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Samsung BD-P1400 Review |
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Reviewed: 04 March 2008
Design
If you like Samsung's range of flat panel TV's then you will like the BD-P1400 which follows the stylistic glossy black tradition.
What you also get is an very well engineered piece of kit which will gracefully complement your flat screen TV.
Features
Offering unrivalled support for High Definition sound formats for the price, the BD-P1400 can decode Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD High Resolution onboard. With the ability to bitstream output for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, the BD-P1400 can also support these formats in conjunction with a suitably equipped amplifier.
Video Upsacaling: yes Output Resolution: 720p, 1080i, 1080p Playable Disc Formats: CD, DVD, BD-R, CD-R, BD-RE, CD-RW, DVD+R, DVD-R, BD-ROM, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD-ROM . Sockets: 1 x HDMI out, 1 x digital audio out (coaxial / optical), 1 x component video out, 1 x s-video out, 1 x video out, 1 x 2 channel analogue audio out, 1 x 5.1 analogue audio out, 1 x LAN.
Note: Whether you choose to bitstream output of sound or use onboard decoding, the acoustic quality should remain the same. The fact that the BD-P1400 cannot decode DTS-HD Master Audio onboard means that you will need an amplifier (capable of decoding the BD-P1400 bitstream) to do this.
The BD-P1400 will play and even upscale standard definition DVD's which is good news for those of you planning to maintain your existing DVD collection. This unit will also play audio CD's, MP3's burned onto a CD and display still MPEGs.
The BD-P1400 arrives with the Blu-ray 1.0 profile (rather than the later 1.1) which means that it is unable to play some of the interactive Java features found on some Blu-ray discs.
The current must have feature for High Definition (HD) kit is 1080p/24 frames per second (24p) support and the BD-P1400 doesn't disappoint. Movies have traditionally been filmed at a frame rate of 24fps (frames per second) and the 1080p/24 feature allows films to be shown in their original format.
Performance
Once the still frustratingly long (and somewhat noisy) loading process has completed, we are presented with some excellent quality Blu-ray images. The sharp, crisp and vibrant rendering will satisfy all but the most demanding home cinema enthusiasts.
The BD-P1400 is a good rather than outstanding DVD player. It will match most dedicated budget DVD players in this respect, but is no match for the DVD playing/upscaling abilities of higher end Blu-ray players. Some flickering was evident while playing DVD's although the effect was barely perceivable, and hardly affect the enjoyment of the viewing experience.
Where the BD-P1400 really excels is with its ability to decode all of the High Definition sound formats (even though you may need a suitably equipped amplifier in some cases). Simple and intuitive interfaces make the production of a high definition soundtrack a relatively straightforward process.
Conclusion
Taking into consideration its feature set and very good all round performance, the BD-P1400 currently represents the best value Blu-ray available. It can't quite match the Blu-ray and DVD performance of high end machines, but at less than half the price of most other players it is worth a long hard look.
