Samsung DVD-HD870 - TechRadar UK

In the DVD player world, there appears to be a competition among the major manufacturers to see who can cram the most into a deck and charge the least amount of money. The Samsung DVD-HD870 won't upscale your DVD collection to 1080p, true, but there's enough on offer for you to part with £70.

Firstly, you'd be forgiven for thinking that we were pulling your leg about this deck's budget status: on appearance alone, the DVD-HD870 shines, and its black finish and fascia have more in common with Samsung's Blu-ray player.

Connectivity is in rude enough health for a £70 deck. Top dog is the HDMI output that's capable of feeding 720p and 1080i pictures to a suitably specified flatscreen, but no 1080p action, however. Other connections of note include Scart output (RGB capable), component video output and S-video, plus optical and electrical digital audio jacks.

Apart from its (limited) upscaling prowess, features are a little thin on the ground, but that is to be expected for a DVD player as slenderly priced as this. There's no memory card slot, SACD or DVD-Audio playback facilities (although it will play MP3s, WMA and JPEG files), but it does have one neat tweaking touch up its sleeve.

The DVD-HD870 allows you to manually adjust various components of the picture, like black levels, contrast and brightness, to your heart's content. This is also easily done, like most aspects of this deck's operation: the basic remote control is a cinch to use and the menus are clearly and simply laid out.

Considering the price, the DVD-HD870 puts in an admirable picture performance. Setting our test DVD of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in motion, we were pleasantly surprised with what this deck serves up.

Black levels impress, with the blackness of space looking more convincing than we were expecting, with plenty of shadow detailing. Bright and colourful scenes, such as interior shots of the Heart of Gold spaceship, are vivid without being gaudy, and skin tones are also dealt with well.

Moment of clarity

Once you upscale to 720p or 1080i, you're not getting the seismic shift in picture quality that a good 1080p upscaler will offer you, but you'll notice slight improvement in the clarity of picture detail that makes it worth the admission fee. Upscaled pictures are also free from distracting noise and grain.

The DVD-HD870's pictures are backed up by an acceptable audio performance, with retention of sonic detail being its strongest point, making this a good budget deck - provided that you've no 1080p aspirations, that is.