Price Paid:  $200.00 from Wal-Mart

Summary:
Don't buy from Panasonic! This was a nice unit until the "no disc" screen becomes a constant reminder of disposable products in a consumer based society! I now will buy the cheapest i can find...what is the point anyway?

Strengths:
not worth the time to type...

Weaknesses:
it is broken...rude lady from customer service stated rudely..."video and audio are differnt things" -- no! really!

Similar Products Used:
NA

Price Paid:  $179.00 from Target

Summary:
Add me to the list of dissatisfied customers. Though I got a bit more use out of it than some of the previous reviewers, at or about 10 months after purchase it has completely stopped funtioning. Pixelates and freezes anywhere from 1 - 15 mins into any disk, and that is when you can get it to read at all.

Strengths:
Great picture and audio, when it worked.

Weaknesses:
No lifespan to speak of

Similar Products Used:
Various Toshiba DVD players

Price Paid:  $190.00 from Target

Summary:
This is for the RV-26. Sometimes experiences in life make you wish you could picket electronic stores warning naive customers about crappy products. Well the Panasonic DVD-RV26 makes me want to. DON''T BUY PANASONIC PRODUCTS BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE EXPENSIVE PRODUCTS, THEY DON''T LAST! Well maybe for a few months. Let me give advice to those who are having problems and debating taking theirs back. When the movie you are watching starts pixelating and hangs, RUN -don''t walk to return it. If you think they will be kind and fix it under warranty a day after it expires, forget it. Get out your wallet. This is the only time that I would recommend one of those annoying extended warranty plans. Trust me - you''ll need it! *Congradularions Panasonic, you have started to produce really crappy stuff, ruining your reputation. Their new style of phones stink too. Ahhh... the good ol''days. I hope their CEO can afford that new swimming pool because they are not spending money on good components!

Strengths:
Good while it works. Great if you just like watch the words NO DISK on its little screen when it craps out on you 4 months later.

Weaknesses:
Broken after 4 months with $75 labor to repair the Laser pick-up assembly. Plans to use it for a door stop.

Similar Products Used:
Sony - Mitsubishi

Summary:
For the price a great buy, although newer more up to date Players are coming out all the time which are almost able to compete on price

Strengths:
Great picture quality, easy to use, quiet

Weaknesses:
no cd-r

Similar Products Used:
first DVD player

Price Paid:  $190.00 from K-mart

Summary:
This review is for the DVD-RV26 new in 2001.
I was looking for a new DVD player that would play CD-R discs that I recorded with MP3 files. One disc will hold about 170 songs and play up to 11 hours of music. To play MP3 files the player must have a decoder in it.
I was pleasently supprised by the excellant picture quality using the S-video output as compared with my previous Toshiba DVD. This unit packs a lot in for the money. It has Dolby Digital and dts decoders, component and S-video outputs, high speed (up to 100x) variable search. Perfect freeze frame, and plays MP3 songs and audio on CD-R and CD-RW discs. It has other features and on screen display of settings. The RV26 does not show MP3 song titles which can be a drawback for some but will show the song number at least to 177. I don't care since I can play them on my computer if I want to be picky or just skip a song with the remote. There are other DVD players now that will play MP3s but some won't have the quality of this Panasonic so I think it is worth a little extra. You won't be disappointed.

Strengths:
Plays DVD,CD-R,CD-RW,MP3. Remote works great

Weaknesses:
angular styling

Similar Products Used:
Toshiba DVD