Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
My sister got this thing for free from some guy at her work. I guess it worked ok for a while, but now it freezes all of the time. I thought that DVDs just sucked, but after reading all of the reviews for this DVD Player, I realized that it's just this model/brand that's a piece of crap. Don't buy it. It's cheap for a reason. I'm going to put my $175 GoVideo DVD/VCR in the living room and tell my sister to throw this thing away before someone throws it through the wall.

Strengths:
The remote is ok. The DVD player worked for awhile.

Weaknesses:
Everything else. Freezes, skips. Generally sucks.

Similar Products Used:
Nothing like this pile.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Got one of these into the shop for repair... "Wont read DVDs" says the customer. After doing the usual lens-clean it still won't read a DVD so I decided to check the internet for information. ACK! Ok, so it'll never read DVDs.

I've noticed that the C-Cube (LSI-Logic) ZiVA-4.1 decoder/display chip does get hot enough to fry an egg on (LSI says the chip should have a heatsink on it to prevent skips and errors...hmmm...). But, as the ziva is used in several other DVD systems, I doubt it's the chipset thats causing the "won't read" issue.

After some more diagnosis I've determined that there seems to be an issue with the laser head. The unit will read an MP3 cd just fine but it seems to have a real issue with DVDs... I guess this could be the root-cause of all the problems we've seen with this unit.

Upon reflection I would guess the problem could lie in the differences in AC power specifications between the US and other countries. In the US we use 110v/60hz power while just about everywhere else uses 220v/50hz power. Perhaps the power supply board has a bug in it's design for US power?

Strengths:
Does have a lot of features thanks to the ZiVA chipset which does the following:

Full disc playback compatibility: DVD, Chaoji VCD, VCD, and CD-DA.

Embedded 10-bit, 4-DAC digital video encoder outputs YCbCr, RGB + composite sync (EuroSCART), or CVBS/S-video.

Supports NTSC, PAL, PAL-M, PAL-N, PAL-Nc, and PAL-60 (Q-PAL).

Full NTSC and PAL decoding.

Dedicated 50-MIPS audio DSP delivering 3D audio, (including Spatializer™ N-2-2), DVD-Audio, Dolby Pro Logic™ decoding, Bass Redirection, RealSonic audio technology.

Dedicated Dolby Digital, MPEG-2 5.1- channel decoders.

MP3 Decoder.

DTS digital out.

2/4-bits per pixel OSD.

Zoom and fade-in/-out functions for still and motion pictures.

Weaknesses:
Great components assembled by trained apes. Even the Apex unit (essentially a PC DVD rom connected via IDE to what ammounts to a PCI video card) outclasses the DVD-711 in just about every way.

Similar Products Used:
Sony ES gear, Denon, JVC, Panasonic, and countless others.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Not good, always skipped, & just died for good at the end of warranty period. It's a really cheap unit. I paid $129. Feel sorry for those of you who paid $200

Price Paid:  $0.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
I've had this player for a while and simply love all the extra functions like zooming on a particular spot are great I had no skipping or freezing at all And I am even looking for the exact same model to give a friend of mine as a gift since they adore mine so much I love this thing

Strengths:
Slow motion features

Weaknesses:
None

Price Paid:  $200.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
I wasn't going to write a review because I didn't have anything new to say compared to all the others, but I thought I might as well add one more loud 'NAY' to the list. Unfortunately, we've owned this player for almost two years now. I didn't even think skipping was a problem in these players, so to be honest, I didn't ask the very young salesperson about it. We have never once played a DVD all thr way through wihtout a skip or freeze. Not once. Some brand new discs won't play at all, but will play in the machines of friends & family. I have been in denial, but suppose we will have to break down and buy a new machine.

Strengths:
I cannot think of a single one. I really hope people look at this site before they buy. If I could save this from happening to another person, if I could prevent even ONE SALE of a Samsung product, it would be a good thing.

Weaknesses:
I don't have enough time to list them - I have to go shopping for a new DVD player now.

Similar Products Used:
This was my first DVD player, but everyone in my large, extended family owns one and I have never seen another one perform anything like my Samsung. When I asked my brother how I stop the skipping in