Glad this thread is becoming active again...

by dbpropp - 12/27/09 1:28 PM

In Reply to: Wireless adapter by quailhuntr

'Cause I'm not a happy camper. I bought the Samsung BD-P1600, thinking the wireless network connectivity was a great feature. Wireless services and "Wireless Ready" are plastered all over the box. Before reading the manual I tried connecting it to my wireless network, without success, of course.

So I actually read the manual (finally), and found out that I need to BUY a wireless adapter - THEIR wireless adapter. I felt betrayed and checked the box again and there, in small print on the side of the box, far smaller than the "Wireless Ready" banner, were the magic (secret) words "adapter not included."

One of my pet peeves is manufacturers, not just Samsung, locking you into spending additional money for their own proprietary equipment. And after years in tech support myself, I don't buy the argument (above) that they HAVE to do this to allow their tech support reps troubleshoot network problems (though I'm sure the rep who wrote that sincerely believes it because that's what he's been told by marketing). First, if they really believed that, they would build the wireless adapter into all their equipment. And any support rep worth a nickle could easily rule out the adapter as a problem regardless of the manufacturer.

Anyway, here I am with a wireless blue ray player that won't work wirelessly unless I give Samsung another $90. There doesn't appear to be an after-market compatible adapter, so my choices are to give Samsung another $90 for their adapter, string a cable across 3 rooms to my router, not use any of the network capabilities, or return it & get a wireless player that is really wireless (or will work with standard adapters).

I'm really disappointed that Samsung has chosen the same greedy path as Sony and other companies who force their users into purchasing additional, proprietary equipment (I won't purchase Sony equipment for that very reason).

Okay, I've let off some steam, so now I have to go and consider which one of my options I should take. It's too bad because if it were complete, this seemed to be a very nice Blu Ray player.