Picked up a Samsung BD-P2550

[shrktank]

Ignorance is Bliss!: I mentioned in a previous post an issue I had with lip sync issues with this player. It ends up my Pioneer receiver was set with a delay. This delay is what caused the issue with the lip sync. Once I removed the delay from the receiver everything worked perfect.

I also watched some more Star Wars and Indiana Jones. I am now to the point of thinking the upconvert is the best I have ever seen. Makes me wonder if Blu-Ray disc are even needed

Also I watched 300 last night. AWESOME movie and I now feel the 2550 is better and is becoming a keeper for me.

I have a question for you all as well. Is it best to view things in 24fps or 60fps?

[Kage]

Originally Posted by shrktank

Ignorance is Bliss!: I mentioned in a previous post an issue I had with lip sync issues with this player. It ends up my Pioneer receiver was set with a delay. This delay is what caused the issue with the lip sync. Once I removed the delay from the receiver everything worked perfect.

I also watched some more Star Wars and Indiana Jones. I am now to the point of thinking the upconvert is the best I have ever seen. Makes me wonder if Blu-Ray disc are even needed

Also I watched 300 last night. AWESOME movie and I now feel the 2550 is better and is becoming a keeper for me.

I have a question for you all as well. Is it best to view things in 24fps or 60fps?

I really like the Samsung BD-P2550 dvd performace in playback and upconverting. I heard that the P2550 dvd performance comes very close to the Denon DVD-3800BDCI Blu-ray dvd performance.

If you have a tv that supports 1080p24, I would set the P2550 to enable 24fps.

[Harry_Krishna]

DANG! You now have me almost completely ready to return the S350 for the 2550! I was going to wait for the BD35 or BD55, or maybe the newer S550. But none of those have the Reon HQV chip, and with the huge collection of S DVD movies I have (and don't want to buy yet another just to have a BD version***), the upscalling is very important to me (have an 805, so prefer bitstream all the way!!!!!).

It's just that I am VERY leary of all the quality issues I have heard about Samsung that worries me! Will this last, or be a doorstop a lot sooner than a Sony or Panasonic BD would be?

gbalbach, I do have one question for you. One thing I have found missing on nearly every BD player I have tried (and that is a lot of them), is when I do the display (or info) screen, only the PS3 would show both how much time was LEFT to play as well as time into the movie, all at the same time. All the others would just show time elapsed, though pressing TIME after DISPLAY on the S350 would change it from time played to time left, I miss the PS3 style that would show both.

***: For example of buying yet more copies of the same movie, just how many times will I need to buy the original 3 Star Wars movies again? I have it on 2 different versions of VHS, one version on the old Laser Disc, and then the recent DVD version. Or as yet another example, after paying around $90 when the Band of Brothers came out as a DVD set, do I want to spend another $$$ on the BD version? Most likely will cause that is a GREAT show, but sheesh!!!!! LOL

[shrktank]

Harry:

First, I have played with my player for over 10 movies now and all have played with out any audio dropouts or any other issues. The player is extremely quite and I am totally please with it. Also again ,the SD DVD play back is much better than the Sony 350

Second, this is the only complaint I have, as I too had the PS3. From the info screen you cannot see time remaining. If you hit fast forward or fast rewind you can see time remaining. Not sure why they do not include this anywhere. To me it is not a major issue as I generally just watch the movie.

Be interesting to know why most players are removing this function. Wonder if it is from user surveys

[milou6]

Great info, everyone! Thanks! I *would* have bought one on Friday, but alas, money is very tight right now and my better half used some strange power called "logic" and "reason" to convince me to hold off... my consolation is that I will at least learn more thanks to everyone here. Thanks for the great info.

[shrktank]

Well, when ever my other half uses that on me, I just let her know I should have used logic and reason about 25 years ago!!!

Actually it seems prices and quality of these players are still in flux. I heard the sony's might be coming down $100 in price this coming month.

If I did not sell some old stuff on ebay I would have stuck with my PS3. But had enough enough to purchase the 2550.

I think by Christmas time we will see players in a better price mode

[milou6]

Originally Posted by shrktank

Well, when ever my other half uses that on me, I just let her know I should have used logic and reason about 25 years ago!!!

Actually it seems prices and quality of these players are still in flux. I heard the sony's might be coming down $100 in price this coming month.

If I did not sell some old stuff on ebay I would have stuck with my PS3. But had enough enough to purchase the 2550.

I think by Christmas time we will see players in a better price mode

Since I'm forced to sit and wait I hope you're right about prices! There are several players coming out that I'm interested in, the 2550, the Sony 550 and the Pioneer 51FD. The Reon chip in the 2550 really excites me though.

[ganthc]

Originally Posted by shrktank

I also watched some more Star Wars and Indiana Jones. I am now to the point of thinking the upconvert is the best I have ever seen. Makes me wonder if Blu-Ray disc are even needed

I seriously question whether upconversion can compare with blu-ray. I have the hd-xa2, which was supposedly the pennacle of dvd upconversion, and I am no longer believing the hype on dvd being comparable to blu-ray. At least this is true on my 60" screen. Perhaps on a 42" or smaller screen it can be less striking, but DVD looks blurry by comparison.

[shrktank]

Originally Posted by ganthc

I seriously question whether upconversion can compare with blu-ray. I have the hd-xa2, which was supposedly the pennacle of dvd upconversion, and I am no longer believing the hype on dvd being comparable to blu-ray. At least this is true on my 60" screen. Perhaps on a 42" or smaller screen it can be less striking, but DVD looks blurry by comparison.

Perhaps I overstated it a bit too much. I was just conveying how good a SD DVD looks with the 2550. Blue Ray still provides a much crisper and clearer picture than the upconvert. But with the 2550 I do not mind watching non Blu Ray releases on SD DVD as the picture is very good

[milou6]

Originally Posted by shrktank

Perhaps I overstated it a bit too much. I was just conveying how good a SD DVD looks with the 2550. Blue Ray still provides a much crisper and clearer picture than the upconvert. But with the 2550 I do not mind watching non Blu Ray releases on SD DVD as the picture is very good

Well-worded. There are so many "dead-ender" HD-DVD fanboys out there dismissing blu-ray and hailing upconversion that it's flame-bait to say anything good about it. I very much want the Reon chip so I can watch my large DVD collection and know I'm getting the best (that I can afford...) out of the ol' girl -- and DVDs can still look very good. But it's how great BDs look that have made me demand more of DVDs....

[mdm1699]

Originally Posted by shrktank

Perhaps I overstated it a bit too much. I was just conveying how good a SD DVD looks with the 2550. Blue Ray still provides a much crisper and clearer picture than the upconvert. But with the 2550 I do not mind watching non Blu Ray releases on SD DVD as the picture is very good

I was about to ask if the quality is better than hd cable.

Let it go folks. No matter how you slice it, it is still DVD. Isn't Blu-ray the reason most of us don't go to the movies anymore?

[ganthc]

Originally Posted by mdm1699

Let it go folks. No matter how you slice it, it is still DVD. Isn't Blu-ray the reason most of us don't go to the movies anymore?

+1

I have only gone for the big blockbuster movies, and then only a few. The rest I wait for blu-ray.

[milou6]

Originally Posted by mdm1699

I was about to ask if the quality is better than hd cable.

At least DVD was a good format for its time -- compromises and all, it has aged well imo. But "HD" cable is just a corporate screwing of its customers, compressed up the yin-yang to offer more channels, and all it's doing is confusing people as to what HD can look like. It's like listening to an MP3 over a nice stereo -- and with everyone plugging their ipods into their home systems I guess people don't mind that either...

[mdm1699]

Originally Posted by milou6

At least DVD was a good format for its time -- compromises and all, it has aged well imo. But "HD" cable is just a corporate screwing of its customers, compressed up the yin-yang to offer more channels, and all it's doing is confusing people as to what HD can look like. It's like listening to an MP3 over a nice stereo -- and with everyone plugging their ipods into their home systems I guess people don't mind that either...

Our ability to justify anything is a human flaw, not a gift.

[milou6]

Originally Posted by mdm1699

Our ability to justify anything is a human flaw, not a gift.

And I'll stop taking up space on this thread now -- thanks everyone, and enjoy your new toys!

[Harry_Krishna]

Originally Posted by shrktank

Harry:

First, I have played with my player for over 10 movies now and all have played with out any audio dropouts or any other issues. The player is extremely quite and I am totally please with it. Also again ,the SD DVD play back is much better than the Sony 350

Second, this is the only complaint I have, as I too had the PS3. From the info screen you cannot see time remaining. If you hit fast forward or fast rewind you can see time remaining. Not sure why they do not include this anywhere. To me it is not a major issue as I generally just watch the movie.

Be interesting to know why most players are removing this function. Wonder if it is from user surveys

So as not to type the whole dang post over again for here, this is what I had posted over at AVS about my thoughts on the 2550 after having it for a few days:

I HONESTLY wanted to keep it, and was quite excited about the Reon chip too, as I have a ton of standard DVD's that I just don't want to (or can afford to) buy yet again in the BD format.
*****************
I have the S350 (and still within the 30 days return period), and wondered the same. So I also went and bought the new Samsung 2550 to check it out. Well . . . . . .

watching the same scenes over and over on a rental (NetFlix) of the TV series Roswell, and some parts of the first Lord of the Rings (my own, so super clean!!!) DVDs, I could BARELY tell any difference in the PQ between the two players. This right there, could not justify the $100+ higher price of the Samsung.

But, when watching my brand new Residient Evil Extinction BD, the Samsung had some serious problems! When the typical rating, Interpol, and FBI warnings would show, the first screen up was the blue rating screen. Then that screen would pop up again, but with artifact lines through it from the right side, then the red Interpol screen would show, also with artifacts! When playing this on the Sony S350, after the rating screen there was a blue FBI warning screen, then the red warning screens. Quite weird! The rest of the movie seemed to play ok afterwards on the Samsung.

Another thing that irked me a lot, was the info (display) screens. The Sony has a way better one, tells you the resolution (1080P, and if it is 60 or 24 fps), the type of video (MPEG, AVI, etc), what audio it is using (DTHD, DTS HDMA, etc) even the time into the movie (and press the TIME button again, and will show time left). The Samsung had some nice info showing as well, but most of it was useless. Never showed what type of video being used, and for audio it woudl just say ENG 5.1 (or something like that). And unless in the setup you selected to show all messages, even when you paused, there would be no time line. But select yes to messages, when you pause, then play, it had a fairly decent timeline up above, BUT! It would also notify you everytime there was a bonus view avialable, right in the upper left corner of your MOVIE!!!! DUH????

So with the artifacts, and not THAT much difference I could see with the Reon chip in the 2550 over the S350 for standard DVDs, and the poor info display, I could not feel that the Samsung was worth the extra $100+ over the Sony - not to mention around September 28th that the S350 is supposed to drop another $100 in price!!!! And BB WILL match that price (60 day price matching).

******************

AGAIN: this was not to inflame any of you, or trash the new 2550. I bought it because I WAS going to take a chance on it being a keeper. Yes, I didn't play a thousand discs through each player, but even just once having artifacts in the one, and not the other, was not a good omen to me. The 2550 was on the latest firmware too (I checked multiple times, as my S350 took a few tries as well to find a newer version). I paused at the same screens a number of times with the standard DVD movies, and stared at the screen for some time, and at different distances, and could hardly see any different in the sharpness or PQ. Perhpas later on, Samsung might release some FW that may fix this, and might even add a better info screen, and allow the timeline to show and yet still disable the bonus view notice over the movie. But for that extra cost, I just was not willing to risk it at this time.

But there were still a few cool things about the 2550 - one of which was the bong sound when it was ready, and how the screensaver would be automatic (though rather dull and jaggy). And I did not find it noisey at all, nor heated up much.

So I hope this helps some of you, even a little bit. Thanks

/////////////////////////

Ooops, one thing I DID forget to mention over there - when the white bird would start filling up with red while Resident Evil Extinction was loading, the 2550 was near about 60% QUICKER to fill the bird with the red, then the S350. Quite impressive. And having the internal flash memory already (had to buy a flash drive for the S350) is great! But I also wonder if maybe that internal flash memory, or the speed it was loading, or both (???) might have been the cause for the artifacts. Hmmmmmmm

[alpha4]

I have had the Samsung 2550 for about 8 days and I brought it as a stand alone player but I have been having trouble using it with an HDMI on my Optoma HD80 front projector.

Whenever I connect this player via HDMI to my Optoma I get a pink tint which is highly unusual since I didn't get that when I played my PS3 or when I briefly tried out the Sony S350. If I connect it to any other TV in the house via HDMI it plays great but only on my Optoma does it have problems. I am now using it with the Optoma connected by component cables but it does not get 1080p only 1080i.

If I can't get this problem fixed I'll probably take it back to BB and wait for the 550. I love the picture and sound with this player but I think that I should be able to use the best cables.

I have watched about 5 blu ray movies with this and the sound and video is awesome but I want 1080p for the money that I have spent.

Anybody have any ideas?

Alpha4

[Edh63]

I've had the 2550 for about a week now and have been putting it through the motions. I'm very impressed with this player and probably will sell my 1500 and buy another 2550 for the master br. I'm bitstreaming the 2550 through my Onkyo TX SR705 and getting all the proper codecs unleashed through my Mirage speaker set-up. I'm having no issues with AQ or PQ and upconversion is fantastic.

Obviously no amount of upconverting will equal BR, but the 2550 and the HQV chip upcoverts much better than the 1500. Samsung has finally put out a BDP that stands out in front of the heard with some others. I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a solid standalone. I had many audio issues with my Lifestyle 35, i.e, audio drops via optical, but with the Onkyo 705 and all HDMI, I have zero issues and everything sounds great.

I've been a Bose fanboy for the last 6 years and have enjoyed my Lifestyle much, but I cannot write this and defend my ignorance after I've made the leap into a custom system... for less. Bose serves a purpose for those that choose to spend "their" money the way they deem fit. It also serves an aesthetic and personal audio taste for those that connect with this kind of system. Nothing wrong with that and live and let live. However, I never knew what I was missing until I hooked this new system up and listened to uncompressed audio codecs through a management system that is extremely flexible. My home theater set-up isn't even close to a highend system yet it performs beyond my expectations and produces way beyond what I need for my taste.

I think with great equipment you get great results. Yes, great equipment can be defined through the eyes and ears of the beholder, but great equipment will speak (no pun intended) for itself.

As far as Samsung and their support for BDP's, the 1500 has had timely FW updates to this point. There are none for the 2550 because it's strong right from the box and too new. I've owned the 1200, 1400, 1500 and now the 2550 and can tell you assertively that the 1500 and 2550 are strong players. I went for the 2550 because of the HQV chip. The 1500 has now been retired to the master br.

[mykrutz]

Hello all. I am an associate at Best Buy and am just looking for some help. There was a gentleman that purchased this unit a couple days ago, and he came back in to exchange it with another of the same. He said when connected with Monster Fiber Optic to his Denon receiver, the receiver would shut down periodically but the Blu-Ray player remained on with a picture on the TV. He said this happened with a Blu-Ray disc and a SD disk.

Has anyone read anywhere about known bugs or firmware issues? I am trying to get an answer for this guy but it has been hard to find something as of yet. Let me know if you all don't mind if there are any known issues yet.

I appreciate it.

[milou6]

Forgive the intrusion from someone who does not own a 2550, but I have never heard of a receiver being adversely affected by a signal coming over an optical connection (other than noise/static/pops etc).