Samsung DVD-HD841 Up-Converting DVD Player
Up-conversion seriously flawed
I recently purchased this unit keeping in mind others' concerns with the black crush issue. For those that don't know, the DVI connection mangles dark blacks into a single color, rendering darker scenes nearly impossible to distinguish. I viewed the Return of the King when Frodo was in Shelob's lair and nothing was discernible. Even in Shrek 2, a colorful movie, the backgrounds were so dark that all you could see at some points was the characters themselves. Both movies were viewd on a Sony 42\\" lcd projection tv. The component outputs work fine, but you might as well by a regular progressive scan if you intend to use those. Basically, for what this player is intended to do, it fails. For a much better unit, for a cheaper price, try the Toshiba SD-5970. It upconverts through HDMI, but I bought a HDMI-DVI converter for $30, it works great, and it's still cheaper than the Samsung 841. Take the advice of others listed here as well and stay away from the 841.