Progressive DVD Player for about $200 (1 Viewer)

[Barry A]

I need help. I seem to have really bad luck with DVD players. My first DVD player was the infamous Sony S560D with all it's problem. My second was a Toshiba SD-4700 which I loved. It would play anything I threw at it. Unfortunately, it recently started having problems with certain titles just after the warranty expired. With my luck, I figured I'd better ask more questions before I buy again.

I need a progressive scan player that will play DVD-R's. MP3 would be nice, but are not necessary. I also don't care about multi disk units. That wouldn't stop me from buying one, it's just not a selling feature for me.

It will be hooked to a Hitachi 43FWX20B and a Dennon AVR-882.

 

[Marcel_V]

If you dont need DVD-A or SACD, i would get a xp30 for 199 from sharper image. It won the DVD shootout and beat out players costing much more. I have it hooked up to my panny 47" hdtv and love it. It also nicely plays mp3s.

Incidentally, I had the same sony player you did and feel your pain

 

[Barry A]

How do the Panasonic's hold up...any long term owners want to chime in. As you can see above, I'm seeing a pattern of self destruction in the 12-16 month time frame.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Well, I don't know about the more recent Panny's, but my own take has been that Panny players do not have a good history for long term durability/reliability. I base my opinion on the many posts I've seen of Panny players dying after about 1 year or so across various forums since the early days of DVD. I would also add that I have not seen as much durability problems w/ more recent Panny's so far, so maybe their durability/reliability have improved.

FWIW, I've owned 3 different interlaced Tosh players over the years (and all 3 still work although one might be dying due to a tremendous workload of ~2.5 DVDs per day for ~1.5 years). I also recently tried a Panny S35 and then switched to a Panny RP91 for my 2-player setup. I expect the RP91 to be quite durable although I'm not sure I'd expect the same of other Panny's.

_Man_

 

[Michael*Taylor]

I'll be going to my local Sharper Image this weekend to pick up the panasonic XP30. Sharper image is one of the few stores I've found that still has the XP30 in stock. According to Secrets DVD Player shootout, it's one of the best dvd players around in terms of video quality, and goes neck and neck with some of the higher priced dvd players. Just a note, it doesn't have any 5.1 outs, and I was a bit concerned about that, but soon realized that if I just ran optical from my dvd player to my pre/pro, then the pre/pro would do the decoding.

Sharper image has the XP30 for $199.99 and if you search google you'll find a $20 off $100 or more coupon, so that brings it down to $180. Not bad for such a great dvd player.

Almost forgot to mention it does play MP3's.

 

[PatSloan]

I found a panisonic dvd player on sharperimage.com but it says it is a pa500 not an xp30. Is this the right unit?

--pat

 

[Carey Briscuso]

Yes, it is the right unit. PA500 is just Sharper Image's own part number. I bought one this week and have been happy with it. I also plays DVD-R, DVD+R, and DVD+RW just fine (haven't tried DVD-RW yet).