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 »
Review At first glance, Panasonic’s DMR-BS850 Freesat+ Blu-ray recorder is essentially identical in appearance to the DMR-XS350, it’s DVD version we reviewed recently. Actually, Panasonic offer two Blu-ray models with the £1000 DMR-BS850 featuring a 500GB hard drive, while the DMR-BS750 has 250GB drive and an £800 price tag. Shop around is all we can say to that.
Panasonic’s DMR-BS850: Blu-ray recording for the HD enthusiast
Compared to the DVD recorder, these twin tuner Freesat+ machines feature HD recording onto Blu-ray discs. Lest we forget, the blue light on the front panel to let people know you have something fancy on the sideboard. This also illuminates to indicate when an SD card is in the slot but, mercifully, can be extinguished too.
One other minor difference is that the VieraCast facility is a little more feature-rich than that of the DVD version, adding weather, Bloomberg market information and the Tagesschau German news service to the Picasa and YouTube offerings included on the DVD model. Annoyingly, there’s a chirp from the audio with each keypress when you’re using VieraCast on these units, and unlike on Panasonic’s TVs, you can’t turn it off in the options.
In terms of connectivity, case design and basic functionality there’s no major difference between the Blu-ray and DVD recorders – so rather than re-hash it all here, take a look at the DMR-XS350 review for our thoughts on the interface and day to day usage. Read the rest of this entry »
