Samsung’s BD-2500, BD-2550 get HD Netflix streaming
If you remember, we reported to you that two of Samsung’s Blu-ray players would be getting support for HD Netflix streaming at some point in the future via a firmware update. Well, that time has come as it has recently been announced that Samsung’s BD-2500 and BD-2550 have gotten the firmware update that enables this feature.
The firmware, version 2.1, adds “support for Netflix VC1-AP HD Stream” along with improving playback compatibility for some movie titles. If anyone has either of these BD player’s we’d love to hear about how the new HD Netflix streaming goes for you, let us know!
Oh yeah, you can get the firmware update here.
December 7th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
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December 29th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Over the Christmas I picked up a Samsung LCD TV and their 2550 player. The draw of streaming had not been my original impetus. More likely it was the compatibility between the remotes controls and the number of analog audio outputs on this Blue-Ray player. We have an X-Box 360 that can do the Netflix trick as well so this feature was no way a show stopper.
The player did not come with the updated firmware so after watching the requisite Batman disks, this was the next objective. One way to do the upgrade is directly via the internet. The first hurtle was that DHCP did not work with my Airport setup for some reason. After a minimal amount of fiddling about, I decided to go into the player and hard code the IP address. This worked well and so I set up pulling time from the network and asked the unit to start the firmware update.
This firmware update came across in a few minutes and shut the unit down after loading. Upon start-up, I saw the selections for Netflix and Pandora. I immediately selected one and was subsequently informed via the screen that the network was not working. Did you guess that the firmware download would default the network settings that were coded just in via the remote? An easy fix, but I didn’t see that coming. Thanks Samsung!
On with the show! After configuring an account, I was able to key in the unique identifier from my X-Box and also from the 2550 Blue-Ray player at my Netflix user page. In the mean time, I had also chosen a few titles into my ‘Play It Now’ queue at the same site from my laptop. Once this is done, you can see these selections scrolling across your screen inside the *BRIGHT-RED* Netflix function on your set or console.
One of the first titles I viewed was an animated Hellboy selection, not much of a test of true to life colors but it looked good. I say “looked” by chance, but it brings up a glitch I found with syncing the audio. The sound was a few seconds off. We tried pausing and restarting but the issue persisted. At this point, just wanting to see the rest of that story, we switched to the X-Box and the out of sync audio problem was gone. Not only that, I was a little impressed with the feature of moving to a new device, Netflix keeping track of where in the performance you were, and letting you start up where you left off.
I called it the sound sync thing a glitch because after several hours lost on the couch playing with the thing; I have yet to see the issue again. On top of that, we don’t even know if it was something on the Netflix streaming server or going on at my player. The only possible major issue I wonder about could be the routing of audio to analog where I have only a subwoofer attached. This Sub did not always come on watching movies, although at this point I have done little investigation and don’t really have a permanent audio solution going, so perhaps this is an issue on my end. My expectations were low, but the delivery is really good. I presume that this will have a bit more fit and finish, but what you don’t see out front, you can use the latest download of the manual to look up.
Overall, I am more than impressed. I am mystified it works so well. As a technologist my whole carrier, I am normally hard to wow, but it works well enough that I will take this application of technology over cable or renting videos.