Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruined
The S550 has two main weaknesses. The first is that it has a slow power on time from OFF. Although it is good from standby, from an actual power off it is relatively slow.
The second, and more important, is that its deinterlacing is not so hot and it does not work well with a scaler/external VP. The deinterlacing chip it uses is the same one the Toshiba HD-A35 used, which if you recall my review of that machine I found it was notably inferior to the Reon processor I have.
But, if you can deal with either not using 1080p24 or getting less quality on DVD & Blu-ray concerts/documentaries/HD Video, then the S550 looks to be the best buy in its pricerange. It also has relatively few glitches compared to other machines.
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I think weakness one is small, because apparently the standby mode really quickens the speed, though it is a slight power drain.
Weakness 2 is something that hits all bd players that don't have a Reon chip built in (which currently is only the one Samsung player), or if they have a Reon processor external to the player. I think a lot of people have already made the investment with their AVR systems, and so if the player doesn't have Reon, they probably aren't affected by the deinterlacing. I would also say that I have not noticed a massive difference between the hd-xa2 and the hd-a35. I think that DVDs are at a limit as to how good they can look. If people are really that concerned about having Reon, they can pick up a Toshiba SUC player on the cheap to watch their dvds, I suppose.