Panasonic CV51 DVD Player (1 Viewer)

[Nathan Patrick]

Hey Guys,
I'm interested in this model for a few reasons:
5 Disc DVD Changer
MP3 Decoder
CDR/CDRW support
What I want to know is how is the image quality. Currently I have a Sony 27" Wega utilizing the squeeze trick so I leave my Toshiba 1200 DVD player on 16*9 mode. Also, has the Panansonic DVD player had any problems playing any particular DVD's.....
Thanks,
Nate

 

[Tony Woods]

I have that particular unit and I love it so far. The image quality is great for a non-progressive player. The audio quality is also very good. I do wish it had a coaxial digital out along with the optical just for extra options. So far it has played every DVD perfectly, including scratched and dirty rental discs. The MP3 function works great too, but it doesn't have track naming or anything. It also played CDR/RW discs fine. I've made a few VCD's and they played without a hitch. I got mine for under $200 and it's a steal
Tony

 

[Robert Monzo]

Tony,
I've also been considering this model. Does this model include a time remaining function for DVDs? Most if not all of Panasonic's previous models have always excluded the time remaining feature for DVDs. Just Wondering.
Thanks,
Robert
[Edited last by Robert Monzo on August 06, 2001 at 05:33 PM]

 

[Tony Woods]

No, unfortunatly it does not have the time remaining function to my knowledge. However, up until now I never found myself looking for the feature. It might be a big deal to some people but I don't miss it.

 

[Robert Monzo]

Thanks for the info. It certainly wouldn't stop me from buying it. My Panasnic A120 doesn't have it either, but it just boggles my mind that Panasonic continues to be the only manufacturer that excludes this very basic feature.
Robert

 

[Nathan Patrick]

Thanks for the info:
Where did you get it for less than $200?

 

[Joe McKeown]

First of all, I really like my CV51. it does have some quirks though.
When I use Panasonic's discrete off through my cinema7 the thing will crash so bad I have to unplug it. I get the "BYE" but not an off. This happens if the disk is not completely stopped at the time, and just prepending a "stop" in a macro doesn't help because it will still crash if I hit off during something that won't stop (like an FBI warning)
The order in which it plays MP3's on a cdr is a little wierd, but I work around that but adding 001, 002, 003, in front of the file name before burning the disk. Over 10 hours of MP3 fit on one CDR that plays flawlessly. Also there is no playlist support. Imagine if they were to put MP3 support into a mega changer, some radio stations could put their entire library into a single unit.
It seems to me that menus respond slower than they did on my Sony DVP-330.
There are no menu controls on the front panel.
The cv-51 has an incredible feature set for the money, that more than make up for some of the "gotchas" in the features. I imagine though that as future models work out some of the little details I will be very prone to "new model envy" For now I couldn't be happier...

 

[Chris PC]

I like my CV51. It takes a few seconds to read CD/DVD's. I don't like how it looks at all the discs to see what is in itself if I turn it on and immediatly press open. I guess you have to press "disc exchange"? You cannot program the playback of MP3's. You cannot use Shuffle play for MP3's.
Other than the above, the player is well worth the money. I like it. Its great. Playback looks good. No errors yet for me. I like the idea of a 5 disc carousel. I can play a CD or watch a DVD that has 2 discs, without having to change things around. Actually, the really convenient thing is to have your DVD in there, along with a CDR of MP3's. You can watch a movie, or listen to 150 songs with the same unit.

 

[Tony Woods]

you can get it for 199.95 from here http://www.edigitalstop.com/dvd/dvdrv30.html
good luck