samsung,lg, or phillips

[gooner#14]

am looking to upgrade my dvd player currentley i have a yamaha dvds550
http://www.homecinemachoice.com/cgi-...?reviewid=5044
but am not sure which to get?. am also planning to get a hd player towards x mas so i only wanna spend around the £100 mark also must be hackable to multiregion. been looking at the hd 950 but last months what hi-fi sound and vision says on the playback it aint too hot! they say its good but it didnt get best in class !

[gooner#14]

by the way ive a thomson dlp which has a dvi input so i could use the hdmi-dvi cable that you get with the sammy is this correct

[senu]

What Hi fi Vision are comparing it directly to The Denon1920 which costs £70-100 more.
The Tosh is a little cheaper and apparently has a slightly "better" PQ via component but not via HDMI.
The Phillips has the same mpeg decoder deintelacer/ upscaler : PQ similar.
All these budget DVD players take some and give some .
The LG PQ is so so and it has usability problems which preclude wholehearted endorsment.
The Samsungs Problem is not really PQ . Most people think its rather OK ( if not earth shaking but hey .. It is only £110. ( The superlative Arcam 79 is £900! )
It is largely "user friendly" issues esp with Pal/ NTSC discs : Constantly needing the menu and underwhelming upscaling that get mentioned which you may or may not be able to live with. I have learned to live with its bright panel light but Do I like it?
I have used both players ( Denon and Samsung) and Whilst I agree that the Samsung PQ is a tad below the Denons ( only by direct comparison) It is certainly not £80-100 difference. I could happily live with the 950's PQ.
I even have a £19 DVD player which does component out with progressive scan. Next to the Samsung it is less accomplished but not £100 less so.
Read the long running Phillips/ Toshiba/ and Samsung Threads for comments on negatives and Even the Denon is taking a big rap for Lip sync issues.
Despite these comments all these DVD players have owners who are happy with them.
Magazine reviews ( and our view on the Forums) are at best rough guides .
Only your eyes and perception of good PQ, Viewing preferences and your own display (:CRT/ LCD/ Plasma/ projector) can determine what is Best for you

Set the budget
Do the shortlist

Get your fave DVD or 3
And insist that you be allowed to play them on a display similar to yours b4 u hand over the "plastic " or crispy notes!
Good Luck

[MI55ION]

Wow, truly comprehensive Senu...

gooner#14, so it seems you have the upgrade bug too

You may want to hold onto the Yamaha player for now and use its prog scan capability since the difference in pq between that and an 'upscaling' player would not be as significant and certainly not worth the extra £100. If you could arrange to take the Yammy with you and demo it against your chosen upscaling player, I'm sure you'll see this for yourself.

As another member so elegantly put it 'next upgrade, next format'

[senu]

Originally Posted by MI55ION

Wow, truly comprehensive Senu...
.......
As another member so elegantly put it 'next upgrade, next format'

Thanks .
The new generation of DVD players are arguably better than the 4-5 year old models ( technology does march on) but there is a lot of marketeering and misinformation by suggestive advertising and speil by salesmen in the major outlets about just how fantastic they are.
There is even a post in these forums suggesting that a certain unnamed manufacturer deliberately enhanced HDMI over component. It transpires that a ( diode? capacitor? transistor?) removed from the innards of a certain DVD Player would render the PQ of Component/ HDMI output indistinguishable.... Hah!

[gooner#14]

im using the yammy on component but am not impressed by the pq, its verry good pic but not as good as rgb scart! so i think ill pop down to currys and see about a sammy 850

[senu]

....or 950 from say Richer sounds
They match internet prices. I got the 950 for £119.99.
Curries dont seem to stock the 950 and prefer you to not "test" ( too much hassle for them!) rather relying on convincing you with thier expert advice .
If you arent in a rush try and get to see the player in action playing a DVD whose PQ you are familiar with via scart, Component , and HDMI/DVI to avoid any unpleasant suprise at home

PS: Yesterday, I was testing the Samsung via HDMI vs Component output watching Godzilla . I preferred HDMI
Maybe the Samsung simply does better via a digital connection. My component cables were so so.

[MI55ION]

Originally Posted by gooner#14

im using the yammy on component but am not impressed by the pq, its verry good pic but not as good as rgb scart! so i think ill pop down to currys and see about a sammy 850

I just assumed that prog component was better than all the other analogue connections based on my somewhat limited experience. But I understand what you mean since I helped my mate buy a Panasonic scht330 all-in-one system today from RS. Out of curiosity I brought it over to my place and hooked it up to my tosh dlp and even he (who knows even less than I) was surprised to find that RGB scart carried a better picture than the component p. I then changed the output to component i and was surprised again to find the picture improved slightly over RGB Scart and significantly over component p. I suppose my telly has a better scaler than this cheapo player/system combo.

[MI55ION]

Originally Posted by senu

PS: Yesterday, I was testing the Samsung via HDMI vs Component output watching Godzilla . I preferred HDMI
Maybe the Samsung simply does better via a digital connection. My component cables were so so.

I've also found the sammy hd850 to do better via hdmi on over 85% of my dvds.

[gooner#14]

ok ive read some of the threads on the 850 but om never gonna use sacd or dvd a so should i get the 850??? is everything about the 2 models the same apart from the sacd/dvd a??