PRODUCT REVIEW: AUGUST 2008
Samsung BD-P1500 BLU-RAY Disc Player
Samsung is getting better at Blu-ray. Now, they just need to cut their prices.
It’s been several months since Toshiba waved the white flag in the blue laser wars, leaving Sony’s Blu-ray format to carry the flag for next-gen DVD playback. The dust has settled, the dual-format players are quietly fading into history, and industry analysts are going blind peering into their crystal balls, trying to predict just how fast Blu-ray will become the dominant DVD format.
Figure 1. Talk about stealth design!
From my perspective, the key to Blu-ray really taking off is obvious: It’s still too expensive for the mainstream buyer, who can purchase decent upscaling DVD players for well under $150 and movies galore for half the cost of BD releases.
The fact is, many people think red laser DVDs look fantastic on their new 32-inch and 37-inch LCD HDTVs, and they’re right: Both screen sizes are too small to really appreciate the differences between SD and HD optical discs. Trouble is, those are two of the most popular LCD TV sizes these days, given the general economic downturn and consumer’s reluctance to spend as much money on non-essential purchases.
If anyone can figure out a way to get a low-cost BD player to market, Samsung’s the logical candidate to get the job done. The BD-P1500 represents their fourth new model (excluding the short-lived BD-UP5000) in nearly two years. Although its price is still high for the market at $399, you can find it aggressively discounted on the Internet to well under $350. That’s a far cry from the $1000 price tag Samsung stuck on their 1st-gen player in 2006!
OUT OF THE BOX
The BD-P1500 has slimmed down a bit from the BD-P1000, losing about 3 inches in depth and half an inch in height. It’s also three pounds lighter. The styling has more of a “stealth” feel to it, with a piano-gloss black finish and absence of beveling on the front panel. Other than a large menu navigation dial and the disc load/eject button, there’s nothing else to look at save for the digital chapter/menu/output format display.
The rear panel connections are as expected, with one set of component video outputs (480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i), an HDMI 1.3 output (480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p), digital and optical SPDIF audio connectors, composite video output, analog RCA jacks for stereo audio, and a USB 2.0 port (presumably for service as no other functionality is mentioned in the owner’s manual).
Figure 2. Not too many connections to choose from, are there?
There’s also an Ethernet connector for updating the player’s operating system. It’s a wired LAN connection only; you’ll need a wireless bridge to connect the player to 802.11 and WiMax networks. Basic wireless adapters won’t do the trick.
The BD-P1500 is compatible with BD profile 1.1, but it can’t take advantage of the tricks available to the more current Profile 2.0 found on the newest players from Panasonic and Sony. Ostensibly, the updated profile will be available later this year (October is the target date) by using the LAN interface. In the meantime, don’t expect the full Blu-ray experience at your fingertips.
The supplied remote control is based on a design that Samsung’s been using for all of their HDTVs for a few years now. It’s a long, black baton with almost too many buttons on it — navigating to the pop-up menu button can be confusing, as there are three buttons marked “menu:” The main Menu (for player setup and configuration), Disc Menu, and Popup/Title Menu.
As far as support for audio codecs goes, the BD-P1500 has built-in decoders for Dolby Digital Plus and lossless Dolby TrueHD (7.1-channel) soundtracks. However, there are no discrete multi-channel analog outputs, nor does it decode DTS-HD Master Audio internally, unlike more expensive BD players.
Figure 3. Samsung’s remote has a nice design, but needs backlit buttons.
PERFORMANCE
Samsung had the distinction of getting the first Blu-ray player to market and they were also the first to support 1080p playback, albeit at 60Hz. That functionality didn’t jive well with many native 1080p projectors and displays at the time, due to HDMI “handshake” issues. Two years later, the BD-P1500 handles both 1080p/60 and the more desirable 1080p/24 frame rates over HDMI without a hiccup. Better late than never!
Because all next-gen DVD players are actually dual-mode beasts (supporting both red laser and blue laser playback), it takes a little bit of time for the player to recognize the disc type and adjust accordingly. While you can pop in a Blu-ray disc just six seconds after powering up (the BD-P1000 took five seconds), you’ll still need to wait about 33 seconds for the disc to start playing (the BD-P1000 needed 31).
Before you actually watch any movies, you’ll need to configure the audio and video modes from the Setup menu. If your TV or projector is current (purchased in 2008), you shouldn’t have any trouble here. The default output mode on my review unit was 1080i with a 4:3 screen (oddly enough).
In the audio menu, you can choose between PCM outputs for conventional stereo digital playback, or bitstream mode for Dolby and DTS formats. The bitstream menu lets you choose between Re-encode (the digital surround formats are processed in the player) and Audiophile (the bitstream is passed through to an external AV receiver through the HDMI jack). Audiophile mode is required to playback DTS-HD Master Audio through a compatible receiver.
In the Video menu, you can set the default aspect ratio (16:9, 4:3 Letterbox, 4:3 Pan and Scan, or 16:9 Normal), turn 24Hz playback on or off (make sure your display is compatible with this frame rate first!), select the output resolution, and enable/disable HDMI+CEC remote control operation. (Samsung calls their implementation Anynet+.) The HDMI operating mode is also toggled here between TV (default) and Monitor.
Figure 4a. There’s plenty of space inside the BD-P1500’s chassis…
Figure 4b. …but not enough, apparently, for a Reon processor.
Video quality from Samsung players has varied widely over the past two years. The BD-P1000 was plagued by an incorrect noise filter setting that softened images from Blu-ray discs to the extent that it was hard to tell them from red laser pressings. Samsung fixed that problem in a hurry with its next model, the BD-P1200, equipped with Silicon Optix’s Reon HQV processor.
While the 1200 remains my favorite BD player to date (and it’s still an impressive performer), it came out too early in the game to support the latest BD profiles and connectivity. Unfortunately, while the 1500 makes up for some of the functionality issues (especially with BD 2.0 coming), its video processor isn’t quite as good as the 1200.
Tests with the Realta HQV Blu-ray disc showed plenty of “twitter” in both 1080p/24 and 1080p/60 output modes, running through my Mitsubishi HC6000 1080p LCD projector. I also observed interlaced scan line artifacts (aliased edges) with the video resolution loss test and the two “jaggies” test patterns.
Switching to 1080i output on the player cleaned up all of this garbage immediately, thanks to the Reon processor aboard the HC6000. I also saw lots more high-frequency image detail using the projector’s processing instead of the BD-P1500. The SMPTE charts on the HQV BD have 1:1 pixel patterns, which grayed out using the Samsung processor, but were more distinct through the Mitsubishi/Reon combination.
One of the toughest tests for any player is Chapter 8 of Mission Impossible III, which opens with a trucking shot of two priests descending a wide staircase to a reception. The spacing between the steps is close to that of 480-line vide, resulting in plenty of moiré on red laser DVDs. It’s also a challenge for the BD version, as “twitter” (a faint flicker) is seen on the same steps.
Surprisingly, the amount of twitter I saw using the player’s processing in 1080p/60 mode wasn’t substantially worse than what I observed while letting the Mits/Reon combination handle the heavy lifting. Turning 24-frame mode on helped even more, probably due to the inherent motion blurring of 24p content.
For my final test, I popped in a copy of No Country For Old Men, one of my favorite Cohen Brothers flicks (although a bit on the gory side!). Image detail was impressive, particularly in the nighttime sequences where Josh Brolin is being pursued by Javier Bardem through two hotels, survives several gunshot wounds, and eventually makes his way across the border to a Mexican hospital.
CONCLUSIONS
Samsung’s BD-P1500, although stylish, doesn’t quite measure up in image quality. While it is currently the lowest-priced name brand BD player on the market (Best Buy’s Insignia NS-BRDVD holds that distinction at $279.99), you can do better in terms of 1080p output quality. Add in the player’s inability to decode DTS-HD Master Audio and you’d be hard-pressed to find a reason to spend nearly four hundred bucks on it.
To further muddle the picture, Samsung has just started shipping their newest player, the BD-P2550, to Best Buy stores exclusively until late September. And this model’s supposedly equipped with Silicon Optix HQV processing for just $100 more. (Well worth the added expense, in my opinion.)
Not sure whether top buy? You might as well sit it out for a couple more months; with the current economic conditions and pressure to drive Blu-ray sales upwards, you’ll likely see bigger discounts on the BD-P1500, as we get closer to December.
Or, if you don’t need or care about having the latest BD operating system and just want to watch movies, look around for a deal on remaining BD-P1200s — there are plenty of them left out there at reasonable prices (as low as $250 retail on the Internet) and you’ll have top-notch video processing to go with your 1080p HDTV or projector.
