BD-UP5500 Duo HD player in the second half of 2008?

[Firefly]

Seems like I might be better off canceling my 5000 order (I was going to sell my two other players) and waiting for this one. Anyone else thinking about doing that? It's kind of frustrating that they're announcing a new model while I'm still waiting for the 'current' one.

Updating its recently-released BD-UP5000, Samsung says it will introduce the new BD-UP5500 Duo HD player in the second half of 2008.

Like its predecessor, the BD-UP5500 will support both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs, as well as the latest BD-Java and HDi interactivity available (including full support of Blu-ray Profile 1.1).

Samsung says the BD-UP5500 will also feature 7.1 PCM, DTS-HD High Resolution and Master audio, plus Dolby TrueHD Bistream output via HDMI 1.3.

The deck's ethernet connection will enable firmware upgrades and web-enabled features with compatible HD DVD discs. (Company reps tell us the deck will not be BD-Live compliant, meaning it will not support web-enabled features on certain Blu-ray discs.)

The BD-UP5500 is expected to retail for $599, making it the lowest-priced dual format player announced yet. (The BD-UP5000 is currently retailing at $799.)

[Chickengas]

Its the SAME as the 5000. It's a little smaller and cheaper, however, it says nothing about the Reon chip AND you have to wait a minimum of 6-8 months. How cheap are you?? Get the 5000 now and enjoy it.

[Biosynthnut]

Yea it's just a matter of finding one though....

[AznNintendoFan1]

Originally Posted by Chickengas

Its the SAME as the 5000. It's a little smaller and cheaper, however, it says nothing about the Reon chip AND you have to wait a minimum of 6-8 months. How cheap are you?? Get the 5000 now and enjoy it.

That's a good question. I gave my BD-UP5000 today because it wouldn't play my Star Trek Combo HD-DVD's. So I'll probably wait til this baby comes out because since by the time it comes out, it'll mostly be Blu-Rays coming out with mainly only Paramount, Dreamworks, and Universal poppin out HD-DVD's, so I'll mostly buying and watching Blu-Rays but I'll need to have something to play my HD-DVD's. I guess I'll have to be without a player for several months. I dont mind. When my PS3 gets back from servicing I'll have to just depend on that I guess. I hope this new baby has the Reon Chip like the last because it had great upconversion I'll give it that. And this time it'll decode TrueHD and DTS-MA audio formats. AND will have no problems playing combo discs. You'd think with all this time they're taking to get this new one out they'd make it more efficient altogether and not just add some crap, ya know?

[Chickengas]

By the time this comes out, the firmware for the 5000 will have already been out for 6 months. The price reduction is most likely due to "cost cutting" and that never works out well for cutomers. The 1400 was cheaper than the 1200, why? NO REON CHIP.

[Firefly]

Originally Posted by Chickengas

Its the SAME as the 5000. It's a little smaller and cheaper, however, it says nothing about the Reon chip AND you have to wait a minimum of 6-8 months. How cheap are you?? Get the 5000 now and enjoy it.

Cheap, I'm not (take a look at my gear below). Almost all of it was purchased in the last 3 months. I just don't want to throw away money and I've never seen a situation where a new model was announced to replace a model that has not even been released.

Are we sure that the 5500 does NOT contain the Reon chip? I'll gladly pay the extra $ for the 5000 if that's the case. I've still got the 5000 on pre-order from Amazon, supposedly with a ship date of 2/5.

[Chickengas]

Look at the articles on the 5500. IF it had the Reon chip, it would boast it, like the 1200 did and like the 5000 did. There's a reason for the price reduction, and it's not because Samsung loves you.

[AznNintendoFan1]

Originally Posted by Chickengas

Look at the articles on the 5500. IF it had the Reon chip, it would boast it, like the 1200 did and like the 5000 did. There's a reason for the price reduction, and it's not because Samsung loves you.

Shit your'e right....... Maybe when my credit is all paid off I'll get another BD-UP5000 again and hopefully the firmware will be out for it and it will be able to play combo discs just fine and have no problems playing Fox blu-rays or Transformers. It played those fine on my last one but the combos were killin me. I hate combos dammit but some movies are must haves like Star Trek TOS and Knocked Up! So I'll see, but if that 5500 actually somehow will have the Reon Chip, then boy george! I'll buy it!

[Ph8]

From as post on AVS it looks like this player is the "little brother" of the 5000. It is missing mention of Reon and 7.1 analog outs. From the picture it only supports 2.0 analog (much like the LG200). From all that I have read the 5000 will be the "flagship" and the 5500 is the "entry". This is all JMHO though take it for what its worth.

[Chickengas]

I think it's worth a lot because I agree 100%. Calling it the 5500 is all marketing...even though its not as good as the 5000, Samsung couldn't have called it the 4500....they'd kill the sales

[ccphilly1984]

oooh it looks beautiful... i love samsung... my tv is a samsung... i will only buy a samsung phone... and samsung does love me because they know i love hd dvd and having it in their player is sweet... I can't wait until it hits stores and hopefully i'll see it for 200 less on amazon... it should probially sync well with my samsung tv and i won't even need to program the remote, because the remote defaults to samsung for the tv... PLUS i can finally turn my ps3 into a george foreman grill.

[chris gerhard]

I am surprised to see this. I had no idea Samsung was going to offer another dual format player. It would be much smarter in my opinion if Samsung would support their existing Blu-ray player customers. Just look at all of the complaints about not being able to play recent Blu-ray releases with the BD-P1200. The HD DVD fans might be able to get a Samsung player that will play those Blu-ray discs and I guess that is a good thing for that group.

Given the status of HD DVD this sure seems like a strange product to move forward with. I hope the HD DVD supporters that were hoping for another dual format player are luckier with Samsung players than some Blu-ray only customers have been. I do expect it to be a good player and maybe I will be right this time.

Chris

[pnorth_12]

It's the right thing to do - they should stay on track with duo until Uni, Paramount, and Dreamworks support BD, and even then they have a legacy market - plenty of HD DVD's sold already

Also, it's a good move to announce possible 2.0 support - most of the early adopters of HD DVD understand a bit more about the weakness in the lower BD profiles and have already enjoyed 2.0 functionality on HD DVD and don't want to step backwards if they do go purple. I'm thinking 2.0 will be a huge deal in the weeks to come, especially with sony and fox starting to bring it up and movies starting to be released that use it.

[Vic Arpeggio]

As an HD-DVD owner with 35 discs and an Xbox 360 add-on, I couldn't agree more.

Originally Posted by pnorth_12

It's the right thing to do - they should stay on track with duo until Uni, Paramount, and Dreamworks support BD, and even then they have a legacy market - plenty of HD DVD's sold already

Also, it's a good move to announce possible 2.0 support - most of the early adopters of HD DVD understand a bit more about the weakness in the lower BD profiles and have already enjoyed 2.0 functionality on HD DVD and don't want to step backwards if they do go purple. I'm thinking 2.0 will be a huge deal in the weeks to come, especially with sony and fox starting to bring it up and movies starting to be released that use it.

[Chickengas]

It looks like the 5500 will have HQV processing:

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/11038

So thats a good thing.