Samsung Blu-ray BD-D510

The Samsung Blu -ray BD -D510 is a mid-range Blu -ray player you can find at Best Buy for $89. It not only plays Blu -ray discs, but can play content in other formats and comes with a USB port on the front, and will play video, audio, or still images off of that USB port. The recommendation is to use an actual USB drive or stick, as opposed to hooking a computing device through the port. I hooked up a USB port and was able to view images through it; I did not play audio or video through the USB port, so I can't tell you what the menu options look like.

When you first turn on the Samsung Blu -Ray BD -D510 it will ask you to set it up. This is not a step that can be skipped, although you can skip the Internet connectivity test. This device is capable of connecting to the Netflix and YouTube servers right out of the box! If you have an Internet connection you can hook it up to this device directly, or use a wired router to get the Samsung Blu -Ray BD -D510 online! This does not support wireless connectivity, so whether you use a wired or wireless router, you will have to physically connect the Ethernet cable up to the device.

The front panel shows how much time has passed by on the title. The remote control has a top menu, disc menu and a regular menu option button. The regular menu option button will take you back to the set up screen. It also has a Netflix button, which is red, and is cool, but it would have been nice if there were a YouTube button as well. Subtitles can be accessed from the remote directly as well. If you get lost in a menu option, hit return to go back a step. You will also have to use the colored a,b,c and d buttons in the set up menu.

The device does a good job of playing back regular DVD content. It plays a lot of different types of discs; HD DVD, DVD-ROM/PD/ MV -disc,DVD-RAM,Super Audio CD (though it won't play the CD layer),DVD- RW , CVD /CD-ROM/ CDV /CD-G/CD-I/ LD , and 3.8 GB DVD-R for authoring. Most of these formats are of no consequence, but I do like the fact it can play one of the handful of HD DVD you may find. HD DVD was a failed format supported by Microsoft. I may not play discs outside of your region (North America), it will not play PAL (a European format, if you happen to have it), it may not play discs that were not authored correctly (bootleg discs you find on a street corner in the hood). It does support H.264 Level 4.1, so if you have video files from your computer in that format on a disc or USB it will support it, and it does support WMA (the Microsoft video format) 7,8, and 9, but not in the 220/50HZ mono bit rate.

The back of this device does not have a component video output. It does have a digital audio out, for your AV receiver. The remote control takes AAA, which does come with the device. It does not come with an HDMI cable, but RCA cables, which is ironic. If you need a DVD player with Netflix , YouTube capability you could hook this up to an analog television and go online, seeing that it does have RCA support. If your television does not support HDCP (a copyright scheme used for HD content), you might get noise on the screen during playback if you are playing that type of content back on the television. You would only have to worry about that if you are playing back bootleg content, and that is rarely on a Blu -ray disc anyway.

The player can be set for use on a 4:3 analog television if you have it. If you are using an HD television, and aren't sure, set it for 16:9 normal. If you are using an older television and do not mind the bars at the top and the bottom, choose 4:3 letter box, if you want it to fill up the screen, use 4:3 pan-scan. Remember, if you are using an HD television you do not have to use the 4:3 options, they are for people with older CRT televisions.

It is best to allow the player to automatically set the resolution; that way if you switch between an older analog television to a digital television, you do not have to change the resolution from 480p to 1080p. You will see an option for BD Wise, leave it turned off if you do not have a Samsung television or a television with that feature.

Even though this is a basic, entry level Blu -ray player it does not have a lot of options, such as Movie frame (24fs), progressive mode, still mode and HDMI Deep color. If you know little to nothing about digital video and digital audio leave all of these functions either turned on or to auto. Too many people experiment with their equipment and forget how to get back to where they were. You can also upgrade the software in this unit when it is hooked up the Internet; this is at your own risk, if firmware upgrades brick this device contact Samsung technical support for assistance, if you do not know what the software upgrades are for, do not upgrade the firmware! This isn't like Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Google Chromebook , Android, Mac iOS , Windows Phone 7 or a Linux distribution where you necessarily need to upgrade the software for your hardware. Allow the player to do what it does in the background instead of trying to tweak it.

It can take up to 5 minutes to configure the device for the Internet. If you are using a coaxial connection between where the service comes into your house and your device (or if you are using a cable modem) most likely you are using a dynamic configuration, and can simply turn on this device and do a network test and get connected to the Internet. If you are using a DSL modem, are tethering through a cell phone, or are still on dial-up, you probably have a static IP address, and will actually have to enter in information to this device to get connected to the Internet. I stress this because nine times of out of ten, this is the question you will have for your Internet Service Provider when connecting to the Internet with a peripheral; that is one answer to questions you may have. Enjoy this device; it is cheap, affordable, and offers basic interoperability plus some Internet functionality to extend the capabilities of your analog or digital television!