Samsung BD-P4600 review
by Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Jul 16th 2009 at 1:00PM
In a day when the most inexpensive Blu-ray player can be had for $99, you really have to do something special to a player to make it warrant a $499 price tag. This is obviously what Samsung is trying to do with the BD-P4600, but not in the normal way we'd expect. Instead of adding features or improving the specifications, Samsung has instead went the supercilious route and focused this player on the "wall people.' We all know looks aren't everything -- or shouldn't be at least -- so you'll just have to read on to find out if the functionality of the BD-P4600 matches the appearance.
Gallery: Hands-on with the Samsung BD-P4600
The Good
- Wall mountable.
- We like the look and feel of the "buttons."
- USB port on the side and under back for incldued $80 WiFi dongle.
- Low power consumption at less than one watt on standby, 16 watts watching movies.
- A double press is required to eject, which makes it hard to hit it accidentally.
- Internally decodes all codecs which is nice for Bonus View.
- Includes built in storage for BD Live (1GB).
- Features a screen saver.
- WiFi worked the first time we tried itNetflix and Pandora access.
- HDMI-CEC worked perfectly with Samsung HDTV.
- Great pictures quality.
- Fast load times at 66 seconds to load Ratatouille from off, and 48 seconds when on -- but not the fastest.
The Bad
- Fan noise is noticeable, but not super annoying.
- No discrete analog outputs, which is rare at this price.
- Audio track name is cut off on main info screen, so you can't tell TrueHD from Dolby Digital.
- No eject button when off, but you can just load a disc to turn on -- are we the only ones who leave discs in?
- We hate how you have to stop movie to configure options -- still.
- Resume still only works on some titles, not sure if BD-J will always prevent this.
- Samsung Blu-ray remotes still suck, no back light, cheesy etc.
- HDMI-CEC should be on by default.
- No resolution pass through and have to stop to change resolution for things like extras.
- Minimal front display, track time only.
The ugly
- No discrete IR codes for use with programmable remotes.
- $499 price tag.
Gallery: BD-P4600 UI gallery
Conclusion
Let's come right and say it, this is a great player, but not for the price. For anyone other than those who simply must mount everything on their wall, the BD-P3600 just makes more senses. Sure slot loading is cool, but not when it's on the side. The 3600 simply offers almost all the same features and more for less money, with the only difference between the form factor. So while we think the BD-P4600 is a great Blu-ray player, we just assume stick with the more traditional form factor and keep the $100 difference to spend on Blu-ray Discs.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alex @ Jul 16th 2009 1:48PM
Interesting concept.
Justin @ Jul 16th 2009 1:55PM
Someone needs to swiffer! j/k
Justin @ Jul 16th 2009 1:58PM
Dude, how long have you been sitting on this review? That picture with the Kuro in the background has "The first 100 days" on the screen, Obama's been in office for almost 7 months now!
wack @ Jul 16th 2009 2:05PM
wow, there are so many things about this that make me not want to buy it. No RGB? (Of Course HDMI, but just to have the option, who will really use the composite outputs on a $600 bluray player???) No IR? Limited buttons? There are others that have much better options with a lot better price point.
Jim @ Jul 16th 2009 2:08PM
Why recommend HDMI-CEC on by default? I've a Sammy LCD and Sammy BD-1500 and if you are using a universal remote (e.g. Harmony One) then CEC just confuses everything. For simple set ups where you use the TV as the sound source, CEC is probably great. But if you have multiple components then it’s an added complication. CEC seems like its just an attempt to get people to buy compatible (i.e. from same manufacturer) components. It's certainly not "zero configuration" like protocols like Bonjour.
This is a striking player though with its ToC accent. I do agree that the side location of the slot load is silly I(I guess they expect people to mount below the TV?) and the remote looks cheap (all the more reason for a universal...).
Wobbly_ears @ Jul 17th 2009 12:32PM
"...48 seconds when on, 66 seconds from off"??
On my WDTV+MKV
2 seconds from Off
11 seconds from Off.
FAIL
David S @ Jul 16th 2009 4:23PM
You know what else starts faster than a Blu-Ray player? My best friend's electric toothbrush. And just like the WDTV, it doesn't play Blu-Ray discs.
Randall Lind @ Jul 16th 2009 3:33PM
They ruin the look with a big think wifi pin drive. Too bad they didn't build wifi in to the unit would have look better.
shawnmos @ Jul 17th 2009 2:40AM
check the post under yours
dutchb0y @ Jul 16th 2009 5:49PM
"just assume stick with"??? Really?
It's "just as soon stick with"… c'mon, did you read that and it made sense to you?
geekmorgan @ Jul 16th 2009 5:01PM
Looks like there's another USB plug underneath where all the A/V outs are located. Anyone else see that? I think that's where you're meant to plug in the wifi dongle, so you don't ruin the looks.
Check out pictures 8 and 15 in the first gallery.
shawnmos @ Jul 16th 2009 8:23PM
You are correct. Not sure how Ben could have missed that.
steve @ Jul 16th 2009 5:28PM
Didn't it come with an L adapter for the USB dongle like the 3600, so it won't stick out straight from the side? It should stay beneath the edge of the unit. Or use the other plug like geekmorgan said.
calhydro @ Jul 16th 2009 7:44PM
Blue Moon is for Me
Arlo @ Jul 17th 2009 1:52PM
I've got one, good player.. nothing impressive though.
Biggest con:
seriously do we need lights to be ON on the damned thing when it's OFF? Nothing irritates me more than having devices that think we want to see their glorious luminescence when they are not even being used.
Biggest pro:
seems to have brought bluray almost to the same level as the crappiest dvd player of the past... examples of samsung flaws that are finally fixed include pausing movies for more than 5 minutes turned them off and required chapter seeking to get back (seriously? anybody here who is married knows that women rarely take under 5 minutes to refresh their drink and pee mid-movie).
I'm disappointed with samsung overall... my mkv's that i've ripped look just as good, start immediately via my mediacenter and don't try to play the part of "ambient lighting" when i don't use them.
Joe Eisner @ Jul 17th 2009 9:03AM
I bought a former top-of-the-line 2550 Blu Ray player in 12/2008. 4 months later, it started freezing the picture intermittently at random, even with disks that had just been taken out of sealed cases, that had never been played before.
Samsung offers only 90 days on labor. The company wanted to charge me $85 for labor and shipping both ways. I wrote to the President of Samsung North America, Tim Baxter, and he ignored me.
I went to Samsung forums and found out that many people were having reliability issues with many Samsung blu-ray players.
Bottom line: Samsung releases products long before they're ready for production. They treat customers with contempt.
Buy Oppo instead--much better quality and they take the time to get the products right. I have one now and am very satisfied.
FarmerBob @ Jul 17th 2009 12:26AM
No thank you for me without the Silicon Optics Reon chip, or one of its bigger and better brothers, like the earlier models had. The sales guy at BestBuy gave me his employee discount on top of the $314.00 price tag off the 2550 just for letting him know about the HQV chip. Which no one at BB was told about. He snagged the other of the last two 2550's in our state.
I have neither read nor heard anything in regards to the new Samsung chip that directly influences DVD, import and Netflicks Upscaling like I did when they had the HQV. They just gloss over it now and expect you to be dazzled too much by the "beauty" of the 4600 and the "shapeliness" of the 3600. Both dogs and that does not mean: Digital.Onscreen.Graphics. Samsung may be kicking butt in TV's, but really blew it in Blu-Ray players.
Also thank God the line of TV's I'm buying, bought and am looking at have Grey ToC. The red is whorish and cheap looking. What are they thinking? This is another example of East design not taking West tastes into consideration. But then the West's gullibility, cameras in cellphones (Thank you, Korea), surmounts taste.
mntwister @ Jul 18th 2009 3:48PM
I agree with you, first thing I did was check to see if it had the HQV, they made a mistake dropping that feature, especially at this price. I also picked up a 2550 that was $199 open box at Best Buy a few months ago, it was a very lucky find. I really am enjoying the upscaling, the Netflix streaming is cool as well, my only complaint is the time it takes to go into scan mode and then change it to 2x, 4x, 16x, ect.
Alex @ Jul 17th 2009 2:28AM
You can get this for $399 at B&H
IMBigWillie @ Jul 17th 2009 12:41AM
That is as ugly as the PS3!
Mason @ Jul 17th 2009 1:09PM
Abt Electronics has it for $450. http://www.abt.com/product/40692/Samsung-BDP4600.html
tom @ Jul 18th 2009 1:51PM
big cockroach!
HDTV Buying @ Aug 17th 2009 2:02AM
good design !
i will match on my samsung 32" lcd hdtv
http://www.buyln32b460.com/best-consumer-lcd-tv-samsung-ln32b460-32-inch-lcd-hdtv-720p.html