Customer Reviews:
 Awesome System June 23, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I went from the Toshiba 3 HD DVD system to this one, keeping the Toshiba as a back up for HD DVDs and I could not be happier with this system. I've only been using it for about a month, but the quality of play is excellent, the start up time for the machine is faster than the Toshiba, and I have had no DVD issues with random pausing like I a little bit with the Toshiba. Oh, and it plays Bluray discs? Ye-ah.
 FIRMWARE REVISION ENABLES ADVANCED AUDIO June 23, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Samsung BD-UP5000 1080p HD-DVD Blu-Ray Disc Combo Player
This is the Samsung combo HD DVD/Blu-ray Disc player released earlier (and since discontinued, as I understand it). When it was introduced, it bowed to glowing reviews about its video performance, but general dismay about its limited advanced audio codec performance.
I have owned this player since February, 2008. The first week of June I became aware of a firmware update (dated May 29, 2008). After I downloaded and installed it, the full multi-channel "audiophile bitstream" for both DOLBY DIGITAL TRUE HD and DTS HD MASTER AUDIO now pass through to my receiver (the Pioneer Elite VSX-94TXH). In additon, the firmware appears to have brought the player to full Blu-ray "Profile 1.1" capability, as features on certain of my Blu-ray discs (for example, the historical trivia game on National Treasure 2) are now functional.
Samsung seems to have kept its promise to provide those capabilities by May. I no longer feel that my money was wasted on this player, since I now enjoy first-class audio along with the first-class video. I have rated it a "4" rather than a "5" only because its internal hard drive is too small to allow a potential future upgrade to "Profile 2.0".
If you have a collection of HD DVDs, or are hankering to take advantage of some of the "fire-sale" liquidation specials on discontinued HD DVDs which are not yet available on Blu-ray, I highly recommend this player if you can find an example at a reasonable price.
Installed the latest firmware update and I am impressed. June 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have this product since January 2008. Fabulous picture and the HQV chip works wonders. However, I was a little disappointed with the audio performance until now. Just tried it with National Treasure II (Dolby True HD) and was blown away. They obviously have fixed everything. 5 stars now.
Great Value June 17, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Saved me money by not having to replace all my HD DVD movies. Plays all movies crystal clear without paying an arm and a leg!
 DVD-R Playback Problem June 9, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
First I have yet to update my firmware so keep this in mind as well as the fact I've only had the unit about two weeks. That said I'm not overly impressed except for the obvious fact that the BD-UP5000 does play both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs. That is pretty cool for those of us who have HD-DVD discs. The less cool part is the the unit seems to NEVER plays a DVD-R recorded disc all the way through. Oh, it starts well and plays generally 3/4's the way through...Then it stutters for a bit and usually eventually freezes. What the heck is this about. The cheapest "Brocksonic" drug-store $[...] DVD players are able to play DVD-R discs? Do any of you that own this player have this problem too??? It could just be my unit, but likely others have experienced the same problem and I'd love to know if there is a solution.
The other uncool part is that this player is suppose to have a very highly touted upscaling chip that trickled down from the Teranex ($[...]) commercial unit. While the BD-UP5000 makes standard definition DVD's look good it is apparent if you have a Toshiba HD-A2 player handy from which to draw a comparison that the Samsung's upscaling is not as good as, at least in this case, a much less expensive Toshiba.
If I could just get this unit to where it did not balk on DVD-R discs it could be my one unit. Of course I'd like the upscaling to give me better pictures like the Toshiba, but mostly I just need it to play all my discs. Any tips on how to achieve this will be appreciated.
jwwerner@bellsouth.net
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