Samsung BD-P2500 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 at
12:22 pm
- Full HD 1080p
- BD Live 2.0 Ready
- Ethernet and USB for firmware upgrades
- Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital True-HD
- DTS-HD upgradable
Product Description
The ultimate interactive experience is here. The Samsung BD-P2500 is BD-Live 2.0 Ready so you can enjoy special interactive features, download extra content from the internet and more. You¿ll also enjoy bold color and crisp details with full 1080p resolution. Movie night just got even more exciting – with the highest-quality audio and an incredible picture.Amazon.com Product Description
Amazon.com Product Description Samsung’s BD-P2500 is BD-Live 2.0 Read… More >>
Samsung BD-P2500 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player
Tagged with: 1080p • BDP2500 • Bluray • Disc • Player • Samsung
Filed under: Blu Ray DVD Players
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Very happy with this purchase! I’m glad to see Amazon has them back in stock. I have never had a problem with another seller – but I do prefer Amazon. I got my unit from a local retailer who I had a discount code for. With tax etc. I ended up paying what I would have paid on amazon. Unfortunately amazon now charges tax for us New York residents (not amazon’s choice…)
I digress.
I was initially going to buy the BD-P1500 just for it’s price point, but was drawn to this model when I found out about the Netflix feature.
The unit was well packed (nice to see manufacturers getting more conscious about being “green” with packing).
The unit is smaller than I expected and seems sturdy.
Box contained:
Player with permanently attached cord
Remote with batteries (aaa)
One AV cable (RCA red/yellow/white)
User guide
The anynet+ feature is nice if you have other Samsung components. I have a Samsung TV and because I used an HDMI cable to connect, the TV and Blu-ray player “talk” to each other. The player turns the TV on automatically and switches it to the correct input which is a nice convenience.
NETFLIX! This feature is so cool! The picture quality was amazing. I have the player connected to my linksys router with a cable using the net port on the back. I suppose you could do this wirelessly with some extra components. You have to log into netflix and cue movies on your PC, and then you can watch them on your TV through the player. It works really well. Note that this feature requires a firmware upgrade (see below for my complaint about this…)
Picture and sound quality seems wonderful!
Two small quirks/complaints:
1) Load time: It takes a good minute or so for a blu-ray disk to load initially. Once loaded response time is great, but that initial load time is long
2) Firmware upgrade: I connected the unit to my router and went to setup to have it check for an upgrade and was told that I already had the latest firmware, which I know I did not. If you turn the player on and don’t see the Netflix logo on the home screen, you probably don’t have the latest firmware. I went to the Samsung website, downloaded an update file which I then had to burn to a CD. Putting the CD in the player then sucessfully updated the firmware. I am not sure why the net upgrade option didn’t work, but I have seen other users complain about this online. A mild annoyance. The CD upgrade took about 5 minutes. It is also upgradable by USB using a flash drive.
All in all, I am very happy with this!
Rating: 4 / 5
I went to the big-box stores ready to buy a new Blu-Ray(BD)player and figured I would make my final decision of either the Panasonic BD-50 or the Sony BDP-S550 once I got there, as these are the two most popular BD players that offer what I want. Analog outputs were a must for me, since my Onkyo receiver only has HDMI passthrough. But surprisngly the one that caught my eye was the Samsung BDP-2500 for $75 less than either of the other models. It seemingly offered every feature that I needed/wanted including 7.1 analog outputs, USB and ethernet ports and now had a firmware update available with the Netflix streaming “Watch-now” Service to boot, which was a feature that greatly interested me on the pricier LG BD-300, the only other player to offer this feature so far. So with a 15% coupon that the big-box store mailed me to thank me for my purchase of my Samsung LN52A650, I picked it up for under $300, not bad since retail was $500 on this machine under 2 months ago. My only other BD player that I have owned to date is my PS3, so I don’t have a ton of experience evaluating BD player quality. But here are my early impressions; The Samsung BD picture is equal to if not slightly better than the PS3. Not only my own impression but 3 adult family members who have watched numerous movies on each player, on my TV, so that says something. But while BD quality is fairly close wit h a slight edge to the BDP-2500, where the BDP-2500 shines is Standard-Def(SD) movies. The upscaling is simply amazing. It is not even close, it simply blows away the PS3 in this category. For the technical types out there, this is due to the Samsung’s use of the Reon HQV video-processing chip. The chip is critically-acclaimed in tech circles and is used in Denon and some Toshiba BD players. So if you feel you will continue watching your collection of standard-def DVD’s, this machine scores big points here.
To address one of the other reviews that the buyer had issues with firmware updates. I have had no problem whatsoever with either the process of upgrading the firmware nor any issues with the player’s performance after upgrading. I personally recommend using the USB upgrade method over the network and CD methods. After the upgrade, Netflix Streaming video worked very good, although it should be noted that the Netflix streaming system does not stream in HD quality at this point. It is similiar in quality to a standard DVD.At some point, I’m sure it will go to HD, but don’t know when. It’s just nice to have fairly future-proof player for when it does. I know that Samsung has had some issues with previous BD players such as the BDP-1200 and even the current BDP-1500, but from what I’ve read and experienced, this machine is a marked improvement and hopefully approaches the awesome quality of their LCD TV line.
Rating: 5 / 5
I decided not to skimp and not buy one of the “cheapo” entry level bluray players after hearing how slow most were and also how most were stripped of inputs and other functions.After doing alot of research, talking with a friend who bought this bluray player, and after trying out several units in the stores themselves, i decided that the Samsung BD-P2500 was the best Bluray player features/quality vs. cost and i’ve been extremely happy with the player since the day i picked it up.Not only is the color,picture, dvd upscaling better than most other bluray players, it blows away the new Sony BD350 AND BD550.
One piece of advice.The BD-P2500 IS NOT for the novice or someone that doesn’t want to spend the extra money(over a bargain/starter bluray player)for a Home Theater quality,profile 2.0 Bluray player.It has ALOT of features that require some learning to get to know how to use(
like the ability to upgrade the firmware with a usb 2.0 memory stick and pc.
Rating: 5 / 5
First, I love this blu-ray player. Not just for the requisite amazing HD picture and sound, but for the best-in-class upscaling for plain DVDs. I thought I wouldn’t really use the additional Netflix and Pandora streaming features (a rare treat on this specific Samsung model, BD-P2500), but I have to admit, I’m hooked on those as well! Netflix movies are delivered straight to the unit (some even in HD), and Pandora Internet Radio is a dream. It creates smart playlists that I swear are from my own personal iPod collection, but sound a heck of a lot better through my stereo. Best of all, Pandora services are FREE, plus they work well over my wireless LAN. Both Netflix and Pandora are extremely easy to use. You simply queue instant movies on your home computer (via the Netflix site), and your blu-ray player is smart enough to retrieve accordingly. Pandora asks you for a few “radio stations” upfront (i.e., the names of a few of your favorite bands), and then tailors personalized music accordingly.
I LOVE THE INTERNET-ENABLED FEATURES, BUT WANT TO RUN THINGS WIRELESSLY, LIKE EVERY OTHER SMART SYSTEM IN THE HOME…
If you’re like me, you won’t want to run an Ethernet cable into your living room to the blu-ray player to enable BD-live, Netflix streaming, and Pandora services. So, you may ask, “The player has a hard-wired Ethernet port. Can I use it wirelessly?”
Answer: Yes, but you’ll need an aftermarket adapter. I purchased the Linksys Dual-Band Wireless-N Gaming Adapter and connected it to the player. It was mind-numbingly easy to install on the BD player. I first hooked the wireless adapter to my laptop, installed the included Linksys software, configured the adapter to find my wireless network, entered the WEP key, unplugged it, and plugged it into the BD player’s Ethernet port. The Samsung did the rest, automatically created an Internet connection to my wireless router, and no additional configuration was required. Internet quality/reception is great, even through my old Linksys WRT54G wireless router.
Glitches: The only glitch I found was first trying to get Netflix to work. It would keep hanging and posting error messages that directed me to the Netflix help pages–which weren’t much of a help at all. The solution was downloading firmware updates until I reached the most recent one. Note that firmware updates for this unit appear to be sequential; You have to download and install a couple until you get the latest update. Bottom line, once you have the system connected to your home Internet network, keep trying updating the firmware until the player tells you that you have the latest update. (Firmware updates are easy; simply access the “options” page in the built-in menu.)
Enjoy!
Rating: 5 / 5
I received this item yesterday, and immediately connected it to the internet so that I could update the firmware to get the netflix update.
The “update” menu said the firmware was up to date.
Then there was the 1 hour of phone calls and chats to samsung and netflix to try to get it to work.
samsung has a text chat with people who are very slow and not knowledgeable.
netflix customer support can’t help with samsung problems, but then connected me to someone who was more helpful.
Apparently, I was supposed to be seeing a “netflix” logo on the samsung splash screen – something that samsung didn’t even know.
Armed with this information, I determined that I did NOT have the latest firmware. I downloaded the zip file to my mac (the samsung support site says pc only!) and then copied the contents to a usb flash drive and updated the dvd player that way. at first it restarted to a hang but a power cycle got it to start up (NEVER unplug it DURING an update though!)
then the netflix icon showed up. Hope this helps others who will probably have the same problem, samsung cannot explain why the net updater thought the firmware was up to date when it wasn’t.
on another note, found out today Amazon has discontinued it’s policy to give you a refund in 30 days if the price of something goes down – as of sept 1. I got no notification of this, and was counting on the price of this player going down around thanksgiving and getting some money off. If you were planning to do the same thing, I suggest waiting to purchase this product until black friday. I will personally be returning it and purchasing elsewhere – I don’t like it when companies change their policies without notifying their customers.
Rating: 3 / 5