Review of the Samsung BD-P1200 Blu-ray player

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Sony may be the driving force behind Blu-ray technology, but Samsung has taken the lead in manufacturing the players. They unveiled the very first Blu-ray player, and now they're the first to market a second-generation player.

But make no mistake about it. This is a new technology, so those who go into it expecting perfection are setting themselves up for disappointment. That's probably the biggest negative associated with the so-called "war" between HD-DVD and Blu-ray. It's forced each faction to rush to market perhaps earlier than they might have if theirs were the only cutting-edge technology. If you buy now, you're getting to watch HD products sooner than most, but you're also helping to bankroll the development of the new format. Your thank-you is that you can download free updates from the Samsung Web site. Will it always be that way, as it is with computers, or will we go back to a system that's more like DVD players: buy one, and "upgrade" by buying a new one? Will one format "win," or will they continue to co-exist, like Macs and PCs? At this point, no one knows.

When you think about it, Blu-rays are only a little over a year old. Samsung's BD-P1000 came out just last summer. The BD-P1200 became available late spring and early summer of this year. In the fall of 2007, two third generation players are scheduled to hit the market: the BD-P1400 (which will retail for around $549) and the BD-P2400 ($649). In effect, that will give consumers a choice of high or medium end products--though either one is a welcome relief from the $999 that the BD-P1000 cost.

The BD-P1200 lists at $799, though you can find online retailers selling it for as little as $469. It's awfully similar to the BD-P1000 (see my review)--so much so that virtually the same product manual is used. And yet, there are significant differences.

Basically, Samsung dropped some of the bells and whistles in order to make sure that the BD-P1200 really hums when it comes to playing Blu-rays. No longer are there memory card slots so you can view photos without having to transfer them to a CD, and the sleek, jet-black X-wing design of the front has been replaced by a more standard rectangular look. Instead of worrying about extras, Samsung concentrated on producing a player that would be among the best Blu-ray players currently on the market. And the BD-P1200 delivers.

Simplay HD Verified
The BD-P1200 is "Simplay HD Verified," and it doesn't take long to find proof. Set-up is quicker, the time it takes for the unit to warm up is quicker, and the time it takes to decode a disc is quicker. It took me fewer than ten minutes to hook up the player to my system and then another five to customize the settings for my components. The manual is very clear how to do this, more so than the BD-P1000.

The first unit from Samsung took forever to load, and so many reviewers complained about the hourglass that seemed to taunt us as we waited that Samsung changed it to little colored balls that scroll across your screen. Now, those little balls don't scroll half as long. The first disc I popped in was "Roving Mars," which wouldn't load at all on my BD-P1000. On the new BD-P1200 it loaded just as quickly as it did on a PS3, and delivered a picture that was slightly better. Though the colors were virtually the same as on the PS3, the BD-P1200 showed a little more detail. It's a sharp picture, but I have to say that the speed of the new Samsung is the thing that I most appreciate. It takes less than a minute to warm up, and anywhere from 12 to 18 seconds to load a disc. So SPEED is one big improvement.

That said, let me digress a moment. Given the fact that these Blu-ray players have to load every time you switch to a new spot on the menu, let me say right now that outfits like Disney really owe it to consumers to allow them to click on "menu" right away, rather than having to press "skip" to get past a handful of trailers. Each time that happens, those little colored balls make another appearance, and it takes another few seconds.

HDMI 1.3 and Silicon Optix HQV REON Chip Processor
The new Samsung BD-P1200 features HDMI 1.3, with 24 fps. output. It will read and play MPEG-2, VC-1, and AVC-encoded Blu-ray discs, along with standard DVDs, audio CDs, and discs that have MP3 audio clips (from CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW/-RAM discs) or J-peg images. A new Silicon Optix HQV REON Chip Processor is designed to optimize picture quality for upconverted DVDs and to be able to handle the next level of Blu-ray technology. As with the BD-P1000, the new Samsung player handles PCM uncompressed audio and has DTS audio support. But there's still no Dolby True HD or DTS HD playback. Rumor has it that the third generation of Samsung players will tackle this problem. At any rate, I've popped in a half-dozen Blu-rays to compare quality with the old player and the PS3, and the new Samsung BD-P1200 is slightly better in the detail department, though the colors, to my eyes, seem roughly the same. It's likewise with playback of DVDs, which upconvert nicely on the new Samsung. The sound seems the same to me. I've always been a fan of PCM, because the sound seems to dissipate across the room rather than emerge from identifiable sources, and the PCM sounds great with this unit.

Ethernet Jack
One of the most noticeable additions to the new player is an Ethernet jack for firmware upgrades. In the past, customers had to go to the Samsung site, download the upgrade, burn it to a CD/DVD, and install it in the unit. That left Mac owners out in the cold. Now, everyone's taken care of. The Ethernet jack is located on the back panel.

Remote Features
Another change is that the sensor for the unit's remote is now larger, and the BD-P1200 features something they're calling HDMI CEC (for Consumer Electronics Control), which allows you to control several HDMI components with a single remote. I haven't attempted it, because I have never been one to trust those universal remotes. I keep my remotes side-by-side in a drawer of our coffee table. Yep, I'm old-fashioned. But some of you out there might like this new feature. The remote itself is an inch longer than the BD-P1000, but the only differences are that the categorical scene search (another bell or whistle) was dropped and the number buttons and others at the top of the unit have been enlarged. But I'm still not happy with the design of the remote. To my mind, basic playback function buttons (play, stop, pause, skip) should be in the same general area and should be larger or set apart from the buttons that are used for advance functions. It's the only remote we have where I still fumble, even a year later, to try to find those buttons. And in the dark? Forget it.

Java, anyone?
As most of you know, Blu-ray is Java-dependent, especially for special features. This is perhaps the biggest area where the Blu-ray technology is still fluid (which is a polite way of saying uncertain. Manufacturers of players and discs all offer a disclaimer warning that special features on the discs may not be accessible on all units, and that, furthermore, all discs may not play. So far, the big test for Blu-ray fans has been those temperamental "Pirates of the Caribbean" releases. So to test how this new unit responded, I took out my second disc and tried to play a round of Liar's Dice with those scurvy pirates. I could do it, sort of, with the PS3, but the disc wouldn't even load in my old BD-P1000. To me delight, it worked just fine. I even managed to beat them several rounds, which is something I couldn't do (or the player wouldn't allow me to do?) on the PS3.

Digital Photo Viewer
The memory card slots may be gone, but the J-peg function is still here. You can pop in a disc of photos and access them eight at a time or via slideshow. The only trouble is that if you have any photos that are sideways, it takes some doing to "rotate" them, and there doesn't seem to be a permanent way of rotating the photos so you can then watch a slideshow. There's a little loss of color on the photos. They seem not as vivid to me as prints or those viewed on my computer. Chalk that up to the size, perhaps, because these things appear to be gigantic on a 16x9 television. The BD-P1200 can read more discs than its predecessor, including Walgreen's photo discs, and that's a big plus for people who like this function.

Specs
The BD-P1200 weighs 9.3 pounds and measures 16.9x12.8x3.1 inches. Blu-ray discs are read at 4.917m/sec, DVDs at 3.49-4.06 m/sec, and CDs at 4.8-5.6 m/sec. Video output for composite video, component video, S-video, Video/Audio for HDMI (1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p, with PCM multichannel audio, Bitstream audio, PCM audio), and Audio for 2 channel, 5.1 channel, and Digital Audio Output (optical/coaxial). Total harmonic distortion has been reduced (from the previouis player) by one-thousandth, to .003 percent.

Bottom Line
I'm going to live with this unit for a while and may add to this section later. I spent a week to ten days with the BD-P1000 and found positives and negatives. But then after the review had been written, the player's glitches worsened, and it got to the point where it would take ten minutes just to keep inserting the disc that the player would spit out, rather than read, in order to get it to play. All I can say about the Samsung BD-P1200 is SO FAR SO GOOD. The picture quality seems slightly better than the PS3, while it seems to handle the same bonus features as the PS3 and have the same relatively fast loading time as the PS3. Compared to the BD-P1000, it's a huge improvement. The front panel may be the same, except for a larger sensor and the missing memory cards, and the rear panel may be the same, except for the added Ethernet jack, and the remote may be longer, because of the enlarged buttons (and one function button dropped), but the big difference is in the way it plays discs. And disc play is what it's all about. The bottom line?

Pros:

• Operating speed is very, very good.
  
• Upconversion function is improved; DVDs look great.
  
• Blu-ray playback is very, very good; detail is visibly better.
  
• Ethernet connection a real plus for future firmware upgrades.
  
• Improved ability to handle J-peg photo discs.

Cons:

• Still won't decode Dolby True HD.
  
• With the BD-P1400 and BD-P2400 scheduled to appear in just a matter of months, it's almost a "wait and see" situation.

Please Note - More details:
Be sure to check out the full details under related releases.

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