Samsung DVD-HD841 720p dvd player?

[Chris L. Gray]

Hey there,

Any of you guys use this dvd player? I have a friend who recommended it and I just bought it after looking at specs and reading reviews. I plan to use it with my Sony Cinenza VPL-HS10 720p ready projector. (Had been using component, now switching to DVI.).

I picked it up for $179.99 at a local Chicago Circut City, but if you have more patience, you can get it on the web at B&H for $165 or prolly a lil cheaper elsewhere. It comes with a DVI cable, which is icing.

Gonna toss in Finding Nemo, Russian Ark and a short I did a few days ago to kick the tires. :]

Happy New Year everybody. (Is Brian "Rode NT3" back on the board?)

[Yi Fong Yu]

but you're still getting 480p @best source material.

[Chris L. Gray]

<<<-- Originally posted by Yi Fong Yu : but you're still getting 480p @best source material. -->>>

Well, a good number of those who like this unit think highly of the results from upcoverting the 480p material to 720p (using the DVI connector).

This might not make much of a difference to someone who is looking at an average-sized HDTV television screen, but I'm throwing an image on a wall that's about 8x11. (The image takes up most of the wall.)

Currently playing: Finding Nemo

Image quality is incredible over my other players (but then again, that probably isn't saying much..heh).

However, as noted in some forums elsewhere on the web, some passages seem extremely dark. I've adjusted my projector's brightness/contrast to see if it can be largely corrected there. Will watch for a few more days to consider whether to keep the unit or not.

[Yi Fong Yu]

oh that's a different story then... =D.

how many in. diagonally what front projector?

[Chris L. Gray]

<<<-- Originally posted by Yi Fong Yu : oh that's a different story then... =D.

how many in. diagonally what front projector? -->>>

Hi Yi,

(My setup, wall is 8ft h, nearly 12ft w)

Here's some info about both:

Sony VPL-HS10:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/Sony...S10_Cineza.htm

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...onics&n=172282

(product manual pdf also on that page)


Would be nice to have the HS20 *drooooooooooooooooooool*:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/Sony-VPL-HS20.htm


Samsung DVD HD841:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....rl=false&h=403

back panel:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....chk=true&h=403

Some useful user reviews:

And finally, I found the Circuit City forum quite helpful regarding setup of this unit. The manual is nearly useless and the unit needs to be tweaked manually to take advantantage of DVI and DVD Audio.

http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oid/...Review.do#tabs

[Yi Fong Yu]

according to the projection calculator, your projector should be projecting 96" (8') tall and 170" (14' and some) yielding 195" diagonal... or 16.3'. the throw distance is 30'.... whoa... sheesh, incredible =). i wish i had a room that big to display somn like that. isn't that almost cinema-level =). i hope you have a nice surround sound to match that big screen.

[Chris L. Gray]

Heh,

When I was looking to buy a place, it's probably shameful that one of the top priorities was to find a place that would let me have a nice, personal theatre. I had to go back and look at the blueprints for exact measurements, but the room is 22.5x12 feet, so that south wall is 12f wide.

While it's not quite 30 feet deep, I'm quite happy with what I have now. Everybody around me is HDTV crazy and ask me why I didn't go down that path. I always mention that I'm trying to avoid another piece of heavy equipment and I love the portability of my projector. It just feels more like cinema than an HTDV to me. I wouldn't mind having a small HDTV for my work area, but would probably get an Apple Cinema Display over a tv.

I'm slowly putting together the pieces for the theatre. The projector was the first piece and this Samsung was another step. A couple of years ago, I bought a Zenith DVT216 home theatre system as a holdover system until waiting to see what the market would produce to my liking/could be afforded.

I have a DVX100A that I play around with and edit shorts on a powermac 1.6Ghz with Final Cut Pro HD. You probably already realize how expensive this gets.

So hopefully I'll be able to focus on a nicer home theatre system in the near future, but for now the Zenith will have to do. Doesn't sound horrible using the optical out from the Samsung. I could find worse things to complain about.. like hearing my neighbor walk around above me. Damn.

New priority in buying the next place will be to make sure that it's freestanding, away from public transportation and if in a condo, that there's concrete or at least compulsory thick padding and carpet between floors. :/

[Graeme Nattress]

What screen are you using? I got a 80" wide 16x9 Dalite screen and it's rather nice. From where I sit, I can't go bigger than 80" wide on DVD material without it looking blocky. At 80" and the focus set just right so there's a smidgen of blending of the DLP pixels, DVD looks great.

I'm just waiting on a cable to hook the Mac up to the projector from the Decklink card so I can push some HD through it - should be interesting!

Graeme

[Chris L. Gray]

Graeme -->>>

What projector are you using?

Believe it or not, none. It is the only wall in that room that is a flat white and the others are a sort of melon green. I wanted to see what the image would look like before considering screen paint, but there's absolutely no need for the screen. It looks that good. At some point I might consider a frame but the image is so large, again there is really no need.

You'll notice light from a lamp on the coffee table in the shot. But that's never on during viewing, which dramatically lessens the washed out look in the pic. I did it so that a sense of depth could be gathered from the shot.

I don't have a pic yet of the Samsung projecting, but I do have an ancient pic of me throwing a distorted 4:3 image from an old vcr, so it's not representative of the impeccable image I described when I popped Finding Nemo in yesterday.

Here it is, nonetheless. I'll take a shot of the bigger image I've seen managed to get soon.

http://chrisgraydeep.com/theatretv.jpg

[Graeme Nattress]

Chris, I'm using a Infocus Screenplay 5700. I don't have a picture to show, but we have the TV (27" Sony multi-standard) against the wall on a stand, and in the stand is the VCR / DVD etc. The screen is attached to the ceiling, and we pull it down infront of the TV when we want to watch on the big screen. This works rather well, and although the projector is bright enough to watch in the daytime, it's not always that you want the room fully dark, or I may want to watch an old TV show on a real TV. Or viewing distance is about 10 feet from the screen, and the projector is about 14feet back attached to the ceiling.

Graeme

[Filip Kovcin]

Chris and others,

can you compare your dvd player with this one

DVD-HD745

which is only samsung's dvd with "HD" letters in its symbol/name. is this the same kind of machine or not?

thank you for info.

filip

[Filip Kovcin]

i forgot to add :

...which is only samsung's dvd with "HD" letters ... which i can buy here in poland of course...

filip

[Chris L. Gray]

<<<-- Originally posted by Graeme Nattress : Chris, I'm using a Infocus Screenplay 5700. I don't have a picture to show, but we have the TV (27" Sony multi-standard) against the wall on a stand, and in the stand is the VCR / DVD etc. The screen is attached to the ceiling, and we pull it down infront of the TV when we want to watch on the big screen. This works rather well, and although the projector is bright enough to watch in the daytime, it's not always that you want the room fully dark..
Graeme -->>>

Ah, it sounds like an intelligent setup. The place I bought is a garden unit, but there's so much sunlight that comes through from the north that I had to put up opaque velvet curtains just to sleep in, let alone see a movie. :]

So I don't mind it being dark and moody in the whole place during the daytime since it fits the decor. I've dedicated the whole room to being a theatre primarily and anything else comes afterwards. I have very dark, heavy, velvet drapes over both openings to the room also to try to give it a classy theatric feel. I'd like to install a sort of emergency room track over the screen area that can be drawn when not in use, but haven't gotten that far yet.

It's great to have a personal movie area that I can show artsy stuff, homemade and other to close friends in our own atmosphere.

[Chris L. Gray]

<<<-- Originally posted by Filip Kovcin : i forgot to add :

...which is only samsung's dvd with "HD" letters ... which i can buy here in poland of course...

filip -->>>

Hey Filip,

It seems like this is the Euro model of the Samsung player. They could possibly be the same exact unit, but with different power cables... or there could be a significant difference. There's no way to tell without comparing both manuals or finding a website that has.

Take a look at this:

http://216.239.63.104/search?q=cache...ications&hl=en


Good luck!

[Filip Kovcin]

chris,

thank you for link. will check.

filip