Samsung DVD-HD841 Up-Converting DVD Player
Not ready for prime time.
I was initially drawn to this player because of the sleek design and the upconversion functionality, and i decided to buy it because it plays DVD-Audio as well as SACD.  I've owned this unit for about 3 or 4 months now, and i'm not entirely thrilled about it. <br /> <br />For the first months, i used it mainly as a SACD player, and it did an OK job.  The sound really was no more lively than a standard CD, and it didn't have the same OOMPH as my DVD-A player.  I figured it was a difference of the individual recording, until i played the same DVD-A titles.  For some reason, the multi-channel outputs aren't as \\"hot\\" as my other DVD player, and the sound was the same as the SACD playback - pretty thin.  Obviously there's going to be a difference between this and a player with Burr-Brown processing, but i didn't think it would make THAT much of a difference.  It does.  <br /> <br />So, a month ago, my primary DVD player decides to die on me and i have to use this as my main DVD player. Well, to be honest with you, if i had watched DVDs on this the first day, i would have returned it and saved my money for something with Faroudja.  One very annoying issue i have with the DVD-A playback is that there's a colored bar that blocks out the upper portion of the screen on my Porcupine Tree and Beck discs - something that wasn't there on the other player and is really irritating me because it's blocking out the menu on the Porcupine Tree disc. <br /> <br />THIS PLAYER HATES DVDS. <br /> <br />It's incredibly annoying to be watching a movie, and then have the screen to freeze for a second in two-minute intervals.  This happens on a hundred percent of my movies, new, used, rented or whatever.  Also, as other people have noted, the upconversion is fairly useless.  I can see no difference in all the DVI modes compared to component output on my 61\\" DLP.  I really WANTED to, but i can't say there's anything remarkably different.  The picture quality IS different compared to my other unit, considering that my other unit is a standard progressive scan with Faroudja and clearly outperforms this unit in all the DVI modes.  <br /> <br />Granted, this player will play almost anything you put in the tray, in fact, it will even play .avi files and show you the folders of the disc you burned.  This player will play everything except DVDs. <br /> <br />I can't recommend this player, as any functions that justify its price point are either mediocre compared to a more conventional setup, or are just plain poor.