Summary: I bought the N504 (in the US it is the N501) DVD player 11 months ago. It replaced my (beloved) Toshiba DVD player that was taken by my evil ex-girlfriend. I don't know why I chose Samsung. Usually I read tons of test and reviews before buying something electronic, but not this time. And it was a mistake.
The damn thing started freezing and skipping and crashing after 6 months. The problems got worse, and now every 2nd DVD is just annoying or impossible to watch. I've read some stuff about firmware update, but no go to DIY. What do I do for the weeks its going to be in repair? Will Samsung pay me a replacement? Guess not.
Otherwise a decent player. Just this freezing problem.
Strengths: Nice design. Good remote. Plays MP3 and CD-R without problems.
Weaknesses: SKIPPING - FREEZING - THE WHOLE PLAYER JUST CRASHES and needs to be turned off to come back to life.
Similar Products Used: Toshiba - never had a problem. Even with the scratched DVD's and CD's from my little sister.
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Summary: After I upgraded the firmware to version 51, the audio-sync problems were solved. This is a high-end DVD player with a low price. This is a result of the unit being based on the NUON CPU platform.
Gladiator, The Matrix, and Phaton Menace all perform flawlessly. The Zoom feature works very nicely and has a huge range.
Menus are clean and easy to navigate.
The 501 also plays CDs and MP3 disks. The unit has built in visulaiztions (a la Real Jukebox and WinAmp) that display on your TV.
Of minor notes are: * NUON games are appearing. One is even included. However, I don't think NUON gaming will take off. Buy this DVD player for the other fetures and not the games. * The remote is too small. * Load time is slow (8-10 seconds to load a DVD) * Some NUON enhanced movies are available. I don't own one, but I don't think these will proliferate.
Strengths: CPU-based system boosts performance and feature set. EASILY upgradable firmware. Gaming.
Weaknesses: Remote
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Summary: Pros: Features Cons: customer support at Best Buy - why not to give some information about sw upgradeability of this dvd player - I have no problems anymore...
Strengths: Excellent picture quality, LOTs of features, software upgradeable.
Weaknesses: Slowish in recoginizing discs, minor freeze and audio synch problems with earlier 'bios' versions
Similar Products Used: -
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Summary: Being my first dvd I wanted the best I could find under $200 and this is the one. Plays DVD,MP3,CDR&CDRW,VCD. You have to upgrade the firmware on the player out of the box but anyone with a computer & a cd burner can do this. If not check out http://www.nuontalk.tv/ and request someone send you a upgrade disc. I recently sent mine out to a person having trouble. I have has zero problems with this player. My girlfriend and I can watch the VLM (virtual light machine) for hours(if you dont know what this is, it plays a funkadelical lightshow while music is being played) . It has played all my mp3 discs with no problems. The games aspect will hopefully catch on and it does look promising. They also have came out with a SDK(software development kit) that will allow others to create software for the NUON player. Imaging downloading a game off the internet,burning it to cdr & playing it on the DVD player. Others have suggested "if i want to play a game & watch dvd's I ll buy a PS2" But the problems I have heard from PS2 playing dvds why would you want to....can you play mp3 or vcd on PS2....a big NO. To sum it up....after months of reviewing which dvd to buy, I have made the best decision.
Strengths: Excellent DVD playback,zoom,Virtual Light Machine,can also play games.
Weaknesses: Had to upgrade the firmware w/ my own disc
Similar Products Used: None
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Summary: I am very happy with this DVD player, now that I discovered that I need to keep it cool. If you put on top of your receiver, it will get hot and then it will have lots of errors including unsynced audio and picture jitter. I am very impressed with the picture quality, even text is very sharp. I don't plan on using the Nuon for gaming, but it definatly helps picture quality and gives excellent slow motion picture.
I only use the analog outputs for HDCD listening, and the quality is decent.
Strengths: This DVD player has excellent features for the money; including HDCD decoding, NUON enhancement, component video, and MP3 decoding.
Weaknesses: Does not like heat! Remote is not lighted like on most higher end units and is poorly laid out.
Similar Products Used: various, from Toshiba to Apex
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