Best.....DVD Player....Period!

Author's Rating:

Pros: DVI Output, 720p, 1080i, Instant Replay, Instant Skip, Bookmarks, Plays everything...Read review for more.

Cons: Light around Jog Dial does not dim when you are watching a movie.

The Bottom Line: 
This is a solid DVD player bridging the gap between true HDTV and DVD. Does not compare to true 1080i HDTV but far surpasses ANY DVD Player on the market!

Author's Review
Strengths:
DVI Output, 720p, 1080i, Instant Replay, Instant Skip, Bookmarks, Plays everything from home-made DVD's in every format to MP3 CDRs and CDRWs, BEAUTIFUL Mirror finish with a brushed titanium style. Front panel Jog Dial. Nice Purple StandBy light. Thin DVD tray. Extremely quiet operation. Light weight.

Weaknesses:
Light around Jog Dial does not dim when you are watching a movie (or I haven't figured out how)

My Story
My name is Darius and I am a football fan. I purchased a High Definition TV and HDTV Tuner for the sole purpose of Monday Night Football. Anyone who has witnessed a sporting event in HD knows that the money was well spent. I saw a demo of my TV prior to purchase, it was a tennis match between Anna Kornikova and Who Cares. It was like watching the event through a Sapphire Crystal. When Ms. Kornikova scratched her leg, I could see the lines left by her fingernails. After watching true HDTV (1080i/720p) for a couple weeks (CSI: Las Vegas/Miami, Without A Trace, The Tonight Show, The Practice, PBS Concerts and Monday Night Football), standard DVD movies just weren't as gorgeous as I remembered. I upgraded the cables to component video cable but it was too late; I had been spoiled by High Definition Television.

Prior to purchase, I knew that Sony just released a Blue-Ray High Definition DVD Recorder, Sony BDZ-S77 (http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/blu-ray/index.html) but that's in Japan which means it will still be another 2 years before we see it here. And @ $3,800.00 (Dollars, not Yen) it will be another 2 years before the price falls to $300.00. I read a few reviews on the Samsung DVD-HD931 but it was still so new that the reviews weren't very detailed. Knowing what a solid company Faroudja is and how great DCDi is; I decided to take the plunge.

c|Net boasts that the DVI connection is the only way to experience the beauty of 720p and 1080i; I have no intention of using the DVD player with any connection other than DVI so that was not a problem. I bought a BRAND NEW DVI cable for $5.00, 9 dollars total with shipping from eBay (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2747343712&category=3759&rd=1). So I suggest that anyone looking into DVI do your homework first. DO NOT PAY $150.00 for a cable.

Setup
Fairly Simple. Confusing because they use the Title "Menu" for the DVDs setup Menu and the Disc Menu. Changing the name to SETUP for DVD Player Settings and MENU for the Disc's menu on my remote was a quick and easy fix.

Control
Slow Motion 1/2 speed, 1/4 speed, Instant Replay, Instant Skip, Front Panel Jog Dial, Front Panel Aspect Ratio Control. Color coded Aspect Ratio status so you know what you are set to. Green=1080i, Purple=720p, Red=480p.

Picture
First let me say that you must have a High Definition monitor with a DVI input to truly appreciate this player. The picture is STUNNING. Not quite true HDTV quality but truly amazing. The signal stays digitals from the Disc it passes through the Faroudja chip, up scaled to HDTV Resolution, the passed through the DVI cable to you HD Monitor. There is never any analog to digital conversion. Calibrated with Avia Guide To Home Theater. Tested with The Gladiator, Monster's Inc, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hollow Man, and U-571. This is THEE best DVD Player I have EVER Seen, Used, or Witnessed...Ever. I have had a problem in the past where DVDs temporarily drop the Audio when transitioning from one menu to the next. This player does not have that problem. No skipping when changing chapters, NO artifacts. I like the bookmarks feature. It's nice to go straight to your favorite part of a movie.

Remote
Hideous. Poor Design. Poor IR output, you literally have to be no more than 6 feet away and pointing DIRECTLY AT THE PLAYER to get any response. Also, my Toshiba had a feature called Remote Confirmation where it would beep to let you know the command was received. This is a helpful feature when the menu items are vague. I recently purchased a Home Theater Master MX-500 remote that fixed the problem. This proves that it is not the actually IR receiver in the player, but the remote. So if you already have a third party remote, you shouldn't have any problems.

Audio
The sound quality is just as beautiful as the picture. I listen to a broad range of music and every CD sounds great. It plays MP3s and HDCDs but not WMA. Some of the ads state that it plays DVD Audio but I don't have any Discs to test.

Closing
I hope this review helps someone who may be debating between Samsungs DVI player and V Incs DVI player. Here are a couple excerpts from c|Net’s review & comparison:

1.) "During the arena scene from Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones...The droids had tremendous detail and sharpness, and we were able to make out individual aliens in the crowd."

2.) "Next, we checked out some video-based material, as opposed to film-based DVD movies, and the HD931 came out the clear winner. The waving flag from Video Essentials looked much cleaner, with no jagged edges, and the pendulum pattern from the Video2000 benchmark disc was also extremely smooth. Interestingly, component video did have plenty of jaggies, so we don't recommend using this deck with anything but DVI."

3.) "Providing you have the required TV hookup, the HD931 can convert the resolution of wide-screen DVD (852x480 pixels) to standard 480p, as well as the HDTV resolutions 720p (1,280x720) and 1080i (1,920x1,080)."

Similar DVD Players Used:
Toshiba SD-2109, Microsoft XBOX, Sony GRX500 Laptop, Dell Inspiron 2600 Laptop, IBM ThinkPad Laptop.