What do you recommend for a $250 DVD player? (1 Viewer)

[Joe]

I'm looking for a DVD player with great video for a regular 35' tube tv. Not worryied about DVD-A or SACD at all. Any recommendations for around the $250 mark? Thank you.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

If you can up your budget to $290 you can pick up a Panasonic RP91 from www.newegg.com . If not, I'd look at the RP62 and CP72 which are on clearance at several places. The new XP30 and XP50 are also possibilities in that price range.

 

[Adam Bluhm]

I have a related question.

Can anyone tell me what chip the XP30 has and what 4:4:4 signal processing is? The XP30 lacks this feature, but Panasonic lists it for other cheaper players on their site.

 

[TomH]

Does the RP91 have the chroma bug?

It was hot last year, how is its value against current products?

Thanks
Tom

 

[Peter Loan]

Adam, 4:4:4 processing is mainly techno babble. It doesn't make a noticible difference in video quality.

TomH, The RP91 does not have the chroma bug. The picture is a step down from the legendary Panny RP82, but its still one of the better players out there. You'll mostly notice this on incorrectly flagged and TV show dvds. BUT, the build quality is a heck of a lot better than most players, it has a coaxial digital output (unlike most other Panasonic players), and it can scale non-anamorphic dvds for 16x9 TVs.

 

[MikeSRC]

Also, all the Panny players have 4:4:4 processing, whether it says it or not on the website. The RP-91 was one of the top players in its day. With a 35" direct view set it's unlikely you'll notice any deinterlacing artifacts. Does your TV accept a progressive scan signal?

 

[Joe]

No, I don't believe it(Sony) accepts a progressive signal. It is about 3-4 years old now.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

If you have a regular TV, ie. not HD or one of the rare non-HD ones that handle 480p or is 16x9, then you're probably better off just getting one of the cheap, new Panny players for $100-150 depending on what exact features you want. There's not a whole lot of good reasons to spend more for regular/interlaced DVD output unless you're also looking for better sound quality for CD, DVD-A and/or SACD playback.

Barring the desire for better sound and progressive scan output, I'd just save the $$$ and get only what you expect to use for the forseeable future (say 1-2 years) given the state of technological advances, flaws and compromises in all players, etc.

_Man_

 

[Joe]

I have not been following Panasonics dvd player line so I have this question. Is the xp30 a brand new model that has not hit many stores yet? Thanks.

 

[MikeSRC]

No, actually it's a recently discontinued model that's hard to find now. The current models are the S35, S55, F65 and F85, which all have the same video performance. There's more than a few threads here about the new Panny players.