Samsung BD-E8500M review

Samsung’s 2012 Blu-ray line-up has impressed us thus far thanks to a host of connected features, DLNA support and great picture quality, but we haven’t seen any multifunction players until now. The BD-E8500 is the first, a hybrid Blu-ray player/PVR with twin tuners, a 500GB hard disk and Samsung’s Smart Hub online portal.

It’s a little larger than the average Blu-ray player, but that’s something we can forgive based on its extensive feature list, and you won’t struggle to fit it in an AV rack. From the front, the combination of silver and black mirror-finish plastics give the player a sleek look, as do the touch-sensitive LED buttons. There’s no disc tray. Instead, Samsung has opted for a slot-loading mechanism, leaving the USB port as the only break in the otherwise flat front panel. It’s a shame the plastic flap covering it feels so flimsy. If it snaps off, there’s no way to get it back on again.

The minimalist approach is applied to the back panel, too, with the BD-E8500 having a small scattering of inputs. It has a single HDMI and one composite video output, digital optical and analogue RCA audio outputs, an Ethernet port, a second USB port and an aerial input and output. There’s also a rather large cut-out on the side for a Common Interface card in case you want to add subscription-based television channels to the EPG.

If you prefer not to run a cable from your router to the BD-E8500 you’ll be pleased with its integrated Wi-Fi. New for 2012 is Soft AP, which lets you connect other devices directly to the player rather than through your router. It’s simple to set up and ideal if you don’t already have Wi-Fi in your house or want to extend the signal to other areas of the house with a HomePlug.

Once connected, you’ll be able to use the AllShare Play DLNA streaming function to access content from any connected PC, laptop or NAS device. You can also play the same files locally using either the front or back USB port, assuming you have a large enough flash drive or external had disk. We tried all our usual test files and didn’t encounter any issues with DivX, MKV or MP4 videos.

Naturally for a connected player, you get access to Samsung’s Smart Hub online portal, which is packed full of extra content. Beyond Samsung’s own Family Story, Kidz Zone and Fitness apps, you also get access to a fully featured web browser and social networking via Twitter and Facebook. Rather than use the fiddly onscreen keyboard and hopeless remote control Directional-Pad for moving the mouse, you can connect a mouse and keyboard to the USB ports. Most third-party devices are supported, but the best setup would be to use a wireless mouse and keyboard set that uses a single USB dongle, leaving a second free for multimedia playback.

Samsung’s App store is surprisingly well stocked with a range of different offerings from news, weather and sport brands such as Transworld, AccuWeather and EuroNews, as well as a host of games. The most useful are the video on-demand apps. BBC iPlayer, LoveFilm, NetFlix and AceTrax are all present and correct, and there’s always something to watch, even if there’s nothing on the integrated Freeview HD tuner.

The internal hard disk has room for up to 124 hours of high-definition footage, or 199 hours of standard definition content, so you’re unlikely to run out of room in a hurry. If that isn’t enough room, you should look at the more expensive BD-E8900, which has a much larger 1TB hard disk.

Samsung has rectified an issue from last year’s model that prevented you recording two channels at once, and has gone one step further with the BD-E8500. Now you can record two channels and watch a third simultaneously so you don’t have to miss a thing. The only downside is that you can’t view the onscreen program guide when recording two channels because at least one tuner is required for the live preview window.

Switching to Blu-ray playback, the BD-E8500M coped admirably. Discs took 35 seconds to load on average. You also get Blu-ray menu support, which means you get the full experience unlike some cheaper players. Picture quality was impressive for the most part, with precise edges, no discernible noise and accurate colours. Our only criticism was the slight lack of detail in darker scenes, which were visible on other Blu-ray players but not here.

It’s a real shame that the BD-E8500M doesn’t have much in the way of picture quality options. You can only choose between enabling 24p playback, HDMI Deep Colour and whether or not it should upscale digital TV. There’s no option to change how DVDs are upscaled, but thankfully it does a very good job, smoothing edges without losing too much detail or generating significant noise.

If you don’t have a satellite or cable subscription but want to record multiple TV channels, a Freeview HD PVR makes the most sense. Buying a unit with a built-in Blu-ray player not only saves on space but reduces cable clutter too.

Samsung’s BD-E8500 is well priced and packed full of features, though these only add to its value if you don’t own an up-to-date Smart TV. A YouView box, such as the Humax YouView DTR-T1000, will give you even better access to catch-up TV services, but then you’ll also need a standalone Blu-ray player. At around £100 less, the Samsung BD-E8500, is therefore a neat and wallet-friendly alternative.