Samsung's BD-P1400 Blu-ray player sinks below $300 {HDTV}

engadget.com ^ | 12/8/2007

[shove_it]

...With prices on HD DVD players in a perpetual state of free fall, it was only a matter of time before the slashings bled over to the other camp. Sure enough, Samsung's fairly well spec'd BD-P1400 -- which was announced at $549 and sold at $499 in late August -- has sunk to $298.76 at Amazon. In case you needed a refresher, this one's packing 1080p24 support, Dolby Digital Plug / True HD, DTS HD, HDMI 1.3, 1080p DVD upconversion and a pretty snazzy design, too. And hey, if you need extra incentive, there's always the five free flicks that come along with it...

[shove_it]

HDTV ping

[TLI]

HD DVD players are now under 100 bucks, it looks like history is in fact repeating. Bells and wistles are great but most folks want two features, play and pause. And the extra 200 bucks? That is at least 10 new movies.

[kevinm13]

I haven’t upgraded to Hi Def TV yet. I’m waiting for the players to fight it out so that I can choose the survivor — BluRay or HDTV. In the meantime, I have recently moved to Verizon FiOS and find the picture quality has improved on my projection TV.

I agree with the idea that loads of features and buttons on the remote are mostly unnecessary, so an inexpensive unit that plays the Hi Def the way it is supposed to play is just as good as one that is more expensive without the need for lots of bells and whistles. Besides, aren’t the new HDTV discs more expensive than regular DVD’s? That $200 difference may be good for only 7 or 8 movies in the new format — or less as they haven’t come down in price as fast as the players.

[for-q-clinton]

Most consumers can’t tell the difference between HDDVD/BluRay and DVD.

I know many ill-informed HDTV owners that have their TV setup via composite cables even when they have an HD cable box. And they think the picture is great!

[Niteranger68]

IMHO, don’t fool with Blu-ray or HD-DVD. Just buy a decent upconverting (720P, 1080i, 1080p) DVD player and send to your TV via HDMI cable. They start at about $100 and you won’t need to go out and buy new DVD’s (at twice the cost of standard).

[TLI]

I use a Sony Bravia 1080p KDL-46V2500 with a OPPO 981 upscaling DVD player that only connects via HDMI cable. When I go up to FRY’s the HD or blue ray is a LITTLE better, but not that much really. The OPPO DVD player is doing a really good job and with DVD DL disk movies renting at a buck a day I am going to wait and see. But I am betting on HD DVD to win this race.

[Gay State Conservative]

There are,at most,a half dozen films that I'd really like to see in HD.Given that fact I will not adopt either format unless and until a player that can play both formats is marketed at $150 and until feature films (as opposed to multi disc sets) cost no more than $20.

The PQ I get today playing well mastered standard DVD's on my Pioneer progressive scan player hooked up to my Sony XBR set is far too satisfying to motivate me to jump in before those things happen....if then!

[Las Vegas Dave]

Pinging the HDTV list..

HDTV pings

[WackySam]

Only $250 to go before I’ll buy one.

[WackySam]

Anyone know if any of these players will also play DIVX or XVID files? I have a mountain of them and would hate to try and convert them all.

[savedbygrace]

http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html

Explains some of what you say, but not all. Many people simply don’t look to see. If it’s a huge screen, they assume it’s HD, and that it’s better.

[Hot Tabasco]

Most consumers can’t tell the difference between HDDVD/BluRay and DVD.

I just purchased a Samsung DVD-HD870 Up-conversion player from Circuit City for about $78 to "attempt" to upgrade from my Panasonic DVD-RP91 which is about 7 or 8 years old.

And you know what? I can't tell one bit of difference between the two of them.........All the DVD's I've ever played on the Panasonic have been clear as a bell on my Hitachi HDTV 43" projection TV.........

I'm beginning to think that all this hype about HDDVD players is nothing more than the Audio Speaker wars that have been going on for decades. Specifically, only your supercritical Videophile will be able to discerne the difference between whatever is now being offered. And to the novices such as myself who do appreciate clear pictures, unless the videophiles we have over to our houses point out the minute discrepancies, we will never know the difference..........

[WackySam]

That chart is horsesh*t.

[xjcsa]

True HD DVDs and up-converting are very different things. Have you tried real HD DVDs or just upconverting regular DVDs?

[xjcsa]

That chart is horsesh*t.

Care to actually state your case, or are you just throwing poo?

[js1138]

Most consumers can’t tell the difference between HDDVD/BluRay and DVD.

'm not in the market for HD yet, but you would have to be blind or have an older TV not to see the difference between HD and DVD.

[WackySam]

Care to actually state your case, or are you just throwing poo?

Any chart that says you can't tell the difference between 480p, 720p, and 1080p on a 60" HDTV at 17.5 feet is obviously flawed.

[Hot Tabasco]

Have you tried real HD DVDs or just upconverting regular DVDs?

Just the regular DVD's

[fr_freak]

I’m assuming you have these files on your PC. If so, you can just pipe your PC output to your TV. Of course, there are various ways to do this, some better than others. The newer TVs can take DVI inputs, or the nicer graphics cards can do HDMI output. The older TVs can do something like S-video.