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Old 25th August 2014, 11:22   #66  |  Link
r0lZ
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Join Date: Jul 2003
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@Frank

Yes, the Samsung player can play Half-SBS and Half-T&B. It can even recognize the 3D format automatically if the frame-packing option has been correctly set when the video has been encoded with x264 (and BD3D2MK3D sets that flag). However, it refuses to play full-SBS or full-T&B, and it stretches non-16:9 videos to occupy the full screen (so movies shot in Cinemascope and encoded after having cropped the black borders are stretched vertically). And, as I wrote above, it has terrible limitations for the subtitles and it ignores the chapters.

Yes, Samsung uses its own encryption to record the digital TV channels to a dedicated hard disc (or partition) formatted with the XFS file system (the excellent Silicon Graphics file system, but very difficult to read under Windows). But the Samsung encryption has been cracked, and if you have a rooted TV connected to your LAN, it is easy to decrypt the recordings via FTP. Anyway, the user's hard disc (or partition), with AVI, MKV, or MPEG movies, in 2D or 3D can be formatted in NTFS and of course the movies are not encrypted. Since my TV has 3 USB inputs, I use 2 discs: one for the recordings, and one with my 3D and 2D movies.

My TV can play perfectly all MKVs I have tested so far, but it is sometimes very slow to start the playback (especially the first time the file is opened, because it has to scan the file to generate its 5 thumbnails). Also, it doesn't support all codecs. It doesn't handle h264 level 5 or greater (but it is happy with level 4.1 or 4.2), and it doesn't recognize AAC audio and DTS-HD. (IMO, the impossibility to play AAC is the major codec limitation.) It plays AC3 and DTS 5.1 without problem.

The active 3D glasses are very good but somewhat expensive and heavy. In the past, the Samsung glasses did not have a good reputation because they used infrared signals, not precise enough, but currently they use bluetooth signals and they work very well. However, I must admit that the passive polarized glasses are certainly better. I bought my TV for its excellent 2D quality (much better than LG IMO), and the quality of the 3D was my second criteria. For the 3D, LG is probably a better choice.
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Last edited by r0lZ; 25th August 2014 at 11:48.
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