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Stunt Coordinator
- Joined
- Jun 30, 1997
- Messages
- 219
Well, I played around with this machine for about three hours tonight, testing it with different discs.
Video-wise, I'd say it performs exactly like the 3750 (which I had for a while and returned). I returned the 3750 because I also had a Pansonic RP-56 which I preferred because the picture was a little sharper and the colors were a tad richer. By no means, did the 4700 or the 3750 put out a bad picture. The Panny just edged out the Toshiba in my eyes. (Among the discs I played was "Toy Story" and there was no flicker in the solid reds. I'm not real susceptible to the chroma bug so I can't tell you if it's there. I DO notice combing effects and I didn't see any on the material I viewed. I had a friend watch a few scenes and she thought the Panasonic looked a little sharper also.)
In the box in addition to the manual is a "Supplement for correction" ("Uh-oh, I thought...) In the supplement were some features that appear in the manual and are crossed out due to the fact that these features either never made it into the player or were taken out later.
(Example: "This DVD player uses the NTSC color sytem. PAL signals in a playable disc are converted to NTSC signals to be output. (They cannot be in the progressive output format.) This conversion may cause slight picture deterioration." Everything after the first sentence is crossed out. (Was this player once meant to play PAL discs and convert them? I have a few PAL discs and gave them a try. The player read the disc, BUT the picture was in a continuous roll. The sound was fine as I tried to watch. (for a brief second I thought I had myself a cheaper, but better built Malata on my hands...)
Other statements in the correction supplement help to claify sentences which might prove to be confusing: "The total playing time is not displayed"--the timer is showing the elapsed time and not the TOTAL time of a disc; "The programmed selections will be cleared when you turn off the DVD player." (Programmed tracks of a DVD/CD do not remain in the player's memory when you shut the player off. Does any player do this?)
---The Enhanced Audio Mode does not work for DVD audio discs.
---The clear button does not perform as an exit/enter button.
If you are familiar with the remote from the 6200, you will be right at home with the 4700s. (However it is not backlit nor does it have glow in the dark keys. Gone also is that little wheel/tab on the side that controlled fast forward and reverse modes.) The fast forward and reverse modes are pretty smooth. The Zoom mode is excellent IMHO. It works well and allows you to zoom in nice and tight on some aspect of the picture you want to investigate further. There is a button on the remote to change from interlaced to progressive mode. (There is also a switch on the back of the player.)
Sound wise--well, my receiver is doing all the decoding so it sounds good to me. No built in DTS, but it does have DD. A four page supplement gives guidelines for playback of MP-3 discs.
A cardboard features strip taped to the top of the players states: 10 bit 54 MHz Video DAC with 8:8:8 processing. 540 lines of video resolution. The player can play DVD-Video/DVD-R/CD/VCD/CD-R/CD-W/MP3 and DVD Audio.
What else? Well, all those niffty little features which I never use like strobe, virtual remote, preview, etc. are included. No enhanced black level. (There were some questions about DACs and DVD Audio. I really don't know much about DVD Audio but the manual says sound through the bitstream/audio/PCM jacks range from 44.1 kHz/16bit to 192 kHz/24 bit. Don't know if that helps anybody or not.)
I'll mess around with this player some more, but picture is the deciding factor for me and at this point I prefer the Panasonic even though it has a "flicker-problem" for a very few seconds on a very few discs. To me the 4700 is a 3750 with a better remote, a Dolby Digital decoder (which I won't use), and the ability to play DVD Audio discs (which I don't own). But the price is right for a player that does all this--I picked it up for $250 from a place that doesn't discount its products that much.
I'll be interested to hear what other owners of this player think.
Video-wise, I'd say it performs exactly like the 3750 (which I had for a while and returned). I returned the 3750 because I also had a Pansonic RP-56 which I preferred because the picture was a little sharper and the colors were a tad richer. By no means, did the 4700 or the 3750 put out a bad picture. The Panny just edged out the Toshiba in my eyes. (Among the discs I played was "Toy Story" and there was no flicker in the solid reds. I'm not real susceptible to the chroma bug so I can't tell you if it's there. I DO notice combing effects and I didn't see any on the material I viewed. I had a friend watch a few scenes and she thought the Panasonic looked a little sharper also.)
In the box in addition to the manual is a "Supplement for correction" ("Uh-oh, I thought...) In the supplement were some features that appear in the manual and are crossed out due to the fact that these features either never made it into the player or were taken out later.
(Example: "This DVD player uses the NTSC color sytem. PAL signals in a playable disc are converted to NTSC signals to be output. (They cannot be in the progressive output format.) This conversion may cause slight picture deterioration." Everything after the first sentence is crossed out. (Was this player once meant to play PAL discs and convert them? I have a few PAL discs and gave them a try. The player read the disc, BUT the picture was in a continuous roll. The sound was fine as I tried to watch. (for a brief second I thought I had myself a cheaper, but better built Malata on my hands...)
Other statements in the correction supplement help to claify sentences which might prove to be confusing: "The total playing time is not displayed"--the timer is showing the elapsed time and not the TOTAL time of a disc; "The programmed selections will be cleared when you turn off the DVD player." (Programmed tracks of a DVD/CD do not remain in the player's memory when you shut the player off. Does any player do this?)
---The Enhanced Audio Mode does not work for DVD audio discs.
---The clear button does not perform as an exit/enter button.
If you are familiar with the remote from the 6200, you will be right at home with the 4700s. (However it is not backlit nor does it have glow in the dark keys. Gone also is that little wheel/tab on the side that controlled fast forward and reverse modes.) The fast forward and reverse modes are pretty smooth. The Zoom mode is excellent IMHO. It works well and allows you to zoom in nice and tight on some aspect of the picture you want to investigate further. There is a button on the remote to change from interlaced to progressive mode. (There is also a switch on the back of the player.)
Sound wise--well, my receiver is doing all the decoding so it sounds good to me. No built in DTS, but it does have DD. A four page supplement gives guidelines for playback of MP-3 discs.
A cardboard features strip taped to the top of the players states: 10 bit 54 MHz Video DAC with 8:8:8 processing. 540 lines of video resolution. The player can play DVD-Video/DVD-R/CD/VCD/CD-R/CD-W/MP3 and DVD Audio.
What else? Well, all those niffty little features which I never use like strobe, virtual remote, preview, etc. are included. No enhanced black level. (There were some questions about DACs and DVD Audio. I really don't know much about DVD Audio but the manual says sound through the bitstream/audio/PCM jacks range from 44.1 kHz/16bit to 192 kHz/24 bit. Don't know if that helps anybody or not.)
I'll mess around with this player some more, but picture is the deciding factor for me and at this point I prefer the Panasonic even though it has a "flicker-problem" for a very few seconds on a very few discs. To me the 4700 is a 3750 with a better remote, a Dolby Digital decoder (which I won't use), and the ability to play DVD Audio discs (which I don't own). But the price is right for a player that does all this--I picked it up for $250 from a place that doesn't discount its products that much.
I'll be interested to hear what other owners of this player think.
