Samsung BD-C5900 1080p 3D Blu-ray Disc Player

• Built-in 3D
• Internet@TV
• BD-Live? (Profile 2.0), BONUSVIEW
• Wireless LAN-ready (Wireless LAN adaptor not included)
• AllShare?

A BD player these days is not just for playing BDs and DVDs but also for playing music CDs and serving content from the internet.

Let me go through the nice aspects of this player first:

* Fast BD/CD load times disks load almost instantly

* Nice picture quality. Upscaling to 1080p works very well too (at least when viewed on a 46" Samsung LED TV).

* Overall nice for watching BD/DVDs

Here are the areas of improvement:

* Remote control buttons could be made better. Either the buttons are not good or the BD player does not respond fast enough forwarding, rewinding and using the direction buttons is not exactly fun.

* If your primary purpose is to view content online, skip Samsung entirely. Very few of the apps mentioned on their website are actually available. Go for Sony instead (I am returning this player and getting a Sony). The user interface is also poor. The new Apple TV is the best in terms of interface (and until third party apps are available on that, the Sony BD player should fill in the void).

* The player supports DLNA but the Samsung implementation is full of bugs. Besides it lacks features such as shuffling songs, forwarding or rewinding video and that makes it practically useless.

* Not at all recommended for playing music on a hi fi system you will notice the sound made when the disk rotates.

Overall, Samsung has done a poor job with its BD players. Its TVs are awesome but it has a long way to go in catching up on the BD player quality.

UPDATE Oct 26, 2010

I exchanged this played for Sony BD-P570 a couple of weeks ago. The Sony player also has issues with DLNA. Also, Netflix on Sony freezes all the time and several other features do not work despite a firmware upgrade. I cannot recommend Sony either and am still searching for a BD player with network features that work as advertised. If you are aware of one, please let me know.

UPDATE Dec 23, 2010

After trying several other players, I finally came back to the Sony BDP-S570 3D Blu-ray Disc Player when the price on Amazon dropped to $138 a few days ago. With the latest firmware (several versions newer than the one I had tried earlier, the wireless setup and Netflix freezing issues are resolved. Further, this is the only player that plays 1080/60p, 28fps files from my Panasonic camcorder without any problems. I am bumping up my rating from 1 star to 4 stars.

If you don't want the hassle of trying different players and returning them like I did, go for Sony BDP-S570 3D Blu-ray Disc Player. It is not perfect but better than other players in the market.

Buy Samsung BD-C5900 1080p 3D Blu-ray Disc Player Now

The Samung C5900 makes a great option for a certain type of person... someone who already owns a Samsung 3D television. If that is not you this may be an ok Blu-Ray player for you, but there may be better options. However, if you own a Samsung 3D television such as Samsung UN55C7000 55-Inch 1080p 240 Hz 3D LED HDTV (Black) or Samsung UN55C8000 55-Inch 1080p 240 Hz 3D LED HDTV the Samsung C5900 is an excellent choice. Why? most of the features that people complain that the C5900 is missing is already incorporated into your television. However, the Samsung C5900 is a very affordable option to bring 3D Blu-Rays to your television.

A few notes

Remember you will need high speed HDMI cables if you want to play 3D Blu-Rays consider AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (6.5 Feet/2.0 Meters)[Supports 3D + Audio Return Channel] since they are MUCH cheaper than any of the cables you will find at the box stores.

Great picture quality on Blu-Ray video (as you would expect)

Does a great upconverting DVDs to near HD quality

Super fast loading time

One HDMI and one optical audio output (not including the more conventional outputs... but you wouldn't use those on a Blu-Ray... now would you?)

It has the ability to run Samsung Apps but unlike the Samsung BD-C6900 1080p 3D Blu-ray Disc Player and the Samsung BD-C7900 1080p 3D Blu-ray Disc Player it is NOT wireless.

Remember if you have the above-mentioned Samsung TVs you already have access to all of the Samsung Apps...so really all you need your 3D Blu-Ray player to do is play videos!

Final Verdict I find the Samsung C5900 to be a perfect fit for my Samsung UN55C8000 55-Inch 1080p 240 Hz 3D LED HDTV and it is a less expensive option than the other Samsung players.

5 Stars

Read Best Reviews of Samsung BD-C5900 1080p 3D Blu-ray Disc Player Here

The unit works fine most of the time, but it does have some issues that make me wish I had bought a different model.

First the good stuff. The included Samsung Apps are awesome. The firmware upgrade process is quick and easy. Streaming Netflix movies through this unit is better than streaming directly to my TV because it doesn't require a major rewire of my audio system as this unit is already connected to my AV receiver.

The unit is so light that pushing buttons actually moves it around. It would be great if it had a bit more substance so that it would just stay in place on the shelf. Occasionally, it pixelates, audio drops out, or just generally does strange things. As mentioned in other reviews, a power cycle will fix the problem. It only has one HDMI 1.4 output, so if you want to use 3D, you need to be sure you have HDMI 1.4 support through the entire path to your TV. My AV receiver is less than a year old, but doesn't support HMDI 1.4. That means that I have to either buy a new AV Receiver or connect the DVD directly to my TV. I chose the latter, but that means that I don't have surround sound for 3D content without some creative new wiring. I like the Panasonic approach to this better. Their 3D DVD players have two HDMI outputs (1-1.4 & 1-1.3), which allows you to connect one cable directly to the TV for the 3D picture and one to the AV Reciever for surround sound.

Want Samsung BD-C5900 1080p 3D Blu-ray Disc Player Discount?

I purchased this player because marketing materials stated that 3D capable blu ray players will run Hulu plus, and because I wanted the AllShare functionality. After 4 days, multiple support interactions and hours on the mysterious Samsung Apps website, etc, I have determined that this player does not support Hulu Plus. Apparently, the internet does not know this (I checked ALL of the internet). Samsung support once told me it would work (they told me to try again later, the website was experiencing difficulties), then they told me that NO samsung BD players support it (that is wrong too, there is a hands on review of the feature on CNET on another model), then they told me it was available on the BD-C6900, and would later be available on other players, but could not tell me when.

Also, the AllShare application, which supposedly allows you to stream music, video and photos from your home computer, was nowhere to be found, even though it is advertised on the box itself. I didn't have the willpower to attempt an answer from Samsung's idiotic robot-like support, since I have already decided to return it. (Edit: I later found the the AllShare app after a support call. Still pretty unintuitive, but I was able to set up streaming video from my home PC)

The Netflix interface is not nearly as good as the one on Rokuyou can only access items currently in your queue, and can't search other titles.

BluRay playback was gorgeous and problem free, but I only played one disc on it. The player would get 4 stars if all I cared about was BluRay playback. It would get 1 star for the advertised online applications, mostly because determining what the player is actually supposed to do is nearly impossible. Samsung support and documentation also gets 1 star. Their marketing department and website design team should all be fired. All in all, this player was a very frustrating experience.

I got this Blu-ray player free as part of the 3D package with my new Samsung UN46C7000 46-Inch 1080p 240 Hz 3D LED HDTV (Black). It's the only Blu-ray player I've ever owned and it is a nice compact unit that's easy to use, but it's been a little buggy at times.

Several times now it hasn't sent a signal through the HDMI cable and once the picture was pixelated, but a simple power cycle fixes the problem. It's not enough to make me send it in for repairs, but it is a little annoying.

Upgrading the firmware via USB is very simple and I've already done it once as it was 3 updates behind right out of the box.

Overall I'm happy with it and wouldn't hesitate to buy one for the small price it's going for.