Esoteric Styling & Sound Quality ( Audio only circuit )
Picture Quality. NO CHROMA PROBLEMS, NOT MADE BY DENON

Owners manual ( very brief ) My unit is very slow to initialize, takes too long to play a cd.
Entire unit vibrates when playing certain DVD movies.
Should of been made sooner ! SHOULD HAVE A FILL SCREEN FEATURE FOR THOSE OF US THAT DONT YET OWN A WIDESCREEN.
ALSO A ZOOM FEATURE WOULD BE NICE ( DID LOVE THE JVC ZOOM )

THE BUILD QUALITY AND GOLD COLOR MAKE THIS THING LOOK
LIKE A MILLION BUCKS AGAINST MY BLACK COMPONENTS.
I WAS DROOLING OVER THE DENON 2800 FOR QUITE SOME TIME,
BUT I WAS WAITING FOR ALL OF THE CHROMA AND OTHER PROBLEMS
TO BE TAKEN CARE OF BEFORE I PURCHASED ONE.
WHILE I WAS WAITING, I PURCHASED A DENON RECEIVER AVR3801.
WHAT A DISAPOINTMENT, BRIGHT, SHRILL, NO BALLS, NO BASS
NO THANK YOU. PANASONIC KUDOS TO YOU GOOD JOB !

Similar Products Used:

JVC GDXV 723 ( WENT THROUGH TWO UNITS, BOTH HAD PROBLEMS )

Automatic aspect scaling, plays DVD-A, MP3, DVD-RAM, CD Remastering mode, no chroma bug

Operating manual is slightly confusing and is too brief

The Panasonic RP-91N is a a new Progressive Scan player with the follwing features:

- automatic anamorphic resizing in Progressive Scan mode
(movies recorded in the old 1.33 format will be resized to fit the entire 16x9 HDTV screen without loss of resolution)

- plays MP3 files

- CD Remastering mode
(audio data from CDs is interpolated at 88 KHz and is output digitally and through player's analog outputs)

- reads CD-R and CD-RW discs

- plays DVD-Audio discs

- no chroma bug
(almost all DVD players have a bug in their MPEG Decoder such that certain colors are improperly displayed. See Secrets of Home Theater at http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/main.html to learn more about the chroma bug.)

I have owned two other DVD Players - a Pioneer DVD-414 and a Toshiba SD-6200. The Panasonic DVD-RP91 is superior to both of these players in video quality, audio quality, disk loading speed, and the number of features.

The Panasonic is much faster then the Toshiba - pressing play or stop is instantaneous on the Panasonic. Consequently, movies load and start playing much faster.

The Panasonic has *much* more options for optimally configuring audio and video. The video can be tweeked so many different ways that you could spend hours setting it up. I used the standard Video Essentials DVD to configure the video display. The negative side of this is that it requires more time in learning how to set it up.

There is one small bug in the player - on some TVs the progressive image is shifted left slightly. This can be easily fixed by pushing the joystick on the remote right or left and pressing the STOP button on the player. Once I adjusted the horizontal position on my HDTV, the image was perfectly aligned.

The Progressive output on the Panasonic is excellent and the MPEG Decoder is free of the Chroma bug. Only DVD players with Panasonic MPEG Decoder and Mediamatics decoder are free of the bug. It's quite visible *and very annoying* in movies like Toy Story I and II. It's especially noticeable with red colors.

Some movies are recorded with an aspect ration of 1.33 to 1 (a ratio of width to height), others at 2.33 to 1, and yet others 1.76 to 1.

If you like watching older movies, such as Casablanca, that were recorded in 1.33 format (also known as standard) - this player has a special feature that makes all classic movies look great. It's called anamorphic resizing and it basically resizes the movie to fit your TV. On a 16x9 aspect ratio HDTV, most DVD players with show a movie like Casablanca with black bars on the side. If they have a zoom, then the image is far less sharper because resolution is lost in the zoom process. With the Panasonic, the player does the aspect ratio conversion for you, which makes the movie fit the 16x9 screen with minimal resolution loss. This is fantastic feature. I wouldn't buy a DVD player without it.

Although this player uses the older Genesis de-interlacer, as opposed to, the new Faroudja chips in the upcoming Kenwood Sovereign line, it doesn't comb a whole lot. De-interlacing is important when converting from a source like video which doesn't perfectly match the frequency of the TV.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba SD-6200, Pioneer DVD-414

Its look, the video and audio performance

It does not have zoom feature

I got this more than a month ago. In other place it is listed CAN $899. One day I went to a shop specialized DV camera. To my surprise, they also carried some DVD. Then the owner informed me that how great is the new Panasonic new DVD. I was hesitated and asked if I could read its catalog. Then I was impressed by the Panasonic new DVD lines which has many choices. I carefully read the RP91 features. It is just unbelievable with such a combination of all the lastest technology. DVD-Adio, Progressive scan, CD/R, CD/RW.

Its OSD is fantastic. You can adjust its position on the TV and there is a lot of adjustment you can choose. Its menu items are as extensive as my Sony. It is fun to use its remote and try out different setting.

So far I did not have a chance to test its DVD-audio. But I trust Panasonic this should be good.

Its Video performance is no less than my Sony DVP7000. The particular thing I like is the Noise reduction. I played some Video CD and I turned it on, picture was looking cleaner and less block noise. My wife loves it as she is a perfectionist.

When I look at this gorgeous machine, I just cannot walk away as it is so well designed and perfect in every angles it looks.

In fact, I also like Panasonic RV31 as it is only priced at CAN $310 and it is also super looking.

Trust me, this is so good that it is worth the money.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 2200, Sony DV7000

Very good Progressive SCAN DVD.

None Yet

Compared with Denon Panasonic DVD-RP91 is really worth for the price that I paid. Audio performance if good if you connected on Digital( optial ) to the receiver. Real BIG difference between regular dvd to progressive scan. I have tried it on Toshiba 65H80. Worth buying!

Excellent video/audio quality.

None that I can find.

First, thanks again to Thien for answering my questions. All I can say is WOW! This is my second DVD player and it's just great. The problem with my first RCA DVD player ($400 unit) was that of video artifacts. These weird artifacts were very intermittent and a lot of the time they proceeded or followed the layer change. The RP-91k does NOT have any of these problems. The player has played flawlessly DVD Video, DVD-Audio, Video CD, CD Audio, and CD-R Audio. The picture quality is better than the RCA also. The remote is very good and the manual is very easy to read and understand. I am extremely happy with this unit and would highly recommend it. I got it on line for a great price from LetsGoDigital ~$455.

Similar Products Used:

RCA DVD player.

DVD Audio, MP3, CDR

Flakey progressive scan output, confusing menus, Inconvienient audio setup.

Products progressive scan feature arrived DOA. Picture would black out whenever a bright flash appeared on the screen and dark lines were visible moving slowly down the display. Store where I purchased confirmed this on several other models of prog scan tvs.

S-video output looked fine, although no better than my older Sony. Seems few reviewers for this product are using 480p capable tvs, perhaps others have the same prog scan problem but don't know it.

When using the 6 RCA outputs on the player neither CD's nor 2.0 material could use the sub (sub works if amp source is switched to coax or optical in).

I will probably stick with my Sony until a few more chroma-bug free prog scan offerings arrive in the market.

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Sony DVP-S330

Picture quality, sound quality, plays mp3's, very good cd text support, custom picture adjustments per disc, various filters for video and sound.

Remote lacks buttons for features right on the face of the unit, manual could use a better layout, mp3 discs do not display play lists on tv screen like normal cd-text enabled cd's do.

The Good:
The picture quality is incredible on this thing. I right away noticed a difference compared to my sony player. The picture is vibrant and clear. Alot of detail but without the noise. I can't comment on the progressive performance cause my 27" TAU doesn't like 480p using component input. Finally I can watch a movie without it pausing then playing again like the sony player does.

The sound quality is a notch or two above the sony as well. Imaging seemed a bit more precise and the soundstage a bit deeper. I need to play with the Re-Master feature a bit when my girlfriend is around so she can hit the switch on the unit. Unfortunately you cant switch from the remote without going through the menu system which means turning the TV on. The mp3 play back is done very nicely. It read all of my mp3 encoded discs even the VBR files(the only type of encoding worth my time IMHO). Make sure that you finalize the disc or else it wont play it. It also only plays the first session of a multisession disc.
I just need some time to get to HMV and pick up some DVD-A titles so I can really hear what this unit can do. If DVD-A is all that its cracked up to be I hope they release more titles cause the current selection is lacking in a BIG way.

The Bad:
Disc loading could be a bit faster but it's not too slow. The remote pretty much sucks, and its slow too! Press a button and wait about a sec or two for the action to take place. I've never seen anything like that before. The unit has a scrolling playlist for CD's that have cd-text on them but stangely enough mp3 disc leave you clueless as to what is playing and what is comming up next. This on top of the fact that the unit re-organizes the play order so if you knew the layout of the cd-r/rw you put together, you won't hear your tracks in the order you would expect. It does however, seem to keep tracks from each album grouped together though the tracks wont play in order. As mentioned earlier, re-mastering requires that you go to the unit to turn the feature on or you flip throught that annoying on-screen menu system to get to it (which means turning the TV on). The look of this unit suggests sturdy build quatlity but it's acutually very light and the loading tray is VERY flimsy. I have sturdier load trays in my computer's cd-burners and they are both under $100. I would be careful not to bump your hand into the tray too much.

All in all I feel that this is a unit worth looking into. It has its quirks but you cant beat this units features, and picture/sound quality for the price. Despite it's shortcommings, this is a very good unit.

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Sony dvp-s360d, samsung POS(can't remember the model number)

Picture, looks, price

Audio only, very light - I like my components heavy.

First impressions : video - very good. Not tried component yet, looks fine with S-video.
Audio - very good for HT, not so good for audio only. I played with all the settings, so far could not get it to match my old trusted CAL DX-1 CD player. It sounds more mechanical, metallic kind of sound. The CAL is more relaxed and smooth. I was hoping to replace it with the Rp91 - but not yet. I'll give it some more time to see if things improve. Did not have time to match with diff. connectors yet.
Anybody can compare the RP91 and the Pioneer DV-37 ?
Setup - Adcom amp and preamp for HT, B&W speakers

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Cheap Sonys.

aspect scaling, DVD-A, MP3, audio playback

does not display mp3 track listing, no countdown timer

WOW, WOW, WOW! When I first plugged it in and played a DVD-V, I thought it was "ok". Avia'ed it to my 46" Mits widescreen and then played the DVD again. I was blown away. What really surprised me was the audio playback quality on movies. Channel separation was better and crisper. Dialogue was so much easier to hear. I might just keep my center speaker afterall.

I was anxious to try out the mp3 playback abilities, so I burned off a cd with 190 tracks and popped it in. It sounded pretty darn good and had no problems at all. I just wish it would show the filenames so it would be easier to find selections on discs with lotsa of music on them.

I think I got a pretty good price. The internet merchants are willing to bargain if you present them with competitors pricing. The original price I was quoted was $630 or so. I got it pretty easily for $470 or so, including shipping.

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Toshiba 2601