17 out of 17 people found this review helpful.
Samsung DVD-M101 DVD Player , my great bargain
Date of Review: Jun 21, 2002
The Bottom Line: For the features ease of use and quality it's well worth the price.
I have had my DVD player for just about 2 months now and use it frequently.
I was home visiting family in Arkansas and while out "treasure and bargain hunting" I stumbled onto this great bargain.
While rummaging through the stock at O'Neal's Dollar Shack in my home town, a truck load/surplus/fire sale sort of shop, I noticed about a dozen of these little gems still in the boxes with K-Mart price tags still attached (the tags read $199.95 by the way).
I checked with the clerk to see what their price was fully expecting near the $100 range and was HAPPY to hear her reply "They are on sale this week for $49.95, yes they work and have all of the parts and yes we will refund in full if it's returned within 3 days with the receipt."
I immediately got one and took it back to my parents' house where I was staying and hooked it up to try it out.
ONLY after I had it fully hooked up did I remember what I'd forgotten. My parents don't have a DVD player ergo no DVD to play.
Fast forward through the trip to wally world and my purchasing frenzy back to the house WITH DVD(s) in hand.
I put in the first DVD and away I went. Being a somewhat stereotype single young guy I of course had not bothered with the manual and relied on blind luck and my "expertise"
in the area of remote controls to figure out what I was doing.
Things that I like about this unit
.. Ease of use... The remote is fairly self explanatory so that even without reading the instruction book as I probably should have I was able to play, rewind, fast forward, choose scenes, and jump forward and back entire scenes. A+
.. Functions... this unit allows for multi speed fast forward and reverse from 2X to as fast as 128X, language choices (depending on what is available on the DVD of course), screen fit, zoom in, volume output control, subtitle choices (again depending on the DVD), and several others that I'm still playing with. A++
.. picture and sound quality... GREAT across the board so far. A+ (A Big improvement over my old VCR)
.. Ease of hook up... For me this is a HUGE factor. I don't have the technical expertise that God gave a turnip when it comes to hooking things up properly but even I was able to hook up the cable, tv and DVD with no explosions, fires, or sedation to keep me from throwing components out of the window. A
.. Size... I have limited space in my entertainment center (until I get a new BIGGER ONE) so size matters in this one occasion. it is thin enough (height) to sit on the top shelf that I had used before this to store 4 videos at a time 2 high and 2 wide in their cases. It is a little long but still fits fine. A
Some of the things that I don't care for so much
...When you first put in a DVD it takes any where from 15 seconds to a full min for the system to read it and go to the opening menu.
...It can be a little finicky. If you don't put the disc in "just so" some times it will try for 1-2 min to read it and then tell you (on screen message) that it can't read the disc.
So far all I've had to do was either open and close the tray or open it take the disc out and put it back in and close it again and that takes care of the problem.
Other miscellaneous notes
It seems to be fairly durable. It survived the trip from North West Arkansas back to Omaha in my packed car with my driving with no problems at all and has performed quite well since I've gotten it home and installed. It's not indestructible but it'll certainly hold up to lots of use and at least a moderate level of abuse too.
This was a great buy for me but even at the cost of $129.00 to $139.00 it'd still be worth it.
It worked so well, and was so easy to set up and use that my mom ended up going back the next day and buying one for her and my dad.
