Samsung BD-P1600 Blu-ray player
Samsung's BD-P1600 delivers everything you need from a Blu-ray disc player
Pros
- Excellent image quality with both Blu-ray discs and DVDs, high-definition audio decoding, good operational speed
Cons
- Build quality could be better, flip-down front is annoying
Bottom Line
Samsung’s BD-P1600 does everything you could want a Blu-ray player to do. Great picture quality, plenty of audio decoding support and a speedy interface combine to make it an easy choice. Our only concerns (the build quality and the design) are minor.
-
Price
$ 349.00 (AUD)
The Samsung BD-P1600 is a Blu-ray disc player that is fully Profile 2.0 compliant and supports Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding. A few annoying design quirks aside, it includes everything you’d want in a Blu-ray disc player.
The front panel on the Samsung BD-P1600’s flips downs when the drive tray opens. While some people may find this design quirky and interesting, we erred on the side of being annoyed. Without a comprehensive range of buttons, card slots and ports at the front we think it’s a little unnecessary. It means you can’t stack disc cases at the front of the player or they’ll go flying when it flips down.
The power button is hidden behind the door as well; you’ll need to flip it down by hand to turn the player on if you don’t have the remote close by. The build quality in general is slightly underwhelming and the player seems to pick up fingerprints very easily. The included remote mimics that of Samsung’s newer televisions and is an attractive accessory.
The player's on-screen interface is pleasant to navigate, and we had no problems finding items within sub-menus. Like almost every Blu-ray player on the market bar the cheapest, Samsung’s BD-P1600 is Blu-ray Final Profile 2.0 compatible. This means it can use all the BD-Live Internet-integrated features found on some newer Blu-ray discs. You’ll need to plug in a USB flash drive in order use online features. The player connects to the Internet via Ethernet or Wi-Fi. The latter requires a proprietary USB dongle, so both the front and back USB ports will be occupied (requiring the front to be flipped down constantly).
When it came to video quality, the Samsung BD-P1600 does not disappoint. When connected over HDMI to a Panasonic TH-50G10A 50in plasma television (the Samsung player also has component and composite video outputs), 1080p Blu-ray movies such as Sin City and The Dark Knight were full of detail. DVD up-scaling was of an equally high calibre. Though obviously not rivalling 1080p source material, the image was smooth and plenty of detail and vibrant colour were visible.
The feather in the Samsung BD-P1600’s hat is its high-definition audio codec support. The latest codecs such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio are included, so if you connect this player to a suitable surround sound system you’ll have great audio. A USB host port means multimedia file playback is also a breeze, and it supports H.264 and WMV video files.
If you’re looking for a fully featured Blu-ray player, you can’t go wrong with Samsung’s BD-P1600. It may have a slightly questionable design but the internals are top-notch.
Brand Post
Most Popular Reviews
- 1 Dell U3223QE review: A winning debut for an IPS Black monitor
- 2 HP Spectre x360 16 review: The right 2-in-1 at the wrong time
- 3 Acer K242HYL review: An affordable monitor for any occasion
- 4 GeForce Now review: You bring the games, Nvidia streams the hardware
- 5 Asus ProArt PA279CV monitor review: The go-to for content creators on a budget
Latest News Articles
- You can now rock out to Apple Music on Roku devices
- Complete guide to the new AirPods Pro 2
- Apple Music adds DJ mixes in spatial audio
- Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+ will be free for the first 12 weeks of the season
- Apple TV+ makes history at wild Oscars ceremony
Resources
Macworld
What's new, plus best mac-related tips
and tricks
Business Centre
The latest business news, reviews, features and whitepapers
Videos
Watch our video news and reviews from around the world
Guides
Comprehensive buying guides, features, and step-by-step articles
PCW Evaluation Team
Pedro Peixoto
Aruba Instant On AP11D
Set up is effortless.
Cate Bacon
Aruba Instant On AP11D
The strength of the Aruba Instant On AP11D is that the design and feature set support the modern, flexible, and mobile way of working.
Dr Prabigya Shiwakoti
Aruba Instant On AP11D
Aruba backs the AP11D up with a two-year warranty and 24/7 phone support.
Tom Pope
Dynabook Portégé X30L-G
Ultimately this laptop has achieved everything I would hope for in a laptop for work, while fitting that into a form factor and weight that is remarkable.
Tom Sellers
MSI P65
This smart laptop was enjoyable to use and great to work on – creating content was super simple.
Lolita Wang
MSI GT76
It really doesn’t get more “gaming laptop” than this.
Featured Content
- Which Lenovo Laptop Should I Buy?
- Every TV in Samsung's 2022 line-up: OLED, Neo QLED and more!
- Top 10 best Android and Apple phones for under $600
- Everything you need to know about Smart TVs
- What's the difference between an Intel Core i3, i5 and i7?
- Laser vs. inkjet printers: which is better?