Samsung BD-C6500 user reviews

Pros Excellent picture and sound quality, reasonably fast startup, variety of WiFi services available, attractive appearance

Cons Operational glitches, major setup problems, Netflix activation issues, mistakes in manual -- Samsung support is worst in the business

Summary Setting up this unit in the first place is a nightmare, especially the WiFi setup. I bought it from Crutchfield, and it took two of their technicians two hours on the phone to figure out the setup. Samsung's error-ridden website was no help, nor were the idiots on their phones. The Users Manual contains errors, including whole pages that do not match the on-screen setup display.
The Blu-ray disc of "Avatar" would not play on this machine. After Samsung's tech help offered no answers (and some incorrect "solutions"), it took me an hour to find the simple workaround (hold down the fast forward bitton for three minutes).
Netflix movies come through very well (virtually HD quality), BUT you will probably need to re-activate Netflix each time because activation doesn't stick. Netflix reps told me on the phone that this is a Samsung glitch. Netflix is trying to work with Samsung to fix it, but don't hold your breath because Samsung doesn't back up products once they are sold. Samsung reps blame the problem on you or on Netflix.
Access to Pandora was one reason I bought this Samsung player. I should have waited. Sony has just released, for the same price, a Blu-ray player with all the features that this buggy Samsung unit has (including wireless connection to Netflix and Pandora) and probably none of the glitches.
Though this player is very good once you work around or learn to live with the glitches, the bottom line is that my experience with the Samsung organization and their inability or unwillingness to address product usage issues have been sufficient to convince me never to purchase a Samsung product again if I can find something comparable from a competitor.
By the way, I am not a novice. I have owned, hooked up, and operated component A/V systems for more than forty years.

Pros Very good DVD player. Good looking design of box.

Cons After 4 calls to customer service over a month, will not connect to internet. Requires firmware upgrade from samsung web site, but web site is not operational to provide upgrade. Will not play DVDs without unavailable upgrade.

Summary Bought for wifi wireless access. Unit passes all on board network connectivity tests. Called customer service 4 times and they read the manual to me, repeatedly. Have tried multiple options to fix, and each time they send me back to customer service to restart the process. Note: Customer service only is open until 530 Pacific time, which makes it almost impossile to contact during the week. But they close each trouble ticket with a maximum of 48 hours open. Then you start over with customer service the next Saturday. So far its been claimed that the Samsung internet service computer is down (which is needed to access the internet related options through the player), and then that I need a firmware upgrade. There is no way to check on the server status unless you get to level 2 support, and half the people there don't know what that means. And to get the firmware update, which is supposed to be available wirelessly from the internet, Customer Service says is available on their web page. However, in 2 days of trying the Samsung web page gives "page not available" for the firmware upgrade nor the instructions on how to do it... And there is no way to contact them on the web page (the email link is also broken...) Without the upgrade the machine only plays about 1 in 4 Blu Ray DVDs. So basically the machine which was supposed to a) play Blu Ray discs, and doesn't, and b) was supposed to have internet connectivity via wifi, and doesn't provide that either.

In good news, its a very good DVD movie player. But then, that's not what I bought it for... Strongly recommend looking at another product to purchase. Have spent approximately 40 hours over 4 weeks trying to get this working including escalating this to "level 3 support" which (so far) hasn't bothered to call me back.

Pros Sleek design looks great in my entertainment center, wireless router is nice but when it comes to actually using internet features...

Cons ... Internet@TV is a joke. Setting up Apps was a nightmare. Netflix app didn't work straight out of the box. Instruction manual was badly written. remote keypad was hard to use. Has trouble with DVD menus and sometimes skips on DVD chapter changes.

Summary If you are thinking about buying this Blu-Ray player because it has good CNET ratings as well as apps and a built in wireless router, don't. Internet@TV is aweful. The instructions in the manual and on Samsung's website are subpar. They we not specific and in some cases, they omitted steps or were just plain wrong. Once i finally figured out what I needed to do to manage apps, the samsung website would not let me complete the process because of a broken webpage. I can't load my Pandora account onto the player and the Netflix app (which is what i really wanted) had an "update failure" straight out of the box, and it didn't show up on App management window, so I can't fix it. This Blu-Ray player is also an upconvert dvd player, which is nice, but it doesn't work that well. It has trouble with dvd menus (selects when I'm using arrow keys, plays special features that weren't selected, very sluggish) and on some dvd's, playback hesitates on chapter changes. I'm sure the Blu-Ray picture quality is great, but you can get great picture quality without paying $200. Hope that helps.

Updated on Feb 28, 2011

Let me tell ya, this player is a beast to set up. The instruction manual is just plain wrong on several subjects about setting up apps, and the website was even more confusing. However, once I got it set up, it has been running well, though it is sluggish. We run lots of media including tv shows, movies and audiobooks from the usb port. You can use a thumb drive or a powered external hard drive, and the playback is great. Once I figured out how, Netflix and Pandora are working great for me. My favorite feature is the DVD upconvert feature. Most of our movie library is DVD and we are pleased with the picture quality on our 1080p tv from our DVDs. The player does get a bit confused navigating DVD menus sometimes though. It'll start playing the movie instead of going to features or select the wrong feature sometimes, but don't click too many buttons too fast and it's manageable. Anywho, the playback is great which is what really counts.

Updated on Feb 28, 2011

One second review, once you get past the nightmare of setting it up, I have to admit the apps are pretty cool though a bit limited. I regularly use the Netflix, Pandora and YouTube apps. Also, playing media through the usb port is simple. We attached a self powered external hard drive and it plays everything from tv shows and movies to music and audiobooks well.
While the player remains sluggish overall, we really like the quality of the playback on our DVDs. This player is a DVD upconverter and if most of your movie library is DVD like ours is you will appreciate this feature too. The only hangup there is that the player gets confused with DVD menus sometimes. Occasionally it will select the wrong option on DVD menus and start playing from random places on my DVDs but it's not a serious hindrance.
I saw this player for $118 from Walmart the other day which I think is a fair price since it has built in wifi and DVD upconvert. If you can handle the setup nightmare, it's a good player.

Pros CNET is correct
The quality of the picture is gorgeous
The design is simplistic and modern
Great "online" user interface

Cons Very slow bootup and load time
Poor reliability
Constant updates
Horrid customer service

Summary I had this system for 4 months until it broke down. I was on the phone with customer service who were convinced it was my television until I sent it into them through Best Buy. The result was a $120.00 repair job due to a defective part. My recommendation, is like many other reviewers here, stay away from this product. If you like Samsung then I strongly suggest looking into another product. The reason for writing this review is to save you the time and money. Had I read the comments on this product before I made my purchase, I would not have bought it.