Hands On – My First Impressions of the Samsung BD Player - Blu-ray Forum

Mr C · 06-22-2006, 03:49 PM

I hooked up my Samsung BD-P1000 last night and here are my impressions:

My review and comparison is based on using the exact same setup that I have on my Toshiba HD-A1 (HDMI and OPTICAL connections at 1080i.)

The setup was very easy like my Toshiba HD-A1; The blue lights everywhere on the front panel looked very cool; I put in the Underworld Evolution BD; The load time was slightly faster than the Toshiba HD-A1; It loads right into the movie with the capability of putting up the menu while the movie is running (same as the Toshiba.); The quality of the video and sound was excellent. The opening scene where you are looking right into Marcus’s eye was crystal clear and you could see every detail. I read some reviews that said the BD transfer was less than desirable. Well I have to tell you, I put in the non-HD version of Underworld Evolution into my Toshiba HD-A1 to compare them, and it looked almost identical as far as the shadow and non-shadow areas of the movie. But of course the overall image quality was noticeable, a $1000 noticeable, maybe not. But if you enjoy movies like I do, then it is worth it.

I did NOT have one freeze up (unlike my Toshiba HD-A1) during the whole movie.

As far as the HD video and sound quality between the Samsung BD-P100 and the Toshiba HD-A1, I couldn’t tell much difference, and I did run them side-by-side. I only have both because some studios are not supporting one or the other.

HD-DVD and Blu-ray units should have both been priced at $499, so that the consumer could have made their choice based on what catalog they wanted to own and not on price point.

I hope this personal review helps in your HD hardware decision.

Psiweaver · 06-22-2006, 04:17 PM

Thats very good to hear. I'm very happy that your enjoying your blu ray experience. do you have any plans to buy other movies.

Mr C · 06-22-2006, 04:27 PM

I heard a rumor that in this weekends Best Buy ad, there is going to be buy 3 blu-ray movies, get one free. I will go for that!

hmurchison · 06-22-2006, 04:35 PM

Thankfully the Underworld is one of the movies that doesn't have many noticable artifacts.

Psiweaver · 06-22-2006, 05:32 PM

yeah underworld is good

BTBuck1 · 06-22-2006, 05:44 PM

good to see a positive review. Gives me renewed hope.

JTK · 06-22-2006, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian@BBY

good to see a positive review. Gives me renewed hope.

It continues to amaze me how I have to go to a Blu-Ray forum just to get more of a BALANCE and even handed tone vs. at least one very prominent forum that I won't name.

zombie · 06-22-2006, 07:00 PM

Well I hate to disagree but I just watched Underworld: Evolution BD last night on the Samsung. In all fairness I don't have the DVD to compare it with but that said, this transfer was vastly inferior to the majority of HD DVD discs that I've seen. Indeed there were some brief scenes where the level of detail was better than others but overall it looked like an SD transfer to me, at best. I cannot in good conscience recommend this as anything more than a rental.

I will agree that the player worked without the slightest hiccup. It's the discs that aren't ready for primetime.

BTBuck1 · 06-23-2006, 06:34 AM

We finally got our "blu ray" content disc at work which is basically a running loop of movie clips and dvd vs. blu-ray segments which show off the players capability. Initially, we where suppossed to hook it to a 1080p samsung lcd which is a new model but the LCD tv was damaged out of the box so in the mean time we left it on the westinghouse 40" that the HD-A1 was connected to.

My first impression was, OMG they (people on avs forum) where right the PQ is soft, it doesn't look HD. then i was like...this just can't be. So i looked on the Tv's menue and the sharpness was set to -zero- i was shocked. i kicked it up half way and immediately noticed a stunning improvement. Then i checked color settings and brightness and they needed a few clicks in the negetive direction. I then sat back and looked, suprisingly the "Sahara" clip came on and my first reaction was, "hey this clip was on the HD-A1's loop too" and when watching it, honestly i couldn't tell a differance. BOTH looked really good. I never saw any of these "artifacts" or studdering...but hey, this is a Demo disc and not an actual movie. But i saw the capability of excellent PQ. So i had renewed faith.

Now, i don't own one of these samsungs so i don't know for sure how to jude this, however i'm pretty confident of what i've seen at the Sonystyle store and now Best Buy that blu-ray is every bit as capable as HD-DVD, if not more once they get the Dual layer thing going. As i've said before i don't blame the HD-DVD format for my disgust with the HD-_1's and i also feel that i don't blame the entire Blu-ray format or the samsung player for that matter for poorly mastered titles. BD50 will be here soon, and the format is capable of vc-1 so i'm sure some if not most companies will eventually switch. Just let things unfold and try not to get to emotional about it. We will all have some killer HD content wether HDDVD or BRD later this summer and going forward.
With less than 30 titles (combined) 3 HDdvd players and only 1 BR player out it's a little early to start saying this format wins...or this one sucks. I am taking a back seat and letting things unfold for a little while...and when Sony drops in october and if nothings changed, then i'll wait a little longer. I just want to buy the right thing, i've been burned before i.e. Betamax, 3do, turbografx, sega saturn, micromv camcorder, etc. and i don't want a format that will end up with no backing.

Psiweaver · 06-23-2006, 05:03 PM

The westinghouse tv is a piece of shit. I suggest you hook it up to the sxrd or pioneer elite or pioneer plasmas if you have them. If you hook it up to the pioneer make sure you send it a 1080i signal because that is what it processes at.

BTBuck1 · 06-23-2006, 06:46 PM

Exactly my point, the westinghouse sucks...but it still looks really good on the blu ray. I can't wait til we get another samsung 40" 1080p LCD so we can see this thing really shine. I think alot of these people confuse film grain with artifacts. and they don't understand that these movies are mastered from the original film which looked like shit even in the theatre i.e. house of flying daggers.

Psiweaver · 06-24-2006, 07:47 PM

house of flying daggers looked good so i don't know what your talking about. I think there are a lot of people who are pure video files and want no film grain, want the image to fit perfectly into 16:9 etc. Then there are movie lovers who don't mind a little grain.

BTBuck1 · 06-25-2006, 05:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Psiweaver

house of flying daggers looked good so i don't know what your talking about. I think there are a lot of people who are pure video files and want no film grain, want the image to fit perfectly into 16:9 etc. Then there are movie lovers who don't mind a little grain.

I saw HOFD twice in the theatre (long story) at a very new and reputable theatre here. It looked crappy (compared) to other movies released around that same time. I remember thinking it then in the theatre. So, i don't blame the blu-ray format because IMO it looked the same in the theatre.

suprmallet · 06-25-2006, 06:00 AM

IMO, it's impossible to confuse artifacts with film grain. The two look nothing alike.

That being said, I don't doubt that BD can look as good as HD-DVD. It's just that, from what I've heard, they haven't so far.

ClaytonMG · 06-25-2006, 06:33 AM

Has anyone tried using the component video feed instead of the HDMI? I've heard that it's much better (just like on the Toshiba HD-DVD player). Also, another thing to consider about the movies not looking good, it's probably the player, not the software. I've heard from many sources now that the Samsung player just all around doesn't have good picture quality through the HDMI. When switching it to 1080i (since it's set to 720p native), there's scaling issues and everything. However when you use 1080i with the component output, it looks much better.

Psiweaver · 06-26-2006, 07:48 PM

Remember house of flying daggers is a few years old. I think your theatre maybe had a bad copy or something because the version i've seen looked wonderful on a nice dlp projector at a local theatre. I also saw it at a different theatre that george lucas uses and it looked great there. The color was spot on and very crisp transfer.

06-22-2006, 03:49 PM	#1
Mr C Junior Member Member since:Jun 2006	Hands On – My First Impressions of the Samsung BD Player I hooked up my Samsung BD-P1000 last night and here are my impressions: My review and comparison is based on using the exact same setup that I have on my Toshiba HD-A1 (HDMI and OPTICAL connections at 1080i.) The setup was very easy like my Toshiba HD-A1; The blue lights everywhere on the front panel looked very cool; I put in the Underworld Evolution BD; The load time was slightly faster than the Toshiba HD-A1; It loads right into the movie with the capability of putting up the menu while the movie is running (same as the Toshiba.); The quality of the video and sound was excellent. The opening scene where you are looking right into Marcus’s eye was crystal clear and you could see every detail. I read some reviews that said the BD transfer was less than desirable. Well I have to tell you, I put in the non-HD version of Underworld Evolution into my Toshiba HD-A1 to compare them, and it looked almost identical as far as the shadow and non-shadow areas of the movie. But of course the overall image quality was noticeable, a $1000 noticeable, maybe not. But if you enjoy movies like I do, then it is worth it. I did NOT have one freeze up (unlike my Toshiba HD-A1) during the whole movie. As far as the HD video and sound quality between the Samsung BD-P100 and the Toshiba HD-A1, I couldn’t tell much difference, and I did run them side-by-side. I only have both because some studios are not supporting one or the other. HD-DVD and Blu-ray units should have both been priced at $499, so that the consumer could have made their choice based on what catalog they wanted to own and not on price point. I hope this personal review helps in your HD hardware decision.

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06-22-2006, 04:17 PM	#2
Psiweaver Special Member Member since:Jun 2006 Location:Los Angeles,CA	Thats very good to hear. I'm very happy that your enjoying your blu ray experience. do you have any plans to buy other movies.

06-22-2006, 04:27 PM	#3
Mr C Junior Member Member since:Jun 2006	I heard a rumor that in this weekends Best Buy ad, there is going to be buy 3 blu-ray movies, get one free. I will go for that!

06-22-2006, 04:35 PM	#4
hmurchison Banned Member since:Aug 2004 Location:Seaattle	Thankfully the Underworld is one of the movies that doesn't have many noticable artifacts.

06-22-2006, 05:32 PM	#5
Psiweaver Special Member Member since:Jun 2006 Location:Los Angeles,CA	yeah underworld is good

06-22-2006, 05:44 PM	#6
BTBuck1 Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Jun 2006 Location:Oceanside, CA. Blu-ray collection:507 DVD collection:1	good to see a positive review. Gives me renewed hope.

06-22-2006, 07:00 PM	#8
zombie Blu-ray Guru Top contributor Member since:May 2004 Trading Score:865	Well I hate to disagree but I just watched Underworld: Evolution BD last night on the Samsung. In all fairness I don't have the DVD to compare it with but that said, this transfer was vastly inferior to the majority of HD DVD discs that I've seen. Indeed there were some brief scenes where the level of detail was better than others but overall it looked like an SD transfer to me, at best. I cannot in good conscience recommend this as anything more than a rental. I will agree that the player worked without the slightest hiccup. It's the discs that aren't ready for primetime.

06-23-2006, 06:34 AM	#9
BTBuck1 Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Jun 2006 Location:Oceanside, CA. Blu-ray collection:507 DVD collection:1	We finally got our "blu ray" content disc at work which is basically a running loop of movie clips and dvd vs. blu-ray segments which show off the players capability. Initially, we where suppossed to hook it to a 1080p samsung lcd which is a new model but the LCD tv was damaged out of the box so in the mean time we left it on the westinghouse 40" that the HD-A1 was connected to. My first impression was, OMG they (people on avs forum) where right the PQ is soft, it doesn't look HD. then i was like...this just can't be. So i looked on the Tv's menue and the sharpness was set to -zero- i was shocked. i kicked it up half way and immediately noticed a stunning improvement. Then i checked color settings and brightness and they needed a few clicks in the negetive direction. I then sat back and looked, suprisingly the "Sahara" clip came on and my first reaction was, "hey this clip was on the HD-A1's loop too" and when watching it, honestly i couldn't tell a differance. BOTH looked really good. I never saw any of these "artifacts" or studdering...but hey, this is a Demo disc and not an actual movie. But i saw the capability of excellent PQ. So i had renewed faith. Now, i don't own one of these samsungs so i don't know for sure how to jude this, however i'm pretty confident of what i've seen at the Sonystyle store and now Best Buy that blu-ray is every bit as capable as HD-DVD, if not more once they get the Dual layer thing going. As i've said before i don't blame the HD-DVD format for my disgust with the HD-_1's and i also feel that i don't blame the entire Blu-ray format or the samsung player for that matter for poorly mastered titles. BD50 will be here soon, and the format is capable of vc-1 so i'm sure some if not most companies will eventually switch. Just let things unfold and try not to get to emotional about it. We will all have some killer HD content wether HDDVD or BRD later this summer and going forward. With less than 30 titles (combined) 3 HDdvd players and only 1 BR player out it's a little early to start saying this format wins...or this one sucks. I am taking a back seat and letting things unfold for a little while...and when Sony drops in october and if nothings changed, then i'll wait a little longer. I just want to buy the right thing, i've been burned before i.e. Betamax, 3do, turbografx, sega saturn, micromv camcorder, etc. and i don't want a format that will end up with no backing.

06-23-2006, 05:03 PM	#10
Psiweaver Special Member Member since:Jun 2006 Location:Los Angeles,CA	The westinghouse tv is a piece of shit. I suggest you hook it up to the sxrd or pioneer elite or pioneer plasmas if you have them. If you hook it up to the pioneer make sure you send it a 1080i signal because that is what it processes at.

06-23-2006, 06:46 PM	#11
BTBuck1 Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Jun 2006 Location:Oceanside, CA. Blu-ray collection:507 DVD collection:1	Exactly my point, the westinghouse sucks...but it still looks really good on the blu ray. I can't wait til we get another samsung 40" 1080p LCD so we can see this thing really shine. I think alot of these people confuse film grain with artifacts. and they don't understand that these movies are mastered from the original film which looked like shit even in the theatre i.e. house of flying daggers.

06-24-2006, 07:47 PM	#12
Psiweaver Special Member Member since:Jun 2006 Location:Los Angeles,CA	house of flying daggers looked good so i don't know what your talking about. I think there are a lot of people who are pure video files and want no film grain, want the image to fit perfectly into 16:9 etc. Then there are movie lovers who don't mind a little grain.

06-25-2006, 06:00 AM	#14
suprmallet Active Member Member since:Jun 2006 Blu-ray collection:264	IMO, it's impossible to confuse artifacts with film grain. The two look nothing alike. That being said, I don't doubt that BD can look as good as HD-DVD. It's just that, from what I've heard, they haven't so far.

06-25-2006, 06:33 AM	#15
ClaytonMG Blu-ray Samurai Member since:May 2006 Location:New Brighton, MN Home Theater Gallery:16 4K collection:839 Blu-ray collection:2379 Blu-ray reviews:2 Trading Score:1	Has anyone tried using the component video feed instead of the HDMI? I've heard that it's much better (just like on the Toshiba HD-DVD player). Also, another thing to consider about the movies not looking good, it's probably the player, not the software. I've heard from many sources now that the Samsung player just all around doesn't have good picture quality through the HDMI. When switching it to 1080i (since it's set to 720p native), there's scaling issues and everything. However when you use 1080i with the component output, it looks much better.

06-26-2006, 07:48 PM	#16
Psiweaver Special Member Member since:Jun 2006 Location:Los Angeles,CA	Remember house of flying daggers is a few years old. I think your theatre maybe had a bad copy or something because the version i've seen looked wonderful on a nice dlp projector at a local theatre. I also saw it at a different theatre that george lucas uses and it looked great there. The color was spot on and very crisp transfer.

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