A FANTASTIC ALTERNITIVE TO BLU-RAY (Samsung DVD F1080)

Member Name: pacinofan79

Product:	Samsung DVD F1080
Date:	02/12/08 (252 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: PICTURE QUALITY-SOUND QUALITY

Disadvantages: NO DIGITAL DISPLAY

This Samsung DVD upscaler is a truly superb piece of equipment.

For those of you who don't know what an upscaler DVD player is, it is basically a standard DVD player that you use with a HD ready lcd/plasma TV, and upscales your normal DVD collection to a HD quality picture and plays in 720p, 1080i and even upscales to 1080p and all for the price of a standard DVD player. Why then is there a need for a Blu-Ray/Hi-Def DVD player, well it probably isn't quite the quality of Blu-Ray/Hi-Def but believe me it is very, very close, and an upscaler will not play Blu-Ray or Hi-Def DVD's. Like the Blu-Ray/Hi-Def players you have to use a HDMI lead with it which you will have to purchase separately as the player itself does not come with one.

The picture quality of the player is amazing, the DVD player
features Progressive scan output with 14 bit video signal processing at 108MHz and 24 bit, and plays in Standard: PAL, NTSC, and while you can now get a Blu-Ray player for around £150, to get a good quality one you still need to spend around £300 for one (and if you are thinking of getting a Blu-Ray or Hi-Def player I would go with Blu-Ray as they have Cleary won the war over Hi-Def players. Blu ray and Hi-def players are different, Blu-Ray will not play HD DVD's and vice versa, some titles come out in Hi-Def and some in Blu-Ray and only one was ever going to take over and that is Blu-Ray). This Samsung DVD player costs just £51 pounds which is fantastic value.

The player itself looks superb, it is very small and sleek compared to a usual DVD player, it is square shaped with rounded corners and is gloss black in colour with silver trim. The controls are touch sensitive and very easy to use. The remote is very small and quite basic but it does everything you need it to do, with it you can easily access set up menus etc. There is no standard scart socket on the DVD player though you can connect to the TV with out using HDMI by using AV/Composite video leads(supplied with the player), but if your buying an upscaler then you are buying to upscale your DVD so a HDMI lead is essential, there is one HDMI socket.

THE PICTURE QUALITY

The picture quality really is amazing the colour is more vibrant and the image is absolutely crystal clear, my Brother in Law has a Blu-Ray player and I honestly can't tell the difference between the two.

The one thing I will say is that with a Blu-Ray player you get HD quality every time where as with an upscaler there are some DVD's which don't look much different to normal, though these are few, an example is the West Wing on DVD, it doesn't look much different to when I watched it on my standard DVD player, but most Movies look fantastic, especially ones with lots of special effects. Where the picture quality really excels is again in Movies with great special effects and especially CGI films. The films I have been especially impressed with are 'The Incredibles ', 'The Polar Express', 'Ice Age', 'Cars', basically any CGI film looks as good as on Blu-Ray, but the picture quality isn't just limited to the CGI kids films, films like 'Lord of the Rings', 'Spiderman', 'Transformers', 'Gladiator', in fact every DVD I have tried as been HD quality apart from 'The West Wing', and I have just watched all the 'Star Wars' films on it and the picture was out of this world. It is extremely hard to imagine how true HD can be any better than the picture you get with the Samsung DVD-F1080, and like I said my Brother in Law has Blu-Ray and I can't tell the difference.

THE SOUND QUALITY

The sound quality is also far superior to standard DVD players, I have my player hooked up through my sound system and when I used to play DVD's on my standard DVD player I would have the volume set at 25, with the upscaler I only need to set the volume at 18 which is quite a difference.

THE DOWNSIDE

Like any product it does have its bad points. It has no digital display on the front of the player and the touch sensitive controls are not lit up so you can't see them very easily at night, but that is the only bad points of player.

CONCLUSION

This really is a superb quality player and ideal for anyone not wanting to purchase a Blu-Ray player yet or for those who simply cannot afford a Blu-Ray player. Its great because I don't have buy my collection again in Blu-Ray ( and even if I do eventually get a Blu-Ray player, they also upscale standard DVD's).

It looks sleek and modern and the black gloss finish is a great touch.

At the moment I really have no need to spend £300 on a good quality Blu- Ray player as this does exactly the same job in my opinion, it upscales to 1080p, as close to true HD as you can get and for a ¼ of the price.

My advice is that anyone who has a HD ready TV and wants to purchase a Blu-Ray player than try this first you will not be disappointed, and then when you do get a Blu-Ray this player will be great for the bedroom or kids room etc.

VALUE

Obviously this is great value for money, these day's you can pick up a standard DVD player for around £15, but to still get a good quality one would cost around £60-100, so why not get this upscaler and even if you haven't got a HD ready TV it will still be a great quality standard DVD player, and when you do get a HD TV you already have a HD quality DVD player. I paid £70 for mine a month ago and it is now priced at an incredibly low price at just £51 on Amazon, a fantastic bargain.


Please remember that you will have to buy a HDMI lead separately. The one I got is great quality, with 24k gold plated connectors, it is the 'Linx Premium 24k gold plated HDMI cable' and is on Amazon UK priced at £7.95 with free delivery for the 1.2 metre cable and £9.00 with free delivery for the 2 metre cable.

The Samsung DVD-F1080 Player is available from Amazon UK priced at just £51.00 with free delivery.

TECHINCAL SPEC
**************

* Region: Zone 2
* Standard: PAL, NTSC
* DivX/MPEG4 compatible: MP3, WMA, VCD, SVCD, JPEG, MPEG-4, DivX
* Compatible Media: DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, CD, CD-R,
* CD-RW
* Other: Upscaler 1080p (Full HD) Variable slow motion Parental control EZ
* VIEW: image
* adjustment
* according to format of TV screen Digital photo display "Repeat" function Image
* zoom
* Munltilingual
* menu Viewing angle
* Stylish black design compatible with Samsung's latest flat panel TV designs
* Playback formats DVD , DVD-R , DVD-RW , DVD+R , DVD+RW , CD , CD-R
* , CD-RW ,
* MP3 ,
* WMA , JPEG , MPEG4 (DIVX)
* Progressive scan output with 14 bit video signal processing at 108MHz and 24 bit
* audio
* processing
* at 192KHz
* HDMI output supporting HDMI CEC Anynet+ technology
* HDMI upscaling to 720p , 1080i and 1080p

Summary: BUY IT, BUY IT,BUY IT!!!!

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