Customer Reviews

Samsung DVD-M101 DVD Player

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I took it out of the box, connected it to my system, turned it on, and started playing a DVD in 10 minutes. Really, I'm not kidding. It's very easy to use and the instruction manual, which is hardly necessary, is clearly written. Both picture and sound quality exceed my expectations. It plays all my DVD's perfectly, including one that had given my PC a lot of trouble. I had been putting off buying a DVD player due to analysis paralysis -- too many choices with a bewildering array of features, wondering which ones are compatible with my hardware and which ones would become obsolete, and finally settled on this inexpensive basic model, which turned out to be a totally successful purchase.

I bought the Samsung DVD-M101 DVD player to use in my bedroom and have been very pleased with it. For the money it is a very good buy. If you are looking for tons of features it really doesn't have that, but it has some cool stuff like 32X fast forward and Zoom feature that are nice. I was very pleased with the fact that when I brought it home and plugged it in it worked and played the new DVDs that I had. For a basic unit it works good.

This DVD player was one I bought to put in my bedroom, I already have a Toshiba, but when I pluged it in to my new Home Entertainment System I bought to use it with I was extremly disappointed. The reading time after you load a disk is quite long, it even takes a few seconds for my system to register any input from a remote, as well as the manual controls on the system itself. I would think twice about buying this system.

I recently purchased this Samsung after great deliberation. I've wanted a DVD player for quite a while, but didn't want to pay through the nose. I have been very timid about buying one of the
bargain priced units. I was realy hoping to find a nice Sony or JVC on sale, but I don't have HD TV so why pay for all that Hi tech. I have had a Samsung camera for about 5 years now with no problems,so when I saw this unit on sale I figured I'd give it a shot. It works great!! Only problem is, like I said, No progressive scan, and no cdR or RW playback. But if you're looking for a good deal to play DVDs and CDs on a normal TV. This is it!

I just got this yesturday. I was looking for something that would just play dvd's and had all the connections that are in vogue (component video, s-video, optical audio).
It doesn't have a lot of bells and wistles, but it gets the job done very nicely. Load times do seem to be little slow, but only when you first put the disc in.

-Mike

I bought the Samsung 101 a couple months ago as my first DVD player. The price seemed reasonable and I liked the remote control. I also liked the Samsung 1-year warranty on parts and labor. Most players have a 90-day warranty on labor, and a 1-year warranty on parts, which means you are taking a risk if you do not buy an extended service contract from your retailer.

Connection and set-up were fast and easy, and the owner's manual is excellent, logically organized and with clear instructions.

Picture and sound were fine, but there were sporadic, though noticeable, "break ups" in the picture where it would disintegrate into large pixels. These are not the fault of the discs, since they don't always happen in the same place at the same time.

More annoying than the occasional picture problems is the slowness with which the player loads the DVD and responds to the remote control. The remote response is so slow that I often was not sure if the player had even received the signal until 5 or 10 seconds after I had pushed the button. While you do get used to this after a while, it's a real drawback.

The ergonomics of the remote itself are very good, with an intuitive layout, but this is offset by the slowness of the player's response.

The player does a good enough job that it got me hooked on DVDs, but after a month, I relegated this player to the bedroom and bought a Toshiba (2800) that is far superior to the Samsung and only cost about [a bit] more.

The Toshiba also has a great feature that the Samsung lacks: the first zoom level on the Toshiba gives you a slightly larger letterboxed image for widescreen DVDs, without cutting off much at the sides and with no discernable loss of image sharpness. This is a real convenience on my 27" TV, maintaining the widescreen ratio but giving a bigger image. The Samsung has a feature called "S-Fit" which supposedly does the same thing, but the manual says it does not work on all discs, and I never got it to work on any of mine. The Toshiba works for all the discs I have and it's a feature I would not sacrifice.

Bottom line on the Samsung 101:

Pro: Good remote, good picture, good sound, 1-year warranty parts and labor, good instruction manual.

Con: Sporadic picture problems, slow to load DVDs and slow to respond to remote, 2-level zoom does not increase image size for widescreen DVDs.

If you want a good basic player and don't want to pay for an extended warranty, consider the Samsung.

I was thinking about getting a DVD player for quite a long time and was still debating on the one I should choose. I wanted a SONY at first and then when I was in the store, they had an incredible sale on this product (...) and I just bought it. Ever since, its been a very good DVD player. Very good quality, everything was good, and of course the price was very affordable!!!

I purchased this DVD player for last Christmas as a present to myself. It has performed admirably with new DVD's and rentals. The remote works well and picture quality makes makes you feel like your in the movie. I used the S-Video connection and it improved the picture even more. For yourself or for a gift buy this unit.

This was a great purchase for me, it plays all my DVD's flawlessly, fit in perfectly with my entertainment system as well. Definately a must buy for anyone looking for a reasonably priced DVD player!

I have to say that as far as DVD playback, digital is digital. When you compare this to a VCR/VTR this thing blows 'em away. I use the optical digital audio output so the sound is insane - excellent seperation for 5.1 channel movies, and *very* clear CD audio. But I use the standard RCA video output, and the thing still stomps all over my VTR for picture quality. That said, there are a few (minor) frustrating things: Response to the remote commands is somewhat lethargic. You have to wait a second or two before you know whether the unit "heard" your remote. Also, it is a bit slow when loading a disc (DVD's and CD's take the same amount of time, it seems). That leads me to my biggest complaint. When I got this unit I was really looking for a CD player, but saw this as an opportunity to move into the world of digital video for quite a small amount of cash. The CD support is really quite disappointing. It flat won't play some CD's, and is rather finicky on most. It has a lot of trouble with direct track access - it usually finds the right track, but starts about 3-10 seconds into the tune. Sometimes it just won't even come close (like going to track 3 when looking for track 6).
All in all, for DVD playback, including some pretty neat features, it's probably worth the money (note that it's not a lot of money). Just don't expect it to replace your single disc player for CD Audio.