Samsung DVD-SH855M review

Samsung claims that the 250GB hard drive is enough to record 264 hours of TV. We suggest taking an entire bag's worth of ready salted crisps with that figure. The machine allows you to adjust the settings, and reduce the quality of recorded programmes so you can store more on the machine. Most people won't want to do this -- the quality of Freeview is bad enough already without compressing it more.

Still, no matter what the Samsung can hold on its hard drive, it pales in comparison when you consider that you can move your shows onto DVD. If there's a programme you really like or something you haven't yet found time to watch, you can simply archive it off to DVD and keep it for a rainy day.

Performance
The picture quality on the Samsung was certainly pleasing to the eye. Having HDMI and component outputs really helps get the most out of DVD and Freeview pictures. While you can't magically transform something from nothing, the removal of the analogue stage is always welcome, as it keeps everything as close to the digital signal as possible.

Although we appreciated the picture quality, we have a few qualms about how the machine operates. This player seems to go against the usual set Samsung standard and there are places where the English is pretty bad or just ambiguous. It's also sluggish to respond to remote commands, which is a burden when you're scrolling through the EPG.

Indeed, the EPG is another part of this machine that didn't tickle us. We've used a fair few of these devices and generally, they all managed to come up with the goods when it comes to pre-planning what you want to record. Unfortunately, the Samsung stubbornly makes up its mind not to be as responsive in the menu and you have to watch the channel you have selected in the guide. We were flustered by this operation, bothered that we couldn't listen to the news on BBC One while planning what we wanted to record on other channels.

There are a couple of other nits to pick, too. For example, when you change channels on the TV, as long as the 'now' and 'next' banner is on-screen, you can't use the numbers on the remote to change channel. You can only use the + and - buttons to advance through the channels. It's a small bug, but it's something that's counterintuitive and irritating.

Conclusion
We were all ready to sit back, relax and watch a few archived shows with the Samsung DVD-SH855M. But it has us scratching our heads instead.

It certainly wasn't the £220 price tag for this DVD player, Freeview receiver and recorder that furrowed our brows. It wasn't the ability to burn DVDs either. We're genuine in our appreciation of the picture quality and think the idea of replacing two set-top boxes with one sleek unit is very appealing. But despite the excellent price and exciting specification, the problem is that this machine is just a pain to use.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday