Are any dvd players good with MP3's? (1 Viewer)

[Dwight Amato]

I have had my JVC XV-S65 progressive scan dvd player for the last year and a half. I just made my first cd filled with MP3's and I am very disappointed with it. First of all, it only plays the MP3's through the analog outputs. I guess I can live with that if I have to, I mean obviously the quality of the MP3 is not going to equal the original file anyway.

What I really hated was the menu interface. All of my songs were in folders (as I burned it), but I was hoping the player would be able to do some sort of random play, or at least go from one folder to the next. Unfortunately the JVC cannot. The whole reason I want to play MP3s is to burn a DVD with a least several hundred songs and just have the dvd player picks songs randomly.

Is there a brand that handles MP3s more elegantly? I am not looking for a $1k player here, just a good one.

Thanks!

 

[JohnnyG]

I have no trouble with Panasonic players, except last year's RV32 which wouldn't play some downloaded MP3 files properly (it would 'hiccup' during playback). The new changers (F65 and F85) will not only random play, but will also random play ALL audio discs in the changer, which is very cool. The only problem is, if it has to change discs, it takes 13-15 seconds before the next song starts to play.

You cannot random play within just one folder though, but you can navigate folders on-screen and play an 'album' sequentially. They do not support ID3 tags, but they will display most of the file name (30 characters, I think it is). New this year is 'HiMAT' format compatibility, which is a joint Panasonic/Microsoft endeavour to standardize the way A/V files are written on a CD. I've only played with this a bit, but it support the HiMAT equivalent of ID3 tags and offers better disc navigation and playback features. The big problem with HiMAT though is that it seems to rob you of random playback! It does support M3U playlists though, which is great, but no random?? Maybe I'm missing something.

Oh and there's no problem with digital audio output either.

 

[Clark F]

I have a RP-62. When playing a CD I burned with MP3s, some play fine and some "skip" or "hiccup". The MP3's play fine on other MP3 players (Computer, SonicBlue). I called Panasonic support and they said they have never heard of this problem and suggested taking it to a local authorized repair company.
Has anyone else seen this problem with Panasonic DVD players? Did you find a solution?
TIA
Clark

 

[JohnnyG]

RP91, RP56, RP62, RV32...all had this problem. I never traced it down to a particular MP3 encoder though. Perhaps it's Variable Bit Rate (VBR) files that are sneeking into the mix? I'm just not sure.

Now I use MusicMatch Jukebox and use the 'resampling' and volume levelling features to make all songs uniform when burning a disc. Takes a lot a longer, but the results work in any player I've tried.

 

[Clark F]

Thanks for the info. I was thinking about getting Jukebox anyway.