Samsung BD-C8500 500GB HDD Blu-Ray Home AV Centre with Wi-Fi

After having read a number of reviews, some positive, and some critical, of both the BD-C8200 and BD-C8500 I decided to finally take the plunge and go for the 8500, partly because it offered in one box very much what I was looking for (combined DVD/Blu-ray, Freeview HD recording and USB Media Player), and partly because I saw it available for an excellent price (approx £250 at the time!!). I compared the Samsung with rival products such as the Panasonic 780/880 recorders and of course the various `disc-less' HD PVRs such as the Humax, but the Samsung was considerably cheaper than the Panasonic, and crucially combined DVD/Blu-ray with recorder in comparison with other PVRs... and that's what swung me towards it. At the price it is excellent value.

As some others have said, this product needs to be seen in context and considered in terms of what it actually offers for the price. I've seen both 8200 and 8500 available at greatly ranging prices (at time of writing from, typically, £300 up to £550 for the 8500). How you rate the Samsung really depends on what you're after, and how much you pay for it. If paying £400+ I think there are alternative routes which would offer more (eg. a Humax HDR-FOX-T2 plus a standalone Panasonic Blu-ray player, if you don't mind having two boxes...), but at the better prices (sub £350 for 8500) the Samsung is very good value for what it offers. My review comments needs to be taken in this context - at the RIGHT price the Samsung is great value.

If the Samsung has a failing, hardware wise, it would be - as others have noted - that it only has a single tuner. Historically that wouldn't be a big deal (VCRs and even many modern PVRs have traditionally been single tuner), but with most of the standalone Freeview HD boxes having dual tuners, it is something to be aware of in making comparisons. However, I don't think that warrants a `criticism' as such. It is what it is. If you buy a 1.4 litre car for much less than a 2.0Gti you can't `rubbish' that car as a result. It offers less, but it costs less. Likewise with this Samsung - it offers a single tuner Freeview HD recording. If you want dual tuner, but with a built-in drive, than the Panasonic is for you - but It will cost possibly double the price! Alternatively you can sacrifice the Blu-ray drive and buy a Humax... or you buy a Humax and a standalone Blu-ray player, but that, again, costs more and comes in two boxes. Personally, I'm happy with one tuner (I very rarely need to record two channels at once) and the advantages of the Samsung outweigh that limitation.

But let's briefly consider a few of the GREATS and the FAILINGs of these models.

THE GREAT

It offers a unique single box solution (the only `direct' rival is the Panasonic 780/880 and that has its gains & losses in comparison. You gain dual tuner, proper Freeview+ support and Blu-ray writing, but you lose wireless internet access, client based DLNA, wide Codec support on media player etc... and it is MUCH more expensive!)

SUPERB picture quality. It REALLY is. On Blu-ray, Freeview HD and Freeview SD. The best quality Freeview I've seen in fact, especially the handling of SD pictures. Given that most channels are still SD this is really quite important. The Samsung delivers better SD recordings than, for example, the Humax Fox does.

There is a great Media Player. There are various products about which aim at just this one function (playing music/videos from USB drives, network streaming or internal HD), but this Samsung has it built-in - and it works VERY well. It has a really wide CODEC range, plays most of the files I've tried, and handles them really nicely. Some criticism from others may be down to older firmware - the latest (1006) version played the files smoothly, in sync, and with fast forward/review all working nicely.

It has Wireless internet access, including DLNA access (as a client) to your files on your PC. Yes, as others have said, iPlayer isn't out yet, but judging by Samsung's recent Internet@TV developers conference and their big autumn marketing push I'm sure it's imminent.

It has a nice, slick, user interface, EPG and general usage (yes, despite some criticisms from others I think it is really nice). The remote is fine (really!) and I'm very happy with the whole way it works.

It is quiet (no loud fan noise) and seems solidly built.

Oh, did I mention? ... It works! Yes, it might not `do everything' (see below), but what it does works nicely.

THE NOT-SO-GREAT...

OK, it isn't perfect, so let's point a few things out. I say this mainly in hope that SAMSUNG are reading as most of the failings could/should be fixed by a firmware update. Some would be very simple fixes really.... Hopefully they'll be addressed sometime... if not, the product is still good - but it COULD be great!

Single Tuner (said enough about that already I think).

It is not Freeview+. `Freeview+' is an official standard for recording boxes which defines various features which they should offer. The Samsung lacks some of these - mainly, I think, because Samsung aimed to launch this product in time for the World Cup. However, they COULD add these features via firmware. What it means is that whilst you can record channels, or select programmes to record from the EPG, the 8200/8500 lacks proper schedule time tracking (so it starts recording at the time shown in the EPG... not the EXACT time the programme goes out), and it lacks `proper' series record (although you can set a recording to repeat daily, weekly, Mon-Fri etc).

The 8200/8500 (and 8900 I suspect) has some restrictions which could be really described as bugs: As mentioned, it doesn't track schedule changes when recording from EPG, hence it can miss the start or end one or two minutes of some programmes, and as a consequence, because it labels recordings with the name of the programme at the START time this may sometimes be the prior programme (why can't it `remember' the selected name from the EPG and label using that?). These bugs could be avoided, either with proper Freeview+ support (see above), or with some simple tweak - eg. offer a user setting to add 1,2,5 minutes to start/end of EPG recordings.... And label recordings with EPG name, not `broadcast' name at start time.

Another bug is that the wireless internet can sometimes `lose' connection once machine is turned off and then back on.

Finally there are some other restrictions which COULD be improved: you can playback CDs/DVDs/Blu-rays whilst TV is recording, but you can't do anything else. I don't mind the single tuner restriction, but Samsung - could it at least be improved to allow playback of a recording whilst recording something else?

CONCLUSION

Overall, despite not being `perfect' I think the Samsung 8500 is a great machine for the price (for the right price!). With a unique all-in-one solution it delivers superb picture quality for Blu-ray, and both SD and HD recordings, and combines an awful lot in one package (including Media Player and Internet@TV). There's little direct competition and you really need to just decide what you need before you buy. I'm giving it 4 stars, but with a few tweaks in the firmware Samsung could really make this deserve 5. Go on Samsung - make it Freeview HD+ and brush most of the criticism aside. :-)

I was eagerly awaiting this Samsung BD-C8500 500GB HDD Blu-Ray Home AV Centre with Wi-Fi. The pictures looked good there was a lot of excitement in the press about this and I had been waiting for about three months to order one. The box arrived, I opened the box then opened the box inside the box, then the next box. It was like a russian doll. It really added to the anticipation of opening the product and getting it fired up.

It looked really nice with it's pretty heart beat pulsing blue lights on the HDD and the blu-ray. I soon had the internet set up and it logged on to do it's updates. This also added to the anticipation, although if I am honest when I say anticipation, I mean mild frustration. Why can't it just work out of the box! It also needed to download the widgets and install them; altogether it took about 40 minutes to get it up and running.

The interface is reasonably straightforward to use and I was soon watching Channel 4 in high definition and spring-watch, which bowled me over with the picture quality. I tried one of the blu-ray discs that came in the box and that was when the anticipation slowly started to turn to a niggling feeling that maybe, just maybe I wasn't going to be entirely overwhelmed with this. But I thought "No!, this has to be a brilliant product!". The advert says it takes less than 15 seconds to boot up; it took about 1 minute! This wasn't the worst thing though, I think I can live with waiting an extra 45 seconds for a film! The real problem with this product is that it is stupid!

This product is a real step backwards in technology. don't be fooled by the internet@tv and the wifi. Whilst those functions work well on their own there is no point having them. I have just sold a 5 year old Humax standard definition twin tuner9200t PVR which could teach this pretender a thing or two.

The reason why? Well this brand new product which is sold as a home av centre has one major problem. You can only use one thing at once; I know stupid isn't it! The Humax could record two things, play a third or depending on what channels you had recording you could watch a third. The Samsung however is massively disappointing, a product which is sold as a multitasker with a blu-ray player, wi-fi and internet@tv should be able to at least do two of those things simultaneously but it just hasn't got the cerebral capacity! For instance if you are recording a tv channel and you want to leave that to watch a blu-ray you can't! Instead you get a message that says "Do you want to leave this function and go to a new function?".

It's the same with any function you choose, either blu-ray, internet or freeview, you can only do one thing at once. I'm not going to go on and on about this and rant and rave. I would just recommend to you that if you are thinking about buying this to minimise the number of boxes and connections you have or even worse are about to sell your blu-ray player and freeview box thinking that this will do them both, then don't!

The only good thing about this product is the picture quality. It is phenomenally brilliant. Both in high definition and standard definition. If this was a freeview tuner on it's own it would be a brilliant (although overpriced) package) It's just not worth buying it due to the lack of multitasking.

And one last thing, the love film widget even though it is brand new (bought in June) the love film widget says it will be available in May this year! And obviously still doesn't work!

In summary, the box looks good, the picture quality is excellent which all makes it pretty but the lack of multi tasking functionality makes it a stupid box! Which is pretty stupid when there is so much competition around!

I read a lot of the bad reviews before buying this and am so glad I was not put off. What you get is a massive storage hard disc recorder [including HD channels] and a bluray player. There is no link between the two [you can't copy a recorded film on to a dvd] but the picture quality on both is superb. Yes, there are all sorts of things you might wish it would do- these are well-documented in other reviews, but what it does do it does very well. I have made little use so far of its internet facility, but it is an added bonus. For under £400 plus £50 worth of bluray discs I have got an excellent bargain. I am well-pleased.