Hey all,
Considering a cheap upconverting DVD player to go with my new HL-S5086W DLP and found the Samsung DVD HD860 for $90.

Is this a decent player for a 720p native TV?

I found this HDMI cable from Monoprice and the price seems too good to be true:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10231&cs_id=1023102&p_id=2218&seq=1&format=2&style=

Is that really all I need to spend for an HDMI cable?

Hey all,
Considering a cheap upconverting DVD player to go with my new HL-S5086W DLP and found the Samsung DVD HD860 for $90.

Is this a decent player for a 720p native TV?

I found this HDMI cable from Monoprice and the price seems too good to be true:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10231&cs_id=1023102&p_id=2218&seq=1&format=2&style=

Is that really all I need to spend for an HDMI cable?
I'm running the 860 into Samsung HLS series (1080P native) and it is better than adequate.

Cables, Yes that is all you need to spend. Bought the straight HDMI equivalent to the cable you show and with O-night shipping it was 25 bucks. Very well made and has the pretty nylon jacket that some companies charge you 149 dollars for. Works well too.
Just say no to overpriced cables!

On edit; The cable you linked to is an HDMI>DVI. For the HD860 you will only need the HDMI>HDMI(same plug on both ends)
Try this (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240&cs_id=1024002&p_id=2219&seq=1&format=2&style=) one.
While your there you should go ahead and get any other cables you might need. TosLink, Digital coax, component...etc.

Thanks for the heads up on the cable...That would have been a bummer if I ordered the wrong one.

Can you help me out with something else?

The HDMI handles video but will I need a seperate audio cable like a Toslink to make it all work?

Thanks!

HDMI-to-HDMI handles audio and video so need for seperate audio cables from DVD player to TV.
For DD and DTS surround sound you would need a seperate digital audio (Toslink or Coax) connection to your AV receiver.

Thanks!

The Samsung is a decent player, but there are better ones, including the Oppo.

Yes it is a decent player, I own one, and yes monoprice freakin rules!

why does monoprice rule..easy.

great price point
their cables/switchers have always been good to me
great customer service
quick shipping

yeah I know it sounds like a testimonial but I always hear so many people complaining about everything and not enough people saying good things in life.

I'm such a geek for giving it up for cables and switchers! :D

I did the same thing.

When my new Oppo was crappo (could have been bad memory or internals, but I returned it) I ordered the Samsung 860 for $90 and the $17 Monoprice HDMI cable. 1/2 of what the Oppo cost.

They aren't here yet, probably Tuesday with the holliday.

Seems to be that this combo is a sweet spot for price and performance.

The Samsung is a decent player, but there are better ones, including the Oppo.
I just read a review on the Oppo and while many rave over it - the review said the Video produced was "Okay"

Can anyone tell me if this samsung 860 upcoverts 1080i through component? if not are there any hacks? and will it upconvert copy protected cds or will I need a hack for that as well? I think this may be the player for me to get I just need some more info on the issues with this player, if any.

I just got mine today, but my HDMI cable is not here yet.

I am using the Sammy 860 with component, and Toslink for audio.

There are no settings (that I can find) for selecting 720p or 1080i via component. I just can set "Progressive: On" and get upscaling to what I suspect is 720p.

It looks pretty good, though. Even DVDs I have copied...er, "made backups of"...via DVD shrink (lossy by about 40%) look pretty good.

I'll give more feedback after I get it hooked up via HDMI and Toslink.

** EDIT:

OK, my HDMI cable came from Monoprice yesterday. Excellent service, the quality seems identical to the $99 HDMI cables being pushed at the chain brick & mortar stores. Props to Monoprice and those here who turned me on to them.

I am pretty impressed by the upcnvert to 1080i, which seems to look better on my LCD than 720p. The Samsung does an acceptable job of upconverting.

A DVD-R recording of standard definition from Alias on Monday, which looks pretty bad coming fromt eh SD recorder that make it, actually looked watchable. A movie made by DVDShrink 3.1 looks as good as the original it was downconverted from.

I'm sorry that the Oppo 971H that I got didn't work for me, but the Samsung 860 gives better than expected results, and for a total of 1/2 of the price of the Oppo, I'm pretty pleased.

For the 841 you need to do the remote hack so it can upconvert via component video.
This must be done with no dvd in the player and the door closed.
1. Press the Angle button on the remote control
2. Press the 4 button on the remote control
3. Press the 3 button on the remote control
4. Press the 2 button on the remote control
5. Press the 7 button on the remote control and angle once more and after that the player will upconvert
over component video.

OK my new question is this:

Why would somone pay 150% more for a Samsung 850 or 841 over the 860?

Is there something "better" about the 850 that was changed in the 860?

i think he is pointing out that you can try the hack for the 841 to see if it works on the 860. there are many hacks on videohelp.com for the 860 that have also worked on the 841

Hi all.

Picked up the HD860 Tuesday. Ordered the HDMI from Monoprice Tuesday. Cable was under $22.00 shipped and made it from CA to PA from Tuesday to Thursday. Monoprice has a new dedicated customer!

I'm super happy with the HD860. The incredibles is my test film for DVD playback and let me say it looked...well.....incredible. I have the 720p HD trailer for Ice Age 2 I downloaded for my XBOX 360. I didn't think anything would ever look as good as that but with the HD860 every frame of The Incredibles looked just as good as that trailer that runs in 720p direct from the hard drive.

$95 including tax for the player and $22 including shipping for the HDMI cable. Can't beat the value of this upconverting setup IMHO. Plus it freed up another component input for all of my gaming systems.

Thanks for all the help everyone!

this (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240&cs_id=1024002&p_id=2219&seq=1&format=2&style=) one.
While your there you should go ahead and get any other cables you might need. TosLink, Digital coax, component...etc.

Is the 24awg cabel even necessary fro such a short run...Couldnt you use the 28awg for 6$ without any loss of pq?

28awg is fine. Monoprice has great cables.

i think he is pointing out that you can try the hack for the 841 to see if it works on the 860. there are many hacks on videohelp.com for the 860 that have also worked on the 841

Has anyone confirmed this? I'm in the market for a cheap upconvert via component unit and was curious if any of these "newer" models have been hacked. I've searched here and videohelp.com with little luck.

TIA

Don

I have the 860 and a mono hdmi and component cables, they are a good match.

Has anyone changed the video setting in the 860 options to get a better picture or did you just leave them at 3 (the default setting believe) across the board?

It is decent player, I have this with a monoprice HDMI cable and I like the results after calibration, but I have a 1080i display.
Some caveats though. the is no cd track display, only the time remaining, and the remote is uncomfortable. also the machine did freeze on my about two to three times in the last 5 months.
The default picture settings are to high , they should be 3 or lower, especially sharpness.
I am pleased with the picture, but I am about to upgrade to a Farouja chip player or HDDVD player for even better quality.

I have, but it will depend on your display

1. Make sure Progressive is on.
2. Set to either RGB Expand or YcBcR 4:4:4, I switch between these two

3.I use AUTO for resoltion setting which gives me 720P (sometimes I use 1080i)

4.Sharpness is the key anywhere betwenn 1 and 3, no more. I use 3
5.Brightness between 1 and 3 also, I use 3
6. Color saturation , between 3 and 5, I use 5

I Suggest Sharness at 2 brightness at 2 and color at 2 Then use THX optimizer or Avia Calibration DVD and then fine tune

Set to either RGB Expand or YcBcR 4:4:4, I switch between these two




Bad advice. RGB Expand is for PC monitors. RGB Normal is for TVs. RGB Normal has blacker blacks and whiter whites. As for YcBcR 4:4:4, its for special types of TVs--don't even go there.

Read your HD860 owners manual.

OK my new question is this:

Why would somone pay 150% more for a Samsung 850 or 841 over the 860?

Is there something "better" about the 850 that was changed in the 860?
The 850 can be hacked to region-free and upconvert to 1080i over component cables.It also comes with a HDMI cable.

Bad advice. RGB Expand is for PC monitors. RGB Normal is for TVs. RGB Normal has blacker blacks and whiter whites. As for YcBcR 4:4:4, its for special types of TVs--don't even go there.

Read your HD860 owners manual.
I tried them all for months after reading the manual and really cant tell much difference, check it out for yourself and your display and decide which looks best.
As they are options that Samsung provided knowing that this product would be hooked to many types of HDTV's, many of which can be used as PC monitors.
Whatever looks best for your display is key.

Informative link: http://www.hdtvoice.com/voice/showthread.php?p=120199

Add me to the convert list. I decided to buy a seperate player for my PAL DVDs and bought the HD860 off ebay--to go with my LNS3241D. Cable from Monoprice should arrive around the same time. I never could understand the high prices of cables. Now I'll be researching a replacement for my VCR. Suggestions in the $300 price range? Use will be for burning VHS to DVD and daily recording.

I recently purchased an HD860 DVD and S3292D LCD combo from FS here in the Toronto area. I had the units connected via component cables while I waited for an HDMI cable to arrive.

As I lived with the HD860, I became increasingly annoyed with the bright blue light on the "on" button, undimmable apparently, that remains constantly lit while the player operates. (This is the reverse of the 3292D, which shuts the light off after the TV is warmed up and operating.) As others have noted, this intense and relatively large circular light is quite obtrusive. What was Samsung thinking?

After reading the favorable reviews here about the two Oppo units, I picked up a 970HD DVD from a Toronto-based etailer linked from Oppo's Web site. Unlike the HD860, the Oppo comes with an HDMI cable, so I was then able to test the units side by side with the highest quality output for both.

First of all, the Oppo does not have an "on" light, only a tiny, discreet red LED when in standby mode. When operating, there is information in yellow light in the display, which I do not find distracting. Score one for the Oppo.

I set the scan output for both players to 760p and then recalibrated the movie mode of the TV to each player in turn using the Avia DVD at the players' default settings. During this process, I noted that there is a significant difference between the default black level output of the two machines; when calibrating for the Oppo, I had to increase the Brightness setting on the TV from 24 for the HD860 to around 50. I also tested with a range of TV Contrast settings, from 82 to 100.

After calibration, I used The Fifth Element and The Incredibles for test disks.

The HD860 was up first and gave me a stunning, impressive picture--until I came to the trailer for Cars on my copy of The Incredibles disk. The quick, opening shot of the deep red Cars front-grill logo seemed somehow off. Then in the opening scene with the bumblebee visiting the flower, the first two small logo badges with major areas of red and orange running sequentially in the upper left of the frame reveal the problem: apparent serious ICP (interlace chroma problem). This is confirmed throughout the trailer whenever the red car is in the scene. Crawling, shifting red pixels, obscuring detail. Really ugly.

While it did not eliminate the ICP entirely, the 970HD was head and shoulders above the Samsung in handling it. Both machines otherwise performed excellently, but my overall impression was that the Oppo provided a more natural, better balanced picture with more dramatic color and fewer artifacts. It also has a superior remote with backlighting.

I used only the internal audio in the TV and did not notice an obvious difference in audio reproduction of sound tracks. Both were quite good. I did not use or evaluate these units for any other audio playback.

Considering the included, high-quality HDMI cable, the Oppo and the Samsung are competitively priced. I paid C$166 plus tax for the 970HD, plus a $5 dollar pick-up fee.

So it was an easy decision for me to go with the Oppo. No annoying "on" light, superior video reproduction, and much better handling of ICP. The HD860 goes back to FS today under their 30 day return policy.

Nice review! I think I am going with the OPPO 970. I am a fan of the Faroudja in the 971, but want the SACD capability of the 970. Is the 971 that much better anyway?

1) Does the HD860 have the possibility to play subtitles for the divx files?
2) Does it play PAL movies?

has anyone managed to hack the hd860 yet?
so you can use component cables to get 1080i?

Can this only play divx encoded avi files, or can it play xvid as well? I might be getting one of these for free when I purchase an LCD TV, so I would like to know.

I got the HD860 and the monoprice HDMI cable. First off, monoprice has a new loyal customer. Ordered the cable yesterday and it got here at 8am this morning. Great shipping, great service.
About the HD860, it seems to show a lot of pixelation in certain scenes, particularly with people's skin. I see orange pixelation on faces and skin. I have RBG-Normal in the HDMI menu and in PQ settings, I have .....

Sharpness Level 3
Brightness Level 4
Color Saturation Level 3

I have played with these settings but seem to get the same result. Any other tweaking I should do or is this what it should look like? If so, I may exchange for something else. I used a Best Buy gift card so I am stuck with their selection. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

So far I am very pleased with the HD860 PQ, although I will upgrade to a Universal player soon for the SACD and DVD-a Audio formats.
I dont expect the picture quality to improve much though.

I find 720P over HDMI and 480i over component (My display then upcoverts those to 1080i)
to look the best PQ?detail/colorwise, though I need to check 480P again as my display can show that natively also.

1. Are you sure you have progressive on?
I actually had the same results as you' when I first got my player' and unbeknownst to me progressive was off by default.

2. If so do you have Avia or DVE calibration DVD to calibrate your TV.
This is always important.

Make sure your TV is not in the torched Vivid mode. maybe lower the brightness and sharpness a tad.

Before you return it, try setting the sharpness at 2-brightness at 2 and color sat at 3 in each of the color modes-RGB normal/expand and 4:4:4-4:2:2.

You may also want to try Component out at 480P or 480i, and let your display upconvert it, sometimes that is the best solution.

What DVD/display are you using?

If the Pixelation is still there after all of that, you may want to return the unit.

I'm using a Dell W4200HD plasma and I am mostly using Matrix Reloaded as a reference since that is where I see the most pixelation with the skin tones. I made all the changes you suggested and also checked progressive was on. I also changed to 480p and still the same results. Looks like it's going back for something else. Thanks for the help.

I'm using a Dell W4200HD plasma and I am mostly using Matrix Reloaded as a reference since that is where I see the most pixelation with the skin tones. I made all the changes you suggested and also checked progressive was on. I also changed to 480p and still the same results. Looks like it's going back for something else. Thanks for the help.
That sucks: For others and me it is a good player, oh well, you tried.

Yea you probably got a bad unit or your display dvd combo just dont like each other.

Just one more thing: try this and then send it back
.
HDMI 720P sharpness 1 brightness 1 color 1 RGB normal and sharpness and noise reduction all the way down on your TV.
If thats still no good, I hope someone with your display panel can recommend a better player for your display, I am thinking Oppo 970HD or similar, you can always email them.
Good Luck :confused:

Hi there!

I have this Samsung HD860 DVD player and I have a couple of questions.

Firstly, I like the picture on my Panasonic plasma better in 1080i mode than the auto resolution, but it seems that when I put the player into standby it doesn't remember this setting.

Secondly, I was under the impression that the best colour encoding was YCbCr 4:2:2 since this is the colour bit range of a DVD.

Any help would be appreciated :)