Panasonic DVD-F85/87? Video quality? Chroma Bug? ..using interlaced output. (1 Viewer)

[Chris PC]

Cool and cool. Future Shop only has the freakin Silver models right now! Arrghh! Is there another place that has the black models and offers an extended warranty/service plan? Future Shop's ESP plans are actually pretty in-expensive and transferable.

 

[Chris PC]

Darn it! And Future Shop also has it on sale until tomorrow for $179 CDN! I wonder how important a black unit is vs a silver unit. Maybe I don't care.

 

[John Garcia]

I liked the look of the F87 in silver vs the black, just looks cleaner, like an XP30. The friend I was helping pick one out wanted black, so we picked one up for $129 yesterday. Will probably fire it up in my system today or tomorrow to see how it does.

 

[HughG]

Newbie here. What a great forum!

I'm looking to purchase a DVD player and have spent a decent amount of time researching which one is "the best" in the $125 or so price range. I've read thru this (and other) threads on DVD players on this site, as well as read the CR rankings. I've pretty much decided on the Panasonic DVD-F85 .... then found out that the F85 is being replaced by the F87.

(I'm also prob going to buy a new receiver soon in the $250 price range and the Panasonic SA-HE100 sounds like a great option)

I have questions on what the actual differences are between the F85 and the F87. I did the "compare selected models" from the DVD player of the panasonic website and see some differences when looking at the specs side-by-side between the two models. And I also know its very possible (and probably likely) that the product info on the panasonic website isnt accurate.

I also assume that the Optical vs Coaxil swap is a wash.


PROS OF F87
* Plays HDCD
* Dolby II
* Auto navigation menu
* Gamma correction
* Multi re-master

CONS OF F87 (features that are included on the Panasonic F85 description but are not included on the F87)
* Plays Video CD
* Auto Swithciing Field / Frame Still
* Frame Advance (forward and reverse)
* Cinema mode
* Double re-master processing
* Chapter preview
* On-Screen ment icons
* Headphone out
* Still picture display

Thoughts? Comments? Insults??? Again, I dont know a ton about DVD players and am hoping that the experts can respond on the "real" differences between the two players.

hugh

 

[Chris PC]

I don't think the F87 will be lacking in any of the above except for possibly the headphone out?

 

[Chris PC]

...and of course the Future Shop sale is over. I thought it was until today which is what the website said, but mysteriously the website today shows no sale! Argghh! I say! Arrghh again!

 

[Trevor_J]

Chris, just go in and talk to a manager. They're usually pretty good about giving you the sale price if it's a day or so after the sale.

Besides, stop waffling on the colour and go buy the thing!

 

[Chris PC]

What? Me waffle? Ha ha. You've seen nothing. You should watch me upgrade my projector. Its taking me 6 months!

 

[Chris PC]

Well I grabbed a DVD F87K from 2001audiovideo. $179 and $39 for a component cable and $39 for the extended warranty. So I saved a mere $34.50 CDN. Looks good so far. Man, DO NOT use the just zoom auto by accident. I was seeing weird video scanline-ish artifacts and was ready to take it back. Its set up well now and seems to work ok. Now if only I can remember why I bought it...lol. My older Panny CV51 looks really good too in comparison. The F87 is much faster, plays MP3's randomly, has DPL II, NR, the auto pillarboxing and DVD audio playback. I'll try all the toys and see if its worth it. I like pressing eject to turn it on, like when you want to change DVD's right away. On the CV51 it takes a few years to open, but on the F87, it takes 2 seconds. Also faster reading discs and changing discs.

What is HIMAT and what is HDCD?

 

[John Garcia]

HDCD is for HDCDs (High Def) encoded CD, prior to SACD/DVD-A. Some CDs are encoded with it, though you wouldn't know unless the player could utilize it. I have a CD or two that I was surprised to notice HDCD show up on my players. Not very common, and with SACD/DVD-A, I doubt you will see many more.

HIMAT seems to be for reading data CD-R/Ws with pictures.

 

[Chris PC]

Thats cool. I hope to get a handle on how to use the auto-pillarboxing. I tried it and it does determine 16:9 vs 4:3 material, but I want to see if its able to auto-matically vertically stretch 4:3 widescreen and pillarbox squeeze the 4:3 full frame. I thought I had it working but then it did some weird stuff with an anamorphic 16:9 DVD. I think I had the 16:9 Just Fit Zoom wrong. Oh well, more experimenting.

 

[Chris PC]

BTW I used a 75 ohm RCA to RCA cable for the coax digital connection. I had the cable lying around from my Laserdisc player days. Is that the correct cable to use? It looks really nice and has a high end look to it with nice looking ends etc. Is a 75 ohm cable the correct one to use?

 

[JohnnyG]

That's indeed the correct cable...same as a video cable.

 

[Chris PC]

Cool thanx. Ironically I just updated the firmware in my Panny CV51 and the delay when using OPEN to turn on the player so you can open the carousel is gone. With the player off and I press OPEN the drawer opens within one second. Before it was like 16 to 20 seconds of the player spinning the carousel and looking at the discs. I hope other things are improved. Now I won't feel bad selling this to my friend.

 

[JohnnyG]

That cracked me up!

 

[Chris PC]

Well, actually, I may feel bad letting it go now. What I meant was, I don't want to give him something that is a pain. Waiting for that drawer to open has always driven me crazy. Now that I've fixed that, I'm almost thinking I'll just keep it, but if I sell it to my friend, he'll get it for peanuts compared to what I paid for it new, and compared to other 5 discs out there now.

 

[Chris PC]

Well that was a mistake on the new player side and on the old CV51. If there are discs in either of these players, and you press OPEN to turn it on, it still spins for 15 seconds! What an annoyance. My 15 year old Sony CD player opens instantaneously when you press open. I hate waiting for the thing to open. It should be instant.

 

[Chris PC]

This player chokes on my Waking Life DVD. Takes forever to read it and/or recognize it, and sometimes it says NO DISC. My older Panasonic CV51 and my PC don't seem to have any problem with the disc. Ironic, because I was just watching the disc so I could sell it. Its interesting, but not my fave movie. I'm glad I caught it though, so I can try another player. Looks like this F87K is going back already :frowning:

 

[Trevor_J]

Chris, I've had no problems with any discs in my 85. Either you got a bum unit or they've changed things (for the worse) on the 87. I also saw your other thread on AVS. I just checked my 85 and it takes less than 5 seconds to eject the tray from off. Maybe you should start looking for an 85 after you take that 87 back. Sounds to me like it's a better unit.

 

[Chris PC]

Trevor,

When your F85 has discs in it and its OFF and you press OPEN, how long does it take? On both my old CV51 and the F87 if there are discs in there, I usually have 5 DVD's and/or CD's in my carousels, it scans through all the discs, just checking to see if the spots are occupied, then it opens. Takes 15 seconds for that usually. If there are NO discs in either player and you press OPEN when they are OFF, they both open in 2 or 3 seconds.

With "Waking Life" the player works hard trying to read the DVD and sometimes says NO PLAY or just takes a loong time and finally gets the menu up. I've cleaned the DVD and it may have a tiny scratch in the wrong place, but it seems otherwise ok.

I can't find any other discs that cause problems and I notice that my old DVD player and my sisters S35 do spend a bit of time making transport noises before loading, a little more than other DVD's, but I can't find any other DVD that has issues with my F87 yet, and in fact, the F87 is alot faster loading and changing DVD's than my CV51. I did notice that the F85 and F87 apparantly use different wavelength lasers. I'm going to take it back and try the Waking Life DVD on the unit in the store and then perhaps try another F87. I don't believe there are differences that make the F87 worse than the F85. Anything is possible, but I'm not thinking that yet. What a riot, I am selling the Waking Life DVD anyways, it was $8.00 and interesting but not a keeper.

The F65's are selling really cheap, but oddly, the F85's are priced the same, although I don't think stock is very good on those.