Samsung DVD-P721M Progressive-Scan DVD Player
Not a Samsung Skeptic anymore
At first I just walked into [...] and thought that I wanted a telephone until I saw this DVD player.  It was on sale for [$$$] when I purchased it last year, and while I took it to the cashiers, I realized that there were five other people holding one.  I didn't want to purchase a DVD player, as they were overpriced last year, but since my brother is a DVD fanatic, I needed one in order to borrow some of his movies.  Well, I must say that I bought this player thinking that I'll use it for one year and dump it for a better one, but I still have it.  My husband and I have the player connected to our Bose Home Theater System, our 36\\" Flat Screen TV, and our state of the art stereo system, and it works as hard as the rest of the equipment.  Compared to my brother's [$$$] DVD player (bought 3 years ago), I must admit that I just can't see the difference between the two -- My brother has a SONY.  Once I turned the DVD player on, its quality makes our cable company, AT&T Broadband, look like they are providing us horrible quality television -- I even called AT&T to complain.  If you're looking for a DVD player that wants to do just that: Play DVDs, then this is an excellent buy for the money and quality you get.  However, if you're looking to find a player that is going to play with you, by providing you with a number of useless buttons for \\"sleep\\" or \\"eat\\" or one that is going to have \\"pretty\\" on-screen numbers and so on, then you will have to purchase yourself a [$$$] system.  One other thing that I've noticed about people who complain about their DVD players is that they \\"lock\\" and they have to turn it on and off.  Well people, please note that when you rent movies from [...], and the DVD is dirty, your player will \\"lock\\" because it can't move, or will give you fragmented pictures.  Take the DVD out, then clean it with WINDEX, and pop it right back in -- it works fine!  We have not had one single problem with our DVD player, except that once in a blue moon it will get fragmented pictures and we know that its the CD, so we clean it with WINDEX, pop it right back in, and grow more annoyed at [...].  We've probably spent more money on rental DVD movies the last six months, than it cost us to buy this player.  Extremely satisfied!  It does what it's supposed to do, and everything else is completely trivial and unimportant.<br />Oh before I forget, one thing I actually do LOVE about the player is that when it fast forwards or rewinds, it is able to do it by chapters, or by different speeds.  I've noticed that this feature is NOT provided in most DVD players -- my brother's SONY and my friend's players don't have this feature, except for a limited speed, while the Samsung does up to 128x, I believe.  It forwards and rewinds by doubles (i.e., 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x, 32x,... and so on).  So if you stopped your movie half way, it's very easy to get back to where you left it.  Plays MP3 and CDs, but you may have to turn on your television to do so, depending on how your connectivity worked out -- we didn't have any more input/outputs on our receiver, so it was set up directly with the television.  Other than that, for those who can figure this out, this is great! <br />It does the trick!!