Scott-C
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2001
- Messages
- 863
Recently, I sold via ebay my Pioneer DV-37 so I could purchase a Panasonic RP-91. I've had one on backorder from J&R from 12/30/2001 and it just arrived last Wednesday, 1/16/2002. I didn't mind the wait much because I was able to get it for a very good price (and I had my venerable Sony DVP-S7000 doing backup duty while I waited).
I hooked it up on Wednesday night, played a bunch of sample scenes from some DVDs, and have now watched a couple of movies on it. Here are some brief observations:
Video quality is very, very good on this player. The picture is very film-like, with rich, lush colors (signal is being sent via component video cable directly to a Mits WS-65907 65" widescreen RPTV). One major difference I noticed right away is that the picture is not as sharp (out of the box) as my DV-37, but I don't know that that's a bad thing as I think it contributes to the film-like quality of the player.
I also noticed immediately that there seems to be more "grain" (or you could call it video noise I guess for lack of a better term) in the picture with the RP-91, which I can eliminate by pushing the "MPEG DNR" button on the front panel of the unit. I'm wondering if others have noticed this when they've gone from a DV-37 to an RP-91.
One of the reasons I purchased this unit was due to its scaling capabilities. I have some non-anamorphic titles in my DVD collection and was anxious to see what this unit could do for them. I was not disappointed. From what I've seen so far, the unit does a remarkable job of scaling non-anamorphic material. While not turning these DVDs into anamorphic, it certainly takes the picture quality of them up a considerable notch. The difference was not subtle for me; it was very obvious immediately.
I should also add that my observations of this player are being done with minimal "tweaking" of the unit. I plugged it in, connected the video and audio cables, pushed the "Progressive" button on the front panel, adjusted the TV Type setting to 16x9, and changed the User setting to User 2. I haven't done anything with all of the other picture quality settings yet (i.e. sharpness, etc.). To be honest, I haven't fully figured out how all of these settings work together yet!
The unit has the reputation of "appearing" not as durable as some other brands of DVD players, and while I suppose I agree with this, I have to say it appears more sturdy than I thought it would. Also, I like its appearance in general (I bought the black version).
I have read the "Panasonic RP-91 FAQ" posted in another thread on this forum, and also actually read almost all of the owner's manual. Prior to reading the manual I felt that the menu options on this player were far more confusing to navigate than my previous player. Now that I've read the manual I feel much more comfortable navigating through the options on this player (and there are a lot of them!). I'd recommend a good review of the manual to anyone who is considering one of these players. The menus are graphically based with lots of icons but few verbal on-screen descriptions to accompany them. It's taking me a little time to adjust to so many icons and to recall what each of them does.
Speaking of the manual, I'd classify it as "garden variety" for HT components in that it does an adequate job of explaining how to access and activate most of the features of the unit, but fails miserably (like most manuals) in explaining what the feature is supposed to do (conceptually). This is nothing new to me as most manuals seem this way.
Some questions for RP-91 owners: first, my "MPEG DNR" button does not appear to stay active from one DVD to another if I power off the unit in between uses. Am I doing something wrong or is this just a characteristic of the player?
I've read in the FAQ that "User 2" is a good setting to use for this player. I've gone to the "Display" menu and selected this option, and I assume as long as it's visible when I cycle through the display options, it's selected. Is this true? I am by no means fully proficient with this unit yet, so bear with me if that's a stupid or obvious question. What I'm trying to say here is I want to make sure I'm "selecting" the option and not just cycling through it.
I've noticed when I power down the unit, then power it up and insert a new DVD that the "User 2" option is no longer selected in the display options. Shouldn't it stay active as long as I didn't change it prior to powering down the unit?
Well, just wanted to post my thoughts and I hope this was helpful.
I hooked it up on Wednesday night, played a bunch of sample scenes from some DVDs, and have now watched a couple of movies on it. Here are some brief observations:
Video quality is very, very good on this player. The picture is very film-like, with rich, lush colors (signal is being sent via component video cable directly to a Mits WS-65907 65" widescreen RPTV). One major difference I noticed right away is that the picture is not as sharp (out of the box) as my DV-37, but I don't know that that's a bad thing as I think it contributes to the film-like quality of the player.
I also noticed immediately that there seems to be more "grain" (or you could call it video noise I guess for lack of a better term) in the picture with the RP-91, which I can eliminate by pushing the "MPEG DNR" button on the front panel of the unit. I'm wondering if others have noticed this when they've gone from a DV-37 to an RP-91.
One of the reasons I purchased this unit was due to its scaling capabilities. I have some non-anamorphic titles in my DVD collection and was anxious to see what this unit could do for them. I was not disappointed. From what I've seen so far, the unit does a remarkable job of scaling non-anamorphic material. While not turning these DVDs into anamorphic, it certainly takes the picture quality of them up a considerable notch. The difference was not subtle for me; it was very obvious immediately.
I should also add that my observations of this player are being done with minimal "tweaking" of the unit. I plugged it in, connected the video and audio cables, pushed the "Progressive" button on the front panel, adjusted the TV Type setting to 16x9, and changed the User setting to User 2. I haven't done anything with all of the other picture quality settings yet (i.e. sharpness, etc.). To be honest, I haven't fully figured out how all of these settings work together yet!
The unit has the reputation of "appearing" not as durable as some other brands of DVD players, and while I suppose I agree with this, I have to say it appears more sturdy than I thought it would. Also, I like its appearance in general (I bought the black version).
I have read the "Panasonic RP-91 FAQ" posted in another thread on this forum, and also actually read almost all of the owner's manual. Prior to reading the manual I felt that the menu options on this player were far more confusing to navigate than my previous player. Now that I've read the manual I feel much more comfortable navigating through the options on this player (and there are a lot of them!). I'd recommend a good review of the manual to anyone who is considering one of these players. The menus are graphically based with lots of icons but few verbal on-screen descriptions to accompany them. It's taking me a little time to adjust to so many icons and to recall what each of them does.
Speaking of the manual, I'd classify it as "garden variety" for HT components in that it does an adequate job of explaining how to access and activate most of the features of the unit, but fails miserably (like most manuals) in explaining what the feature is supposed to do (conceptually). This is nothing new to me as most manuals seem this way.
Some questions for RP-91 owners: first, my "MPEG DNR" button does not appear to stay active from one DVD to another if I power off the unit in between uses. Am I doing something wrong or is this just a characteristic of the player?
I've read in the FAQ that "User 2" is a good setting to use for this player. I've gone to the "Display" menu and selected this option, and I assume as long as it's visible when I cycle through the display options, it's selected. Is this true? I am by no means fully proficient with this unit yet, so bear with me if that's a stupid or obvious question. What I'm trying to say here is I want to make sure I'm "selecting" the option and not just cycling through it.
I've noticed when I power down the unit, then power it up and insert a new DVD that the "User 2" option is no longer selected in the display options. Shouldn't it stay active as long as I didn't change it prior to powering down the unit?
Well, just wanted to post my thoughts and I hope this was helpful.
