Samsung BD-C6800 1080p 3D Blu-ray Disc Player Review

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(More customer reviews)Got the player a few days back. Initial setup was a breeze. Got connected to the internet over wifi very easily. It downloaded some apps and things were up and running. I tried things like netflix, pandora, youtube, accu-weather, google maps, sudoku etc and it was just amazing. Then I got to the real deal - playing a BD and it was quick, fast and fun. I had trouble doing the firmware upgrade (optional) over the network but then I read on some forum that usb upgrade was easier, that turned out to be true and things were done in no time, the procedure for which was available on samsung's site. So far i'm quiet satisfied by the video and audio performance along with the elaborate apps and games that work on this.
I've used it via hdmi with my lcd tv and hd projector. I've tried both analog and optical audio out with the tv and the 5.1 receiver respectively. The remote is easy to use and has good range (bounced signals worked great, never had to point it to the player). Of-course it takes time to punch in the user id etc for the internet apps, but that is a one time setup.


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Turn your living room into a full-fledged 3D multimedia center, with the Samsung BD-C6800Blu-ray Disc' Player.

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Samsung BDC5500 Blu-ray Player Review

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(More customer reviews)I own two and they seem to work reasonably well. I have only experienced one glitch during operation that required stopping and restarting a movie. I have been using a PS3 and I never experienced a glitch like that.
I was a bit disappointed with the networking capability. It does not work with my TVersity server. It sees the files (both audio and video) but can't play any of them them. I hope that firmware updates allow for a wider range of file types. Still all in all I like the styling, small size, low power and is very quiet.

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Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ 1080P HD Media Player and FreeAgent Go 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive ST905004CEA2E1-RK Review

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(More customer reviews)This is exactly what I was looking for, I have a Buffalo 2TB NAS that i have my movie, music and photo collections on and i wanted to be able to access them on my Samsung 47IN HDTV. The Seagate Freeagent Theatre+ HDMedia Player Station was a breeze to set up, well setup consisted of pluging in the AC, connecting via Ethernet to my home network through a Netgear Switch, connect to my TV via HDMI, the Seagate Freeagent Theatre+ HDMedia Player Station took about 60 seconds to search and detect all shared media on my network, not only on the Buffalo 2TB NAS but also on all the computers connected to the the network with shared media. Great playback for all forms of media, music, movies and photos. The remote is very simple and the batteries are included. This great unit also has a dock for the Seagate Freeagent usb hard drives. i would recommend this to everyone who wants a simple, fast setup and user friendly to be able to access all your media collections on their HDTV.

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Samsung BD-D6500 3D Blu-ray Disc Player (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)I needed to replace an aging Panasonic DMP-BD35K, which had decided to become selective as to which BD's it would play( typically newer titles wouldn't load, I'm not sure if it's a question of a lack in newer firmware, of which Panasonic hasn't released an update in about two years, or if it just isn't working any longer.).
I had researched extensively on the purchase of the Panasonic reading many reviews from several websites, but on this purchase I just decided to take a chance with Samsung. I do own a Samsung television which I really like and the reviews of Samsung's 2010 Blu-ray player were also good. Nearly as good as the 'King of the hill' Oppo( according to cnet video test scores. ). I was also aware of the many negative reviews of the 2010 BD-C6500 and I also noticed that they were mostly in regards to the web enabled apps, and not in regards to video playback. I have an Apple TV which I use for Netflix streaming( it does an excellent job of that, 720p only, but no biggy for me ), and I don't really have any use for the other apps.
So in comes the BD-D6500, I unpack it and connect it in about five minute. The set up is basic with many of the menu selections being 'Auto'. I'm still playing with the set up to see if anything looks better/more accurate. I pop in a disc( Avatar ) and wow, it just looked better. I start going through several BD's and they all look great. The blacks are darker without an over zealous increase in contrast. I run it at 24Hz and it appears to do that better as well( it was always so-so on the Panasonic. ). The Imax shots in The Dark Knight look awesome. And all the while as I am going through several BD's I notice how fast this player loads the discs. Really fast compared to the much older Panasonic.
I'm really impressed by this player. I also played some old DVDs to see how well it upscaled and it did a great job. Again it clearly out performed the Panasonic.
Now as far as the Smart TV apps are concerned I did try to watch a movie on Vudu as it gave me a free rental, and after I selected a movie( Machete ), the player locked up. Maybe it didn't like the movie I picked, but it still shouldn't have done that. I did notice that after I registered the player, the Vudu, along with all the other apps that I went through seemed to work. Perhaps I needed to register the player before I was able to use the apps? And there isn't any built in memory for BD-Live which is kind of lame. You need to use an external USB drive.
In the end I am very happy with this purchase and to be completely honest, a part of me was hoping that this player would have sucked just so I could justify the $500 purchase price of the Oppo BD-93. But it doesn't. It's just a really good Blu-ray player and that's what I wanted. So if your not too concerned with Smart TV apps( which are now working for me ), or too worried about playing files off of your PC( which I think it does, but I haven't a use for. ) then buy with confidence, as I am sure that once the different review sites get their hands on the this new BD-D6500, the results will be stellar.

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3D Technology Checklist
This product is 3D-related. To help you get a great 3D experience, use the checklist below to ensure you have everything you need. 3D viewing requires:

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Samsung BD-D5700 Blu-ray Disc Player (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)It surprises me how many negative reviews I read about Blu Ray players in general that have nothing to do with the player, but has everything to do with the person's lack of knowledge about electronics. While researching for a Blu Ray player for my parents, I came across a guy who gave a player a negative review because the player's box didn't tell him that the cable modem that he was using wasn't capable of supporting two Ethernet connected devices and that he would need a router for the player and his home computer to be hooked to the internet at the same time. It is not the Blu Ray manufactures job to inform the customer of basic facts. That would be like getting mad a car dealership for not telling a customer that the automobile needs gasoline to work correctly.
The next one that drives me crazy is when people complain about firmware updates. Wake up people. Your player is a dumbed down computer that is made especially for videos and will need updates from time to time. Do you get mad at Microsoft every time your home computer gets updates? No, you don't. It may be annoying, but you do it anyways because you know it will make your computer run better. Also, whining about needing an update right out of the box is plain stupid. In fact, it makes me feel more secure about my purchase. It lets me know that the manufacturer is still working to make my device better even after they have my money. And it lets me know that if any new apps are released, my player may be able to handle them and, once again, make my home theater experience better.
The Samsung BD-D5700 was purchased because of the Built-in WiFi (I really have no idea why they even make WiFi Ready Players). I researched and compared all of the mid-priced Blu Ray players with Built-in WiFi and it came down to either a Samsung or Sony. I wanted the Hulu Plus App and these were the only two with that option. Both the Samsung and Sony models had decent reviews but each had a few negative aspects. The Samsungs had a slow load time reviews (time it takes to power up the player and play a movie) and the Sony models apparently had some spotty WiFi video steaming (Netflix, Hulu, YouTube). This player was going to be used at my parents on an N wireless router, so the Sonys were out. But a few weeks later I ended up buying a Sony that I hooked up to a hard line in my own house. Both work amazingly and have not had a single issue. But then I knew what situation each was going to be used for and planned ahead. And just so this review is complete, the Samsung does not load as fast as the Sony, but it is nowhere near the wait time as the earlier Blu Ray players.


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Samsung BD-C7500 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player Review

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(More customer reviews)This player worked well for about 1 week. Then, since I had auto firmware updates on, The firmware updated to the current version (1010.4). No problem. Then a day later auto updates ran again. This time updating to version 1015.2 (which is not listed for this product). I have been having problems ever since.
Every time I would turn on the player, I would get an error stating "Model Information in your upgrade file does not match with your player. Please check and retry". Everything I would try to do would pop up this error. So I had to disable auto firmware updates to be able to do anything. Now, when I insert a DVD, the player will eject it at least three times before it successfully reads it. When I try to connect to Netflix, it freezes. I have to power off and power on and try connecting again. This happens anywhere between 3 and 10 times in a row before it will work. When I do finally connect to Netflix, the player asks if I have a Netflix account and makes me "authorize" the player for the millionth time. Then sometimes, the player freezes when I am scrolling through my queue.
I have tried to use a usb flash drive to update the firmware to the current version of 1010.4 but the player does not let me. Probably because the version on my player (1015.2) is supposedly after 1010.4.
Now, onto Samsung's technical support....After about a month I got fed up and decided to try to get this problem figured out. I called 1-800-SAMSUNG. Jumped through their hoops to get to the right person. I explain the problems I am having with the firmware. They tell me that the error message I am receiving when trying to update firmware is "because their server is busy" and to try again later. I told them I did not believe that their server was busy for a month. So they tell me to fix the problem "disable auto updates". I told them I already had and that is by no means a fix. I had to repeatedly tell them that the firmware in my player did not match what was on their website to get them to believe that anything was wrong. So they escalated me to Level 2 support and tell me I will receive a call in 24-48 hours.
Three days later still no call from Level 2 support. I call back, jump through hoops, give my reference # and the person tries to help me. I told them I did not want to talk to them, that I was escalated to Level 2 support and would only talk to them. They connect me to Level 2. I tell them the problem. They tell me that the reason I am getting that error is because the server is busy. (I am thinking to myself "Do these people think I am an idiot?") They tell me to try a USB update. I already tried that. After more useless conversation, they escalate me to a "Product Specialist" and tell me I will receive a call back in 24-48 hours.
One week later, I find myself calling Samsung back because I have still not heard from their product specialist. They tell me that there is not one available for me to speak with and they will have one call me back in 24-48 hours. I'm not holding my breath.
Everyone I spoke with at technical support was arrogant and would talk right over me. Luckily I am pretty tech savvy so I know to call their B.S. when they try to give me a fix like "just turn auto updates off". So my advice is if you buy this product, turn auto updates off as soon as possible, but better yet don't buy it. I got suckered in because of the wall mountable feature. I have had bad luck with Samsung players in the past so luckily I purchased an extended warranty on this one. So if tech support fails me, I can fall back on that.UPDATE:
After several more calls to technical support, they agreed to ship the unit to them for them to repair. Have not received it back yet.
I tried to submit a review on Samsung's website several times. Every time, I get an e-mail a couple of days later saying that they could not post my review because it didn't meet their guidelines. I reviewed their guidelines in detail and nothing I said violated any of them. I think that what it boils down to is that they don't want a negative review on their product site. They want to scam everyone into thinking this is a great player. Well, they're not fooling me.

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The BDC7500 can also has a wireless LAN adaptor included. Add to that AllShare™, which enables content to be seamlessly streamed between DLNA® devices, allowing you to play files stored on your PC through your Blu-ray Player. The Samsung BDC7500 Blu-ray Player is also wall-mountable.

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Samsung BD-C6500 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player Review

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(More customer reviews)This is my first Blue Ray player and I love it.
Took a chance on this Samsung and ordered it without a lot of information availabe because it is so new but glad I did.
Just got it out of the box today and everything works great. Easily set up the wireless to my home network (and it saved the IP address and encryption key info so I do not need to sign on each time).
There are few units (if any) with all the features this unit offers at this price.
This unit offers solid access to You Tube, various videos on demand services, Pandora (love Pandora!), and it sees all my videos and photos on my computer in multiple ways (with their Samsung PC Share Manager and direct acess) all through the network. The pics load a little slow, but the files are big. Pretty sure if I reduce them down access will speed up.
Decent You Tube search feature (for a TV remote as a typing device). Easily found my own You Tube videos.
In any case, all locked in solid with minimal hassle.
I would give it 5 stars except there is still a learning curve on managing my PC folders and I am still getting the hang of some Samsungs apps, but I am confident it will all work out. I initially entered the encyption key incorrectly and did not get a password error but instead it just said the IP address was wrong. A restart with the right key resolved all.
The first HD video I played was a home video made on my Canon HD Vixia HF200 consumer video camera and it looked absolutely great. For a first view, this player is excellent. Canon VIXIA HF200 HD Flash Memory Camcorder with 15x Optical Zoom
I already have a Samsung 40 inch LCD HD TV so I also figured they would compliment each other.
Oh, by the way, I had a customer service issue that was not the fault of Amazon and they resolved it in grand fashion. Absolutely superb customer serivce. Superb.
Yep, I am a happy camper with the whole deal
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March 17 - update
I continue to enjoy this player. I had one blue-ray disc that did not work right - a rental, subsequent discs worked fine. I also see services being added. A few free games (nothing great, but there), Blockbuster on Demand is now installed, weather, USA today, and more is coming. Still, my favorite feature by far is being able to view shared files on the TV from my laptop computer through a wireless connection via the home network.
Viewing seemed a bit slow at first, but once I began compressing the JPEG's to a more "uploadable" size, they snapped through slideshows with ease. Camcorder videos formatted to WMV are easily played from my laptop and watched on the TV - and they are smooth. It is just so cool to create it on my laptop and watch it on my TV. Just amazing stuff. Love it.
Had to re-enter my encyption key once right after a software update but other than that one time, have not had to enter a password again. One other software update had no effect.
I upped the rating to 5 star. It is excellent. I am already beginning to take it for granted like a good chair that always just works. Not sure what else I can possibly expect at this price.

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The Samsung BD-C6500 Blu-ray Player offers Internet@TV, which delivers the best of the web straight to your HDTV, with downloadable widgets and apps like BLOCKBUSTER, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Pandora and more. You can shop online, share pictures, catch up with friends and connect to a wide range of streaming digital content at the touch of a button. It also has wireless LAN built-in. Add to that AllShare, which enables content to be seamlessly streamed between DLNA devices, allowing you to play files stored on your PC or even to use your telephone through your TV.

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Sony BDP-BX37 Blu-Ray DVD Player & Streaming Internet Review

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(More customer reviews)I haven't used this much for Blue Ray DVDs, but so far no problems.
But there are a couple of issues that really compromise this player:
1) It doesn't come with wireless communications built in and so far I haven't found a generic usb wireless dongle that works with it. So if you need wifi and have to buy Sony's add-on communications device, then you might as well just buy a higher end model that already has wifi.
2) all of the above makes this especially important: BD Remote on your iphone or ipod won't control the unit unless it's connected to wifi.
To do over, I would have bought a model with wifi built in.
UPDATE 3/2011: I finally found a simple way to connect this to wifi in my particular system. I have an Apple Airport (handy device) plugged in behind my A/V rack and connected to my audio reciever so I can stream music wirelessly from computers on my home wifi to my A/V system. But the main designed purpose for the Airport was to serve as a bridge between wired network devices and wireless networks. So if you have an Airport, just run a network cable from the back of this BluRay player to the Airport and the player is networked! Even if you don't have an Airport, you can buy one for not much more than Sony charges for the wifi dongle specific to this player. And with the Apple device you get a lot more functionality.


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Samsung HT-C6500 Blu-ray Home Theater System Review

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(More customer reviews)Some HTiB (home theater in a box) systems are inflexible, hard to use and offer questionable performance with cheap, flimsy construction. One might even call them "cheesy." The Samsung HT-C6500 Blu-ray/DVD Home Theater System is not one of these systems. It offers solid audio and video performance, a wealth of online streaming features, including Netflix, Pandora and VUDU, built in Blu-ray, CD and DVD playback with pretty nice upconversion, WiFi networking and ample power to drive the 5.1 channel speaker system in a decent-sized room, and all for a reasonable price. Also, unlike many HTiB systems, the unit features two HDMI inputs, so you can add on a cable or satellite set-top box and/or a gaming system with single wire audio/video simplicity.
The system includes on-board decoding of the latest surround sound codecs, including DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD so it can take full advantage of the sonic capabilities of Blu-ray Disc. It also features snappy load times, loading a DVD in about 9 seconds, a simple Blu-ray disc in 11 seconds and a BD-Java Blu-ray Disc (the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" film) in about 25 seconds. These times compete with the fastest standalone players currently on the market. The initial boot up is a little slow at 22 seconds, but the player is doing a lot of stuff at start-up, including searching DLNA devices for compatible networked media files, as well as loading the code for streaming providers such as Netflix, VUDU and Samsung's own Internet@TV service.
During the review we did notice one disc compatibility issue (the unit can't get past the trailers on "The Incredible Hulk" Blu-ray Disc), but this can be worked around by disabling the BD-Live feature on the player (not ideal, but hopefully Samsung will fix this in a future firmware upgrade). Also, while the audio portion of the iPod dock worked flawlessly for us, if you want to also play video or photos on your iPod or iPhone through the system, you will need to connect an additional composite video cable between the HT-C6500 and your TV or projector (a basic video cable comes in the box). And don't look for anything fancy like album art in the iPod interface, because it just isn't there. However, controlling iPod song access from the unit's remote was very handy.
Speaking of the remote, this is probably the weakest link here. The navigational buttons are a little too low and transport buttons are a little too high to comfortably navigate through set-up and disc menus or to easily control playback. We were happy to see an auto-calibration system on-board (with included microphone) which can get the basics of speaker level and distance calibration accomplished without having to revert to test discs and SPL meters.
Performance tip for owners: if you feel that the bass lacks some definition or sounds a little "thumpy," try inserting a piece of foam or cloth (or some old socks) into the subwoofer port. This will actually tame the boom without losing a significant amount of sonic heft from the mix.
Overall, we were impressed with the HT-C6500 and would recommend it to anyone in the market for a mid-range HTiB system. It's long on features and performance but relatively short on price: a good combination.
You can read our complete review at Big Picture Big Sound (dot com).

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Be surrounded by superior sound with the Samsung HT-C6500 Blu-ray home theater system.

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