Is This a Decent Deal Quality/Price-wise? (Samsung TV/DVD Player @ Best Buy) (1 Viewer)

[Matt Stone]

I was thinking about picking up a new bedroom TV and decided to look at something around 30" widescreen. I noticed a free DVD player deal at Best Buy and was wondering if this was a solid deal?

Samsung P3071WH
Samsung HD841 DVD Player

I know I've read about some issues with the DVD player, but I like the SACD and DVD-A support and I read on VCDHelp that some were able to make it region-free. It would be $1000 for both. This won't be for a full HT, so perfection isn't necessary. Still, if I can get something better for a lower or similar price, I'd at least consider it. In any event, if this is a decent deal, I'd like to jump on it before it drys up.

 

[Ronn.W]

Some thoughts on the TV and player:

I don't think it's a bad TV, but you might consider some other models. BB has a Sony 30" widescreen Wega for the same price, and a Philips 30" for $799. I would say the Samsung is going to be closer in quality to the Philips than the Sony.

I did some research on upscaling players, this one didn't fare so well comparatively. It's free, it's for the bedroom, so maybe it's no big deal.

If it's not for a full home theater setup, then I'm guessing you're not going to have a 5.1 surround w/ receiver? If so then the DVD-A, SACD playback is immaterial.

My advice would be to buy the Philips and take the extra $200 and shop around for another DVD player. I'm just thinking of the reviews I've read of the Samsung player. It would at least give you some freedom of choice.

If you like what you see though, go for it. Why not?

 

[Matt Stone]

I did end up ordering the combo because I was worried the deal would end on Saturday night (and it did). The stuff will be here Friday. I know the DVD player didn't fare well in most reviews, but I have used this player at a friends house multiple times without problems. It seems a firmware upgrade (which you can access online) clears up a lot of reported issues (specifically DTS drop-out). I was considering the Sony, but I like the fact that the Samsung does 720p...the Sony doesn't. The Samsung also has a built in OTA tuner. There are only a few OTA channels here, but it seems like a pretty solid deal.

Thanks for the input. I'll be sure to post an update when I get everything hooked up.

 

[PerryD]

Let us know what you think about the new set. I was thinking about getting the Walmart HDTV for $647 as a possible bedroom TV. I'm sure the Samsung is much higher quality in both picture tube and OTA tuner though.

 

[Matt Stone]

The TV is still set to come Friday, but the DVD Player (and stand that I also ordered) just arrived. I hooked it up to see if I could hack it, but surprisingly it was region-free out of the box. It played my copy of R3-Pal Haute Tension without any modification. I'll check some more discs later and see if I get any DTS drop-out issues.

Regardless of quality, it's a slick looking player. Hopefully it won't give me too many problems.

 

[Matt Stone]

Okay, never mind about it being region-free. I tried the only other disc I own (second disc of Spidey Superbit R3) and it didn't work. I tried the hacks listed at VCD Help and they didn't work.

Haute Tension worked because it was all-region PAL. I was told it was R3, but I popped it in my PC and checked DVD Decrypter and it's listed as all-region.

Interesting though that the player does PAL conversion out of the box. Now if I could only find a working region-free hack :frowning:

 

[Ronn.W]

I think most DVI/HDMI equipped players do PAL/NTSC. I'm surprised there isn't a hack for the player available, too. That's what I was finding when I was looking at DVI players, anyways. Hope it works out and definitely post your results!

 

[Matt Stone]

Okay, I just got the TV hooked up. The DVD player is connected with teh DVI output, and I've gotta say out of the box it looks pretty solid despite a few problems. I haven't done any kind of calibration yet, but I did eyeball some changes. The main problem is color. Red push is way too high out of the box. Hopefully I'll be able to remedy that with Video Essentials. I'm using AOTC to do the tests, and the coloring is redish toward the beginning anyway, so the problem really comes through. It's not horrible, but bad enough that some banding is noticeable on the background of Palpatine's chamber.

As for the goods...black level detail is really solid and I'm sure it will improve further with calibration. I turned off sharpness, and the picture looks very accurate. Maybe even a little better than my main TV (Panny 53WX42).

I'll post more after I do a calibration, but overall for 1000 bucks, I'm really impressed. I remember when that old 34" Widescreen RCA was 3k+ a few years back, and the quality wasn't even that good. It's amazing that I can get a combo this strong for a pretty good price.

Also, I haven't noticed any problems with the DVD player yet. Of course, I don't have it hooked up to a receiver so I'm not getting any drop-out issues...but some people made it sound like this model eats babies or something

 

[Ronn.W]

I hear ya' about people making that player sound like it ate babies! That's not much of an exaggeration!!

Glad you're happy with it all!

Regardless of what any review says, the important review is your own, you know what I mean?

 

[Matt Stone]

I know exactly what you mean. Obviously you don't want to have to spend thousands of dollars to test equipment only to find it's faulty, but it's important to rely on your own eyes and ears.

In any event, I've tested it with some more stuff. I was told that the player had problems with burnt discs, but so far I've tried a burnt DVD that played fine and a couple of SVCDs, both which played without any problems.

I'm still impressed, but I'll keep throwing other stuff at it.