The Next BIG THING in DVD Players!

[jonny5]

I've just found out some exciting information about a next generation DVD player, and guess who's product it is? SAMSUNG's!

It's the Samsung DVD-HD931. Here is the article from Home Theatre Mag found at: http://www.hometheatermag.com/shownews.cgi?264

"Samsung Electronics is going where no manufacturer has gone before, but where many are certain to follow.
At the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show in early January, the Korean electronics giant announced what it called "the first 1080i/720p DVD player," the DVD-HD931. The player's digital processors take the native 480p video of DVDs and upconvert it to user-selectable 1080i/720p, making it the ideal companion for high-definition sources.

The up-converting process takes place completely in the digital domain, eliminating data loss and other artifacts associated with analog conversion. The process upgrades the vast library of films and concerts on DVD to high-def quality, allowing owners of HDTV monitors and displays to enjoy the highest quality video available on the DVD market. The DVD-HD931 is also the first player on the market with a DVI (digital video interface) output, enabling it to deliver uncompressed digital video.

Winner of a CES "Innovations 2003 Design and Engineering Showcase honoree" award, the DVD-HD931 incorporates many advanced features such as Samsung's DNIe™ (Digital Natural Image engine), a proprietary processing algorithm for enhanced contrast and white tone, increased detail, and noise reduction. It also features Directional Correlational De-interlacing (DCDi™) technology by Faroudja. DCDi™ eliminates the jagged edges that appear when standard interlaced video is viewed on progressive-scan displays for a smooth and natural picture.

The DVD-HD931 is said to offer a "true cinematic experience." It's also Samsung's first US product to support DVD-Audio. Best part of the package is the price: US $349, available in June 2003."

And to think I've just ordered the Panasonic RP82. Oh well, I'll just have to buy another DVD player when this baby comes out...

[razza]

How reliable is Samsung. www.audioreview.com has varying opinion!

My dream DVD player will play DivX too. Come on Pioneer!

Cheers.

[maxcat]

I'm more concerned with input resolution and source
mastering than I am output resolution!

Garbage in = garbage out applies, irrespective of the output specs.

Max Christoffersen

[marantz]

Sounds like a great idea, but since the upsampling is done in the digital domain, there will be some major obstacles to overcome such as digital artifacts and the likes.
Maybe a while before the technology matures but when it does - WOW!

[RWS]

I just bought a Samsung HD-747 from Noel Leemings for $499 + $50 voucher. Pretty good price.

I hooked it up to my Sony 42" Plasma yesterday using DVI 1080i and it looks great.
Only problem is the blasted HDCP, which my plasma doesn't support.

This means that only DVDs that doesn't have copy protection can play on my plasma, unless I drop down to component output.

I thought the idea of HDCP was to reduce copying of DVDs, but it seems that it what they are forcing me to do ?

Anyone know a hack that will disable the HDCP ?

Thanks in Advance
:cool:

[Des Flurane]

Long way and a little expensive.
If you have a DVD burner, fire up DVD Decrypter, remove macrovision protection then burn to an appropriate sized blank DVD.
Trouble is most DL blanks are colossally expensive $10+. So you can use DVD Shrink to remove subtitles, menus etc, if it is still too big for a single layer, you would have to compress it, which rather spoils the point of it all!
Des.

[Jay]

Is the Panasonic DVD-S97 available in NZ? I bought last weekend and have it running to my Panasonic AE700 via HDMI. It looks better than it has any right to at the price I paid!

Jay

PS It also does that upscaling business but I agree with Max. "She cannae go any faster captain."

[RWS]

Actually found out how to remove the HDCP from the Samsung 747
When you set it to multizone the HDCP disappears. Great
Procudure is very similar/same to other Samsung players.

For anyone else that wants to know how to do it, from the main logo screen with do dvd inside, hit the following on the remote:
REPEAT 7 6 8 8 4 9 OPEN CLOSE POWER
During this the screen goes black and the DVI setting gets disabled. Power of the player and turn DVI back on.

This also lets you play all regions.

NB. I do have DVD Decryptor, but I prefer just to use DVD Shrink as that does everything in one go, and it's main engine has code generously supplied by the writer of DVD decryptor, so it does a really good job.
This is how I determined that it was the copy protection that was the problem. Didn't really want to spend an hour copying every movie from the video library every time I want to watch a hired movie, so finding the fix was great.:)

[sarge]

I've tried an upscaled dvd image (HTPC) on my high-def capable (1080i) tv and must say I was pretty impressed. Not a massive improvement over pal progressive, but certainly noticeable.

Personally can't see the point on a fixed resolution display (plasma/LCD) unless it has a native 720 or 1080 lines (are there any?) . No sense in the dvd player upscaling an image only to have the display downscale it again.

[RWS]

My Plasma only does 848x480, but accepts the 1920x1024 resolition that 1080i has (that's what it reports it as).

Other (newer) plasmas have resolutions of 1280x1024 (or something better).

I am not sure if it's better to use a lower screen resolution or not, but I would think that the more detail that is sent to the plasma, the better job it can do in deciding how to downscale again (just as it's got more data to analyse). In terms of downscaling, this is always true.

On the other hand we are introducing error when upscaling, and then adding some more error when downscaling to the native resolution, so it depends on how good the upscaling and downscaling is.

720p may look better, as this will be at 100Hz as opposed to 50 ?

I did notice the odd dot on the screen that looking out of place when looking at point blank (white specs on a black background)
Will have a play to see if I get less of these when using 720p

[stevef]

Regarding Johnnys Samsung find.....don't get killed in the rush johnny....no magician in the world can give you more information in the DVD picture than what is already on the source file....clever algorithims can approximate what should be in the extra pixels but that is all they do....approximate....for 3 or 400 hundred bucks you can only get so much bang and it is the overall design of the player they accounts for a very good to an excellent to a sensational picture...I am sure the Samsung delivers a great image but it is by no means Hi def because the source data is only standard resolution and always will be until the format wars work out who will take the lead in in the optical disc high def format (Blue ray or the Toshiba HDDVD group) ....the Scottish company Linn for example make their own DVD silver disc engine designing every minute electronic component with their own unique philosophy....when you see the image from one of these remarkable players everything else becomes somewhat second rate...Samsung included, but then it should at around $7000 a piece.Don't take too much notice of the reviews let your own eyes do the talking....

Steve

[jonny5]

Hi stevef, in case you didn't notice, I posted my original post over two years ago.

I know you can't get more information out than is already there, but in this modern digital age those clever algorithims, can make a big difference.

Tell me if you see a $6500 difference in picture quality when you see the Linn.