Official Samsung 1200 Blu-Ray player thread (1 Viewer)

According to our old pals from "Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity" over at AVS the Samsung is one of the top (if not the top because of the Reon processor and its handling of video sources, plus no clipping, no cropping, no CUE, and no signal limiting) performer for picture quality and the fastest tabletop unit for loading speeds (behind the PS3).

Anyone have one of these bad boys? Just think, Samsung's last player was one of the worst. How things can turn around!

I understand that some are probably holding on to their PS3's as Blu-ray players (like I am) until November to see what becomes of the final BD-Java software update and the latest models, but if Sony doesn't implement their HDMI 1.3 features quickly enough I won't be able to enjoy one of the new receivers coming along from Onkyo or Denon, etc.

Thoughts and opinions?

I would buy this player, but I'm waiting for a BD deck that does everything that BD is supposed to do. Until a unit like that arrives, I'll stick with the BDP1000(which isn't a bad player at all with the latest firmware).

The 1200 is easily the best stand-alone player so far, IMO. Fast load times, great A/V, and no problems like the 1000 had pre-firmware upgrade. It gives me high hopes for the Samsung combo player coming out this Fall.

The Samsung dual player will have a Faroudja processor rather than the superior Silicon Optix Reon in order to cut costs according to the buzz.

Another reason why I don't think dual players are such a good idea (the format war has done most of its purpose and now needs to come to a conclusion). Some compromises will be made in order to fit both formats into one chasis.

This does look like a great performer Dan. Looks like it's right up there with the XA-2 in regards to standard dvd upconversion. I think other than it's lack of True HD decoding etc...it's a good one. Robert, from Value Elect. seems to like it too.

If it could come down a bit in pricing then I would jump on it. My hope is by the end of the summer there will be a player like this Samsung for less than $500.

2 things kept me from buying one:

1. Advanced audio(beyond PCM). No True HD is a killer with True HD titles finally showing up.

2. BDJ 1.1 profile uncertainty.

I would have pulled the trigger on the new Samsung if it would have supported advanced audio with its analog outs.

Review is now posted.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-b...0%20(Component)

I have made this thread official and stuck it.

I'm really interested in this unit with it's high recommendation from Secrets on SD DVD playback and BD playback. Since I have a large DVD collection this should work out great. The audio doesn't concern me as I'm not ready for the new formats, just want to get into HiDef Video. If anyone has one of these new Samsung players I would like hear reviews on it's performance.
Regards

We have one at work and it's the best BD player yet aside from the PS3.

There are apparently some firmware problems that prevent POTC from playing.
Fortunately Samsung was very quick to release an update. If you have an Internet connection on the player, you can download it quite easily. Otherwise you need to look on the Samsung site for it. I think it is currently only available on the Canadian site but that should change in the next few days.

Of course, the PS3 is an absolutely absymal SD DVD player, so the fact that the 1200 is a *phenomenal* SD DVD player with superb upconversion to 1080p of SD makes it that much better.

The PS3 can't be used with programmable remotes either (bluetooth only), so that also rules it out as any kind of player in my book.

I just ordered a 1200 from Amazon. It is now in stock and is shipped from Amazon so if you are a "Prime" member two day shipping is free. Mine will be here on Monday. I wanted something to go along with my XA2 so I'll now have the best of both worlds and two great upconverting players. I plan to sell off the PS3 to offset the cost. Would just prefer a stand alone player over the PS3.

Can't wait to try it out and I'll post my thoughts on it after I've had it a few days.

Jim

I was going to order the 2nd gen Panny for the five free movies. Gave it some thought and I really only care for 2 of the films, so I decided to cancel my order. I then went to amazon and scored this machine for $459.98. Which left me with enough of my original $600.00 budget, plus the 10% HD media discount, to order 7 blu ray discs - all of which I want! I'm looking forward to format neutrality.

I thought I did alot of research on the players and picked up the Panasonic 2nd generation player at Best Buy. It came with 5 movies and a rebate for 5 more, meaning the player will be around 250.00 if I sell the discs (none that I want), plus I got the player for 529 with my 12% coupon from Best Buy. BUT...now I am reading about the Samsung's excellent upconversion with this great processor, and I don't know if the Panasonic has it, most say no. I also read about the new models coming out in September and October, the 3rd generation Samsungs which will have decoders for Dolby True-HD and DTS HD (not sure about DTS master yet). I hear the Samsung 599.95 model (for September) will not have the roen processor, but the higher priced model (only 75.00 more, due in October) will have it. Those seem to be the only differences with the 1200. I am wondering if I should just go to Best Buy and get the 1200, only if it is upgradable to the new sound formats now or soon. And does anyone know how many rca-type outputs there are, if any? The panasonic has 8 for 7.1 sound.

oNE MORE QUESTION, WILL THIS PLAYER PLAY dvd+r, I see that it does -r, but can't see dvd+r anywhere.

YES thank God. The Samsung does play dvd+r's....it says it does not in the manual, but in the manual it also is not listed under discs you cannot play, so go figure. I just brought my player home, after taking the Panasonic back, and have to say the picture is the best I have ever seen on my Epson 1080. WOW!

I am having a problem, though. Every time you switch something on the menus of the Samsung or change chapters, ect....a message comes on the screen that says HDMI AUDIO NOT SUPPORTED. It drove me nuts, so I called Samsung and they had me switch the on screen display off. Does anyone know about this? I can't believe that they would make a player that is hooked, via HDMI to a projector, which has no sound, and get this message. Unfortunately chapter numbers on the screen and other things are now gone.
Any input?

Also, about the 24 frame per second feature, does this only work on blu-rays encoded with that feature, or doesn't it matter, and should it work with upscaled movies? I cannot get the setting, if you have any info on this as well, I would appreciate it. The 1080 projector is a 24fps projector. Also,does it automatically go into that mode on any disc?

I've recently had a problem w/ this player as well. I've had it for about a little over month now and recently it froze up when I was trying to watch House on haunted Hill, I thought it was the movie. Since then it occured 1 time while watching a scene from Curse of the Black Pearl and most recently w/ a dvd-r copy of Ghostrider that a friend sent me. W/ Ghostrider it started freezing up the minute it started playing. And again today it did it during Alien vs Prdeator at about the 18 minute mark, afterwards it played straight thru. I've watched about 25 blu discs so far and then had never been a problem until now. I did the the firmware thing that came w/ it but am wondering what could be the problem. Is this a case of new technology that still has a few bugs in it?

Dan, any chance you have a tv show that is 4:3 you can try to see if it stretches to the 16:9 on your screen? Just to see if I am not the only one. I agree with you. I rented 15 discs for a try-out of this player when it came, and a few times it froze, had to start the player over. There are definately glitches there. I also think you're right, these things will be less and less with each new generation of players, this ones a beauty for now because of the AWESOME upscaling and the incredible picture (I returned a Panasonic I had before it, bad upscaling and this one plays HD discs beautifully). These glitches I had were before I did the firmware upgrade last night so not sure if they would happen again. I am going to look very closely at Samsung's new top of the line player, but am very interested in the Denon (the 900 dollar one not the two-thousand dollar one), because every product of theirs I have never even had to call Tech support.