Samsung DVD-P182R DVD Player

The DVD market is far from over, because at the end of the day, big brands like Samsung and the other far east electronics giants will reflect so in their product releases. India still needs a good cheap DVD player, and thus it is our job to see which one can fit the bill. Today we are reviewing a DVD player cum FM radio by Samsung, called DVD-P182R, already quite famous in the online and discount stores.

Design and features
This one is a true no frills budget model, but the aesthetics are not tacky at all. The finish is black all over, with a mildly lustrous finish. The front panel is curved and well contoured, with bare necessities on the fascia. There is a black tray with a lone power on button to its left with illuminations provided by a tiny LED. This glows red on standby, and adds to the subtle good looks. The right side has a small alphanumeric green LED screen, shaped flat rectangular with circular corners. Again, in this extremity too, there are only two slightly squarish push buttons. One is for eject and stop while the other is for play and pause. Of course there is a remote with all the necessary controls, but no batteries included.

The connections are also scarce, so this will be one of those days that brings back nostalgia as after months we would be not checking HDMI, as this model doesn't have it. It has good old component video out, and regular composite. There is a digital audio out in the form of co axial out, and also 5.1 analog audio out, thus the DVD player at least does some work on its own of decoding.

It plays DivX and MP3 CDs, catering to most customers' needs. The unit might come locked in region 5, thus adventurous users can unlock the code. (http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks/samsung-dvd-p182r/9346). One can also call the retailers up, because more often than not, they are helpful in DVD region matters. Besides this, it plays all the regular media like DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, CD, CD-R, CD-RW. Playback formats are listed as follows: MP3, WMA, VCD, SVCD, JPEG, MPEG-4 and DivX. There is no USB input and also no upscaling, guess we will have to stick to our TV to do the enlarging. It does have progressive video output though. Thank God.