which used to result in image softness. So is this Blu-Ray DVD player a good choice?
About the Samsung DB-P1000
The Samsung DB-P1000 is a high-definition Blu-Ray DVD player with HDMI 1.2 (up to 1080p resolution), component video outs (up to 720p/1080i), standard-resolution DVD upconversion through HDMI (720p/1080i/1080p), S-Video, stereo analog audio and 5.1 analog audio as well as coaxial and optical digital audio outs.
The player plays Blu-Ray DVD, DVD-Video, CD-Audio. It plays CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-Video, DVD-R, DVD-RW and even DVD-RAM. It has memory card slots for 10 types of flash memory cards.
In Use
Samsung is not known for producing expensive DVD players, at least not in the US. The P1000 is the exception and it is solidly built and heavy. Its controls are solid as well. The setup is pretty easy.
I had the P1000 connected through the HDMI out and watched Mission Impossible-III on Blu-Ray DVD. First of all, the load time issue is still there. It takes half a minute after the disc is in the tray for image to appear. I am not sure if there is any improvement in this regard comparing to the original firmware.
The player supports playback at the material’s (BR DVD) native resolution through either component video out or the HDMI out.
Performance and Image Quality
The image quality when watching Blu-Ray DVD is astonishing. The images become three-dimensional, comparing to DVD (even upconverted DVD), there are details you would never see on standard-resolution DVD. The colors are great and the sound is at least as good as the sound I get from regular DVDs. But the P1000 lacks DVD-Audio, SACD playback or support for Dolby True HD or DTS-HD Master Audio decoding. 5.1 uncompressed PCM is present, however.
The standard DVD playback (with upconversion or without) is good, but not great. Although the player works rather well overall, the detail level is not as good as with better standard DVD players I have seen (e.g. any recent or semi-recent Panasonic I have seen).
Overall, the performance was a mixed bag. The player was sluggish at times (disc load, navigating menus, layer change).
Although the price of this player is almost twice less than the Panasonic DMP-BD10 and can be considered a good deal as such, you would still be paying more than $600 for dealing with sluggish performance in some areas.
It is my belief that the Blu-Ray DVD players are still in early stages of their development and that the prices will drop pretty quickly and the performance will improve as well. I am returning this thing to the store.
Remote
The remote control could have been better. The remote is not backlit, the button layout is better than some (e.g. Philips DVP642, which is horrendous). But still not very intuitive and worse than any Panasonic remote.
Bottom Line
If you want to get a Blu-Ray DVD player as cheep as possible, the BD-P1000 may be the only choice. But if you want a good Blu-Ray and standard DVD player (as well as DVD-Audio) and money is not an issue, the Panasonic DMP-BD10 is a better alternative, albeit for almost twice the price.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 660
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dkozin
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Location: California
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I love to push buttons on electronic (audio and video) equipment. It makes me happy.
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