DTS-HD decoding delayed on Samsung Blu-ray players, Master Audio coming by end of year
Samsung is delaying the firmware update adding DTS-HD High Resolution to many of the company's Blu-ray players, instead promising DTS-HD Master Audio by the end of the year.
Samsung has put out some pretty good Blu-ray players, but the company needs to setup an RSS feed to keep buyers up to date with the constantly changing firmware plans. We got a note from Samsung this afternoon explaining that the firmware update adding DTS-HD High Resolution decoding to the Samsung BD-P1500, BD-P2500, and BD-P2550 has been delayed until the end of the year. That means owners will have to live with standard DTS soundtracks for a little bit longer if they don't own an HDMI-compatible receiver with onboard decoding for DTS-HD Master Audio.
On the upside, Samsung is now promising that all three units will get full DTS-HD Master Audio decoding, rather than the step-down DTS-HD High Resolution decoding. That's pretty good news, and the BD-P2550 is stacking up to be quite a player, with Profile 2.0 support, HQV video processing, Netflix streaming, and now internal decoding for both high-resolution audio soundtrack formats. And, we noticed it's now selling for $350 at Best Buy. Expect a full review from us sometime next week, and find out how it stacks up against the Editors' Choice winning Panasonic DMP-BD35.