Samsung DVD-1080P8 1080p Upconverting DVD Player

The biggest downfall of this unit is it must contain the worst remote control ever. Black buttons on black background, they are all relatively small, and the layout is cluttered and non-intuitive. Try finding the pause and play buttons in a dark room. Good luck. If you intend to drive the player with a better remote set to control the samsung deck, its ok, but if you will use the remote that came with it... do yourself a favor and get a different player.

I purchased it to drive my old SD 20" trinitron tube set in the bedroom, and for that its fine. There is no S-video out, but as the TV has no s-video in, thats good for me. No comment on the HDMI problems others have seen as I don't have an HDMI capable display to test.

I also wanted a unit that plays divx files, and this handles that nicely. If complains 'no decoder', if you select a file that is not a divx file. Great for viewing all of those divx files you burned to DVD off of the internet or from your own DVD's you ripped and compressed.

For the price, I suppose its acceptable.. .well, all but the horrendous remote. I'm seriously considering just returning it for the remote issue.

First off, many people expect that because it says "1080p HD" and because they own an HD TV, that this product will immediately blow them away. But often times true 1080p performance itself can be a tricky thing. You'll need HDMI cables to get the maximum 1080p resolution as component cables can only force out 1080i. First thing you need to know is that your not going to see a big difference on a smaller HD TV screen when attempting to use 1080p resolutions. For decent color depth in 1080p, you'll need 40" inches or higher. For "optimal" performance, you need a 50" inch screen or greater. Of course the ability to "spot" the difference even on a 50" inch, also is a matter of how well your HD set and the DVD player can display it. That's why so many people have such a wide view on how good or bad these things are. They forget to assess their TV's performance. Just because I have a 50" inch HD TV that does a 1080p max resolution, it doesn't mean your same 50" inch 1080p HD TV (different model) can't out perform it. Also many people forget there is DVD player compatibility to consider. Sometimes some models with different internal components work best with certain model TV's.

As for this particular Samsung DVD player, it's a modest device that "can" do 1080p...but in most cases you won't be able to tell. 720p seems to be the best resolution performance your gonna get. You'll get the same quality in 720p with component cables as you would with HDMI. I still recommend HDMI largely because it's a digital signal that can optimize disc scanning for a cleaner picture without the possible loss of integrity. Sometimes the analog signal in component cables tapers down when your DVD player heats up to normal operation temperatures, causing the picture quality to diminish somewhat.

This is a good player with some decent features like the ability to play back divex files from copied discs. In fact it's capable of reading a ton of formats that most players won't. It takes a few moments to load but not too long. It's ability to go 1080p and dazzel you is questionable at best and that's the ugliest thing about it. I suppose the cheap price range would offset the flaws found in this particular player which are few. 80 bucks new for what this thing can do is pretty fair even if 720p happens to be the best you might be able to do.

PROS:
Able to play back many formats like divex, which many computer users may appreciate.

Really good price that you can't knock.

Upscales or upconverts (which ever floats your boat) to respectable high definition quality.

CONS:

It's ability to achieve anything higher than 720p that you'll definitively know about, is questionable.

The Samsung 1080P8 1080 P was an excellent buy. I have bought a HDTV Samsung LCD 650 46 inches. My old Sony DVD player didn't have a digital output so I upgraded to the Samsung. The euivalent Sony is very too. I went for Samsung for compatibility reasons. It really works the pictire is much clearer and has more contracts than the Sony DVD with analog output.

Delivery, etc was good as always with Amazon.

This DVD Player works wonderful with the Samsung flat panel TV. The TV Sees the player and switches to the correct input and the player screen appers on the TV... Good job.

I want to echo the comments of R. Walthers, "DVD refused to work with my Samsung 32" 1080p TV" dated 21 July 2008. I bought the same setup, except my Samsung TV is a 37" HDTV model. When I tried to play a DVD, the signal drops out about every 15 seconds. I called Samsung to report the problem within about 7 days of purchasing the unit. They acknowledged that the two units were incompatible and said a firmware modification would be developed and that I would be notified by e-mail to download the software by USB device and upload it to the TV. Well, after several calls and now over 60-days, I still have nothing from Samsung. So, thanks R. Walthers, tomorrow I'm going to buy a second DVD (Sony DVP-NS700H/S). If anybody wants a free Samsung 1080P DVD player, just check my trash can!