Picture quality, Sleek apperance, great VALUE, nice remote

Skiped a few times, no DTS

Good vaule...received free @ Hifi.com. MUCH better than VHS. Had a slight problem w/ s-video. Slow customer service at samsung. Im happy with my purchase.

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Good Picture. Inexpensive. Lots of nice features. Name Brand.

Only coax digital out. Can be quirky at layer transitions.

This is my first and only DVD player and I have to say that by and large I'm quite happy with it. When I made my purchase I ensured that I got a model with the firmware upgrade fixes the problems that plague 709's bought before about October 1999. With this fix the 709 is able to easily handle the Matrix and other "trouble" dual layer discs. I've played upwards of forrty discs on this thing and not had a single major problem. The sound output through the digital out is very nice and the cd playback quality is surprisingly warm. Better than a lot of cd players out there. The picture quality is consistently good and allthough there isn;t much in the way of video and sound cusomization what there is works well. One note about video quality though; it is important to note that the 709 seems to not handle layer transitions as smoothly as some players(especially more expensive ones) on the marketand there is will be a brief but noticable skip at the layer change on some discs. But for the price the is probably one of the best values out there. Just MAKE SURE YOU GET THE FIRMWARE FIX, if it doesn't have that you'll have lots of problems as evidenced by most of the negative reviews on this page.

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na

great remote, nice looking, good price

problems playing dual layered discs.

I purchased the dvd player because of its price, and it looked pretty fancy too, along with the cool remote. But now comes the performance. The first dvd I watched was The Mummy. The movie looks great, but halfway through the movie, it pauses, then skips like crazy. I thought I had a defective player, exchanged it, played the movie again, pauses halfway, then skips like crazy. I emailed the department store headquarters,they tell me that the player need to be upgraded. So I say o.k., travel 1 and half hours to the samsung service center (had to wait a couple of weeks because srevice center was waiting for chips), got the player upgraded, and I thought great, it should play everything good now right, WRONG!!! I got home. popped in The mummy for the 20th time (at this time Im tired of the movie) and it pauses, then skips, and the performance of the player I think got worse. So I wasted my time, and I returned the player(wish I had thrown it out the window). This time I did my research on dvd players, and I decided to purchase an RCA 5220p player.Got home, popped in The Mummy for the 30th time, got halfway through the movie, closed my eyes, and I finally got to see The Mummy glitch free. A word of advice, take it from my experience, do a little research before you buy a dvd player, it'll save you time, and money. And to Samsung, thank you for the crappy player, I learned how to be a better consumer. Dont buy Samsung, "So Crappy"..

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RCA 5220p

Price, ease of use

Can't play CD-R, problems with firmware in some units

I am very satisfied with this DVD player. The first unit I got was a little crappy. It skipped many disks and could not play some disks. I exchanged it with a similar unit and that works great for me. It plays all my DVDs nicely. It is probably not as stable as other more expensive DVD players, but is a good start for someone who does not want to spend a lot of money on a DVD player. The only problem is that it does not play CD-Rs, however it does play silver CD-RWs and with the prices of CD-RWs coming down significantly, it is not a huge issue for me.

Nice looking easy to use

Fermware needs upgrade
firmware needs upgrade

I bought this player AS IS at an after Xmas sale. It played fine but the audio was nothing to write about. I popped the top and saw the usual stuff. Switching power supply without enough filtering. I added thirteen 47uF capacitors and this thing can SING! Then a few more 2200uF caps it the power input for the laser board and now its really singing. The video is so good I'll never watch real life again! Just joking. The audio did what my CD player could not. I played Jennifer Warren The Hunter, cut eight. This cut would turn my Magnaplanar speakers into two six foot bass drums. After the changes to the Samsung I played it again. Now the speakers stood to both sides and did nothing while Jennifer sang to me from between them, and had a nomal size bass drum behind her. Does that about say it?

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Sony 500

Price, feature

Unreliable, skipping

It's a player with all the basic features that a first time buyer will want. It's easy to use and you can even get it for free if you buy a surround sound system from a certain website.

However, after using it for 3 weeks and tried it on many different DVDs, I found it unreliable. Every single one of the DVD movies which I played using this player would skip/pause every now and then, especially when the movie is transitioning from one chapter to another. Some times the picture will even look pixelized. The situation is worst when I tried to play The Matrix with it and the DVD was brand new. And that seems to be common with other reviews here also.

I'm going to ask for a replacement. And if the new one doesn't improve, I'll return the whole surround sound system or maybe ask them for a different one. But even if I'm willing to add extra money, I doubt they will give me a different player. Wish me luck.

Great picture, user friendly remote, inexpensive.

Needed an upgrade right off the bat.

When I first puchased the unit(through an on-line auction) it would not play certain DVDs ie Matrix, Sixth sense.. I called Samsung tech support. I was provided with several tech support centers. They upgraded my processor and gave me a new drive for no charge. I tested the DVDs that wouldnt work before and everything has worked like it should since. No other problems....yet?!

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Price, Ease of use, Sound and picture quality

Styling, Firmware Upgrade, Won't play CD-Rs

My first home DVD player made me realise just how crap video cassettes are.
The shop i bought it from had already performed the upgrade on the firmware and i paid extra for a region hack.
Despite warnings about The Matrix etc it has played perfectly, the only disk that skipped was a scratched audio CD. I wish it would play CD-R's but this is a minor gripe.
I'm very satisfied.

Got my 709 back from the free firmware fix today and just watched the Matrix whick played flawlessly. It wouldn't even load before. Samsung said the problem was dual layered discs. Now that it plays fine, has a very functional and simple to use remote, and the price, 5 stars.

I enjoyed all of the options. The FF that moves from x2 to x8 to x16 to x32 then back to PLAY. The joystick remote is great!

The skipping and "picture freeze." This has mostly happened to me on Stir of Echoes but skips on other movies. It could be the heat build up but I have had it serviced once and it is back in the shop. Actually I am getting a DVD-611 from Samsumg because they know they are having problems with the model. If you experience the picture freeze TAKE YOUR UNIT TO A WARRANTY SERVICE CENTER!!! Do it before the year is up. They have been very cooperative and I did not even ask for a new model, they sent me a letter stating they would ship one to the service center. I do like the Samsung for the cost but if there are problems with the design make the company REPLACE IT! Just my $0.02

Please see my weakness section.....I like the model but the skipping is really a bother when you are enjoying a mvie...VHS does not skip and this player should not either...let the warranty work for you!!

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