3. The Unit

• BD-P1000 Blu-ray Disc...
• • Payless Merchandise
  • $499.99

The BD-P1000 is noticeably smaller than the HD-A1 by a couple inches in both height and depth. Size matters not, right? Samsung wisely chose their signature black gloss piano finish with silver accents, pushing the unit's aesthetic appeal far beyond that of the clunky 1970's Toshiba design.

The rear outputs are identical to the HD-A1 and include one HDMI out, one component video out, one S-video out, one coaxial video out, 5.1 and 2.0 analog audio outputs, one coaxial digital audio out and one optical digital audio out.

Turning the BD-P1000 On

Much distress has come from some HD-A1 owners over the lengthy times required to turn the unit on, get a disc to play and eject a disc, while others - including myself - take the opportunity to settle in or grab a quick drink. The BD-P1000 cuts down on those times by anywhere between 10 and 15 seconds. I was able to navigate into the boilerplate setup menus in just over 30 seconds where it takes upwards of a minute on the HD-A1.

Within the menus are no real surprises. It's comforting to finally see 1080p output as an option, even if few display devices support it at this time. Audio options include speaker size selection for 5.1 setups, digital output (PCM versus bitstream), and on/off selections for PCM down sampling (if the receiver can't play lossless 96KHz audio) and dynamic compression.