Ah just found this comment on Amazon regarding this:
"While I'd agree with all the other reviewers - this is an excellent introduction to blu-ray, surely I can't be the only person having problems with the remote control? The dead giveaway that its a fault known by Samsung, is that its listed as the first item in the troubleshooting section - "No operations can be performed with the remote control". Basically, from time to time the machine just doesn't respond to the remote control. It appears to be an issue with the remote itself (and its not battery-related). The instructions in the manual work, but I've now had to reset my remote 4 times in less than a week of ownership. This involved pulling the batteries out of the remote and then holding any button down for several minutes to reset the microprocessor. If you're planning to watch a movie, you have to factor in the remote reset before you start (since the player itself doesn't have sufficient buttons to select from on-screen menus to start a movie playing - I had 10 minutes of Spiderman 1's intro sequence the other day swapping batteries in and out before I could get the remote to work to start the movie). The remote does transmit something, its just not something the player responds to until the remote gets reset.
Samsung, if you're listening - any chance you could spend more than 5 minutes designing a remote that works all of the time?"
Seems I am not the only one...