After doing a couple of portable DVD players, with the screen and all, it’s time to get back to the good old rack mount DVD player, to plug into our screens and enjoy. We have the ‘slick and sexy’ Samsung Pebble F1080 DVD player, something they released last year as a complete series of ‘Pebble’ Designs. It's modern, it looks good, and is just crying out for a review...
Form Factor
Samsung really goes all the way when it comes to aesthetic innovation, and this unit is no exception. It is definitely a looker, with an unconventional shape, comprising fluid curved edges and surfaces vaguely resembling a square on top view. It is not sleek - in fact it has considerable thickness or depth. The top surface is wiped clean in gloss black piano finish, with a single Samsung logo printed in the center.
The sides and bottom panel are matte finished in black, with a silver metallic strip that rims the tray on the front panel edge. Seamlessness is the key here, the top panel buttons are touch sensitive, flush mounted into the surface very well, though not entirely flat. The symbols of ‘stop’, ‘play’ etc are contoured out a bit, so in the dark we can navigate or feel with our fingers. Of course there is a remote, a simple black piece well laid out with the necessary buttons.
The aesthetics are no doubt awesome, but I cannot say too much about the build quality. The tray looks flimsy, and I doubt if it will last for more than a year. Still, if handled with care we can get by, I presume. The weight is light, no real heavy electronics inside this stone, but this is a good thing for portability.
Features and specs
We have the main video chip doing 14 bit, 108 MHz, while the audio DAC does 24 Bit, 192 kHz. Now there are a few connectivity issues I would like to complain about. I understand having a fancy design, though not at the cost of important connections.
There is an HDMI out, that's not an issue, but smaller things like a USB input for flash drives is not there, and that I feel cuts out a lot of choices, especially if MP3s, WMAs and DivX etc is openly supported by the player. There is no optical out, but there is a coaxial for Digital audio.
There is no discrete 5.1 analog audio out, that I feel it should be there The player does not decode surround sound and send output - we only have the choice of coaxial audio out. Not a real problem, just things are limited here. There is a component output also besides HDMI. It upscales to 1080p, that’s nice, though again here it does not decode DTS audio tracks.
Performance
We used DVE test Disc and our home brewed Test DVD for the test patterns and montages, and watched I am Legend and Ratatouille. The first thing I came across that I didn't like was the remote only responds from straight up ahead, and this is on full battery. The menu is very well arranged and legible, though navigation is a tad slow. Once these quirks are set aside, forgiven, swept under the carpet, the unit actually impresses quite a bit with its performance.
The video was crisp, and dynamic range did not clip at the extremes, meaning we got all levels of low blacks and brightest whites. This we found out on our 256 level Grayscale pattern. The various color plugs also were quite accurate, with colors staying in borders and detail coming through.
There was no framing, skipping or delay in playback etc. Mostly we had a smooth function. But, the player was not flawless. Nor was it insanely high fidelity like more expensive models, but there was a crisp and clean image that satisfies. This was on a 720p image (HD ready) On a Full HD TV. The player really does not do such an awesome job for 1080p upscaling - there are artifacts here and there. The claimed formats of MP3, WMA DivX etc, all play except of course unclaimed ones like WMV, ASF.
Conclusion
At Rs. 5900 it is a bit pricey considering the lack of USB, no 5.1 decoded output, no DTS. The design is no doubt very good, and will suffice for someone who really cares about the looks of his gadgets. Performance is good for HD ready screens, and basic DivX and DVD playback is good. Full HD upscaling is not the best there is.
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