Price Paid:  $299.00 from jandar

Summary:
i have been useing rp82 for about 6 months i have to say it realy good dvd player. according to dvd benchmark it passes with flying colors.i visited bang&olufsen in search of hdtv guess what dvd they were useing in their showroom dvd rp82 picture was stunning. if you useing good hdtv and good quality cables this nothing less that a winner.the best review will be see it yourself this player is better than players three times the price. ( see dvd benchmark)

Strengths:
dcdi, furodja chip, stunning picture,lots of features

Weaknesses:
you can complain at this price

Similar Products Used:
pioneer, denon 1600

Price Paid:  $100.00 from The WIZ

Summary:
This is a wonderful unit. anyone interested in a great dvd player should consider this unit. got it open box at the wiz since they going out of business. check out the 03 dvd shoutout at this site and judge for yourself. http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=all

Strengths:
video /audio playback quality

Weaknesses:
built quality and bad remote.

Similar Products Used:
sony S7700, Panasonic DVDRP91K

Price Paid:  $270.00 from Future Shop

Summary:
I've been looking for a new DVD player for quite some time, but couldn't find one with all the features i wanted for the price i was willing to pay. When the Toshiba DVD-4800 came in, i was immediately drawn to it, but when this beauty was sitting on the shelf next to it, i finally made up my mind. The sound from this player is great, i use this as a cd player in my home theater, and for a DVD player playing cd's, the sound quality is excellent. The audio only feature is great, as it drastically improves the sound quality this puts out. The other feature i love is the Re-master feature that bumps up the bitrate so it sounds better. All in all i'm very impressed with this player, i would recommend it to anyone looking for a good middle of the road Dvd player loaded with features.

Strengths:
The Remaster feature, and the Audio only are great, and Dvd audio for this price is awesome. The on board decoder is good too, much better than the decoder in my sony receiver.

Weaknesses:
If i had to gripe about something with this machine it would probably be the cheesy mirrored front, but i'm getting pretty picky at thsi point.

Similar Products Used:
Toshiba DVD-4800

Price Paid:  $270.00

Summary:
hey guys, i bought the RP82 based on the 2003 DVD-shootout result. in fact, i learnt a lot from its previous benchmarking on progressive DVD player and therefore once i knew that this machine got their recommendation, i rushed to get one home. the first impression i have on the machine was "how could panasonic did it?" it's light weight, compact in size and... inexpensive! i couldn't wait to test it with my projector on 100" screen. i did the run-in for aroung 3 hrs just to play some DVDs without viewing. BUT when i firstly tested it with the STARWAR 2, i was not overwhelmed with its picture quality as comparing to my skyworth 1050p (also based on the review from the shootout). my initial observation was lacking details on dark scenes. so i used my VIDEO ESSENTIAL DVD to calibrate its black level setting BUT found the machine couldn't give out a blacker than black bar under progressive mode. when i switched it to interlace mode, the problem is solved. however, even switching it from the progressive N, C1, C2 mode for different black levels, the machine still couldn't reveal the blacker than black bar. i hope mine is a defective one and i could have it fixed later. otherwise, i really doubt if the machine deserves such high score.

Strengths:
inexpensive, compact, lot of features...

Weaknesses:
can't adjust black level during progressive mode; can't get the blacker than black setting

Similar Products Used:
pioneer dvd 909, 919 toshiba sd900 samsung dvd 308 skyworth 1050p

Price Paid:  $225.00 from BRIAN REMIER AUDIO

Summary:
WOW!!!.....WHAT A GEM OF A PLAYER. WOW!!!.....WHAT A FANTASTIC PICTURE. WOW!!!.....ALL THIS IN A CHEAPER PRICED PLAYER??? WOW!!! TWO VERY BIG POWERFUL THUMBS UP ON THIS MODEL FOLKS. THIS PLAYER WON THE 2003 WORLDWIDE DVD PLAYER BENCHMARK ratings!!! It beat out players that were costing 2X-10X as much in price!!.....WOW!!!! The rumour is that, this model is to be discountinued. WHY,WHY,WHY???CRY,CRY,CRY! [I hope I'm wrong]. My actual price was $340CAD. I bought this machine to replace a lemon DVD player by another maker[SEE BELOW]. Fool me once.....SLAP YOU. Fool me twice....SLAP ME. When I connected it to my XBR I was amazed at the picture quality when playing in EITHER 480interlaced OR 480progressive modes. I still haven't madeup my mind as to which mode to feed to my XBR. I haven't tested the 5.1 audio out features on this player as of yet. ONLY TIME WILL TELL IF THIS PLAYER WILL STANDUP TO IT'S ALREADY ESTABLISHED REPUTATION.

Strengths:
GENESIS [Faroudja DCDi] FL12200 de-interlacing DSP superchip. By the way... this chip sells for $28US IF you buy 10,000 or more. Correct 3-2 Chroma upsampling. Doesn't have the Chorma Bug. Twin laser pick up. Dts 5.1 channel audio out [.0025% THD] Stereo out. By the way.... the stereo is active all the time even when playing Dts. You can re-inforce the audio from the TV speakers. Optical/Coaxial out...S video out....High definition video component out. Overall.... a feature packed player and remote.

Weaknesses:
OK....THERE HAS TO BE ONE!!!!!! LET'S PICK THE REMOTE. IT'S SMALL......I DON'T CARE. IT'S BUILD IS LIGHT WEIGHT...I DON'T CARE. IT'S FEARTURE PACKED....I DO CARE. IT ONLY COSTS $11.24US TO REPLACE....I DO CARE. [see Panasonic US site]

Similar Products Used:
Sony DVP-360......MY WORST NIGHTMARE :-(