Samsung Electronics BD-D5100 Blu-Ray Disc Player – Black
December 12, 2011 by Cherry
Filed under Blu-ray Players
Samsung Electronics BD-D5100 Blu-Ray Disc Player – Black
- Built in Ethernet Port
- USB Input, HDMI CEC, BD Wise
- Multi format playback
Samsung BD-D5100 Blu-ray player
List Price: $ 99.99
Price: $ 99.99
Samsung BD-D5700 Blu-ray Disc Player (Black)
- Play your Blu-ray Discs or select from a wide variety of multi-format discs
- Connect to Samsung “Smart TV” Internet TV services for streaming media, social networking, and more
- Enjoy music, video, and photo files from both USB and networked DLNA-certified devices
- Built-in Wi-Fi for a wireless network connection without the hassle of cabling
- High-definition audio with decoding of Dolby Digital TrueHD and DTS Master Audio
- Enhanced Picture Qaulity
- Fast booting and loading time
- Samsung Smart TV
- WiFi Built-in
Samsung Smart TV and built-in Wi-Fi makes this Blu-ray Disc player a web-ready powerhouse. For those looking for a Blu-ray Disc players with advanced capabilities, meet the Samsung BD-D5700 Blu-ray Disc Player. It’s your portal to the online world, using Samsung Smart TV, which gives you the power to explore the entire internet, search content either on your TV or online, and use your favorite Samsung apps right on your TV. Wi-Fi connectivity is built right in without all the hassle of wires. This advanced connectivity comes in addition to a sleek and sophisticated design – the perfect complement to your home’s decor.
Internet-Ready Devices Internet-ready devices use your broadband connection to deliver dynamic content to
List Price: $ 179.99
Price: $ 179.99
Nice Blu-ray/streaming player,
I saw this player on sale at my local store. After reviewing other players I chose this Samsung player. Overall, I really like it, but I need to explain some things I think will help other prospective or current owners. Also, I’ve only used it with network cable and haven’t tried a wifi adapter.
Firmware Update – First of all, I want to say that the instructions to update the firmware wasn’t right. It is true that when you go to Settings, it will only let you try to update the firmware from the Internet (which didn’t work for me). So, you will have to use a USB thumb drive (maybe a Portable hard drive works too?) and plug it in the USB port on the front right side.
HOWEVER, there are two important things I found that the update guide didn’t mention.
1. You must place the .RUF firmware file in the root of the USB drive. The update guide tells you to just copy the folder over which didn’t work.
2. My USB drive was formatted to NTFS at first and I wondered why it didn’t work. After I formatted it to FAT32 and plugged it in the player it showed a pop-up and asked me to update the firmware! After the firmware update you get Allshare support (Stream from computer) and two more Internet Streaming apps (Vudu & Cinema Now). Original apps that come with it are Netflix and Youtube.
Image/Audio (Blu-ray/DVD) – I’m very pleased with the image and audio from an upconverted DVD I tried.
Image/Audio (Streaming/USB) – I use the Youtube app a lot. To stream from computer you have to install Allshare on your PC first. I see it uses very little cpu on my PC and looks and sounds great on my TV. I was able to skip forward/reverse when I played content that streamed from my computer. I haven’t played movies off my (portable hard drive/USB drive) yet.
Remote control – I actually like this controller a lot. No eject button on it, but that’s ok. However, when entering a search it can take a little bit to touch-type each letter with just the directional pad (Wireless keyboard support would be great to have).
Samsung Apps – I’m not sure, but I got the intention I might be able to get more apps by registering my player online with Samsung? I’ll need to do more research on that.
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|Does what it says on the tin.,
I purchased this after having had a Samsung DVD recorder which impressed me with it’s upscaling to 1080p. The BD player is quite basic, but there again so is the price. I upgraded the firmware on powering up. You have to do this via network cable as I did or via USB file as this isn’t one of those bells and whistles models with wifi.
With the firmware upgraded I was also able to make it region free for DVD’s, by finding instructions online. when you first power up you see a nice looking onscreen guide for doing the setup, this was a breeze even for a simpleton like me – It took about 30 seconds.
In my mini road test, I tried a bought DVD, a burnt DVD, a bought CD, a burnt CD and of course a Blu-ray disc, the unit played the lot without issue. I then tried a CD burnt with mp3 files and after selecting music and play, away that went as well. Then I took the SD card from our Sony handycam and it played the mpeg2 movie clips without probs, as was also the case after loading the same movie clips to a USB flash drive.
As I’ve already suggested, this is not one of those all singing and dancing BD players, but it still played all the types of media we threw at it and I’ve never had that happen with any DVD or BD player before – maybe I’ve just been unlucky here.
Start up is quite slow but a bit quieter than is my other BD player, but hey, we’re not on a tight time-schedule here, but I note from other reviews that this can be an important point for some. DVD upscaling might not be quite as good as it is with my 3yo Samsung DVD recorder, but there again this player cost only a third the price. it still manages a decent upscale.
This is a very small unit, less than two inches thick, It’s the usual width of other makes but only about 8 inches deep and is extremely light, so much so when I braced myself to pick it up, I very near threw it over my shoulder
)
The rear connectors are quite sparse, but this is typical of the new generation players – only a single HDMI and a single set of RCA composite connectors. Unless you have access to a free Blu-ray film library and possess an old fashioned non-HDMI TV why would you buy a Blu-ray disc player at 2-3x the price of a DVD player anyway. So why wouldn’t you connect by HDMI which is really the only way to view hi-definition blu-ray discs and appreciate all the benefits of viewing with deep color and 1080p 24fps just as the studios made them.
The only other hole on the rear panel is for the network cable – cat45 type, then on the neat uncluttered front panel is the USB port.
Remote control is nothing to write home about, but it has all the buttons needed and the player was very responsive to all commands.
I never or rarely award products with a 5/5 rating, as imo that rating should only be reserved for that rare and outstanding product, this isn’t one of those, but this is a decent all-rounder for a Buyer who’s seeking an easy-to-use machine on a budget.
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|Good player,
It is getting harder to find “just a Blu-ray player” but this one fit the bill. We have wi-fi ready tv so we don’t need all of the extras offered on blu-rays today. This one was a snap to set up and plays blu-rays and DVDs flawlessly and it can be connected to the internet if necessary.
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|Lack of Knowledge,
It surprises me how many negative reviews I read about Blu Ray players in general that have nothing to do with the player, but has everything to do with the person’s lack of knowledge about electronics. While researching for a Blu Ray player for my parents, I came across a guy who gave a player a negative review because the player’s box didn’t tell him that the cable modem that he was using wasn’t capable of supporting two Ethernet connected devices and that he would need a router for the player and his home computer to be hooked to the internet at the same time. It is not the Blu Ray manufactures job to inform the customer of basic facts. That would be like getting mad a car dealership for not telling a customer that the automobile needs gasoline to work correctly.
The next one that drives me crazy is when people complain about firmware updates. Wake up people. Your player is a dumbed down computer that is made especially for videos and will need updates from time to time. Do you get mad at Microsoft every time your home computer gets updates? No, you don’t. It may be annoying, but you do it anyways because you know it will make your computer run better. Also, whining about needing an update right out of the box is plain stupid. In fact, it makes me feel more secure about my purchase. It lets me know that the manufacturer is still working to make my device better even after they have my money. And it lets me know that if any new apps are released, my player may be able to handle them and, once again, make my home theater experience better.
The Samsung BD-D5700 was purchased because of the Built-in WiFi (I really have no idea why they even make WiFi Ready Players). I researched and compared all of the mid-priced Blu Ray players with Built-in WiFi and it came down to either a Samsung or Sony. I wanted the Hulu Plus App and these were the only two with that option. Both the Samsung and Sony models had decent reviews but each had a few negative aspects. The Samsungs had a slow load time reviews (time it takes to power up the player and play a movie) and the Sony models apparently had some spotty WiFi video steaming (Netflix, Hulu, YouTube). This player was going to be used at my parents on an N wireless router, so the Sonys were out. But a few weeks later I ended up buying a Sony that I hooked up to a hard line in my own house. Both work amazingly and have not had a single issue. But then I knew what situation each was going to be used for and planned ahead. And just so this review is complete, the Samsung does not load as fast as the Sony, but it is nowhere near the wait time as the earlier Blu Ray players.
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|Better than expected,
I haven’t much to add to the recent decent reviews for this product. I’ll give you my $0.02 and let you decide whether or not it helps.
I bought this after the death of my beloved LG BD390 whose ability to recognize any and all disc both puzzled and frustrated me. What I loved about that player was its ability to play almost anything I burned to disc and the added convenience of Netflix streaming. What I didn’t like, even when it was working, was main menu structure and the lack of sorting/searching for the Netflix app.
So flash forward to March of this year when I lost the ability to play any discs and was left with a device that could only stream Netflix (although a bad interface) and computer content (which was the spotty dnla) and I’m ready to research the purchase of something that will hopefully last longer and be more of what I want in an all around player.
With the expansion of online content I was hoping to find a player that was essentially a Roku box with the ability of playing blu-ray discs…and be able to play a host of other video filetypes (divx, avi, mp4, mkv etc) from streaming and from files burned to a data disc. I know that was a lot to ask, but I was hoping that this year’s LG offering would be the ticket. After reading reviews here on Amazon and elsewhere, I see that LG is having difficulty implementing their online content (i.e. hulu plus etc. not coming online–something I was looking forward to adding since I don’t subscribe to cable) and factoring in my 1.5 year short-lived player, I wasn’t too happy to jump back on the bandwagon. So I turned toward Sony and Samsung (my TV is a Sammy and the Anynet feature was icing on the deciding-factor-cake). Sony has a good reputation and feature set (Netflix, Hulu+, dnla, etc.) however, they have limitations on what filetypes are compatibile with the player (for me, this was important since I have hundreds of compressed video for my kids that we use on the TV and portable devices).
So, stacking up the feature lists, this player was ahead…stacking up the reviews, I should wait until 2012 to buy a player. Well, I’m somewhat impatient and decided to give Samsung the benefit of doubt.
It’s been a month, and so far so good. The online content does take some time to access. However, it works…just be patient; the dedicated Netflix button works well. I currently have Hulu+, Vudu, Youtube, Vimeo, Netflix, Picaso, Pandora, et al. all working fine with no problems with the high definition content. And having them all work, albeit slower interface than any computer, is better then having a faster interface with none or only a few of them working. Plus, the Netflix interface lets you search and see new arrivals! I find that I really like the Hulu+ interface and find myself using that service more and more. I do hope that Amazon VOD becomes available, but currently have enough to keep me occupied for the forseeable future.
Well, I won’t be purchasing the Roku & Blu-ray combo. I don’t need to. Wait, what about discs you say; afterall this is a blu-ray player: Blu-ray looks fantastic (I only wish one could skip all the ads from the Netflix discs), all content streaming or otherwise has worked (mkv, divx, etc.) and my kids are happy about that. I’ll update this review if things change.
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|Works as advertised,
I bought this machine about a week ago. Was concerned about the reviews that critized the Netflix streaming but comforted by the person or two that said the firmware updates would cause it to work. Anyhow, no problems. I followed the set up instrucitons on the screen and it has been working fine. Pic is great. Streaming is too. Have viewed several movies–streaming and DVDs– and everything seems to be as it should be. I am receiving my internet from Comcast using a Netgear N 150 router (a recent addition from them). And by the way, if the firmware was updated during installation, I wasn’t aware. All I did was follow the instructions as they came along —-entered my password from Comcast —and the one from Netflix.
I have never written a review before (it probably shows) but felt I should cause a lot of the BlueRays have been receiving some bad press. Almost went for a PS3 even though I am not a gamer…but that would have been a waste of another 100 or so.
Only negative is the remote. Too many buttons. Obviously not a big deal and at some point I may remember what I need to push without looking.
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