Samsung BD-P1500 1080p Blu-ray Player | 
| Brand: Samsung
List Price: $399.99
Buy New: $214.99
You Save: $185.00 (46%)
New (33) Refurbished (5) from $249.99
Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 5
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 6.4
Dimensions (in): 10.7 x 16.9 x 2.3
MPN: BD-P1500
Model: BD-P1500
UPC: 036725607965
EAN: 0036725607965
ASIN: B0014H16V0
Release Date: June 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | Full HD 1080p Output for Blu-Ray Discs and selectable DVD Upconversion to 1080p | | • | 1080p with 24 Hz Vid Output | | • | HDMI version 1.3, component video, S-Video outputs | | • | Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, dts-HD | | • | Ethernet connection lets you easily check for the latest firmware upgrades online |
|
| Accessories:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
plays Blu-ray high-definition discs (selectable output resolution: 1080p signals available through HDMI output only; 720p/1080i signals available through HDMI or component video) * plays BD-ROM and BD-R & BD-RE * plays DVD-Video and DVD-R & DVD-RW * plays audio CD and CD-R & CD-RW * selectable 720p/1080i/1080p video upconversion for DVD (upconverted video available through HDMI output only) *
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 35 more reviews...
 Fine, basic player June 5, 2008
Kevin Moore (Natick, MA USA)
108 out of 112 found this review helpful
I've been using this for 2 weeks now, and it's my first blu-ray player (no PS3). The good stuff: Excellent look, not too loud, amazing picture and sound. Working ethernet and USB port. (I haven't had to download any firmware or code updates, but I'm sure it'll work fine.)
Operations: No fan noise, no noise while playing, but during menu & loading, you hear some track-seeking which is audible at 10'... nothing offensive, though. I just noticed last night, after my 5th blu-ray a little flicker in in the bottom center of the screen during the credits of Juno... not sure if it's a bad disc or a player having a problem. It was repeatable, and the disc seemed clean. Lastly, the load time, eject time, etc seems just fine. Not instant or as fast a nice DVD player, but not noticably slow. I've heard alot about slow disc-loading, and if it is a problem on other players - it's not a problem on this one. Lastly, sometimes when you click on a menu instead of pausing, the screen with show a "progress-bar" for 2-4 seconds while the next manu loads, which isn't completely kosher, but doesn't bother me.
The so-so stuff: I'm giving this 5-stars because it's near-perfect at what it's designed to do for it's price, but it's not perfect. One reason to get a mid- to lower-cost player is to (duh) save money... if you're someone who has an older receiver that doesn't decode the two new DD and DTS formats, and (probably) doesn't decode multi-channel PCM, this player isn't for you. It only has stereo-out analog RCA plugs, not 5.1 or 7.1 analog outputs.
That means you can't bypass your receivers pre-amp to play the newer audio formats and let the blu-ray player decode them. My old Receiver (which I used the player with for a week) only decoded DD 5.1 (no DTS, and only 2-channel PCM to 48khz). This player lets you send a PCM stream to your receiver from an internally decoded DTS 5.1 signal, but this didn't work for me... as my player can't receive 5.1 PCM streams, it only saw it as 2-channel. At least the player lets you downsample 96khz PCM to 48khz, so that I at least got sound (Golden Compass only has DTS 5.1 or DTS HD Master).
With my new receiver, all formats work perfectly, all bitstreamed.
Some people perhaps are holding off for new receivers because they don't want to connect through the player's analog RCA 5.1/7.1 connectors - but this is probably mis-information. What you want to avoid is taking digital sound, converting it to analog, then back to digital, then back to analog... don't worry - you wouldn't be doing this. Basically you would be doing all your processing in the player digitally, then once it is sent out through the pre-outs to the receiver you'd bypass the receiver's processing and it would go straight to the amplifier (which is of course analog anyway).
So my conclusion for thos people with older (but good) receivers - this blu-ray player won't save you any money. The best savings would be to pay a little more for a player with 5.1 analog outputs and continue to use your existing receiver.
-Kevin Moore
Natick, MA
 Worked great until Samsung Broke it July 24, 2008
SatinKzo
68 out of 84 found this review helpful
I could write a novel on my issues with Samsung and their qualiy control, but I'll keep this to the point.
I had the 1500 (also a 1400 but it broke the first week) since May 28th. Worked pretty well until the firmware update. After the update, I lost TrueHD audio (internal decoding or bitstreaming) and Standard DVD playback become impossible. I couldn't play a single regular DVD no matter what I tried. BD discs that have TrueHD tracks started flaking out with audio drops and pauses also. Sometimes up to 30-40 per movie at 8-10 seconds a piece.
Contacted Samsung to report problems and they claim they never heard of it (nevermind that after I did the update and had problems I saw numerous posts on the web about the problems). They offered to do a warranty repair if I gave them my CC# for a $50 "deposit" AND I pay shipping. Forget it, returned the player to retailer and have sworn off samsung altogether. They have burned me twice now with BD products and there will not a change for a third time with any of their products.
For those who are not informed, check out the web for problems with the samsung BD players (1000, 1200, 1400, 1500). Check out how samsung wants to handle the problems with their PAYING customers. Utterly disheartening.
Great into to Blu-Ray July 2, 2008
K. MCNAMARA (Dallas, TX)
41 out of 41 found this review helpful
I had been waiting to jump into the HD media fray until a winner was declared and of course, that happened earlier this year. A lot of people recommended to me to get a PS3 for my blu-ray player but, for a variety of reasons, I decided I wanted a standalone player. After a lot of research, I settled on the Samsung BD-P1500. I had heard a lot of negatives about how Samsung had not been supporting their previous generation units but I was willing to get them a 30 day trial. I'm glad I did.
I purchased this over memorial day weekend so I've had it over a month. In that time, I've played maybe a dozen blu-ray discs and 3 or 4 DVD's. The only problem I've experienced that is attributable to the player is several extremely brief audio dropouts while watching Ratatouille. However, I updated the player's firmware last weekend and watched several scenes that would previously cause the dropouts and observed none.
I love the fact that it has an ethernet port for firmware updates and future BD 2.0 features. The player loads discs quickly in comparison to stories I've heard about other players. Picture and sound quality are outstanding (I'm able to use the HD audio features and it's frankly amazing).
This is a really good player and the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because there are VERY few products that would rate 5 stars in my book. Most things have at least a couple of areas to improve on. For the price, this is a really good player.
 Very disapointing. September 11, 2008
Adrian Michaud (East Coast, USA)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful
This unit has two design problems that I'm aware of. I'm surprised that Samsung hasn't already fixed these issues.
For reference, my unit has the latest 1.3 firmware as of 9/10/2008.
#1: The BD-P1500 has inherent audio drop problems on the HDMI interface. I'm not sure if the optical interface has the same issue(s); however, I wouldn't be surprised if it does. The audio bitstream will drop (silent) occasionally on most blu-ray discs that I've played. I believe there is a timing and/or bandwidth issue with either the firmware or hardware. This problem has been reported by many other BD-P1500 owners on various AV forums.
#2: The front display is extremely dim. When this unit is placed next to the Samsung HT-AS720 receiver which has the same display type, the BD-P1500's display looks terrible. The BD-P1500 has an option to adjust the brightness of the front display; however it doesn't work. The display is always too dim. This problem has also been reported by many other BD-P1500 owners on various AV forums.
Unfortunately, Samsung has not been able to resolve the audio drop issue as of 09/10/2008 so I'm concerned that they may never. If high quality reliable audio playback is important to you, then I suggest you research the BD-P1500 more before buying it.
almost perfect June 10, 2008
Deen Reviews (Brooklyn, New York United States)
19 out of 28 found this review helpful
I bought the 1500 through ABT while they still had a few in stock. Great customer service, shipped immediately and arrived promptly. The unit is really good - although not flawless. The first short coming is that the unit only has HDMI and optical cable jacks for audio. If you've ever compared optical to coaxial you know that copper beats fiber every time. The second short coming is the remote. This is more of a complaint about Samsung. I matched the 1500 with a Samsung 6-series LCD-TV, and one would think the remotes would be interchangeable; that the (very expensive) TV remote could do all the functions on the blu-ray player - or at least the primary functions like skip chapter. Not the case, you still need two remotes to cover all the functions of either component. Two other minor complaints - the power cord is hard wired so you can't upgrade it - and the unit doesn't come with an HDMI cable. I bought one at an Apple store - two meters, gold plated and only $20.
On the positive side the player loads blu-ray media and DVDs alike very quickly, the quality is flawless, it's blu-ray 2.0 compliant, and the price is great considering how relatively young the format is.
|
|
|
