Samsung DVD-HD931 HDTV Converter Progressive-Scan DVD Player
Matter of comparison
After reading tons of reviews I decided to try this unit firsthand. The reviews seemed to have no middle range. People either love or hate the player.<br />I have a 60\\" HDTV and JVC progressive scan carousel DVD player. Here is my five cents worth:<br />Picture quality -  far from \\"amazing\\". I created backup copies of several movies ranging from action to sci-fi to cartoons. I ran the movies in \\"parallel\\" on my existing JVC through the component input and on this Samsung through DVI. After about 2 hours of flipping inputs back and forth, playing with the resolution settings I concluded that my JVC's progressive scan picture is better than any settings on the Samsung. Although hard to differentiate unless you watch the same movie frames either by flipping inputs or PIP the Samsung's performance was poor. Of course it blows away my older Pioneer and Apex. So it all depends what people compare it to.<br />Sound - tried optical output, just awful. Low volume, lacks clarity. A total disappointment.<br />Navigating menus takes forever. Slow response. One time I thought it locked up. Remote is just plain garbage - 6 year old design.<br />NTSC/PAL decoder is also very poor compared to my JVC.<br />Summary - $300 price tag is not worth the DVI output. $100 progressive scan player does just fine.<BR>People with 42\\"-60\\" HDTV screens should remember that DVD's are still 480 lines no matter how the player is trying to fill in more to get to 720. It's like a poor scan of a photo that one would try to tweak with Photoshop.