Samsung Extiva DVD-N2000

The first NUON enhanced DVD player goes to the test to show us how much difference it makes

One the back, the player reveals an array of connections, silver-plated only, but installed in a very robust fashion. Apart from optical and coaxial digital audio outputs for Dolby Digital and DTS audio streams, the player offers two standard analog audio outputs. The player also has a built-in Dolby Digital decoder and you will find individual line-level outputs for the 5.1 channels on the back as well.

Since NUON is designed to enhance the usability of DVD players, among many other things, the DVD-N2000 offers two layers of user interface. The first one is the familiar user interface that is hard-coded with the DVD titles you insert. It takes you through the disc’s menu structure to select various elements and set-ups. However, the DVD-N2000 also offers another interface structure that gives you access to the key features of a DVD player on a single screen. From this particular screen you can directly and quickly access a disc’s various language and subtitle tracks, you can directly navigate to titles and chapters, access repeat functions, angles and bookmarks.

Bookmarks are a feature that allow users to bookmark certain points of a movie and quickly jump to them at a later point. This

The player also offers a number of features that you won’t find on regular DVD players, because they require some additional processing power, which is supplied by the NUON chip. There is a “Screen Fit” function for example, which allows you to fit a widescreen movie to a full screen. Since it completely distorts the image proportions, this features is more of a poor gimmick than a valid feature and it makes me fear that people may actually use this feature to fill their screen, no matter what the consequences are. Another feature is “Strobe,” which allows you to take a series of thumbnail snapshots from a running movie. These strobed snapshots are neatly arranged on the screen and are frequently updated. Nice feature, but I truly had to ask myself, what for? In the same category we have the Snapshot mode of the player. It is a freeze frame function, which allows you to adjust an image’s gamma, colors, contrast and brightness. Since you can’t save the picture anywhere and you can’t really do anything with the manipulated image, once again, I was wondering what this function was good for. Altogether I couldn’t shake the feeling that these gimmicks were implemented simply because it was technically possible and not because there is a specific reason for having them.

The NUON processing power was also brought in to create smooth forward and backward playback of DVD movies and it was here were the first big disappointment surfaced. While the slow motion playback works adequately, although not very smoothly, in forward playing motion, in backward mode, the result is jerky at best and in many instances even freezes the screen. Unfortunately the player also has a very sluggish response to user interaction, which made playback navigation a very unpleasant experience across the board. It can take up to a half second for the player to respond to user input through the remote control, which quickly turns into frustration if you keep pressing the buttons over again while waiting for the player to catch up with your input.

The image quality of the Samsung DVD-N2000 is fairly good although I was expecting a little more from a $399 player. The image is detailed and clean without distortion of any sorts, but in some instances it appeared overly sharp. Especially in instances where the image content relied on very subtle shades, or where shadow definition was key, I found the DVD-N2000 to create an image that slightly exaggerated the definition and edges, making them more visible. While this creates a sharper look at first look, at the same time it also pronounces actual compression artifacts and slight black-level imbalances on DVD releases that are unnoticeable on other DVD players. Other than that the DVD-N2000 produces a good image with vibrant colors, and especially in the component mode, the color separation is noticeably better than in the other video modes. I was surprised that the player was choking on a number of layer changes however, especially when skipping over them backwards. But even in regular playback, pauses were clearly noticeable during layer changes. One should think that DVD player manufactures who include this high level of technology in their players would at least make sure the buffer RAM is large enough to accommodate seamless layer changes, but sadly it seems we will have to wait for yet another player generation or two to fix one of DVD’s most basic - and prominent - glitches.

So what benefit does the NUON player offer over a regular DVD player? For one, it can play games. The DVD-N2000 comes with one of them as well as a demo disc that showcases, what else there is to expect from future NUON software releases. The game included is a NUON version of the Infogrames game “Ballistic.” The player comes with a joypad that is used to play those games and plugs in right at the front of the player. Upon insertion of such a game disc, the player suddenly shows a new face. Instead of seeing a DVD menu or anything like it, the software now takes full control of the player and presents itself like a gaming console. With good graphics and sound capabilities, the NUON makes a good impression, and especially for casual gamers,

The Samsung DVD-N2000 is a good DVD player, although not the hot rod I had hoped it would be. While the technical features and capabilities are excellent, I found the sluggishness of the system very distracting.
The remote control is filled with buttons that will do the same - there are at least four ways to change a DVD’s subtitles - and the inclusion of the many show-off features leave an impression in my mouth, that some more thought needs to put into the design of such a capable DVD player.
The playback keys on the remote control are also too small on hidden among a wealth of other buttons. I found the little joystick the remote control uses for navigation a very nice touch, though, that I got used to very quickly.

The DVD-N2000 is the first NUON enabled DVD player in the market and it still shows room of improvement. The first generation NUON chip is still a little weak on its chest, but NUON told me that the next generation of chips - which will be included in Toshiba’s upcoming NUON player - are much more powerful.

At $399, the Samsung DVD-N2000 is located somewhere in the lower mid of the DVD market, which makes it quite attractive. Once NUON functionality will truly yield a benefit for DVD players - and I am sure they will with some more processing power and more sophisticated player designs - NUON could become a welcome addition to DVD players with its additional set of features.