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First thing to point out about the VCR is that it supports S-VHS Recording & Playback. The difference between the regular VCR & one which supports S-VHS lies in the detail of resolution the player can playback & record on a videocassette. The older VCRs which do not support S-VHS only playback & record 250 lines of resolution whereas the newer ones support 400 lines of resolution.. it really makes a big difference in picture quality!

Another great feature that people wouldn’t normally think about using on the machine is the fact that you can audio dub a pre-recorded videocassette from CD, DVD, or another external source such as a microphone, or a stereo system – tape deck. Only restriction on this feature is the lack of the ability to record in stereo; we are restricted to mono L. Well.. almost perfect for your home movies!

Other things to note are the great searching tools Samsung provides you when using the VCR. There are three different search tools you can make use of. The first involves making Index Marks (like bookmarks in DVD play) – you can search for these points that you have marked previously while watching a VHS tape and fast forward or rewind to this point using the Index Mark scan. The second search technique is the blank search. I find this one to be very useful for those who are looking for a tape to record a show on TV- this search will fast forward a tape to the point where there is available space on a videocassette. The last one is the Direct Time Search. This is a simple punch in the time - tape location (hours & minutes) and the VCR will find this exact point in time on the tape.

MP3 Playback Impressions

Before receiving the unit, I was pleased to hear that the machine had an onboard MP3 decoder to read and playback MP3 encoded CDs. Because I use MP3 CDs very often, as I use them in my car (CDC-MP3 Player) I was excited to test one of my discs out on the V1000. I believe this was a very smart move by Samsung to include this feature due to the fact that an increasing number of people are using MP3 CDs on their portable CD players, MP3 car decks, and now in portable boom boxes. After inserting my MP3 CD into the tray, the directory menu (listing all of the directories I had burned to the CD on my computer) showed up in white text with a black background. I found the menu system to be quite limited.. When using the directional buttons on the remote to navigate the directories, I found that you cannot read the ID3 tags encoded on the MP3. When selecting a certain directory, this will list all the songs in that directory in numerical order, but will not display the entire title of the song (shows 4-8 characters of the title depending on the way the ID3 tag was programmed) as it does with the Initial Directory Menu. I think a great feature that Samsung could implement in the future might be to display the ID3 tags both on the On-Screen Display as well as on the display on the unit itself. This way if you are going to simply play CDs in order with speakers/sound system attached directly to the unit, one can still see the track you are listening to. With the way it is setup, you cannot see what track you are listening to unless you use the OSD on the TV. I believe this is a waste of electricity to have the TV on when you are only listening to music. Even though limited, I am glad Samsung decided to include this feature. This is a good alternative to using your computer to play MP3s in the house. If you hook up your stereo to the machine you can have the functionality of an MP3 player on your stereo. This definitely beats using AM/FM Modulated transmitter devices (these port MP3s playing on your computer to your stereo) currently hitting the market since home stereo systems do not have onboard MP3 decoders.. Yet..

Final Thoughts

All in all, Samsung introduces a device that combines so many features into one unit. The player succeeds in incorporating all of these into one common sized DVD player. The player is a great product but needs to be optimized in a few areas.. one of which is the lack of functionality of the MP3 player that most people who use programs such as Winamp or Sonique are used to using to play them on their computers. With a few tweaks to the design, this could be one powerful all in one player. Although I have my quibbles about the MP3 portion (due to high expectations), the average user who does not use this feature can be very happy with this machine.

Overall Score: 88%

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