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Samsung DVD-C631P 5-Disc Progressive-Scan DVD Player

Samsung DVD-C631P 5-Disc Progressive-Scan DVD Player

List Price: $149.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Works fine
Review: A comment about "bathed in red" from previous review - there is a switch on the back, that you are supposed to set to 480p. By default it is not set to 480p. I also had the red TV screen and then I realised to switch the button to 480p and it works fine.

This is my first progressive scan DVDs, so I can not compare it to the other progressive DVD players, but it definitely improved the quality of picture from my previous toshiba DVD player, which was about 3 years old or so.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: useless as progressive scan DVD player
Review: I actually do have an HDTV capable set (one of the Sony 1080i models), and can comment on the video quality of this player. My old Pioneer progressive scan player broke, this player was cheap, and I figure that it would probably be a good choice. My TV accepts 480p signals, and automatically letterboxes 480p signals with anamorphic compression. My biggest beef with this player is that it doesn't properly output an anamorphically compressed 480p signal.

What is anamorphic compression anyway? As you've probably noticed, HDTV sets are wider; they have a 16:9 aspect ratio instead of a 4:3 aspect ratio. When you display a 16:9 picture on a 4:3 set, it is "letterboxed," meaning that there are black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. DVDs are encoded with 480 lines of vertical information. Ideally, you'd want to use all 480 lines for picture, and not for black boxes. That's the problem that anamorphic compression solves: it stretches a letterboxed image out to a 4:3 screen, to make the signal about 33% sharper. Specifically, it means that your DVD player will output a video signal with all 480 lines of resolution, and your TV set will squeeze it onto the right size screen.

The problem with this player is that it does not correctly output an anamorphically compressed widescreen signal. On several discs (like the Matrix), I couldn't get the player to properly output an anamorphically compressed widescreen signal to my TV. So, I had to resort to letterboxing the image, losing 33% of resolution in the process. This causes a greater difference to the picture quality than the difference between a progressive and interlaced signal.

So, in my mind, this is a useless player for the serious videophile. Along with the useless changer mechanism (see the other reviews), I can't recommend this player.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Mixed Emotions
Review: I agree with most of the above reviews.I was also disappointed that this changer does not change to the next disc automatically.You would think that a 5 disc changer would play a disc all the way through and go to the next disc number and play that one too.Not so.You cannot randomly play 5 music cds.There are mistakes in the owner's manual.I found this out by calling the 800 number and explaining that the screen does not show what the manual says it should show.Two things that I love about this player:The picture and sound.I hate the fact that on some movies if you stop the player to grab a sandwich and come back and push play again the movie starts all over again.What a pain.Also I wished that when you power up the unit it would not go into autoplay before you get a chance to go to your easy chair and sit down.Subtitles are hard to get rid of.The default position is on.It doesn't matter if you don't speak German or Italian.It will still put the first language listed on the disc subtitles into action.You have to hit Subtitle on remote to turn it off.I like the picture format changer located on the remote.You can changer from letterbox to screen fit with the remote while the movie is playing.I bought mine brand new in box for 69 dollars.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Won't Play CDs
Review: I agree with the other reviewers that it won't shuffle audio CDs, but I'll take it one step further and say that mine won't even play any music CD at all in any format! Not what I had in mind. It goes back today.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Won't Play CDs
Review: I bought this player a while back, and connected it to my hdtv with no problems, using component cables and progressive scan switch turned on. It plays every dvd I have tried, and every audio cd also. It does not play a standard vcd, instead, it plays SVCDs, which are better anyway, since you can vary the effective quality. I'm pretty sure it will play a DVD-R (Most any player should be able to read this format), but I am sure it won't play DVD+Rs (This is too advanced for most players to play without being designed for it specifically). It plays mp3 cds, but will not navigate through directories, so you'll have to unsort your music and put them all in the root directory of the cd, and it plays them alphabetically. This wouldn't have been my first choice if I was going for the best, but at its price, I don't think you can beat the features that it does have.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not too bad.. or good
Review: I bought this player a while back, and connected it to my hdtv with no problems, using component cables and progressive scan switch turned on. It plays every dvd I have tried, and every audio cd also. It does not play a standard vcd, instead, it plays SVCDs, which are better anyway, since you can vary the effective quality. I'm pretty sure it will play a DVD-R (Most any player should be able to read this format), but I am sure it won't play DVD+Rs (This is too advanced for most players to play without being designed for it specifically). It plays mp3 cds, but will not navigate through directories, so you'll have to unsort your music and put them all in the root directory of the cd, and it plays them alphabetically. This wouldn't have been my first choice if I was going for the best, but at its price, I don't think you can beat the features that it does have.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: it's OK, but some important features are missing
Review: I got this DVD player yesterday, got it all hooked up to my reciever and TV, and I was pleased with it. Played movies beautifully (used digital coax for sound and s-video), but I also wanted it to be used as a CD changer for music. I tried putting 5 music cds in on random, and came to the conclusion that this player is incapable of playing more than 1 cd random. The manual says to "choose one disc or all discs", but this command is missing from the interface. You can choose random, but it doesn't give you a choice of 1 or all. So you're stuck with 1 disc at a time. Also, once it's done playing the one disc, it does not automatically go to the next. As far as I can tell, the only way to switch discs EVER is to manually hit the disc skip button. Sort of defeats the purpose of having a changer, doesn't it...

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Promising--if only it worked
Review: I had high hopes for this player. Changer drawer works well and operation is quiet. Neither component video (picture was bathed in red), nor the optical output (my tuner failed to recognize Dolby 5.1 signal) worked. I doubt that my tuner and TV suffered simultaneous failures, however, since they both worked fine with the signal from a previous DVD player. Needless to say, it's going back.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Best Dvd Player ive ever owned
Review: I have no idea what the other reviewers are thinking when they give this player such a low rating. This dvd player is the best I, my friends, and family included have ever owned. The picture and sound quality is supurb, and the disk changer is an added bonus. the only problem is that it seems to have a nasty habit of forgetting my display and audio settings, but other than that, its fantastic.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: 90's technology passed off as current
Review: I have to marvel at Samsung's engineering on this product. As is mentioned by dozens of other reviewers, it won't play across discs, random or otherwise. Unbelievable. If a team designing this came to me and told me this was what they were planning on sending out the door, I'd fire all of them on the spot, give them glowing job recommendations to my competitors, and bring in some high school kids that had some vision.

I also tried burning some MP3 and Windows media audio files onto 2 different types of CD media, even at 1x, only to be rewarded with a continuous "loading" message, followed by a message that this disc can't be played. I've also had problems with it locking up completely while playing 2 different DVD's, and needing to be unplugged.

I rate this player not "one star", but "5 poopies". I can't believe that this is a product released since 2000. My old Sony, which I was never that fond of, despite not being billed as being able to play alternate media types, performed the basic functions an order of magnitude better. Samsung should make toasters for a living, home electronics is clearly too challenging for them.


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