Good picture and sound, Multi-region, price

Overheating and tempramental

When a colleague asked me to modify her R2 709 so she could play US discs, I was a bit sceptical. "Why buy a Samsung when there are better machines on the market at a similar price?", I asked. When she told me it only cost £180, I stood back in amazement. I made a few Web enquiries and found that the player could be made multi-region by using an Aiwa remote control, so the said player was left in my capable hands for a week as my colleague was going on holiday. I borrowed my cousin's RC from his hifi and in 2 minutes I had a fully multi-region 709. But wait. there was more. The player was capable of true standards conversion from NTSC to PAL and, unbelievably, now had Macrovision disabled as well, so I could, if I wanted, make video copies of movies. And it really worked! Now this is all very well, but what of picture and sound quality?, I hear you ask. Well, I was amazed. I had been using a Tosh 3109 R1 player for over a year, and as far as I was concerned, nothing could touch it for picture and sound. But here I was now, looking at vibrant, colourful pictures and, with the player connected to my Sony STR-DB 930 dd/dts amp, stunning Dolby Digital and dts sound to rival my beloved 3109. I wanted one. Now. But my wife wouldn't have it. We were in the middle of some major construction work on our house and she couldn't, nay wouldn't, warrant spending this amount of money on a second player. Another colleague came to the rescue. As he was emigrating to Australia and selling off all his hifi and cinema equipment, he contacted me to find out if I knew anyone interested in buying a - you guessed it - 709! For £70. I almost took his arm off at the elbow, and as he had never even heard of a "hack" for it, off I popped to my cousin again and, rc in hand, set about making my very own 709 region and macrovision free. Now the kids can watch their movies on the portable tv in their bedroom while my wife and I enjoy our movies on our 32" Toshiba Widesreen tv.
All is not rosey in the garden, however, as the 709 does tend to overheat after a couple of hours causing some problems (The King And I, Austin Powers TSWSM) so a confined space is not recommended for this babe. I have only noticed a problem with one movie so far, and that is Deep Blue Sea. For some reason the 709 insists on switching subtitles on at the layer change, but a swift button push on the (excellent) remote soon cures that problem. Incidentally, the latest firmware revision kills that problem dead!
In short, a great machine for the money (now around £140)where the pro's far outweigh the cons, and it should NOT be overlooked.

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Toshiba 3109

sleek styling, price, easy setup, clear picture

remote can be dodgy and complicated

when i first saw the 709 it was £200 In " currys" this was quite reasonable till Iwent two shops down the road to "comet" wher it was only £150!! so in the price stakes it was great it was easy to set up however the instructions could have been abit more informative,the sound in DD or any of the usual dsp modes comes through crisp and clear,and I was pleasantly surprised at its ability to play music. There is only region two compatibility on this model but apparently this can be overcome with the use of an Akai remote?? also the unit can be chipped to multi region.
It has to be said the remote is a bit complicated especially for the uninitiated like myself, there seems to be so much complication to perform even smallest of tasks however at 150 english pounds it would be churlish to complain

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none

perfect pitcher,perfect sound,will play the matrix perfect and any duel layer dvd

none so far its all good

the 709 is better value than a lot of dvd players that cost over £1000. plus it has a cool remote control.a very good dvd player for novices.

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samsung 909

Great analog audio out, excellent picture, excellent power supply regulation, great performance for use as transport for outboard DAC. It can also be modified to perform to alarmingly great levels for little parts cost.

It has trouble with some DVD's, but this can be fixed with a firmware upgrade with is completely covered under warranty. The appearance is also kind of tacky.

I bought this player on a dutch auction on e-bay for $99 and I am dumbfounded at how well it performs. I have found it to be a sterling standalone player and a fantastic transport for use with my P-3A upsampling DAC.

I have already modified the power supply, analog out and digital out circuits somewhat and have been rewarded with even better performance all around for very little parts cost.

You really can't go wrong with this player either as a HT front end (no internal dolby DACs, but digital coax out), transport for use with high-end DAC or as a stand-alone CD/DVD player for a decent two channel system...it reallys holds its own amazingly well for its price as well as for CD/DVD players worth over $500...truly a sleeper.

Strongly recommended...5 solid stars.

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Pioneer DV-414, DV-525, DV-333, DV-434.