Panasonic rp62 vs rp82 battle (1 Viewer)

[John Chevalier]

Okay you all, I am going to purchase one of these in the next few weeks. I would much rather buy from a brick and mortar store than an online retailer for things over 100 bucks. I want the rp82 just because everyone talks it up. The only places I know of that I can go to get the pany are circuit city or best buy. They only have the rp62 though. Before I consider an online retailer for the rp82(which I am seriously leaning towards) I just want to know, plain and simple, what is the difference. I know about the DVD-A format and thats not a major issue for me. I just want to what else is the difference between the 2. Or for the sake of this place, go ahead and recommend another DVD player in the same price range that doesn't have the Chroma bug because I would be a person to notice something like that and it would drive me crazy. Thanks in advance.

John

 

[MikeM]

Hi John,
The RP82 has better picture quality. As for the other things I noticed, I'll just copy/paste what I wrote about both in another thread:
I've had both, and one glaring difference I've noticed is that the RP62 had a tough time with the DVD-Rs that I burned. Every "bad" DVD-R would stutter and stop on the RP62. Those exact same DVD-Rs play flawlessly on the RP82...I'd highly recommend the RP82.
The RP62 is not capable of playing certain DVD media that the RP82 can. Check Panasonic's web site:
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You'll notice on "Playable Disc Type" that the RP82 supports DVD-RAM, and this is *not* listed on the RP62.
The RP62 I had wasn't deffective, it just couldn't play those discs without stuttering. I took the same discs into Best Buy and attempted to play them on Best Buy's display RP62's as well, and they choked. The RP82 has no trouble with these discs.

 

[John Chevalier]

So the rp82 is using a different playback circuitry than the rp62? I dont use DVD-r's or anything so I'm cool there. I'm just basically wanting to watch movies that I bought at a store. IF there is a difference in picture quality, then I'll go with the 82. I was just wondering if the upgraded version was "upgraded" or just had more features. Does everyone else agree?

 

[Michael St. Clair]

RP62 has flicker bug on oversaturated reds (see tinker toy lid in Toy Story).

RP82 has it fixed.

RP82 has the superior MPEG decoder from the RP91. RP62 is really just a somewhat redesigned RP56. RP82 and RP62 are not based on the same design.

 

[John Chevalier]

well, I know what I'm going to spend my hard earned American dollars on then.

 

[John Chevalier]

I bought it. It should arrive tuesday.

 

[Eric Stuckey]

I'm thinking of buying or asking for it for Christmas from the wife. Should I go with the 82?

 

[BobJ]

I'm thinking of buying or asking for it for Christmas from the wife. Should I go with the 82?

The 82 has the better MPEG decoder from the RP-91. I've had both the 62 and 82 and the 82 has better picture quality. The difference in price is only about $30-40 and the improved picture quality alone is worth the extra money, not even considering some of the extra features you get:

DVD-A (even if you don't care about this right now, it's fun to experiment with)

Built-in DTS/DD decoder

Better build quality (the 82 is sturdier than the 62)

Remembers the settings and location for 5 discs (the 62 only remembers one)

Better menu interface with more video adjustments

 

[Trevor H]

OK now how about the 82 vs 91, is the 91 worth the extra $'s

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Trevor,
The 91 has scaling for nonanamorphic dvds, the 82 doesn't.

The 82 has the Sage Faroudja de-interlacer, the 91 doesn't. The Sage Faroudja is supposedly better than the one in the 91.

If the scaling feature alone is worth the extra money to you, the 91 is probably the way to go. If it's not that important go with the 82.

 

[Trevor H]

Thanks Steve,
The scaling issue will depend on which HTDV I decide to get, from what i've been reeding.
This decision making on what combo of HDTV & prog scan DVD player to get is driving me nuts

 

[BobJ]

The scaling issue will depend on which HTDV I decide to get, from what i've been reading.

Try not to buy a set that will limit your choice of DVD player, chances are you'll keep the set longer than your player.
If you don't need scaling, get the RP-82. I replaced a 91 with a 82 and am very happy. Others over in the avsforum have done the same. The 82 has the better Sage Faroudja chip with the same MPEG decoder as the 91. The 91 is also a fairly old model design and lacks some of the features of the newer 82, like time remaining/time search.

 

[Bryan "C." A.]

I have tried the carousel models CP67 and CP72 and have noticed that the CP67 has MPEG decoding issues not present from the CP72, leading me to believe that the CP67 is similar to the RP62 and that the CP72 may be similar to the RP82. Surge suppression notwithstanding, my RP91 got hit by lightning and I am looking to replace it with one that has a better de-interlacer. It was always so frustrating to watch credits dance off the screen rather than roll. The CP72 is much much better, but perfection lies elsewhere.

A plea to current RP82 owners using their players in progressive mode who also happen to own "The Avengers" (with Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman):

What I want to know is does the caption near the end of chapter two show any sign of flicker? For comparison, the first and third "l" in "Elite Intelligence" were problematic for the CP72.

 

[Craig W]

Bryan,

I just bought a CP72 about a week ago and so far I have not noticed any issues with flicker. I had a RP56 before that did have some interesting flicker issues, I will check those discs soon to see if the same issue is present. Sometimes though flicker is a byproduct of MPEG compression.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Trevor,

If it's any help, I used a JVC with the scaling for a year, and have used a CP72 (no scaling) for a month or so, both with a Sony KP57HW40 widescreen rptv.

The JVC relies on flags to know when to do the scaling, and too many non-anamorphic widescreen dvds aren't properly flagged especially one of my favorites, Titanic. Every 4/3 aspect ratio dvd (mainly older films and tv stuff) I've tried was properly flagged.

Panasonic's RP91, another model that does scaling can be manually set to scale improperly flagged dvds.

The JVC would put black bars on the side of 4/3 movies, with the CP72 I have to put the tv in the "normal" aspect ratio and end up with gray bars. The picture quality on the Panny is a bit better, both from the standpoint of deinterlacing and color rendition.

I was able to trick the JVC into doing scaling on Titanic, and it looked better than the tv's Zoom when using that player and no scaling.

Last weekend I watched Titanic on the CP72, used the set's Zoom to fill the screen side to side (it's 2:35 so there are still black bars top and bottom). The picture was actually quite good and very watchable--very much better than my experience with the JVC in non-scaling mode.

So if you don't mind gray bars instead of black on the sides of 4/3 aspect ratio movies, I would recommend the non-scaling Panny RP 82 or CP 72 over a scaling player.

Just be sure to choose a set that allows you to zoom when receiving a progressive scan signal--most widescreen sets will but there are still a few that won't.

 

[Trevor H]

Thanks again for the help Steve, now i'm ready do do some demoing this weekend

 

[Craig W]

Bryan,

I did a quick spot check last night on some discs, which had flicker on the RP56, on the new CP72. I was not able to recreate the flicker issue so I have a feeling that CCS is turned off on this model.

I also checked Pannys part list on their website and the CP72 is using the MN677531KA (Panasonic Part No.) for their MPEG decoder. The 62 and 67 are using a different IC.

The CP72 I believe is the best value out there in price and performance for a changer model.