Home > Consumer Reviews > Samsung DVD-P231 Progressive-Scan DVD Player , Titanium

This is a simple, robust unit. I've rented tons of dvds; it plays them all fine, even the ones with surface marks. There are no real bells and whistles. It shows you jpegs, and plays mp3s. It will not play mpegs, or any of the computer-movie formats, which would be a very nice features to have. I have it connected using the simple yellow-white-red cable, so I can't comment on the fancy new types of connections it offers. If you're looking for a reliable, basic little dvd player that is easy to use, this is a good one.

Got this about a week ago and am quite impressed. The picture and sound quality are excellent, menus and setup are easy to use (I bought an open-box model, missing only the manual, and have had zero problems), and this puppy does just about anything you ask of it.

In addition to progressive scan, this will play not only MP3s but also Windows Media files from CDs. There's also an Easy View feature that will let you watch the film in pan-and-scan if you so desire (GASP! heretics!!)

And not only does the DVD-P231 work quite nicely, the titanium finish is far more attractive than many of the generic-looking black boxes out there. I don't recommend buying a DVD player solely on the basis that it matches your TV, but in this case it's just the icing on the cake.

I went through two DVD players (Panasonic and RCA) that were very bad about playing a disc with even the hint of a scratch. I am very pleased to report that this player is fine even with some pretty bad scratches (hey, I have kids, what can I say). This is a good, solid player with few bells and whistles that most people never use anyway. Just ignore the nerdy folks giving low ratings because it doesn't do everything imaginable.

Unfortunately I had to send the first unit back to Amazon, as it couldn't read disks. I really wasn't too happy about that, but then Amazon was very quick to respond and sent me a new unit by two-day post. The new unit has performed without problems, and I'm happy with the image quality and performance so far. Pluses: a one-button 10 second "review" mode, in case you missed something, and (very ununsual) a programmable cd mode where you can set it to play cd songs in random order. I also appreciated the titanium finish and overall look of the front panel, different than all the other rubber-stamp designs. The remote is a light grey, which distinguishes it easily from my other black remotes, although the most-used play/pause button is really too small. Overall, it's a really outstanding value.

I bought this DVD player to replace my Panasonic RV31 because it had progressive scan out and I just got a new HDTV set, so I wanted to see if there was an improvement. At $75 at Best Buy, the gamble was pretty low.

The first movie I watched was Enemy of the State. I liked the EZ View button which can alter the aspect ratio the DVD player puts out so you don't have to alter the TV aspect ratio. However in the first couple of scenes, there's a picture of the front of a restaurant where there's a black car with silver trim sitting in front. Immediately I noticed that this silver trim had a very distinct jagged quality to it. Out of curiousity, I put the disc in the old player, and it played it without any video noise.

I continued to view the movie in the new player, and the video noise was "unsettling" to say the least. It's almost like when you set a PC monitor to interlaced it was so bad in some spots.

And the final straw was that the player froze on the ending credits like it was starting to overheat. I brought the player back to Best Buy the same day I got it, and bought a cheap JVC progressive scan instead.

To tell you the truth, I hardly notice the difference between progressive and interlaced. Maybe the TV is doing a good job of 3:2 pulldown conversion.

Anyway, I would not recommend this player due to poor video quality.