Samsung DVD-C631P 5-Disc Progressive-Scan DVD Player
useless as progressive scan DVD player
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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.