Panasonic RP82--One Player to Rule Them All! (2 Viewers)

[ManW_TheUncool]

Hmmm... Does anyone know if the new line of Panny's w/ the new chip will offer scaling features for non-anamorphic DVDs?

Thanks.

_Man_

 

[MikeSRC]

There is no new line of Pannys with the FLi2300 chip available yet. They may have something in the works for display at CES. Don't hold your breath waiting for the Samsung either, because it may still be awhile before it hits the streets. When mass-market players with the 2300 chip do hit the street, don't look for scaling abilities to output native resolutions other than 480p or 720p due to DVD Consortium restrictions. However, we should see implementation of the zooming abilities of this chip in newer players.

 

[jeff lam]

So the RP82 will be the player to beat in it's price for quite a while longer?

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Hmmm... Thanks for the info.

Basically, I'm in the same boat as many shoppers. I want a player that can do good scaling (or aspect ratio control, if you prefer) for a 16x9 RPTV. IOW, I want non-16x9 DVDs to be stretched vertically to look like 16x9 DVDs fed into the 16x9 RPTV so the TV doesn't have to do zooming. Also, I'd like 4x3 content to be displayed w/ black bars from their player instead of grey bars from the TV.

FYI, I do have plenty of non-16x9 DVDs, and many of them may never be available in 16x9 editions. So I'm trying to decide whether to wait for a player w/ the fli2300 chip OR buy a Panny RP82/CP72 or Toshiba 3800 or JVC SA75 (from last year). I really don't want to get a player expecting to replace it in a few months although the JVC can be had very cheaply (~$130) and might serve well to hold me over.

_Man_

 

[EdR]

Not sure if this is the right thread, but I recently got an RP82, and have really enjoyed it a lot. But this past weekend we watched "The Man Who Wasn't There" and somewhere in the last half of the movie, the audio slipped out of sync. It was close, maybe 1/2 second off, but it was noticable.

Is this a known problem with the RP82, or just a random occurance? I have watched about 8 movies on it since getting it, none of the others had this problem.

 

[Bryan Guth]

EdR--

That's news to me, and I have read tons of info from consumers who own this unit. Personnally, I have probably watched 3--4 dozen DVDs on the Panny, all without incident. This includes recent films like "Attack of the Clones" to older classics like "Notorious" and "Monty Python's Life of Brian". Perhaps it is the disc?

 

[Hisham_k]

Hi Guys.
Is the RP82 compatible with VCD's. Has Anyone tried it.
Your comments are highly appreciated as I am debating a purchase between the toshiba SD4800 and the Panny RP82.
I know that the toshiba has the chroma bug but it reads VCD's and it has photo viewer(i.e jpeg) which are both nice features to have.

Your comments please.
By the way, a very good day to you all.

 

[harana]

Hi Hisham,

RP82 plays VCD's fine. I had Toshiba SD4800 for a week and returned it because it will choke on many scratched DVDs by freezing or skipping. RP82 is much better. I had it for 2 days and did not have much time to test it complately but it did play my VCD fine and was great in hadling many of my scratched DVDs. Regards,

Haseeb

 

[Andrew_B]

What about layer changes? How quick is this player?

 

[Shane Wooten]

Hmm I think I found a the player that I want..


Quick question though, how does it do on audio CD's?? I'm hoping to find a player that does both really well in this price range.

 

[Dan Joy]

I wonder why this player is only available from online. It's not like Panasonic isn't available through other B&M stores

 

[Aaron H]

I totally agree. I can't understand why no B&M stores carry this player.

Aaron

 

[Brajesh Upadhyay]

I got this player to replace my RP91. The first RP82 unit I got (regionfree/MV-free version) refused to play DVD-RAM & the hi-res tracks on DVD-A discs. Back it went. (Others @ avsforum have reported this problem on some of their units as well.) My second unit arrived last night & everything works perfectly.
By the way, the RP82 is my 12th DVD player since 1997. Yes, I'm nuts , but I got into the DVD game a couple months after the format debuted.
Picture quality: the RP82 is the best DVD player I've ever had. No jaggies & no chroma bug. Film-like & crisp images. The RP91 used to comb fairly often, but the RP82 is rock solid.
Audio quality: sounds as good as the RP91 to my ears. DVD-A playback is excellent (even with the lack of bass management). CD playback is fine, but not as good as the dedicated Sony CD player I used to own.
My display is the Panasonic 53WX42 53" HDTV, ISF calibrated. My audio system is the Onkyo SR600 DD-EX/DTS-ES receiver paired with Acoustic Research HC-6 speaker system (I added an extra AR speaker to make a 6.1 system).
Features & look: The RP82 has everything the RP91 does, except scaling of non-anamorphic & 4x3 DVDs. I definitely miss this feature. (My next DVD player must have a Faroudja chip & scaling.) I like the slim design & light weight.
Got my RP82 from Crutchfield (usual excellent service) for $213 shipped (using a $20 coupon). I have a $20 discount I'll e-mail anyone who wants it. E-mail me.

 

[Aaron Whitaker]

I just got my RP82 Monday from onecall for $206. Wow! I couldn't be happier with the quality of the picture. I upgraded from a cheap Apex player and the improvements are unbeivable. Where the picture meets the letterbox are smooth as silk, no jitter. And the credits are completely void of jitter and artifacts. I'm curious about the CD upsampling it does too and will try it out soon. I'm am curious at how to send the signal out to my receiver, should I send it via the Digital Coax I use for DD and DTS or should I send it via analog?

 

[Brajesh Upadhyay]

...should I send it via the Digital Coax I use for DD and DTS or should I send it via analog?

Both, if you want digital audio (DD/DTS) on DVDs & multichannel audio on DVD-A discs. Coax for the former & analog for the latter. You could do analog for both, but coax should sound better for DD/DTS soundtracks.

 

[MikeSRC]

What about layer changes? How quick is this player?

About average compared to other players I've auditioned. about 0.5 to 1 second depending on the disk. On a few DVDs I've watched, I barely noticed the change.

 

[Bryan Guth]

My experience with layer changes on this player has been darn near close to flawless, even on older discs. If this was my dedicated CD player, I would use a coax and analog outs--but I have a dedicated CD player I like, so haven't done any CD-only auditioning with the RP82. I was able to purchase mine at Video Only, which has stores in Seattle and along the west coast, at least through San Francisco. The price for this marvel: $204. And to think I almost kept the Sony 999! Speaking of that player, it's redbook CD performance was amazing. Too bad the PQ was below my standards.

 

[Peter Loan]

Umm don't you guys have any non 16x9 encoded widescreen discs? Office Space, Armageddon, The Abyss, Vertigo, Monsoon Wedding, Titanic, and Nightmare Before Christmas among others are not anamorphic. What turned me off to the RP82 was it's rudimentary handling of non anamorphic material. Honestly, I didn't notice much of a difference between the RP82 and the "run of the mill" progressive Toshiba, JVC, and Sony players.

 

[CraigF]

Audio quality: sounds as good as the RP91 to my ears. DVD-A playback is excellent (even with the lack of bass management). CD playback is fine, but not as good as the dedicated Sony CD player I used to own.

Brajesh, if you get a chance (continued from AVS), try the 82 with a commercial DVD-A produced to the current 1.1 standard. For interests sake, your firmware version would be good to know.

 

[Aaron H]

I'm interested in testing my RP82. Can you try any DVD-A disk, or does it have to be specific? I mainly bought my RP82 for video quality, but I surely want to make sure the DVD-A portion works, too.

Aaron