Editors' note: Toshiba has officially announced that it will stop producing HD DVD products, bringing an end to the format war. For that reason, CNET recommends that consumers should avoid buying this player for high-definition movie playback, as very few HD DVD discs will be produced in the future.
We've already known most of the details about the upcoming Samsung BD-UP5000 HD DVD/Blu-ray combo player for a while, but today at CEDIA they announced a few more nuggets of info. Here's a summary of what we know:
BD-UP5000's key features
1080p output at 24 frames per second on Blu-ray and HD DVD
HQV video processing
Onboard decoding for Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD
Firmware upgradeable for DTS-HD High Resolution and DTS-HD Master Audio onboard decoding (see this blog for more information)
HDMI 1.3 port
Ethernet port
$1,000 MSRP, available Q4 2007
The spec sheet we got from Samsung also mentioned "stereo and 5.1/7.1-channel audio outputs", but we have not yet been able to confirm if that refers to multichannel analog outputs (as we suspect) or the ability to output multichannel audio via HDMI. We've also inquired to see exactly how Samsung plans to implement its support for DTS-HD High Resolution and DTS-HD Master Audio--whether by onboarding decoding or by enabling bitstream output. Note that if they enable DTS-HD support by enabling bitstream output, you will need a newer receiver with onboard DTS-HD Master Audio decoding to take advantage of the lossless high resolution soundtrack.
Overall, we have to admit we're pretty impressed with the BD-UP5000 compared to LG's combo player, the BH200. The inclusion of HQV video processing at the same price point is a nice upgrade, since HQV can improve performance on both standard DVD and high-def discs. Samsung's decision to support high-resolution audio, albeit by a firmware update, is also a plus over the BH200 which has currently only announced support for bitstream output. Of course, both combo players still have to face the fact that you can buy both a PlayStation 3 and Toshiba HD-A2 for less.
10 out of 10 - Perfect best performance of any blu-ray or hd-dvd i've owned
After plenty of research and reading reviews on a ton of players both hd and blu-ray this unit seemed to ...
After plenty of research and reading reviews on a ton of players both hd and blu-ray this unit seemed to be the best of both worlds. The cost was slightly higher then buying an hd and blu-ray player seperately but it's well worth the extra money. The HQV processer makes the upconversion of regular dvds flawless. The ethernet jack is huge for updates and most blu-ray players lack this. I've already owned a Toshiba A-2, an xbox 360 hd dvd player and a Samsung bdp-1200. This player blew them all out of the water!! Buy this unit and you don't have to worry about the which format might prevail.
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by ltunedgs (see profile) -
December 21, 2007
9 out of 11 users found this user opinion helpful.
8 out of 10 - Excellent Would be perfect if they'd fix the audio issues!
This player boots up quickly, loads discs quickly, and provides some of the best HD and SD video quality available. ...
This player boots up quickly, loads discs quickly, and provides some of the best HD and SD video quality available. The convenience of a single player for three formats is wonderful. 24Hz mode gives a more cinematic feel to motion (on compatible displays).
Now, the bad part... this player does NOT decode advanced audio formats onboard, and does NOT even allow them to be bitstreamed! The only fully-functional audio formats are core DD, core DTS, and PCM.
If Samsung comes through with a firmware update to fix the audio issues, this player will deserve a 10/10. Its video quality is superb. However, the audio support is quite feeble compared to available (separate) HD-DVD and Blu-ray players.
Updated I previously gave this unit an 8/10. Now that Samsung has released this player's firmare 1.3 udpate, the BD-UP5000 really is the do-it-all player we've all been hoping for! It deserves at least 9.5/10.
For the best in video, this player supports playback at 1080p/24 for Blu-ray and HD-DVD. No telecine judder or interlacing artifacts here, just perfect video. SD-DVD gets a wonderful treatment as well from the HQV Reon video processor, upscaling nicely to 1080p.
The latest firmware finally brings the audio up to date, with onboard decoding of all Dolby formats and bitstreaming of every format. This player is the perfect mate to an HDMI 1.3 receiver, and has plenty of options available for older receivers as well, including 7.1 analog outs and both coax and optical versions of SPDIF.
Boot and load times are quick compared to most Blu-ray and HD-DVD players out there. You won't find yourself waiting much.
Blu-ray profile 1.1 is now fully supported, if you care about that sort of thing.
The only real downside is that other owners report no playback of burned Blu-rays. I don't have a Blu-ray burner yet, but I suspect I'll be a little disappointed if BD-R/BD-RE playback isn't added to this unit by the time I do get a Blu-ray burner. Burned DVDs play just fine.
10 out of 10 - Perfect For me the format war is over
I got this player for Christmas and it's the best $800 I've spent in a long while. The ...
I got this player for Christmas and it's the best $800 I've spent in a long while. The biggest advantage is that I no longer have to worry about the high-def DVD format war - I'm already on the winning side no matter how long the war lasts or what format wins. I now have both BD and HD-DVD movies in my collection and they all play wonderfully with perfect picture and sound. The only bad thing is that there's still that annoying region coding that prevents me from watching my British DVDs, but every high definition DVD player has that problem, so it's not really a flaw confined to this product.
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by Beery1 (see profile) -
December 31, 2007
7 out of 8 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Rating is tentative pending firmware update
I have been waiting for this player for some time. Main theater has a Tosh A-35 and Panny BD30. This ...
I have been waiting for this player for some time. Main theater has a Tosh A-35 and Panny BD30. This was for the bedroom setup where having one player is a big plus. Video is stunning over HDMI. Bedroon setup does not have TrueHD or DTS-HD MA support, so that was not an issue for me right now (both main theater players do have this as does my pre-pro). I realized that Samsung said the firmware update for BD 1.1 would be in January 2008, and so there is still time to live up to that promise. My concern is the lack of any response from Samsung as ot the status. Given the rather universal (no pun intended) problems being written about on the net as to the issues this player has with new Blu-Ray disks (Resident Evil:Extinction comes to mind) I would think that samsung would be providing info to its customers about the status of the update, but their site is devoid of any news. Will wait and hope that they live up to their representations. The Panny plays the Resident Evil disk flawlessly. If the firmware update works as promised, this is (or will be) a fantastic player.
Updated After experiencing a number of problems with little or no response from Samsung and the failure of the recent firmware update to correct any of the major problems this player presented to me (audio dropouts on all SD disks, still no True-HD/DTS-HD-MA multi-channel support, problems playing multiple Blu-Ray disks) I gave up. Returned it and got the LG-BH200. So far, none of the issues that plagued the Sammy. Will report back after more use, but happy so far.
7 out of 10 - Very good Very good, but misleading about Dolby TrueHD
I purchased this player to replace an LG BH-100 hoping to solve all that player's problems. I succeeded to ...
I purchased this player to replace an LG BH-100 hoping to solve all that player's problems. I succeeded to a great degree, however, the BD-UP5000 taunted it's ability to decode the newer Dolby TrueHD codec a bit too soon. The BD-UP5000 manual has this nasty little note at the bottom of page 10: "When playing a Dolby TrueHD disc, audio will only be heard over the front left and right speakers." If that isn't misleading I don't understand the meaning of the word. When I played a disc that had Dolby TrueHD and selected that output I got an on-screen message stating that the player "does not support Dolby TrueHD output, please select another source." Now I know that this player was late to market and that they already supposedly have the BD-UP5500 in the works, but to release a product that states in all the literature that it has a certain capability and then retract that in the "fine print" is inexcusable.
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by MSDougherty (see profile) -
January 10, 2008
3 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Absolutely Awesome!!!
This has been the player that i have waiting for...got the lg 1st gen combo player and this just ...
This has been the player that i have waiting for...got the lg 1st gen combo player and this just blows it outta the water...the picture quality for everything is just phenomenal...its so awesome to actually be able to access every menu option and special feature on all formats.
my only quarrel with this player is the same one i had with the lg unit unfortunately. i have a denon2807 and the duo hd is hooked up the same way as i had the lg, through the 5.1 analog outputs. the player plays every audio format with the exception of dolby truehd on the hd dvds. i tried playing batman begins and when i selected the dolby truehd option, a menu pops up on the screen that says that the player is unable to play dolby truehd through the multichannel outputs. it does play just in 2.1 (just like the lg). i just don't understand how the duo hd has onboard decoding for every other format with the exception of this one...the only thing i can hope for is a firmware upgrade soon. this is the only flaw in this nearly perfect player and hence this was the only reason that i couldn't give it a perfect 10. well done samsung, at least some one got it right.
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by cchaney84 (see profile) -
December 18, 2007
4 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
7 out of 10 - Very good overall,a great picture
I am just a novice when it comes to video and i must say i was happy with my old ...
I am just a novice when it comes to video and i must say i was happy with my old HDA1 but i needed more choices,so i purchased this unit and if it was'nt for the fact that it does'nt recognize some discs even after 4 or 5 attempts,(i understand that Samsung is working on a fix)i say it's a great value.
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by Larry Christian (see profile) -
January 21, 2008
2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
5 out of 10 - Average BD-UP5000 had great potential
I had been researching the BD-UP5000 for months and bought it the day it was released. It was very easy ...
I had been researching the BD-UP5000 for months and bought it the day it was released. It was very easy to setup and easy to navigate the menus. Unfortunately the player would not play three of my 20 blu-ray discs correctly. In fear that a firmware update would not be available I returned the player in favor of the Panasonic DMP-BD30K. With a little more time and effort the BD-UP5000 would have been amazing.
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by deetsm (see profile) -
February 11, 2008
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Firmware Update 6/2/08
Firmware updated and can handle multi-channel audio for Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD and Master Audio. Picture was already outstanding ...
Firmware updated and can handle multi-channel audio for Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD and Master Audio. Picture was already outstanding and HQV chip for upscaling is awesome. A great unit that allows you to take advantage of great pricing for HD-DVD movies that are still available.
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by Ed Abramson (see profile) -
June 18, 2008
7 out of 10 - Very good It's got the PS3 and XBOX 360 beat, but...
I was so close to buying either the Panasonic DMP-BD10AK or DMP-BD-30K as both have a 7.1 analog output. ...
I was so close to buying either the Panasonic DMP-BD10AK or DMP-BD-30K as both have a 7.1 analog output. I received the Samsung machine three days ago. Great picture quality, loading times are a little longer than I would like and we all heard about the Dolby TrueHD bug. I am running the analog 7.1 audio cables to the EXT. IN on my receiver to avoid buying a new HDMI receiver for the time being. The following are three problems with this player that are bothering me.
1) There is a problem here the crossover is fixed at 100Hz if you choose the 7.1 analog route.
2) I don't know if this is by design or a bug in the player, but I do not get any audio on my two surround back speakers while playing movies with 6.1 or 7.1 sound (ie The Condemned and X-Men The Last Stand.) It works fine when I switch to optical inputs, but doesn't work in EXT. IN Mode.
3) There is also another problem with this machine that no one has gone into detail about and this affects all users with a Dolby Digital capable receiver. Everyone has read about the Dolby TrueHD problem with this player, but normally just playing the standard Dolby Digital track is satisfactory. But, not the case with some Blu-Ray Discs that ONLY have a Dolby TrueHD English track. The audio is only output on the FL and FR speakers.
I also own the PlayStation 3 and this does not happen. The PS3 is at least able to extract a standard DD 5.1 signal from a Dolby TrueHD track. It's times like these that I wish Blu-Ray will go back to PCM 5.1 sound which worked fine.
The following are a few of the Blu-Ray Discs that ONLY have a Dolby TrueHD English track: 30 Days of Night, Resident Evil, Spider-Man, and Spider-Man 2. I've not encountered an HD-DVD that ONLY has a Dolby TrueHD track luckily.
In my opinion, the format war's not over until disc playback goes without a hitch and Lucas and Spielberg release their movies on the format. Close Encounters...is not good enough.
Samsung better get that firmware out. Then, I'll be happy.
Manufacturer: Samsung Specs: Blu-Ray disc and HD DVD player, Tabletop, DTS decoder, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital, DTS-HD decoder, Dolby Digital Plus, Surround Sound
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