Samsung's New BD-UP5000 to be Replaced by Mid-Year
By Scott Wilkinson January 27, 2008 — Just as Samsung started shipping its long-anticipated BD-UP5000 combo Blu-ray/HD DVD player, the company announced that the product will be discontinued as of May or June of this year, stressing that this time frame is subject to change. Retailers will be allowed to sell their existing inventory, but production will cease. A new model is scheduled to be released sometime in the second half of 2008, but no other details were revealed. Meanwhile, the company will continue to support the BD-UP5000 with firmware updates.

Speaking of which, Samsung also announced that a firmware update for the UP5000 is now available to fix playback issues with Blu-ray titles such as Ratatouille, Live Free or Die Hard, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and Pixar Shorts Collection, among others. The update can be accomplished in one of three ways: by downloading a file from Samsung's download page to your computer and burning a CD that you then insert in the player, connecting the player directly to the Internet (by far the easiest way to do it), or requesting an update CD from the company by calling (800) 726-7864.

Could Samsung's discontinuation of the BD-UP5000 be a result of the recent setbacks suffered by the HD DVD camp? Will the new model even support HD DVD? Only time will tell. Even if HD DVD is on its way out, there are still hundreds of high-def titles available only on that format, so it behooves Samsung—and benefits consumers—to continue offering a player that can handle it along with Blu-ray.

Soon after this news story was posted, I learned that Samsung's announcement was intended to inform reviewers that the BD-UP5000's life cycle is expected to be relatively short, and if anyone was intending to review that product, they should keep this in mind when scheduling it for publication. The company did not intend to imply that the product was being discontinued prematurely, but that it would be replaced in the normal course of product development by the BD-UP5500, which was unveiled at CES in January and will have full dual-format capabilities. I regret any confusion my original story might have caused, but I maintain that it's important for consumers to know about such short product cycles when making a purchase decision.—SW