@92BuickLeSabre: Yeah, Blu-ray looks even better at 720p on a sub-42inch screen in my opinion. I still find the PS3 hard to beat if you are in any way interested in games.

John Mahoney

What's the difference between the 2500 and the 2550? Samsung's site doesn't even seem to list the 2550....

And are these profile 2.0 now, or still 1.1 like the site says? Should I be keeping a heads up for deals on one of these?

edmicman

@92BuickLeSabre: The only reason not to get a blu-ray player is due to lack of funds. Other than that, you really can't go wrong.

ripfire

Okay, I have a ridiculous blu-ray question for the holiday season. (And I apologize for my stupidity.)

I need a new DVD player. My television is only 720p/1080i. Eventually I will have a 1080p tv. It is totally worth it to me to spend a few bucks more to get a blu-ray player now even though I won't be getting it's full impact.

But is there any reason for me not to be getting a blu-ray player? It's not going to have any "problems" sending a signal that is "too HD" for my television, right?

(My TV does have an HDMI input of course, so if it is HDMI output only that's not a problem.)

92BuickLeSabre

Last week, TechDealDigger.com posted a deal on the BD-P2500 for just $230 from Abt Electronics. I, unfortunately missed it, but will be staying tuned for the next discount like this and set up an email alert to let me know the next time it goes on sale. Here's the link: http://www.techdealdigger.com/deals/samsung-bd-p2500-229-at-abt-electronics/5365

DallasTonberry

Come on Sony, I want this on my PS3!

DoMiNaTi0n

More importantly for me, has anyone found a definitive list of what Netflix movies are ready to be streamed in HD? Last I checked everyone knew John Carpenter's The Thing was in HD, and everything else was just kind of a crapshoot...

Taurus_McGee

@dry-roasted-peanuts: Audio on all streaming medium is still stereo unfortunately. However, it's not a hardware problem; it's just Netflix's choice (maybe to save bandwidth).

ripfire

@edmicman: I couldn't tell the difference, other than that the 2550 was a Best-Buy exclusive model and that it was in stores earlier than 2500's, so I went and bought the 2500 for $300 on Black Friday. They are exactly the same hardware inside, no difference. Same remote too.

The *only* useful difference is that the 2550 got a firmware update that added Neflix *AND* Pandora Internet Radio, while the 2500 is currently "software locked" out of Pandora Radio.

Given that this is the exact same hardware, I'm waiting for some enterprising hacker to figure out how to install the 2550 firmware on the 2500's :)

rizzle

Anyone have any idea about what the audio is streamed at?

Streaming a picture at 720 is nice and all, but a HD picture and stereo audio seems a bit like driving a Bugatti Veyron on a dirt road.

dry-roasted-peanuts

@92BuickLeSabre: Blu-ray players are worth the purchase. You'll see the difference in image quality even at standard resolution.

imTheKing

@Taurus_McGee: Never mind - I guess Netflix has added an area in the "Watch Instantly" part of their website where you can select what all's in HD. The list kind of stinks though in my opinion. Hope they start increasing the number of titles I've actually heard of soon...

Taurus_McGee

@92BuickLeSabre: If you have 7.1 audio and care about getting true 7.1 rather than upmixing 5.1 to 7.1 (assuming your using a receiver with HDMI, as optical and digital coaxial only carry 5.1) then it might be worth it for the audio.

Zlevee

This is great news in the sense that it means the sh*t is really starting to roll... now when the hell are we going to see this on the Roku box!

First one out of the gate, last one to get HD?!? Just doesn't seem right.

And yes, I realize I'm acting like a spoiled brat, but I'm going to blame it on someone else, shirk responsibility for my own failings and continue to whine. God bless the ever rising Gadget Expectation Curve (GEC©). Run with it.

jhcovert

@aprather: hulu.com has it today.

brutek

Ive asked this question a few times and I apologize for being redundant, but does anyone know if and when HD streaming will come to computers? Its frustrating to hear all of the HD streaming coming to other devices, but nothing yet for my HTPC I have hooked up in the living room... Thx

aprather

@aprather: Hulu, Joost, the Netflix vista media center plugin. There are many, many,....., many ways to stream to a media center.

Xenocide

@92BuickLeSabre: Thanks all. Very helpful.

92BuickLeSabre

@aprather: They already have HD streaming to the PC. If you go to Instant Watch one of the.. I think Genre... selections is "HD" and is all of their content that is in HD.

Other than that presently Netflix streaming is a waste of time as since the NXE and all the new customers from it no one can stream in the evening anymore because the Netflix infrastructure can't handle the load. Best I can get after about 6 or 7 at night now is 1 bar if it works.

mltdwn

@Zlevee: Seriously do you have a 7.1 system? If not, it will not matter. I know MANY people with big home theater setup's and NONE has a 7.1 system.
Plus switching and passing through HDMI is a wicked pain in the ass. Unless you only have one hdmi player, one hdmi TV and one hdmi receiver otherwise it sucks. I have 5 hdmi devices on setup and 3 on another and I never even seen a receiver with more than 3 hdmi inputs and those are in the $1500 range.

fastm3driver

@DallasTonberry:
$250 ps3 with 2 movies and a game. Problem almost solved.

[wwwapps.ups.com]

FYI I did this and it works.

fastm3driver

Now, where my Roku box HD firmware at?

Seriously...

NNTPgrip

Hmmm. Maybe I should return my Sony BDP-350? Any idea that the Sony can do this? Very cool feature!

Poon

@fastm3driver: I've had a 7.1 speaker system with a 7.1 AV amp/receiver for a couple of years. I'm willing to bet soem other on Giz do too.

For the most part I just set it to fake the rear channels though since most sources are 5.1 or less. But it can certainly do 7.1 from blu ray.

I'm not clear on why you think HDMI makes switching harder. In fact it makes it easier. Newer ones, even cheap ones (if $370 is cheap to you, try this Onkyo TX-SR606 with 4 HDMI inputs [reviews.cnet.com]) have auto-detect switching.

Zlevee

I would say don't drop everything for this update; don't bother unless you really have some time to kill.

I used to really enjoy the Watch Instantly feature on Netflix. Sure the catalog was slim pickings, but I saw a bunch of obscure, good movies that I would never have considered wasting a rental disc for.

I even bought a Roku box.

But when they added a bunch of movies to the catalog that a lot of people actually wanted to watch, plus the new Xbox "experience", they underestimated the demand spike and now the whole catalog is completely unwatchable because the bandwidth is maxed out.

I still fire up the Roku several times a week just to see if they've fixed the problem, so far no dice. I'm back to discs only for now.

Dont Know Me? You Are Me.

@mltdwn: I cant find it... when I goto Watch Instantly and then choose Genre, I dont have "HD" in my list. I have "Gay and Lesbian" and then "Horror" next. Guess Ill have to fire off an email to Netflix to see if there is something I need to activate or if Im just missing it in front of my face somehow.

aprather

@Xenocide: Sorry - I meant from Netflix. I dont have the vista media center plugin, Im running this on an XP box with whatever version of MCE came with that....

aprather

@aprather:

Just so everyone knows incase anyone else was wondering, I just got off the phone with Netflix tech support and the engineer (who seemed remarkably knowledgable for tier 1 support) let me know that streaming High Def from the PC is not supported at this time and they dont currently have a date for it, but "obviously we will get there". He said it was available on 360 but oddly didnt mention the Roku. He did say though that the Heroes episodes are streamed in a much higher bit rate than other movies and such. Too bad Ive already watched those on TV...

aprather

@edmicman: this CNET article [reviews.cnet.com] confirms what rizzle says - Pandora is the only difference.

Zlevee

@DoMiNaTi0n: yes please.

digitaluddite