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By Matthew Moskovciak, CNET.com
Jul 07, 2008

The most important question for any standalone Blu-ray player is whether it's better than the Sony PlayStation 3. Let's answer that one right off the bat: Samsung's new BD-P1500 is not. The console has better image quality, currently supports both Blu-ray Profile 2.0 and all high-resolution audio codecs, and it loads discs a lot faster. Not to mention that it's a high-def gaming system and also a pretty capable media streamer. We're getting tired of saying it, but almost anyone who wants to get into Blu-ray should stick with the PS3.

The BD-P1500 is currently missing some crucial features, such as multichannel analog outputs, onboard decoding for DTS-HD Master Audio, and Profile 2.0 support. However, if you trust Samsung to live up to its firmware update promises, the BD-P1500 will get both DTS-HD Master Audio decoding and Profile 2.0 support eventually. For those who demand a standalone player and are not willing to settle for the Profile 1.1 Panasonic DMP-BD30, the Samsung BD-P1500 is good alternative.

Design

We've knocked Samsung's excessively glossy designs in the past, but we're suckers for the BD-P1500's look. The front faceplate is still glossy black, but it's completely flat and doesn't have a bezel, unlike its predecessor the BD-P1400. The left side is dominated by the disc tray, and below that in the corner is a power button with a bright blue LED that illuminates when the player is turned on. Further to the right is an LED display that's a little small for our tastes. On the far right are some front-panel controls, including play, stop, and chapter forward/backward. In our opinion, the BD-P1500 is the most stylish Blu-ray player we've seen.

Samsung fans will recognize the same remote the company has packaged with most of its products for the last couple years. Toward the bottom is a directional pad for navigating menus, surrounded by often-used buttons--although having three menu keys (menu, disc menu, and pop-up menu) becomes a little confusing. There are playback controls just north of the center of the remote, and there's some slight differentiation--including Braille-like nubs--that make it possible to navigate in the dark. Overall, it's a good remote, but we'd really like to see Samsung give it an update since it's been unchanged for so long and there's still room for improvement.

While the menu of Panasonic's DMP-BD30 still features blocky standard-def graphics, the BD-P1500 has nice high-def menus. They're easy enough to navigate, and we had no issues with routine tasks like changing the output resolution or audio output format.

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