Samsung BD P2500 1080p Blu ray Disc Player
Samsung BD P2500 1080p Blu ray Disc Player
Samsung’s BD-P2500 is BD-Live 2.0 Ready with an ethernet port so you can enjoy special interactive features, download extra content from the internet, and more. It has 1Gb of onboard memory and a USB port for memory expansion. You’ll enjoy bold color and crisp details with full 1080p resolution. The BD-P2500 also offers breakthrough enhancements such as Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) processing and 7.1-Channel analog audio outputs creating a powerful HD audio-visual experience. Plays Blu-ray discs, upscales standard DVDs, and is compatible with BD-ROM, DVD-ROM, DVD-R (V mode only), DVD-RW (V/VR mode), Audio CD, CD-R, CD-RW, and AVCHD discs. Movie night just got even more exciting – with the highest-quality audio and an incredible picture.
Key Features
Total BD Profile Compatibility right out of the box, lets you instantly enjoy the latest interactive features available, including BD Live (Profile 2.0) and Bonus View (Profile 1.1)- Lots of Memory and Easy Upgradeability: The BD-P2500 comes with a built-in, wired Ethernet connection, 1GB of internal flash memory, and a USB port for memory expansion
- Full HD 1080p
- HQV processing chip for the highest quality viewing of Blu-ray discs, upconversion of standard DVDs, and viewing of JPEG images
- HDMI 1.3 output with xvYCC Deep Color support, and a 24fps film mode, exhibiting smoother, more natural playback of film-based material.
- 7.1-Channel Dolby TrueHD Sound and dts-HD Master Audio capable of decoding the latest high-resolution digital multichannel audio soundtracks
HQV Video Processor
In a perfect world, every disc’s image that passed through your Blu-ray disc player into your HDTV would offer immaculate 1080p video with flawless color, impeccable detail, and nary a bit of pesky video noise. In the real world, though, pristine source material isn’t available for every Blu-ray disc—due to age or neglect of the original elements—and there are plenty of movies and TV shows on DVD that you’ll still want to watch on your Blu-ray player. HQV video processing is a great way of elevating those less-than-perfect video sources to a new level, and ensuring that you’re getting the most out of your beautiful high-definition video display.
To do this, the HQV video processors built into better Blu-ray players employ sophisticated algorithms to alleviate the problems that often plague less-than-perfect video sources. HQV processors analyze multiple video fields at once to determine where frames match up and where they don’t, and even which objects are in motion within those frames. In analyzing the video signal over time, the processor also determines the proper frame rate or refresh rate of the original video signal—whether it’s a 24 fps film source or a 30 fps video source, for example—and makes sure that it is dealt with properly. HQV video processors are also great at minimizing video noise without scrubbing the image of all its fine detail, as well as restoring some of the detail that’s lost as a result of aggressive video filtering during the Blu-ray or DVD mastering process. And unlike some competing video processors, HQV processors boast enough processing power to keep up with the multiple video streams (picture-in-picture and split screen) found on many new Blu-ray discs.
Stream Netflix Movies Right Over Your Player
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Netflix, the world’s largest online movie rental service, has a library of more than 12,000 movies and television episodes available for streaming. You must be a Netflix subscriber in order to receive streaming video service. For Netflix customers you simply need to activate your new BluRay player to your existing Netflix account. Non-Netflix customers must first sign up for Netflix in order to utilize this feature-there is a monthly cost. |
BD-Live
 BD-Live is a Blu-ray feature that enables you to access special content via an internet-connected Blu-ray player. Because it’s not coded into the disc, BD-Live content is always updated, always fresh. With BD-Live, your Blu-ray disc is different every time you view it.
Check out the latest previews, download special scenes, exclusive features and ringtones, and participate in online communities or games. As BD-Live continues to grow and expand, even more features will become available, customizing features and content to your location or preferences. Now, your disc k |
Bonus View
| Blu-ray Disc has 5x more storage capacity than DVD, which allows more content to fit on the disc. The extra storage capacity also means more room for special features like inline navigation, Bonus View, interactive games, deleted scenes, director commentary and more | |
Navigate to special features, other scenes, or settings without leaving the content you are watching. |
Bonus View lets you watch special features and commentary inline without leaving the movie. |
High Definition Soundtrack Support and Output
Providing a truly immersive HD home theater experience, Samsung’s BD-P2500 is capable of decoding the latest high-resolution digital multichannel audio soundtracks available. Out of the box, the player can output Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and dts as an uncompressed PCM signal, as a bitstream, or
via the 7.1 analog outputs for cinematic sound that is comparable with the latest movie theaters. Additionally, dts-HD HR (High Resolution) decoding will become available with a firmware upgrade in the fall. The BD-P2500 will also pass these and dts-HD MA (Master Audio) as a bitstream output to a separate, external surround sound decoder.
HDMI Features
x.v Color
 RGB Color Range
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 xvYCC Color Range
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Thanks to the adoption of a newly approved international color standard called xvYCC (an option in the HDMI v1.3 spec, the color space has been greatly expanded.
All Sony XBR HDTVs support the xvYCC color profile (Extended YCC Colorimetry for Video Applications), or “x.v. color” for short. Standard RGB color space allows the display of a portion of the colors that are viewable to the human eye. The next generation “xvYCC” color space actually offers an available range of colors that exceeds what human eyes can recognize.
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Deep Color
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So, where x.v. color expands the available range of colors your HDTV can display, Deep Color increases the number of colors your HDTV can display within that range, for smoother transitions from color to color.
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Specifications
Design
- Piano black with chrome accents and touch pad controls
A/V Features
- Compatible with BD Profile 2.0 (BD Live), Profile 1.1 (Bonus View), and Profile 1.0 interactivity features
- 1GB internal flash memory for BD Live
- Award-winning Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) processing
- 24fps film mode
- xvYCC Deep Color
- Selectable DVD upconversion (720p / 1080i / 1080p)
- Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD decoding
- dts-HD HR decoding via firmware update in the fall
- Dolby Digital Plus™, Dolby TrueHD, dts-HD HR / MA bitstream output
A/V Connections
- 1 HDMI version 1.3 output with CEC (Anynet+)
- 1 component output
- 1 composite output
- 7.1-Channel analog audio outputs
- 1 optical digital audio output
- 1 Ethernet connection (for interactivity features and firmware upgrades only)
- 1 USB connection (for memory expansion and firmware upgrades only)
Playable Media
- BD-ROM, DVD-ROM, DVD-R (V mode only), DVD-RW (V/VR mode), Audio CD, CD-R, CD-RW, AVCHD disc
Answers to Basic Questions About Blu-ray
What is Blu-ray?
Blu-ray is a new optical disc format with over five and a half times the storage capacity of a standard DVD (25 GB versus 4.5 GB). A dual-layer Blu-ray disc can hold up to 50 GB of information. With that increased storage, movie studios can finally provide movies on disc in high definition, offering 6x the resolution or image detail of DVD and up to 8 channels of lossless (better than CD quality) digital sound. The new format can also provide interactive features that go well above anything ever offered before.
Is Blu-ray different than HDTV?
HDTV, or high definition television, is a new broadcasting format that offers widescreen, high resolution images offering 6x the resolution or image detail of DVD, with up to 5.1 channels of digital audio. Until now, the signals were only available through over the air transmissions (via an antenna), or through digital cable and satellite signals. You can not get HD signals from a standard video tape or DVD. An HDTV is a high resolution video display that is capable of receiving and displaying these HDTV broadcasts or images. Blu-ray is a complement to your HDTV. It’s a disc media format that has enough storage to include an entire movie, plus soundtracks and bonus materials, recorded in the high definition format. You can play Blu-ray discs back on your HDTV and see the same, if not better image and sound quality as you do from HDTV broadcasts.
What kind of TV do I need to enjoy Blu-ray?
You can play back Blu-ray movies on any TV with composite video or better inputs (not RF), but to get a worthwhile benefit from the format over DVD you’ll want to have a high-definition television, or HDTV, with a vertical resolution higher than 480p, and preferably higher than 720p. Most Blu-ray titles can deliver an image with a vertical resolution of 1080i or 1080p. The more horizontal resolution the TV can reproduce, up to 1920 lines or pixels, the better.
How are Blu-ray discs different than regular DVDs?
Blu-ray discs are the same size as DVD or CD, but use a blue* laser to store and read data as opposed to the red laser used in DVDs and CDs. The blue laser’s shorter wavelength, combined with a smaller aperture lens and a thinner cover layer on the disc makes it possible to create a smaller beam spot size capable of storing and reading much more, smaller information on the disc. A single-layer Blu-ray disc can hold 25 GB worth of data, compared to 4.5 on a standard DVD. A dual layer BD disc holds up to 50 GB. This translates into the ability to store a full 1080p HD image. This has a resolution consisting of 1920 by 1080 progressively scanned pixels, compared to standard DVD’s 720 by 480 pixels. In addition, Blu-ray has much wider bandwidth than DVD, delivering signals at speeds up to 48 Mbps, six times faster than DVD’s 8 Mbps, and nearly 2.5 times the data of an HDTV broadcast’s 19.2 Mbps. *technically, it’s violet, but who’s keeping track?
Will Blu-ray discs play in my current DVD player?
No. You will need a Blu-ray player to be able to read the smaller, denser information found on a Blu-ray disc.
Will I be able to play standar DVDs on my Samsung Blu-ray player?
Yes. Blu-ray players are backwards compatible with your standard DVDs. They can also play CDs.
Is Blu-ray the same as HD DVD?
No. HD DVD was a competing format with less storage capacity than Blu-ray. With Toshiba, its primary champion announcing on February 19, 2008 that they would end production of HD DVD products, the few companies that were supporting the format announced that they would instead create products for the Blu-ray format.
What does up-conversion mean?
Consumers have over 50 years worth of material in standard definition formats. Up-conversion is the process of taking that existing, standard definition material and converting it (lines and pixels are copied to some degree) to the higher resolution needed to display those signals on an HDTV. When done well, the process can often improve picture quality, though it can’t increase actual resolution. The quality of the up-converter, included in everything from up-converting standard DVD players to Blu-ray players and HDTVs, can often determine the quality of the picture.
What kind of cables, connections do I need to have to make Blu-ray work?
You will need either a 3-wire analog component (typically labeled Y, Pr and Pb) or an HDMI digital video connection between the BD player and the TV. The HDMI connection is preferable. Not only will it provide better image quality, but it will pass along higher resolution audio and control information, as well. You may get limited up-conversion options with standard DVDs when using the component connection.
What is firmware and do I need it?
Firmware is like computer software, or the instruction set in the player that tells the hardware what to do under various conditions. Insert a disc, and the firmware tells the player to read the disc. Press the Play button and the firmware tells the player to play the movie. Generally speaking, the firmware is invisible to the end user. But Blu-ray keeps evolving, and new features keep being created. With each new feature that a movie studio comes up with, hardware manufacturers have to release new instruction sets, or firmware, to deal with it. Samsung’s ability to easily update the firmware in their BD players makes them one of the best in the business.
Who supports Blu-ray?
At this point, nearly everyone supports Blu-ray. All the major movie studios have announced that they would support Blu-ray with both new and catalog titles. Thousands of movies and music videos are already available. Most major electronics manufacturers have been supporting Blu-ray since the format’s beginning.
Can I rent movies on Blu-ray?
Yes. Blockbuster, Hollywood Video and Netflix, among other places, offer Blu-ray titles for rent.
Are my regular DVDs obsolete?
Not by the definition Merriam Webster would use. You can still play your regular DVDs on your Blu-ray disc player, so they’re still useful, but you’ll want to replace them with Blu-ray versions as they become available in the new format so that you can enjoy the improved image and sound quality.
Is the only benefit to Blu-ray the video quality? Why should I upgrade to Blu-ray?
You will probably upgrade because of the video quality, but you may also appreciate the improved sound quality available on some players as well as the advanced interactive features. Blu-ray offers the latest generation audio codecs that can play back up to 8 channels of surround sound with improved audio quality over that of standard 5.1 digital soundtracks. This includes Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS High Resolution and DTS Master Audio. Blu-ray also offers advanced bonus features that can include interactive game features or picture-in-picture commentary tracks, not to mention additional features that could be downloaded after the disc has been produced.
Do I need to buy a new home theater system?
You don’t need a new audio system, but you should at least have a surround system (five speakers and ideally a subwoofer) with Dolby Digital or DTS audio decoding to hear the theater-like audio experience that is available on Blu-ray. Some BD players offer more advanced audio codecs that provide even better quality sound through up to 8 channels of surround.
What do all these audio formats mean?
You can hear better-than theater-like audio at home. As George Lucas has said, sound is 50% of the movie experience. With the right audio equipment, you can hear up to 7.1 channels of sound that is no different than what the recording engineers heard in the mixing room.
What’s the benefit of 24p?
Movies are recorded on film at 24 frames per second (fps). Video is recorded and played back at 60 frames per second. Movies must be converted to 60 frames before being played back on your TV. Blu-ray discs record movie content in the original 24 frame format, and convert the signal within the player to output at 60 fps for standard HDTVs. Some current HDTVs, like Samsung’s Auto Motion Plus 120Hz models, and undoubtedly more future ones, can accept and play back the 24 frame signal without the intermediary conversion to 60 fps, which can offer a smoother, more natural-looking image.
What does Profile 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 mean?
Blu-ray’s specifications for video are broken into three profiles, each with its own set of hardware and software requirements. Profile 1.0 gave hardware manufacturers a grace period to create players that were capable of Blu-ray video playback, but didn’t need to meet the final standard profile requirements. This grace period ended October 31, 2007. These players, while not able to take advantage of all of Blu-ray’s promised extra content, will provide full 1080p video playback.
Profile 1.1, also known as BonusView, makes certain requirements mandatory: picture-in-picture, secondary audio mixing, a minimum of 256MB of memory (built-in or removable), and the incorporation of a virtual file system. Players created and sold after October 31, 2007 are required to meet the Profile 1.1 specification, and therefore will take advantage of 1.1-enabled bonus materials on certain BD discs.
BD-Live (Profile 2.0) makes mandatory all parts of Profile 1.1, but increases the memory requirement to 1GB and adds the hardware requirement of a network connection. This specification enables the even-more interactive web-based bonus material found on discs that provide such content.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Are you kidding…6 Stars
This is the best BD player. Streaming Netflix (including LOST in HD) and Pandora, excellent blu-ray playback. I would have held-out for the newer wireless version but I’m too impatient for that. Besdies, I picked this up in Canada for $100 less than US. The difference paid for the powerline adapter to connect unit to my router.
5 Stars Now supports Blockbuster, Youtube, Netflix, Pandora
Now supports Blockbuster, Youtube, Netflix, Pandora.
Just did the automatic firmware update. Surprised to see that Blockbuster is now supported. I’m not into the whole youtube scene so I probably won’t use it. It is good to see a company continuously improving existing products. I have used this mostly for playing DVD’s and listening to Pandora. Works great.
4 Stars Love the player. Hoping for a firmware update that will include YouTube & Blockbuster!
Despite the mixed reviews, we’ve loved our BD-P2500 since we purchased it about 8 months ago. It took a while to set up the Netflix streaming, but once we did, we were sold. The Blu-Ray playback is clean, vibrant, and sharp and the player does an excellent job upconverting DVD’s thanks to the Reon HQV processing. Then comes the word that the ’09 players include YouTube & Blockbuster support via a firmware update. As of this review, the Samsung reps have stated that there is no plans, in this current update, to bring these features to the 2500/2550 or 1500 players. This is unfortunate and, seeing as the 2500 was (upon release) a considerable amount of money more than almost all of the current ’09 players, should be included. Owners of the 2500 that are interested in these features should request that Samsung includes support for them in a future update. Until then, we’ll enjoy our player as we have so far.
1 Star Major firmware problems
Bought this unit in 2/09. Worked well until the beginning of July when it stopped playing Blu-ray’s. Still plays regular DVDs and Netflix. I have been told by Samsung to wait for a new Firmware upgrade which will fix problems with compatibility with copy-protection. Searching the internet reveals that this is a common problem and seems to be unique to Samsung. The other Blu-ray manufacturers seem to be able to update their firmware in a timely manner. This is a real pain in the a**. The other option is to send the unit in and have it “fixed” for $86. There are similar problems throughout Samsung’s Blu-ray line. I would avoid this brand until they get their act together. Believe it or not, this problem is discussed on their own website.
4 Stars Mostly awesome
I’ve had this player for a little over a month. I have a Samsung TV so I would expect it to work well together but mostly I think it fights each other. The remote will sometimes control the TV when I want it to control the player (for example, turning it ON!)
Getting it to go onto Netflix was a bit of a struggle at first, I had to set it up multiple times but it seems to have taken now and there aren’t many problems. Streaming netflix is great if you’re into older movies.
Overall no major problems, the upscaling is good, netflix works well. I just wish it would let me pick between netflix and the disc before it just starts going. Loading times are kind of long, which are typical.
