Samsung BD-H8500M 3D Smart Blu-Ray Disc Player with 500 GB HDD and Built-In Wi-Fi - Black

I did a lot of research before going ahead with this purchase (mainly because my budget was tight!), and once I found this one, which seemed to tick all the right boxes for me, I read the reviews and was left a bit in doubt as they were pretty mixed.Well, I'm glad I went with my initial feeling and ordered it. As some people mentioned, it did take me a bit to get it to work - and this could be more related to my technical ability (or lack of) than anything else! I followed the instructions step by step and struggle a bit with the final connection to the TV, but eventually did and what a little gem it has turned out to be. Great recording capacity, works well and, normally having very poor reception in my flat, I can finally watch all the channels properly without having to fiddle with the aerial cable or reposition the previous box I was using. I have access to the main apps I use and the remote control works both for the Blu Ray player and the TV. I am very happy with it - and have waited a while to write this review just to make sure it worked well for longer than a week!

This is a good quality Blu-ray player / freeview recorder. I previously had the 1TB version of this player (bought from a different retailer), but I had problems with that one (The disk drive tray would act like Arkwright's till in Open All Hours, snatching the disk from me when I would try to insert or remove the disk, potentially getting the disk jammed in the player). Fortunately this player hasn't done that yet (and hopefully won't).It has a great selection of apps to enjoy, making the player into more than just a recorder/player. You can access all the major catchup services (iPlayer, ITV, All4, 5 on Demand) as well as streaming services like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime etc.Another excellent feature is that you can use the player as a DLNA streamer. If you have movie files saved on your computer (Windows XP upwards) and enable video sharing, or if you have a NAS server with DLNA activated on a NAS share, you can stream your video files to your television via the Blu-ray player. It has a very simple to use interface for DLNA streaming and supports all the popular video formats (MP4, WMV, MPG, FLV etc).The freeview recorder function is ok, you can record two programmes at once as it has a twin freeview tuner, but the interface for recording and playing back isn't exactly user friendly. It does the job though, but Samsung could do with improving it on a firmware update.Talking of firmware updates, you will most likely need to update the firmware when you install the player. I had problems trying to download the latest firmware to the recorder, I kept receiving error messages, but luckily I had a spare thumb drive that I could download the firmware to on my computer, then install onto the player using the USB port on the player. I hope it was just an issue with the Samsung website at the time I attempted to carry out the update.All in all, it is a good player, but I cannot give it 5 stars owing to my experience with the 1TB version of this player.

I have to agree with both the reviews published here.It is a great piece of kit and the build and features are very good and the quality of pictures and sound are above average.But Mr Bailey of London is right - there is no BBC iPlayer and the Samsung website is not at all helpful in addressing questions about it's future availability.Given all of the sales information listed on the Amazon page points trumpets the inclusion of the BBC iPlayer and the advertising graphics show the actual logo - surely space could have been found to let the customer know that this app is not yet installed and include an indicative date when it will be.So for me - it is not the 'one box solution' that Samsung think it is.

When set up and working excellent. BUT to my mind the accompanying instruction book is not inspiring. Should be designed so that a novice could accomplish the set up. Took me ages. finished product as stated . Still have not established how to operate Panasonic smart TV ith Samsung remote

Not great. I have a feeling it will be going back to Amazon. It's user interface is clunky. It's slow to respond to key presses. THERE IS NO BBC IPLAYER, and no timetable for its installation. Doesn't play nicely with Logitech Harmony remote.