I got my Samsung BD-UP5000 Blu-ray/HD-DVD Player Today!

[theMaximus]

I was lucky enough to score one today at Best Buy. They got one in for display and didn't even get a chance to open the box when I saw it sitting on the shelf. I talked the manager into selling me the unit since he didn't have any extra units for sale. The price was $799 just as it was listed on other sources like Crutchfield catalogue.

The only bad thing is that there is no 5-free Blu-ray or HD DVD movies promotion for it. I guess neither Blu-ray camp nor HD DVD camp is motivated to promote this player. I, on the other hand, feel like I should get 5 free movies from each format. Oh, well.

I'll post my first impression and difference in Blu-ray PQ or SQ between my PS3 and the Samsung when I get a chance.

[Hdale85]

Are there differences? I would hope if anything the Samsung would be better Certainly less fan noise!

[John Holmes]

Sweet! Let us know your thoughts after playing.

[George Bellefontaine]

I'll be looking forward to your report, Maximus. I don't like what I am reading about this unit at another popular home theater site.

[Hdale85]

Hmm...what are they saying at another popular site? I plan on picking this up probably in feb sometime. I currently just have the Xbox drive connected to my PC but picking up a new Plasma and player. Maybe by then they will have some of the bugs worked out.

[George Bellefontaine]

Hmm...what are they saying at another popular site?

Have you got all day ? Just kidding. But the thread is now somewhere around 20 pages of cussing about lack of certian sound codecs, glitches when playing discs( Bluray, strangely enough ), etc, etc. It's that forum where they like attacking each other, as well as nitpicking to death every product they buy. But there does seem to be some serious glitches on video playback, as well as cases where the player locks up. I dunno.

[Hdale85]

Well I know that some of the sound codecs are supposed to be upgraded later via a firmware update. I'm sure the video glitches and what not will be fixed before too long. Also I wonder how many actual units are affected...seems we always get tons of people online posting and a lot of times there are a lot more that are working just fine. Also wonder just how picky they are being about it I know the forum you speak of and they tear down everything to a crazy level.

[George Bellefontaine]

And of course you only hear of the bad units. Could be tons of good units out there. But I am a bit bothered. After all, Samsung delayed this unit for a couple of months. You think they would have gotten it right.

[Chris D]

Yes, I'm curious too.

[Azeke]

Congratulations Maximus it is always nice to get an early electronic Christmas toy 8) .

Please let us know your findings on any issues and resolutions. I am also interested to know how this player compares with the PS3. Enjoy.

Peace and blessings,

Azeke

[theMaximus]

I finally got chance to hook it up to a Onkyo receiver that I bought at the same time. After spending about an hour unplugging all the lines from Rotel RSX-1056, organizing them, and plugging them back into the new Onkyo and Samsung, I finally turned everything on. Then I pressed the open/close button on Samsung. What do you know? The disc tray is stuck and will not open. What the hell? I can hear the try motor trying hard to open the tray, but it is not opening.

I guess I need to wait until Best Buy or Circuit City gets more of them in so I can get it exchanged. That could be a while. I'll give it another shot when I get a replacement unit.

[rick c]

would like to hear what your impressions are between your new onkyo(which model) and the rsx1056.

[Chris D]

Geez... you're picky. A flashy, super high-tech toy like that, and you get upset when the tray won't open? In mostly seriousness, though, most of the BD and HD-DVD players do take several MINUTES to boot up. I assume you've tried just pressing the button and waiting without doing anything else?

[Blindamood]

Then I pressed the open/close button on Samsung. What do you know? The disc tray is stuck and will not open. What the hell? I can hear the try motor trying hard to open the tray, but it is not opening.

Hopefully there's no tape on the drive tray for shipping purposes...?

[theMaximus]

Hopefully there's no tape on the drive tray for shipping purposes...?

I looked very close for any obstructions. I even tried manually opening the outer try cover to expose the actual tray, and it still won't open. I'll return it as soon as I get a chance. At this point, I may just wait until they get the 7.1 bitstream problem sorted out with the new firmware in February.

[Hdale85]

I'm sure the player will be a lot less glitchy with that patch.

[theMaximus]

I finally got a replacement from Best Buy. It seemed like I couldn't find one anywhere in my area or on the internet. I kept calling my local BB everyday and lucky enough to grab one before everything got sold out again.

This second unit seems to work fine for most of the movies I tested. Matrix Trilogy and Transformers on HD DVDS played just fine. Great PQ. I've also tested several Blu-ray discs including Kingdom of Heaven, Black Hawk Down, POC Trilogy, and Spyderman Trilogy. One movie it did not play correctly is the latest Resident Evil Blu-ray. I was getting the sound from the feature film but was getting the pictures from the special features.

Fan noise is not too loud, but you could hear it from about 3 feet away, which is no problem. I also noticed some problem last night from watch the standard DVD of 3:10 to Yuma, but I'm not sure if the disc (local Block Buster rental) was the problem. At the moment, only audio format I can use is PCM, but upcoming firmware is supposed to fix all the audio issues.

[George Bellefontaine]

Hope it works out for you, Maximus. I bought the Panasonic BD30 Bluray and have watched several movies and just love the thing. I still may add a Tosh HD DVD player but I'm waiting to see what happens with Paramount and Universal. If they move to the Bluray camp, I really won't need another player.

[Hdale85]

Well Universal is one of the main creators of HD-DVD so don't expect them to budge until the very last minute.

[theMaximus]

Well, George, I think I'll follow your path and get the Panasonic. With the Warner's announcement, I don't think spending $750 for a duo player makes much sense at this point especially with all the glitches I've experienced. I'm returning the Samsung tomorrow, and I'll get the Panasonic and save $300, which I'll add to my new TV purchase in the near future. I even heard that Warner will finally release the Matrix Trilogy in Blu-ray. That means I have to sell my HD-DVD version of Ultimate Matrix collection and Transformers on eBay only after one viewing. Another casualty of the format war.

[littlesaint]

Well, George, I think I'll follow your path and get the Panasonic. With the Warner's announcement, I don't think spending $750 for a duo player makes much sense at this point especially with all the glitches I've experienced. I'm returning the Samsung tomorrow, and I'll get the Panasonic and save $300, which I'll add to my new TV purchase in the near future. I even heard that Warner will finally release the Matrix Trilogy in Blu-ray. That means I have to sell my HD-DVD version of Ultimate Matrix collection and Transformers on eBay only after one viewing. Another casualty of the format war.

Or you could wait until the war is actually over. Transformers is a Paramount release. No BD release forth coming. You're passing up a lot of good HD releases by going BD only. Even if HD-DVD loses, it's not like the HD-DVD disks will stop working. I bought a PS3 to complement my XA2 just to get the BD films I wanted. For me, I wouldn't think of just having one or the other until everyone is on one side, but that's me. I'm addicted to HD. Although, to be honest, I don't think either format will ultimately supplant DVD as the mainstream media format.

[George Bellefontaine]

Well, George, I think I'll follow your path and get the Panasonic.

I went with the Panasonic because after all I read about Bluray players from Samsung , Sony, etc ( except of course the flawless Playstation3 ) I just wanted a player with as few hassles as possible. Now the Panny is not without its issues if you read owners comments at other HT sites, but most of them relate to audio codecs which I really don't care about. The digital out sounds just great to me. Apparently there were also a few players that had to be returned because they wouldn't read Bluray discs ( ain't that a riot :rofl: ) but honestly, I haven't encountered any playback issues, as yet anyway. I have played the following: Resident Evil ( the new one ), 3:10 To Yuma, Black Hawk Down, War, Terminator 2 and Full Metal Jacket and they not only played without a blip, they looked great. And though some have said the Panny's upconversion is okay, but not spectacular, it certianly makes my old dvds look better than just okay, it does a much better job than what my Benq W10K does when upconverting from my old Sony 7700

As far as giving up on HD DVD, that has to be a personal decision on your part. Like I said earlier, I may yet add a Tosh HD player to the mix because even if there isn't any titles later this year, the player will serve as an upconverting player for my 1000 + standard dvd titles. My 7700 is long on the tooth and will eventually be retired to a music listening room as it does a great job with cds.

Whatever you do, I'm sure you will be happy in the end.