Other recent Samsung HDTVs have had excellent remote controls, but not this one. Many important buttons--such as the ones for Play, Pause, and the disc menu--are well placed but too small. Meanwhile, the setup button is quite large--and how often do you use that? The remote isn't backlit, although a few commonly-used buttons glow in the dark. It is, at least, programmable.

The Samsung BD-P1600 produces very good images, and by Blu-ray standards it's as fast as lightning. But problems with upscaling DVDs and some unwise design decisions prevent it from being a great player.