Profile 1.0 Blu-ray players clearance priced at Sears and Circuit City

[Chris Gerhard]

Sears has the following Profile 1.0 Blu-ray players clearance priced:

Sony BDP-S1, item number 57-57436
Samsung BD-P1200, item number 57-57037
Samsung BD-P1000, item number 57-57036

Prices should be from about $93 to $160. I picked up a new BD-P1200 in box for $93. There are some significant issues with the BD-P1200, namely the player can't play some recent releases. Samsung should be able to fix that, but so far hasn't and the recent firmware update of 2/05/08 apparently makes things worse, so it is definitely a buyer beware player. It uses Silicon Optix Reon for DVD playback and is a terrific DVD player and Blu-ray picture quality is excellent as well. The Sony BDP-S1 and Samsung BD-P1000 despite being older players have had firmware updates that I understand result in those players playing all releases, even the recent ones. The BDP-S1 with firmware version 3.6 is probably the preferred player out of this group.

Circuit City has the Panasonic DMP-BD10AK for $212 less a $15 coupon you can pickup in the store. It is the best Profile 1.0 player in my opinion and worth the extra amount if you want to mess with a Profile 1.0 player.

Stock is very limited and most stores will not have these players, I would just call and ask if you are interested. Understand the players are being closed out at these prices because they aren't worth much and Profile 1.1 players are available now and there will soon be Profile 2.0 players available.

Chris

 

[Chris Gerhard]

Here is a link to a site that summarizes the Blu-ray players, features and hardware including which chips are used in many cases:

http://www.idoblu.co.uk/page2 Blu-ray Players.html

Chris

 

[JonUrban]

Isn't Samsung facing a class action suit because of the poor quality of these players? In reality, anyone thinking of going BD at this point should wait for the profile 2.0 players. What good is a player that cannot play some current and future releases?

 

[JonUrban]

I did a quick check and the Samsung players are indeed involved in a class action suit:

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/02/09/samsung-sued-for-defective-blu-ray-players/

http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/02/samsung-sued-ov.html

http://www.techpowerup.com/index.php?52113

 

[proufo]

The 1200 is indeed involved in a class-action suit ;-) . It includes the Reon chip which makes regular DVDs look great on HDMI-enabled displays. For about a hundred dollars is a GREAT buy even with the issues. And you get a BD player that will play most BD discs today and may play virtually all in the future. It may be the case that older players will be able to play the movie but have limited access to the extra content of future releases made for Profile 2.0.

If you have a large collection of DVDs and a capable display, you'll be very, very happy with the 1200.

As of today, the 1200 jerks for a split second at DVD chapter marks. I can live with that --in fact, I live with that-- because of the amazing PQ.

The 1200 has built-in DTS and DD decoders but it doesn't play CDs.

Forget about the 1000.

 

[Manmc]

This is great comedy ! Its not crap but it 'jerks' at each dvd chapter mark

IMO I think its a little irresponsible encouraging people to buy players that may , could or possibly will have problems with current or future software releases . Its probably more honest to recommend passing until at least 2.0 players arrive and see if the price and functionality are to your liking .

Or buy an Oppo and get Upscaling Sd dvds , cd , Dvd-A and Sacd thrown in to keep you going while you wait for 'proper' players to arrive .

~M~

 

[proufo]

Or buy an Oppo and get Upscaling Sd dvds , cd , Dvd-A and Sacd thrown in to keep you going while you wait for 'proper' players to arrive .

~M~

It's not a joke if you can do math and want a top-performing DVD player. The 1200 at 100 bucks has better PQ than the top Oppo at least than half the price.

And you can play most BD disks. Now.

And it is feasible that the BD issues and the jerk will be solved by a FW upgrade. I wouldn't bet on that but it is possible.

If some here have an HDMI-enabled display and a DVD player that only does 480P via component I DO strongly encourage them to get the 1200 at $100.

I bet that there won't be a DVD player with a Reon chip for $100 ever again.

 

[chuckflhp]

Actually it still comes across as pretty much a joke. Chances are they aren't going to do a firmware "fix". Most companies are focused on the 2nd Gen players. The 1st Gen players don't utilize all the features and in all probability never will. And don't support DVD-A and a lot don't even support SACD. And no CD? That makes them jokes and not even remotely funny ones at that.So as a multichannel listener these players suck basically. I have a Denon 2910 and I still prefer my Oppo 981. And frankly I'm really looking forward to the 983 in about 6 weeks.
At this point I have to say screw both formats and especially Blue Ray. Any company that knowingly puts out an unfinished product deliberately and knowingly just sucks. And that makes Sony nothing but a bunch of greedy bastards. If you have to pay off companies to back your unfinished format you really do not even remotely have the consumer or even the industry's interests at heart.

 

[proufo]

Actually it still comes across as pretty much a joke. Chances are they aren't going to do a firmware "fix". Most companies are focused on the 2nd Gen players. The 1st Gen players don't utilize all the features and in all probability never will. And don't support DVD-A and a lot don't even support SACD. And no CD? That makes them jokes and not even remotely funny ones at that.So as a multichannel listener these players suck basically. I have a Denon 2910 and I still prefer my Oppo 981. And frankly I'm really looking forward to the 983 in about 6 weeks.
At this point I have to say screw both formats and especially Blue Ray. Any company that knowingly puts out an unfinished product deliberately and knowingly just sucks. And that makes Sony nothing but a bunch of greedy bastards. If you have to pay off companies to back your unfinished format you really do not even remotely have the consumer or even the industry's interests at heart.

So you expect a perfect product, one that will satisfy all users and at a low price, at this point of the planned obsolescence path???

That is not a rational expectation given the way the consumer electronics and the hardware/software industries work.

Samsung may have realized that they released a much better product than was "logical" at this point, perhaps looking for prestige in the videophile market. No other manufacturer released a similar product at that price. Then they may have decided to cripple and discontinue it as it may be the last DVD and BD player many if not most users would ever need.

All in all, as a plain DVD and BD player and at $100, the 1200 is a best buy because of its picture quality. It jerks for a fraction of a second a couple dozen times while watching a DVD, yes, and some have reported incompatibilities with a few DVDs, but the balance is way, way positive if you get it for $93.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

It jerks for a fraction of a second a couple dozen times while watching a DVD, yes, and some have reported incompatibilities with a few DVDs, but the balance is way, way positive if you get it for $93.

Sorry, but if I paid $100 for a DVD-Audio player that made music skip in the middle of every song on the disc I wouldn't care how great the sound quality was.

 

[Chris Gerhard]

Isn't Samsung facing a class action suit because of the poor quality of these players? In reality, anyone thinking of going BD at this point should wait for the profile 2.0 players. What good is a player that cannot play some current and future releases?

I described the issue with Samsung BD-P1200 in my initial post and I don't know if the issues can be fixed or not, do you have any problem with the way I described it? I own the BD-P1200 and the BD-P1000, the BD-P1200 plays the first 450 or so Blu-ray releases and can't play some recent releases, either won't load or won't play acceptably. Therefore I indicated it is a buyer beware player, that seems pretty straight forward to me and correct. Panasonic and Sony have gotten their players able to play the same discs so I would hope Sun Microsystems, Fox, Disney, Panasonic, Sony and Samsung can solve the issue with the Samsung BD-P1200. Can there be something about the design of the BD-P1200 that makes it impossible for that single player? I don't know, but can't imagine why there would be.

I wouldn't call the Samsung players crap, but you can, I would say this issue is important enough that it certainly needs to be fixed and if Samsung can't fix it, needs to be addressed in another manner, it would be good business. I don't know what will happen with the player, therefore my comment that it is buyer beware.

I would call Quad 8-track, Quad Open Reel, and the various Quad LP formats crap. I owned the tape based formats and a couple of the LP formats to form that opinion. I don't enter threads discussing those formats and crap on those like you and a couple other members here like to do with my threads regarding Blu-ray. Your stance and other members stance regarding my pro Blu-ray posts sure seem odd to me, but it is your forum. I can guarantee I won't start to crap on threads about the old analog formats that failed to find any market during their run and were colossal flops by any market measurement standard I can think of.

Chris

 

[Quadzilla]

I would call Quad 8-track, Quad Open Reel, and the various Quad LP formats crap. I owned the tape based formats and a couple of the LP formats to form that opinion. I don't enter threads discussing those formats and crap on those like you and a couple other members here like to do with my threads regarding Blu-ray. Your stance and other members stance regarding my pro Blu-ray posts sure seem odd to me, but it is your forum. I can guarantee I won't start to crap on threads about the old analog formats that failed to find any market during their run and were colossal flops by any market measurement standard I can think of.

Chris

If I may, the problem is that this is NOT an audio/video forum. There are plenty of those out there. This is QuadraphonicQuad, and it has been expanded to include multichannel digital MUSIC formats. I have a Samsung Blu-ray player, a Samsung BD-P1200 as a matter of fact, but it is just a freakin' a video player. If you want to discuss Blu-ray to death, then go to an A/V forum.

By your own admission, you have nothing to contribute to QuadraphonicQuad. In fact, you think our hobby is crap. As for your posts, you simply rehash everything you read on other sites; so why not leave it there! You stated that it is Jon's forum. YES, and he and most of us are quaddies! Shit, why can't you get that?

If you are going to make the point that there is multichannel audio capability within Blu-ray, then I would argue that there were a few Tate/SQ-encoded concert tapes on Beta video tape, but that is NOT what the format was designed for. It is still a video tape. Give it a rest will you, or have you been kicked out of those other forums?

 

[Quadzilla]

Sorry, but if I paid $100 for a DVD-Audio player that made music skip in the middle of every song on the disc I wouldn't care how great the sound quality was.

To be fair though, listening to music is different than watching a movie. Half the time we pause them just to go for a pee. I think it would be an issue with music playback, but not so much with movies.

 

[JonUrban]

OK. I take back the 'crap' word. I did not mean it THAT way.

 

[JonUrban]

.....Your stance and other members stance regarding my pro Blu-ray posts sure seem odd to me, but it is your forum. I can guarantee I won't start to crap on threads about the old analog formats that failed to find any market during their run and were colossal flops by any market measurement standard I can think of.
Chris

I don't have a "stance" against Blu-Ray. I own TWO blu-ray players. My biggest problem is that Blu-Ray only fans should worry about Blu-Ray and not dump all over HD-DVD. (re: "HD-DVD is a joke"). HD-DVD is a fine format that seems to have been done in by an organized effort by an unknown force. I've always said that one format is better than two, I just want a fair fight if both formats get out to the public and the public invests money into either one.

You are free to discuss anything you like here. Ambisonics, UD-4, it doesn't matter. As someone else brought up somewhere here, all formats are accepted here. Opinions, well you know what they say about opinions.

 

[Quadzilla]

OK. I take back the 'crap' word. I did not mean it THAT way.

Actually, I like my Samsung BD-P1200. I have not had any disks refuse to play, and its DVD playback is amazing. Hell, it has a better track record than my Toshiba SD-9200 so-called DVD-Audio player! Oh yeah, the risks of being an early-adopter. Hey Toshiba, SUCK THIS! :banana:

 

[Old Quad Guy]

To be fair though, listening to music is different than watching a movie. Half the time we pause them just to go for a pee. I think it would be an issue with music playback, but not so much with movies.

Actually I pee before watching movies.

I see what you mean though. But for me watching movies is very much like listening to music - from a filmmaker’s point of view - in that every frame matters, every beat of a movie and all the dialogue. A great movie is to me like a great piece of music that I immerse myself into time and time again. If there are jitters or freezes at every chapter stop that would take me out of the "movie experience" and drive me up the wall.

I do have to admit for $93 it might be an inexpensive way to tap into Blu-ray. Just as long as that jitter is not on every movie you play on that unit.

 

[Quadzilla]

Actually I pee before watching movies.

At our age though, isn't it comforting to know that you can pee on a regular basis? I would start to worry if I could sit through a movie without a pee.

 

[proufo]

If there are jitters or freezes at every chapter stop that would take me out of the "movie experience" and drive me up the wall.

I do have to admit for $93 it might be an inexpensive way to tap into Blu-ray. Just as long as that jitter is not on every movie you play on that unit.

It's a very brief jerk. It does affect the suspension of disbelief in my case too but I regain it immediately.

 

[proufo]

Just as long as that jitter is not on every movie you play on that unit.

Sadly, that is the case. It does not affect BD discs.