Owned it for about a week so far. I read the other reviews and have not seen or experienced any of the same issues they have had with regards to apps and disc playability. There were however two firmware updates that I downloaded automatically after bootup and installed - these probably fixed the issues that others have seen. So far it has been a great player with fast loading and nice apps. It interfaces well with my Samsung HDTV and have only experienced good things with it. I tried many different Bluray discs including Avatar and have had no problems. I would recommend.
(UPDATE 7-7-11)
Downgraded from 5 stars to 1. The player took a dump on me...in a general sense. A couple of blu-rays were not playing back well (or at all). Mr. & Mrs. Smith had constant juttering of the picture, Knight and Day would give us an error saying that a software update was required by the manufacturer (had the latest firmware btw). I called Samsung customer support and they had me jump through all the hoops to determine that something was wrong with the player and they wanted me to mail it to them for repairs ect... Instead I called up the local store where I bought it and exchanged it for the Sony BX-58.
It was a very nice player until it wasn't. Samsung BD-D5500 3D Blu-ray Disc Player (Black)
I just received this player from Amazon three days ago. There are certain features of this product that exceed my expectation.
1.The Blu-ray disk reading is very fast. This is compared to the Panasonic DMP-DB60 Blu-ray that I had previously. This one is almost 10 times faster than the Panasonic DMP-DB60. I am very pleased by its fast reading capability.
2.You can connect a mass storage device to this machine to the USB port. I initially thought the USB ports were for small storage devices such a flash drive or thumb drive, like many earlier version Blu-ray/DVD players. But after I tried to plug a 500GB external hard drive into it, all the multi-media files on the drive were quickly recognized by the player. The reading was fast. I was pleasantly surprised by that.
3.Besides its high quality video output, the audio output is also very powerful. I connect this player to my "Logitech Z-5500 THX-Certified 5.1 Digital Surround Sound Speaker System", which is the best PC audio system that I have had so far (perhaps the best in the market). The sound is much more powerful than if the PC output is used. I had to tune the volume down by 1/3 of the normal level so that it won't shake the wall too much.
4.It plays many video formats and supports many codecs. It's the first Blu-Ray/DVD player that plays mkv video file that I've seen in the US market.
Please note that in order to have the subtitle of a video file to be read by the machine, you have to make sure the file name of the subtitle (with the extension of .sub or .srt) must be the same as the video file name. I didn't do that earlier. After I tried to play several video files, I figured it out myself, which made me more pleased with this product. I changed my rating from 4 stars to 5 stars.
I bought this player along with "Samsung UN55D7000 LED TV", which has several USB ports by itself. After a few days of use, I realized that the USB capabilities of this Blu-player and the TV are overlapped. But I was still impressed by the new technology.
Good:
Quick Boot
Plays the content it advertises
Looks sleek and has the newest collection of Samsung Apps
Bad:
Not sure if it's because this is new but the Hulu Plus & Netflix apps stutter uncontrollably. I brought this player to replace an excellent earlier Samsung model which never had this problem. It is so bad that a video could go 10-15 minutes without audio or out of sync. Sometimes the video will play in slow motion with no audio. I thought it was the apps' fault so I pulled up Netflix on my earlier Samsung blu-ray player and had no issues. Also pulled up Hulu Plus on a Sony blu-ray player and did not have the same issue. I have a 17 Mbps connection (actual speed not advertised) and the part that drives me up the wall is that Hulu Plus ads work perfectly on this player. Again, this must be the player because my other blu-ray players do not have this issue and the website does not either.
I have AV receivers and a nice home theater setup so since most blu-ray players play content very well and just bitstream audio to my receiver, the main difference will always be apps and this player was a dissapointment.
I have noticed this player to be the MOST RETURNED
Blue Ray Player Samsung makes.
I've been to Best Buy and CompUSA.
My findings have been from November of 2010 to Sep 2011.
Bunch of returns on the shelf every time
I go into the stores.
Excellent integration with a Samsung LED TV I bought at the same time; both have network ability and after a few days of testing it out I prefer to use the BluRay network (the sound is setup to go through the HT receiver, while the TV still outputs to speakers; I realize I could setup the TV to output through the speakers, but will have to drag some Toslink through the wall...)
The 'network' function is implemented well - you can get the IP address and other network information easily, and test your connection. The only thing missing is a measure of network speed (which can be done through its web browser).
One star was removed due to the terrible Samsung 'Allshare' software. I have a Win7 machine in my home office, with a speedy wired connection to an Apple Airport Extreme router. The BluRay player is connected via wire to a wireless bridge (a Trendnet wireless bridge I found at Amazon [...]) as it is too difficult to get Ethernet wiring to the family room (slab basement, brick exterior and a second floor on top so basically no crawlspaces at all).
Anyway the idea is to stream photos, music, and video from the main unit to the bluray player via this DNLA 'Allshare' software, and it is terrible! One hour after installation it is still grinding away at my fast office PC indexing >5,000 files (it didn't give me a choice to limit what it was indexing, incredible). Anyway after some research I cancelled the indexing, and installed Servioo instead, which is an open-source package for doing the exact same thing.
Bingo - it appears under 'My Contents' and 'Video'/'Photos'/'Music' and you have the choice to select the now-found 'Servioo' device, and from there can drill down into the folders you have specified. Just about instantaneous after setting up the software on the main PC, and easy-peasy.
I'm able to stream many file formats via DNLA, browsing folders and music is fine, and I'm going to have a lot of fun with the home movies accessed via the big screen. The kids will get a big kick out of seeing themselves more than life-size.
I understand the need to save money (and trees) by not providing a printed manual, but I'm getting too old to be reading 74 pages of a manual!
Anyway this player is so much better than the super-cheap (and non-networked) Philips player that it is replacing. I really like the Samsung apps (although admittedly only played around with Hulu Plus and not Netflix, yet); navigating an on-screen keyboard with the remote is an exercise in frustration though (for YouTube searches). The 3D function is fun (took advantage of a Shrek + glasses promotion) although it is a bit gimmicky, and nonetheless we got the higher-end system mainly for the networking ability.
I'm looking forward to many years of networked fun with this. - Blu-ray Player - Samsung - Blu-ray Disc Players - 3d'
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