Samsung BD-H5900 3D Blu-Ray Disc Player (2014 Model)

Just set this little Blu-Ray player up last evening. It is wonderful. I hooked it to my existing HDMI cable from my previous Blu-Ray device. I have a Samsung television, and as soon as I plugged in the player, it also turned my television on! It went right to the setup screen. I went to the setup icon and from there was able to have my Internet connection (router) recognized. I typed in my router ID, and was in business. I had no issues whatsoever. I am using an Apple Airport Extreme (latest generation) router. I then realized that an update was needed, so under settings again, I chose to update the firmware. It only took and few moments and updated to the latest firmware version. This firmware does include Amazon Instant Video among other apps. I typed in my email and password for Amazon, and was connected to my account with no problems. My library and saved videos and categories were intact. You can also mirror other devices that use Miracast. I have a Kindle HDX (7"), and set that up this morning. You need to be sure to turn on mirroring on the Blu-Ray and then turn on the mirroring on your device. I was up and running with my Kindle in a short time. If you love to look at the Internet on a big television, this works fine. Make sure you have your device in the landscape mode for full screen.The videos stream well in my Amazon Video app. If you have a strong router and a good Internet connection, there should be no issues.We ran the first Hobbit Blu-Ray movie last evening, and it was wonderful. The disc loaded up extremely fast compared to my old Samsung Blu-Ray player. There was no lag of any kind on the frame rate and the playback was seamless. I also have a Samsung Sound Bar (550), and this worked extremely well, too! The clarity of sound is exceptional. The bass was as it should be and the mid-range and treble sounds were really good. The voices and sound effects were crystal clear. (But that is a different review, anyway.)I am very happy with this Blu-Ray player and hope it lasts for quite some time. If you desire to stream with Amazon Video, Netflix, etc., along with playing your movies on disc, you will find this player does the job for you. There are many more features including loading images, etc., but I have not tried these yet. i do recommend this Blu-Ray.

I'm really just here to vent. Why the heck doesn't the remote have a backlight? Seriously? How much extra would that have cost?OK, Aside from the idiotic remote that you can't use with the lights off, the player has been great. I haven't used all of its features and probably never will, but I've used it to play 3D blu-rays, streamed Amazon Prime video and used the USB port to play some video files that were on my computer. All of these have worked great, though the USB only plays certain video files, depending on what type of format they are in. I've also tried to use the wifi to just play the files from my computer in the other room, but I've had very little success. I think it is very picky about which types of video files it will recognize via wifi. As for navigating the internet (streaming, youtube, etc), that's a bit of a pain using the remote control to type things in via the on-screen keypad, but there's really no way to fix that unless they made an app that let you use your smartphone as a keyboard.The price is great for what you get. Although, again, I would rather pay an extra five bucks and have a remote with a lighted keypad so I can watch a movie in a dark room and still be able to use the remote. Additionally, the buttons that you use on the actual device are terrible. They are impossible to see and not labeled well. Since most people will be using the remote to actually control playback, I guess it's not a big deal, but they should have made the buttons illuminated, more obvious as to what they do, and moved them from the top of the player to the front panel of the player.

Wow, this is very easy to set up. Take a quick look at the instructions (which I usually do, but I was impatient to start). Luckily I connected the HDMI cable before I plugged in the power cord, which is the correct order, so my install was flawless. The wi-fi capability very quickly recognized my wireless router and I typed in my password for my home network and had the blu-ray player's main menu screen displayed on my TV screen. It works just great with my Hitachi LCD TV that is 4 years old, so you don't need the latest TV to use all the standard features.The main screen has apps for Hulu Plus, Vudu, Youtube, Netflix, Opera TV Store, and a place to add additional choices, which I haven't tried yet. I quickly connected to my Vudu account and watched some content from there quite easily with the very straightforward remote control. While viewing my Vudu digital content, using the reverse/forward buttons on the remote moves too fast with one tap of the arrow on the remote, so it's difficult to go back to the exact location you want to restart from, so I hope to minimize use of that feature.Viewing a disc allows for great control of forward/reverse functions (slow with one or two taps, and fast with several taps) if you get interrupted by a phone call and just want to back up a bit when you start watching again. However, I did pause in the middle of playing a disc with episodes of a TV show and go for a walk, and when I returned and was ready to watch again the player didn't even know which episode to queue up, let alone that I was in the middle of the episode. I have an inexpensive (and several year old) DVD player which can remember I was in the middle of something, and digital content is certainly that way, so this lack of feature in the blu-ray player is disappointing. Probably in the long run I won't need that feature much, but it happened right away, so I've added this edit to my review.The second time I powered up the device I was able to see a software update and it only took a few seconds to complete the update.The face of the disk drawer is very flimsy plastic, and just removing the little plastic film I was concerned about damaging it, so it's the weak point of the product based on what I can observe so far.If you are not presently a Netflix customer it comes with a free month of Netflix - probably streaming only, but I didn't take a hard look at the certificate. I'll consider it after the holidays.This is my first blu-ray player and it's great for my needs.

Works decently and arrived very fast. It's not overly loud.Just have to be careful not to hit the buttons on the top accidentally. Remote stopped working after 2 years of minimal use. Replaced batteries with brand new ones, but the remote still doesn't work.