[Wayde]

Hey guys.

I am currently working on a "first look" review of the UP5000 and there are a lot of 'issues'.

Needless to say the statements attributed to me in the past are based on either legend or pre-release info on the UP5000.

The truth is yes... Dolby TrueHD is capable of 7.1 but at present the 5K isn't capable of it. Nor is it capable of DTS-HD, which makes the player a deal breaker as far as I'm concerned.

However. Samsung maintains they will fix this in a firmware update that is due to be released in May. If you trust Samsung then you have a winning player.

There is some controversey because Samsung has already announced another upcoming dual format HD-player with a model number of UP5500 (I think that's the correct model) - many people are assuming this is the replacement to the 5000 and believe Samsung will ditch any efforts to fix the UP5000 problems audio problems.

I want to say that's not likely. The new player Samsung announced is a slightly lower-end player designed to compete with LG's new combo player. The new player (like the LG BH200) lacks 5.1 or 7.1 analog outputs. It doesn't promise any internal decoding.

Samsung has been saying all along that the UP5000 will be capable of decoding TrueHD and DTS-HD internally as well as streaming it through HDMI to be decoded at your AVR.

However, should Samsung reneg on their promise to update the 5K to perform this way, it'll be one of the biggest scandals in consumer electronics I've heard about in a very long time! I personally don't believe a company like Samsung would do this.

If Samsung skipped out on the high-res codecs for the 5K, I think a class action lawsuit would be in order.

If you want to play it safe - don't buy until the firmware that updates the codecs is released.

So far, I've found it to be a nice player and a great answer for anyone like me who wants both players in one... I know I just don't have the space for two separate players.

I'll fill you in soon on what I consider the Ultimate setup configurations for this player that I have found so far.