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Special Member
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Final Thoughts on Samsung Player and BD thus far.
Since I have finally returned my Samsung BD-P1000 that I was 'borrowing' I have some free time to give some last thoughts on the player and the movies I was able to enjoy. I had two players over about a month and a half timespan, one was a launch unit, the other had newer firmware.
The Player:
The Samsung player has a pretty solid build and is a decent piece of hardware, however IMO is not worthy of its $1000 price tag. It lacked a few things that I would expect in a first-gen 'flagship' product. The remote is rather bland and actually the first one I had didn't even come pre-programmed for use with a Samsung TV. When I got a newer player with the updated firmware the new included remote did control my Samsung TV. I also feel that the player should have included the ethernet port that was first shown on the BD-P1000, and should also have included built-in decoders for all next-gen formats. I understand that some of the audio specs hadn't been finalized yet, but at least some room for improvement through firmware upgrades should have been left open.
As far as the noise reduction problem, I'm not too entirely sure that the newer player was any different in this department, but the newer releases sure looked a lot better. I'm interested to see my discs on another player, to possibly see how much of an effect Faroudja processing had on the picture. I know Faroudja chips have had problems with macroblocking before and I'm curious to see if it was again at fault with the Samsung player.
The player also for some reason requires a separate optical/digital coax connection for DVD playback and you have to change an option in the menu. I don't know if this is fault of the design of the player or inherent to the differences between DVD/BD but it was baffling that the player couldn't send 5.1 over the analog out as is the case with BD.
Now for the positives on the player. Despite the lack of decoders and what not, I was surprised at the stability of the Samsung for a first-gen player. Not once did my player freeze, skip, or shut down. The firmware updated player I got my hands on was a lot faster and more responsive than the first player I had. Upconversion of DVDs was awesome and really surprised me, as I had never seen DVDs look so good on my TV.
The Discs:
At the time that I returned my player, I owned 26 movies. Unforunately I was only able to watch one of the four Lionsgate titles that released on the 29th. The player went back before Warner wave 2 hit, so those titles also never saw playback in my home. With the exception of what was just mentioned, the only movies I didn't purchase were, Rumor Has It, Species, The Fifth Element, The Last Waltz. Out of what I did purchase, Basic Instinct 2 was never viewed.
The discs that disappointed me were outnumbered by the discs that did impress me. The first Lionsgate titles failed to impress me. They seemed to be hampered by a very soft picture, which could or could not be the fault of the Samsung player, but disappointing nonetheless. I was surprised at the quality of T2 especially for its age, but still feel that it could have looked a little bit better. Crash and Saw were letdowns for me. I had watched both on DVD a number of times, with Crash actually being one of my favorite movies. These movies exhibited lots of improvements in the detail department over DVD, however failed to really WOW me in terms of other HD content I had seen. I really didn't like The Punisher until about 3/4ths of the way through the movie, as the first 1/4th left me with alot to be desired in the PQ department.
Out of the Sony titles only HOFD and xXx really stick out to me as 'bad' discs. xXx had its moments and exhibited lots of improvement in the detail department, but unfortunately isn't consistant enough in the PQ department to get a good rating from me. The jury is still out on HOFD for me, as I'm not sure if the movie looks the way it does for a reason or if its just a bad BD release.
All of the other Sony titles I owned I was impressed with for the most part, with most of the later titles looking the best. Even Hitch and 50 First Dates, despite getting sub-par reviews from various places, looked great to me. Hitch did have one scene that I am still very questionable about, but it doesn't really detract from the viewing experience. I can elaborate on indivdual titles per request, as there are so many that I watched.
The 1st wave of Warner titles really wowed me. I was amazed at the quality of Training Day, Good Night, and Good Luck and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. These were some of the best HD movies I have laid eyes on and has me really anticipating future Warner releases on BD. I really couldn't find any problems at all with any of the Warner titles.
As I mentioned before, I was only able to watch one of the titles in the 2nd wave of Lionsgate releases, this being Stargate. I had never seen Stargate before, so I had no idea of what I was getting myself into, but I really enjoyed it. Despite being an older film and having some visible grain, the quality of the movie was really good and showed a crisp picture with lots of detail.
One thing that did hamper pretty much all of the movies I watched, with the exception of the Warner titles and Stargate, was blockiness in dark places. I wouldn't call the blockiness a spoiler or anything, but it was visible especially because this is a new format and people are running over it with a fine toothed comb.
Throughout my whole BD experience, the Audio never failed to impress me. I have always been a fan of great audio, and whether it was LPCM on the Sony titles, DTS on the Lionsgate titles, or the DD on Warner titles, they all had me impressed. Some notables being Underworld Evo, HOFD, T2, Silent Hill, Stealth, and Ultraviolet.
Last Thoughts:
Despite all of the negative press that BD has recived, I feel that my month and a half long exhibition of BD was very positive. I have definately been spoiled by HD. I'm glad that HD-DVD was there to get the BD camp in line in terms of disc quality. Now all I'm waiting for is a better player to arrive so I can enjoy some more HD content.
This whole post is just my opinions and observations, and since I am far from a professional reviewer, please don't label any of this information as fact. Feel free to ask any questions and add your own comments.
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