Samsung DVD-N501 Nuon DVD Player
Definitely the best DVD player for the money...
This is an amazing little player from Samsung, which can now be found right around the $100 mark. Aesthetically speaking, the player's brushed aluminum casing is attractive and smart, and the angled face is quite stylish, a big improvement over the DVD N2000 (though I do miss the jog/shuttle dial).<br />The picture is very crisp, and although it lacks progressive scan for those with high-end televisions, most consumers will be more than satisfied by it. Sound is also quite good, though the lack of an internal 5.1/DTS decoder might turn some away (not a problem if you have a DTS receiver thanks to its DTS compatible optical and coax digital audio outs). With built-in HDCD decoding and the Virtual Light Machine (which pulsates and illuminates to the many aspects of whatever music you may be listening to), this is one of the better players for the audiophile as well.<br />As far as the gaming aspect of NUON is concerned, it may very well have fallen flat, though a couple of the games released, Tempest 3000, an extremely addictive and compelling update of the classic arcade game & Freefall 3050 A.D., an extremely unique, if difficult shooter of sorts, are well worth playing. That aspect taken as it is, the multimedia aspects of NUON are still compelling. Aside to what it allows you to do with any DVD (the 20x ZOOM with image filtering and smooth forward/reverse are the best on any player), the NUON Software Development Kit has opened up quite an underground development core, and there are quite a few applications already available, from the shareware version of DOOM, to Pac-Man, with more on the way. It's not going to replace your Playstation 2, but it's a nice diversion from your standard DVD watching, and a great bonus to one of the best values in DVD (the released games can be had for $10 by the way, with controllers at $10-$15.