Granted, i might have to wait a few months before i could aford it, but do you think this would be a better investment, then trying to choose one format over the other? The reviews on the site mention that there are a few bugs and issues though.

Any thoughts on the player?

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Samsu...oductDetail.do

I would suggest reading the threads about it at AVS at the Dual Format forum. IMHO, it is not ready for primetime, and Samsung already has a newer model planned without even fixing the old one. There has been speculation that the new model may never make it to retail at this point due to low demand. At the minimum, i would wait till they fix the firmware on this model first before diving in, samsung is one of the worst CE companys when it comes to hi def movie players.

For $800, you could get a PS3 or Panasonic Blu-ray player for $400 and a Toshiba HD-A35 for $279.99 (new MSRP) and not have to deal with a shit Samsung product.

It is too expensive and Samsung has yet to put out a BD player that wasn't junk. I would skip this one.

PS3 + HD-DVD player =

I actually have one and have had little to no complaints with it. It's an excellent player. The newer version will be cheaper so you may want to hold off for that reason alone. I've not heard of any "real" probs with the machine and have not experienced them. The only two discs that were problematic were Pan's labyrinth HD & Resident Evil:Extinction BD.(firmware Updte needed) Other than that, it has flawlessley played everything I have thrown at it.

I think you're better off getting a PS3 and an HD-DVD player (and it'll be cheaper).

Get a PS3, and if you must have HD-DVD, get a cheap Toshiba player...

I want to go Blu but, I don't want to have to put discs into 2 different machines. I've heard some bad reviews about the Samsung so I'm going to hold off for a Toshiba or a price break on the LG.

The LG is even worse than the Samsung.

I just returned the 5000 and picked up the BD30. The picture quality of the 5000 is outstanding and the upconversion is superb with the Reon chip. But, the firmware update that was just released was supposed to fix all of the playback issues. It did not. I could not play the last season of the Sopranos on HD-DVD as the menu remained locked. If you read the AVS Forum thread, people are having problems with numerous discs. Mostly it's things like incorrect menu displays, angle icons popping up randomly, popping audio, discs stopping at the same point over and over, etc, etc. I was hopeful that the firmware update would work, but since it didn't I took it back for the exchange and went Blu only.

At this time the Samsung 5000 cannot internally decode, or bitstream multi-channel advanced audio codecs (Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD Master). This is supposed to be fixed in May, but there are some doubts about the full capabilities of the Broadcom chip that the machine is running on.

Another problem I had was with the 1080p output. My Pio 5070 did not like the signal and would downgrade to 1080i/24. With the Panasonic BD30, 1080p/24 is no problem.

So, in summary...
I really wanted to like the Samsung, and held off until my 30 day return opportunity was almost over. I had even used a 15% off coupon to get it for $680, but I still couldn't justify the price with the product I had. Maybe wait until they release the BD5500, which will be the same machine minus the Reon chip for upconversion. By then they might have all the bugs worked out of the 5000, but with the rumors of a BD6500 Duo player do out later this year, will they even support the 5000?

Good luck!

I completely agree with what's been said in this post. I have the 5000 and do not recommend it. There are too many problems. Every time I buy a disc I wonder if it will play in this machine or not. It is very frustrating to bring a disc home, put it in the player and nothing happens! I end up bringing the blu-ray discs back to the store and exchanging them for the standard discs. What is the point of having a high-def player if it doesn't play all of the discs?

Yeah, I had it too and DAMN IT the picture was GREAT on HD, BD and SD!!

If they would have fixed the compatibility issues and it could bitstream the HD audio codecs, I would have kept it. Also, it sure was a pretty machine!

But, when WB went BD-only, I took it back. I dont think the support will be too high for this player for the future.

Also, I think the 5500 will never see the store shelves. Just my guess.

This thing's down to $450, and it's tempting me.
Anyone heard whether firmware updates fixed any of this players issues?
Thanks!

For $450 I think you'd be better off with a $400 PS3 and a $50 A3.

Cheaper package now.

FWIW, the LG has received some significant upgrades, making it a very formidable contender.

In all honesty, even with some firmware upgrades I think you're better off with a good BD and a blowout price HD-DVD. The new 2.0 units are coming out (PS3 just got upgraded) and the prices (with a cheap HD-DVD player) are comparable. The only downside is the extra input on your monitor/receiver.

Where can you pick up a $50 A3?
I ordered one from Circuit City for $90, and that's the best price I've seen for a new one.
Thanks for the info!

If you want to use it for SD-DVDs it's going to be a pretty good player, given that it's Faroudja based.

At $450 I think it's worth considering if some of the playback issues have been fixed up via firmware. (Which sounds like it still needs work)

You're not going to get any better deinterlacing for SD-DVD in a BD or HD player without getting one of the Reon based units.

AVS thread on this unit on the 1.1 / 1.2 firmware problems

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...1003287&page=2

Sorry just an assumption on my part that they can be had that cheap.

It's still worth $500 for a PS3 and an A3 over the Samsung. Samsung has been terrible with supporting new discs in a timely fashion, and the PS3 is a superior box anyway.