I've never had much experience of Smasung products before but when looking for a DVD player my attention was caught by the 709. It was mainly the price but also the look of the unit which is very simple looking but neat. My only criticism is that they should make one in black as it tends to stand out a little from my other hi-fi seperates which are all black. But that's a small point and it doesn't detract from the value of this product.

The Which guide recently marked this DVD player down for its picture quality but I find it to be fine. It doesn't set the world on fire as far as stunning vision is concerned but for just over £200 what do you want. It also depends on your TV and what DVD you're watching. I've found it to be excellent.

The sound quality is truly superb especially on music DVDs. The stereo imaging is very accurate and the power of the sound is loud to such an extent that it makes my TV speakers rumble so I can really feel the bass.

The remote is very detailed and has a useful toggle switch that can be a little tricky to use until you get used to it. It makes browsing the menus very easy though.
The ability to control the TV from this remote is handy although beware those of you who have JVC TVs because if you try to turn the volume down with the Samsung remote it'll turn the TV off.
This will certainly be the biggest remote you own and it has so many buttons on it that you'll never be lost for something to play with whilst you're watching a boring film.

For technos there's all the usual connection options : Scart, S-VHS, Digital-out, RCA analog out etc. I'm not really into home cinema as I don't watch a lot of films but I have got a Pro-logic set up and this DVD player complements it very nicely.
Definitely recommended for anyone wanting to get into the expanding world of DVD.

It's also possible to hack the Region code of this machine by simp
ly using the remote control although this is not to be recommended whilst the product is still under warranty. It does, apparently, work effectively and so bypasses the need for chipping.
This may not work on some of the earlier serial numbers.