When we reviewed the Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray player earlier this month, we were not able to test out its BD-Live functionality as the necessary firmware upgrade to enable the feature was not yet available. Happily this is no longer the case as the promised BD-Live update is now available for download.
Using our evaluation unit, we were able to download the new firmware via the P1500's Ethernet connection. This bumped the unit's internal firmware up from version 080621.02.XAA to 080929.01.XAA.
It took approximately twenty minutes for the new firmware to download and another five minutes for it to complete the installation. After the process was complete, all settings on the P1500 were reset to their defaults, so be aware that all custom settings must be readjusted after this firmware update is applied.
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Testing the unit out with both Sleeping Beauty and Transformers on Blu-ray, the BD-Live features seemed to be working without any complications and may be even slightly speedier than the BD-Live functionality of the rival Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray player. This may be due to the fact that the Samsung player (unlike the newest Panasonic and Sony models) does have some base memory on-board - 256 MB to be precise. In order to bump it up to the required 1GB to meet the BD-Live spec, you'll need to add a USB flash memory drive of at least 768 MB.
Samsung has also promised a future firmware update to activate DTS-HD High Resolution Audio decoding on the player at a future date (October 30, according to our conversations with Samsung). DTS-HD Master Audio support is via bitstream output only and this will continue to be the case.
Where to Buy
Company Information:
Samsung America, Inc.
105 Challenger Road
Ridgefield park, NJ 07660
Tel: (201) 229-5000
Fax: (201) 229-5080
Web: http://www.samsungusa.com/
