BD-UP5000

Firmware fixes on deck for Samsung Blu-ray players

Blu-ray may be coasting to a format war victory over archrival HD DVD, but it's still got some mopping up to do in the meantime--namely, improving player compatibility with some of the more popular movies already available. Samsung has begun rolling out firmware upgrades for all of its players to address issues that have plagued some users when watching Blu-ray versions of such favorites as Ratatouille, Spider-Man 3, Live Free or Die Hard, Blade Runner, and Pirates of the Caribbean 3. According to Samsung, the updates will be available as follows: … Read more

Samsung combo player news; BD-P2400 officially canceled

Over the last few weeks, there has been a lot of speculation regarding the status of Samsung's upcoming Blu-ray/HD DVD combo player--the BD-UP5000--and the high-end Blu-ray player, the BD-P2400. Finally, Samsung has made an official announcement. First, the bad news: The BD-P2400 is officially canceled. The BD-P2400 was supposed to be the step-up to the BD-1400, adding HQV video processing, but now those who want HQV will have to go for the combo player.

Now for the good news. Here's exactly what Samsung told us about the BD-UP5000:

Status of BD-UP5000 Duo HD Player:

The Duo … Read more

Samsung combo player to decode DTS-HD Master Audio

We can't help but be a little skeptical, but according to a Samsung representative, the new Samsung BD-UP5000 Blu-ray/HD DVD combo player will have onboard decoding for all high-resolution audio formats following a firmware update, including DTS-HD Master Audio. This is great news for high-def disc fans, as the BD-UP5000 would be the first player we're aware of that has onboard decoding for DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS's losslessly compressed soundtrack format. The same representative also confirmed that both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks can be output over the analog 7.1 outputs, which will … Read more

More details on Samsung's HD DVD/Blu-ray combo player

Editors' note: Toshiba has officially announced that it will stop producing HD DVD products, bringing an end to the format war. For that reason, CNET recommends that consumers should avoid buying this player for high-definition movie playback, as very few HD DVD discs will be produced in the future.

We've already known most of the details about the upcoming Samsung BD-UP5000 HD DVD/Blu-ray combo player for a while, but today at CEDIA they announced a few more nuggets of info. Here's a summary of what we know:

BD-UP5000's key features

1080p output at 24 frames per … Read more

Samsung announces "Duo HD" Blu-ray plus HD DVD player

And then there were two.

Samsung will join its archrival LG in releasing a combo HD disc player later this year. According to a brief press release, the Korean consumer electronics giant will introduce the BD-UP5000 "Duo HD" player this year. The release also specified that the player will "fully support both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats and their interactive technologies, HDi and BD-Java." No pricing or additional feature details on the Samsung BD-UP5000 were made available.

The official announcement of the BD-UP5000 confirms rumors that have been percolating for months. Most recently, Home Theater Blog … Read more