Samsung BD-UP500 Blu-ray / HD DVD combo

[baskind]

I've read a review by Al Griffin in S&V of a preproduction model of Samsungs universal Blu/HD combo player. Has anyone reviewed a production model and determined whether the glitches mentioned in Al Griffin's review have been resolved?
Also, when running through a Denon amp/processor that accept and switches HDMI 1.1 but not 1.3, what is the optimal hook up for sound?

[didihalacox]

Bought one end of December. Test results: (summary - disappointed and will return it)

Video:

1) Upconversion of SD DVDs looks horrible. I keep seeing ghost images around the faces when they move in scenes, tested several SD DVDs, same problem on all. My Sony BDP-S300 does an excellent upconversion.

2) Picture quality on both HD-DVD and Blu-ray movies looks great.

Audio:

3) Using the Test Tone plays a loud and harsh noise, not the usual test tone sound, (even at -40db) through the front two speakers only! On the GUI it shows that it is switching from FL to Center to FR to SR to SBR to SBL to SL to Subwoofer and back to the FL, hence completing the full circle, but sound is only played from the two front speakers! Called first level tech support , he didn't have a clue what I'm talking about, asked him to transfer me to the 2nd level tech support, 2nd level tech support's responce to this problem: "So what, how often do you use the Test Tone anyway!". Very professional! :x

It gets worse...

4) Audio Output Setup Menu options are: 1- PCM, 2- Bitstream (Re-encoded), 3- Bitstream (Audiophile): (# 2 is the same as # 3, but it adds sound effects when selecting/clicking on the main movie menus, i.e., Scene Selection, Set up, Play, etc.,)

4-1: (PCM) - When I play a movie (HD or BD) that has PCM audio track on it, my receiver also shows Linear PCM. Not sure if this is correct and forgot to ask. Tried movies with both 5 and 7 channel PCM and it comes out of 5 and 7 on the receiver side as well, so it does support up to 8 (7+1) channel in PCM mode.

4-2: Bitstream (Re-encoded) - No matter what audio track you have on the movie (TrueHD, DTS-HD MA, DD+) my receiver shows DTS only (not DTS-HD, but DTS core only)!

4-3: Bitstream (Audiophile) - If you have a movie with Dolby Digital TrueHD track, my receiver shows it as Dolby Digital (and not TrueHD) and to top it all, the sound comes ONLY from the front 2 speakers!

Ironically, the manual says Dolby TrueHD only plays from two front speakers! When I told the 2nd level tech support that this is a wrong design he got defensive! I told him to go to Dolby's website and you will see TrueHD is at least 5.1 channels and not 2. He said that's what the manual says and I am wrong and if I don't like it, I can return it - you bet I will! :evil:

5) No DTS-HD Master Audio decoding on the player. I saw a product summary (.pdf) file on thier web site that says it will be available on a future firmware update. They don't know when that is coming out.

After putting me on hold to go and ask other people there, 2nd level tech support told me that they are not aware of any of these problems I mentioned above - nice quality control on an $800 machine!

6) Don't like the remote control design. The buttons that I use often are placed at the buttom of the remote and it is not easy to access when holding the remote in a comfortable position.

In summary I am very disappointed at this player, the company and their attitude. I have only 30 days to return this and if by then these issues are not solved (which I doubt they will since they didn't even know about these), I'll be returning it. Basically this is a dual (HD/BD) player with hig definition video but legacy (old) audio. If you care as much about the audio portion of HD movies as I do, I would not buy this as it is.

My system:
--------------
Sony STR-DA5300ES receiver 7.1 w/ DD+, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD MA decoders, HDMI 1.3
Pioneer PDP-5050HD Plasma 1080i
Sony BDP-S300 Bluray
Samsung BD-UP5000. HDMI 1.3 (will be returned)

[DavidEC]

Does anybody reading this have any connections at Samsung on any 'official' word of a firmware update?

In their 'BD Profile' page FAQ it state a date of May 2008. while officially May'08 as not ended... The CSR's have gone from saying next week to.. when it is ready.

Most of the reviewers from the Nov'07 -> January'08 stated that Samsung would be releasing an update in a few weeks for the Dolby TrueHD down-mix bug.

I purchased one of these dual disc drives thinking that the firmwares that were released after the reviews took care of this 'bug' by now.

Here it is 5->7 months later and still no Dolby TrueHD firmware fix!

The unit even has analog 7.1 out-puts, yet if the disc is encoded in Dolby TrueHD or DTS-MA you only get two channel audio!! Not 7.1!!

Any help on finding out what the hold up is and when the firmware will be released from somebody higher than level two csr...... and if Samsung is having that much trouble maybe they should release the code and let the real programers [hackers] take a look.... I know that programmers have gotten past official firmware limits on PC DVD-/+RW drives and set-top boxes along with now the LG Duo Disc box.

[allargon]

The firmware update is supposed to show up by the end of this month. I didn't trust Samsung's record. I bought the LG BH200 instead.

I never saw the previous poster's comment. Horrible SD DVD upconversion? No other review has said that. The Samsung uses a Reon processor for video upconversion. I think he/she got a bad unit. The audio thing is bunk, though. Hopefully that will be resolved soon.

[Richard]

1) Upconversion of SD DVDs looks horrible. I keep seeing ghost images around the faces when they move in scenes,

In DVD mode there may be a noise reduction feature - it should be turned off.