Samsung DVD 1080P7 vs. Philips DVP5982

[carlosian]

I recently bought the sammy 1080p7 for $88 but found about the philips dvp5982 yesterday. its selling for about $55. Both of them upscale to 1080p, play divx files, dvdr, cdrs, etc. the one difference is that the sammy does not play any type of dual layer disc whereas the philips does. I've had bad experiences with philips merchandise in the past and i think the sammy works great, so far. all my media is dvd-r but i play on using dual layer discs once the price comes down.


should i return the sammy and get the philips or should i just stay with the sammy?


thanks

[carlosian]

shameless........bump!

[jman98]

My family and I have had good luck with Philips DVD players. I have the much maligned DVP-642 and after 3 years it still works. If you keep them in well ventilated places they do fine. Heat damage is sometimes the cause of short lifespan in today's DVD players.

I would not expect dual layer prices to drop much, if any, below what they are now. Note too that Verbatim DVD+R DL is the ONLY type of DL disc you should use. If you use anything else, you will come back here and post about how you had problems burning to some other brand of DL media and all you get are coasters. DL media is very difficult to manufacturer and there are a lot of failures on the assembly line. I doubt this is still true, but in the early days of DL media, half the discs that came off the assembly line were rejected outright due to defects. The difficulty in manufacturing keeps the prices up. Of course, you can buy crap brands of DL media like Ritek and save a few dollars over Verbatim, but then you find out that they often fail and the money you "saved" is wasted because so many of the discs you bought are useless to you.

There is no excuse at all for Samsung making a DVD player today that doesn't support DL media. It appears that this player also doesn't support VCD and SVCD, which is also ridiculous. Yes, by all means take that crap back. I love Samsung products but this is just unacceptable.

[Krispy Kritter]

Of course, if you are happy with its perforance, what does it really matter what anyone else thinks. If it does everything that you want/need, then keep it. There's no reason to pay for something now that you may use sometime in the future, especially when you are talking about budget/disposable DVD players.

[carlosian]

thanks for the comments. i like hearing other people's feedbacks on this type of issue. I would have never known that tit bit about dual layer discs if I had not asked about it. I really don't care much about VCD or SVCDs. I never liked their quality. I do like the dvd-r quality and figured that dual layer discs would be an upgrade.

so hd-dvd or blue ray?

which one will take over?

[Krispy Kritter]

Neither. Both formats have too much invested to just give up. Until they can work together to find a way to co-exist, the casual user will continue to ignore them or wait for a "winner", which will keep this as a niche product. Not too mention that most people seem to be more than happy with DVD quality. If you have a TV capable of proper playback, there is a noticable difference and worth the investment if you have a Home Theatre and/or watch a lot of movies.

They will likely both continue to exist until the next technology comes around.

[carlosian]

thanks for the heads up Krispy Kritter. Is there a way to make the Samsung read dual layer DVDs?

[carlosian]

I just got the phillips and it looks a bit on the cheap side. the quality is comparable but i'm afraid it might quickly break down. Has anyone had a problem with this player? amazon rating is high.

this dvd player also doesn't have optical audio capability.

[Krispy Kritter]

thanks for the heads up Krispy Kritter. Is there a way to make the Samsung read dual layer DVDs?

Disc playback would be a hardware/firmware issue. You could try contacting the manufacturer, other than that, there isn't anything you can do.

[Krispy Kritter]

I just got the phillips and it looks a bit on the cheap side. the quality is comparable but i'm afraid it might quickly break down. Has anyone had a problem with this player? amazon rating is high.

this dvd player also doesn't have optical audio capability.

Philips models have always had this type of build. They are fairly rugged, just cheap in appearance, but then what do you expect from a budget minded player.

The Philips uses HDMI and coaxial digital for audio output, no optical as you noticed.

[victoriabears]

Depends on how you treat them, as in most equipment.
For those of who are child free, do remember that little Johnny ramming his wet cereal into the disc tray may explain some failures, other people are also not as careful as you might be in general use.