Panasonic DVD-RV31, How good is it? worth it? (1 Viewer)

[Barton Lynch]

The title says it all. Just want to know if it is reliable. Sound quality does not matter 'cause it will be routed to the receiver via optical cable. And except for progresive scan models, almost all DVD player produce very good to excellent interlaced video through S-Video and component. I just want to know how it fells and performs. Any glitches? I want to avoid new Sonys, heard that they are not very well built. And I already own a Pioneer (DV-505 3 years) and a Yamaha (DVD-796 1 year), so I don't want to repeat brands due to identical remote codes, you know, I dont want any conficts. Anyone with this model? It sure looks pretty good. Thanks in advance.

 

[Wes]

I loved the looks of the Panasonic RV31, it just has that well designed classy look. I had it for about 2 weeks and returned it. It had a bad vibration during the menus that was not exceptable, It also had diagonal lines on the screen(using only the Composite out puts) and I hated the small menu display. I have an old DVDA300 which I love so I wanted to love this RV but was not the case. I traded it for a Toshiba 2700 that I am very happy with and saved $10. over the RV31.

Wes

 

[Barton Lynch]

Anyone else? please.

 

[nousername]

I have one and love it! It's a great performer, and I haven't experienced a glitch yet. All 76 of my DVD titles (some are mluti-disc sets) have played flawlessly on it. This includes both dual-layered and double-sided DVDs.

The only complaint I have is the remote. You have to press harder than on most remotes in order to get a response. But if you plan on getting a universal remote, this point becomes moot.

Hope this helps!

 

[Barton Lynch]

Anything like Wes's experience?

 

[Steve Gazi]

I have one and it works perfectly.

 

[Nick G]

I have had one for 6 months now, no troubles, very satisfied.

 

[McPaul]

No problems here. Had it for a few months, replaced an old Pioneer that had disk spin noize like fingernails on a chalkboard (that annoying). The Panny works great.

 

[Ed_Y]

I've had it for about 6 months & it's great. I haven't had any problems playing any discs (including rental discs). THe one advantage the Toshiba models have is the Zoom feature - if it is any use to you. You may also want to consider the progressive scan capable players which only cost about $20-$30 more.

 

[Jeremy Anderson]

I've had one for a few months now, and I'm loving it. There is some transport noise when changing from menu to menu sometimes, but it's nice and quiet when playing a movie (even with seamless branching titles). Add to that a pretty quick layer change and onboard picture adjustments, and you get a pretty damned solid performer. Plus, the MP3 support is a nice bonus (which I've used far more than I thought I would).

 

[WilliamZ]

I love my Panasonic RV31. Picture and sound output is great. Also the MP3 playback is very usefull, if you were a former Napster addict like me.

 

[KevinCK]

Can one of you tell me what the RV31's MP3 playback features are?

From what i've read i get the impression that the extent of the features is choosing a song and hitting play. And it only shows 8 characters of the name. From that point it will play sequentially. No random play. No playslists. Etc. Is this correct? Maybe it's just me but playing an MP3 disk of 120ish songs in alphabetical order seems kinda silly.

Some more questions to go along with this one:

Do the CD's have to be formatted specially? Are subdirectories allowed? Does the disk need a special label? etc?

Finally, is there an equivalent DVD player in price/performance to the RV31 that also has either a random play or playlist feature for it's mp3 playback? Players that i am aware of (but unsure of price and total features).

Hitachi DVP415U

Pioneer DV440

Toshiba 2710

Any help appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Barton Lynch]

Anyone else?

 

[Jeremy Anderson]

Kevin, the MP3 features are kind of an afterthought on the RV31. There's NO title display (not even 8 characters). When you put in a disc, it counts the number of songs and shows you 1/120 (or however). Basically, it treats them like tracks on a regular audio cd.

To answer your other questions:

1) The CD's have to be single session, but other than that, no special formatting is required. If it's a multi-session disc (i.e. if you've added to the disc several times), the RV31 will only play what's on the first session. This is no big deal if, like me, you burn whole discs at once.

2) Subdirectories are allowed. I archive my MP3's by directories using the band and album name. This works really well on the RV31, since it will play each directory alphabetically. If you use track numbers at the beginning of your MP3 filenames, the RV31 will play the album in order. This is great for discs with albums, but not so great for compilations (since the RV31 has no RANDOM PLAY feature).

3) No, the disc needs no special label.

This is NOT the player to get specifically for MP3 usage. This is, however, one of the better budget players out there, with a sharp picture, onboard picture adjustments, and no chroma bug. As I said before, MP3 compatibility is merely a nice bonus on an otherwise kick-ass player.

 

[DanN]

I have the RV-31 and was wondering if it has a sharper picture than most other players.

I've noticed that on most of my dvds, I can see a lot of edge enhancement and "jagged" edges - even though I've turned down the sharpness and contrast, it's still apparent.

My question is whether this is due to the nature of the dvd player or does it have to do with the velocity scanning on my Tau? i never noticed this before with my old Pioneer dvd player

 

[Brett DiMichele]

I do not own the RV31 but I do own the CV51 (5 Disk Carousel)

And I can say it does sound better. The Panasonic uses a

dual laser transport where some of the competition in this

price range use one laser. The drawback of one laser is that

to be able to penetrate dual layer DVD's the Laser is more

powerful and that translates into harsh reproduction of CD

Audio (I experianced this with my previous Sony DVP S-360)

The CD Laser in the Panasonic sounds very good with music.

I am certain there are much better dedicated CD Players in

the same price range, but for one player that supports so

many media formats it's hard to beat IMHO.

 

[Brian Mansure]

If you're looking for a solid DVD player with good MP3 playback, you should consider the Pioneer DV-440.
Not only will it play MP3s, but it has an on screen display of a true folder tree and files on the Mp3 disk.
You get the first 7 characters of folder and file names, kbps the MP3 was encoded at, random play, and playlist capabilities.
Take a look at: www.audioreview.com/reviews/DVD/
and read the reviews on both the Panasonic players and Pioneer players, I don't think you'll go wrong with either.

 

[KeithH]

Barton, Panasonic recently released the DVD-RA60 in the US, which is much like the 'RV31, but adds DVD-Audio. The 'RA60 sells for $230 USD, which is only about $50 USD more than the 'RV31. You might want to consider the 'RA60 if it is available in Venezuela. By the way, the 'RA60 is an interlaced player.

 

[Chris PC]

I have a CV51, the 5 disc carousel version of the Rv31. I like mine. Good DVD performance and very good audio performance.

 

[Marc H]

I would not hesitate to highly recommend it. Good solid machine with good performance for it's price.
From a retailer's point of view, they are nice too in that they don't boomerang back to the shop with a screamimg client attached to them I Like that.