10-30-2010, 09:59 AM
http://hometheatermag.com/3d-blu-ray-pl ... index.html
Samsung BD-C6900 Blu-ray 3D Player By David Vaughn
• August, 2010 Price: $350 At A Glance: Exceptional speed
• Plethora of streaming services, including Netflix, Blockbuster, and VUDU
• Built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi
• Blu-ray 3D
![[Imagen: 810sam3d.1.jpg]](http://hometheatermag.com/images/archivesart/810sam3d.1.jpg)
Blu-ray 3D Is Here
To 3D or not to 3D, that is the question. Sorry to go Shakespeare on you, but I’m skeptical as to whether 3D is the next big thing on the horizon. Samsung is one of the major players vying for your 3D dollar, and I have to give the company credit for leading the charge on the next advancement in home entertainment. You may recall that Samsung was the first company to release a Blu-ray player (BD-P1000). While that launch wasn’t as smooth as the company would have liked due to a faulty noise-reduction setting, Samsung eventually fixed it, and the format has now become mainstream. Is history going to repeat itself for Blu-ray 3D? And if not, is the BD-C6900 worth your 2D investment?
Tiny and Shiny
When HD disc players debuted in 2006, they weren’t the sleekest-looking devices. In fact, the Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player had the look and bulk of a 1982 VHS machine. I had no idea what a first-generation Blu-ray 3D player would look like, but I didn’t expect it to be as small as this. In fact, this is one of the smallest players I’ve seen, at 4 pounds and less than 9 inches deep.
The dainty player has no visible buttons on its glossy black faceplate. The only significant feature on the front panel is a hidden USB port on the right-hand side. A transparent window covers the disc tray. When you plug in the player, the top right-hand side reveals a touch-sensitive power button. Once you power on the Samsung, the Stop, Play/Pause, and Eject buttons glow to life. There’s also a glowing Blu-ray 3D logo that’s dimmable.
![[Imagen: 810sam3d.bac.jpg]](http://hometheatermag.com/images/archivesart/810sam3d.bac.jpg)
Rear-panel connections include a single HDMI 1.4 port that’s Blu-ray 3D ready and supports Deep Color. There are also component and composite video outputs. Audio outputs include 7.1-channel analog, stereo analog, and an optical digital (S/PDIF) output for lossy DTS, Dolby Digital, and two-channel PCM. The last connection is an Ethernet port to connect the player to your home network. If you prefer wireless, the Samsung also supports 802.11n Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi connection found my network without any problems, but I prefer to use hard-wired Ethernet since signal strength is poor in my equipment rack (due to my home network, not the player).
Unfortunately, Samsung doesn’t include a second audio-only HDMI output, as some Blu-ray 3D players do. This means that if your AVR or surround processor doesn’t have an HDMI 1.4 connection and you plan to watch a Blu-ray 3D movie, then you’ll have to use the 7.1-channel analog outputs in order to enjoy lossless audio. Whether you plan to use the player for Blu-ray 3D or not, the BD-C6900 can decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio and send it via HDMI as PCM to an A/V receiver or surround processor (HDMI 1.1 or later). It can also send the raw bitstream to an AVR with HDMI 1.3 (or 1.4). However, as with all such bitstream feeds, you’ll lose secondary audio (commentaries, PiP) and Blu-ray Disc menu sounds.
The HDMI output supports the Anynet+ function, which is Samsung’s proprietary HDMI CEC (Consumer Electronics Control). It lets a Samsung HDTV and Blu-ray player communicate with each other over HDMI. In theory, this simplifies playback. When you turn on the Blu-ray player, the TV also powers on and changes to the appropriate input. The player also sports BD Wise, which optimizes the video connection between it and the display based on the information exchanged. I didn’t test these features.
User Interface and Setup
When you first power up the player, you have to set up the basic parameters by selecting the language (English), the TV aspect ratio (16x9 Normal), and how it will connect to the Internet. Once you’ve set these parameters, you arrive at the Home menu, which has five options: Internet@TV, Videos, Music, Photos, and Settings. In addition, five of the most popular streaming services (Rovi TV listings, Blockbuster, Netflix, VUDU, and Pandora) have icons across the top of the screen. You can launch these without entering the Internet@TV interface. Unfortunately, the icons for the streaming apps aren’t customizable, so you’re stuck with the aforementioned five.
Internet@TV has a number of downloadable apps (all free at press time). These include USA Today, Picasa, Getty Images, and some games. Samsung lets you choose which apps to add. Be aware that these will eat into the 1 gigabyte of onboard storage. You could also use a USB thumb drive.
The Settings icon takes you into the setup area. Here, you can activate the 3D setting and tell the player the size of your display. The Blu-ray 3D specification requires this so the studios can master their discs to dynamically adjust things like text and graphics to the size of your screen. In the Settings menu, you can also enable 1080p/24 output, activate BD Wise (if you have a Samsung display), adjust the audio settings (internal decoding to PCM, bitstream, or analog speaker delays), and configure the Network connection.
The remote isn’t backlit. It’s consistent with other stock remotes I’ve used in the past, with the same frustrating user experience. The most often used keys (Stop, Play, etc.) glow in the dark for about 10 minutes, but the Popup Menu button doesn’t. The arrow and Enter keys are bunched together in a cross pattern. Directly above the up arrow is a Menu key that exits the movie and brings you back to the player’s Home menu—a very poor design choice. Ultimately, a universal remote may be your best option.
Tests and Real-World Performance
Over the past few years, Samsung has done pretty well in our benchmark video-processing tests, and the BD-C6900 is its best performer yet—it aced them all. Furthermore, its performance with real-world material is mighty impressive. It features reference-quality DVD upconversion, with excellent fine object delineation and minimal ringing.
If there were a 100-yard dash for Blu-ray players, the BD-C6900 would capture the gold. In fact, it mimics DVD-like speed in its boot-up and disc-loading times. From a cold start, the player arrives at the main menu in 9 seconds. Even the Java-intensive Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest took a mere 23 seconds to reach the trailers and then another 20 seconds to reach the menu. I experienced similar results from other, typically slow-loading discs, including Fox’s Avatar.
Firmware updates are a given with every Blu-ray player, and two updates became available during my testing. Each took less than 3 minutes to download and install, and all of my settings were preserved. I’ve read many complaints on the A/V forums about poor support from Samsung in regard to updating its players, but that certainly wasn’t my experience with the BD-C6900.
I used the player continuously for weeks in my system, and its performance never left me wanting for my reference OPPO BDP-83. The Samsung’s 1080p/24 output matches the OPPO’s, and whether I chose the internal decoding or bitstreamed the audio to my surround processor, the sound was very impressive. The disc drive mechanism is a bit loud during disc loading, which is a minor annoyance. But once the movie starts, it’s silent.
The closest you’ll get to watching 3D without those funky glasses is with Avatar on Blu-ray. The AVC encode features phenomenal depth and rich color saturation (especially blue), and the DTSHD Master Audio soundtrack encompasses the room with a range of discrete effects. The script is far from original, but you have to give props to James Cameron for his technological vision. If 3D finally succeeds—this is at least its third try, after all—he can take most of the credit.
On DVD, Star Trek: Insurrection’s opening sequence is a killer on players with poor deinterlacing performance, but the Samsung had no issues with the rooftops and railings. Its superior upconversion drew me into the picture. The image’s vivid detail amazed me. Granted, it pales in comparison with the Blu-ray, but I can only count on one hand the number of players that can squeeze this much detail out of 480 lines of resolution.
Stream Away
I’ve had the privilege of reviewing other Blu-ray players with similar streaming services from Netflix and VUDU. I love Netflix’s convenience and low monthly fee (about $12 per month), but the quality of its HD stream is more akin to a goodlooking DVD than true HD. The Samsung’s interface is the older type. It doesn’t let you add anything to your queue from the player, so you have to use a computer to make changes. The PS3 Slim and LG’s latest round of Blu-ray players let you browse Netflix’s vast offering of titles and add them to your queue directly from the player.
VUDU is a payper-title service. For $6, you can get a near Blu-ray-quality experience with one of its HDX titles. I watched a large portion of Avatar and was particularly impressed by the depth of the video. There was never a glitch in the streaming process. Blu-ray still has better quality, but on a smaller display, it would be very difficult to tell the difference between the two. Be aware that HDX streams require an Internet connection with a constant 4.5-Mbps download speed at minimum, or you’ll have to settle for a lower-quality 720p feed (2 Mbps minimum). A slower connection than 2 Mbps, and you’re limited to standard-definition—time to change your ISP!
The player is also a DLNA-certified digital media player than can display movie, photo, and music content from a compliant digital media server. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get this to work with my Windows Home Server even when I used a third-party DLNA client (Asset UPnP) that has worked with other DLNA-compatible devices. Samsung includes a proprietary software solution, the Samsung PC Share Manager, which installs on your PC. It simplifies the process, but since it isn’t compatible with Windows Home Server, I couldn’t use this aspect of the player. I did load some music and pictures onto a USB drive, and the Samsung played back these files without any issues.
Conclusion
With the smashing success of Avatar, Hollywood is convinced 3D will drive people to the theaters in droves. And with the boxoffice returns for Alice in Wonderland, How to Train Your Dragon, and Clash of the Titans, they are onto something. Will this success translate to the home video audience? We’ll have to wait and see.
Sadly, I couldn’t test the Samsung BD-C6900 player’s Blu-ray 3D capabilities (Tom Norton got that honor in the July issue). But I can attest that its 2D prowess is mighty impressive. I really love its speed, excellent audio and video output, and plethora of streaming capabilities. At $350, you’re paying a premium for 3D. But given this player’s feature set and performance with 2D Blu-ray Discs and DVDs, it’s a cheap price to have a 3D player in case you decide to jump on the bandwagon sometime down the road.
![[Imagen: 810sam3d.rat.jpg]](http://hometheatermag.com/images/archivesart/810sam3d.rat.jpg)
Samsung BD-C6900 Blu-ray 3D Player By David Vaughn
• August, 2010 Price: $350 At A Glance: Exceptional speed
• Plethora of streaming services, including Netflix, Blockbuster, and VUDU
• Built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi
• Blu-ray 3D
Blu-ray 3D Is Here
To 3D or not to 3D, that is the question. Sorry to go Shakespeare on you, but I’m skeptical as to whether 3D is the next big thing on the horizon. Samsung is one of the major players vying for your 3D dollar, and I have to give the company credit for leading the charge on the next advancement in home entertainment. You may recall that Samsung was the first company to release a Blu-ray player (BD-P1000). While that launch wasn’t as smooth as the company would have liked due to a faulty noise-reduction setting, Samsung eventually fixed it, and the format has now become mainstream. Is history going to repeat itself for Blu-ray 3D? And if not, is the BD-C6900 worth your 2D investment?
Tiny and Shiny
When HD disc players debuted in 2006, they weren’t the sleekest-looking devices. In fact, the Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player had the look and bulk of a 1982 VHS machine. I had no idea what a first-generation Blu-ray 3D player would look like, but I didn’t expect it to be as small as this. In fact, this is one of the smallest players I’ve seen, at 4 pounds and less than 9 inches deep.
The dainty player has no visible buttons on its glossy black faceplate. The only significant feature on the front panel is a hidden USB port on the right-hand side. A transparent window covers the disc tray. When you plug in the player, the top right-hand side reveals a touch-sensitive power button. Once you power on the Samsung, the Stop, Play/Pause, and Eject buttons glow to life. There’s also a glowing Blu-ray 3D logo that’s dimmable.
Rear-panel connections include a single HDMI 1.4 port that’s Blu-ray 3D ready and supports Deep Color. There are also component and composite video outputs. Audio outputs include 7.1-channel analog, stereo analog, and an optical digital (S/PDIF) output for lossy DTS, Dolby Digital, and two-channel PCM. The last connection is an Ethernet port to connect the player to your home network. If you prefer wireless, the Samsung also supports 802.11n Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi connection found my network without any problems, but I prefer to use hard-wired Ethernet since signal strength is poor in my equipment rack (due to my home network, not the player).
Unfortunately, Samsung doesn’t include a second audio-only HDMI output, as some Blu-ray 3D players do. This means that if your AVR or surround processor doesn’t have an HDMI 1.4 connection and you plan to watch a Blu-ray 3D movie, then you’ll have to use the 7.1-channel analog outputs in order to enjoy lossless audio. Whether you plan to use the player for Blu-ray 3D or not, the BD-C6900 can decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio and send it via HDMI as PCM to an A/V receiver or surround processor (HDMI 1.1 or later). It can also send the raw bitstream to an AVR with HDMI 1.3 (or 1.4). However, as with all such bitstream feeds, you’ll lose secondary audio (commentaries, PiP) and Blu-ray Disc menu sounds.
The HDMI output supports the Anynet+ function, which is Samsung’s proprietary HDMI CEC (Consumer Electronics Control). It lets a Samsung HDTV and Blu-ray player communicate with each other over HDMI. In theory, this simplifies playback. When you turn on the Blu-ray player, the TV also powers on and changes to the appropriate input. The player also sports BD Wise, which optimizes the video connection between it and the display based on the information exchanged. I didn’t test these features.
User Interface and Setup
When you first power up the player, you have to set up the basic parameters by selecting the language (English), the TV aspect ratio (16x9 Normal), and how it will connect to the Internet. Once you’ve set these parameters, you arrive at the Home menu, which has five options: Internet@TV, Videos, Music, Photos, and Settings. In addition, five of the most popular streaming services (Rovi TV listings, Blockbuster, Netflix, VUDU, and Pandora) have icons across the top of the screen. You can launch these without entering the Internet@TV interface. Unfortunately, the icons for the streaming apps aren’t customizable, so you’re stuck with the aforementioned five.
Internet@TV has a number of downloadable apps (all free at press time). These include USA Today, Picasa, Getty Images, and some games. Samsung lets you choose which apps to add. Be aware that these will eat into the 1 gigabyte of onboard storage. You could also use a USB thumb drive.
The Settings icon takes you into the setup area. Here, you can activate the 3D setting and tell the player the size of your display. The Blu-ray 3D specification requires this so the studios can master their discs to dynamically adjust things like text and graphics to the size of your screen. In the Settings menu, you can also enable 1080p/24 output, activate BD Wise (if you have a Samsung display), adjust the audio settings (internal decoding to PCM, bitstream, or analog speaker delays), and configure the Network connection.
The remote isn’t backlit. It’s consistent with other stock remotes I’ve used in the past, with the same frustrating user experience. The most often used keys (Stop, Play, etc.) glow in the dark for about 10 minutes, but the Popup Menu button doesn’t. The arrow and Enter keys are bunched together in a cross pattern. Directly above the up arrow is a Menu key that exits the movie and brings you back to the player’s Home menu—a very poor design choice. Ultimately, a universal remote may be your best option.
Tests and Real-World Performance
Over the past few years, Samsung has done pretty well in our benchmark video-processing tests, and the BD-C6900 is its best performer yet—it aced them all. Furthermore, its performance with real-world material is mighty impressive. It features reference-quality DVD upconversion, with excellent fine object delineation and minimal ringing.
If there were a 100-yard dash for Blu-ray players, the BD-C6900 would capture the gold. In fact, it mimics DVD-like speed in its boot-up and disc-loading times. From a cold start, the player arrives at the main menu in 9 seconds. Even the Java-intensive Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest took a mere 23 seconds to reach the trailers and then another 20 seconds to reach the menu. I experienced similar results from other, typically slow-loading discs, including Fox’s Avatar.
Firmware updates are a given with every Blu-ray player, and two updates became available during my testing. Each took less than 3 minutes to download and install, and all of my settings were preserved. I’ve read many complaints on the A/V forums about poor support from Samsung in regard to updating its players, but that certainly wasn’t my experience with the BD-C6900.
I used the player continuously for weeks in my system, and its performance never left me wanting for my reference OPPO BDP-83. The Samsung’s 1080p/24 output matches the OPPO’s, and whether I chose the internal decoding or bitstreamed the audio to my surround processor, the sound was very impressive. The disc drive mechanism is a bit loud during disc loading, which is a minor annoyance. But once the movie starts, it’s silent.
The closest you’ll get to watching 3D without those funky glasses is with Avatar on Blu-ray. The AVC encode features phenomenal depth and rich color saturation (especially blue), and the DTSHD Master Audio soundtrack encompasses the room with a range of discrete effects. The script is far from original, but you have to give props to James Cameron for his technological vision. If 3D finally succeeds—this is at least its third try, after all—he can take most of the credit.
On DVD, Star Trek: Insurrection’s opening sequence is a killer on players with poor deinterlacing performance, but the Samsung had no issues with the rooftops and railings. Its superior upconversion drew me into the picture. The image’s vivid detail amazed me. Granted, it pales in comparison with the Blu-ray, but I can only count on one hand the number of players that can squeeze this much detail out of 480 lines of resolution.
Stream Away
I’ve had the privilege of reviewing other Blu-ray players with similar streaming services from Netflix and VUDU. I love Netflix’s convenience and low monthly fee (about $12 per month), but the quality of its HD stream is more akin to a goodlooking DVD than true HD. The Samsung’s interface is the older type. It doesn’t let you add anything to your queue from the player, so you have to use a computer to make changes. The PS3 Slim and LG’s latest round of Blu-ray players let you browse Netflix’s vast offering of titles and add them to your queue directly from the player.
VUDU is a payper-title service. For $6, you can get a near Blu-ray-quality experience with one of its HDX titles. I watched a large portion of Avatar and was particularly impressed by the depth of the video. There was never a glitch in the streaming process. Blu-ray still has better quality, but on a smaller display, it would be very difficult to tell the difference between the two. Be aware that HDX streams require an Internet connection with a constant 4.5-Mbps download speed at minimum, or you’ll have to settle for a lower-quality 720p feed (2 Mbps minimum). A slower connection than 2 Mbps, and you’re limited to standard-definition—time to change your ISP!
The player is also a DLNA-certified digital media player than can display movie, photo, and music content from a compliant digital media server. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get this to work with my Windows Home Server even when I used a third-party DLNA client (Asset UPnP) that has worked with other DLNA-compatible devices. Samsung includes a proprietary software solution, the Samsung PC Share Manager, which installs on your PC. It simplifies the process, but since it isn’t compatible with Windows Home Server, I couldn’t use this aspect of the player. I did load some music and pictures onto a USB drive, and the Samsung played back these files without any issues.
Conclusion
With the smashing success of Avatar, Hollywood is convinced 3D will drive people to the theaters in droves. And with the boxoffice returns for Alice in Wonderland, How to Train Your Dragon, and Clash of the Titans, they are onto something. Will this success translate to the home video audience? We’ll have to wait and see.
Sadly, I couldn’t test the Samsung BD-C6900 player’s Blu-ray 3D capabilities (Tom Norton got that honor in the July issue). But I can attest that its 2D prowess is mighty impressive. I really love its speed, excellent audio and video output, and plethora of streaming capabilities. At $350, you’re paying a premium for 3D. But given this player’s feature set and performance with 2D Blu-ray Discs and DVDs, it’s a cheap price to have a 3D player in case you decide to jump on the bandwagon sometime down the road.