None

Doesn't look any better or worse than my 2yr old component video JVC DVD player. WAY OVER HYPED

What a bunch of HYPE!! I went thru every DVD I had looking for a reason to keep this POS. I have the new 50" LCD Panasonic HDTV PT50LC13 only about a month old. It came with the DVI cable(for $3300 it better have) The Matrix didn't look any better or worse than my $180 JVC DVD player that I bought 2 years ago. As was the same for Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan, Star Wars Episode 1, The Usual Suspects...I could go on and on. No difference..maybe slightly better color, but that was it and only slightly noticable at that. The only DVD that looked great was Star Wars Episode 2....now if all my DVD's could look as good as that one did, then this review would be 180 degrees. The arena scene was stunning...almost True HD picture, but for $300 I couldn't justify it for having only improved 1 DVD out of 15. I returned it to Best Buy and the guy almost had a fit when I told him it sucked. They gave me another one and that one didn't work at all, so I was done with Samsung. And in true Best Buy fashion they insisted on buying the $90 Monster DVI cable...whatever. I am an Electrical Engineer and folks cable is cable especially when it's only 3 FEET LONG!! And it doesn't explain why Episode 2 worked nicely and every other DVD I tried didn't look any better or worse and surely not $300 better. I would suggest waiting until more companies came out with upconverters and the technology advances before seriously thinking about buying one of these. Great Idea and the concept looks good on paper, but this DVD player does not hold up.

blue light

remote, cannot play vcd, loading is too slow

overall is good

Similar Products Used:

none

Smoother picture with more sence of depth as opposed to component inputs.

Very bad remote. Mirror finish on unit tends to reflect IR signal from remote.

When I first installed the 931 in my system and connected it to my Hitachi 57xwx20b thru the DVI input, I was disappointed. The picture seemed wrong, best described as "hard" with lots of edge enhancement no matter what DVD I played, the first being "Solaris". I almost packed it up and sent it back. But, I re-tweeked my tv with Video Essentials, and continued to watch. Now after about a month, the image has sort of "blossomed". I dont know if electronic gear "breaks in" like speakers do, but now I'm very happy with it. I may borrow someone's more expensive DVI cable to see if it makes a difference, but I doubt much. This unit was made before May 18, 2003, so I dont have the A/B option in the setup menu to fix the fact that the image is shifted to the right by 3 inches. But Samsung is sending me a software update disc to correct this problem then I will be even more pleased. You do notice a difference between compressed video thru component inputs and uncompressed video thru the DVI.

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None, my first DVI capable player.

DVI Output, 720p, 1080i, Instant Replay, Instant Skip, Bookmarks, Plays everything Home made DVD's in every format, MP3 CDRs and CDRWs, BEAUTIFUL Mirror finish with brushed titanium style. Jog Dial. Nice Purple, StandBy light. Thin DVD tray. Quiet Operation. Light weight.

Light around Jog Dial does not dim when you are watching a movie (or I haven't figured out how)

My name is Darius and I am a footbal fan. I purchased a High Defition TV and HDTV Tuner for the sole purpose of Monday Night Footbal. Anyone who has witnessed a sporting event in HD knows that the money was well spent. I saw a demo of my TV prior to purchase, it was a tennis match between Anna Kornikova and Who Cares. It was like watching the event through a Sapphire Crystal. When Ms. Kornikova scratched her leg, I could see the lines left by her fingernails. After watching true HDTV (1080i/720p) for a couple weeks, standard DVD movies just weren't as gorgeous as I remembered. I upgraded the cables to component but it was too late. I had been spoiled by High Definition Television. I knew that Sony just released a BlueRay High Defition DVD Recorder, Sony BDZ-S77 (http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/blu-ray/index.html) but that's in Japan which means it will still be another 2 years before we see it here. And @ $3,800.00 it will be another 2 years before the price falls to $300.00. I read a few reviews on the Samsung DVD-HD931 but it was still so new that the reviews weren't very detailed. Knowing what a solid company Faroudja is and how great DCDi is; I decided to take the plunge. I had no intention of using the DVD player with any connection other that DVI so that was not a problem. I bought a BRAND NEW DVI cable for $5.00, 9 dollars total with shipping from eBay (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2747343712&category=3759&rd=1). So I suggest that anyone looking into DVI NOT PAY $150.00 for a cable. Setup Fairly Simple. Confusting because they use the Title "Menu" for the DVDs setup Menu and the Disc Menu. Changing the name to SETUP for DVD Player Settings and MENU for the Disc's menu on my remote was a quick and easy fix. Control Slow Motion 1/2 speed, 1/4 speed, Instant Replay, Instant Skip, Front Panel Jog Dial, Front Panel Aspect Ratio Control. Color coded Aspect Ratio status so you know what you are set to. Green=1080i, Purple=720p, Red=480p. Picture First let me say that you must have a High Definition monitor with a DVI input to truly appreciate this player. The picture is STUNNING. Not quite true HDTV quality but tryuly amazing. The signal stays digitals from the Disc it passes through the Faroudja chip, upscaled to HDTV Resolution, the passed through the DVI cale to you HD Monitor. There is never any analog to digital conversion. Calibrated with Avia Guide To Home Theater. Tested with The Gladiator, Monster's Inc, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hollow Man, and U-571. This is THEE best DVD Player I have EVER Seen, Used, or Witnessed...Ever. I have had a problem in the past where DVDs temporarily drop the Audio when transitioning from one menu to the next. This player does not have that problem. No skipping when changing chapters, NO artifacts. I like the bookmarks feature. It's nice to go straight to your favorite part of a movie. Remote Hideous. Poor Design. Poor IR output, you literally have to be no more than 6 feet away and pointing DIRECTLY AT THE PLAYER to get any response. Also, my Toshiba had a feature called Remote Confirmation where it would beep to let you know the command was recieved. This is a helpful feature when the menu items are vague. I recently purchased a Home Theater Master MX-500 remote that fixed the problem. This proves that it is not the actully IR reciever in the player, but the remote. So if you already have a third party remote, you shouldn't have any problems. Audio The sound quality is just as beautiful as the picture. I listen to a broad range of music and every CD sounds great. It plays MP3s and HDCDs but not WMA. Some of the ads state that it plays DVD Audio but I don't have any Discs to test. I hope this review helps someone who may be debating between Samsungs DVI play and V Incs DVI player. Here are a couple excerptsa from c|Net review/comparison: 1.) "During the arena scene from Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones...The droids had tremendous detail and sharpness, and we were able to make out individual aliens in the crowd." 2.) "Next, we checked out some video-based material, as opposed to film-based DVD movies, and the HD931 came out the clear winner. The waving flag from Video Essentials looked much cleaner, with no jagged edges, and the pendulum pattern from the Video2000 benchmark disc was also extremely smooth. Interestingly, component video did have plenty of jaggies, so we don't recommend using this deck with anything but DVI." 3.) "Providing you have the required TV hookup, the HD931 can convert the resolution of wide-screen DVD (852x480 pixels) to standard 480p, as well as the HDTV resolutions 720p (1,280x720) and 1080i (1,920x1,080)."

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Toshiba SD-2109, Microsoft XBOX, Sony GRX500 Laptop, Dell Inspiron 2600 Laptop, IBM ThinkPad Laptop.

great picture,CD-RW,MP3

can not switch from 1080i to 720p from remote

When I purchased my 51" HD Hitachi in January of 2003, I was in search of a good dvd player without costing me an arm because my Panasonic DVD-RV31 was not giving me the quality picture that I wanted. After trying and returning many players, I was somewhat satisfied with an Onkyo DV-CP500 that I purchased from Circuit City for $299. About 1 month ago, I saw an ad in Home Theatre magazine advertised by One Call, Samsung's 720p/1080i DVD-HD931. I was pretty excited, thinking this player would give me a high-definition picture or close. I was wrong! You must use DVI wire to get the 720p/1080i. I bought the $150 DVI Monster Cable and must say, this dvd player beats any player that I've seen so far. It has excellent picture quality, the skin of the actors look more natural without a shiny glaze over their face unlike my previous players using component wire. The Samsung also had slightly better contrast between colors. This is a nice dvd player, but does not come close Brighthouse Cable's high-definition channels. If anyone knows when the true HD dvd players are coming out please email me at kimberlycaf@aol.com.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic DVD-RV31,Onkyo DV-CP500

plays movies flawlessly,detailed,almost high def,

remote is tricky,annoyingly flimsy,

incredible machine,it outperformed my RP-91 in clarity,and rp-82 with the faroudja chip,in component is awsome,in DVI is even better,but with its limits, i read someone mentioned this player does not play Superbit DVDs,it does and beautifully,dont believe everything you read,do research first,you'll be amazed.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic RP-91K and N,RP-82

Picture

remote is lame. it forced me to go out and buy a top-notch universal. not is the remote piss-poor, but the ir receivers are very insensitive forcing you to aim the remote - luckily, my universal is super power, but I still have to point.

Great picture - simply stunning

Similar Products Used:

toshiba progressive scan dvd - the picture with this player is significantly better...