Samsung DVD-709 and VCD's - not all its cracked up to be. (Samsung DVD 709)

Member Name: wjwallace

Product:	Samsung DVD 709
Date:	08/05/02 (869 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great sound, Great video, Feature rich

Disadvantages: Finnicky with COPIED VCDs

I have been the owner of a Samsung DVD-709 for over a year now, and on the whole I am very impressed with the unit.

The sound quality is great, the picture quality has never let me down, and the quantity of features on this budget priced model (now around £149 but costing £259 when I bought it :( ), make it stand out from the crowd.

It did everything I wanted it to do, well almost.

Being an avid movie fan I purchase quite a few DVD's, spanning multiple regions, and have had no problems with any of them. I use the well know AIWA remote control hack to set my player to region free (never quite fancied the 'chipping' solution for this unit, not when the remote only cost £20 delivered), and have never had cause to complain.

Except for VCD playback. And this is a real problem for me. Basically I used to buy many more VCD's than DVD's, primarily because I could get a brand new imported VCD of a film for £5-£6 as opposed to twice that amount for a DVD. Generally speaking I would buy my 'quite like to have' films on VCD and the 'must haves' on DVD's, especially of they were feature rich.

However, I also discovered the fine art of downloading films from web sites, peer-to-peer networks etc, and was quite happy to burn a home made VCD to evaluate a fiolm before it came out at the cinema, or to decide if I wanted to buy it.

And this is where my only gripe with the Samsung DVD-709 is. It will quite happily play the original VCD's, I have over 60 and they work fine. But it is very hit and miss with home spun ones.

It would seem that this is a common problem with the unit, in that it is very finnicky as to the make of CDR, or the CD Writer on which it is burned, or indeed even the software/speed at which is created.

This all amounts to my being virtually unable to play copied/home made VCD's!

Serves me right you may say, I should buy the originals! We
ll perhaps thats true. But it I like to ensure that the film I am watching is worth the cost. yes I can view it on my PC, but it doesn't compare to viewing it on my Toshiba 32" TV with Dolby surround sound. And besides, it is frustrating when it seems that a certain feature on a DVD player only works when it wants to.

I have tried sourcing VCD's from various CD writers, and cd brands and cannot fijd a working solution. In fact, I have even had the case where i can view one cd out of a set of tow, both of which have been produced identically.

Frustrating to say the least.

I just wanted to air this point as I know many people have an interest in this unit, and on the whole it is fantastic. But for those avid movie fans who also download films, this may not be the best choice.

Hope this is of interest.
W.

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