Blu-ray format is the new and improved movie watching technology. It won the battle of high-definition viewing format over HD-DVD, and is slowly gaining traction.

Low Cost

What are the costs you should budget for when going with either options?

Blu-ray players cost five to ten times more than DVD players (and sometimes even more than that). But the costs don't end there. To really enjoy a Blu-ray movie you'll also need a good HD screen and adequate sound system. If you don't already own those, the price difference climbs up quickly. As a rule of thumb you're probably better off getting the screen and sound system first, so that by the time you get to buy the actual Blu-ray player prices may drop. Blu-ray players can play your standard DVD titles, which means you don't have to go and replace your entire collection at once,. However, you'd probably want Blu-ray titles to exploit everything Blu-ray has to give. The movies are not cheap, and easily cost twice more than the same movie in standard DVD format.

Movies Availability

How many movies are available for the player?

More often than not, new movies get released in Blu-ray format. Older movies get ported and released slowly as well. However, the total number of titles in Blu-ray is only 1 percent that of the titles available for standard DVDs. This means that unless your taste in movies fits in exactly with what the Blu-ray library has to offer, your Blu-ray player will be mostly used to play standard DVD movies. Also, if you buy your movie in Blu-ray format, it will not play on standard DVDs.

Picture Quality

What kind of picture viewing quality does the format provide?

Blu-ray has maximum picture resolution of 1920x1080 (1080p). This is a far better resolution compared to DVD. What it means is that the quality of the picture you'll see is far better as more detail can fit into every single frame. The experience, on good HD screens can mimic a real cinema quality. Additionally, Blu-ray technology stores the video differently to DVDs (in technical terms, the Blu-ray discs use superior video-compression). The difference is that the picture looks more real ï¿½ it has rich colors and sharpness (contrast). The downside is that while the picture quality is superior, you really need a good HD screen to enjoy it.

Sound Quality

What can you expect from the player in terms of the playback quality for music and soundtracks?

Blu-ray uses very sophisticated, new soundtrack technologies such as Dolby TrueHD and Master Audio. The quality sound stored on the Blu-ray disc is really studio-quality and, especially for newer movie titles, sounds great with the right sound system. The downside is that to enjoy this sound quality, you really need an excellent sound system, which costs a lot by itself.

Special Features

What can the player do beside playing back your movies?

Blu ray boasts several special features that standard DVDs do not have. The most obvious one is the ability to access the menu options without having to stop the movie. You simply open a pop-up menu that gets displayed on the screen while you continue viewing. Different features are available for different Blu-ray profiles. Profiles are the different generations of Blu-ray players, and some features are only present in the latest profile. Picture-in-picture viewing, or Internet connectivity to download additional material directly from the player are cool features but not available on all models. The downside of Blu-ray is that movie loading time is substantially longer than what you get on standard DVD, and that no Set-top recorders are currently only available in Japan.

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Average rating: 4 / 5 , based on 409 customer reviews
Feel factor: 1

Good God, don't buy Samsung!

(score 1/5)

I have purchased four products from Samsung--two TVs, this Bluray player, and an internal hard drive--of the three, only one is still working properly, the internal hard drive (though it is my most recent purchase, so I'm sure it will prove itself defective soon enough). Shortly after buying this blu-ray player, it stopped upconverting regular DVDs.

As for the TVs, both broke less than two years into owning them. $3000 worth of TVs down the drain. If anyone knows of any class action suits against Samsung, we want in!

Posted on: 2010-08-24
By GraduateStudent
Helpful index: 100%

fun while it lasted

(score 2/5)

The unit lasted less than a year. Now it won't play DVD-R's (home movies) any more. It will stil play blu-ray's but I need something that plays everything. I should have known I was headed for trouble when a few weeks after buying it there was no sound. After unplugging it for a couple minutes and plugging it back in, it was fine. Now, even with the lastest firmware I can't fix it.

I wanted a Samsung DVD player with my Samsung TV but there was no way I was going to buy another so I bought a Sony DVD player.

Posted on: 2010-06-11
By Sean Johnson

Biggest Piece of Junk!

(score 1/5)

This is the first blu-ray player we bought. It worked for a while, and then all of a sudden everything went down hill. It stopped reading blu-rays; I would have to unplug it and put the disc in repeatedly before it might actually read it. One time I sat in front of the player just putting the disc back in for 15 minutes and it never would read it. It was kept updated as well, so this was not the problem. It would freeze up in the middle of dvds and blu-rays; it would stop playing it all together, or start chopping it. Even on brand new discs that work on other players, this piece of junk would not play it correctly if at all. Eventually, we gave up and bought a sony on sale at our BX and could not be happier with it.

Posted on: 2010-06-10
By A. Bartoszek

Samsung disapoints

(score 1/5)

Painful experience. I have the most recent firmware. Some discs play. Others do not. Don't purchase. Go for something newer.

Posted on: 2010-05-22
By D. Foltz

My Samsung BD-P1500 doesn't work after 1 year and 2 months.

(score 1/5)

I bought the Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray disc player and didn't really use it all that much, just a handful of movies I purchased and some rental from Netflix (for just a few months). Shortly after the one-year warrantee term expired, the machine stopped working. I got on the phone with three technicians, they were all very nice to me, but couldn't help me to fix it. Nothing more they could do with the software upgrade, that wasn't the issue. The last technician advised that it could be the laser issue and suggested that I sent it in for repair, and the charge for this is $166. I am not interested in spending anymore money on this machine and would rather have a new machine from Sony.

You may find this interesting, while the machine no longer play any blu-ray movies anymore, it does play standard DVD movie however, it doesn't show the menu. I had to make my menu selection in the dark.

I'm so disappointed.

Posted on: 2010-05-11
By Chailai Brune

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