Overall Rating: ( 10 reviews )

1. Posted: Jul 28 2008

   Samsung has discontinued this product but at the same time updated the firmware on 5/30/2008 making it Blu-ray 1.1 spec. It handles DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray disks without problems. The issues with Dolby Digital playback have been resolved. I had read Fox titles were particularly hard for this player to handle and that "Sunshine" was the acid test. I pushed it to the top of my Netflix queue. It played it perfectly.

2. ( 1 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Jun 23 2008

   I went from the Toshiba 3 HD DVD system to this one, keeping the Toshiba as a back up for HD DVDs and I could not be happier with this system. I've only been using it for about a month, but the quality of play is excellent, the start up time for the machine is faster than the Toshiba, and I have had no DVD issues with random pausing like I a little bit with the Toshiba. Oh, and it plays Bluray discs? Ye-ah.

3. Posted: Jun 23 2008

   Samsung BD-UP5000 1080p HD-DVD Blu-Ray Disc Combo Player This is the Samsung combo HD DVD/Blu-ray Disc player released earlier (and since discontinued, as I understand it). When it was introduced, it bowed to glowing reviews about its video performance, but general dismay about its limited advanced audio codec performance. I have owned this player since February, 2008. The first week of June I became aware of a firmware update (dated May 29, 2008). After I downloaded and installed it, the full multi-channel "audiophile bitstream" for both DOLBY DIGITAL TRUE HD and DTS HD MASTER AUDIO now pass through to my receiver (the Pioneer Elite VSX-94TXH). In additon, the firmware appears to have brought the player to full Blu-ray "Profile 1.1" capability, as features on certain of my Blu-ray discs (for example, the historical trivia game on National Treasure 2) are now functional. Samsung seems to have kept its promise to provide those capabilities by May. I no longer feel that my money was wasted on this player, since I now enjoy first-class audio along with the first-class video. I have rated it a "4" rather than a "5" only because its internal hard drive is too small to allow a potential future upgrade to "Profile 2.0". If you have a collection of HD DVDs, or are hankering to take advantage of some of the "fire-sale" liquidation specials on discontinued HD DVDs which are not yet available on Blu-ray, I highly recommend this player if you can find an example at a reasonable price.

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