3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Extremely Frustrating!!!
Date of Review: May 30, 2006
The Bottom Line: Wouldn't recommend it based on poor FF and REV functions.
OK. So the picture is great and the sound is great. But that should be a given for any DVD player - let alone an up-conversion model.
I had a economy JVC DVD player and when I bought a 50" Samsung DLP I figured it was time to upgrade my DVD. I went to Best Buy and they recommended the HD850.
I'm sorry to say it (because I love my Samsung TV) but I really hate this Samsung DVD player and I'll explain.
As one other reviewer mentioned (I'm really suprised there aren't more commenting on this) the FF and Rev functions are extremely frustrating.
My JVC has a great little setting of 1.5X normal forward speed (it wasn't available in Rev). This allows the viewer to watch scenes with smooth video and audio but just a bit faster. (This gets you through those scenes that aren't that interesting but you don't miss what could be important dialogue). Then it has a 2X, 4X, 8X and 16X.
The HD850 has a 2X then a 4X then, not an 8X, 16X or even 32X but all the way to 64X! Before you know it you've jumped halfway through the movie. When you push Play to stop the 64X, it seems to still leap forward. In addition, the FF button is the same as the Skip button and the user has to hold it down for the FF function otherwise it skips to the next chapter. Quite simply, it is the most maddening AV component I've dealt with and I'm tempted to plug my JVC back in. It would be interesting to see what the difference in video quality is.
If you are a movie watcher that likes to FF and Reverse a lot, I'd stay away from this one.
