Great VHS/DVD/MP3 Combo - One less remote!
Written: Nov 13 '01
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Pros: Ease of use, size, great standard features, plays MP3 CDs, one less remote.
Cons: Remote shares some of the buttons.
The Bottom Line: I'm very pleased with this player. It suits my needs, especially as this is a secondary system in my bedroom, and my TV stand doesn't have room for two players.
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| ravnwood's Full Review: Samsung DVD-V1000 DVD Player / VCR Combo |
This is a decent player that fits the roles of both VCR and DVD player. It was perfect for me, for three main reasons:
1. I was looking for a secondary DVD player for my bedroom.
2. I needed to replace an aging 2-head VCR.
3. I only had room for one device.
I had thought about hooking up a small portable DVD player and living with the old VCR, but in retrospect this was a better way to go.
The player fit nicely into the spot that my old VCR occupied, however it is noticeably larger than most VCRs and DVD players. If you are tight on space, I suggest you measure before you buy.
HARDWARE:
The hookups for the player were a snap. For the DVD only, you can use standard A/V RCA outputs, s-video, or component (Y, Pr, Pb) video outputs. For the VCR you can use the RF cable, or a set of analog A/V RCA outputs that are shared with the DVD player. There is also a spare set of analog audio RCA outputs to hook to a stereo or TV. This is the set that is used with the DVD video outputs (s-video and component video). The DVD player also supports coaxial and optical digital audio outputs for a digital receiver.
The remote control has all the standard buttons on it, but some of them are shared. When you initially start viewing, you need to hit the VCR, TV, or DVD button to tell the remote which device to control. Also, the search and skip features for the DVD are controled by the same buttons. That means if you don't hold the search button long enough you may end up inadvertently skipping to the next chapter.
SOFTWARE:
Once you hook it up, the on-screen menus walk you through the easy automatic or manual set up. If you use s-video or component video outputs for the DVD, you need to make sure you turn that feature on.
Another really neat feature is that the DVD player will still play audio at double speed. While the faster search speeds (4x, 8x, etc) turn off the audio, at the slow 2x search speed, the DVD player will sample the audio and play it at 2x as well.
The DVD player also plays MP3 CDs, although the on-screen song and folder menu is a bit cryptic, and playback is cumbersome.
There is also a ZOOM feature will zoom in on paused or regular DVD playback. You can set the zoom window anywhere on the screen, and there are two zoom levels in addition to regular playback.
Other features like DVD angle, search, skip, A-B repeat, etc are included.
While you can record DVD to VHS, it will not copy copy-protected DVDs. While I've never really tried this, the manual says that it will not copy Macrovision encoded (or similar) discs.
VCR:
The VCR is a nice Hi-Fi model that also plays S-VHS tapes. The on-screen timer illustrates about where you position is on the tape, which is really neat. It also has VCR features like auto time set, channel set, time-date stamp, etc.
You can watch DVDs while recording with the VCR simply by switching the TV view to DVD.
DRAWBACKS:
While the player is a good bargain, it does have some drawbacks. First, the on-screen DVD menus are a bit cryptic. Actual words are scarce, and it will take a bit to get used to the icons.
Although the DVD player features nice search features, they are a bit difficult to use. As mentioned above, the skip and search features use the same buttons, so to search you need to hold down the button for several seconds to reach the desired speed. If you hit it too quickly you'll end up skipping to the next chapter. Also, while you can go to any spot on the DVD if you know the time index, you cannot change the way the time is displayed. If you prefer to have the timer count down instead of up, or you want to display the chapter time instead of the title, you are out of luck.
The VCR drawbacks are few. The search feature only searches at a single speed, however.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 299
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Epinions.com ID:
ravnwood
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Location: Northern Virginia
Reviews written: 31
Trusted by: 11 members
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