Samsung BD-P1500

This machine represents another stunning turkey from Samsung. Like many of their products a superb piece of design is totally spoiled by disasterous reliability. I don't know who they use in their Q&A department but if I was in control they would all be going off for some re-training because while this systems looks great and has a fantastic specification my experience, like that of the other reviewee on here, was that after just a couple of disks it started to be plagued by reliability issues. The player became increasingly fussy over which DVD's it would play.

Strangely enough Blu-Ray disks seem unaffected - which is logical if, like me you are a nosey engineer and you have the courage to open the machine up and take a look inside because the drive uses two separate lasers, one for each format. PLEASE NOTE please don't do this unless you know what you are doing and DONT do it with the machine switched on or you could damage your sight if you look into the laser beam.

Finally the only DVD disk that it would play was a JETHRO DVD which is owned by our lodger. What makes that disk any different is a complete mystery - unfortunately I can't stand Jethro either so it isn't much good. Blu Ray playback continued unaffacted and superb...

To be fair if you give it a blu-ray disc you get superb picture and sound and rock steady playback. The unit also looks fantastic.

As the item was bought mailorder I just couldn't face all the arguing to get a refund so eventually in frustration I simply threw the unit away and replaced it with a Panasonic DMP-BD35EB-K

I suspect that there is a serious design flaw with the DVD laser as I have heard of many other people all of whom have, like me, either returned the machine as unfit or just thrown it away.

This is now the fifth samsung device that has failed on me prematurely. previously I have a a DAB mini hifi which lasted just 9 months, a microwave which lasted a year, a mobile which never worked properly, a hard drive which also failed after a year and I am affraid that this will be the last time ever that I buy anything from this appalling make. My advice is don't touch this rubbish with a barge pole. Buy a Sony or Panasonic player. They may cost more but you get what you pay for!

I would LIKE to give this item ZERO stars 1 star seems far far too generous given the poor reliability.