Samsung DVD-V9700 Tunerless 1080i Upconverting DVD VHS Combo Player by Samsung
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Our Price: $219.00 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Home Theater See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Samsung DVD-V9700 Tunerless 1080i Upconverting DVD VHS Combo Player
Digital camera Review: Worst DVD and worst service from Samsung
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this DVD player a little over a year ago and it has been fine for what I use it for...just watching movies. Recently, the screen has split into 2 parts therefore it splits the movie in half. When I called technical I was told to send it in for an $80.00 repair plus shipping, of course. That's almost what I paid for it. They said there was nothing I could do to repair it myself and of course it's not under warranty. I am very disenchanted with Samsung products and service and probably will never buy another of their products.Digital camera Review: not a bad unit if you have HDMI inputs on your TV
Summary: 3 Stars
Was helping a friend update his home theater system over the weekend. His older plasma supports 720p and 1080i but only has AV and component inputs, no HDMI. He had an older DVD player and VCR so was only using AV inputs, but he did have a surround sound receiver & speakers (yeah he hooked it up by himself and didn't understand you don't get HD or surround sound via the older AV connections). We found the V9700 and it sounded perfect as an inexpensive upgrade for his system.
Some specs on the V9700.
-DVD player (only, will not record DVD's) upconverts DVD's to 480p, 720p or 1080i.
-AV, component and HDMI video outputs.
-Has both digital optical and digital coaxial audio outputs for 5.1 sound, as well as the older white/red stereo outputs.
-Does not have a TV tuner, can only record VHS via line-in inputs.
The V9700 hooked up easily but quickly found out some unpleasant aspects to this unit.
-Component outputs will only upconvert to 480p, not 720p or 1080i. The latter two are only done via HDMI. So it was useless for him since his TV doesn't have HDMI inputs.
-VCR output is only via the AV lines, not via HDMI or component outputs (or digital audio outputs), so you will have to use a standard AV yellow/red/white cable to watch VCR.
My complaint with it is there is no reason why they can't upconvert the DVD signal to the component outputs. My cable TV box outputs 1080i via component and it looks great. I guess I am a little mad on this negative feature as it was a fight to get his TV off the wall mount to hook up the component cables!
Also be forewarned that the default digital audio output is set to PCM (found on the DVD setup screen). It needs to be set to bitstream to get 5.1 sound. Seems kinda silly they would do this, as if you are using the digital audio outputs then you probably have a system that supports 5.1 sound!
Other than that the unit worked fine, it played DVD's and video tapes without any issues.
Digital camera Review: poor connectivity
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased this unit primarily because we have a lot of old VHS tapes, and I wanted to have the option of viewing them occasionally. Unfortunately, connectivity on this unit is so poor, it will not work.
I was planning to use this with my wall-mounted flat-panel plasma. I have HDMI, component, and coax running through the wall, so I did not anticipate any problems. WRONG. the VCR won't output a signal on any of those. It will only output through the "line out" audio and video (3 RCA jacks). I can't even hook it up by coax cable. The unit has a coax connector, but it is only for digital sound, not video.
I can't even use this unit with one of my older TVs! They only take a coax connection.
This is a bad design! Why not let the VCR output through HDMI or component? ...Or at least give the option of a COAX output!