Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm a cord-cutter. I don't subscribe to cable, and I barely ever watch over-the-air broadcasts. For years now, I've been looking for something that could offer a set-top box experience that was close to a good HTPC without actually being an HTPC. My concern is that most HTPC setups with XBMC are a bit clunky when it comes to non-techie people using them. Sure, XBMC is handy and slick, but support for online services like Netflix, Crackle, and others of that sort is a bit of a mess, requiring you to essentially exit XBMC and load them in a web browser. They aren't dedicated apps, and it shows. The web browser experience for Netflix is pretty poor compared to some of their dedicated apps, as is the web browser interface for Crackle. XBMC also requires a great deal of setup and teaching for non-techie users, and can be screwed up pretty easily with the wrong button presses. In short, between video problems, needing to launch external applications to use streaming services, and the technical nature of XBMC, it's just not ideal for a household where you have kids or non-techie family members who just want to watch some TV or movies. I have had the following set-top boxes and media devices over the years: Roku Roku 2 XS Roku 3 WD TV WD TV Live Plus (several generations) Boxee Box Sony SMP-N200 Media Player Sony BDP-S185 Blu-ray Disc Player Sony PS3 (fat and slim, both) Microsoft Xbox 360 (launch beast, and slim models) Micca Slim HD iMito MX2 Android Stick Ouya console ...And a few others. I've returned or sold ALL of them over the years because they all fell short in one way or another. The Sony and Microsoft game consoles wouldn't play MKV files or access NTFS hard drives (meaning I was stuck with the 4GB file limit of FAT32 drives, which is not ideal for 1080p videos). In addition, the Xbox 360 wouldn't let me watch on my Netflix subscription without paying another $50 per year for Xbox Live Gold (a ridiculous requirement, considering all the other devices on the market allow it for free), and even the Slim model is a bit noisy while running. The WDTV was always slow and clunky, didn't have Crackle, and had very inaccurate scrapers that reported wrong information for properly-titled videos. The Sony SMP-N200 and BDP-S185 played all the formats the PS3 didn't, and accessed NTFS drives, but had what I considered a very awkward, sparse-looking GUI filled with a lot of Sony garbage my family didn't need and limited thumbnail support. The Micca Slim had no streaming services and no thumbnails whatsoever for media files. The iMito was poor at handling 1080p video in XBMC and crashed constantly due to Android's laundry list of instabilities. The Ouya was just more of that Android XBMC mess, and fought me the whole time with reboots, crashes, and poor connectivity. The earlier Roku models didn't support local content via USB. The newer ones have a USB channel (and some 3rd party USB channels, as well) but are EXTREMELY fussy about the video encoding technique. While I loved my Roku 3, I did not relish the idea of having to re-encode over 100 movies that would not play nice with the Roku. I passed on Raspberry Pi, because it seems decidedly non-friendly to kids and family members, as well as being under-powered. And before you mention it, YES, I know I could use Plex on Roku (and I did!) but sometimes I want there to be the ability to access the video library without it tapping my main PC's CPU or hard drive. If my PC is set to a task (encoding video, for example) I don't want it to be doing double-duty as a Plex server. I also don't always want my PC to be awake or turned on. Plex is awesome, but it is wholly reliant on the main PC for transcoding, and I want to avoid that sometimes. Now, a disclaimer: I do not have a 3D HDTV. What's more, I hate 3D movies with a passion. I think they're a stupid gimmick. I wear prescription glasses already, and I do not enjoy wearing two pairs of glasses to relax and watch a movie at home. I don't even enjoy it in a theater. Most of the time, I end up with a raging headache from 3D movies, so in this review I will NOT be touching on the BD-F5900's ability to play 3D movies. In fact, I would have aimed for the BD-E5700 which is basically the same unit without the 3D support, but I needed to buy at a local store (for a change) and they did not carry that unit. The BD-F5900 was the next best choice for my needs, seeing as the BD-F7500 is overkill at this point (I don't have a 4k HDTV and won't be affording one any time soon). So here's the point of my review: The Samsung BD-F5900 3D Wi-Fi Blu-ray Disc Player handles almost all of my set-top box needs. It's the first device that has gotten this close. Here's the quick rundown: * Handles all video codecs and containers I throw at it. Note that I do not use VOBs*, but I do use MP4, AVI, and 5.1 DTS MKVs. * Passes AC3 through to my receiver without a fuss. No audio problems yet! * Has absolutely no problem with an NTFS-formatted, USB-powered hard drive. * Makes animated thumbnails from videos for local content. Not as nice as cover art, but better than just a file name. * Has all the streaming services I want: Netflix, Crackle, Amazon, Hulu Plus, Vudu, Blockbuster, YouTube. * Has all the social networking junk a lot of you folks out there might like: Twitter, Facebook, Picasa, etc. * Plays a few simple games (Solitaire, Columns clones, trivia games, etc.) * Plays nice with Harmony remote control devices. * Handles Blu-ray Discs better than the PS3 ever did. * Downloads apps to local memory. Constantly adding new apps (allegedly). * Fast loading, power-on, power-off (standby), chapter-skipping, etc. * Grants frame-stepping and video scanning functions in local video files as well as discs. * Easy to set up. Fairly easy learning curve. * No way to screw things up majorly, as far as I can see. * Works okay with built-in WiFi, and fantastic with wired Ethernet connection. * Included remote, while a bit crowded, has nice buttons and cool features like the Netflix button. * Has Plex Media Server app which works well. Seems to handle Plex channel content (like Navi Extreme) better than Roku does. * Excellent Netflix GUI; Similar to PS3's version. Better than Roku's version. I'm very satisfied. I sold my Roku 3, and the Samsung BD-F5900 has taken its place as my set-top box of choice. No, it doesn't have as many video channels/apps as the Roku, but when I really looked at how many of those extra Roku channels I was watching on a regular basis, I realized that I didn't really need them. Most of the extra content I cared about on Roku is duplicated on Plex, and the mainstream services are all native to the Samsung. While it's not a full-featured HTPC by any means, it does what I need it to do: It makes accessing local content and streaming services easy for the members of my family who don't want to fuss with technical settings, or jump through hoops to get what they want. And as a bonus it plays Blu-ray Discs. If I ever suddenly decide I like 3D, I have that capability, too. As set-top boxes go, this is a great choice for the cord-cutter! I highly recommend the Samsung BD-F5900 for anyone who wants the streaming functions of a Roku, the USB-friendly functions of a WD TV, and the Blu-ray Disc functions of a really good Samsung BD player. !!! Update: I checked into it, and the BD-F5900 does support VOB files. In fact, here's a list of all the video file extensions/containers it handles: *.avi *.mkv *.asf *.wmv *.mp4 *.3gp *.vro *.mpg *.mpeg *.ts *.tp *.trp *.mov *.flv *.vob *.svi *.m2ts *.mts *.webm So far, the only thing it wouldn't play is the weird WMV3 codec that Apple Quicktime was fond of cranking out about 10 years ago, but I haven't found anything that plays those; Not even current Quickime for Windows or Mac, or Media Center Classic will handle those. And if you were wondering, the BD-F5900 handles DTS, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, LPCM, ADPCM, AAC, HE-AAC, WMA, MP3/MPEG, and vorbis audio tracks on videos. So really, it just kicks all kinds of butt. **** UPDATE: So, here we are a couple weeks after purchase, and I ended up taking the BD-F5900 back to the store. Why? Because it supports Cinavia, and that's not really something I want in my media player. It's still an amazingly great BD player, and for 98% of the users out there, it is still probably the best bang for the buck in terms of combining streaming services, BD playback, and local media via USB or network/PLEX... But that Cinavia support is a deal-breaker for serious cord-cutters who back up their disc-based media to hard drives or servers. It essentially causes the BD player to kick you out of the video, and then pops up a rude message saying the playback was stopped because of Cinavia detection blah blah blah. The end result for the archival user is that some local files just won't work if they're protected by Cinavia. Understand that this is not Samsung's fault. They didn't "decide" to include Cinavia, and I was a bit naive in believing this item slipped by without it. The fact is that Cinavia is a standard for BD players now. That's all there is to it. Any North-American BD players from major manufacturers (and most minors) is going to have this "feature" included, whether the manufacturer wanted to include it or not. So all I can do is exercise my right to say "no" and not own a device that includes Cinavia. So should you buy the BD-F5900? If you don't do a lot of archiving to hard drive, then yes. Absolutely. It's a great player that does everything you'd need, and it has more apps on the way. It's a must-buy for the average user. However, if you're an archivist cord-cutter, videophile, or anyone who likes to have a bit more control over the media you purchase, then you'll probably want to either avoid the BD-F5900, or get it and love it for its streaming services and excellent BD player, but basically ignore its local media playback features and get yourself something else that doesn't have Cinavia on it to handle that task. For average users, the only time Cinavia should affect you is if you record a home video (say, of your kids playing in the living room) and a Cinavia-infected movie is playing in your home somewhere, and the audio from that movie is captured on your home video. Since Cinavia is based on an audio watermark, it will cause your home video to stop playing and warn you that it's copyrighted content. No, I'm not kidding. Yes, this can happen. Will it happen? Probably not all that much... But it can. Cinavia CAN actually render your own, personal home videos unplayable on a number of BD players and media players if a Cinavia soundtrack happens to end up on the video somewhere. It's very sensitive, and it WILL cease playback. Sigh... Hyperbole, maybe, but it's just one example of how rabid DRM can inconvenience consumers. Anyway, my original review still stands, and I'm only knocking off one star for the BD-F5900 because, frankly, the Cinavia problem won't affect most average users most of the time. Videophiles, archivists, and hardcore cord-cutters (and pirates, of course) will run into the Cinavia complication. Everyone else will have a fantastic BD player that does everything they need, most of the time.