Testing DVD #3 – Conclusion

I’m feeling a tad guilty for taking Samsung’s DVD- F1080 player.  I’m supposed to write three entries about it to justify keeping the unit.   I have done so here and here and this is my third posting.  I would like to write more about it, but I’m hard pressed.

A dvd player is not like a phone which has so many features you can comment on. A dvd player plays the dvd, period.  If the picture quality is clear, that’s good enough for me.  And the Samsung’s DVD-F1080 gives good quality pictures, same as our old Phillips player.

I have earlier touched on the features which I like about the F1080.  It is sleek, light, has touch sensitive buttons and can fast forward up to 64X.  I have no need for the other features such as :

Slow motion function – a scene can be viewed in slow motion.

Digital photo viewer – can view digital photos on TV.

Parental control – allows users to set the level necessary to prohibit children from viewing adult movies. (I know what movies my kids are watching – if there’s any sex scene coming up – the fast-forward button is hit).

It also has HDMI (High definition multimedia interface) which reduces picture noise by allowing a pure digital vide/audio signal path from the player to the tv.

Unfortunately my ears (and my kids’) don’t seem to be able to pick up any improvement over the Philips player.   Priced at RM500 something, the F1080 is rather expensive.   For someone who desires portability, say a trainer who has to plug in his own dvd player, this unit would be perfect.  But for me, an ordinary mid-range player would be fine as long as it gives good picture quality.

Anyway, thanks to Samsung for letting me review the player.  It is mine for keeps, right?

Testing DVD #2 – Touch Sensitive

Heroes is a favourite series with my family. When we watched Season 1, we were hooked and couldn’t wait for each episode to air. Recently hubby bought the DVD for Season 2 which we finished viewing in a few days.

But I was lagging behind the rest of the family. This afternoon I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I wanted to watch the last disc but I had loads of laundry to iron. So I brought out the ironing board to the living room, turned on the Samsung HDMI DVD Player, DVD-F1080 and ironed away while being entertained by the gripping drama of Heroes.

The DVD player is in shiny black, so it was quite hard to see the icons on the player. Fortunately, the POWER button and the OPEN/CLOSE button were embossed and sensitive to the touch. Running my finger along the surface, I easily found the buttons and with a light touch of the finger, was able to turn it on easily. The kids like the Touch Sensitive buttons too. It makes it fun to turn the player on and off.

The other feature I like is that the player can fast forward up to 64x. Our Philips player could only fast forward up to 32x.  That way, if we had to stop mid-way through the disc, we could quickly find our way back to where we had stopped.

I managed to iron one basket of clothes and fortunately didn’t burn my fingers in the process. It was the first time I’ve ironed while watching TV.

Reading and Writing Workshop

Top row – (L-R) Yen Siong, Hou Jun, Kishok, Quenly, Amy, Mun Yan, Wei Luo and Zainul

Front row – (L-R) Meera, Wei Qin, Kuei Rou, me, Chai Sin and Joyce

The girl who likes to sleep : Yee Jing

These are my students in the intensive Reading and Writing Workshop conducted at Cambridge English for Life, Bayu Perdana. Tomorrow is the last day of the 5-day workshop. After that I can breathe easier.