Review Date: April 27 2004
Reviewed by: Cory Zerkee
Sponsored by: Samsung

I have reviewed many a Samsung product in my time as a reviewer, and although even they are not perfect, I haven’t ever found too much to gripe about. Even if I did find something, it was usually a cosmetic design I didn’t like, not a quality issue.

 Samsung has been designing goodies for just about every part of the household for a long time now, in fact, I can think of several in my place alone. I have been on a stint of reviewing their LCD’s for about 7 months now, so I found it refreshing to be able to review something ELSE from them this time. I have moved from the PC market to the home theater area and will be taking a look at their newest DVD player, the DVD-P241. The DVD-P241 is an ultra slim DVD player with MP3 and JPEG viewing support. I will start off with the usual specs.

 Basic Info:

• Power Requirements: 120V AC ~ 60Hz

• Power Consumption: 10W

• Weight: 4.0lbs

• Dimensions: 16.9”(W)x8.1”(D)x1.7”(H)

Video Output:

• Composite: 1.0 Vp-p (75ohm load)

• Component: Y: 1.0 Vp-p (75ohm load)

• Pr: 0.70 Vp-p (75ohm load)

• Pb: 0.70 Vp-p (75ohm load)

• S-Video: Luminance Signal: 1.0 Vp-p (75ohm load)

• Chrominance Signal: 0.286 Vp-p (75ohm load)

 Audio Output:

• 2 Channel(L/R): 48kHz Sampling, 96kHz Sampling

• S/N Ratio: 110dB

• Dynamic Range: 100dB

• Total Harmonic Distortion: 0.004%

 Features:

• 480P Progressive Scan Output

• 3:2 Pulldown

• EZ View

• Picture CD and JPEG support

• CD-R/RW support with MP3 Playback

The DVD-P241 is super slim and measures up at 16.9”(W)x8.1”(D)x1.7”(H). At only 1.7 inches high, it has to be THE slimmest DVD player I have ever handled. It features 480P (Progressive Scan) output. 480P means that there are 480 lines of resolution displayed on the screen, and Progressive Scan denotes that each line of resolution is displayed in a row in each frame of the picture, at a rate of 60Hz, or 60 times per second. On the flip side, Interlaced means that every even line of resolution is displayed and then the odd at a rate of 60Hz, resulting in more of a visible flicker than you would get with Progressive Scan.

 The DVD-P241 also supports 3:2 pulldown for your viewing pleasure. What is it, you may ask? Well, without getting too down and dirty, the first thing you have to know is that film is recorded at 24FPS (frames per second) and video is recorded at 30FPS. Huh? Confused yet? You can’t just create ‘filler’ to take up the extra frames without being able to see it, right? Actually, because our eyes can be fooled so easily, you can. 3:2 pulldown is the stretching of film frames by doubling up on a few of them. What I mean is, if you have four frames of film: (1)(2)(3)(4), you can stretch them by displaying more than one frame per frame like so: (1,1)(2,2)(2,3)(3,4)(4,4). See? By displaying two frames at once, we now have created five frames out of four, and although frames 3 and 4 are actually displaying two DIFFERENT frames, our eyes can rarely tell. If I have confused the smeg out of you, my work here is done.

 Samsung has also included what they have dubbed “EZ View”, which is essentially a quick way to manipulate the aspect ratio to fill the entire screen. It is accessible through the EZ View button on your remote. Before I explain how it works, you have to make sure to set up the correct aspect ratio for your television in the initial setup menu beforehand (more on that later).

If you have a 16:9 TV and you are playing a 16:9 DVD, then the available options for EZ View are:        

 If you have a 16:9 TV and you are displaying 4:3 DVD, then the available options are as follows: