Samsung BD-F5900 Control
There are two ways to control the Samsung BD-F5900 - the top buttons and the remote. As I mentioned, the top buttons on the unit are touch capacitive. The buttons respond well though I found them to be oddly laid out. Within the circle, there is eject on the left, stop on the top, play/pause on the right, and power on the bottom. If it were me, I'd have put power on the top, eject on the bottom, play/pause on the right, and stop on the left. I figure they put the power on the bottom because that'd be the most used button but, frankly, I don't agree.
The second way to control the Samsung BD-F5900 is the
included remote. I've reviewed a few Samsung displays and my parents (at my
recommendation) own one so I'm very familiar with their remotes. It was very
eerie how similar the Samsung BD-F5900 remote is to the others I've held. It is
a much less "high-end" remote for a much more basic device, but the
aesthetics, shape, and general hand-feel were remarkably similar. In this I was
very impressed.
There is a large, dedicated Netflix button just below the play button. When I first picked up the remote, I was worried that I'd often miss-hit the Netflix button when I meant to hit play, but that never happened. Most of the other buttons are similar sizes and shapes with a few exceptions. First, the controls for the Blu-ray playback are white rather than the black of the rest of the buttons. They are also angled toward each other (the top row leans toward the bottom and vice versa). This makes them fairly easy to find in the dark. The up/down/left/right cursor/selection controls are also angled toward the center 'enter' button. While these buttons are all black, the angling and slightly different shapes makes them a bit easier to find.
The major knock, and it is a big one, is that the remote is not backlit. Those white Blu-ray control buttons are of the 'glow in the dark' variety. That works fine for the first few seconds after you shut off the lights, but after that, they are very hard to find (and impossible to read). With the two skip buttons next to each other on the left, and the fast forward/rewind buttons on the right, this forces you to memorize their location. The cursor control buttons, even with their angling, are very hard to find in the dark. The rest of the buttons you'll just have to memorize.
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sm31, post: 1094797, member: 38630If it is still under warranty I would try contacting Samsung fisrt.. Shouldn't skip that easily.
Brought back from the dead… But I feel compelled to respond to the “imperfect” disc comment.
I have been tempted to frisbee this POS down the street so many times. If atoms on the disc surface aren't aligned perfectly (much less a slight fingerprint or hairline scratch) the thing jags & skips at least once on every disc played.
In fact, other than the whopping 15 seconds I save when loading discs, I hate just about every aspect of this player… with the weird surface pressure type buttons running a close second to the disc sensitivity.
I'm shopping for a replacement for this piece of crap as soon as I finish this post.
I have been tempted to frisbee this POS down the street so many times. If atoms on the disc surface aren't aligned perfectly (much less a slight fingerprint or hairline scratch) the thing jags & skips at least once on every disc played.
In fact, other than the whopping 15 seconds I save when loading discs, I hate just about every aspect of this player… with the weird surface pressure type buttons running a close second to the disc sensitivity.
I'm shopping for a replacement for this piece of crap as soon as I finish this post.
I don't use the Samsung remote. My Harmony One is backlit. I like the large timer display because it is easy to read. I don't notice it because the unit is near the floor on the bottom shelf of the audio furniture. I have yet to use the manual control circle. It is boots twice as fast as the Panasonic and I appreciate that.
I have only two problems with it. The first is that it won't accept a wireless keyboard for use with the browser so I don't use the browser. The second is that I'm unable to download any of the apps in the Samsung app store. I'm not much of a streamer so that isn't huge for me. There is a real computer only two rooms away so I can live without the player's browser.
And best of all, it isn't brought to its knees by imperfect Netflix Blu-Ray discs. I certainly recommend it.
I would suggest to future reviewers that when possible all streaming services be listed. Although in many of the Sony BD player's case that may be a page of details.