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…all that glitters is blue. If you haven’t been keeping up with the latest fashion, let me tell you that blue is totally the new red! Blue laser technology is the only way to deliver high definition video to your television on a disc. It’s about time too; for so many years consumers have been starving to watch HDTV images from another format because the broadcast quality of HD cable and satellite can leave you wanting. Sure, there was D-VHS, a reputable attempt by JVC to deliver HD movies on D-Theatre tapes before a disc format materialized. But after being spoiled by the quick access features and interactivity of DVD, few consumers wanted to return their film collections to tape. To reach the next level of consumer satisfaction, we have to move away from the familiar and beloved DVD format to something somewhat different. A format that uses a blue-violet laser instead of the red laser used by the DVD format will pack significantly more data (5 times more data) onto a disc the same size as DVD. It’s no secret that there are two competing formats that have succeeded at this – Blu-Ray disc and HD-DVD – both delivering video to consumers on DVD-sized discs. Each technology does it a little differently but the end result should be similar. For more information about the technologies you can visit the Blu-ray and HD-DVD websites. There have been plenty of reviews of the Samsung BD-P1000 online and in print now. Many of these reviews spend a lot of time about the player in terms of cosmetics and features with only a small portion of the review dedicated to the video and audio quality. At this stage of the game, I’m going to do the opposite. I’ve decided to focus this review on the A/V quality rather than focus on other little features. I will also elaborate a little further in some parts of the review where I’ve felt other reviews lacked information. For those of you who don’t own this BD player, my comments may help finalize some speculations about the performance of the machine and if it is worth your purchase. The focus of this writing is a review of the Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-Ray disc player by means of the software that I’ve received for it. Blu-Ray (BD) software reviews can be found in the HD Software forum on this website. What I will say before I go any further is that I’m very, very impressed with this machine – more so than I thought I would be based on all of the informal discussions in forums on the internet. Is this player perfect? No. But my experiences with this machine just proves that I shouldn’t listen to anyone, nor repeat negative comments without putting those comments to the test myself, in my system that I’m familiar with. Should I ignore all that has been said by other users? Absolutely not…but I will read everything with a grain of salt until proven in front of my eyes. Video Set-Up Booting the player up was simple. It takes about 25 seconds to turn the player on and insert a disc. That’s much quicker than the snail’s pace the HD-DVD deck takes. On the screen you will see both Samsung’s and Blu-ray’s logos in a nice looking blue. The player’s internal menu looks exactly like Samsung’s televisions and DVD players. From the main screen I went right to the display setup section and confirmed the aspect ratio to be selected on 16:9 (4:3 and 4:3 letterbox is also available – remember in the early days of HDTV there were 4:3 screens delivering HD! I’m glad Samsung didn’t forget about those people!). A black level option is available (that would indicate setup at 0IRE or 7.5IRE). For component video, black level should be at 0IRE for analogue or HDMI. Changing the option to on or off didn’t make a single difference to the picture. I further examined this when using the PLUGE pattern on the Digital Video Essentials setup DVD. I compared the black level output of the BD-P1000 to my reference DVD player, the Denon DVD-3910, which was set at 0IRE. The two players’ black levels were bang on identical suggesting that the Samsung is fixed at 0IRE for component and HDMI outputs regardless of the black level setting in the setup menu. I’m assuming this selection will only be applicable if composite or S-video is selected for output and thus 7.5IRE would be the correct setting. I didn’t evaluate the SD outputs to confirm this. For those who are interested, the BD-P1000 passes PLUGE allowing the black-level calibration of your display device’s HD input easier. You also get to select what resolution you want to output: 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p. If connected with HDMI, the player knows up to what resolution is selectable to your display and “blanks out” the incompatible resolution. In my case 1080p was not selectable because my Panasonic PT-AE700 projector does not accept it. This is a good feature for consumers who may accidentally select the wrong resolution because it prevents them from getting a blank screen and causing panic because they’ll be unsure how to get a picture back. Samsung takes an extra step by giving a warning on the screen every time the resolution is changed. The warning instructs the consumer that should they get no picture at all with their choice of resolution they can hold down the fast-forward button on the front panel of the machine for five seconds and the player will resort back to the previous resolution. That’s a nice feature. If you get really stuck, the front panel of the player has the “TV-out Select” button that can be used to toggle between video outputs of the player. It notifies the user what output they’ve selected with an indicator on the front panel independent of the front panel display. Want to use HDMI? Push the button until it’s highlighted but make sure the disc is stopped when doing this or you will not be able to change outputs. The manual also explains how the player conforms to copyright management with BDs that contain ICT (Image Constraint Token). The resolution is limited to 960x540p on the analogue component outputs. So far none of the studios have implemented this but if they do, full component resolution will only be available through the much more secure and better quality digital HDMI. One negative about video setup is the lack of a 4:3 squeeze mode for 4:3 discs, 4:3 special features (on DVD and BD), and non-anamorphic widescreen discs. If your video display locks an HD signal in 16:9 mode and offers no aspect ratio resizing, you are forced to watch that program (like a 4:3 TV series on DVD, or a 4:3 special features on a BD) in stretch mode. I encountered this on my PT-AE700 using the HDMI. My Denon DVD-3910 offers a 4:3 squeeze mode for this problem and the Toshiba HD-DVD deck also does this automatically (a big plus for them) whereas the Samsung seemed to overlook the importance of this. Hopefully they will correct it on their second generation player. Video Quality This is the tough part of the review as many BD viewers could agree. Samsung has taken a beating by consumers for several reasons. Firstly, there is the notorious “bug” that everyone loves to blame this machine (more on that soon). Secondly, much of the BD software has been of average quality. But it doesn’t end there because do we blame the software in terms of the BD technology or do we blame the sub-par quality HD master tapes many of these BDs are simply reproducing, warts and all? There is a chain of possibilities here and without a second BD machine on hand to compare we can’t completely lay fault on the Samsung. While I haven’t opened the player up, the word is that the video is handled by the same Broadcom chip that is in the Toshiba HD-DVD player as well as a Faroudja FLI8638-LF. This allows the player to support resolutions up to 1080p through HDMI with a compatible display device. There is communication between the display device and the player – if 1080p isn’t supported on the display you can’t select 1080p as an output option. You should also note that 1080p is not supported through analogue component out, only resolutions up to 1080i. The 1080p information on the disc is converted to 1080i before the Faroudja brings it back to 1080p again, so the 1080p advantage with Blu-ray (with this introductory machine) isn’t exactly what videophiles are looking for. If using a “native” 1080p device, the differences will be negligible whether one selects 1080i or 1080p because either the player or the display device that will do the conversion and most displays tend to use similar quality converters. Some people will swear that there is no difference between 1080i “converted” and a native 1080p signal – I’ll disagree and we’ll be seeing this not too far into the future. The component video can be sent out through either the digital HDMI or analogue connections. There was a big stir (and some still mention it today) that the analogue component video outputs on this player are superior to the HDMI. This is *not* the case on the BD-P1000. The picture quality is equal, aside from some noise generated from the two steps of D/A conversion on the player’s end and the A/D conversion on my projector. Colour detail is almost on par, just slightly subdued with the analogue connections. Resolution is close but better using HDMI. Also, a hint of ghosting was introduced on screen because of the D/A-A/D process using analogue connections, but most probably won’t notice it. The reason most people claimed the video looked better on component video is because they’ve only had their analogue component input calibrated by them or professionally calibrated by an ISF technician. Many televisions have multiple picture memories in the user menu and service menu. After years of using analogue component on their SD-DVD player this Blu-ray machine may have been their first HDMI-equipped device and most likely didn’t have their HDMI input calibrated. With many TVs, you can’t just “copy” user picture settings over to each input because service menu settings for each input will also differ regardless of user settings. Based on what I’ve read in the forums, I know this is what is happening with many people. I’ve been calibrating televisions and projectors for years as an ISF tech and without doubt I’ve tweaked my own display every way I could. My component video and HDMI inputs are calibrated for the same end result. Thus when viewing the differences between both outputs from the player, they looked very very close. Since video outputs of DVD players can be inconsistent with each other in terms of image, sometimes fine tuning the display to the new player will be necessary. During my viewing, very little adjustment was needed when I replaced my Denon DVD-3910 with the BD-P1000. The brightest white levels on the Samsung were a little hot for my projector so I had to bring the contrast down only one click. Black level and colour were the same. There are no picture controls in the BD-P1000 so adjustments must be made on the display device. High Definition Discs I viewed all titles in 1080i mode because that is the highest resolution my projector can accept. I determined this was the better choice because when viewing resolution patterns, horizontal resolution was displayed with higher amplitude in 1080i than in 720p. The image, even for a 720p display, was only marginally better unlike the Toshiba HD-DVD deck that completely brutalized the 720p mode. The graphics of the player also change size when resolution settings change. When selecting a resolution for you display device, be aware that your display may introduce other artefacts that aren’t because of the player. Even though I selected 1080i for my viewing, I noticed my projector created a split second of “combing” on occasion with some video-based material (on SD/BD special features). This effect was eliminated when the player was set at 720p, the native resolution of my display. Most of the titles I’ve viewed are from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. I have no titles from Lionsgate and I’ve watched three from Warner Bros. Like all of us following every step of the format war, I’ve also read about this so-called softening “bug” the Samsung player has when playing BDs. When I first put in a few HD discs, I couldn’t see what the softening fuss was about – the material clearly was HD. I decided to talk to my contact at Samsung about this and he forwarded me a response from Samsung Korea. It’s more detailed and somewhat different than what I’ve read elsewhere, but it should help clarify any more concerns about this. To set the record straight: there is no defect or ‘bug’ with the Genesis chip. It was purposely left at a ‘high’ default setting on the chip in order to balance what the viewer’s tolerance is for visible film grain and video noise present on the film and/or master tape. The goal, of course, is to always obtain the sharpest picture as possible, but with the above in mind, the unavoidable trade-off is a slightly softer picture. Samsung made a judgement call to use the award-winning Genesis noise reduction circuit and left it on the ‘high’ default setting to reduce film grain and video noise and other artefacts. This of course, is not user selectable. The BD-P1000’s set-up menu has no ‘high-medium-low-off’ setting, but the picture will still output full 1920x1080p despite the ‘high’ setting. Samsung believes that consumers will prefer this ‘high’ setting even though us purists, the videophiles - the early adopters - prefer to see it all, regardless of artefacts. We are not the mainstream consumer who will complain about film grain and want it eliminated by the player (all artefact problems should be resolved by the studio – they should be held accountable for the problem on the software, not the BD player.) Samsung is considering addressing our concerns by modifying the noise reduction setting to a lower level by an optional firmware update that should be available sometime in September (will have to be by disc or by taking it to Samsung because there is no Ethernet port on this machine). I’m not sure if this “lower level” means “off” or a ‘low’ setting of some sort so we’ll wait and see. Still, I’d rather have the slight increase in picture sharpness with more film grain and video noise. I used the Silicon Optix HQV test DVD to see what effect this noise reduction setting was having on discs. Comparing the BD-P1000 to the Denon DVD-3910 and using the two tests on the HQV disc showed that the Samsung did subdue the video noise and MPEG compression artefacts to a lower level. Putting the same tests on my DVD-3910 showed it all. The noise, natural or simulated, was either reduced or eliminated on the BD-P1000. That’s a great selling feature for Genesis. Like Samsung says, this can be a good thing for some consumers, but as a videophile, I don’t want my player to be messing with the image without my control. I’ll wait for the firmware update and try this test again just to make sure that what I’m seeing is true. Coincidentally (or not), the upcoming September upgrade coincides with Warner Bros. and Fox’s announcements of using allegedly superior video codecs, VC-1 (Warner) and MPEG-4 (Fox). Now onto the BDs I’ve viewed… The first title I watched on this player was (no surprise!) The Fifth Element. I’ve never watched the movie straight through so there is no better time than now, in HD. Yikes! The video was clearly HD and I didn’t find it as soft as others have reported, but the HD master this disc was taken from is the culprit of the on-screen mess I saw. I believe this disc is taken from the same transfer of the film as the first DVD in 1997. That would make it almost 10 years old now; film transfers and digital technologies have rapidly improved since then. HD transfers from so long ago will show their age on Blu-ray whereas they would have been acceptable for DVD. This is what killed The Fifth Element on Blu-ray: an old transfer of a dirty, mediocre print. The picture looked rough along the edges, gritty, and full of film artefacts that could have (should have) been eliminated. This can’t be the best source for this film and word is Sony will correct this in the future (do I get a no-fee exchange?) (Sony has been doing HD transfers at least since the mid ‘90s, but I hardly suspect they’ll be adequate for today’s demands on image quality). I was much more impressed with the video on The Benchwarmers and The Terminator. The films are wide apart in age but exhibit a difference of film quality; The Terminator had muted colours and showed its age but the contrast was excellent showing off deep black levels with details unseen on the DVD. Compare that to The Benchwarmers where the colours are popping off the screen. The green of the outfield and the blues of the sky revealed amazing naturalness not present on DVD, albeit slightly pasty – a look of some films that is also seen on DVD. Memento, RV, A Knight’s Tale and MGM’s The Last Waltz showed off more film grain than a title such as Underworld: Evolution which looked amazing - one of the best looking Sony titles to date. For those other titles, the grain is inherent to the source and Blu-ray was just doing its job to display this as much as possible. All of these titles also appeared a bit rough looking like The Fifth Element did but just to a lesser degree. It makes me question what Sony does when they have their films transferred to HD tape. A lot is left to be desired. To save the expense of repeating myself, more details about these Blu-ray reviews, as well as other Blu-ray titles can be found in the Software Forum on www.hometheaterforum.com. When comparing Sony titles to titles from Warner Bros., the differences are huge. Training Day, Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang and Good Night, and Good Luck looked absolutely amazing just like the images I’ve seen when viewing HD-DVD. These films were so detailed, clean looking, with not a hint of noise or compression artefacts detected. Colours popped out from the screen on the colour films and the black & white title Good Night, and Good Luck had excellent contrast, detail, and gradation. I always expect the best from Warner Bros. and they did no disappoint with these titles. The Samsung player helped define what HDTV is when playing these titles. It was obvious while watching these titles that there was little consistency in bad/good image quality results. If they were all bad, then it would be easy to lay blame on the BD-P1000 like many people have in various forums, but they weren’t all bad. Many titles looked absolutely wonderful suggesting that the Samsung is doing exactly what it should. Standard Definition Discs I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my Denon DVD-3910 as a reference DVD player both as a video player and an audio player. For those of you who are thinking of upgrading your DVD player to a BD-P1000 as your DVD player, that may not be such a bad idea. There is a clear performance advantage using a CDN$1500 Denon DVD-3910 (now replaced by a DVD-3930CI) over a $99 DVD player if your goal is to achieve high performance. The BD-P1000 at US$999 is a good deal if looking at it in this light. The video quality is very close to the DVD-3910, the latter exhibiting a slightly higher amount of saturation in the greens and blues. The first SD title I viewed was Apocalypse Now. When watching the helicopter attack on the village the BD-P1000 exhibited an image almost identical to the DVD-3910. The greens of the trees, the soldiers’ uniforms, and the uncanny blue of the water below were very clean with no noise polluting the picture. But in direct comparison, the BD-P1000 looked slightly desaturated in comparison giving the impression that the DVD-3910’s colours popped out a bit more and were more lifelike. I further confirmed this with Fox’s animated title Ice Age and the New Line’s Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The Shire at the beginning of the film looked good on both players but I give a slight edge to the DVD-3910 for colour reproduction. Both players also displayed how fine detail is lacking in Fellowship when viewed on a big screen. The player passed more tests from the Silicon Optix HQV disc than the Toshiba HD-DVD deck. It passed the “Jaggies” tests without problem as well as the waving flag test - two areas where the Toshiba HD-A1 failed miserably. It also did an admirable job with 3:2 detection, an area where my DVD-3910 doesn’t do too hot. Audio Setup Samsung has included both TOSlink and coaxial digital S/PDIF outputs to pass uncompressed PCM (2-channel) and bitstreams of Dolby Digital 5.1/EX and DTS 5.1/6.1 lossy compression formats. You can also output these bitstreams with the addition of uncompressed 5.1 PCM via HDMI. The BD-P1000 has a 6-channel output but it can only be used with Blu-ray discs. Thus, if you plan on using this BD player as your DVD player too, you will need to use one of these S/PDIF connections (I used coaxial). The BD-P1000 has a separate Blu-ray disc processor and DVD processor. The Blu-ray disc processor can decode Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 soundtracks but the DVD processor can only output 2-channel downmixed Dolby Digital and no DTS. I’m not sure why the designers at Samsung decided on this for the 6-channel output because it makes the player less easy to use as a universal BD/DVD player. Imagine wanting to listen to uncompressed PCM on Blu-ray; you’ll need the 6-channel outputs on the player. Next you want to watch a DVD in 5.1 DTS; you’ll need to change your receiver’s inputs to coaxial/optical as well. This isn’t very user friendly for the average consumer because they aren’t as informed and patient as some of us die-hards. It will be aggravating and frustrating for them and I can imagine installers giving up on the 6-channel output and resorting to only coax. I can also guess how many people thought something was wrong with their players when they tried to output Dolby Digital 5.1 on the analogue outs with DVD and found they were only getting 2-channel. Ouch! This player does not recognize lossless formats such as Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio, MLP for DVD-Audio, or DSD from SACD. A set of dedicated 2-channel outputs are also on the back of the unit but the RCAs are not of any higher calibre than the 5.1 outputs. The purpose of this output is to go directly to the TV and is not intended for high quality 2-channel playback. Oh yeah, a dynamic range compression option is also in the internal menu so make sure that is turned OFF. I do recommend taking advantage of the 6-channel output for the uncompressed 5.1 PCM audio (if you don’t have an HDMI connection on your receiver or preamp/processor). If you’ve been reading my reviews on the forum you may have noticed me praising Sony/Columbia/TriStar’s use of uncompressed 5.1 surround sound on all of their Blu-ray discs. I was extremely surprised with the results. Setting up the 5.1 outputs was somewhat…dumb. Since the BD-P1000 can’t output Dolby Digital or DTS via analogue on DVD, I couldn’t use test tones on AVIA or DVE to set up the channel levels. Even if the player did have a decoder, many people would still be out of luck because the player does not include channel level controls or delays to fine tune the audio. For me this is no problem at all. I don’t need to worry about delay settings because I use a natural delay; each speaker of mine is exactly 11 feet from my listening position and placed on a circle. The incident angles from the center speaker (at 0 degrees) are 30 degrees for left and right channels and 125 degree for each surround except for the center-surround which is placed at 180 degrees from front-center (as followed by many professionals). Channel level settings can be fine-tuned with my pre-amp’s separate 6.1 channel level controls. While this all works for me, this isn’t useful to most users who don’t have their systems set up for optimal 5.1/6.1 playback. Fine-tuning each speaker level and delay will be almost impossible because most receivers’ 6.1 channel inputs are pass-through and don’t offer post-processing of the signal (though most receivers will have a separate level control). The only control in the BD-P1000 is the ability to set each speaker as large, small, or off. If speakers are set to small the crossover is set at 100Hz and the rest goes to the subwoofer. So how do I know each speaker is set at the correct level? Samsung has at least offered a rudimentary internal test tone via a red (A) button on the remote control. The test tone seems to be at or around -25dBfs, slightly lower than those on AVIA (-20dBfd) but slightly higher than those on DVE (-30dBfs). Some playing around is going to be required when setting up the audio levels using the decoder in the BD-P1000. Below you will find the various settings I adjusted my 6-channel input to when using different test tones. First is the internal test tone of the BD-P1000 and that is compared to using the Sound & Vision check disc and Digital Video Essentials. The levels are set to 75dB on the Radio Shack analogue SPL meter (note my L&R surround levels are at a constant dB apart because of room design). Master Volume set at -6dB FL: 0dB C: 0dB FR: 0dB SR: +5dB SL: +4dB SW: +10dB Master Volume set at -11dB (DTS) Master Volume set at -7dB (DD) FL: 0dB C: +2dB FR: 0dB SR: +7dB SL: +6dB SW: +10dB Master Volume set at -3dB (DD) FL: 0dB C: +2dB FR: 0dB SR: +6dB SL: +5dB SW: +10dB I’ve provided this information just so you can see how much of a difference test tones from various sources will play back on an audio system. You should exercise your options when setting your player up with your preamp/receiver and determine what is best for your listening room. With Dolby Digital’s dialnorm at play, I need up to an additional 4dB of gain on my preamp to achieve the same playback level as DTS. I don’t recommend using the master volume setting determined by the internal test tones of the BD-P1000 during playback (or DVE). This will be too loud in the home and will also be system damaging. For BD playback, I found the levels I set with the Sound & Vision disc to be comfortable. I watched uncompressed PCM at the same master volume level as determined by the DTS test tones, and listened to Dolby Digital soundtracks at the same level as determined by the Dolby test tones (all with the exception if I found it too loud, I turned it down). Audio Quality The sound quality of the machine is, well…very good when comparing it to its competitors. Soundtrack options can be chosen in the main menu or by toggling the audio button or the up and down arrows on the remote during playback. If leaving the audio on PCM, the audio menu stays on screen for an extended period of time and there is no way to get rid of it…the fastest way is hit the info button twice. When choosing soundtrack options, always select the uncompressed PCM 5.1 soundtrack when available (should you have your 5.1 analogue outs connected). There is far more information on this soundtrack option then there is on the Dolby Digital and DTS lossy compression systems. The resolution of the audio increases substantially, dynamic range is extended dramatically, the room fills up with sound much more and far beyond the room boundaries – more than I’ve ever heard with DTS or Dolby Digital. The best thing about this is that it’s only 16/48 – just slightly better than the sound quality of a CD. Because of DVD’s limited storage space, we’ve taken a huge dive in audio quality for the addition of 5.1 surround sound. It was a difficult but necessary move to make home theatre grow using the DVD format. Without the successes of Dolby Digital and DTS compression systems, how else were we to get all of that audio data on DVD? The Samsung Blu-ray player is able to output that wonderful uncompressed PCM audio. In addition to benefits in sound above, the bass response is noticeably tighter, more prominent, and the whole frequency range is much more cohesive rather than feeling like there are gaps in the frequency response. Dialogue reproduction, no matter what film I listened to was less boomy, less sibilant, and more real. This also can be translated to the music in film as well as manufactured sound effects. If it makes noise, the sound is improved. Simple. A major part of the hardware’s sound quality is the audio digital-to-analogue converters. DACs differ in each DVD player and surround preamp/processor/receiver. I’ve always enjoyed the sound of my Denon DVD-3910 which uses the Burr Brown DSD-1796 24 bit 192kHz audio DACs. Burr Brown is highly regarded in the industry delivering exceptional DACs to high end home theatre manufacturers such as Theta Digital and many two channel audio players. I decided to compare the two machines as CD players believing that the sound they deliver playing back CDs should be relatively the same when playing back surround sound. So how does a BD-P1000 sound in comparison to a Denon DVD-3910? (as a player, not a transport) I listened to several 2-channel music cuts that I like. Not everyone will like my music or agree with my selection, but I know the sound from listening to it so much. The first few cuts were from Jay McShann: What a Wonderful World. I love blues/jazz and this is a great disc to start my listening with. McShann's coarse voice came through well on the BD-P1000, if not just a little sibilant, but his electric guitar always seemed to wail away just as I like. But with this title, like my next music cut Creep, from Radiohead: Pablo Honey, the soundstage delivered by the Samsung was decisively narrower in width, further back, and had less presence. The treble had more sparkle to it; cymbals had more shimmer and more “bite” that wasn’t welcomed. The bass guitar as well as the drum pedal sounded anemic to the Denon which had more bottom end authority. Next I tried a track from Björk's Debut’s album, Come To Me. Most is electronic but it delivers sound that extends far beyond the speaker locations and plus I wanted to put her vocals and bass to the test. Again, the Denon outran the Samsung in every way by creating a larger soundspace and making the BD-P1000’s sound miniscule in comparison. Dynamic range was very good on the BD-P1000 when listening to select tracks on Nine Inch Nails: The Downward Spiral. Even distortion and loud electric guitars can sound great with a good audio player. When listening to several of my favourite classical from Bach and Vivaldi and jazz tracks from various artists, the BD-P1000 did a reputable job at delivering the sounds of strings and horns with great detail. Again, it is still a little hot in the treble and the deepest bangs of the drums don’t have the smoothness and power of the DVD-3910. In all fairness, the DVD-3910 is a more expensive machine and care has gone into the audio side of the player. In Conclusion The BD-P1000 is a very good Blu-ray player when put to the test. It passes many of the crucial video tests on the Silicon Optics HQV disc that the Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD deck did not. This is important because as a DVD player the video quality will look a bit smoother without the loss of resolution. The player also performs admirably in HD as well. The limiting nature of the software is what is holding this player back as proved by the recent batch of Warner Bros. titles. With a great looking BD, the Samsung BD-P1000 performs very well and is a worthy entry to experience HD. By the time the other BD players come to market, this will be the lower cost option for a dedicated BD machine. Its features/performance will be in line with what each player has to offer. I’ll be looking forward to the firmware upgrade to this machine and in the meantime I will continue to enjoy HD movies and I look forward to all of the good ones to come. Reviewed by: Michael Osadciw Review period: July-August, 2006 Review posted: September 06, 2006. |
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09-06-2006, 11:33 PM
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#2 of 24 
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Ron
Member
Location: Surf City, USA
Join Date: Jul 2000
Local Time: 10:37 PM
Local Date: 11-18-2008
Posts: 6,726
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Re: HTF HARDWARE REVIEW: A detailed A/V look at the Samsung BD-P1000
Quote:
Could you be more specific as to exactly what tests and what version firmware did your Toshiba have when you did them. Thanks for the review. |
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09-06-2006, 11:49 PM
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#3 of 24
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HTF Fox, Anchor Bay DVD Reviewer
Join Date: Jun 2003
Local Time: 01:37 AM
Local Date: 11-19-2008
Posts: 1,141
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Re: HTF HARDWARE REVIEW: A detailed A/V look at the Samsung BD-P1000
Ron
Here are the figures I originally chose not to publish in the end...but here they are now!!  BD-P1000 Test/Score/Pass-Fail Colour Bar - 10/10 - Pass Jaggies Pattern 1 - 5/5 - Pass Jaggies Pattern 2 - 3/5 - Pass Waving Flag Test - 10/10 - Pass Detail - smudged (fail) Noise Reduction - no adjustment (fail) 3:2 Detection - 5/10 - pass Cadence 2:2 30fps video - Pass 2-2-2-4 DVcam - Pass 2-3-3-2 DVcam - fail 3-2-3-2-2 varispeed broadcast - fail 5-5 animation - fail 6-4 animation - fail 8-7 anime - fail 3-2 24fps - pass Horizontal Text Crawl - 10/10 - pass Verticle Text Crawl - 10/10 - pass Toshiba HD-A1 Test/Score/Pass-Fail Colour Bar - 10/10 - Pass Jaggies Pattern 1 - 3/5 - Pass Jaggies Pattern 2 - 1/5 - Fail Waving Flag Test - 0/10 - Fail (bruatally) Detail - 10/10 - pass Noise Reduction 10/10 - pass 3:2 Detection - 10/10 - pass Cadence 2:2 30fps video - Pass 2-2-2-4 DVcam - Pass 2-3-3-2 DVcam - fail 3-2-3-2-2 varispeed broadcast - fail 5-5 animation - fail 6-4 animation - fail 8-7 anime - fail 3-2 24fps - pass Horizontal Text Crawl - 0/10 - fail (brutally) Verticle Text Crawl - 5/10 - pass This was tested using old firmware, although I don't think the new firmware sets to correct this. On the HD-A1, the amplitude of the highest resolution/frequencies (6.5MHz) seem jacked up in comparison to the lower frequencies. Looking at a resolution sweep test pattern one can clearly see that the video frequency response of this player isn't flat at all...giving the impression of more detail on DVD (because fine detail has been given a boost). If this is the case with DVD, then I can also assume the possibility of it being applied to HD discs as well, which is the reason why HD-DVD seems to look 'clearer'. If this is the case, in my opinion, it's a cheat by Toshiba. The resolution sweep on the Samsung looks neutral throughout the range. Regards, Mike 20th Century Fox DVD/Blu-ray Reviewer Anchor Bay/Starz Entertainment DVD/Blu-ray Reviewer mike@hometheaterforum.com (temp. unused, PM me) |
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09-07-2006, 09:34 AM
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#4 of 24
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Member
Location: Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexíco
Join Date: May 2002
Local Time: 12:37 AM
Local Date: 11-19-2008
Posts: 11,430
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Re: HTF HARDWARE REVIEW: A detailed A/V look at the Samsung BD-P1000
An interesting review Michael. But I’d not let Samsung off the hook so easily on the setting of the noise reduction chip.
Quote:
If Samsung feels that the mass market wishes not to see any grain, that does not mean that they should not give the broad range of consumers a choice. Samsung made an error in this particular choice and should be held accountable—not the studios as you conclude. ˇTime is not my master! |
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09-07-2006, 09:57 AM
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#5 of 24
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Member
Join Date: Jul 1997
Local Time: 12:37 AM
Local Date: 11-19-2008
Posts: 5,289
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Re: HTF HARDWARE REVIEW: A detailed A/V look at the Samsung BD-P1000
Glad you got yours to work, Michael. Mine would not boot out of the box, so I took it back.
- Steve |
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09-07-2006, 10:21 AM
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#6 of 24
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Tim Glover
Member
Join Date: Jan 1999
Local Time: 12:37 AM
Local Date: 11-19-2008
Posts: 7,791
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Re: HTF HARDWARE REVIEW: A detailed A/V look at the Samsung BD-P1000
That's a huge big blu Blu-ray banner on the top of the review.
 No mistaking that for any other format.  A long time ago in a galaxy far, far way there was...Club Timobi Wan but today there is...  Club Timobi Wan-Episode II
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