Samsung BD-P2500 Blu-ray player packs familiar specs, price

Samsung's upcoming BD-P2500 Blu-ray player promises BD-Live support out of the box when it ships in October, with its IFA announcement revealing identical specs and price ($499) to the Best Buy-exclusive BD-P2550 already on sale. Of course, with HQV video processing and a wealth of audio support including 7.1 analog output and PCM or bitstream audio for Dolby Digital, Digital Plus, TrueHD or dts soundtracks, and DTS-HD HR (after a firmware update) and DTS-HD MA bitstream support, that's not an entirely bad thing. Samsung, Panasonic, it's taken you this many generations to get a satisfactory spec sheet, now what about the price?

[MI @ Aug 29th 2008 10:53PM]

They're just trying to get their Profile 2.0 players out at the top price before they have to drop prices this fall. Prediction: These $500 players go for $350 on or about black friday.

[Flashpoint @ Aug 30th 2008 12:27AM]

I really don't see $500 Blu Ray players flying off shelves.

Not in the Bush economy.

[Alex @ Aug 29th 2008 11:13PM]

These $499 prices won't be around much longer, what with centrino 2 laptops packing blu-ray drives selling for just 'round ~$1000 or so deeez dayz. shizzle bizzle dizzle

[cesium @ Aug 30th 2008 12:25AM]

Show me one god damn laptop that can output 7.1 analog, dts-hd, etc etc

[shawnmos @ Aug 29th 2008 11:46PM]

I am quite disappointed. Where is DTS-MA decoding? I was hoping my BD-UP5000 would get DTS-MA decoding with a FW update because it uses the same chipset as these new players, but now it seems that the reports were wrong and this chipset doesn't support DTS-MA at all. :(

[cesium @ Aug 30th 2008 12:26AM]

"DTS-HD HR (after a firmware update) and DTS-HD MA bitstream suppor"

[shawnmos @ Aug 30th 2008 12:29AM]

bitsteam is worthless to me.

[dan2600 @ Aug 30th 2008 9:46AM]

why is bitstream useless to you? because you have an outdated Receiver? having the receiver do the decoding is much better then having your player do it an output it analogue (less signal loss as well as less overhead on your player). Also 9/10 people in blind studies can't hear a difference between DTS-HD and DTS MA

anyway, my PS3 does all these formats...even if you don't like the game library, as far as digital entertainment center and blu-ray player...ps3 has yet to be topped at its price point.

[shawnmos @ Aug 30th 2008 12:01AM]

yeah, I posted something 10 mins ago and it still hasn't showed up. WTH?

[MastrCake @ Aug 30th 2008 12:18AM]

Sooo... I could get a $400 Sony blu-ray player for $300 last winter... then they go back up in price. Then Best Buy tries to do a closeout "Sale" on the SAME Sony blu-ray player for $340... What gives?

On a different note, why is there only ONE blu-ray player (that I know of) that is less than $400 (Insignia for $280, also a POS)?

And there is no way those Profile 2.0 blu-ray players can cost as much to make (or more in this case) as a PS3 that ALSO has 2.0!

Please reply if I am missing somthing?

[Jon Doe. @ Aug 30th 2008 12:44AM]

Your definition of price greatly differs with mine. Half a fucking grand for a BR player is NOT good. Back when DVD's were gaining momentum at this point in the game the hardware was easily at or well below $300. I got a rather high end Sony DVD player back in...I think '98? Not sure...may have been '97 for $300. Thing was a fracking tank. Gave it to my former girlfirend when she moved to CA...wish I didn't. Soon after every DVD player turned into cheap shit. At any rate. Give me a solid, fully featured (No I don't want to fracking PS3) player at or under $250 and lets talk....still doesn't beat my $160 HD DVD player though.

[Joe @ Aug 30th 2008 1:32AM]

With $500 players still the norm, exactly how did we as consumers win the format war again?

[Rich @ Aug 30th 2008 10:22AM]

Um, the consumer didn't win the format war. The consumer got screwed. It's all old hat at this point, but the consumer was never given an opportunity to choose a market leader in the true sense of competition. Sony and the other companies that hold BR tech patents won the war by buying off the studios, and through other nasty backdoor deals.

Now you, as the consumer, are privileged to pay $500 or more for hardware that should be in the $150-200 range, and $40 for software that should be in the $20-25 range. Oh, and when the BR monopoly does allow the chinese mfgs to enter the market don't expect them to be offering 2.0 compatible players immediately. Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, etc will continue raping you for top dollar for a 'format complete' BluRay player.

Personally I think that if the studios simply put their wares out in both formats, HD DVD and BR could have co-existed quite nicely, or eventually the cosnumer would have chosen one format over the other based price and features much like htey did with VHS vs Beta.

[TheNetAvenger @ Aug 30th 2008 6:44AM]

The consumers didn't, the studios won... Blu-Ray has the most DRM and restrictions on use (which is why MS fought it, ironically), and this gives the studios and content providers as much control as they need.

You get less DRM buying a HD movie off of XBox Live, and the movie is DRMed and locked to your account/player. That is hard to upstage in the DRM context, but BluRay does it.

For example, BluRay 'forbids' content to be placed on anything other than the original media (which is what caused the initial fight with MS, as Microsoft foresees a future of Video Jukebox features in homes, like Music is handled today. HD-DVD didn't have this restriction...)

As for buying a BluRay player, a lot of people are 'getting' it and going, on second thought, downloadable content works just fine. From PC providers to even XBox live, there are plenty of places to obtain HD, and I would rather own a media agnostic digital copy than some disc requiring a high end player. (Laptops can do HD out and hook up easily to most TVs via Component/DVI, etc)


Sadly if forced to buy a BluRay player, people are better off buying a PS3, which is currently carrying the PS3 sales. I would rather encourage people to seek HD content online and we can just skip the 'hard' media era for HD content and move to online providers. Then Sony and the Studios trying to screw people with BluRay can eat what they created in form of losses.

[dan2600 @ Aug 30th 2008 9:38AM]

considering most studios (other then FOX and DISNEY) don't region code there BD discs who cares about DRM on a DISK, you have the DISK, your keyfile isn't going to get corrupted

oh wait you wanted to make illegal copies of the Blu-Rays your rented on netflix...forgot.

quit whining BD is a superior format to HD-DVD in all aspects.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Aug 30th 2008 1:08PM]

NetAvenger,

Sorry, I can't agree. DRM is restrictive based on what it allows you to do, not based on how many pieces of technology it has.

If I can carry a BR disc with me and play it in any BR player, that is less restrictive than having an HD movie locked to my XBox 360. I don't trust MS to get the DRM right, and I don't trust them to get my back if my movie dies. What about PlaysForSure, Yahoo! Music and the litany of failures? DRM'd virtual content is a huge gamble for the consumer. At least with BR you have the media.

[twist_serv @ Aug 30th 2008 2:44AM]

$500 is a steal. Please Toshiba, resurrect the HD-DVD(or BR players for less than $200). Until then, MKV's FTW.

[William Cameron @ Aug 30th 2008 3:27AM]

Is there a better BR player than the PS3? Seriously?

[vdogg89 @ Aug 30th 2008 2:28PM]

This is becoming ridiculous. Prices have maintained overly expensive for too long. After the format war was over, prices should have dropped, not risen. No wonder it takes so long to have consumers switch formats.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Aug 30th 2008 1:04PM]

I'm sorry, I just don't care, and neither do most consumers. I've got better things to do than spend my days tracking the latest minute audio decoding capability in an excel spreadsheet in order to determine which BR player will be the optimum purchase.

I'm waiting 'till the price comes down, and so is everyone else at this point.

Every day that high-def discs are available and I postpone my purchase, the less of a reason I have to ever buy one. Fact of the matter is I'm pretty damn happy with upscaled DVD. I said I'd buy a player when the price dropped below $500 and it became clear who was going to win the format war; I predicted last summer that it would be BR, and by December it was obvious to anyone who was paying attention.

But as weeks and months went by and I never got around to buying one, the price hasn't dropped significantly, and I just don't feel like HD movies will change my life enough to care about.

I suspect most consumers are in the same boat. It's not that they can't afford $500, they just don't care enough, or see the $500 value over an upscaling DVD player, and they know that if they wait long enough, prices will come down. Meanwhile the BR industry burns money adding features and hoping people will pay a premium price, but what they should be worried about is the format failing altogether due to lack of interest.