Rating: 
Summary: Loads of feature, but doesn't perform basic function!
Review: Great features, great picture quality but skips too often. I've had mine for almost a year now. It skips even to brand new, out of the box DVDs! Extremely frustrating. This product had mixed reviews and I should have known better; I regret buying this DVD player. I even have the latest update on this, yet it still skips. Yes, it has great features, but what is the point if you can't watch a darn 2 hour movie without it skipping 5-6 times. It starts to skip about 45 - 60 min into the movie, after that it's really bad and skips like every 2-3 min. And it has skipped to just about every movie we've watched. I did buy the extended warranty from Best Buy, but they say "we can't find the problem", so I'm stuck with this thing. Like they actually sat and watched a movie to see if it skips. I guess a customers word is not good enough these days! I'm rating this awful because it doesn't perform it's basic function well enough to be worth any kind of money.
Rating:
Summary: Nuon, shmuon, it doesn't play DVD-R's!
Review: I bought this as a high-end DVD player about 2 years ago, and I regret it, in addition to the other woes that are mentioned above, it doesn't play DVD-R's or DVD+R's!
Rating: 
Summary: Remote Drives Me Nuts
Review: I did a lot of research on DVD players before I bought this in December 2001. I narrowed it down to three (sorry, don't remember other 2 -- found good info [on the web], & bought the Samsung b/c of an open box special [at a local store] and because I loved the idea of being able to play video games as well. Picture, sound, etc. are all fine, but the remote control DRIVES ME INSANE! It's got this joystick-style thingy in the middle, but it's either too sensitive, or not senstive enough -- you wind up clicking on options you don't want.The other thing that is making me crazy is the rewind and fast forward speeds. I've been meaning to put a stop watch on it, but I would swear that rewinding in double time & 4x speed is slower than what it should be. It could be that I'm used to TiVo and its speeds (awseome; buy Tivo), but I also work in post-production around Avid editing systems a lot and the Samsung speeds just... feel wrong. Can't find the NUON games anywhere (oh, except here @ Amazon).
Finally, this player has a lot of very cool features... that it turns out I just never use. I would sell this thing & buy something else in a heartbeat.
Rating:
Summary: Remote Drives Me Nuts
Review: I did a lot of research on DVD players before I bought this in December 2001. I narrowed it down to three (sorry, don't remember other 2 -- found good info [on the web], & bought the Samsung b/c of an open box special [at a local store] and because I loved the idea of being able to play video games as well. Picture, sound, etc. are all fine, but the remote control DRIVES ME INSANE! It's got this joystick-style thingy in the middle, but it's either too sensitive, or not senstive enough -- you wind up clicking on options you don't want. The other thing that is making me crazy is the rewind and fast forward speeds. I've been meaning to put a stop watch on it, but I would swear that rewinding in double time & 4x speed is slower than what it should be. It could be that I'm used to TiVo and its speeds (awseome; buy Tivo), but I also work in post-production around Avid editing systems a lot and the Samsung speeds just... feel wrong. Can't find the NUON games anywhere (oh, except here @ Amazon).
Finally, this player has a lot of very cool features... that it turns out I just never use. I would sell this thing & buy something else in a heartbeat.
Rating: 
Summary: Incredible DVD/MP3/game player!
Review: I have been very interested in the Nuon technology since I first heard of it. The added functionality it claimed sounded interesting, as did playing games. I waited for the N501 to let the first generation units get the bugs out, so to speak, and I have been amazed by the N501.
DVD playback is very clear and crisp. The Nuon chipset allows for a very unique feature, namely watching the movie play while the menu is on the screen! While this doesn't sound very important, it is helpful when tweaking settings and seeing how the system responds. It has some very nice options allowing for ultra-smooth zooms, screen fit (ok, that's useless as it kills letterbox which is there for a reason), etc.
It also allows you to play audio CD's and MP3 discs, while showing an AMAZING light show. It absolutely must be seen to be believed. Moving patterns of light react absolutely in time with any CD you put in, and every CD behaves completely differently. The fact it can do all this with MP3s is equally amazing. MP3 playback seems very clear, although will only show 13 characters of the filename. It has played every MP3 disc I have put in it with no problems.
The games are also very good, somewhere between N64 and Dreamcast level. Don't get this unit if you're really looking for a game machine, but it's a great plus. Tempest 3000 is amazing and must be seen to be believed. Merlin Racing is also very fun. The unit comes with 1 game, Ballistic, which is a fun puzzler with great gameplay (very addictive!) but with poor graphics. If you plan on buying any additional games for the unit, be sure to get a control pad, as the remote is useless for playing games with. The only reason I give it 4 stars and not 5 (upped to 5/5 on Sept. 1, see below) is I have noticed some slight sync issues sometimes on some discs. It is easily fixed by pausing the playback for a split second and restarting, however. I am not sure if this is just my unit being slightly out of spec, or something Samsung can/will fix in the future. Overall, this unit is HIGHLY recommended. Samsung has put together an incredible unit. I have been absolutely blown away by mine, it surpassed all of my expectations and then some! Granted, at the price it won't compete with [$]+ units, but it's not meant to. For a mid-level player with high-end features, this is the one to get. (.....)
Rating: 
Summary: Disreguard all of the negative reviews!
Review: I have only viewed a few DVD's on the 501 but have already experienced some frame-lockup and skipping on one DVD. I contacted Samsung and requested the firmware upgrade mentioned in previous reviews here on this site. The Samsung rep told me that there was no such upgrade available and that I should return the unit. The unit is easy to hook up and use, although the remote is not always intuitive especially the joystick. The picture is excellent although only a basic analog RCA cable is included. The sound volume , played through my TV, is much lower than regular TV viewing. The DVD playback functions all work well and most are useful. Overall, although I am pleased so far, I will need to experiment with more disks to find out if the lockup problem is a nuisance or a deal-breaker.
Rating:
Summary: No BIOS upgrade available
Review: I have only viewed a few DVD's on the 501 but have already experienced some frame-lockup and skipping on one DVD. I contacted Samsung and requested the firmware upgrade mentioned in previous reviews here on this site. The Samsung rep told me that there was no such upgrade available and that I should return the unit. The unit is easy to hook up and use, although the remote is not always intuitive especially the joystick. The picture is excellent although only a basic analog RCA cable is included. The sound volume , played through my TV, is much lower than regular TV viewing. The DVD playback functions all work well and most are useful. Overall, although I am pleased so far, I will need to experiment with more disks to find out if the lockup problem is a nuisance or a deal-breaker.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible player
Review: I have owned about four different DVD players; this is the worst of the lot by far. It takes some major complaints on my part for me to return an item, but I definitely could not take this DVD player. First and foremost, the DVD player skips quite frequently when playing normal DVD discs. It was quite a severe skip too, much more harsh than a layer change. Forget the fact that you can download something to fix the problem, because a consumer shouldn't have to jump through loops for a product to perform basic operations. Why spend so much money on a player that will simply turn out to be a huge inconvience? In addition to the skips, the player wouldn't even play some of my more advanced discs. Terminator 2: Ultimate Edition DVD, for instance, would either not load at all or freeze upon loading. Also, the player would often freeze if you use the remote buttons at a moderately fast pace. An example would be if you are manually fast-forwarding through the movie, press pause, then quickly change your mind and keep fast forwarding. This kind of thing can cause the player to freeze up. And that is exactly what this NUON player is. Looking for the upgrades (around the months of July, 2002) turns out to be quite an epic quest. Before I returned it I tried several programs to fix the player, but to no avail. The downloads I did manage to find didn't fix the skipping problem. Another huge problem is the loading time. DVD players two years older than this had quicker loading times. It really shouldn't be too big of a deal, but when you have to wait ten to fifteen seconds before the menu comes up, it does become quite annoying. My advice? Find another player. I've seen these players marked down quite a bit at electronic stores around me, but there are much better players at much better prices.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible player
Review: I have to warn you that this great DVD player does have some problems with older firmware revs, but you can download new firmware and install it from a CDR. Once updated the N501 works like a champ, and delvers great audio and video quality. The Virtual Light Machine (VLM) feature alone makes this a great DVD player for listening to music while being memorized by psychedelic visuals. The VLM feature works with both audio and MP3 discs. I think the best feature of this unit is one that is hidden, the multi-region DVD playback capability. You can learn more about this "region free" mode by heading on over to the Nuon Dome.
Rating:
Summary: The N501 Rocks!
Review: I have to warn you that this great DVD player does have some problems with older firmware revs, but you can download new firmware and install it from a CDR. Once updated the N501 works like a champ, and delvers great audio and video quality. The Virtual Light Machine (VLM) feature alone makes this a great DVD player for listening to music while being memorized by psychedelic visuals. The VLM feature works with both audio and MP3 discs. I think the best feature of this unit is one that is hidden, the multi-region DVD playback capability. You can learn more about this "region free" mode by heading on over to the Nuon Dome.
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