Samsung's BD-P1400 Blu-ray player sinks below $300
By Darren Murph 
posted December 8th 2007 9:48PM
posted December 8th 2007 9:48PM
[Thanks, Adam]
posted December 8th 2007 9:48PM
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Blu-ray is looking to buy yet another win for this week with all the ads and BOGO just to combat Bourne.
Man the BDA sure desperate and pathetic, having to buy wins like this. I don't have any delusion that HD-DVD will win this week now due to these BOGOs, but I sure would be funny during Blu-ray fire sales.
Isnt a pricedrop supposed to increase sales? Yesterday it was ranked 16th place and now hours later it has dropped 4 placed to 20th.
Strangest "sale" ever...
/Mike
Why does eveyone always include the free-movie deal when determining the final value?
With a choice like this I don't see much of a 'deal'.
I have to choose from:
Stir of Echoes
Amarican Rejects
The Devil's Rejects
and
The Patriot
SWAT
Ultraviolet
Ugh. Please...
Ok, they're not all horrible flicks but I would never want to watch them more than once.
Just because a movie is free doesn't mean that the price of that movie can be considered against the price of the player if I would never spend money on those films anyway.
Now if they had a deal where I could choose ANY movies I wanted from a huge list that might be different an sway to one camp over the other.
Anyway I guess I'm jumping on the Blu-Ray bandwagon simply because I want a PS3.
There's a tidal wave of inexpensive Chinese HD DVD players coming very very soon.
Besides the existing highly competitive HD DVD player (and HD DVD movie deals) the $100 HD DVD player (that's a regular price, not a season special) based on the (excellent) Toshiba HD A3 is just a few months away.
Samsung have done far too little far too late.
Blu-ray is just a game console format.
Big deal.
Sorry to throw some water on the format fight here, but they dropped the price due to their upcoming flagship BD/HD duo player that retails for $799.
Blu-ray is just looking to buy this week with another BOGO?
Wow. I guess HD-DVD is just looking to buy their way into this market, as they're practically giving the hardware away. When you figure it the 7, 8 10+ free movies you can get with their players, I'd say what Toshiba/MS is doing is for more of a "buy your way" scenario. Its already been established that they are subsidizing the hardware.
And for the 1000th time... 1080i is not the same as 1080p. Most displays cannot properly deinterlace 3:2 encoded film. Read all about it on Home Theatre Magazine...
http://www.hometheatermag.com/hookmeup/1107hook2/
The key result:
"The failure rate for proper 3:2 processing is still very poor at 81.09 percent."
You seem to be using de-interlacing and 3:2 pulldown interchangeably. They are not the same.
3:2 pulldown (or 2:3 pulldown) is for converting 24fps into ~60fps. Film is not "encoded 3:2."
Samsung did indeed drop the dual format player's price and now finally get around to releasing it - after they were asked to delay it cos Sony thought the $400 PS3 was going to do the trick.
They failed. Again.
Dual format does Blu-ray no favours at all, if it really takes off it will merely mean that no movie studio needs to produce in the most expensive & least profitable format, Blu-ray.
But let's not kid ourselves, Blu-ray is predominantly a kids game console format, they are just wasting effort & adding sales in the wrong market.
HD DVD is the one that is quietly making the distinction between regular DVD and HD DVD disappear.
When the $100 HD DVD players (that's regular price, not a season special) arrive by mid 2008 it's all over.
....and if people really want to kid themselves about Warner in the meantime, go ahead.
How does it feel losing every week to Blu-ray? It must feel great ... sure wish I knew what that felt like ... cheap players haven't helped your sad cause before ... why do you think that would change? :P
HD DVD = RIP Jan 7, '08.
The future is Blu :)
@BBG
"How does it feel losing to BR every week?"
You think we all work for Toshiba? I mean, it's obvious you have some screwed up personal interest in some Beta version specification, but what do I care? I don't work for any of these companies.
I just like watching movies, and I have a family, not a trust fund. So I picked up a 100 DVD player to replace my dead one. It plays HDDVD's too. It have a couple. Planet earth looks good. However, DVD's look great on my new player. I bought Casino Royale on DVD and MI3 on HDDVD. They're pretty equal. I don't need a 300 dollar blue ray player, and coincidentally, it's not in my budget.
I'll get by no matter who wins. DVD's look fine even at 50".
I hope your a paid rep. If not, you should step back and think about this. I have concerns for your well being.
I own both a PS3 and the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player. I want blu-ray to win. I don't understand how anyone can defend HD-DVD. I know that it has some features like PiP that blu ray is only now getting but this seems so irrelevant. I don't know if I'm off here but I just can't imagine that more than 10% of people care about PiP (and i think that 10% is a very generous estimate).
Another argument: The picture quality is the same or better on HD-DVD. This one makes me laugh. First of all I will concede that early HD-DVDs did look better than early Blu-rays. This changed very quickly and now Blu-Rays look by and large the SAME as HD-DVDs. BUT they are only the same because the studios master them for the lowest common denominator (aka HD-DVD). If these movies were mastered only for blu-ray they would take advantage of the additional space, have a higher bit rates, and look better. Basically blu-ray is being held back by HD-DVD.
I want to address another issue from earlier in this thread. The PS3 works WONDERFULLY as a Blu-ray player. I the reader who complained the PS3 did not accept blu-ray discs must have had a damaged unit. I can't speak to the exact numbers but I read somewhere that the PS3 has a VERY LOW FAILURE RATE. Especially when you compare it to the 360. I also owned a 360 and experienced the dreaded Red Ring of Death. The PS3 is a great system and is the best value for the price of all the consoles. Before anyone starts bashing me, I realize that not everyone needs what the PS3 offers but if you simply look at what it can do compared to how much it costs it is truly amazing that Sony is offering it for only 400 bucks.
Finally, and this is the nail in the proverbial coffin for me, Blu-Ray BLOWS HD-DVD AWAY WITH ITS SOUND QUALITY. There is no comparison. I have heard both on a $80,000.00 sound system (Recording Studio that I work for) and it is CLEAR TO ANYONE that blu-ray sounds better. The difference isn't as noticeable on my fairly modest home setup ($500.00). I can still hear the difference and I bet even the "Average Joe", that HD-DVD fans keep referring to, could.
I have to address DRM. This is where HD-DVD has a leg up. It really doesn't matter to me. And anyone who really cares about it should know about anyDVD. It's a program developed by Elby/Slysoft that removes DRM from DVD's HD-DVDs and Blu-Rays. I would argue that everyone that really cares about DRM issues at this point in the game is a "Power User" Peopl who read engadget know how to use a computer and realize how pointless DRM is. BD+ was cracked before it was even publicly released (if memory serves me).
HD-DVD seems like a short sighted technology. What would you want the inferior capacity. Capacity is EVERYTHING. Better PQ, Lossless AQ, better for storage... etc. This is what Blu-Ray offers. The ONLY problem I really see right now is price and DRM. DRM is inconsequential for many of the people who care to look around. Price is close enough that I don't think there is any sort of problem for Blu-Ray. I do think they should be EXTREMELY aggressive with their pricing. But as long as they are within 50% or so I don't think that it will hurt them too much. Please HD-DVD fans try to explain to me what I am missing. I just don't see any reason whatsoever why anyone would want to support HD-DVD. Remember that movies cost more on HD-DVD so the lower price of the player is quickly ofset.
Explain it to me HD-DVD fans. I'm not trying to be a fanboy but when it comes to Blu-Ray I just can't help it. It just seems like it's better in every way that really matters. I'm not unwilling to change my mind. I really am curious to hear (non-flaming) comments about why YOU want HD-DVD. Sorry if my post seems to be flaming I tried to be as dispassionate as possible.
It takes an $85,000 sound system to tell the difference, wow.
If a $300 Bluray player isn't in your budget, what possible decent HDTV do you own? a 19"???? Seriously, all this talk about the price of bluray players all this time really puzzled me because whoever could have plunked down cash for a 1080i/p TV capable of really shining under that resolution shouldn't have been barred from buying a bluray player.....
Time is indeed limited for HD DVD, as I predicted, the 1.0 profile are coming down, and will be followed by the 1.1 and 2.0 in 2008 :)
HD DVD's two rambling arguments (that don't affect the quality and experience of HD DVD) are fading aka price and bonus features.
Forgot to take your medicine today? You are talking rubbish.
"Fairly well spec'd" Ummmmm except that it's obsolete. Who would buy this just to have to shell out again when v1.1 comes out? I think engadget is doing a disservice in not making folks informed before they blindly buy an old player with features they can't use.
At least the "entry level" $100 HD DVD player had PIP and internet connectivity.
Obsolete? Only HDDVD fanboys consider it obsolete because it doesn't show some dweeb talking in a small video box while the movie is playing....whooohooooo, I'm hitech now with PiP, take that! higher video quality and sound! Let that be a lesson to you....
I'm proud my player isn't Profile 1.1, because I will never use it!!! So being Profile 1.1 deficient, is that a problem for me? Nope....next excuse fanboy...
So you say it's OK that your player doesn't have MORE features regardless of what you do with it (you don't have to use it you know that right?) because you don't really need them!? And that ALL people should think that way regardless that there is a solution on the market that offers EVERYTHING and costs 3 times less in price?
I'm sure you go to the dealership when you buy a car and tell them, hey you know what, I really want a car that will just allow me to drive so please take out that cool hi-fi system, navigation and sattelite radio along with interactive seat control and dual climate control because you know, I just want to drive the car and it doesn't matter that there's a car in the next dealership that offers ALL OF THAT, same performance and quality for 3 times less price and the only real advantage the first car has is it has slightly bigger gas tank.
I'm sure you go and buy cars like that because you know, it makes perfect sense. LOL
I swear to God i think that either all Blu-Ray fans are complete idiots or they are so selfish and self-serving that it fuels their rage so much that they bought the wrong thing and paid more that they have to go and lie, mislead and sabotage in any way possible other consumers in getting quality yet and incredible deal on their purchases.
Absolutely pathetic.
The Blu-ray fans ought to look up the term 'pyrrhic victory'.
Just like a certain central European leader thought he had it all won and over before it really got going so too Blu-ray is merely adding sales in the game console market.
Blu-ray is overwhelmingly a game console format. So, so what?
HD DVD meanwhile is moving into the mass market with prices (and specs) Blu-ray are nowhere near matching, nevermind bettering.
Soon the (excellent quality - it is based heavily on a gen 3 Toshiba HD A3 afterall) $100 upscaling DVD player that also just happens to be a very nice HD DVD player will be here, it's only mere months away.
Blu-ray just have no answer to this in the adult a/v mainstream market.
Even this relative tiny handful of these low spec and still expensive Samsung BDP1400's makes no difference overall; it's merely just small numbers of yet another ludicrously expensive Blu-ray player that failed and is being sold off cheap
(like the dreadful Samsung BDP1000 before it).
The BDP1400 is also significantly more expensive than the 1080p Toshiba players for those that want to indulge in that 1080p marketing BS......and it's a Samsung!
Wow, quality product, not!
So enjoy the PS3 game console market and the inevitable (completely expected) short-term lead (on the back of tiny sales numbers, which it is).
HD DVD always knew PS3 had to sell in the several millions and that it was likely that some sort of short-term lead was inevitable; just how poor a lead they managed with so many PS3s was not expected though.
But too bad for Blu-ray that it turned out to be the wrong market to be aiming for.
Did anyone catch the BD-P1400 for $299 at Best Buy? It was in today's ad and I went to the store for movies and saw the sign. No rebate straight price reduction. I wish this unit was $199 then it would be a good competitor to the A3. I know people say I need to compare it to the A30 but the fact is this is the entry level Blu-ray player and thus should be compared to the entry level HD-DVD player. I hope the price reductions continue to come for Blu-ray. If Paramount makes the expected announcement and a sub $200 Blu-ray player becomes a reality then it will be an interesting 2008.
Amusing to see the direct causative effect that the Warner going blu-ray exclusive comment made by the Lionsgate VP has had on HD DVD fanboy FUD-slinging. Not surprising, of course, as Warner going blu-ray only, in addition to HD DVD losing every week in HDM sales, would effectively put the final nail in the HD DVD coffin. I told you the blu-ray juggernaut couldn't be stopped. Maybe by "downloadable" content, but definitely not by HD DVD. Clearly, even the concept is ridiculous now.
F.Y.I its 299 everywhere circuit city droppped the price as well as all retailers its available for 299.99 everywhere.
sold out of em. its sad how many people are misinformed on the players i saw a guy taking back an A-2 beacuse it had no movies inside. he bought the samesung for the same price because they only have disney movies on bluray and he has a samsung tv.
Really all it boils down to what people are getting, alot of consumers really like the idea of what the ps3 offers, they hear it can upscale, put your pictures on there, browse the web, play games all for 399. alot of people who are being informed like the system. honestly people can throw specs back and forth allday. all it comes down to is giving the consumer information to have the right decisions.
more and more people are going to see that all these companies have blu ray disk players on the market and available in the store.
with sony
samsung
sharp
panasonic all visible with players in the store compared to Toshiba's 3 flavors. Alot more people do trust in those companies combined as compared to toshiba on its lonesome.
honestly its whos making the products, and they see there is more of a selection for the players, and the movies themselves. at the end of the day its what the consumer wants to watch
Sony pictures(and subsidiaries)
Fox
Disney
Warner(on both)
these four alone still give alot more variety of movies as compared to the tandem of universal and paramount.
Content and choice is king. price is a factor, but blu ray still have variety and choice in companies, people may despise sony, but may love samsung, people may despise both, but may like panasonic, it goes on and on.
this war is silly. and really if the blu ray camp puts out the correct information, and advertise for all companies and not just an individual effort then you may see an even greater shift alot sooner.
yes im blu-biased and those are my reasons. also the toshiba remote and you hd dvd guys have to admit is utter crap.
$299 at Best Buy too.
I try to be a good winner, but I am going to gloat and gloat hard on Nfinity and Truth Teller when Warner goes bluray exclusive.
Its going to happen and it IS happening NOW as we read these comments. It will happen Q1. GUARANTEED.
Another thing:
Calling bluray the PS3s format is no different than saying that HD-DVD is Toshibas format. The only difference is that there are over 3 times more PS3s in the US than HD-DVD players.
Microsoft is a half supporter of HD-DVD. They never integrated a HD-DVD drive into the 360 because it was too much of a risk with such a weak format. They also couldn't integrate BD drive into the 360 since obviously it would be playing into favor for their major competition, Sony. So we have an external lame-ass addon HD-DVD drive for the 360 which is doing poorly in sales considering any joker can get the A2 for less than $99 which is half the cost of that addon drive. Obviously, Microsoft will discontining making the 360 HD-DVD addon drive ...what a complete failure.
Yes, I'm sure they'll discontinue their No. 1 accessory for Xbox 360. Boy you really have no connection with reality. It actually makes me really concerned that there are so many people out there like you without a shred of logical reasoning or actual desire to question and attack information they are served. You just keep sucking that Blu Kool-aid, but the dose of reality will hit you anyways.
Also, not only that you have absolutely NO correct information and you are talking complete nonsense I will post here for you response from Amir Majidimehr, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Corporation Consumer Media Technology Group, Mobile and Embedded Devices Division.
When we asked him about Microsoft's involvement in the whole format war.
Amir was kind enough to write a response to all of the idiotic FUD and nonsense Blu-bots are drinking.
Here, what happened, why Microsoft joined HD DVD and what their intentions are:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=11405184&postcount=2795
Nfinity said "Absolutely pathetic."
You have it backwards, if I go to a car dealer and all I want is the most reliable and safe vehicle but they offer me one with chrome wheels, cool sound system, dvd player and screen, MS sync service, GPS, but the vehicle isn't necessarily safe or reliable, then YES I will go buy from another dealer for the vehicle I want.
It is personal taste, you said the Samsung is obsolete based on your priorities, but you assume people who just want to watch movies and not PiP content are somehow prudish? I think it is you is pathetic because you chase after feature lists even if those features are useless to the majority of the people. I don't care about those features and never will, however, I know those features will be available to those who want them and more in the future because bluray has the capacity for so much more content on the disc. So, my Samsung does everything I want it to, why should I care if you think it is obsolete except that you're wrong.
Your HDDVD player is obsolete by your standards in my opinion because it doesn't support Disney/Pixar movies in HD, major missing feature buddy...man, I cannot believe you would buy a machine that didn't support Disney/Pixar in HD....see how priorities work???
I don't think decent conversations can be had in these talk backs with Truth Teller and Nfinity trolling constantly (high probability it is the same person).
Truth Teller (misnomer?) with his endless childish banter on how BluRay is marketed to kids and HD-DVD to adults. How ironic!
Nfinity can't keep any of his posts on topic without it degenerating into needless mud slinging.
Grow up!
Hilarious.
It's just too funny seeing the PS3 'lovers' being so embarrassed at recognising their kiddies game console for what it is.
Don't worry, you keep on with your 'media center' BS if you like.
Obviously the truth hurts and my pointing out the truth that Blu-ray are just piling up sales in the wrong market is a truth some of you just can't bear to hear.
PS3 is a game console.
Blu-ray is completely dependent on PS3.
Therefore Blu-ray can correctly be called just another game console format. It's the new UMD.
HD DVD is the one making it's way to the a/v mass/market.
But if idiotic rumours put out by a Blu-ray supporting movie studio
(wow, impartial and trust-worthy source, not!)
help you through the next month then great.
I am so looking forward to the announcement when it comes and the change of tune we're going to hear from the Blu-ray 'lovers' when it is finally made.
Just read through some of the comments here - geez. Some of you people need to step away from the keyboard and go watch a movie or something. Anyone who is that passionate over a freaking movie disc format is basically a tool. "Bluray for life", you've got to be joking! Yeah man, laserdisc for life dude!
I've got a HD-DVD player. I bought it 7 months ago because it was cheaper and the HD-DVD movies that were out at the time were better, IMO. Who cares, it's a damn movie disc player! Get a life people.
Merry Christmas.
Please read through your post and maybe, just maybe you'll realize how much nonsense you say in there.
If you didn't understand my analogy I'll simplify:
Blu-Ray: basic car that only allows you to drive with a slightly bigger gas tank and 3x the price
HD DVD : a car that has everything the above car has (slighly less gas tank) and all of the cool features (hi-fi stereo, sattelite radio, navigation etc etc) for much much lower price.
You are somehow justifying the sale of the above car which makes absolutely no sense except in your own little twisted world.
Now obsolete means not having Disney? HAHAHAHA.. responses from Blu-bots are really keeping me entertained..
Let me enlighten you, Disney can switch at any time to HD DVD and publish movies, I guarantee you that they already have everything done too (like those intros to their discs with DISNEY HD DVD - Magic in High Definition, just like they are using now for Blu-Ray) have no doubt about that. So this doesn't mean squat as far as player capability. Your reasoning abilities are so absolutely ridiculous it's hard even to debate it. So buy that, BD not having Universal, Paramount, Dreamworks and a 1/3 of Warner titles makes it HEAVILY obsolete. LOL.
Obsolete for a player means that with any Blu-Ray player right now except PS3 you are paying for a player that will not be able to access all features of the disc you buy. Simple. That makes it obsolete or outmoded or "out-of-date" and you need to buy a new player to play everything on the disc you numbnut. You can try to justify it any way you like but that's what we all call a rip off when they try to sell you an obsolete technology for a high price.
I only see an idiot buying these players to be honest. This player is not even worth $150 little less twice that much for $300. As mentioned before, for $400 the only Blu-Ray capable unit that makes sense in buying is the PS3 and pretty much for a person who wants to game as well. Otherwise, for a movie watcher HD DVD is the ONLY and FINISHED format and a great value.
Are you completely deranged???? Your definition of "feature complete" is based on what? What Toshiba has told you is the complete feature set? I'm perfectly fine considering my player WHICH IS NOT A PS3, feature complete to support the features of the discs that I'm interested in, i.e. the MOVIE ONLY!!!! So for me, Profile 1.0 is feature complete as far as I'm concerned. Now if in the future, I find some of the later features attractive enough to warrant upgrading then fine, I will do so.
Furthermore, You can have your Universal, Paramount, Dreamworks Animation movies, I can't say that there's much of those worth having. As for the rest of the studios supporting bluray and more of the blockbuster movies of late, I have all I need with bluray. So take your finished HDDVD and watch the limited decent movies you have as much as you can. I've said it before and I will issue this challenge again to YOU, compare the upcoming release schedules of both Bluray and HDDVD and if you can be intellectually honest for a brief moment, you would have to concede that the bluray release schedule includes more and bigger movies that will really shine on HD platforms. HDDVD's comedies in HD, well, who needs them.... I dare you to compare the upcoming lists and say with a straight face that HDDVD has the titles that will outsell bluray....you talk hardware smack but based solely on price and "complete" features, well, both of those don't matter if you have squat to watch.....
Are you insane? I'm talking about movies that will come out on Blu-Ray you freak. With a Profile 1.0 player you won't be able to play every feature of the disc you numbnut. That's what makes the player obsolete. You wanting to watch just a movie is irrelevant. People want a complete product not half assed attempt that only plays a movie. What's the point of Profile 1.1 and Profile 2.0 that they so desperately need then you ass.
The rest of your post is even more idiotic. I can't even respond, so you think that because you don't need Universal, Paramount, Dreamworks movies nobody else should? Are you sane? You need to get your medication.
Please get a brain and wake up from your fairy tales.
Your concern is touching, really. However, it is just a pathetic attempt to spin a supposed advantage of HDDVD. Tell me, will your player be feature complete when the 51 Gb HDDVD disc comes out? Do you know for sure? What about reading HDDVD writable discs in the future? Hmmm? Are you 100% sure your player today will support every new feature to come? If you say yes then you're a liar. I know your point and I reject it because I'm happy with Profile 1.0, that's me because I accepted it and that's all I care about. Is my player obsolete? No, it performs exactly the function I bought it for. Only someone who cares about Profile 1.1 or 2.0 may feel it is obsolete. Your characterization of the masses being deceived is without base. How many HDDVD owners were duped by $99 price tag only to find out that they can't watch Spiderman or Pirates of the Carribean in HD. You can cry foul all you want but it is just noise and no one cares. If you want an HDDVD player, fine, be happy with it and I hope you enjoy your selection of movies, I know I enjoy mine....and my player which does exactly what I bought it for, therefore not obsolete.....
blu ray is dead! samsung is having a fire sale trying to dump all there blu ray players before it's too late!... ohh wait only sony fanboys make crappy comments like that
Warner postpone indefinitely/can the Blu0-ray Led Zep release.
Cos that's what a studio does when it's about to go Blu-ray exclusive, right?
LMAO.
@contractcooker
It was refreshing reading your well reasoned defense of the Blu Ray format. Your rationale essentially focused on capacity; more bitrate for audio and video.
I cannot challenge that position strongly, but I will say that few people (including professional reviewers) can see or hear any difference between these formats. The only real advantage I see to BD's higher capacity is the extras (e.g. extras shot in HD, more language options, lossless audio + multi-language on same disc). These extras can always be tossed onto a second disc.
Why support HD-DVD?
(1) mature specification (all features included in first-gen products)
(2) it has always been more affordable
(3) more power-user friendly (region-free, no BD+)
Paramount's CTO explained the advantages more eloquently in a PC World magazine interview (google the following: paramount bell pcworld). The short and sweet version is that the capacity advantages is over-hyped (surprising, I know), programming in HDi is much easier than BD-J, and cheaper players that J6P can afford.
FWIW it's 269.98 now @ Amazon