Anyone have a Pioneer BD player? or Samsung 2500?

[SatinKzo]

Got a family member who is a PIO head. They were asking me what I thought of the following BD players

BDP-51FD
BDP-05FD (Elite model)

Their receiver can decode all formats, so internal decoding is not critical. Don't care about BD-Live right now.

Anyways, I have never seen one in use so I turn to you guys on what you think of them.

Also, they were looking at the Samsung 2500 as an alternative as they are looking at netflix. I am personally anti-samsung, but I have read a bit and it seems maybe samsung got their act together on recent models.

One other thing on all these models is they have a large DVD collection and from what they read and myself, all these models have some stellar upconverting. Samsung with the Reon and PIO's with their own chipset that is getting rave reviews.

So I'm all ears. Tell me what I should pass on to them from other users? (I tried AVS, I got lost in the deep ends of the threads over there on these players)

 

[Zookster]

When I was researching the Sammy 2500 last Nov., I was a bit concerned with some things I read on AVS about playability issues with certain discs and no internal DTS-MA decoding (perhaps that's been addressed by new FW by now), not to mention Sammy's rep for BD players. With a price tag of $350 for the 2500 at the time, I figured I was safer getting the highly rated Panny BD35 for $250 on Amazon and picking up a Roku for $100 for Netflix streaming.

 

[dlma1]

I don't have either one of the models that the OP mentions but I do have Pioneer Elite 94. It has proven to be very reliable and its up-convert capabilities are excellent. However, I would not recommend going to a Pioneer player at this time. This is because Pioneer is exiting the display market to concentrate on receivers and car audio. This is very unfortunate as I have 2 Pioneer Elite Plasmas (a PRO-1000FD and a PRO-FHD1); they are wonderful monitors. And the newer KURO’s are even better than mine. But getting back to Blu-Ray players, if you want the top-of-the-line, I would recommend the Sony BDP-5000ES. I was skeptical about it being very much different than the 550, but after seeing it I was convinced. The display is much more detailed and “edgier” and it seems to be almost three dimensional. It is hard to describe but I would highly recommend that you ask your dealer for a demo. If you want a lower price model, the Sony 550 is an excellent choice. I hear from friends (and CNET) that the PS3 is an excellent player. CNET also recommends the Panasonic DMP-BD35 or 55; I have no personal experience with either so I can’t be sure. I had an older Samsung 1000, which was fine for a secondary system but I wouldn’t recommend it for a primary system. I also had a Samsung BD-UP5000 (a combo Blu-Ray/HDDVD player), which was great while lasted (it died on me after a year). I would shy away from Samsung as there are better choices like Sony or Panasonic.

 

[SatinKzo]

laff, apparently you guys don't know my experiences with Samsung.... There might be no bigger sammy hater than me after the way I got burned on 2 of their players (figuratively and literally when it came to the 1500)

Like I said, I am just trying to get some first hand experiences from people with the players as I have not used any of them.

I personally love my panasonic BD55, but since my nephew (and subsequently his family) are diehard pioneer fans they are leaning toward pioneer players, but they also like the netflix functionality of the samsung. They have looked at but ruled out the current LG for netflix.

What I am curious on is if the sammy's are better now that I could tell them to try it (keep receipet etc for a return if it goes all "samsung" on them). or to go ahead with the pioneers as they like what they get with them.

What I did tell them to do if they can't make up their mind is to wait a couple months for the new models to hit the shelves.
I am only asking this is they are on dialup currently and I can't fathom trying to do research over at AVS on dialup. I think they are scheduled for their broadband finally being deployed in their neighborhood in March, so that is why netflix became interesting to them.

 

[Zookster]

From what I read on AVS last November, the 2500 does offer excellent PQ with its Reon chipset (excellent upconverting too). Might be worth the experiment... that is, if they are willing to foot the bill for a extended warrany. Also worth noting, Best Buy sells the 2550 model, which will also give them access to Pandora.

 

[dlma1]

As I mentioned, I too love Pioneer but does your nephew realize that Pioneer appears to be dying a slow death? Both Pioneer players are probably good choices especially if you don't care about BD Live. But I am concerned about their continuing viability - it is usually not a good sign when a company starts contracting.
As for Netflix streaming, perhaps a second unit would be better. TiVo HD DVR’s have Netflix capabilities – I use that. I also use an attached computer thru the RGB monitor connection on my Pioneer plasma. Both are good options, although you don’t get up-convert thru RGB, with TiVo I do because my receiver (a Pioneer!) up-converts all inputs.

 

[SatinKzo]

dlma1, yes, they are aware of the Pioneer strategy change. They are sad.

Tivo is not something they are interested in. (I personally love my tivos, netflix is just gravy). Roku might be an option for them, but like many people, they like the conveinance of the integration in to one unit. Mainly right now they want blu-ray and when they noticed that some players have netflix, that is what peaked their interest in those players.

Like I said, the main reason I asked the question here is I feel I get more honest answers here without all the filler over at AVS.

To be honest, I am trying to steer them to a panasonic or sony player (both which I have had great experiences with) and a Roku box or even the LG B300 since my sister has one and has not had a single problem with it and they watch ALOT of blu-rays and stream alot of netflix since they are OTA only (like me). But being the good uncle I am, I offerred to help the get info from users on the players they asked me about.

Or course, I am seeing now that the next generation sammys (1600 model to be exact) are already getting reports of numerous playback issues. Doesn't surprise me and maybe I can use that to pursuade them into a 2 component solution.

 

[Zookster]

The Roku boxes are pretty small, so if they have enough HDMI inputs on their TV, they shouldn't have much problem accommadating another component.

 

[SatinKzo]

I have a Roku, so they know what they are, I think mostly it's the "another remote deal", but hell, they can finally pony up for a harmony or similar to take care of that issue.

I'm heading over there tonight for dinner, I'm sure this discussion will come up. Thanks for input guy.

The only thing that bugs me about stuff like this with family is I feel like "Why did you ask for my opinion on what I think you should do if you already decided a head of time on stuff I have never used or owned?" Luckily with family I can tell them to stop asking if they don't like my opinions and all is forgiven over a couple beers.

 

[SatinKzo]

Thought I'd update this a bit...

nephew bought a Sammy 2550 from bestbuy. Not ready for the streaming features yet, but broadband cable will be installed next week. But as you read on, you'll see it won't matter

Here's the quick rundown...
First sammy he bought didn't even power up out of the box
Second sammy would not load any fox discs at all.
Third sammy worked for a couple days and then he got scared and took it back cause of the previous 2 models.

He ended up getting a BDP-51fd from 6ave for $266 shipped (hell of a price if you ask me).
I burned him the latest firmware update (95 megs) and for the last week now, they've watched at least 2 blu-ray a day between himself and the kids etc. What really impressed me though was the up converting on this player. Very impressive. I would even venture to say it surpasses the sammy reon from what I did get to see of that player with an SD disc. But it could just be my jaded view of samsung.

Anyways, I gotta say, other than this player being a tank, it looks pretty good. Performance wise, it's similar to my BD55, just maybe a tad slower loading discs. I didn't really time it as I didn't notice it being slow.

I was at first concerned about firmware, but reading over at AVS, I don't think there is much to worry about unless pioneer just flat goes belly up, but info coming out from them seems like they are fine, just giving up the cantankerous display business. I've been helping with some questions he has on the thread over at AVS on this player, helping him do research (you ever try to load AVS on dialup? heck I tether my cell phone to his PC just so the page would load reasonably fast for him. I forgot how bad dialup was)

I am seriously considering buying one of these players to replace my PS3 that I sold. For the asking price at 6ave and the coupon codes out there, it's very tempting considering I don't need bd-live (had it on ps3, have it on BD55, found absolutely no use for it yet) and I don't need DTS-MA decoding on the setup I would be using it on, although that is coming late april according to avs.

Anyways, just thought I'd share.

 

[JoeSp]

Can anyone explain to me how Samsung can make the best HD LCD's around and can not build a decent Blu Ray player? It is just sad!

 

[Zookster]

Did Sammy ever update the 2500/2550 to decode DTS-MA, I wonder? When I did my research in November, it was due by end of year.

Though Sammy's recent (2008) panels do make pretty pictures, they aren't without their flaws, as they've had to issue many firmware upgrades since release (depending on the model), and some of these FW upgrades have yet to fix all the problems, including the robot audio issue on the 4 series line (which is what I have). My girlfriend gets another audio problem (a buzz) when her PC is connected to her 550 via VGA.