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problems and informed consumers that sold units would be fixed with a firmware
upgrade, and new units would not contain the problem.
This Samsung BD-P1000, being the first Blu-ray player that appeared in the market
after the HD DVD launch, proved a disappointing introduction which shattered the
format expectations among Blu-ray supporters.
In addition to the issue of image softness caused by the player, there was
uncertainty of how much of the image problem was created by the format or the use
of MPEG-2, or both.
Concerns were raised about the combination of using less efficient MPEG-2 (than VC1
and AVC-264) with a limited 25GB single layer disc.
Oct 06
Samsung announced a firmware fix for the BD-P1000 player, which was expected to
fix the noise-reduction circuit in the Genesis scaler chip (that was left enabled)
causing the picture to be softer, and to add Java title compatibility to coincide with
the launch of BD Java titles being released during fall 06. Unofficial reports indicated
that although the fix was supposed to take care of the softening of the image it
actually did not as expected, but the upgrade did fix the image stuttering caused by
the use of the DTS tracks (I could not confirm these claims with an actual player).
Dec 06
According to a recent review of the Samsung BD-P1000 player the player does not
actually output 1080p from the disc 1080p source, it uses the same HD Broadcom
BCM7411 decoder chip as the Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player, which outputs the
1080p 24fps disc content as 1080i (from the decoder) and then uses a Genesis
Faroudja FLI8638-LF video processor/scaler to de-interlace the video and output it as
1080p from the player. I could not verify this claim with an actual player myself.
For the implications in applying this technique, please refer to the analysis of the
new Toshiba players regarding the issue of not having 1080p 24fps outputs.
CES 2007
BD-P1200 $800, TTM Mar 07
Samsung announced their next generation Blu-ray
Player BD-P1200 replacing their first model BD-P1000
released to the U.S. market in June 2006.
Some new features include the Hollywood Quality
Video (HQV) processor for true 1080i to 1080p HD
de-interlacing even for DVD, HDMI 1.3 for 7.1-
channel Dolby Digital Plus, Anynet+ (HDMI-CEC) technology for systems operability
with a single remote.
Samsung already offers a Blu-ray recorder that features the company's proprietary
dual-lens pickup (one pickup with two lenses that allows backward capability, to play
standard DVDs and CDs in addition to Blu-ray discs).
The player also features 720p, 1080i and 1080p resolutions, 192KHz LPCM, Dolby
Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, MPEG 2, DTS and MP3 formats, '®Easy Top Menu' for font
and color changes of subtitles, menu titles, background color, and menu graphics.
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