[Steve615]

I was looking at this item online a little while ago,thinking about buying it.It is a Blu-Ray/HD DVD Combo Player from Samsung.Does anyone on here have any experience with it?
Item description at the following link.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?oid=191906

If it does what it is supposed to do,$450 doesn't sound like too bad of a price for it.

 

[Stewart Vernon]

Someone might come along and move this to a different forum, since most of the HD/Blu stuff has been discussed in the "At the Movies and on DVD" forum... but meanwhile...

I've had the Samsung for a couple of weeks now. I haven't tested all of my HD DVDs but thus far they seem as good to me as they did on my Toshiba A3 player. One minor glitch in the audio dept as the Toshiba would send Dolby 5.1 for a Dolby TrueHD track via optical (I don't have HDMI) but the Samsung seems to only want to send 2.0 PCM for Dolby TrueHD. But I'm also using the analog outputs from the Samsung since it decodes some formats that I don't have in my audio receiver anyway. IF you use HDMI then you won't notice that glitch as long as you are on the latest firmware (1.3) when you buy.

Have rented a few Blu rays and no problems there either. Some folks have had some problems with FOX titles, so it has been recommended to try FOX titles as early as possible so you know if you have a glitchy unit or not. I seem to be fine there.

I have seem a few skips or momentary freezes on a few DVDs I've played (regular DVDs) but sometimes my Toshiba would lock up on regular DVDs so in some ways this is a less noticable glitch, that I'm hoping future firmware will address.

 

[Steve615]

Thanks for the info.
If we decide to invest in one of these,it would be connected via HDMI to our TV.I would also plug it into our DSL service to download any firmware updates that may be available.After that is done,then it would be time to take it for a "test drive".

Someone might come along and move this to a different forum, since most of the HD/Blu stuff has been discussed in the "At the Movies and on DVD" forum... but meanwhile...

I've had the Samsung for a couple of weeks now. I haven't tested all of my HD DVDs but thus far they seem as good to me as they did on my Toshiba A3 player. One minor glitch in the audio dept as the Toshiba would send Dolby 5.1 for a Dolby TrueHD track via optical (I don't have HDMI) but the Samsung seems to only want to send 2.0 PCM for Dolby TrueHD. But I'm also using the analog outputs from the Samsung since it decodes some formats that I don't have in my audio receiver anyway. IF you use HDMI then you won't notice that glitch as long as you are on the latest firmware (1.3) when you buy.

Have rented a few Blu rays and no problems there either. Some folks have had some problems with FOX titles, so it has been recommended to try FOX titles as early as possible so you know if you have a glitchy unit or not. I seem to be fine there.

I have seem a few skips or momentary freezes on a few DVDs I've played (regular DVDs) but sometimes my Toshiba would lock up on regular DVDs so in some ways this is a less noticable glitch, that I'm hoping future firmware will address.

 

[Richard King]

Someone might come along and move this to a different forum

You are correct. I left a forwarding address at the former home so that it will still get attention from there also.

 

[DCSholtis]

Thanks for the info.
If we decide to invest in one of these,it would be connected via HDMI to our TV.I would also plug it into our DSL service to download any firmware updates that may be available.After that is done,then it would be time to take it for a "test drive".

One thing you may want to consider is IF you have or are considering purchasing any Blu Rays that are region locked in other areas OR have any SD DVDs that are region locked to other areas (Japan etc), have any or play to purchase any PAL SD DVDs there are hacks to allow these with the LG BH 200 Combo player. Not sure if the Sammy does or has the same available hacks. FWIW I have heard good things about each player, they each have their little quirks like everything in life. . That LG Hack allowed me to buy the Grindhouse region 2 Japanese box set so I'm happy with what I have and everyone should be happy with their choices there are no right or wrong choices when it comes to these Combo players, IMO

 

[Stewart Vernon]

Adding to what DCSholtis said...

The LG combo player seems to have advantages in the ability to play other region DVDs and Blu rays (HD DVD has no region coding so no issues there with any HD DVD player) and the ability to play PAL as well.

The Samsung has 7.1 analog audio outputs, and has both optical and coaxial digital as well. I think the LG only has optical... Both have HDMI of course.

For most folks the choice seems to be based on either (in my case) a need for 7.1 analog to support an older audio receiver OR the desire to play other region DVD/Blu ray discs. As far as I can tell, the rest of the features of both players are pretty much the same.

 

[DCSholtis]

Adding on to what HDMe added on to my addon. . Do your research on these both machines have "problematic" discs that they have trouble with for the Sammy its some of the FOX titles. For the LG some of the problem discs include Clerks II HD DVD {will not display the menus and just keeps looping}, other users have reported problems with Planet Earth HD DVDs etc. So like I said your going to be spending a helluva lot of money. Scan the threads at AVS, do your homework and have enjoy what you get!!

 

[Steve615]

Thanks much for the replies and info.
I will look into comparing the Samsung and LG players later on tonight.We are heading out to watch 'The Dark Knight' again tonight.We watched it Friday night,liked it so much that we're going to watch it again.I will do some comparisons between the two players later tonight.Thanks again for the info.

 

[Stewart Vernon]

I can obviously only speak from experience (and not too much of that) with the Samsung I bought... but meanwhile I've been trying to talk my father into the LG since he has HDMI and doesn't need the analog audio but he may very well like the ability to play other region DVDs.

Each player, as already mentioned, has some unique movie playback issues... In addition to reading here, I also recommend looking at AVSForums. Before I made my purchase I looked there and they have a lot of good info on both players, recent firmware improvements, and disc playback issues. There are lots of people there who own one or both players so lots of good comparisons of the two.

 

[Lord Vader]

You want a good Blu-Ray player? IMHO, the two best out there are without a doubt the Panasonic DMP-BD30 and its newer brother, the DMP-BD50. They're unbeatable.

 

[gulfwarvet]

I was looking at this item online a little while ago,thinking about buying it.It is a Blu-Ray/HD DVD Combo Player from Samsung.Does anyone on here have any experience with it?
Item description at the following link.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?oid=191906

If it does what it is supposed to do,$450 doesn't sound like too bad of a price for it.

i bought this player awhile back off of Ebay (new not a refurb for $300). so far i haven't had any huge issue's with it. the only HD-DVD that it wouldn't play without a very, very long boot up time for internet features was BeoWulf.

also, which i think Samsung might have fixed by now with the newest firmware update was the playback for true HD audio.

other than that i have been pretty happy with my investment.

 

[Steve615]

Thanks for all of the replies and info,it is appreciated.
We have been pretty busy around here,I still haven't had the time to look into this any further yet.We have owned a Toshiba HD-A3 player for awhile now,and it has worked pretty well for us so far.The one thing that I haven't liked about it is the fact that it is always slow when you first power it up.It seems like it takes 2-3 minutes or longer just for it to get ready to play a disc. :nono:
Other than that issue with the HD-A3,we have been pleased with it.Great PQ and audio.
If we don't invest in a combo player pretty soon,I may end up picking up a BR player somewhere eventually.

 

[schneid]

After reading here I went on a quest to get one of these after reading Samsung had fixed them yet discontinued them. Found one 2500 miles away at a Circuit City in Indiana and bought it for $349 store pickup only. Nice people there shipped it to me anyway 2nd day air for free. Boy am I a CC fan now!

Got it today and ran it through its paces. It plays DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray fine. I read it did not like Fox BDs so I searched Fox for titles and came up with "Sunshine". Moved it to the top of my Netflix queue and arrived today too. Ends up "Sunshine" appears to be an acid test for BD players but my BD5K played it without a hiccup.

I am one happy camper. I can still play my DVDs and HD-DVDs, and now BD too.

 

[Steve615]

Congrats on the purchase and glad to hear that you're pleased with it indeed.
I think we will hold off for awhile on buying another DVD player of any kind for now.We are looking around at some new PCs at this time.
Congrats again and enjoy.

After reading here I went on a quest to get one of these after reading Samsung had fixed them yet discontinued them. Found one 2500 miles away at a Circuit City in Indiana and bought it for $349 store pickup only. Nice people there shipped it to me anyway 2nd day air for free. Boy am I a CC fan now!

Got it today and ran it through its paces. It plays DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray fine. I read it did not like Fox BDs so I searched Fox for titles and came up with "Sunshine". Moved it to the top of my Netflix queue and arrived today too. Ends up "Sunshine" appears to be an acid test for BD players but my BD5K played it without a hiccup.

I am one happy camper. I can still play my DVDs and HD-DVDs, and now BD too.