Samsung DVD-HD860 > Reviews > Samsung DVD-HD860

Author's product rating:   

Picture Playback	Excellent
Sound Level	Excellent
Range of Features	Average
Durability	Satisfactory
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Near HD upscaling at a very cheap price
Disadvantages:	No virtual surround sound, not all DVD upscale well

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

As soon as I heard about upscaling DVD players I discovered the Samsung HD860 was one of the latest models (2006). As I had purchased an HD compatible plasma it needed to have the best available source I could afford for the money and at £65 this slim and modern looking player was a bargain.

The player will output a normal scart signal (composite or RGB) and via the HDMI lead upscale the signal to either 576p, 720p or 1080i respectively (only with an HD TV). What this means if that the clever chip within the box will take the normal 704x576 pixels of the DVD and increase them to near full hd resolution.

The results can be simply stunning on a clean or new DVD, older DVD titles do not benefit as much as they contain more noise which does'nt help with the upscaling process.

The DVD comes with a simple remote to access the various menus which includes the audio setup which will output dolby 5.1 if required to a compatible surround amp. Unfortunately there is no option of a virtual surround mode if you just want to play the sound through your TV speakers which would of been nice.

One critical point regarding the menu if the confusing nature of the video output choice for HDMI 4:4:4 or 4:4:2 are not terms most people are familar with!! Apart from that everything else is pretty much straight forward with an additional choice of DiVX compatibilty for those who have burnt DVD's with this codec on their PC.

Technical Details
Blu-ray Playback: No
Blu-ray Recording: No
Compact Flash Card: No
DTS Decoder: No
DVB-C: No
DVB-S: No
DVB-T: No
DVD Audio Playback: Yes
DVD Player / Recorder: DVD Player
DVD+R Playback: Yes
DVD+R Recording: No
DVD+RW Playback: Yes
DVD+RW Recording: No
DVD-R Playback: Yes
DVD-R Recording: No
DVD-RAM Playback: No
DVD-RAM Recording: No
DVD-RW Playback: Yes
DVD-RW Recording: No
DVI Interface: No
DivX Playback: Yes
Electronic Program Guide (EPG): No
Ethernet: No
Firewire IEEE-1394 Interface: No
HD-DVD Playback: No
HD-DVD Recording: No
HDMI Interface: Yes
HDTV: No
IPTV (Internet Protocol Television): No
Integrated VCR: No
MP3 Recording: No
MPEG4 Recording: No
Memory Stick: No
Multimedia Card: No
Number of Scart Interfaces: unknown
PCMCIA Interface: No
Progressive Scan: Yes
Real Dolby: No
Secure Digital Card: No
Show View: No
Smart Media Card: No
Super Audio CD Playback: Yes
Super Video CD / Video CD Playback: Yes
Table / Portable: Table
USB Interface: No
W-LAN Connection: No
xD-Picture Card: No