For the last week or so, I have had the pleasure of auditioning the Samsung Bluray player. It was a great learning experience, and I must admit, I am now really getting a itch that only scratch will take care of. I want to thank Peter from Captain Video for the loan of the player and discs for this informal audition

I really like the look of the Samsung player, but its functions left alot to be desired. I say this in comparison to a regular DVD player, as many functions on this player are not convient, nor are the buttons on the remote. The boot up period is pretty long in comparison to a regular DVD player, but once you got passed that you are in for a real visual and auditory treat.

While fully understanding the problems from the Samsung HDMI outputs, I decided to hook both the component and the HDMI outputs to my Grass Valley video processor/switcher to compare the quality of each output. This comparison turned out to be really eye opening, and only confirms the problems that the HDMI has in outputting a clean, accurate video signal. So much for digital from player to display device.

The movies I auditioned uncluded Stealth, Ultraviolet, Terminator, and Terminator2. As much as I wanted to see The Fifth Element, the video transfer was not well done ( I saw it in the video store) and I didn't want to waste my time with known problems. Also I have all of these titles on SD DVD, and I wanted to compare the PQ and SQ to the upconverted video signal, and a upsampled and unprocessed standard DVD sound.

Stealth was the first disc I watched, and boy I was not dissapointed at what I saw. The black levels were deep, detailed, and very stable. No sign of grain of specks from the print, and the video took on a very detailed 3D layered look that absolutely blew the SD DVD away. When watching the disc through the HDMI outputs, the picture appeared a bit softer, but no less detailed than with the component outputs.

For sound, it was no comparison. BR's uncompressed PCM absolutely left the 5.1 DD soundtrack in the dust. The BR soundtrack is just what I built and tweaked my audio system for. The sound was seemless in its panning(the DD seemed compartmentalized by comparison) and moved around the room with such clarity and ease I was completely amazed. Even when I upsampled the DD soundtrack to 96khz, it could not compete with the ease of listening that the BR soundtrack had. The bass was deep, powerful, and very detailed, and the soundstage width, and depth seem to go on forever. I even sensed height information that I have only heard with full bitrate Dts soundtracks.

T2's picture quality also excelled over the SD DVD on BR. However the soundtracks are ported over from the DVD release, and to these ears offered no difference from them.
While the picture quality of The Terminator excelled over the SD DVD release, it did not have the stable consistantly good blacks or its consistantly clean look. It was quite good however, but the original print was probably not the best in terms of image consistantancy.
The audio was quite a different story with 5.1 uncompressed PCM just trouncing the DD 5.1 in clarity, imaging, dialog fullness and 3D like movement around the soundfield.

Ultraviolet was very clean and clear looking, but also overprocessed much like the SD DVD looked but alot more detailed. I did notice some banding of colors, light pixelization, and some over edginess in some scenes. Still the BR really looked alot better than the SD DVD looks. Audio wise once again it just kicks DD 5.1's butt in every area on the audio map. More dynamic range, better 3D like imaging, deeper cleaner bass, more transparent mids and highs, you name it, it sound better than DD.

Considering that there are upconverting DVD players that cost more than the Samsung, I think this player is a bit of a bargain. It has its quirks, shortcomings(no advanced codecs supported on this player, which is not a problem for me) and inconsistancies within the software, but overall it performed well in my system. I really wish I had more time to watch more movies on it, but what I saw gave me a good feeling about the potential of this format. I am going to buy into this format when more players reach the market, but the lack of HDMI 1.3, and no advance audio codecs prevent me from jumping in at this time. In saying that, if the price of this player were just a little cheaper, I would not hesitate as a early adopter in purchasing this player.

Next up, The Toshiba HD DVD player!