Samsung BD-P1500

The most important question for any standalone Blu-ray player is whether it's better than the Sony PlayStation 3. Let's answer that one right off the bat: Samsung's new BD-P1500 is not. They both cost the same ($400 list), but the PS3 has better image quality, currently supports both Blu-ray Profile 2.0 and all high-resolution audio codecs, and it loads discs a lot faster. Not to mention that it's a high-def gaming system and also a pretty capable media streamer. We're getting tired of saying it, but almost anyone who wants to get into Blu-ray should stick with the PS3.

If you're still set on getting a standalone Blu-ray player (and there are a few decent reasons), the BD-P1500 becomes a more compelling option. Although the $400 price tag might seem high, it's actually fairly affordable for a Blu-ray player. We're also fans of its slick design, which takes up a lot less room than the curvy PS3. On the other hand, the BD-P1500 is currently missing some crucial features, such as multichannel analog outputs, onboard decoding for DTS-HD Master Audio, and Profile 2.0 support. However, if you trust Samsung to live up to its firmware update promises (and there is some reason for skepticism regarding the company's timeliness), the BD-P1500 will get both DTS-HD Master Audio decoding and Profile 2.0 support eventually. Of course, that leads to the frustrating feeling that the BD-P1500 is only half-baked right now, especially compared with the fully featured Panasonic DMP-BD50, but then again the Samsung costs $300 less. If you demand a standalone player and you're not willing to pay for the Panasonic DMP-BD50, the Samsung BD-P1500 is good choice for the money, but most consumers who don't want a PS3 should still wait for cheaper, more fully featured players in the future.

Design
We've knocked Samsung's excessively glossy designs in the past, but we're suckers for the BD-P1500's look. The front faceplate is still glossy black, but it's completely flat and doesn't have a bezel, unlike its predecessor the BD-P1400. The left side is dominated by the disc tray, and below that in the corner is a power button with a bright blue LED that illuminates when the player is turned on. Further to the right is an LED display that's a little small for our tastes. On the far right are some front-panel controls, including play, stop, and chapter forward/backward. In our opinion, the BD-P1500 is the most stylish Blu-ray player we've seen.

Samsung fans will recognize the same remote the company has packaged with most of its products for the last couple years. Toward the bottom is a directional pad for navigating menus, surrounded by oft-used buttons--although having three menu keys (menu, disc menu, and pop-up menu) becomes a little confusing. There are playback controls just north of the center of the remote, and there's some slight differentiation--including Braille-like nubs--that make it possible to navigate in the dark. Overall, it's a good remote, but we'd really like to see Samsung give it an update since it's been unchanged for so long and there's still room for improvement.

The BD-P1500's high-def graphics just feel right for a high-def disc player.

While the menu of Panasonic's DMP-BD50 still features blocky standard-def graphics, the BD-P1500 has nice high-def menus. They're easy enough to navigate, and we had no issues with routine tasks like changing the output resolution or audio output format.

Features
The Samsung BD-P1500 is currently a Profile 1.1 Blu-ray player, which means it can access picture-in-picture commentary tracks available on some Blu-ray Discs, such as Sunshine. The BD-P1500 is not, however, a Profile 2.0 player, so it cannot access the BD-Live features on certain Blu-ray Discs. The BD-Live features we've seen so far have been underwhelming to say the least, but they're sure to improve as disc makers get a handle on the technology. That said, Samsung has promised that it will offer a firmware update for the BD-P1500 in October 2008 that will give it Profile 2.0 functionality. To make that work you'll need to utilize the USB port on the back of the player as storage. Better late than never for Profile 2.0 support, but it's worth noting that the Panasonic DMP-BD50 and Sony PlayStation 3 are already fully Profile 2.0 compatible.

The logos can be confusing, but the truth is that the BD-P1500 doesn't currently have onboard DTS-HD Master Audio decoding.

Soundtrack support is pretty good, although not flawless. The BD-P1500 can internally decode Dolby TrueHD, but currently can't decode DTS-HD Master Audio. It can, however, send both formats in bit stream mode to compatible receivers. That's unfortunate because that means only home theater fans with relatively new receivers can take advantage of DTS-HD Master Audio. Both the DMP-BD50 and PS3 can decode both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio internally. Again, Samsung is promising DTS-HD Master Audio decoding via a future firmware update, but there's no word as to when we can expect that.

Connectivity options are a bit skimpy, but they should be sufficient for anyone with a newer AV receiver.

Connectivity overall is slightly below average for a Blu-ray player. The most important connection is the HDMI output, which is capable of carrying both high-def video signals up to 1080p and high-resolution audio. For analog high-definition video, there's also a component video output, but note that Blu-ray Discs are limited to 1080i over component and DVDs to 480p. There's also a composite video output, but of course it's limited to standard-definition, and like a few such players, the Samsung is missing an S-Video output.

For audio, there's the aforementioned HDMI output, plus an optical digital audio output. Analog audio is unfortunately limited to just a stereo RCA output, whereas many standalone players, including the Panasonic DMP-BD50, have multichannel analog outs. There's also an Ethernet port, which can be used for updating the firmware and in the future--after one of those firmware updates--to stream Blu-ray Profile 2.0 content.

Performance
For our Blu-ray performance tests we compared the BD-P1500 with two of its main rivals: the Panasonic DMP-BD50 and the Sony PlayStation 3. We started off looking at test patterns, with all three players connected to the LG 50PG60, with each input set to its THX picture mode. The first disc we looked at was Silicon Optix's HQV test suite on Blu-ray.

The BD-P1500 got off to a bad start, failing Video Resolution Loss Test, as certain parts of the screen had a strobelike appearance and the overall image appeared unstable. Both the DMP-BD50 and PS3 passed this test in the same scenario. Things didn't get any better with the jaggies tests, as the BD-P1500 failed both the pivoting three line test and the rotating white bar test. Again, the DMP-BD50 and PS3 passed both of these tests, with the PS3 performing slightly better than the DMP-BD50. We switched to the most difficult of the HQV tests--the Film Resolution Loss Tests--and as we suspected, by BD-P1500 failed the panning resolution test pattern. However, we were surprised that it handled the slow pan over Raymond James Stadium reasonably well, without the excessive moire that we sometimes see on lesser players.

Since nobody actually watches test patterns, we switched over to actual program material. We began with some scenes that we know often cause problems for players with mediocre video processing. The very beginning of Chapter 8 from Mission Impossible: III will often show moire in the stairs in the background, but the BD-P1500 handled it well. The blinds at the beginning of Chapter 12 and the limo in Chapter 16 can expose similar problems, but the BD-P1500 handled both with full detail and free of jaggies. Considering it failed so many of the test patterns, we were impressed.

Next up was Ghost Rider, and we fast-forwarded to the end of Chapter 6, with a panning shot away from an RV. We often see moire in the grille of the RV, but the BD-P1500 handled it perfectly again. We also looked at Tony Bennett: American Classic, which is actually on the disc in 1080i, which forces the BD-P1500 to deinterlace everything. We did notice some issues on this disc. For example, at the beginning of Chapter 7 there's a clapperboard with horizontal lines, and jaggies show up all over each of them. Jaggies showed up on the DMP-BD50, but they were much more subtle. Of course, very few discs are in 1080i natively, but it does give some indication that the issues we saw in test patterns can occur in program material. And we should note that the aforementioned issues will only be present when the player is set in 1080p mode, so if your HDTV has solid 1080i deinterlacing or can properly accept a 1080p signal at 24 frames per second, you may be avoid some of the problems we described.

We occasionally noticed some annoying operational glitches. For example, a few times the BD-P1500 couldn't read our HQV test disc, and we had to cycle the power before it actually read it. Similarly, once we tried to load Tony Bennett: American Classic but the disc menus would not show up; we had to eject the disc and reload it to get it working. We also found it annoying that "screen messages" are on by default, which means that you'll get a little notification that extra features are available on Profile 1.1 discs. These messages can be turned off in the setup menu, by choosing display setup, then screen message.

As we've seen on some other standalone Blu-ray players in 2008, load times were better than expected. Mission Impossible: III loaded in about 29 seconds, which is average. Java-heavy discs naturally took a good deal longer--Spiderman 3 loaded in 1 minute, 50 seconds--but that's almost 40 seconds faster than Samsung's preceding BD-P1400. Similarly, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest loaded in 2 minutes, 3 seconds, while it took a full minute longer on the BD-P1400. While these speeds are solid for a standalone player, they still don't compare with the superfast PS3, which consistently loads discs in a fraction of the time standalone players do.

Standard DVD performance
DVDs are still cheap and plentiful, so the BD-P1500 DVD performance remains an important factor. We started off our DVD tests with the HQV test suite on DVD, and the Samsung performed admirably at first, passing the initial resolution test and displaying the full detail of DVD. The next jaggies tests were only mediocre, with significant jaggies showing up on a test with three pivoting lines. We were also disappointed to see the BD-P1500 fail a test with scrolling titles, as the titles looked jerky and difficult to read--most players pass this test. On the upside, the BD-P1500 had no problem with the difficult 2:3 pull-down test, successfully kicking into film mode in about a second.

Switching to actual program material, we looked at the opening sequence of Star Trek: Insurrection and the BD-P1500 correctly did its 2:3 pull-down processing, as the hulls of the boats and the curved railings looked smooth. We did notice some subtle jaggies on the text of the opening credits, but the same jaggies were present on the DMP-BD50, although they weren't on the PS3. Next up was Seabiscuit, and sadly the BD-P1500 performed quite poorly on the introduction, with a few scenes marred by jaggies appearing all over the screen. Sure, it was only a few seconds and definitely wasn't the normal performance, but it really does knock you out of the movie-watching experience. In other words, videophiles may feel the need for a separate DVD player if they choose the BD-P1500.