Michael Lee
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- Jan 7, 1998
- Messages
- 652
I had a few local members of the HTF come over to my new house yesterday to compare these two fine players. My current progressive player, the Toshiba 9200, sat this one out as we were all very familiar with that picture on my ISF-calibrated 65" monitor. I have a Denon 2800 with a blue dot, which I believe is the latest firmware upgrade. I have been very impressed with the picture it provides. It is a little soft, not to my disliking, but definitely different that I am used to. It seems very film-like. When I finally received my Panasonic RP-91, I was very eager to try it out..after reading such glowing reviews by the esteemed Obi and others. I also liked this player very much--I was very eager to see what my friends thought.
When they first arrived, I had Toy Story 2 playing on both players. I refused to tell them which one was playing at the time. I wanted the real double-blind test. Surprisingly, they both did pick out the Panasonic picture as being the sharper one. More impressive to me was the solidity of the colors from the 91. I had been testing out the Denon all week and loved the fact that is a great looking picture with no noticeable layer change at all. Even my wife noticed this, where she is usually pretty oblivious to any upgrade I make(whew!).
Later on, I started picking out non-anamorphic DVDs. I have a ton of these...actually, I have a ton of DVDs to begin with. I just had a lot to choose from in general. We sampled Titanic, Enemy Of The State, Fist Of Legend, and others. The big surprise was the similarity of Die Hard non-anamorphic on the Panny, and the anamorphic on the Denon. The new Die Hard was better but not nearly the drastic difference that we thought there would be.
I already had DVD-Audio with my Toshiba 9200, but we would have liked to sample how the Panny handled it...but we ran out of time.
I also had an Onkyo 696 on hand to try out the Dolby ProLogic II, but we also ran out of time for that. How do you guys manage to switch all those wires when you have people over?
My conclusion is that both of these players are winners. I have been a Denon fan for years--I still have my DP-45F turntable from 1984. If I had to pick a winner, it would be a tough choice--but my choice would be the Panasonic RP-91. The non-anamorphic scaling capability is the deal-maker for me. DVD-Audio is just a bonus. There was a bit of combing on some of the supplementary material, where I had to go into the menu and force the switch to video. Other than that, the Panasonic is definitely the finest Genesis chip-based player I've seen to date, no contest.
Hopefully, my friends who were here last night can also give some of their input. They can probably give a better interpretation of their opinions than me.
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Sound InSight Audio Video
My Home Theater Pics
My Equipment List
My DVD Collection
Link Removed
[Edited last by Michael Lee on July 18, 2001 at 06:23 PM]
[Edited last by Michael Lee on July 19, 2001 at 07:39 AM]
When they first arrived, I had Toy Story 2 playing on both players. I refused to tell them which one was playing at the time. I wanted the real double-blind test. Surprisingly, they both did pick out the Panasonic picture as being the sharper one. More impressive to me was the solidity of the colors from the 91. I had been testing out the Denon all week and loved the fact that is a great looking picture with no noticeable layer change at all. Even my wife noticed this, where she is usually pretty oblivious to any upgrade I make(whew!).
Later on, I started picking out non-anamorphic DVDs. I have a ton of these...actually, I have a ton of DVDs to begin with. I just had a lot to choose from in general. We sampled Titanic, Enemy Of The State, Fist Of Legend, and others. The big surprise was the similarity of Die Hard non-anamorphic on the Panny, and the anamorphic on the Denon. The new Die Hard was better but not nearly the drastic difference that we thought there would be.
I already had DVD-Audio with my Toshiba 9200, but we would have liked to sample how the Panny handled it...but we ran out of time.
I also had an Onkyo 696 on hand to try out the Dolby ProLogic II, but we also ran out of time for that. How do you guys manage to switch all those wires when you have people over?
My conclusion is that both of these players are winners. I have been a Denon fan for years--I still have my DP-45F turntable from 1984. If I had to pick a winner, it would be a tough choice--but my choice would be the Panasonic RP-91. The non-anamorphic scaling capability is the deal-maker for me. DVD-Audio is just a bonus. There was a bit of combing on some of the supplementary material, where I had to go into the menu and force the switch to video. Other than that, the Panasonic is definitely the finest Genesis chip-based player I've seen to date, no contest.
Hopefully, my friends who were here last night can also give some of their input. They can probably give a better interpretation of their opinions than me.
------------------
Sound InSight Audio Video
My Home Theater Pics
My Equipment List
My DVD Collection
Link Removed
[Edited last by Michael Lee on July 18, 2001 at 06:23 PM]
[Edited last by Michael Lee on July 19, 2001 at 07:39 AM]
