Due in Australia soon the new Samsung Blu-ray player appears to have problems. Late last week Samsung moved to address image quality concerns noted by some reviewers of its high-definition Blu-ray disc player, the first on the market, saying it would make production changes.
A review in this month’s issue of Sound & Vision magazine in the USA claimed that movies played back on Samsung’s BD-P1000 player had inconsistent image quality, possibly due to a noise reduction circuit.
In an e-mailed statement, Samsung said it would modify the settings of the circuit in the production process to provide a “slightly sharper picture.” It would also provide owners of existing players with free upgrade discs to fix the problem.
Samsung started selling the player in June for around US$1,000 or A$1,333. The price in Australia is expected to be in excess of $1,500.
The Blu-ray disc format, developed by Sony is vying with the HD DVD, developed by Toshiba to be the high-definition replacement for the DVD.
Early glitches may not be decisive in the fight, which could take years for the market to resolve. Early response from consumers has been tepid.
Reviews by The Associated Press and Sound & Vision have said Toshiba’s $500 HD DVD player has excellent image quality but is clunky and slow in operation.
