Samsung announces combo player (1 Viewer)

[Fabien Renelli]

I'm so interested in this player. But it is supposed to be delayed to early 2008 in France...

 

[RobertSiegel]

My assumption would be they were testing a very early player not yet complete.

 

[Chris S]

Well they obviously ran into some sort of problem otherwise they should have been able to complete their testing. I'm a little surprised that Samsung would let them eval an unfinished product that does apparently still have some issues to work out. Even so I bet a majority of these are ironed out before the final release. I would just like to know what to look for to ensure that they have.

 

[RobertSiegel]

I agree with you Chris, but this seems to be a very early edition, no one else on the web seems to have had much hands-on with it. I owned the Samsung 1200 blu-ray player and it performed beautifully on regular dvd's, maybe the best player I have had (especially with the HQV processor). I returned the player within my 30 days when the news broke about Paramount going hd-dvd, so I figure I will wait for this one. Might as well be able to play everything, and I got really sick of the format war forums (yikes, MEAN people).

The only thing I hate is, when watching a 4:3 tv show over hdmi from these 1080p players, when set to 1080p, they all seem to stretch the picture, and you have to go into the player and change it to saying you have a 4:3 tv. It happened on the Panasonic blu-ray player, the Samsung, and also the new Pioneer regular dvd player (their latest model) that I purchased. That's really a hassle. On the Samsung 1200, you had to get up and change the setting on the front to 1080i and use component cables, because changing the seeting to type of tv didn't work....that was a hastle too.

I am very excited about this player and I hope we get news of a release date soon. The only thing I see that has any date is on Amazon, if you look at the page for the 5000, it says Nov.1...whatever that means I don't know.

 

[Paul.S]

Robert:

Bloody brilliant, mate! My Tosh display locks into "Full" mode whenever fed anything above 480p via HDMI. I lose aspect ratio control and the only workarounds I thought of were lowering the rez or switching to component vid--either way losing the upconversion. I didn't think of changing the TV setting in the player--DUH! Wicked. Now I can't wait to get my who-the-heck-knows-when-it-will-ship XA2 to test this.

 

[RobertSiegel]

wHY ARE YOU GETTING AN xa2, ISN'T THERE A 3RD GEN.MODEL TO REPLACE IT OUT IN A WEEK OR TWO, OR DOESN'T THAT HAVE THE hqv PROCESSOR? oops sorry about the caps, too tired to type it over.

I think the problem stinks, that everything is in full mode. My Epson 1080 projector locks so you can't change the aspect either. Some players will change the aspect if you switch to 4:3, some won't...sad that then we cannot upconvert tv or anything 4:3.

 

[Doug Otte]

The PS3 didn't have any problem w/ 4:3 displaying properly. I hope this new Samsung doesn't have that problem. Well, if that's its only problem, I guess we'll be lucky, eh?

doug

 

[Paul.S]

Yeah, Robert, no Silicon Optix HQV chip in the third gen top-of-the-line A35. The XA2 remains Tosh's flagship. Sorry for this little interruption in the Samsungness, gentlemen.

 

[Chris S]

Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not in "the sky is falling" mode. If anything I'm probably more excited than most to see the final version as I'm thinking this might be our family holiday gift this year.

 

[Paul.S]

I look forward to confirming this one way or the other: seeing if the TV shape setting on an XA2 (or BD10A) trumps the display's AR control lockdown.

Have now read the "Guru's" review and I agree with the first comment following it, lamenting that the player is not BD Profile 2.0-compliant in that it does not have 1Gb of persistent memory (nor a USB port or SD slot in lieu thereof). That would have taken a half-star off of any rating I would give the player.

If the unit is possibly streeting after the 1.1 compliance deadline, and it already has the Ethernet port for full HD DVD spec compliance unlike the LG, why not include more memory--that last bit needed to be in full compliance with both specs--and really set it off?

 

[RobertSiegel]

Agreed Paul. It is a shame this late in the game that there still won't be a player that does everything. As for connecting to the internet and things like that, there isn't much interest for me on that right now..I suppose one day it will really be worth it but from what I have seen so far, the web extras are nill, and the main thing I buy a movie for is the movie. I can't begin to count the number of films I own that I have never even watched the extras, except on my favorite movies. Just so the player can play all of the sound formats, is interactive(both formats), has the 7.1 analog outs, HDMI 1.3, then I am fine for now and probably for a year or two. It will do everything I want at this time. Plus I won't need 2 players taking up 2 HDMI inputs (which I do not have), or need to buy splitters or such equipment. And that HQV chip, well, if the next few reviews go as well as the one on HD Guru, this is the player for me.

Samsung has been known quite well for making last minute changes to add to their players, even after early testing units have been released, so we won't know what is in the final player until a final player, ready for release, is out. They have done this for several years, adding to specs that were announced and making it known only when the player comes out...It certainly could be 2.0, and could have the DTS HD and Master already included and not the promised upgrade. I heard the LG will be 2.0, so I am wondering if Samsung won't do something about this. Can that be upgraded via firmware?

 

[Cees Alons]

A very interesting point is, whether or not there will be a "brick wall" protection between the HD DVD logic and the BD parts.

I.e. if the BD+ script played from a specific disk changes settings on the player, will it be possible to influence HD DVD settings or not (it shouldn't!). And in particular: if the script would "revoke" the licence of the player, would it still play HD DVD.

Legal issues could even arise if a Blu-ray disc could turn your HD DVD player off for good! Unfortunately the review doesn't even mention the BD+ functionality.


Cees

 

[Paul.S]

Naw I don't think you can go from 256Mb to 1Gb of flash memory with a firmware upgrade!

Excellent point IMO re legal and key revocation issues broached by having both formats under the same hood, Cees. Frankly, I think the reviewer was prematurely ebullient given that, by his own statements, he didn't have the piece long enough to do a full bore evaluation.

 

[RobertSiegel]

I still think the first review was decent enough to get excited about what he did look at. Sure one could wait and go for the next player to see if it's 2.0, but I'd like to watch movies on these formats on my new Epson 1080projector now, so this seems to be the player for me.....for now. Since we don't know which format will win, if any, I don't plan on buying anything at all except my most favorite movies, very few of which have come out, so Netflix and Blockbuster are the perfect alternative for renting them for now. Our local Blockbuster just got almost every blu-ray release, they never had any high-def before, as this is a small town, so Blockbuster is making the promised switch, and online they also have them all. Netflix has everything in both formats.

Also, I did not know much about 2.0 and that it takes more memory. "Naw," It's hard enough to keep up with everything else, and since those extras aren't really my thing, don't bother to read about what they can do. What I have seen so far, I could care less, maybe in the future when there are really some great extras, I'll be more interested. As I said before, I want the movie, that's why I buy a disc.

 

[JustinHEMI05]

Interesting news... although not official. Be prepared to wait for the 5000 and if you were counting on the 2400... too bad.

http://wesleytech.com/samsung-bdp-24...-canceled/380/

Justin

 

[RobertSiegel]

Justin, darn why did I have to read your link...I was hoping the 5000 would be coming in October, so pretty bummed here, although this gives more hope it will be 2.0bd ready. Oh well, a few more months, I'll get myself a Hanukkah present. Too bad about the 2400, being the lower end doesn't have the hqv processor...I have a feeling they will re-announce this player, maybe with a new model number, they probably couldn't meet the spec deadline.

One hope though.....this is the only place I have read about a delay on the 5000. One web site does not official word make.

 

[Paul.S]

Minor correction to the article: October 31 is a deadline for 1.1 spec compliance, not 1.0.

 

[JustinHEMI05]

I agree, thats why I said that it wasn't official. I only read that article from a link over at AVSForum. I am hoping that either more sources confirm, Samsung make an official announcement, or the players are released as scheduled. Either way... I am going to try to be as patient as possible.

Justin

 

[ppltd]

Looks like it is fact. Also looks like Samsung is going Combo only, as their new BD player has been cancelled. Here is another Link

 

[Chris S]

Not sure I'd say they're "going combo only" as that gives the impression that they will no longer release any standalone Blu-ray players. They have canceled the high-end BDP-2400 but they are still producing the cheaper BDP-1400.