Audio Video News

Samsung Blu-ray players are learning some new tricks. The BD-P2550 and BD-P2500 will stream movies rented from Netflix's online service. And the first of those two models will also stream music from Pandora Radio.

Unlike Sony's streaming service via the Bravia Internet Video Link, Netflix is an emerging standard of sorts, having already been embraced by LG with its BD300 player, a dedicated set-top box from Roku, and the Xbox 360, which will accommodate Netflix streaming with an upcoming firmware upgrade. Streaming is available as a bonus to those signing up for Netflix rental plans, which also include hard-copy rentals by post.

Both of the Samsung players list for $400 but have slightly different capabilities. The BD-P2500 (the one that doesn't do Pandora) is right up to date with BD-Live (Profile 2.0) out of the box, while the BD-P2550 (the one that does do Pandora) has Bonus View (Profile 1.1) out of the box. The latter model, however, will get BD-Live with a firmware upgrade. And both will get further firmware upgrades to add DTS-HD including bitstream output for Master Audio.

See press release.