Samsung BD P1400 1080p Blu Ray Disc Player
Samsung BD P1400 1080p Blu Ray Disc Player
Samsung’s BD-P1400 lets you enjoy HD films and shows with a new level of picture customization. Advanced Blu-ray playback technology gives you crisp, clear images, while added picture quality adjustment lets you set sharpness and noise reduction to your liking. HDMI v1.3 lets you experience richer colors. Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD compatibility completes the HD experience. It?s a perfect centerpiece to your media environment, providing the features you need for a fulfilling entertainment experience.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Good Entry Level Blu Ray Player
I’ve had this player for about a week. right out of the box, i upgraded the firmware and because it had an ehternet port (major selling point for me), the upgrade took about 10 minutes. The picture is amazing and I only have a 1080i TV. The only complaint I have is when I watched “3:10 to Yuma” on Blu Ray Disc. It played up until 47 minutes and then it froze up. I took the movie out and put it back in and it played up until 1 hr and 17 minutes in and froze again. I did the same thing and it played for 2 minutes and froze again. I went to the Samsung website, and saw that there have been problems with that movie playing in Samsung players but they were working on a solution. another very small gripe, is that the there is no resume feature, but missing about 30 seconds of a movie you are going to watch again isn’t that bad. Overall, i did not want to spend over $300 and i didn’t want to have the hastle of downloading firmware to a CD-R for every update. If you are looking for a goor entry level player for about $300, i don’t think you can beat this Blu Ray player.
5 Stars Great player for a great price!
I’ll be brief. Firmware update was a breeze! I even have a Mac. I didn’t need to update the firmware as both LOST and The Fountain on Blu-ray played beautifully but I decided to update it anyways. I just burned the ISO to a disk, as instructed, and it worked. Took about 10 minutes. I have everything hooked up and the player is far faster than everyone is complaining about. I remember someone saying on here that it takes 30 seconds for a disk to eject. Seriously, no more than 5. It’s not fast but it’s not THAT slow. Takes a bit for a disk to spin up and by “a bit” I mean 12 seconds. I think people need to chill a bit and realize that these players are dealing with huge file sizes.
The UI is so much nicer than I thought it would be. I thought this was a low-end Blu-ray player but it’s not. This is a fine Blu-ray player and for the price, you can’t beat it. My old roommate had a PS3 and it was flawless, yes. But it was also $200 more expensive and is as power-consuming as a modern refrigerator.
The remote control is nice. Very simple to set up the ability to also control your TV. I plugged in the HDMI cable and it required no changing of settings on my part. It automatically went to the highest resolution possible on my TV and sends the audio through it as well as through the RCA in the Audio-out. I say that because I know some players that require you to switch in the setting weather the audio goes out via HDMI or another output. This player does both simultaneously.
This player made my 1080i 42″ LCD look better than ever before. I recommend it to everyone.
4 Stars For new technology, it’s pretty good
This is my first Blu-Ray player and I’m pretty happy with it. I also only paid $180 for it because it was an Open Box item at Best Buy. Having said that…
It is a little slow but after reading a bunch of reviews for many other players, it seems that they all are somewhat slow. I remember when DVD players were new and they were slow too, at first. So, in time, I imagine newer models will run much more quickly. I’m not in a huge hurry when I sit down to watch a movie so the fact that it takes a little while is REALLY no big deal. It just makes me appreciate the quality of picture and sound of the movie THAT much more when it begins to play.
I have a 1080P 42′ Panasonic plasma tv and the picture this Blu-Ray player puts out is amazing. Very sharp and very clear. I also have a 5.1 Dolby Digital home theatre system, not the 5.1 Dolby HD, and the sound seemed better that my Sony 1080P up-conversion player puts out. So, I am thoroughly please with both the picture and sound.
This Blu-Ray player has an Ethernet connection which is awesome. Unlike some of the other Blu-Ray players on the market, you have to download the updates on your computer and burn them to a disc and then load them onto the Blu-Ray player. Now if I wanted to, I could do that with this model but Samsung designed it so that I don’t have to buy and waste blank cds. The only downside to downloading straight off the internet using the Blu-Ray player is the fact that there is no status indicator showing me the progress of the downloading update. I just updated mine and it was very simple to do and it only took maybe 20 minutes or less to download and install the update. It just takes a little bit of patience. While I was waiting for it to let me know that I can update it, I just watched TV and flipped back to the Blu-Ray every 5 minutes or so to check up on it. I think the lack of status notification is the only true set back on this Blu-Ray player.
So, if you can buy this model for a good price, like I did, I would recommend buying it. It’s a great Blu-Ray player. But if you can’t find it for cheap and your forced to fork over $400… don’t. Buy yourself the Panasonic something model 30. That’s the one I would liked to have gotten but I just couldn’t pass up on the cheap cheap price of the Samsung 1400!
3 Stars Problematic CD playback
Unit will not play audio CD’s through the digital ports unless the HDMI-connected display is on. This makes no sense and only wastes energy.
3 Stars Hardware: Better than Fair — Software: Beware
Yes, the picture and functionality are great. However a few things to be aware of before you jump in:
1. Having read the other reviews, I thought I’d be smart and prepare for the arrival of the BD-P1400 by getting the latest firmware update off the web and put it on CD. First problem (for me anyway): not MAC compatible. I use a PC at the office so I burned my CD that way (CD-R).
2. After hooking up the unit, the first thing I did was check the firmware version to see if I needed the update. Second problem: the update was v1.7; installed version was identified by a date code, not a version. Thankfully I had written the date code of the update on the CD case so I knew that I did, in fact, need to upgrade.
3. I inserted the CD and the unit came to life, spun up and… Third problem: it recognized the CD as just that, a CD. It went to the menu page, indicated there was a CD in the drive but that was it. Based on what others had written, I thought I’d give it a while. All it would do was go into screen saver mode and nothing else.
4. No problem - I’ll do the on-line upgrade. Fourth problem (for me anyway): my computer set up is several rooms away. So it was go buy a 40′ ethernet cable, or disconnect the DVD player from the AV system including unsnaking (if there is such a word) the power cable up three shelves - the power is hardwired, not a plug in - or disconnecting the modem from the computer and bringing it to the DVD. I opted for the last option.
5. I hooked the modem up to the cable, the DVD player, and power; turned on the DVD player, and here everything went perfectly. No problem - the DVD player recognized the hook up, went on line, downloaded and verified the software, updated everything and shut down. The only shortcoming here is something I think Samsung should have included as a no brainer - a progress or status bar for the process. There is no indication of what’s happening until each step is done. The process is a bit long and there is always that nagging feeling that something’s wrong when you get no feedback.
The unit has worked fine and I have no complaints other than the upgrade process. Also, I have not experienced the very slow response time others have reported.
Filed under: Electronics