Outstanding picture quality.

Bad ergonomics, on both the player and remote. Ugly face.

For the money this player rocks. In terms of picture quality it is easily on a par with many $1000+ players out there. It also excels with video source material and does a good job at handling discs with sloppy MPEG encoding.

The only downside I have seen is the flicker bug. For those who have noticed it, it is indeed a "feature" of the unit. You didn't get a bad player if you notice this. So far I've only noticed one scene that it's really bad in. Tests with Avia show that the flicker is the most pronounced with the 20 IRE gray screen. 10 and 30 IRE are hardly visible, and by 40 the effect is gone. I do think that the bug is causing some general grainy effects in most all saturated colors. This sucks for picture quality, but to keep things in context it still outperforms any other player under $500 or so. Plus, my Mitsubishi TV has a wicked case of red push, so that may be contributing to the problem.

In any case this player is easily worth twice the price. Hopefully Panasonic will address the flicker bug with a firmware update. The other player I considered was the Sony NS700P, which is similar in price and performance. That player however has the chroma bug, which I think would be more of an issue than the flicker bug. Oh well, you can't expect perfection for $190.

P.S. If anyone hears of a firmware update, please let me know. Even if it's not an official Panasonic release.

Relatively inexpensive for a progressive scan dvd player.
Contains the Sage/Faroudja chip for superb picture quality.
Plays vcds that could not be played on a Philips dvd player.

Remote is not the best.
I do not know if this is a weakness but the player itself vibrates a lot more than my old Sony DVP-C650D.

This player beats my old Sony DVP-C650D hands down for picture quality. For those not familiar with the Sony DVP-C650D it was one of Sony's first gen 5 disc players.
I have seen none of the issues anyone else has seen on my Sony KP 43HT20. Possibly because it is an hd ready tv? Regardless, I have watched around 15 movies on this setup and have yet to even try the progressive scan output. I have seen no degradation in picture quality, no scan lines and no jittering effects.
For anyone shopping for a bargain progressive scan player this is it. You can not beat the price/performance ratio on this.
I gave the overall rating 4 stars because of the weaknesses.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVP-C650D, Sony DVP-S530D

Super picture and sound

a bit noisy

Not being an audiophile, this machine is everything I need. I originally purchased the Denon DVD-1000 to go with my new Denon AVR-1801 receiver, but it had lip-sync problems and I returned it. The picture on the Panasonic is sharp and the sound syncs just fine. For the money I have no complaints.

Similar Products Used:

Denon DVD-1000

Price, picture, flexibility

Build quality, asthetics, tends to run hot, MP3 playback is rather picky

I originally intended to go with an entry level Pioneer Elite progressive scan 5 disc changer, but sudden budget issues popped up unexpectedly and I was forced to go with a more affordable progressive scan option. After some research, I decided to chance it and went with this Panasonic model. I've always had pretty good luck with Panasonic as a brand and I heard some great things about certain models. After comparisons, this model seemed to blow away everything in the price range. I was concerned about the JVC's subtitle problems, the Toshibas Chroma bug, and my general hatred for most Sony products.

After reading some reviews here, as well as the "shootout" review linked further down the page in several reviews, I became impressed with the capabilities of the Panasonic. It seems as though this model employs the use of the "Sage" chip, which is supposedly one of the best deinterlacer chips in existence. I was shocked to find that, because of this chip set, this "cheap" player actually outperformed products up to 5x the cost!

Lets hit the high points first...

1. The progressive scan picture is amazing. I was very pleased with the picture I got when I hooked this puppy up to my Toshiba HDTV. This is my first progressive scan player (the ONLY reason I got rid of my beloved Onkyo was to upgrade to this technology and take advantage of my expensive TV's capabilities). There was a noticeable improvement over 480i, but its NOT as drastic as one might imagine. So don't be disappointed...its not nearly the drastic jump like VHS to DVD was. But I would estimate paerhaps a 20% improvement in picture quality. The picture was sharp and clear with amazing colors. I did notice a bit of oversaturation at times, but this could be due to the fact that my TV has yet to be pro calibrated.

2. Price - I think this is the best DVD player out there for the $$$ bar none. This can be had right at around $200 new. And you get the kick a$$ chip set in addition to a mp3 capable CD player (albeit a rather flawed one).

3. Simplicity and flexibility - very easy to hook up, progressive scan DVD and mp3 playback, as well as VCD's, CD-R's, CD-RW's, etc.

Now for the weak points

1. Build quality - the build quality for this unit is pretty terrible...but then again the solid construction of my Onkyo probably had me spoiled. When I first got out the unit, I attempted to pull a sticker off of the top of the player. I was pretty horified when I almost pulled the top of the player off...no Im not kidding. The unit is paper light...not sturdy at all. Make sure no kids, clumsy people, or curious animals are around to knock this off a TV or shelf. I doubt it would survive. This isnt an issue for me because all of my components are shelved behind a glass door.

2. Asthetics - this unit is quite ugly. Doesnt quite look as cheap as some of the similarly priced Toshibas, but its quite doggish looking. All the gold logos are pretty damn tacky IMHO. But, I prefer function over form, and I think the sacrafice in looks is worth it.

3. Lack of a coaxial digital output. You will be forced to use a fiber optic cable...which in my case meant having to fork over extra $$$. Was not happy about this at all. Its pretty much the only area in which the unit failed to be flexible.

4. Runs hot - I was shocked at how hot this baby ran. Might have to keep an eye on it.

5. Picky mp3 playback - I cant hardly stand to listen to a MP3, but I thought it would be a nice feature for partys. Fitting 6 hours of music on one disc without the hassle of loading a changer sounded like a cool idea. When I tested it out, the mp3 CD I had burned skipped like crazy. Therefore I assume this unit is picky about the quality. Make sure you have a good ripper program. Most anything off the net probably wont play well on this player.

6. Standard CD playback - dont expect the greatest CD playback in the world. I dont think anyone out there would. I mean, the playback is solid and reliable - it does an average job of tracking scratched CD's. But I wouldnt reccomend this as anyones main player - but this is a product built for the average user, so in this aspect its fine. It does manage with CD-R's quite nicely, and the manual claims CD-RW playback as well - but I have yet to test this.

Overall quality is great - despite my nit picking. The value is incredible. This player will do me great justice until I can afford to step up to a high end DVD player to match the rest of my system. Honestly though, if I had it to do over I probably would have kept my Onkyo. If you can live with the build quality and looks, and MP3 or CD playback isnt crucial to you, then this player comes highly recommended. Lets get real, for this price you arent going to get the best in the world. But I value the sacrafices made by Panasonic to get the great chipset and killer picture. This is certainly the best player you can find new for under $500. I'm quite certain about that.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo 525

picture quality

no backlight on remote, some buttons have to pressed fairly hard to react(I prefer more sensitive response)

I have been very pleased with my experience with this piece of equipment so far. I don't have a HDTV yet but the picture on my Toshiba 36" is fantastic. The sharpness and detail is exquisite. I have only seen pixilating during one movie (jungle book) and no other picture degredations. I can't really comment on the sound because I only have two fronts hooked up(sad) but, the audio quality is very good from the player. I have listened to a couple cd's so far and the player is very clear in its signal, much more so than my current cd player component.

I highly recommend this player for anyone looking. I spent more time than I expected researching and no matter what direction I was pointed, this player always topped the list in the end for its price range. You will not be disappointed.

Similar Products Used:

none

Good de-interlacer

Ugly. It has the build quality of a $250 player.

In an earlier review, it was stated that since the Panasonic RP56 has "Inverse Telecine", it is not a "true" progressive player and therefore inferior. The review pointed to a HiFi article to make its point. Take a closer look at the article and you will see that this statement does not make sense. The article actually states that all of todays DVD players convert interlaced frames into de-interlaced (progressive) frames and are not "true" progressive. The point of the article is that, if done correctly, it makes absolutely no difference.

As long as a player is aware of "3:2" pulldown, there is no difference in image quality. "Inverse Telecine" is the "3:2" aware method of de-interlacing the image. So a DVD player that does this type of de-interlacing produces an image that is exactly the same as "true" progressive.

Just look at the diagrams in which it clearly shows:

Without "Inverse Telecine" = Bad De-Interlacer
With "Inverse Telecine" = Good De-Interlacer!

Since the Panasonic is a "3:2" aware player that uses "Inverse Telecine", its picture has same "true" progressive quality as all other good DVD players.

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http://www.hometheatermag.com/showarchives.cgi?69
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From the Article:

A true progressive-scan DVD player would bypass the interlace step and output the original progressive signal, but it would still have to add the 3:2 sequence. Unfortunately, for incredibly technical reasons, almost none of the existing players that we know of actually accomplish this seemingly simple task.
...
For reasons I'll explain later, it's impossible to tell the difference and possibly not even a good idea.

Picture quality

Some features are front-panel only

I was totally disapointed with this unit. I am thinking about taking it back. The copy protection garbage keeps the progressive scan from working with my Sony VPH-D50HTU front projection system. This projector has synced with just about everything I have ever hooked up... computers included.

This DVD player (RP-56) is very good on both video (480i, interlaced mode) and audio (surround sound is outstanding). I setup this dvd in 480i with component video output to my Samsung HDTV and the result is very impressive. No need to use progessive scan mode. The surround sound is processed very clear and loud to my surround speakers.

The progressive scan mode is good too but there is a samll flicker in saturated colors because of Sage's cross-color suppression filter being set too high (if you can live with that). I have had 5 dvd players (Apex(2), Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic) in the pass 6 months and all of them do the same thing - small flicker in 480p mode.

The following is the DVD Benchmark for progessive dvd. See for yourself:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_8_3/dvd-benchmark-progressive-shootout-2-8-2001.html

Sage Chipset of course. Excellent interlaced picture to boot.

Typical build quality found in this price range, limited features, cheap remote - but when the chipset alone costs $30, what do you expect?

ALERT: all of the poor reviews here are based on some misguided notion of "fake" 3:2 pulldown and are posted by people who are confused by the technology and are NOT rating the product based on their experience with its progessive scan performance.

The best online tutorial for progessive scan technology can be found at http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_7_4/dvd-benchmark-part-5-progressive-10-2000.html

Now for my review. For the price this is the best progressive scan player out there (as of 1/02). But $200 is so insanely cheap that I'd have to say it outperforms players at 3x the price. It's all in the Sage chipset. Go read about it, and quit slamming a product because the Panasonic website "doesn't list it under their progressive scan players..so it must not be progressive" I mean really, get a clue.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 670D, Toshiba, cheap Pioneer.

Mojuba is correct. 3:2 pulldown is indeed performed by the RP56, and it is a progressive scan player (as you can tell by the button on the front marked 'progressive'). Coincidentally this button turns on progressive scan mode.

Furthermore, the Sage/Faroudja chipset used in the RP56 is bar none the best deinterlacer on the planet. It goes far beyond plain old 3:2 pulldown techniques and does a very admirable job on poorly encoded disks and video source material. This player is much more advanced than earlier progressive scan players that "only" did 3:2 pulldown.

Whoever started this junk about "true" 3:2 pulldown should be shot. Either your chipset does it, or it doesn't. There are no degrees of 3:2 pulldown. How the player refines the image from that point on of course varies, but the idea that some progressive scan players don't do a "true" 3:2 pulldown is pure bullflop.