Samsung BD-C5500

The BD-C5500 is Samsung’s new entry level blu-ray player in the sub$200 market. Although it’s an entry level player it does come with many of the latest features, multimedia capabilities and streaming content from the web.

In line with the green movement, the Samsung BD-C5500 features an environmental friendly eco-design which draws 13 watts during use and a mere 0.1 watts on standby.

Latest Update: Limited Stocks of Samsung BD-C5500 Now on Sale at Amazon.

Samsung BD-C5500 Blu-ray Player

Samsung BD-C5500 | Player Details Opens in new window

Design

The Samsung BD-C5500 looks slim and sleek in a glossy black finish. The sharp squarish design and touch sensitive controls give it a high tech look. Tucked neatly behind a drop down panel on the left is the disc tray. The power button on the right is illuminated on standby so you won’t have any problems turning it on in a darkened room.

Connectivity

bdc5500-back

Samsung BD-C5500 Back Panel Connectivity Options

Being a basic model the connectivity options are limited. On the back panel you get a HDMI out, component video output, digital optical audio output, stereo analog audio output and an Ethernet port. Wi-fi is not included in this model but there is an input for an optional wireless LAN adaptor. Additionally there is a USB port at the front located beneath the power button.

Features

The BD-C5500 comes with a strong suite of streaming options. Once connected online you will be able to access Samsung’s latest incarnation of Internet@TV.

Here’s a summary of its key features:

  • Internet@TV – Provides streaming content and downloadable apps from Netflix, BLOCKBUSTER, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Pandora and more. (Note: Some apps like Twitter and Facebook are not available at the moment pending future firmware updates).
  • BD-Live ready – Get more out of a Blu-ray disc. BD-Live 2.0 lets studios future-proof their Blu-ray titles, so they can add content to BD-Live Ready discs even after they have been shipped. Simply connect your Blu-ray player to the Internet to download images, subtitles and more. Text-chat with friends during a movie, or play against others in online trivia games to unlock exclusive video content.
  • AllShare – Sync up your entire household. A wired or wireless DLNA connection lets you stream your PC audio and video files to your HDTV using your remote.
  • Full 1080p Picture Quality – The C5500 supports video resolution of 1080p for blu-ray discs with film based content without need for further conversion. It will also up-convert your collection of DVDs to 1080p.
  • Wireless LAN-ready (Wireless LAN adaptor not included)
  • Ultra fast play and disc loading
  • Advanced HD audio support for Dolby Digital TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio

Samsung’s new players also come with improved energy efficiency by using new technologies such as loader duty control and low voltage spindle motor. The BD-C5500 is compliant with the stringent EnergyStar® 4.0 guidelines.

The BD-C5500 does not come with 7.1 analog outputs. This means you will need to have a newer generation AV receiver that accepts HDMI to enjoy all the high resolution lossless audio codecs on blu-ray discs.

Setup & Performance

Setting up the player is simple and easy to follow using the onscreen GUI. The new GUI is a marked improvement on the previous Samsung players with a more pictorial approach. Be sure to do the firmware update first. Once that is done you should have no problems getting Internet@TV up and running.

Long disc loading times have always been a major issue with earlier generation blu-ray players. With these new crop of players, Samsung has finally buried the problem. This is the fastest player we have tested. It loads Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, a notoriously slow-loading blu-ray disc with Java heavy features, in 16 secs, which is about 9 seconds faster than the Panasonic DMP-BD65 and almost 20 seconds faster than the LG BD550. Quite a remarkable feat for an entry level player.

Blu-ray playback for is excellent delivering a sharp, crisp picture. On the Bucket List blu-ray, an early scene has Jack Nicholson’s character savoring a cup of espresso, served in an elegant gold-and-china demitasse, with easily discernible details. The color palette ranges from the subdued to the intense with just the right amount of color vividness. Flesh tone is natural and dark scenes are rendered with good shadow details. It may not rival the inky blacks of players in Oppo’s caliber, but this is very good performance for such a moderately priced player.

Although its blu-ray performance is outstanding, the same cannot be said for its implementation of DLNA features. Some functions like rewind and fast-forward are not available when playing a file stored on a DLNA server. Accessing jpeg photos can be excruciatingly slow at times. We hope future firmware updates will be able to resolve these issues.

Bottom Line

The Samsung BD-C5500 offers excellent value for money for those who want a reasonably good-performing player with the latest multimedia features. The easy setup and simple operation is ideal for those who are adopting high definition playback in the home for the for the first time. However, Wi-Fi connection requires an additional outlay in cost so choose this player if you have an Ethernet connection and do not need to connect wirelessly. If you absolutely need wi-fi capability, you are better off going for the BD-C6500 for about $50 more.

Actual User Reviews:

• “I have had the Samsung BD-C5500 Blu-ray player for about a week now and I absolutely love it. It was very easy to setup and worked perfectly right out of the box.
I have used this player to stream Netflix content from my Netflix instant queue. Streaming works very well and I haven’t seen it skip frames or stop to re-buffer the stream. Streaming music through Pandora has been great too. The Pandora app works well and has a good interface. Overall I feel like the device does a lot for how much I paid for it and is definitely worth the money. “ – J.Barlow (Utah,USA)

Read more »

• “I am very pleased with this unit. It worked just fine right out of the box. As someone who has worked in IT all my life, I expected at least some problems connecting to the streaming features. I was pleasantly surprised when the Netflix and Pandora interfaces worked without any setup problems whatsoever. And, by the way, the quality of the video and audio are stunning. Can’t find a reason not to give this unit five stars. “ – Mike (CA,USA)

• “This player is exceptional. Yay, no fan. It is attached to a Samsung PN42B450 and wired Ethernet. I was watching Netflix instant view within ten minutes after opening the box which it came in. For my particular installation I wish there could be a bit more space between the LAN jack and HDMI port on the back. I like that the remote is matte rather than glossy – no fingerprint smears. The on-screen menu is a bit clunky. I highly recommend this player.” – VisorBoy (WA,USA)

• “Sadly, the designs of consumer electronics these days resemble software on a Windows PC. Lots of features, but none of them work a 100%, nor do they fit together well. I found that Samsung BDC-5500 is not a good player for video files. Many of my files won’t play at all, even though their support is listed in the documentation and they were mastered a few years ago, so they are not on a bleeding edge of video codec technology. Some DIVX files play with a wrong frame rate (it’s as if your entire movie was shot as a dream sequence – very disturbing). Overall, my success ratio for playing downloaded movies was below 50%. The DLNA works, but just barely. “ – V.M.Kliorin (CA,USA)

Average User Rating:

Click Here For Latest Offer On Samsung BD-C5500
Enjoy Free Shipping & Secure Shopping