Samsung BD-P1200 Blu-ray Disc Player

There was a bit of a stir at CES when Samsung announced that its new BD-P1200 Blu-ray Disc player would feature Silicon Optix' Reon-VX HQV video processor. We haven't yet used this processing chipset but the deinterlacing is of the 1080i to 1080p variety and it supports per-pixel motion adaptive algorithms and a sophisticated multi-directional diagonal filter. Jaggies shouldn't be an issue on SD discs. The HQV engine also provides per-pixel motion adaptive noise-reduction, detail enhancement and scaling.

The Samsung BD-P1200 plays Blu-ray and SD software at up to 1080p via an HDMI 1.3 interface. The player is also, of course, backwards compatible and plays both standard DVDs and CDs in addition to supporting all DVD formats including, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+RW, and DVD+R.

The new HDMI 1.3 connection offers Anynet+ (HDMI-CEC) technology - the first we've heard of this being implemented - which enables a single remote control unit to operate a compatible BD player, television, and other A/V products from Samsung. Ethernet port is also present on the back which hints at BD-Live compatibility. The BD-P1200 has 5.1 analogue audio outputs, so analogue support for a true discrete 7.1 format is yet to be present on any BD players we've seen.

As far as specs go, the BD-P1200 model supports the 192KHz LPCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, MPEG 2, DTS and MP3 formats for complete versatility in entertainment. Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD weren't mentioned, but would be "assumed" included technologies. The 'Easy Top Menu' allows consumers to change the font and color of subtitles and menu titles according to their tastes, as well as the background color and menu graphics.

The player will be available in March 2007 at an MSRP of $799. For more information please visit www.samsung.com .