Lots of advertised features for the price, programmable remote, plays MP3 tracks (rare feature).

Just about everything. Extremely high return rate with a variety of different problems.

Whenever I sell DVD players to customers (whether or not they actually integrate the player into a home theater system), I explicitly recommend AGAINST Samsung players. Heck, even the cheap RCA and Philips players will actually PLAY discs like they were meant to!

With the 711 model in particular, the most common reason for return is skipping and stuttering (and it doesn't just happen in layer changes, either). Some come back not being able to read CDR(W)s or decode MP3s properly like advertised. Most recently, I had a teenage kid return one with a bad IR sensor. In a nutshell, the quality control on Samsung's DVD players in general has been hideously unsatisfactory ever since we have started carrying them.

This is not to say that Samsung makes bad products in general, however. Their small- to mid-sized front-view TVs are very reliable, as are their cell phones and PC monitors. They must have a bad seed somewhere in the manufacturing of their DVD players, because even our cheap $100 no-name Oritron and KLH DVD players can actually FINISH movies with no problems in general.

The price difference between entry-level DVD players is so insignificant that it's unwise to skimp just to save a mere $20. This is what I tell all of my customers who are interested in the Samsung players. I've even been known to stop customers who are ready to pay at registers to ask them to seriously reconsider. Most of them will say that it doesn't matter, because they're purchasing the 4-year service coverage on it, but I would tell them that they'd get awfully tired of dealing with the service center every time they have a problem with that Samsung. And SERIOUSLY, it's only a matter of time until it WILL. I really, really want to be able to accept Samsung DVD products for what they are. I just simply can't though. Trust me, they're really THAT bad!

So PLEASE, if you want to save headaches and constant battles with customer service at retail store, buy something else. These are the kinds of products that give retail a bad name. I have another on those pathetic *POS* Singing Machine karaoke units, but I don't want to babble... Spend the extra $20 and get a Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, Pioneer, etc. instead. You'll thank yourself tremendously later.

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Too many to list.....

Good audio

Won't play most DVDs

Didn't notice a lot of skipping, but but out of 12 DVDs, it only played 3 all the way through. Sometimes going from fast search back to play made it go all the way back to the previous chapter. Every DVD that failed to play was played successfully in a cheap Apex player. It's in for repair now, but from reading all the other reviews, I don't expect it to ever work right. If you're shopping for a DVD player, stay away from Samsung.

Similar Products Used:

Apex AD660

Parts that are not made from metal.

****************************************************
ATTENTION: IT IS NOT NORMAL FOR DVD PLAYERS TO SKIP
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Oh My God!!! This was my first experience owning a DVD player. I researched it in specification only. Never again. It appeared to have EXCELLENT value. It played MP3's, VCD's, CD-R's. Who wouldn't buy this unit....It has everything. So I bought it. Then I played a DVD movie first thing and it skipped a few times. No big deal....try another movie....this one had one skip....I could deal with that (NOT REALLY). Ok...will it play MP3's...quick burn a CD to check. Y..e.s I..t d...oe...s p......l.a..y mp3s quite skipifiably. So, the main reason I purchased the player in the first place was to play mp3s. Sometimes it reads the mp3 cd and sometimes it doesn't....Let me say this again so you properly grasp the key concept. Sometimes it plays THE mp3 cd and sometimes it does not. Ejecting the tray over and over and over again seems to make the device read mp3s on occasion. The story behind the story is that I purchased the unit from Best Buy and by the time I realized something was disfunctional with the unit it was out of the return period. Off to the service center we go. They said it was a buffering problem.. (I bet). They replaced the PCB(Mainboard?). Got it back and it still doesn't work. Now the service center says that Samsung is done with the unit. Translation: Samsung will NOT honor their warranty. So if you are intending on throwing your money away somewhere please contact me so I can give you my address...I need to purchase a new DVD player.

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Many DVD Players

SSk-kk-ips on occasion and overheating...

To be honest if you spend more than a 100 bucks on this unit now feel bad, feel very bad. With that being said, this unit isn't all that horrable but it's far from good. I'm not a huge movie buff but I do own 7 titles and have borrowed 2 others. First movie I poped in was X-men no problems. The next movie I viewed was The Mummy. It played great until the last 1/8th of the film where it started to skip a bit. At this point I noticed that the unit was warm. To me this was a minor problem... Next up, I desided to try playing some mp3s. At first the unit wouldn't play my cds except one. This made my think "What I did do that on that disk that was so different?" Then it dawned on me, it was how I created the disk. So I went back re-created a disk and presto it worked. But the skippage issues were still there (that was when I was slightly miffed). Otherwise, the unit does the limited functions I need so i'm almost, somewhat, pleased?

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It's like nothing else...(that's not so good).

4 WORDS-

STRENGTH IS BEING S H I T

S H I T

Only a few words. S H I T. It has many problems--- Skips ALOT!! Just like S H I T This is stupid but it is S H I T

THANKS FOR S H I T

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None.

Sound Quality/Attempt at producing a feature packed unit at a reasonable price.

Product suffers from poor engineering. Tried 2 different units. Both of them skipped and froze.

The first unit purchased would'nt play much of anything, it froze, skipped or did not recognize a disk. I exchanged it thinking I had a damaged or defective unit. The 2nd unit played everything great except for dual layered DVDs. It would skip, eventually freeze and shut itself down. Maybe it was a overheating problem. At any rate I exchanged it for the Panasonic.
I felt the optical/digital sound quality exceeds both of the units listed above. The 2nd Unit also played CD-R well, even though the literature stated it couldn't play them, go figure. Samsung only gets 1 star for each, to have value the product must at least work. Don't frustrate yourself.
Overall don't buy it, go for the comparably priced Panasonic or Sony.

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Panasonic DVD RV-30, Sony DVD-360(girlfriends)

Has a zoom

Everything else

I purchased one of these at Best Buy as an open box model to save a few bucks. After watching a few movies (both bought and rented) with noticable skips (including an entire chapter skip during a layer change on one movie) I thought perhaps this was why the unit was returned and figured I'd exchange it for a new, unopened one. So, I returned the unit, paid a few extra bucks for a brand new unit, and even bought a new DVD movie that day looking forward to watching it uninterrupted. No such luck. The brand new unit still skipped on a brand new disc. Renting "The Green Mile"- the same problem of skipping entire chapters on the layer change happened again (who needs those pesky things like "plot" anyway?). Then, tonight- watching the DVD of "Fight Club," the movie was fine. Until the layer change- then the movie kept skipping every 10 seconds or so. I have been very put off to the DVD experience due to this unit. I am a movie enthusiast and was very upset thinking that every DVD player had similar problems. (I mean the box for the 711 even states that it's the "No. 1 DVD Player" Yikes!) Finding this site and seeing the reviews for this and other players, I have planned to return this unit once again, get my money back, and buy a new- different- unit. (I'm leaning toward a Toshiba SD1200 or 1600). I will return and leave a new review for my new player after I have had time to evaluate it. But, by all means... STAY AWAY from this player!

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First DVD player

mp3, zoom, nice layout, has all the outputs you need

skips kinda a lot

at first i thought it was a good buy, had everything i needed. i played a few movies, all went fine, i was stoked because i read all the bad reviews it had. then after like 2 weeks, its started to skip a lot, only sometimes, my room has AC, so it cools it down, because it does get hot fast, when my AC is off, it starts to skip like a little girl playing in the garden. so i think i'm gonna sell it and buy a sony or something, i knew i shouldn't of trusted a samsung product.

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don't know

Cost, appearance, multiple outputs for flexible configuration.

Skips, can't play 'extras' on new titles.

I'm very disappointed. Three DVDs, brand-new and scratch free, out of the box, play erratically, stall, and can't get to the 'extras' part without DVD player giving an error. I didn't get this player for MP3 capability, and haven't tried to use it that way. Looks like I'll be returning it this weekend. It appears that Samsung has a serious design defect or process problem with this model, based on other reviews posted here.

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This is my first DVD.

Coax Digital Out, Component Video/Video playback quality, plays CD-Rs

Doesn't play MP3's very well (skips often). Random, short pauses during DVD playback.

Gave this player as much chance as I could, because it could have been great. I contacted Samsung and a repair shop to figure out if the DVD skipping (my only real complaint) could be easily fixed. Has anyone had theirs fixed for a laser lens issue? The repair shop had no tech memos about any firmware/software fixes, so I gave up. After reading several of these, I returned it. Best Buy took it back after more than two months (Christmas Gift return), so I can't complain. Since I really didn't care about the MP3 playback, I bought the Pioneer DV-333 for $199. After three movies, no problems. It reads CD-Rs well.

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Sony DVP-S300, Pioneer DV-333