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$79 Panasonic DVD-S25

12.250.89.171


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Best Buy has these and they do play jpeg's.

If you do some research, you'll find that Panasonic has what is probably the best / most consistent video for the dollar spent out of any brand made.

As far as sonics go, we are in the middle of doing a head to head against the Philips SA-763. The Philips is definitely "warmer, rounder and smoother". It is also FAR slower in terms of changing tracks, etc..

Having said that, the Panasonic has much better resolution, noticeably superior separation of notes / instruments, far better bass impact and extension, etc... The only problem here is that, when directly compared to the noticeably "soft" Philips, the Panasonic has a noticeably hotter top end. To be fair though, the Philips has had at least 100 more hours of playing time than the Panasonic has. To clarify that, we noticed a very big improvement in the Philips in terms of "musicality" as it settled in. I am expecting similar performance improvements as the Panasonic "plays in".

In terms of tracking ability with damaged discs, these two players were about equal. While the Philips started to "glitch" a little more sooner, it was somehow able to play some more severely damaged tracks marginally better than the Panasonic could. Bare in mind that these weren't "subjective" guesses, but tests performed using calibrated discs designed to check such things.

If one is really interested in SACD playback and has a "bright and glaring" system, the Philips would be a great budget candidate, especially if music is important to you when selecting a DVD player. These can be had at Music Direct. As far as i know, they bought the remaining stock and are blowing them out at $120 - $130 apiece. If you're looking for good video with a slightly higher level of audio resolution ( but without SACD capability ), the Panasonic seems the way to go for even less money. Sean
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PS... My suggestion is to select a disc with both a high average recording level ( i.e. "LOUD" ) and one that has a very wide frequency response to it. Something with both deep bass and ( especially ) a LOT of high frequencies is very desirable. Put the disc into the player and leave it on repeat whenever you are not using it as you normally would. After about a week of non-stop use, the differences that you'll hear are not subtle. This will also verify whether the mechanical aspects of the machine are sturdy, as you'll have put considerable time on the unit using this method. This is good as it will allow you to return the unit to the place of purchase within the required time frame should it develop problems during "burn in".

PPS... Differences in video quality will be reduced from player to player if you calibrate the TV to the individual DVD player being used. The use of either the Avia or Video Essentials calibration discs makes this task far easier and repeatable. There are other discs available that may also work quite well, but these two are what i'm familiar with and own / use.


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Topic - Cheap DVD players - HOK 08:09:21 12/5/03 ( 9)