Samsung BD-P1600 Blu-Ray Player Review
March 21, 2009
Samsung introduced number of new Blu-ray players at 2009 CES. They range from entry level models to high end model BD-P3600 and BD-P4600. The high end models received much of the attention for its design and form factor as well as the WiFi capability. Getting lost in the mix was the Samsung BD-P1600, the entry level Blu-ray player for Samsung. Companies like Samsung usually count on entry level/mainstream models for majority of their sales. So, it is important for Samsung to produce a great successor to the BD-P1500 and BD-P2500, both great players. Now, the BD-P1600 is available at most retailers for $299.99. The BD-P1600 packs a lot of features for a sub $300 Blu-ray disc player.
Features
For an entry level model, the BD-P1600 includes many of the features usually found on high end models. This is good news for Blu-ray as it moves into mainstream from early adapters. More and more features found only on high end expensive models are finding their way into the lower priced models like BD-P1600. BD-P1600 is Profile 2.0 player with full support for BD-Live. The most notable additions to the BD-P1600 are the high definition audio decoding and content streaming capabilities. On the audio side, BD-P1600 is capable of decoding Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby digital Plus, DTS HD, and Dolby True HD. The content streaming consists of Netflix and Pandora streaming. With Netflixsubscription, you can stream over 12,000 titles straight to your Blu-ray player. With the Pandora service, you can stream latest music straight to your television.
Design
The BD-P1600 is really a slick looking player. The player sports a glossy front panel that covers the disc tray on the left and playback function buttons on the right. The LCD screen in between the two. The player itself about 17 x 8 x 2 inches. The back panel contains all the connectivity. The connectivity includes USB, HDMI, composite and component video, S-video, optical digital audio, and Ethernet port. The player does lack 5.1 or 7.1 analog output connectivity.
Remote Control
The 47 button remote control is fairly standard remote control. The dedicated subtitle and audio buttons are pretty useful. If you like to watch foreign movies with subtitles, the dedicated button is nice addition. The audio button gives you direct access to the audio menu on the fly. The numeric buttons are at the top with playback function buttons right beneath it. The channel and volume buttons are in the middle of the remote, which is better than placing it at the top or bottom. The directional and BD-J disc buttons are placed at the bottom. The BD-J buttons consists of red, green, yellow, and blue. These buttons are used for special features on some discs. Overall, the dedicated buttons are quite nice for convenience. You can program the remote to work with various other components. However, it is not as extensive as the after-market universal remote controls.
Picture Quality
The predecessor models, BD-P1500 and BD-P2500 variants, had no discernible defects in video processing. The BD-P1500 did have some specific defects in some pattern testing but these did not translate to defects in real world movie playbacks. Overall, Samsung models have great video processing. The BD-P1600 is no exception. To compare the video and image quality between other players, Batman Begins and Matrix Blu-ray movies were played. There were no noticeable jaggies or moirés during the playback. The action sequence showed no traces of blocking or other artifacts. The real improvement over the previous models is the loading time. The average loading time was between 8 and 14 seconds compared to almost double for the older models. This held true for newer Blu-ray movies with fancier menus and BD-Live contents as well as the extras. The video quality of Netflix streamed movies are DVD quality at best. The quality depends on your internet connection. For good quality, you will need broadband connection that can handle high bandwidth.
Audio
The audio quality is on par with previous models. The onboard decoding support for the Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA is nice addition for people looking for out of the box decoding of these formats. The lack of analog 5.1 or 7.1 channel support out of the box might be problem for people that need those set ups. Otherwise, the audio options are excellent. The Pandora is a nice added bonus. The streaming internet radio is pretty nice if you want to listen to certain song on a spur of the moment. The audio quality of Pandora is pretty good compared to regular CD playback. If you have high end audio system, you might notice some degradation.
Overall, this is one of the best Blu-ray disc player for any price range short of buying PS3 or something lot more expensive like Pioneer or Marantz. At $300.00, it is feature packed player. If you want standalone unit, this should satisfy most users.
Pictures
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Samsung BD-P1600 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player List Price: $199.00 Sale Price: Too low to display Used From: $120.00 Average Rating:   |
Description
Plays Blu-ray high-definition discs (selectable output resolution: 1080p signals available through HDMI output only; 720p/1080i signals available through HDMI or component video). There is selectable 720p/1080i/1080p video upconversion for DVD (upconverted video available through HDMI output only) and built-in audio decoding to PCM for Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD and DTS-HD Master Audio Essential * Netflix video and Pandora music streaming (subscriptions to these services required). There are 2 USB ports (1 front, 1 rear) for storing downloaded BD-Live material.
Features
- Experience vivid, crystal-clear visuals that are more natural, more realistic and simply stunning with Blu-ray's full 1080p HD resolution
- Stream Blockbuster, Netflix, YouTube & Pandora
- Multi-format playback lets you enjoy Blu-ray Discs, DVD, CD, MP3/WMA, JPEG, AVCHD and more
- Enjoy BD-Live support for accessing fresh content
- Dolby TrueHD / DTS-HD MA technologies for high-definition audio
Reviews
Wow!!! This is our first blu-ray player. Up conversion of DVD is great, i could see lot of details. My old DVD collection looks like new set to us. Its worth watching them again with this unit. We havnt watched any blu-ray yet and also pandora/netflix/youtube. Waiting for my router to set up wireless bridge. I dont want to spend 75$ to get wireless dongle for this unit. Instead would setup wireless bridge and connect my all units with that.
This is a good player. The thing that put it over the top for me was being able to stream Netflix and Pandora. Both of these add-ons work great, though the Pandora interface is a bit crippled compared to the online and mobile versions. Hopefully when upgrades are deployed to the DVD player this will change.
This is a solid Blu-ray player with a very nice picture. The Netflix integration is also a great feature to have. It is very easy to set up, and the front panel cover makes it blend well with the other electronics in our media cabinet. This has really enhanced our home movie watching experience.
We are now streaming netflix and pandora. The picture is great and we can't believe the price. It was $50 less than we could buy any where else.
Requires propietary device $80 to use wirelessly and much slower access to Netflix than w/ Roku player. Remote control has poor response, thought I needed new batteries but that didn't help.
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Wireless connection cannot be established using the required Samsung wireless LAN adapter ($80) on newly bought BD-P1600. Wireless option is greyed out and unit cannot be reset nor reprogrammed. Other wireless devices (eg. Laptop)work fine.
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