DVD up-scalers hit 100 bones with Samsungs DVD-HD860
by Matt Burns 
posted Mar 27th 2006 at 10:11AM
Do you
remember when DVD players were $499? No skip that, VCRs that were $799! We
sure do but the most recent video device to drop is DVD up-scalers. Just two years ago there was a Samsung for $299 but it sure
was cool. They have now reached a milestone though: the $100 mark.
Samsung has been producing these players
from the beginning and they were the first to hit this mark. The DVD-HD860 may not have
a lot of bells and whistles but it does scale the DVD up to 720p or 1080i via HDMI. It is small and cheap, but doesn't
comes with a HDMI cable. So big box shoppers note: it maybe cheaper to buy the big brother, DVD-HD960, as it
comes with both a HDMI and a DVI cable then it is to buy a HDMI cable in large retail stores. Plus, you will
get a better DVD player.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
James Stockhouse @ Mar 27th 2006 11:03AM
Costco had a Toshiba upscaling DVD player for $80 back in November. It came with the HDMI cable too. It also plays divx/xvid/mpeg4 and mp3. Mine works great except slight pauses in the middle of some movies.
Luke @ Mar 27th 2006 12:10PM
Fry's Electronics in Arizona has had the Samsung DVD-HD755 for under $70 for several weeks. It includes the HDMI cable. As you say, bare bones, but upconverting to 720p/1080i. Coaxial digital audio (no optical). Very small, and clearly of a cheap construction. But, a great deal if you don't have a player yet.
yoyoyo @ Mar 27th 2006 1:28PM
i have the samsung with the region free hack, got it for 50 bucks with dvi cable. Love this dvd player, great picture on LCD tv....
Ken Harrigan @ Mar 27th 2006 1:40PM
(This is the third time posting - I keep getting rejected as being promotional; I'm just trying to be helpful)
I found a great place for affordable high quality HDMI cables - monoprice. I have two of 'em and they perform just as good as the 80 buck+ varieties.
Just a tip, 'cause I hate paying top dollar for cables.
-KLH
travis @ Mar 27th 2006 1:59PM
I think I have asked this before, but dont remember getting anything back...is there really that much difference with upconversion? I mean, its all ultimately coming from an SD 480p source right? Just wondering if one of these will really be worth the money... cheap or not
ej @ Mar 27th 2006 2:00PM
I was very surprised to see that the HD960 will upconvert to 1080p. Doesn't that seem like a rather large task to upsample a standard DVD to 1080p? Is it worth it?
Matt Burns @ Mar 27th 2006 2:05PM
Travis - these players take a 480i source and helps them along to make a better picture. They are really good at removing the digital artifacts that seem to become apparent on digital TVs. To answer you though, they are, for the most part, worth the money.
We are going to have a full review of a new upscaler by the end of the week. You may want to check back for more info.
Dave @ Mar 27th 2006 9:01PM
Hi,
Does it upconvert from its Component output too? or just from the HDMI output?
Thanks
Trey Evans @ Mar 28th 2006 1:18AM
I have an HDTV that has component in, no DVI or HDMI. Are there any upconverting DVD players that will accomplish upsampling over component?
CorpSpy @ Mar 28th 2006 6:59AM
I have tried three different DVD players with upscalers over HDMI: Samsung 860, Thomson 252E and Toshiba. In all of them the picture provided by the upscaler in the DVD player was worse than the picture generated by the TVs upscaler (Toshiba 32WL58P). So, I think it depends on the quality of the TVs upscaler if you see any improvement with these players. Of course the HDMI output is better than progressive over component.
Peter @ Mar 28th 2006 3:42PM
I switched from a 5 yr old Sony DVP-S350 (480i over component) to a new Sony DVP-NS70H (1080i over HDMI). There was a slight improvement in picture quality, but not worth the $150 price tag in my opinion. In my opinion, one of the reasons for such a small imporvement is that my DLP 1080p TV has a great upscaler/deinterlacer built-in. Final note: Don't pay more than $15 for a HDMI or DVI cables. Go online (like monoprice.com) to get great prices, avoid Monster cables, they are a price gouging ripoff.
Rob @ Mar 29th 2006 1:03PM
So, here's an HDMI question...if you have only one HDMI port on your TV (In this case, Samsung's HL-R4266W DLP), have a DVR cable box, and want to get a DVD player... which do you use the HDMI port for? DVR box to TV, or DVD to TV? I am missing something?
Rich @ Mar 29th 2006 1:58PM
Rob, you use it for your DVR cable box, which (assuming it's an HD box) will deliver a "real" HD signal to your tv. This will be a better picture than the upconverted signal coming out of the dvd player. Unless you watch a lot more DVDs than TV, in which case go for the DVD.
YoYo Man @ Apr 14th 2006 9:14PM
I just bought this, and I have an XBOX 360 hooked up via component cables.
I hooked this up with component NOT DVI...and while I could notice a HUGE difference on the DVD MENU page (with digital graphics), I could notice none to very little improvement over the 360 during the actual movies.
However, the reason I bought this is because Monday I get a new PLASMA TV...with HDMI hookups and I look forward to seeing what this will do on there....I will try and fill you in more after a week of use, so stay tuned......