Samsung DVD-1080P8 1080p Upconverting DVD Player

The first one I received simply stopped working after three weeks. Amazon was great about replacing it, but the second unit has not impressed me either. Even with the output set to 720p, it is not unusual to see the picture "band" for a second during action scenes. Just as Batman is swooping in or the armies of Mordor begin to descend, the image breaks up into zebra-stripe-like bands for a moment. I would say that I see this happen about once every other movie. I'm honestly considering going back to my old reliable DVD player. It may not upscale, but it always maintains solid picture quality.

When I bought this DVD player for my new 42" Samsung TV I was skeptical that it really improves the quality of my DVDs!

Boy I was WRONG!!

The Quality of the DVDs were never better almost HD quality.
I just watched my old "HELLBOY" dvd on it and it was never better, just superb.

There is just only one annoying little problem. Everytime I insert a dvd i have to change the resolution. I like watching in 1080p.

If there any of you guys who know how to make this setting permanent.
I alreay tried the setting menu!

STILL THIS IS A GREAT PLAYER !!

I know that I'll have to spring for BluRay eventually, but for now, this does a great job on our new large HD TV. The upconvert makes a standard definition DVD look virtually HD; it plays absolutely every modern format, including computer-burned DVDs; the price is unbeatable; the HDMI jack allowed the simplest and best connection to the TV; installation is a cinch; it may be my imagination, but the remote seems to be more powerful than my other remotes, and doesn't require a signal enhancer to work through the cabiner door.

The HDMI interface on this player does not work properly when connected to a Samsung LN37550A LCD TV (and perhaps other Series 5 TVs from Samsung.)

I have updated the firmware provided by Samsung for both the LN37550A LCD TV and this Samsung 1080P8 DVD Player, but the problem persists.

While it is nice that the Samsung website provides easy access to updated firmware, it is unfortunate that neither update corrected the problem.

I would also warn you that the firmware update released for the DVD player was incorrectly packaged and could not be installed using the only file provided by Sumsung. The update supplied lacked a required ancillary file, (which can be obtained from the update supplied for a different model DVD player.)

Samsung's internal technical support was unaware of the problem and unwilling to investigate and correct the problem. Instead, the only solution offered was to charge the customer $10 plus shipping for an update CD. Fortunately, relying upon my 30 years of computer experience, I was able to work around the techincal problem and avoid paying $10 for an update that ultimately does not correct the problem.

So, unless you enjoy goofing around with this kind of stuff and don't mind if things work or not, you should avoid this DVD player.

The component output interface on the DVD Player works fine, however without an operational HDMI interface, you cannot use the AnyNET feature, which enables one remote control to control the TV and the DVD player. Furthermore, the component output may not support the upscaling feature, which is probably the only other reason to choose this player.

As a home theatre in a box at around $220, it performs well. But don't expect a blow you away experience. Having moved from an seperate componet system (Denon/Polk Audio) to an HT in a box unit left me a little disappointed. The sound quality, seperation of channels...are acceptable but not great. It is the tradeoff you make for this price range and convenience.