Samsung BD-D5700 3D Blu-ray Disc Player (Black) [2011 MODEL]

Up until this point we have been Blu Ray holdouts. But now that these players are able to stream a lot of services that my wife and I enjoy over XBOX Live (Netflix, Hulu), as well as services I've typically used my computer for (MLB.tv), I wanted to go ahead and jump in. I'll start by saying that this unit does wifi, but I'm currently not utilizing that feature. I purchased this particular unit because it's listed on Samsung's site as being capable of running the MLB.tv app, while some of the non-wifi devices did not list that particular app. That was a deal breaker for me, so I paid the extra money despite the fact that our router is located right next to our entertainment system. Just to make sure everything was set up correctly, I did log in to the network, and it worked just fine on this unit. But ultimately, I feel like if I can hardwire something that I'm going to be streaming content from on a daily basis, I might as well. Set up was simple, and the unit is phenomenally sleek. With both the TV and Blu Ray player off, when I turn the Blu Ray player on, it also turns on the TV. On top of that, it also turns the TV's input to the HDMI that the unit is hooked into. Technology is making us lazier, but when it comes to something like this, "Thank you, technology". After receiving this player, I immediately hooked it up and tried a Blu Ray that we had from one of those combo packs, and it looked fantastic. Better than the DVD that we had previously purchased the movie for. Like, significantly better. Why have we been holding out, again? It DOES take a little bit of time to load. I'd say 20-30 seconds, maybe? Some people might be bothered by this, but for the last few years we've just used the XBOX for DVD playback, and I don't really feel like that's THAT much faster of a choice. What I really purchased this for was the streaming/internet functionality. I won't lie: The UI for the Netflix and Hulu Plus apps is not as clean as it is on XBOX Live. On Netflix, titles display in a grid as opposed to a long line of titles in your queue. It's just not as nice, IMO. But it's definitely functional. And the picture looks just as great as it does on my XBOX. I'm going to take a moment to focus on the MLB.tv app, because when I was researching Blu Ray players, that info was a little harder to come by. Samsung, LG and Sony are the only manufacturers who offer an MLB.tv app on their Blu Ray players, and even then, not all of their players offer it. In fact, I believe Sony only makes it available on their PS3. And with Samsung and LG, it's absent from some of their lower end (IE, non-wifi equipped) players. I set up my account, but it gave me an error message immediately. Turns out I needed to download the newest firmware, to a USB key, and then load it to my player. This is the type of thing that will turn off others from a purchase and possibly have them sending the player back to Amazon. I don't know why, when I first turned this player on and it downloaded a new firmware update, it didn't download the NEWEST firmware. Granted, according to Samsung's website, it had just released, but even when I manually searched for the firmware on the player, it didn't find it. But I will say that downloading it to a USB key and loading it in was fairly simple. Maybe just a little more than some might like. Regardless of all that it took to get working, the app works great. And the picture is ridiculous. HD quality 95% of the time. All in all, we're very happy with this player. It's really sleek and fits in great with our entertainment system. It takes a little bit extra to set up some of the streaming features, but you won't devote an entire evening to set this thing up. Also, for anybody coming from something like an XBOX to play movies: this player is SO quiet. Like, not even realizing it's on sometimes quiet. So much different than the XBOX.

I got this blu-ray player when it was $99 during the Black Friday sale. And I was debating because of the mixed reviews I saw, but decided to go ahead and buy it. Pros: Setup was fairly quick, it was under ten minutes to get it updated and install Smart Hub. I've had no problem with the wireless, it connected quickly. Picture quality is amazing, there's no doubt about it. Youtube has been working fine. Now it has split the screen in two in some videos, but I can always find another video were it doesn't do that. So its not really a big deal to me. Cons: The main one is that its just plain slow. It takes about a whole minute before starts playing the blu ray. It just reads and reads the disk, until finally it plays. So as of right now I'm not really thrilled with it. Because it just slow, but I'm going to give it a few more days.

I purchased this blu-ray player to steam Netflix to my 2nd floor bedroom approx 2 months ago. It replaced my Sony BDP-300 (OG) blu-ray player. I was concerned about wireless steaming from previous experience, but this works 90+ percent of the time. The distance between my router and the player is approx 45 Ft (floor and two walls) and I have a Signal to noise ratio of about -65 dB to -70 dB measured on my phone. in the two months of daily usage it has lost signal approx 2 times. Each time I Reboot (power-down and power-up) and it streams properly. I run a BP-1600 hardwired to the same network down stairs and it has similar availability. The remote is very generic but very good communication from 25 ft away. It does surprisingly lack stretch functionality so I need to adjust my TV to stretch 4:3 to 16:9. The Blu-ray launch time is phenomenally fast(quicker than my old DVD players). The remote has a dedicated Netflix button, but note it usually messes thing up if you press it during booting. The Samsung app store is interesting and applications of note are Facebook, Google Calender Amazon Movies and Google Maps. The major impediment to using this is their old cell-phone keyboard format (press "1" slowly 3 times for c) and no option for a virtual Qwerty arrow around keyboard. Accessing apps is not fast either the awkward keyboard and slow app load speed make my smart phone an easier option. There is global (Netflix-Amazon and other sources) movie search engine, but I'd rather walk down stair and punch it in my laptop than deal with the keyboard. Netflix streaming and GUI are on par with running on my laptop. The only thing missing is the subtitle for hard of hearing option I am hoping that will come with the next update. As far as updates the first one went quickly & smoothly in a suprising quick 2 minutes. It questions you if you want to update now or next time it boots. An excellent machine if you only require stereo and component video or if you run all HDMI Like me.