Samsung BD-E6500 Blu-ray with Dual HDMI Inputs and WiFi Preview

These days, manufacturers are trying their damnedest to get you excited about their new Blu-ray player offerings. They know that it is all half dozen of one, six of the other in the features department. No one has really released anything in recent years that hasn't already been done by someone else. So, you end up with manufacturers trying to woo your spending dollars with their name, matching other components, or the newest streaming option you won't really use.

If you had asked us before CES 2012 if we thought we would have been impressed with a Blu-ray player at all, we would have been skeptical. Add that it came from Samsung, and we would have laughed you out the room. It isn't that they don't make decent players - they do. But with all the offerings out there, why switch? Why buy something that isn't as good as one of our current players?

Dual HDMI inputs.

Yeah, when we read that we thought it was a misprint too. Don't you mean outputs? No, we don't and neither does Samsung. The new BD-E6500 includes dual HDMI inputs for connecting two different pieces of gear to it, and then running a single HDMI cable to your receiver/display. It's like adding the three port switch to your system. For those with older receivers and limited inputs, this could be a Godsend. This especially makes sense for those "game room" systems where you are using the internal speakers of the display and aren't going to integrate a receiver. Suddenly, you've got a system with your Blu-ray and game console connected without a bunch of wires to deal with. We think this is fairly brilliant.

The other nice feature of the Samsung BD-E6500 is Wi-Fi connectivity. Rather than having to run an Ethernet cable from your router to your home theater or, more likely, game room, you can connect to the Internet wirelessly. The BD-E6500 is DLNA which makes it easy to stream content from your compatible devices on your network. It also has access to Samsung's Smart Hub apps and web-based content. This gives the BD-E6500 owner access to a range of apps ranging from social media like Facebook and Twitter to streaming like Netflix and Hulu Plus and much more.

Of course, no recently released Blu-ray player would be complete without 3D support. DTS HD and TrueHD are supported (of course) and we like that they've included bitstream outputs for users that would rather decode at their receiver. Like nearly all Blu-ray players, the BD-E6500 will upconvert your DVDs but there is no word on the chipset used so we don't know what sort of quality to expect.

The last feature that is new and somewhat unique to the Samsung BD-E6500 it a new Disc to Digital feature. When you insert a DVD you own, you chose to register it with UltraViolet. For an undisclosed fee, you can have access to an SD version or, for an undisclosed increase in said fee, you can have access to an HD version. This will give you access to that movie on multiple devices through the Flixter app (available on Samsung's Smart Hub). While we imagine that large movie collections would be cost prohibitive to switch to UltraViolet, the occasional kid's movie might be worth it. The ease of use might turn out to be a boon for the fledgling streaming solution.

Conclusion

While we don't think the Samsung BD-E6500 will be the next Audiophile Blu-ray player, it very well may be our next Blu-ray player. We're always looking for good solutions for game rooms, bedrooms, or friends and the BD-E6500 could well be our go-to player recommendation. We just wish they are released a price. If the BD-E6500 comes in at a reasonable MSRP, it could be the default player for people that don't want to spring for an Oppo. And that is high praise coming from us.

For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.