Had my Samsung DVD-709 DVD player for years now and it's still going strong.

For the price I paid in 2000 for the Samsung DVD 709 , £279 ($380 U.S)I got a piece of bad equipment, apart from the de-macrovision. Even playing original movies it hicks/sticks whirs and clicks.

Compared to the Pacific model I bought in late 2002 (£60 Asda UK), I feel I have been completely ripped of by samsung.

This is my first dvd player and a good start ive made, i made it multi-region with the remote hack and also turned the macrovision off so i could video the films for the kids, it's a shame it cant play copied discs but overall i'm very pleased with this player.....

The Samsung 709 DVD player is a superb machine for the money and comes highly recommended from most top audio/video mags.

I,m not happy with this Samsung 709 dvd player-see the bad points. I WOULD NEVER BUY ANY MORE SAMSUNG PRODUCTS.

Well, I bought this Samsung 709 DVD player because sometimes I borrow some region 1 dvds. Now I can't anymore. So I wasted £50 on something I can't use.

The Samsung 709 is a good DVD player with a feature list normally only found on much more expensive equiptment. A great bonus is that the player is easily made region free with a remote control hack. Picture quality is only average however, with very obvious grain in dark scenes and pronounced 'light rings' in high contrast scenes (even with a correctly adjusted TV).
The disc can easily be heard spinning during quiet moments in movies but this is not too obtrusive. Layer changes can be slow and are always apparent but this also is not too obtrusive.
The menu system is very easy to navigate and the remote control supplied is extremely intuitive to use.
Overall this is a good player and I would recommend it but not if you are looking for that ultimate picture clarity.

Especially for students, i think the samsung 709 DVD player is the best deal ever.

The samsung 709 DVD player was my first player and I have to say possible best. It performed better than some of its higher end non budget rival DVD players, by being able to play films like Matrix,T2,Mi2 without any flaws and once hacked Ihad no problems with my region ones.
I think for money and quality it's an all round winner. The only thing that could probably beat it would be one of the newer samsung DVD players with cd-r and mp3 support.

I found the Samsung 709 a good cheap DVD player. I don't think much more can really be expected for the £225 I paid which was for a ready modified version. This player is now available for £150 if you don't mind shopping around which is an absolute steal. Some early problems encountered with the matrix but firmware changes soon got rid of this. Won't play plunkett and maccleane (region2) all the way through though. Any ideas would be appreciated.

This is a great budget DVD player but not the best. there are other DVD players which are equally cheap and are multi region.
I haven't tried other DVD players but I assume they offer similar quality.