I've experienced the snow problem and have tried several methods.
Head cleaning: Not solved.
Reset: Not solved.
Unplugged the Samsung VCR for 12 hours: YES! The snow has completely disappeared!
Thanks to the tip by J.L. Alberti.

Follow up:
The same snow problem occured after multiple tests.
Unplugged the cord for a minute and the picture returned to normal.
Heating was not related with the problem. Digital noise on the conversion process might cause the snow and it could remains in the VCR.
So whenever you see the snow, unplug the cord and let it sit for about 30 seconds to a minute and try again.

Bear with me I have the snow solution (AND AN UPDATE) at the end but, I need to vent my frustration. Ok, I read some glowing reviews about this VCR and really had little choice as most multisystems are PAL based to play NTSC, not the other way around, and need an outside converter or multisytem TV that converts to work. Samsung's site praises the video heads as life long and needing no cleaning. I don't live in a region that would have any of these for sale so it was online for me. Wow, this thing was expensive! However, I found a demonstrator model on ebay for half retail and grabbed it. The first few months were fine, although the PAL conversion to NTSC was understandably sub-quality (NTSC uses more scans per inch than PAL), but softening the picture helped. Then the snow began to fall. ALL of you have heard of this and believe me I was floored when it happened. It looked like a tracking problem so I manually adjusted, no luck. Maybe the heads so I cleaned them, ditto. Then I went to Samsung's site and quess what I found? That's right, this problem in their FAQ section! Lo and behold the answer. Play a pristine blank tape for an hour to clean the heads (?!). If that didn't work, get a commerical "WET" head cleaner and wait about ten minutes after cleaning to play another tape. Well, I went to the store and picked up both. Played the tape, aargh! Used the head, Yaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Samsung just made me spend $15 bucks for nothing. Their no-need-to-clean-heads VCR had dirty heads. I have a twenty year old RCA that played better and I never clean the heads on it.

Then I read the second page of reviews here on Amazon. Oh brother, were there a ton of complaints about this problem. I did notice that when I rewound a tape and played it the snow cleared up. But after a while it returned and I fast forwarded numerous tapes just to play them. I had hoped to retire my RCA, but there seemed little hope. Out of options I decided to call Samsung's support. Mind you, I read horror stories about getting complacent CSR's and getting the runaround so I prepared myself. I got the friendlist woman who really listened to my problem gave me the advise that the site already did and when informed those methods didn't work, gave me a case # and transfered me to the tech division. After 10 minutes of music I was cut off. Huh! Called back to second helpfull CSR, transfered and hung up on again. RRRRR! Called back third time and asked not to be transfered. Well this guy somehow accessed a tech page and told me to eject the tape, hold down the "Play" and "Stop" button at the same time for 10 seconds and turn the VCR off for 10 seconds. Turn back on and play tape. What does that do? It is a reset to factory standards that doesn't make you have to go through the user set-up again (you know that little reset button under the "record" button you should NEVER push). Nope! Well call back tomorrow and give case # to be transfered to tech help again. Right!

Pushed the play button for the heck of it and zoinks, a perfect picture. I really worked! Put in another tape. Yeah! Put in third, Uh Oh. Tried reset again and found I had to do it a few times but it does work. I won't be using this as my main player, just for imports and a few tapes that have surround (the RCA is mono).

I know this isn't the greatest climax to the story, but give it a try. It may take a few times but it will happen. One thing I did notice is that this thing gets as hot as the sun and takes a couple of hours to cool down. This may be a big part of the problem and though I've not tried it a fan blowing in the vent couldn't hurt. I really hope this helps everyone with this problem because this machine can play like a champ when coaxed.

UPDATE:
I recently moved and left this player unplugged for a couple of days. When I put together my system, Voila! No problems. Since then I've had absolutely no snow whatsoever. Hmmm? Could it be this unit needs a break every once and a while? My new place is a lot cooler too so I still believe that has something to do with the problem and not the heads because it only appears during playback and not recording. Yes I have actually recorded with it. Although I bought it as a player, it does a damn fine job recording.

One other thing, I highly recommend getting a video enhancer, such as Sima. This player does not like the older Macrovision tapes and the picture fuctuates between over and undersaturation. Not great for viewing older rentals.

That's about it. There isn't any other problem to be had, so enjoy your movies.

We have owned this vcr for almost 2 years now, and it is our "main" vcr, used for playing Pal(from Europe) and regular Ntsc tapes. We found that the receiver provides such sharp and vivid image, we use it as a receiver for the regular TV program as well (It looks way better than the built-in receiver in the Sanyo TV set). So it gets a lot of use and we never had any reliability problems. You may want to leave sufficient space around it for cooling, as it does generate a bit of heat. Some people may accelerate its demise by stacking dvd players, etc. on it. That is not a good idea.

People who remark on the quick wearout of the video heads probably use "head cleaning" products regularly. Such products are mostly scam, and at the least typically unneeded. The only "benefit" of their routine use is the ruination of the video heads. I have not had to clean the video heads yet on this machine, nor did I ever have to do so on the 2 other vcr's I own, and all have perfect picture quality after years and years of use.

The vcr does display whether you are rewinding or playing a tape, and there is a counter that shows elapsed time. In fact the built in display is rather informative.

The conversion quality from Pal to Ntsc is quite good, but one should not expect dvd quality from this technology. The unit does have some shortcomings: the input system setting can be difficult to adjust, the vcr itself is somewhat noisy (high pitched motor noise), and the manual is not all that helpful. Taken these factors into consideration, it still deserves a 4 star

I was very impressed with this tape converter. It truly is a world tape converter. Easy to set up, and easy to play. There is very little that the manual does not cover. I basically just wanted a tape player, and then maybe a device, that would allow me to put PAL tapes to DVD.
I think that what most people fail to take into account , is that this machine treats tapes the same way the players of the country of origin treat the tape ... basically, bad tape, bad playback.
The only converter I have seen that does better is a DVD converter.
The only way to get a better playback is to get a VHS player of the tape used by the original tape, and then use a Rack mount converter that are used in large studies ( priced from 2,000 to 7,000).
This item does great for what it is, and what it is priced.
Highly recommended.

I noted with interest that of 34 reviews of this product as of 19 Sep 04, 15 were negative, 12 were positive, and 6 were neutral or just providing information. I wish I had read them before making my purchase. I have had this product for less than 3 months, and am fairly content with the video conversion features and quality. That's about what I expected. I am, after a day of serious experimenting, quite disappointed in the quality of the hifi stereo recording. In an A/B listening comparison, recording an old laser disc music video to the same tape with both the Samsung and an alternate machine, the Samsung stereo soundtrack is decidely noisy....pops, crackles, rice krispies. Some results are so bad you just have to switch to mono audio to make it listenable. However, it is a complicated machine, so I am hoping that there is just a bit of "operator error" here, and I've got a peculiar audio setting not quite right. For example, if you are getting no sound at all, or no dialogue at all in a recording, make sure your source isn't a DTS/Dolby Digital machine that is routing just the left/right channels in surround mode. You may have to go to stereo mode to get the sound "mixed". Operator errors aside, I still have a firm example that, using the same audito source, on the same audio tape, on another hifi stereo machine...that result was flawless. Don't buy this machine if you are into opera, music videos, or FM simulcast.