Samsung BD-P1600 Blu-ray Disc Player – Black
Posted by Notcot on Jun 5, 2010 in Home Cinema & Video |
- HD 1080p
- CD / DVD playback
- Netflix instant streaming ready
- Built-in Ethernet connection
- Control it all with one remote
5 CommentsReply |
|
First foray into the world of Blu-ray and I have to say I’m quite impressed. Superb picture, simple and precise user interface and unique front flip-down design. Does a great job of upscaling DVDs too.
Great extra features. BD-live easy to setup – just hooked it up to my router via ethernet and it was ready to go. You’ll need a dedicated 1GB+ USB flash drive though.
USB connectivity and Divx playback are a real plus. No longer need to write video files to disc. Just put them all on a flash drive and away you go. I can even hook up my Sony Ericsson phone, via its USB cable, to access the mp3s and photos stored on the Micro SD card. (This should also work with other FAT32 formatted devices)
Support for more video formats e.g. mpeg 1 & 2 and perhaps even wmv would have been great though. And although it plays the majority of Divx files, it won’t play High Definition ones.
Overall I’m very happy with the Samsung BD-1600.
This just in:
The latest firmware upgrade, released September 3rd, gives the BD-1600 and all other 2009 models access to Youtube (provided your player is connected to the Internet of course) and the ability to playback .mkv and .mp4 files. Have just completed the upgrade and am still playing around with it. So far I’m quite pleased. Just a little extra to make the BD-1600 even more impressive.
Rating: 4 / 5
Took it out of the box, plugged it in an away we went. No need for any software update. Paired with a Samsung TV and cinema system works a treat. Slight problem with sound sync initially but otherwise great. I didn’t want bells and whistles so this was perfect.
Upscaling of standard DVDs is brilliant, almost like watching for the first time.
Down sides: Just one, all Samsung product are high gloss black which is great but wife complains it shows the dust! I watch the movie, she sees dust.
Rating: 5 / 5
I was searching for a blu-ray player that would also play DIVX video and this is about the only one out there! When connected to the top of the range Philips ambilight LCDTV we encounted audio sync issues (ie audio not in time with picture). The manual is pretty poor, everything is covered but with no explanation of why you would change a setting. Seeing as sound is only coming from the stereo TV speakers, I turned all the player’s audio settings off and the audio was back in sync with the video and still sounded fine
I don’t know if problem was with TV of the player.
Not only does this play divx on DVD, but also there’s a USB slot at the front so you can play divx straight from a USB stick, this works extremely well.
The icing on the cake is the super-fast start-up times of this player, a common complaint of many other bluray players its faster than a lot of DVD players out there!
Rating: 4 / 5
Plays Blu Ray (obviously!), DVD and DIVX straight from the box with no problems at all and with great HD quality. Despite this I did update the firmware and was glad that I had. With the latest firmare version installed, (Version 2.02) it will now play YouTube videos when connected to my broadband. My only critism is a minor one and is really a critism of the company pricing and not the player. The WiFi dongle is £46 (Amazon price) which is an expensive price for a WiFi dongle! I have opted for a wired connection at present until the Samsung dongle reaches a price comparable to other USB WiFi devices.
In short, a fantastic multi format player and for under £140 you’ll have a hard job finding another Blu Ray player with as many features.
Rating: 5 / 5
After deliberating for a couple of months about buying a Blu-Ray player (Is it worth it? Is the qaulity really that better? Ect…), I finally converted. I promised myself I would only buy the occasional Blu-Ray film due to the price, although, there really isn’t a GREAT difference in price between a DVD and BD, three months down the line my collecton is now at 25 BD movies.
I only buy DVD’s if i’m after a TV box set. All my movies are now Blu-Ray. Having owned Sky+ HD for almost a year, I was amazed by the quality of High Definition…that was until I plugged in this very BD player…WOW! I was blown away. The vibrant colours, the sound, the quality, the ease of use, everything.
I am now a BD convert and if you don’t already own a BD player, go for this one. You will not be dissapointed. Of course, you need a good selection of films to watch…and I only buy good movies. Best for 1080 quality –
The Dark Knight (Especially the Imax scenes, which expand to fill the whole of the TV)
The Departed
Gran Torino
Watchmen
To name a few.
Rating: 5 / 5