Samsung’s BD-D6900 3D Blu-ray player is a curious hybrid. Not only does it play Blu-rays, DVDs and CDs but it also has a Freeview HD DVB-T2 tuner and connects to the company’s new Smart TV apps portal. It will even double up as a PVR if you tether it to an external hard drive. It’s not so much a disc spinner as an entertainment centre for mid-morning (rather than early) adopters.
Play it again…Samsung – the BD-D6900 ticks an awful lot of boxes
The BD-D6900 is slim. Just 33mm tall on tippy toes, the thing has barely enough fat to accommodate back-panel connections. Bear in mind that ‘slimness’ is not synonymous with ‘designer,’ even if that’s what Samsung would like you to think.
Indeed, the build quality of the BD-D6900 is best described as slight. The top of the unit is finished with what appears to be a recycled biscuit tin. Needless to say, it’s not comparable with some of Samsung’s higher-end products. Read the rest of this entry »
There is no denying that the idea of one-box Blu-ray player, media streamer and HDD storage is a good one but, to date, we have not come across an example we could wholeheartedly recommend. Popcorn Hour’s C-200 Media Tank came close, but the price – which doesn’t actually include a Blu-ray player – the slight whiff of DIY and the persistent on-line chatter about firmware problems, all stacked up against it.
Mixed media: HDI’s Dune BD Prime 3.0
American manufacturer HDI has now taken up the baton with its BD Prime 3 Blu-ray media player. The essential idea is the same as the C-200 but HDI supplies a Blu-ray drive already installed. The machine is also being pitched as a media hub for everyman, rather than the technically accomplished hobbyist.
Certainly, the Prime looks the part and resembles many other pieces of low-to-mid-range AV kit from Japan or Korea with its black brushed aluminium and plastic case, discreet fluorescent display on the left of the fascia and a slimline footprint of 420 x 262 x 50 mm.
We say low-to-mid-range, because the disc tray and door actions aren’t the most refined we have encountered and the drive makes a fair old racket until the disc has settled down to play. Fascia controls are limited to basic media navigation buttons, the disc tray control and an on/off switch. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Sony recently updated its range of Blu-ray players with the entry-level BDP-S560, which is listed at around £300 on Sony’s UK web site, and the BDP-S760 for £400. Shop around online though and both models can be picked up for £80 less.
Top gear: Sony’s BDP-S760
Yet, despite the mid-range price-tag, Sony describes the S760 as its new ‘top of the line’ model, claiming that it provides video quality and features previously only found in high-end Sony models such as the BDP-S5000Es, which comes in at over £1000. That’s quite a claim, but we have to admit that the S760 really did deliver the goods. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Many people enjoying Blu-ray movies do so using a Sony PlayStation 3, while the rest of us will opt for a dedicated Blu-ray player. For the latter, philips is touting its BDP3000 as a budget player and, while certainly not the cheapest, it does offer 1080p playback, the optimal Blu-ray format.
philips‘ BDP3000: the shiny black fascia affords the minimum of buttons and distracting lights.
Presented in a 6cm-high box with a tastefully unfussy, shiny black fascia, the philips BDP3000 is a straight replacement for a DVD player. That is, it plays all your DVD Region 2 discs as well as high definition Blu-ray Region B titles, along with DivX movies saved to CD and DVD media, including home-recorded discs.
Additionally, the device has been designed to play media on CDaudio discs, MP3 and WMA CDs, and just about any disc that contains JPG images. Apart from a simple status window, the front of the unit is as featureless as you can get, providing just four buttons: Power, Eject, Play and Pause. It uses a tray-loading mechanism that is quiet and feels strong enough to resist clumsy treatment. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Installing a Blu-ray Disc recorder is the latest must-have upgrade for desktops, but because they remain thin on the ground, they maintain a price premium. Given the high storage capacity of the Blu-ray format, write speed is particularly important and we’re starting to see drives capable of 8x writing on 25GB and 50GB recordable media. Pioneer’s BDR-203BK appears to be waiting for the media to catch up.
Pioneer’s BDR-203BK: capable of 8x write speeds, if you can find the media
The BDR-203BK is the successor to Pioneer’s BDR-202 and much of the earlier drive’s look and feel is repeated here. This 5.25in internal drive has the same simple front panel, with powered tray, eject button, data LED and a hole for paper-clip-powered, emergency eject. There are also the same Sata data and power connections at the back, as before. Read the rest of this entry »
