SAMSUNG BD-P2500 will sale for around $398 from some discount mail order companies

[HDTV1080P]

I have just learned from a very reliable source of mine that the Samsung BD-P2500 will have a suggested retail price of $499 for retail stores. Also once large quantities of the BD-P2500 become available some discount mail order Internet companies will be selling the player for around $398. The under $400 price may take a few months to appear online.
Samsung keeps improving on their BLU-RAY players. The BD-P2500 is a profile 2.0 player with BD-LIVE and supports decoding and bit streaming up to 7.1 channels for all the advanced audio formats including DTS HD Master audio. The BD-P2500 will bitstream 7.1 over HDMI 1.3 and will also have 7.1 analog channels out. Of course official specs can change before the product is released.
Some retail stores may get the Samsung BD-P2500 in stock toward the end of August but realistically the player will not hit the store shelves until at least late September.

[Centauri]

$499? At that price I'm assuming the 2500 is designed to coexist with the 1500, not replace it.

[LastSonOfKrypton]

Wow...the 1500 just hit the street and they're already pumping out another model?

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by LastSonOfKrypton

Wow...the 1500 just hit the street and they're already pumping out another model?

This model is much more robust. It will have analog inputs, internal decoding of all audio codecs, and the HQV video chipset to make it a superior upscaling player. $499 list price is inline with Sony pricing on their upcoming BDP-S550 player which has similar features. I suspect you will be able to find this player for $299-350 or so around the holidays.

[JAWoOKIE]

Sounds like a great alternative to the BD50 for me.

[LastSonOfKrypton]

Originally Posted by ack_bak

It will have analog inputs

Ehhh...Analog inputs are useless. They should've put analog outputs on it (BTW, that's a joke at your typo )

Originally Posted by JAWoOKIE

Sounds like a great alternative to the BD50 for me.

Honestly after owning the BD-P1400 and BD30 and given the choice between the 2500 or BD50. I'd pick the BD50. Overall I'm much happier with Panasonic than I was with Samsung. Now I've read good reviews on the 1500 already but...I'd certainly look into reviews and user opinions on both models. I'm sure AVS will have 20 page plus threads on each player a week after street.

[BLU HD DEFENDER]

yeah thats the only drawback of the bdp1500 the lack of analog outputs, which kind of shocked me since the 1400 had analog outputs. in anycase iam quite happy with my 1500 which is upgradeable to profile 2.0

[AznNintendoFan1]

I thought that the 2500's SRP was almost 700 dollars. If so, then I'll just wait for the damn thing to go down in price again. I just gave my dad my 1500 too which sucks. I'm thinking of taking that back and putting it into my room and then just getting the 2500 once it goes down to like 500 or even 400 if we're lucky and giving him that. He has a HUGE dvd collection. He'll need it instead of the 1500. I can still keep that with the help of firmware.

[chris gerhard]

If the BD-P2500 is available for under $400, it actually will do more with Blu-ray and is likely a better Blu-ray player than the PS3 at the same price. Of course the PS3 still does a lot other than Blu-ray making it a better deal in my opinion, but for someone interested in only Blu-ray, this player could be the better deal

Let's see if this happens in a couple of months. It is a move in the right direction. The higher priced players from Denon, Marantz and Pioneer to name a few are likely going to mostly remain on store shelves unless they get competitive.

Chris

[resevilfan86]

Samsung imo has a lot to do in terms of build quality for their players. Their software seems to have had quite a few problems, although I have not heard too many bad things about the 1500 yet... Is that player 2.0 as well?

[chris gerhard]

Originally Posted by resevilfan86

Samsung imo has a lot to do in terms of build quality for their players. Their software seems to have had quite a few problems, although I have not heard too many bad things about the 1500 yet... Is that player 2.0 as well?

The BD-P1500 is reputedly Profile 2.0 ready, not sure when a firmware update will be made available though. The firmware update process with Samsung has been a long and painful journey for owners of the BD-P1000 and BD-P1200 but Samsung has done much better with the BD-P1400 and BD-P1500. What the future holds is anybody's guess, but I have owned the Samsung SIR-T165, ATSC STB with firewire, for about 5 years and the firmware fiasco with that thing was amazing. Samsung did give up after having created more problems than were solved with each subsequent update about 3 years ago.

Chris

[Mike171979]

Hello, HQV upconverting alone makes this THE Blu Ray player.

The 2500 is Samsung's top of the line Blu Ray player.

If Amazon truly has this puppy for only 399, it will be one hell of a deal, better than the Panny BD-50 thats for damn sure.

[vektsilver]

Well I have one negative my player died just after a month of use Samsung however is going to replace it free o charge so not all that bad. If they try tell you that you must pay shipping and it will only get repaired just refuse. You can get them to send you a brand new player and no cost shipping.

I get the feeling the the 1500 and 2500 are going to fit the same bill as the Sony 350 and 550. 1500 low end model 2500 high end. Probably about the time the 2.0 bd-p2500 hits the market the 1500 should get a firmware upgrade to profile 2.0. If it doesnt upgrade there are gonna be some pissed off people me namely for one heh.

[KYThrill]

Originally Posted by ack_bak

This model is much more robust. It will have analog inputs, internal decoding of all audio codecs, and the HQV video chipset to make it a superior upscaling player. $499 list price is inline with Sony pricing on their upcoming BDP-S550 player which has similar features. I suspect you will be able to find this player for $299-350 or so around the holidays.

Actually, the rumor I heard is that the 2500 will not have the Reon chipset. They are releasing a 2nd, more expensive model, which will have the Reon chipset. It will be badged the 2550.

The only step up on the 2500 is that it will be Profile 2.0 out of the box, have 1 GB internal flash memory (the 1500 will need a 1 GB USB stick), and will decode DTS-HD MA. It will have analog outs, but there was no mention if they were 7.1 or 5.1.

Then the 2550 will do all those things, plus it will have Reon processing.

With that in mind, it isn't as great a deal. The 2550 is supposed to MSRP for $699, which means $599 street, which gives it a little edge over a BD50, because it will have the superior Reon. Of course, by the time the 2550 is released, the BD50 may have come down in price.

[KYThrill]

Originally Posted by Mike171979

Hello, HQV upconverting alone makes this THE Blu Ray player.

The 2500 is Samsung's top of the line Blu Ray player.

If Amazon truly has this puppy for only 399, it will be one hell of a deal, better than the Panny BD-50 thats for damn sure.

The 2500 is the middle of the line. The 2550 is supposed to be the top of the line...