Home > Consumer Reviews > Samsung DVD-709 DVD Player

When it first hit the market, this was one of the best DVD players out there. It had all the options, a great remote, and incredible picture quality. Now, however, it is out of date - "high tech" DVDs like _Planet of the Apes_ will make this player go nuts, and sometimes just jam completely. So, while this may be an OK starter DVD, there are cheaper models that are more compatible with the current crop of DVDs. They may not have as many options, but they won't break down when watching "The next big release," either.

I have owned my Samsung DVD-709 for over 2 years, and it still works fine. When it first came out, it was truly one of the best top of the line players, retailing then for about 300 dollars or more. It plays DVD, VCD and CD, and is DTS compatible, with S-video and digital audio out. By today's standards, it would be outdated, just like an older Pentium I PC would be. However, most people use their DVD players mainly, if not only, to watch DVD movies. The Samsung DVD-709 does a great job at this and has been very reliabe. Once in a while, particularly with rentals that have some scratches, it would stop or skip, but most players tend to do the same at some point. It has been "old faithful" for me, and I plan to sell mine and upgrade to a progressive player that accepts CD-R/RW with MP3 and JPEG/photo playback (I will probably look at Samsung again). If I was writing this review 2 or 3 years ago, I would have given 5 stars (or more), but this is 2003 and DVD players have become more advanced and cheaper. However, if you want a good and reliable DVD player (or an extra cheap one) just to watch DVD movies, I would definitely recommend this one.

I bought this DVD Player 2 years ago, and it's still working perfectly. My only major complaint is that if there is a little piece of dust on the disc, the player skips repeatedly. This only really happens with rented discs. And it spit out rented discs of Scary Movie, and The Cell. Also, this player does not play CD-R, DVD-R, or MP3s since it is an earlier model. But the 3-D surround effect is astounding when used through a conventional stereo system. All in all, a great DVD Player for the first time DVD owner, or for a small room home theater.

I have bought this dvd player because of the price. I was looking for a less-500US dvd since a long time and when I finally find this dvd I bought it. I have not find any problem but a littlle stopped in some scenes, but this is not problem for me, because pressing the play button again I solved the problem. In one word, I like this dvd plaver.

From day one this has been nothing but a problem player, sure, they released a firmware upgrade which fixed the problem of The Matrix not playing at all, a shame it still has difficulty playing such titles as The Mummy, Armageddon, Something about mary (the list goes on). Everything from loss of video/audio sync to the player just spitting out the disk with the message 'this disk cannot be played'. Mind you, this is *after* it being check out by a samsung service center and being cleaned etc... I gave it a fair chance and tried the movies in a diffrent player and lo and behold...they played fine. Samsung however has been no help. Spend the extra 50 to 100 bucks and get a decent pioneer or toshiba player.