Samsung BD-P1400

Price: $299 - $399.99

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Very Disappointing01/19/08

Pros:

Price, features, picture

Cons:

Slow loading DVD's, limited Blu-ray play, lack of Samsung Technical Support

At first look the price and features make this unit very attactive dispite the many negative reviews. I realize that many do not actually read and follow firmware update instructions which is what I thought might be the cause of some of the unfavorable reviews.

I immediately learned that this unit is of very poor quality. It is extremely slow in loading both regular and Blu-ray DVD's. The unit is even slow in simply powering up. Firmware updates over a LAN can take over an hour. Update via the CD burning procedures are significantly faster, probably only takes 20 minutes.

The most disappointing thing about this unit is its inability to properly play blu-ray DVD's. The unit plays regular DVD's just fine, no problems at all. When playing Blu-ray DVD's the picture looks good and the sound is great but the unit will not play an entire movie without skiping, pausing, the screen going blank, sount skipping out, etc. This does not happen an any particular or at the same point on the DVD. I turned the unit off and back on and it played a bit further before the described symptons began again. On some dvd's it started before it originally occurred before. I tried 3 different blu-ray movies and experienced the same problems on all 3. I contacted Samsung technical support and was told they were aware of a problem with new releases and that they fix the problem in a firmware update. They could not tell me when the update. Not all 3 of my movies were new releases and Samsung could not explain why I was having problems but still insisted that the next firmware update would fix the problem. I don't buy that.

Needless to say, I am pursuing returning this unit for a refund. I have only had it for 2 weeks and I am very unsatisfied with it. I also have a Toshiba A-3 HD-DVD player I received for Christmas and it plays great.