Samsung DVD-F1080 1080p Upconverting Compact DVD Player

I bought this to mate with my Panasonic HDTV. I was looking for a low priced, basic upconverting dvd player and decided to get this model for its size and style. Overall, I think it has great value but has some major downfalls.

Pros-
Small size, modern design (hardware), value price ($50), great picture quality, touch sensors.

Cons-
Remote is low quality; uses cheap plastic and irregular CR-2025 (watch battery). The sensor is weak and directional; you have to be within a short distance and pointing at the right angle- otherwise it doesn't work. If you lose or damage the small and fragile controller, good luck...the player itself doesn't have a display and only the basic controls.
The interface is not as modern as I thought. Looking at the hardware, I was expecting a nice looking interface but it looks like it was designed in the 90s using Windows 95.

love samsung - great product, beautiful picture and plays everyhing we put in it. only con is that the touch buttons on the unit itself are tempermental. other than that samsung products for me so far are top notch.

Be aware - you will not benefit from the upconverting feature of this unit unless you connect it to an HD TV with an HDMI cable. My Samsung HD TV has only one HDMI input which I am using for my satelite box so I had to connect the F1080 with component cable. This limits my resolution to 480i (standard definition). Having said that, the DVD player provides a high quality digital, progressive scan SD picture. I did some noodling in my DVD and TV picture menus and am satisfied with the picture quality I was able to achieve. I find the remote to be refreshingly simple (it doesn't have 10,000 little buttons to deal with in the dark) and the player responds to remote commands with a slight (but not really annoying) delay. The player is a handsome piece of equipment, and small enough for very limited spaces.

First of all, the DVD player has no external display, but I guess that's my fault for not noticing it. Second are the buttons on the outside of it that are not really buttons but small, touch-sensitive panels of some type. When you handle the DVD player you end up hitting buttons inadvertently because you can't feel them and they are in the way. It's very hard not to hit them. The reason I'm handling the player all the time is because the coaxial digital output cuts out a lot. No, it's not my cable or my receiver, as I have switched those out to test, it's the player. I'll be watching a movie, then the sound will cut out and I will check the cable and end up ejecting the disc, losing my place in the movie. To get the problem looked at by Samsung, I will have to pay to send it in to them, because they have no local repair centers, so their screw-up of sending me a defective product will cost me money and hassle. I haven't had time to send it in yet and it's really irritating that I have to do that and pay for it on top of it. Oh, but they are gracious enough to pay for the shipping to send it back to me. How kind of them. The other annoying thing is that the HDMI output does not support 5.1 surround, so if you thought you were going to use HDMI to send 5.1 audio and route video through your HDMI-compatible home theater receiver, forget it! What good is HDMI's ability to carry both audio and video if the shortcomings of equipment don't ever allow you to use it that way?

I actually like this better than the one that came with my home theater system. it has a 64x fast forward which is so nice and fast when you want to get back to a place. the upconverting is impressive and the size is a real plus for small spaces.