Customer Reviews

Samsung DVD-M301 DVD Player

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have had great luck with a Samsung VCR and Samsung DVD-709 DVD Player in the past so I was loyal to my confidence in Samsung products by purchasing the Samsung DVD-M301 DVD Player. What I found out was that not all DVDs would play correctly in this machine. I had played 4 movies without any trouble and was impressed by the video display quality of this model. But when I tried to play Artisan Entertainment Studio release "Bad Boys" with actor Sean Penn it would not play the audio for this movie at all! This is not some high-tech movie either - it is a basic real-life film made in 1983 with no special effects like most of the newer movies have. It displayed the video portion just fine but there was absolutely no sound during the playing of this DVD. The movie had played fine on my older Samsung DVD-709 model so I know it was not a problem with the DVD itself.

I wanted to know if it was a defective player or a product design flaw in the M301 Player so I took it to a local store who had the same model Samsung DVD-M301 Player that I could try the "Bad Boys" DVD with. Well it was the same result with the store's player also - NO AUDIO! That made my mind up for me to return the Samsung DVD-M301 and I purchased a Panasonic DVD-RV31 player instead. The Panasonic plays the movie just fine - audio and all. I did not feel comfortable keeping the Samsung not knowing how many other DVDs I would buy or rent that would have similar trouble.

I am writing an email to Samsung about this player and my experience and hopefully soon they will address the problem and correct it on future models. Until then BEWARE!

I bought this DVD because it was the best I could find that featured a headphone jack and control located in the front. That's very convenient for watching DVD's in a noisy room, especially since many sounds from a film are muted at low volume otherwise. Also it would be great for someone using this DVD as a CD.

I believe this Samsung has a one year parts/labor warranty. Many other DVD's give only 90 days' warranty on labor.

I had a different manufacturer's DVD of similar price which I'd returned. In comparing them, this Samsung is also better because the remote control does a great job of acting as a "universal" control, at least on my Toshiba TV. The remote is fairly intuitive. It also fits nicely in the hand. The on-screen controls are also fairly easy to maneuver.

Consumer Reports this month rates the M201 well, possibly even as a "best buy," if I remember correctly. I would imagine that the M301 is an updated version, since I haven't seen the M201 around.

I didn't buy a progressive scan DVD, which would have been ...more. I wanted the headphone jack. Also, by the time I get a new TV that could benefit from prog. scan (ie, HDTV ready), I figured that at that time, I could get another DVD for about 100 or 140 that featured prog. scan.

I've been shopping for a DVD player for almost a year, when I happened to stumble upon this one, and I must say, as of now I'm very impressed. All my friends have Sony and Panasonic players, most of which break down very frequently, and dont play CD-Rs at all much less play CD-Rs full of MP3s. This is one of the best performing and best looking players out there.

Most of the high end products I bought in the past two years have required numerous and costly repare jobs, this one has really been stable for the past 3 months.

All this combined with a great price makes this a must-buy.

i don't know anything about dvd--but i decided there were too many cool titles that i would never see on vhs tape--and--this unit says it also will play mp3 files thru your stereo-
i got the unit--it is sorta small--which is good--it is easy to hook up ----it works great--the remote is nice and easy to use--it plays movies !!!--and--- i put in a cd that i made with about 185 beatle mp3's on it--and lo and behold-it played it thru my stereo-it sounds really good--however--and this is a drawback-it will not play mp3 files in random order--it will play them sequentially or you can select which file you want it to start playing from--the video display (on your tv screen)for the mp3 player is a little on the unimpressive side--but--the unit is inexpensive(i had a coupon for 15 dollars off--it does a lot for the money--i am sure that before long they will offer a dvd unit with complete random mp3 play-so--maybe i will buy one of those when they come out--this unit is less expensive than most vcr's--i read lots of reviews on a lot of units and i agree--this one is great--the audio when u are watching a dvd movie is nice and big sounding--i am a low tech person--i am sorta amazed at all this..

This DVD Player has it all, it can play CDR VCDs, 74 mins. AudioCD, 80 mins. Audio CD (some players dont support 80mins.) Havent tried CDRW yet, The MP3 support is good but a bit buggy forwarding tracks. So if you are buying a DVD Player make sure it can play CDR and MP3 and this has it all.

First of all, a response to the reviewer who had problems with brightness and/or jumpy DVD playback: this DVD player, like all others made in the U.S., has circutry called "Macrovision" that is designed to prevent you from copying DVDs onto your VCR. The technical details are unimportant, but the result is that you cannot connect your DVD to your VCR and pass the signal through to the t.v.; instead, you'll have to connect it to the t.v. separately, using the video and audio jacks, or through an RF modulator box (you can get them at Radio Shack). Past Samsung DVD players allowed you to bypass the Macrovision protection by using certain secret codes on the remote control, but this model doesn't seem to support that.

Besdies the fact that you are prevented from setting up your entertainment center the way you want, this model does have a few other pesky features. The machine takes an unusually long time to read a disc upon insertion and recognize whether it is a music CD, mp3, or DVD and respond accordingly. Also, I've sometimes had difficulty pulling up the DVD menu while in the middle of a program.

Otherwise, the unit does a good job with the DVDs I've used, including some relatively scratched DVDs from Netflix. Audio quality with both DVDs and CDs is good, although I haven't tried it with mp3's. The remote is ok, although there are lots of tiny, somewhat badly labeled buttons and a joystick that takes some getting used to.

If you don't need the CD/mp3 features, you're better off buying an older Samsung model-- the 700 and 900 series can be easily reprogrammed to turn off region coding and Macrovision. If you do want the audio features, this model supplies them at a decent price, but be prepared for some annoyances as well.

Overall, this player gives an excellent picture with a reasonably easy to use remote. Main reason purchased was to hopefully enjoy what Sound & Vision magazine touts as the first player to be able to view any DVD in a full screen mode. Not so--any DVD in 2:35 format will not fill the screen when the "Fit" button is pushed on the remote. Symbol indicates "DVD software will not allow." I believe we are like many others who have resisted DVD's due to the widescreen only format on most DVD's. My wife would rather view full screen VHS! The M301 does represent excellent value, however. I'm keeping it!

This DVD player is flat out awesome! I've been impressed with it ever since I received it in the mail. It's great that it plays DVD's but it makes it all the more better that it's able to play mp3 files and regular CD's. I recommend this machine for anyone looking for a DVD player.

I've been using this dvd player for about 6 months now, and I dont have a single complaint. Great addition to a home theater, mp3 decoder is a nice touch.

...I am new to purchasing electronics and did a lot of research on Amazon and through Consumer Reports and Samsung was one of the two with the highest ratings. Panasonic was the other, but I chose Samsung because it was ...lower in price. It was very easy to hook up, I have a TV that is 12 years old and it doesn't have the red white and yellow connections, so I just hooked it up to my VCR and bam it was set, and I can still use the VCR. It's silver in color and it looks great, The remote control is easy to use, just need to learn all of the features available and how to use them. It has a great picture and good sound too, I'm sure if I had a newer TV It would have an even better sound and picture. So far I have only owned this for a week, which isn't much time, but I am really enjoying it. I have viewed PEARL HARBOR, SHREK, and JURRASIC PARK III, (the first two I own, the third I rented.) And the Music it plays sounds great too!