Samsung blames bad Blu-ray reviews on faulty chip
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Jul 19th 2006 10:25PM
posted Jul 19th 2006 10:25PM
Scott Wilkinson of The Perfect Vision was testing out his demo Samsung Blu-ray player and was surprised by the poor PQ, especially compared to the Blu-ray demos he had seen in the past. A few calls later and Samsung engineers determined that the noise-reduction circuit in the player's Genesis scaler chip was enabled, causing the picture to soften significantly.
Wow, how could this happen and could it really be this simple to resolve the poor reviews from Blu-ray? Talk about getting off on the wrong foot. Samsung plans to resolve the problem in future units and as well as release a firmware update for existing owners.
via [High-Def DVD Digest]
If that is truly the case, why is it that some movies look great, while others look VERY poor? If it was a chip in the player, wouldn't ALL the movies look like crap?
Of course this does beg the question about how 1080p is "beyond HD" when all the player is doing is converting from 1080p on disc to 1080i (cos the Broadcom chip they use can only output 1080i) then through a scalar to 1080p. Quite how this is better than outputing 1080i into my 1080p TV which will use it's scalar (which is almost certainly better than the one on board the BD player) to deinterlace to 1080p. Sigh.
Also the scalar doesn't account for all the motion artifacts that ae very very apparent on the movies released so far. It couldn't be because they're encoded with MPEG2 and are space constrained on a 25GB single layer BD disc could it?
Bullsh*t, They Look just as bad on a Vaio desktop PC.
I like the Design. But seems quality video leaves to want best. But seems quality video leaves to want best
HDDVD Fan,
According to the article it states that if the scaler is enabled when it isn't supposed to be that it can create the motion artifacts. I guess we really won't know for sure till there are other players.
WiFiSpy,
Have you see a Vaid Deaktop with Blu-ray or read a review?
When I watched Blu-ray titles, in addition to softness of the picture (compared to HD DVD) I noticed a lot of compression artifacts which to me were even more annoying than softness: washed-out colors, unnatural skin-tones, dull, flat-looking picture, color-bending, loss of detail on moving objects and very noticeable mosquito noise. In comparison, most HD DVD titles don’t have these artifacts, or at least they are much less noticeable. I suspect that some of them are caused not by the player, but are due to the fact that current Blu-ray titles use less advanced compression (MPEG-2 vs. VC-1) on a smaller disc (25GB vs. 30GB) and as a result have to use much heavier compression.
I would be interested to know if the author observed compression artifacts with the modified player?
Samsung certainly isn't feeling blue about the new high-def DVD formats. In fact, they're touting their BD-P1000 Blu-Ray player here at the big show even though we don't have any Blu-Ray movies with us. We're not sure if the model number was meant to match the price, but the unit will list for around $1,000. HDMI output is included at no extra charge as is backwards compatibility with most of today's standard DVD formats (DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD-R, DVD RW, and DVD R). The BD-1000 should bloom in the springtime here in the US, so we're saving up the grand now; and looking for some of those Blu-Ray movie discs, natch.
^^^ I hope your joking.
This is interesting news, but I thought the bad reviews were being blamed on bad movie transfers and not the player itself. I look forward to hearing from post-updated owners.
Most people probably think they already know all they need to know about blu-ray, but I have some new information to bring to light. I begin with critical semantic clarifications. First, blu-ray's policies are an icon for the deterioration of the city, for its slow slide into crime, malaise, and filth. Blu-ray's doctrines manifest themselves in two phases. Phase one: break down age-old institutions and customs. Phase two: flout all of society's rules. Now for some parting advice: Look at the facts. Analyze the arguments. Think about the motives of the people who are telling you that the boogeyman is going to get us if we don't agree to blu-ray's demands. And have confidence in yourself. Remember, blu-ray's attendants should reevaluate their cherished assumptions about narcissism.
(this is extreme sarcasm)
Check this very thorough review of the Samsung player for all the details about how the picture looks and why:
http://www.ultimateavmag.com/hddiscplayers/706dsamsungbd/
I returned my Samsung BD-P1000 to Circuit city after an immensely depressing trial. The picture quality was all over the map but I must say that the source material seems to be the issue more than anything else. However, the failure of the unit to decode DTS audio was a killer. As we've heard, a revised Samsung Blu-ray is on the way. The box is sexy as hell and all those blue LEDs are nifty. But for $1,000? C'mon!!