I haven't noticed the issue you mention re: brighter in the corners'. Sounds dodgy to me. Mine certainly doesn't do this - and I am picky enough about things like that to have noticed if it did.

About the DVD playback - first check contrast settings etc as the ones with the samsung as standard are naff (ather posts here cover this and suggested settings). Also bear in mind that you aren't going to get very good DVD playback quality with XBox, PS2 and XBox360 etc as they are not dedicated DVD machines. I used to use my XBox to watch DVD's but the ?40 Toshiba 330e (look on amazon - they have the newer 350 on there for about ?60) I got was miles better. I am not just saying that - the Toshiba was much better and it was very noticable. I'll give you an example:

(I'll use examples I noticed from watching Blue Planet)

1) There's a scene where you see a whale from underneath. The sea goes from dark blue bottom right to light blue top left with the whale in the middle of the picture.
On my XBox (and also my brother in laws ?350 (but older technology) Sony DVD player):
The blue doesn't fade from dark to light but is 'banded' into about 10 different shades of blue which move around as the camera pans from right to left. It looks bad.
The underside of the whale is just dark - no detail can be seen.

Via my Toshiba 330e
Colour gently fades without noticable 'stepping' and detail on underside of whale can be seen. Looks great!

2) There's a scene where you see a polar bear walking over snow viewed from above as snow is blown past it at speed.
On my XBox:
The snow blowing accross is just a mess of slightly coloured pixilation.

Via my Toshiba 330e
Looks like snow!

Also - I noticed XBox doesnt hold blacks if a bright area suddenly appears on screen - what was black goes to dark grey. This doesn't happen on the toshiba.

Basically - Dedicated DVD players are alot better than consoles etc for DVD playback.
I'd recommend the Toshibe 350e as it's an award winning DVD player and is very cheap for the price (and they have nice menu system, remote etc). Also has HDMI, componant outputs etc.

Anyway - hope that helps! I'd deffo try checking out LE32R41 in the shops to see if it looks 'bright in the corners' like yours then get yours replaced if need be.
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I've got a dvd player with component out. The picture via scart was dire but i cannot keep swapping component over from xbox360 to dvd player. (though yet to try dvd player via component). so would need 350e for example but no point getting one now when HD-DVD etc on horizon would merely be a waste?