Samsung BD-P1590 Blu-ray Player Review

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(More customer reviews)Sleek, sexy, easy to use and highly affordable; the Samsung BD-P1590 is the perfect player for that newcomer to the Blu-Ray world, or even as a second player for a seasoned Blu-Ray vet. With just one caveat, this player is ideal for that film lover on a budget.
Let's start with what it can do. First of all it can output Blu-Ray discs in glorious 1080p HD (provided you have an HDMI cable and an HDTV); as far as BD output this player performs admirably. I found nary an issue with disc playback, and the picture is astounding. The player is able to handle nearly ever disc I tried to play, save for Watchmen, which comes with brand new features that the BD-P1590 was not equipped to handle; a simple firmware update should fix that. With the LAN connection you can receive firmware updates and access BD-Live (a sort of Xbox Live for Blu-Ray players that has all sorts of neat stuff).
The BD-P1590 is also setup for the Netflix 'Watch it now' queue, and provided you have a Netflix subscription you can stream any flick from their 'Instant Q' to your television. If you have a great internet connection the quality is superb at best, and wonky at worst, with the usual annoying pixelation and audio sync issues that plague streaming. One amazing feature of the Netflix streaming is the new HD streaming; being able to watch a good chunk of content in HD is always a plus. In addition to being Netflix-ready, the BD-P1590 is also Pandora ready. For those of you who do not know, Pandora is a free internet radio service. Just type in an artist and Pandora will find music exactly like that artist and other artists just like it. Its not going to sway most people, but its icing on the cake. You can also play music and photos through the player, which is nice but not necessary.
The Samsung outputs audio via DTS Master Audio HD, which is good enough for me, and provided you have a surround setup it will sound truly spectacular. However here is where the only caveat comes in; there is an audio sync issue with Blu-Ray disc playback, especially noticeable if you hook up a surround sound system directly to the player, resulting in a nasty echo effect between your player and your television. The latest firmware update did nothing to solve this problem; hopefully Samsung will figure out how to fix this annoying issue.
Another annoying thing is that the BD-P1590 has no hard drive, so if you want to do anything on BD-Live, or listen to music or view photos you need to have everything stored on a flash drive, which isn't really a big deal but in this day and age a built-in hard drive should be standard fare.
I am very pleased with this Blu-Ray player and I highly recommend it.

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NETGEAR Push2TV TV Adapter for Intel Wireless Display PTV1000 (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)I know technology and I know if this product was released in 2003 it would have been huge, however in 2010 I ask myself, why would anyone sell this?
Basically this is nothing more than Intel sharing your computers wifi connection and using it to send a display signal to a set top box (this unit).
First -- Yes it works..
Second -- Yes it's laggy to the point of making it unasable for anything related to video
Third -- it's target audience should be businesses, not home consumers who might want to use it for more than a power point presentation.
This product is simpily a huge disappointment. You get the performance as if you were doing a remote PC session into someone elses machine -- meaning the same type of lap and copyiness.
Overall 2 stars because it does work.

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Experience your videos and pictures in HD on your big screen TV - No more crowding around a small laptop screen. Sit back, relax, and experience music, pictures, or videos from your computer, home network, or online. Surf the web from your couch - Access TV shows and movies online, or go anywhere a browser will take you. Quickly and securely connect a laptop PC to a TV without cables. Small and lightweight makes it easy to switch between TVs, or take with you when you travel.

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Toshiba BDX2700 Blu-ray Disc Player (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)I read reviews on blu-ray players until I was sick of all of them. I finally ordered the new Toshiba BDX2700 Blu-ray player since I had just ordered a new Toshiba LED 55" TV. When the player arrived I took it out of the box, plugged it in and it asked me how I wanted to connect to the internet, wired or wireless? I chose wireless thinking I am going to be here for a long time trying to figure this out. Instead as soon as I chose wireless it told me to push the button on the back of my wireless router. My wireless router is in another room. I pushed the button on the back of the routher and by the time I got back to the room where the TV is the wireless internet connection was connected. With this blu-ray player you get Blockbuster, NetFlex, VuDu and Pandora streaming radio that allows you to built as many stations you want. This player was drop dead easy to set up. I played Avatar in Blu Ray and it will knock your socks off the the picture. I also played the Eagles Farewell Tour I in regular dvd and the BDX2700 upgraded the video to very near blu-ray. If I was going to purchase another blu ray player I would for sure purchase another one just like this one. The big Toshiba 55" LED tv is also just as nice as any Samsung LED tv that I have seen. I wanted a Samsung LED but when I found the Toshiba for about $700 cheaper and all 5 star ratings I decided on it and I am very very happy with my TV and Blu-Ray player.

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Panasonic DMP-BDT300 Full HD 3D Blu-ray Disc™ Player Review

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(More customer reviews)If anyone has a legacy Samsung like me (I have the HL61A750) or other, I highly recommend this player for 3D viewing. I bought it new from an Amazon user for $280 and could not be more satisfied with my purchase. This is one of the few blu-ray players that will play 3D in checkerboard format (required for legacy 3D-ready HD TVs) and it does so with breathtaking quality. It is highly recommended by me for that use. Now, as far as just a blu-ray player in general, there are many others you can get at much better price points.
For anyone with a TV that supports the newer 3D technology I cannot offer a comparison since I have not viewed a TV that uses the new technology.

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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 BRAVIA EX 700 Series 40-Inch Edge LED Backlit LCD HDTV, Black Review

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(More customer reviews)In my experience, this tv is just ok, while I expect Sony products to be the best. The menu structure, the remote, the apps (I really don't know why every manufacturer keeps putting an internet connection in their tvs - my blu-ray, has it, my PS3 and Xbox360, too - why do I need to pay for this duplicate function?), the thin design and the build are all right. The image quality is clearly imperfect, however.
First, the blacks have a clear blue tinge. I think it's because of the LED side illumination, because my old XBR4 didn't have this defect.
Second, the viewing angle is bad. As soon as yoy stray from a central viewing position, the blacks begin to wash out significantly. From about a 45 degree angle they become a blueish-gray mess.
I thought I could live with this nuisances, but my tv developed a dead pixel in a week, so I decided to return it. Amazon's service was, of course, top notch.
In exchange I bought a (cheaper) Bravia EX500. In my opinion the image quality is clearly better, beacause of deeper blacks and the perfect viewing angles. I noticed a little more motion blur and you lose the thin frame, the Xross menu system and the internet connection, but I can trade these for image quality anytime.
Now I see you can get the 40' EX700 at $749 everywhere, I guess nobody is buying.

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Enjoy Full HD 1080p, incredible contrast and smooth motion performance with the slim Edge LED backlit Sony BRAVIA EX700-Series LCD HDTV. Connect to the internet and instantly stream a wide variety of movies, TV shows, videos and music using apps from Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, YouTube, Slacker and more

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VIZIO XWR100 Dual-Band HD Wireless Internet Router Review

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(More customer reviews)As Vizio products had the reputation for being the 'WalMart' of electronics, I was skeptical to try this router. I did some homework and found that others who had tried it were Very satisfied with it's performance. What better endorsement than that of a fellow user? So, since the price was Half that of the Cisco comparable - why not give it a shot. I had been using a Netgear wireless G and was having no problems. When I added a Sony HD TV and BluRay player, set up for wireless -- I began to have some stalls and 'waiting to catch up' times - especially on Netflix HD feeds. This Vizio dedicated the to 5.4 band Just for the HD video feed and has performed better than I Ever hoped.
Set-up was Out of the Box to Working in less than 10 mins. The interface is Easy to use. All my devices (3 PCs - 2 iTouch - and a Sony Dock - in addition to the TV) recognized and accepted the device immediately.
I would buy one again, and definitly recommend this to anyone wanting to watch HD streaming TV.

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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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Samsung UN46C6500 46-Inch 120 Hz 1080p LED HDTV (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)When you spend $1500 on a piece of technology you have certain assumptions and expectations about it. You do your research the best you can and hope that your purchase will be everything you hoped it would be. Occasionally, you are thrown for a loop and presented with some challenges that you didn't anticipate. That's what happened to me when I picked up this excellent TV. My old Sony LCD did not have HDMI ports, so I was relegated to the spaghetti bowl of component hookups to achieve high definition. I just had to have a TV with HDMI, so when I was finally in the market I knew it would have to be at least 46", LCD or something comparable, full 1080p, and have plenty of HDMI ports on it. With the exception of one small issue, this TV is everything I wanted.
I must say that the Samsung UN46C6500 LED TV is astonishing to look at. The colors are rich and saturated, black levels are the blackest I've ever seen, and the images are crisp and clear. The screen is a glossy finish, so it does reflect any light you might have in the room, but it's not overly distracting. The panel itself is super thin, only about one inch thick. The stand is very sturdy. Touch sensitive buttons line the lower right hand corner of the panel (kind of hard to see, but they're responsive). The bezel has a brushed matte charcoal grey strip covering a transparent acrylic (very elegant).
The one problem I have with this TV is not listed anywhere except inside the manual. I didn't see any other documentation or warnings about this, so I was a little disappointed when I encountered it. This TV is not compatible with HDMI versions older than 1.3. My old Onkyo receiver (TX-SR604) came with HDMI 1.1, so the TV would not display images through it. I had always thought that HDMI was backwards compatible. It's not on this TV, and the manual clearly says that if you have any components with HDMI versions older than 1.3 you may have issues with sound and video. Beware.
Because I was so disappointed that I would not be able to use HDMI through my receiver, I decided to upgrade to the Denon AVR-791 (which supports HDMI 1.4 and is 3D ready). Even though I'm another $500 poorer, I'm an extremely happy camper. Watching Avatar on blu-ray with this setup is truly amazing. The TV performs wonderfully and is otherwise exactly what I was wanting. I have not ventured into the internet TV features, but that's on the horizon. Unfortunately, the TV is not wifi compatible (unless you buy a USB adapter), so you'll need to use an ethernet cable (I actually knew this before buying).
Samsung makes incredible LCD and LED TV's. I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a high definition viewing experience. Hopefully, my review will educate and warn those with older components. HDMI is the way to go, but you can always fall back on component cables if you have to. That just wasn't an option for me. When all is said and done, I don't regret my purchase at all. The end result was well worth the journey.

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Samsung LED HDTVs combine breakthrough picture quality and advanced connectivity options that will keep you entertained 24/7. This UN46C6500 LED HDTV also makes it easy to be green, and will save you some green, by being ENERGY STAR compliant.

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