It's looking like a Blu Christmas this year with a rush on from manufacturers to get affordable BD players on the market in the lead up to the festive season. Samsung, like Sony, hit on the marketing idea of giving away a BD player (this one, the BD-P1500) with a selected number of its LCD and plasma TV screens. If you already have a 1080p display and are thinking about taking the BD plunge, then this new Samsung is one standalone Blu-ray player that's hoping to make yours a high-definition Xmas.
Design
Sleek, slim, black and shiny, the BD-P1500 oozes class and has been designed to match Samsung's equally classy looking Series 6 LCD TVs. Gloss-black electronics mean plenty of dust attraction, so keep the Mr. Sheen handy.
BD players have finally settled down a bit in terms of design and function, as most now meet the Profile 2.0 standard. There's been a fair bit of confusion though with the BD-P1500, which ships as only Profile 1.1 compliant, but is firmware upgradable to 2.0. There was no sign of the update download on Samsung's website at the time of writing this review and after speaking with its service centre we were told the firmware download was a matter of days away from being posted on its Australian website.
Features
So out of the box, there's no BD-Live or Bonus View until your player's been updated. BD-Live's really catching on and is proving to be a really hot BD feature that's attracting many people to the format, so you'd want to get the BD-P1500 up to date.
Otherwise, the Samsung's got a lot of what it takes. HDMI 1.3a and CEC with 1080p/24 output, Picture-in Picture as well as reasonably decent HD audio support. Dolby TrueHD is output in bitstream via HDMI, but there's no onboard decoding for DTS-HD Master Audio, nor any 5-channel analogue output. However, the Samsung will play ordinary CDs and also upconvert DVDs to 1080p. The remote handset's quite a good one and nicely laid out, though as it's not backlit it makes it hard to use in dark viewing conditions.
Performance
Firstly, this Blu-ray player lives up to its quoted boot and loading times — it's quick and so it should be; it's a fourth generation machine after all. Hooked up to a Sony 46-inch XBR LCD TV, we were able to see just what the BD-P1500 had to visually offer. Outputting 1080p at 24fps, the Samsung presents a delicious looking image — smooth with movement but highly detailed; vibrantly coloured and very cinema-like. Well produced BDs like 10,000 B.C. are brimming with well-resolved detail. The film's opening darker scenes are really well-contrasted and you can easily make out finer details in the nighttime/early morning scenery. As the film progresses, the Samsung continues to deliver a very clean and unblemished-looking picture quality, free from any noticeable video artefacts or digital noise. Even the CGI woolly mammoths look believable. There's really solid edge definition also, something clearly evident throughout the film, but especially when we arrive at the pyramid construction site where, once again, the picture's ripe with bags of detail, clarity and definition.
Older films which aren't so well-encoded still look great; we popped the recently released Deliverance BD on and ended up watching this classic again from start to finish. We were seeing things within the film for the first time, such as Burt Reynolds' very funky and manly watch — details we just don't remember taking in when we last watched this on DVD.
The video's just half the equation and sonically the Samsung delivers as well. HD audio sounds dynamic and open; the Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1 explosion at the beginning of Iron Man sounds remarkably bold, weighty and solid. Those with an older AV receiver and no HDMI will miss the lack of analogue outputs on the Samsung, but with the source hardware decoding as good as this, the BD-P1500 warrants not only a decent HD screen to view it, but a capable AV audio system to handle Blu-ray's audio prowess as well. Lowly DVDs are nicely upscaled to 1080p — the crisp transfer of Kill Bill Vol.2 is free of any on-screen noise and looks pleasantly polished, also displaying ample detail, sharpness and realism. And even as a CD player, the Samsung puts in a very respectable musical performance.
Conclusion
Samsung's got more experience with Blu-ray than most and its latest affordable player clearly demonstrates this. It's a shame Samsung's timing wasn't better, and the BD-P1500 was shipped as Profile 2.0 compliant with DTS-HD Master Audio decoding right from the start — the delayed firmware upgrade is frustrating for those that have rushed out and bought one (or kept the TV promo freebie) and want all the features it will bring.
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