scapp70's Full Review: Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-Ray Player
Are you telling me that it has only been slightly over a year since I have purchased my first blu-ray player? Worse yet, I have upgraded this piece of home theater equipment already. Am I really this crazy with money? What a waste! Gee, I can't deny that money has been wasted on a newer model from Samsung, especially when they just announced on the day I purchased this model, which a newer and better model is on the way from Samsung this Fall (2008). Well, hopefully this review will justify to myself as well as you as to why I bought another Blu-Ray player, when the first one is still sort of new, and working fine.
Video
Well, like the second generation Blu-Ray I have, this player also upconverts all of your DVD collection to 1080p with amazing results. Although, the BD-P1200 had the HQV technology, this fourth generation player does not. HQV stands for Hollywood Quality Video, and it is the ultimate standard right now for picture quality. For some this may be a step down, but for me it didn't matter at all. My top of the line receiver (Pioneer Elite VSX-94TXH) has HQV technology anyway. So it looks the same to me than when I had the BD-P1200 hooked up to my home theater.
Audio
The main reason for this purchase was the audio capabilities. This player has the following audio decoders installed; DTS, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and the newest addition Dolby True HD. It still lacks internal audio decoders - DTS HD-Master Audio / High Resolution Audio. This could be a problem for some, yet probably not for most. You see, this player allows your receiver to take this signal and decode it anyway. So, with this player I had tested and I am able to tell you first hand that I am able to experience DTS-HD from my Blu-Ray discs. This is the best part of the BD-P1500, as it allows any signal to pass through to your receiver. Hopefully your receiver is ready to decode these newer audio signals. If they aren't, you wouldn't be able to experience this sound quality anyway. This is the main area where the BD-P1200 was lacking, as it did not allow any signal to pass through, if it did - I doubt I would have bought this player.
Blu-Ray Features in 2008 BD Profile 1.1
This player comes equipped with BD Profile 1.1 - and so what does that mean to us? Profile 1.1 is a java based feature that allows you to view movies in a new and different way. Another name for this which is catching on is Bonusview. This feature can usually be found within the disc's Bonus Features section. It allows a picture in picture (PIP) capability, which could be used for a video commentary while you watch the movie, and also some other interesting ways.
For instance, a new release on blu-ray Cloverfield uses this technology for a pretty cool feature called Special Investigation Mode. With this specific feature while you watch the film in a smaller box, and with the rest of the screen you can view a map of Manhattan and watch "as it happens" the whereabouts of the "large scale aggressor", the "human subjects" and the primary military activity". You can be the judge if you think if this is cool or not. Another movie that uses Bonusview, that I came across is National Treasure 2. Hopefully, they will keep on coming up with clever ways to use this Bonusview feature as to possibly justify the expensive blu-ray disc prices.
BD Profile 2.0
This Samsung model does not come equipped with the 2.0 profile as far as I know (there are no discs that I know of to test it out yet), but Samsung promises that a future upgrade will fix this. My guess is that we'll see this update on October 4th, 2008 at the latest to coincide with the release of Disney's Sleeping Beauty blu-ray.
Anyway, this feature is said to enable internet capabilities with game possibilities and more. Profile 2.0 is also referred to as BD-Live. I don't think that we'll know too much about this feature until we get to experience it first hand. Disney Studios is making this feature top priority for future releases, not only Sleeping Beauty later in this year, but also for the release of Finding Nemo coming in November.
BD-Live & BD Bonus View - so what?
Does this make my old Blu-Ray player obsolete? No, not at all. You still will be able to watch the movies with great video and outstanding sound. That's what we'll be doing most of the time anyway. These new gimmicks are exciting, yet not really necessary.
Blu-Ray Profile 3.0?
Blu-Ray is said to get one more future facelift with a 3.0 update. This is basically for blu-ray audio discs. I have no idea if the BD-P1500 will be getting this future upgrade, I'm not sure if anyone really knows when or if it will be released. If they release it in 2009, and then start releasing Queen discs - then I'm in trouble because then my house will have to have three blu-ray players.
Any Cons?
Although I do not see this as a limitation, some will. There is only stereo analog outputs, not multi-track audio. What does this mean? For me, this means that if you have this machine hooked up to a reasonable receiver, equipped with HDMI inputs, then this means absolutley nothing. You get your audio feed the best way, through your HDMI cables. If you have this hooked up to a TV and not a receiver, then you're not hearing more than stereo anyway.
In Short
If you are looking for a reasonably priced player (I got mine for $359 at Circuit City) with just about all of the bells and whistles - then look no further because this player either has everything installed, or is ready for pass through to your receiver. This is the best deal that I have found so far for a Blu-Ray player. I know what some are saying out there - well what about the Sony PS3? Right now, the PS3 is limited as far as audio capabilities. While the Samsung BD-P1500 allows for pass through audio codecs to be decoded by your receiver, the PS3 first will have to take the DTS-HD audio track (for instance) and convert it to PCM, and then gets passed through to your receiver. People say that it sounds the same, but I know that there are people out there who are like me. If my receiver doesn't read DTS-HD on it, then it's not good enough!
Legend DTS-HD Master Audio - This is a lossless audio track that can feature up to 7.1 surround sound audio Dolby TrueHD - This is a lossless audio track that can feature up to 7.1 surround sound audio Dolby Digital Plus - an upgrade in audio quality up from Dolby Digital. Up to 5.1 surround sound audio PCM - Pulse Code Modulation is a digital scheme fortransmitting analog data.
UPDATE 06/28/08 I just wanted to make you aware that there is a firmware update via ethernet connection available. No word yet as to what this fixes, so far - I haven't seen anything that needs fixing. I am downloading it now, and will let you know the deatils.
UPDATE 10/07/08 Well, just as I had predicted, there was a new firmware update which happened to coincide with the release of Disney's Sleeping Beauty. Now your player is BD-Live capable. In order for you to actually enjoy this though, you need to spring for about another $10 and buy the flash card memory to stick in the back of the player. The blu-ray player has a paltry 256 MB on board already, but you need at least 1GB more. I paid $8 for my 4GB flash card, just in case and also because you can find these gadgets so inexpensive. I played around already with the Iron Man (boring) and with the Sleeping Beauty features, which are mostly "coming soon". So ::yay:: that it's finally here, and ::sigh:: because no one knows what to do with it just yet.
UPDATE 12/18/08 I just wanted to make you aware that there is a firmware update on the Samsung website available. No word yet as to what this fixes, just the usual mantra that it plays some discs better. There were a couple of things that needed fixing, for me it was the ability to play certain DVDs like Queen Greatest Video Hits I & II, and a couple of KISS DVDs. I still have one KISS DVD (Rock the Nation) that will not play, but Samsung also promises another firmware update on 12/31/08. I believe this update will deliver the internal DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 decoder - but hopefully they'll fix it to play my KISS DVD as well. Stay posted!
...of course now it is January 6th 2009 and there is still no firmware release. (updated 01/06/2009 @ 6:48am)
UPDATE 01/09/2009
Samsung has finally released this firmware update. I had easily downloaded the update via ethernet last night and the whole thing took about 15 minutes. I haven't tried it out yet, but I am assuming that this machine finally has onboard DTS-HD/Master Audio. I'm guessing it is going to be hard for me to tell since my receiver was decoding this audio codec all along anyway. But, I'll find out and let you know either way...
UPDATE 10/11/2009
I just wanted to mention that there has been another firmware released. The date reads that it was released on 09/28/2009, but I noticed it on 10/11/2009. The website doesn't give any details on what this does, just that it helps with some titles that wouldn't play before.
UPDATE 01/12/2010
There is a new firmware upgrade available again. This one is a bit more special than the previous. I'm not sure what the firmware contains in it, the only explanation they give again is that "improves playback compatibility of some movie titles". But, this upgrade also includes a new manual. That's right, an upgraded manual which reinforces my faith in the Samsung name, as they still care about older products despite newer and cooler players released by the same Samsung. I'll keep you posted on any new news for the BDP-1500.
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