Upside
If you have broken the piggy bank and invested in a new 1080p high definition television, chances are you've also bought yourself a Blu-ray player to go with it. Most of these new HD disc players -- with the exception of Sony's Playstation 3 -- will upscale your DVD library to provide a more impressive picture on an HD screen.
If for some reason you don't have a next-gen Blu-ray or HD DVD player, Samsung's upscaling DVD-1080P7 will breathe new life into those DVDs for only AU$199.
It is able to up-convert a DVD's native resolution to output high definition formats -- 720p/1080i/1080p -- for higher quality pictures and outputs through HDMI cable. The player supports DiVX MP3, WMA and JPEG files, as well as audio CD and DVD formats.
Downside
Although described by a Samsung product manager as a "killer" product for 2007 during the press briefing, we can't help but think that the DVD-1080P7 is really just an interim device until there's more on offer (with more competitive pricing) in the Blu-ray and HD-DVD market.
Most recent model digital video recorders do upscale to 1080i, if not 1080p, so for the sake of a letter change from i to p, you may choose to spend a bit more to get something that has recording capabilities. And really, if you've got the dosh to buy a 1080p TV, stretching the budget to include a Blu-ray player probably isn't much of an issue.
Outlook
It looks smart, is reasonably priced and will make your DVD collection look much better, but if you've got a 1080p display, you've probably bought it to play next generation discs in the first place, so the DVD-1080P7 may have limited appeal.
This product will be available in May 2007.
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Caboz
20/03/2008, 09:42 AM
rating
2/10
One year 4 units...
Pros: none
Cons: image freezes, no DVD+R DL support
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lycosman
16/03/2008, 07:41 AM
rating
8/10
It's a good chance to use in upconverting old disks with easily for a while. But there is still toublesome in compatibility and slow loading time.
Pros: Easy interface,
Good price
Cons: slow loading,
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Mac
09/03/2008, 09:56 PM
rating
2/10
Purchased this product on the sales pitch it would play multi zone....Already sSunday evening plug it all in with the family, we allsit down with the popcorn and F.... it tells me wrong zone! Is this what we all experience?
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JAS
22/02/2008, 05:32 PM
rating
8/10
Ive had this player for over 6 months now and i am satisfied for the price. Ive been running it on 1080P on my 37inch Sharp Aquos and its obvious that the resolution has increased (by looking at letters from subtitles and such) however the overall picture is still a bit grainy. It does a geat job with producing rich colors though and it has a great sound processor. Keeping up-dated with the latest firmware is important.
Pros: DOES in-fact nocitably upgrade resolution of DVDs, sound is amazing
Cons: not a perfectly clear picture, freezes in middle of move on occasions
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R Hughes
18/02/2008, 09:23 AM
rating
5/10
Works OK. My only gripe is that 50% of all DVDs suffer picture-freeze at some point during play. The sound continues but the picture is lost for up to 90 secs. Powering it off and on sometimes fixes it.
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Chazzley
14/02/2008, 06:51 AM
rating
3/10
This unit worked fine for the first 8 months until it began displaying garbled info and informed me there was something wrong with the disc, of which there was no problem. I tried other discs that I had used before and it gave me the same message. I even tried powering up and down with no success. Tech support told me to clean the lens, which I did and hold the fast forward button down for 5 seconds, which I did to no avail.
Pros: Picture was good and ease of operation.
Cons: Shoddy workmanship and company will charge you bench fee of $42.00 plus S/H to fix it.
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ft
07/01/2008, 01:38 AM
rating
4/10
I just bought one but return it the next day.HD 860 is a better although only 1080i
Pros: nice style black shiny
Cons: Remote control response is very slow,scanning very slow.
When playing JPEG mode the display become small not full frame.
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christian
09/11/2007, 11:45 AM
rating
10/10
bought the product from topbuy.com.au. just set it up yesterday and i noticed the difference straight away watching trasnformers... can see the pores on the peoples faces while on a normal dvd player-everyone knows thats impossible :P i have a massive dvd collection, so i didnt want it to goto waste once the HD and Blu-ray start to become more of a big thing... this isnt a war like back in the day of VHS vs DVD... DVD is still a good product. Its shouldnt be fogotten about as VHS was... :P peace out
Pros: Easy to set up.
Comes with HDMI cable.
Nice looking.
And a good price to boot :P
Cons: The disc loading does take abit of a while and the remote is a little tiny, but apart from that i see no faults!
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theluker
19/09/2007, 01:23 AM
rating
4/10
Just bought the player last night.
Made all the necessary adjustments for my Sharp Aquos 45 LCD.
Played "War of the Worlds" on a 30.00 dollar machine and this one. Still Grainy and no difference between the both.
Pros: Can't think of any.
Cons: Having to un-plug it again, box it up, and return for a "True" HD player.
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unmesh
07/09/2007, 10:46 PM
rating
2/10
I bought this player on Sunday and returned it on Tuesday. Initially I was thrilled with the "bargain" at SGD 170 it was a steal, that too with an HDMI cable free. My horror story was still to begin, I had problems from the first DVD. Every single DVD I tried either froze or skipped, the pictures were too sharp and jumpy to my liking. I went through my entire DVD collection, all of them met with the same fate, either in the first few minutes or after 30-40 minutes. I had this hooked up via the "free" HDMI cable to my 1080P Sharp Aquos 46" LCD. I tried to run it at lower resolutions too, but it was all in vain. Finally, I decided to return the player and paid more than twice to get myself a Pioneer DV600 instead. The difference was immense, you could tell that it was a far superior device. Smooth pictures, no skipping, jumping or freezing. I loved it right from the word go. Yes, I spent a lot more on it, but it seems like every cent was worth it.
Pros: None whatsoever. Dont buy this player !!!
Cons: Picture freezes. Skipping problem with every DVD. Player hangs and the plug has to be yanked out physically
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