Picture, smooth scanning, fast loading decent build quality, made in Japan.

Given it already discontinued the obvious answer is poor marketing. Remote lights the buttons that don't need lighting. Actually corporate greed introduced it and killed it.

A middle weight middle class player that falls into the middle of the pack. It may well be the best interlaced player ever made BUT DVD's native format is progressive scan, so what Panasonic did here was to interlace the picture and then add oversampling as a carrot. Don't get me wrong, it may well offer an improved interlaced picture and if that's all you want then fine. My point is progressive scan is in there somewhere on all boxes, and today in the PC market you can buy the cheapest no name $20 video card that will not only do progressive scan (as it has been able to for the last 10 years) but with a 250, 300, even a 350MHz DAC. The days of 54MHz DACS on PC video cards ended back in the days of Pac Man.

The player is a quiet transport, at least after the initial reading of the disk. It responds quickly, and is made in a country that is not trying to build the A bomb.

The number of chain stores NOT carrying it is quite high, I suppose the average chain store worker (who won't be able to vote for another 4 years) would be hard pressed to get the average price-only shopper to even consider the price differential. A $50 rebate on the RV30 didn't help matters much either. Ultimately I think Panasonic overestimated the number of people who want progressive scan quality but the not the high price. Built decoders allows serious videophiles to say "I got DTS decoders all over the place" while offering real function only to a handful of customers.

Similar Products Used:

I didn't bother.

Follow-up to my original article can be found at this link:

http://www.geocities.com/chuckster042000/rv80.html

Fast loading, great picture and sound.

None so far.

This is my first DVD player. Picture and sound is fabulous! One of the main reason for purchasing this model is because of it load and search speed. I remember the days when I had a 386SX 16Mhz PC, it sure took it's time to start up, load programs, etc. I"m a happy camper as I purchased this for Home Theater performsnce as this unit is not for CDR, CDRW, DVD Audio, etc. it'll play music Cd's though. I hope I figured this right, in the future I plan to get a HDTV widesreen with a Progressinve Scan built in, so I figured this unit would do with it's 54mhz. Plus a $50 rebate from Panasonic.

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1st DVD player

Picture, build quality.

None

I’ve owed the RV-80 for about 4 months now. I’m using the S-video output. It’s picture is quite different than the Pioneer unit I had. The pioneer had a more video like picture and I’d say the Panasonic is more movie like. It’s higher sampling rate, same 10 bit but 54 Mhz vs 27 Mhz , gives it much more detail than the Pioneer. As examples, with the Panasonic I can see the texture in a coat, the minute wrinkles in stars faces, etc. So the picture in that regard is much more detailed and realistic. Unfortunately, on some dvds the added detail causes some distortion. On views that contain long strong horizontal (doesn’t appear to effect vertical lines) lines of a structure, when the camera pans them, they become somewhat wavy. As an example, in Gladiator when the coliseum is scanned it’s outline becomes wavy. This doesn’t happen on all disks or that often as this narrowly defined situation rarely occurs. When it does occur, it’s only momentarily distracting. I have read that turning down the saturation on you TV can minimize this effect. I tried it on my Panasonic 36" but did not get any improvement. Like I said this rarely happens. I am much more pleased with the detail and quality of the picture than I am annoyed by this infrequent occurrence.
The unit has a cinema mode. Panasonic states it "Mellows movies and enhances detail in dark scenes…has the added effect of reducing picture noise" I found this mode helpful on dvds with poor picture quality…it really cleaned them up. Example: Out for Justice, Steven Segal. It’s poorly transferred with lots of picture noise. The Cinema Mode cleaned it up so that it looked like one of my better dvds. I don’t recommend using it on a well recorded dvd - it made it worse.
A big plus is that in pause I/P/B..as the manaul explains they are 3 possible frames that can be viewed when any unit is paused. You need the I-picture, the complete frame, to make adjustments. I used the Avia disk.
The unit has worked flawlessly on my 50 dvds, which includes all the troublesome ones. The startup time and actions of the player are all faster than the Pioneer.
I use the internal DACs in my Pioneer Elite 24vsx for the dvds. I want the THX capability. I didn’t buy the player for it’s DACs, I wanted the better picture. I have never had to use the center channel Dialogue Enhancer…yet. The Virutal Surround Sound (VSS) sounds good through the headphones. If I ever do any late night viewing and don’t want to disturb anyone, this will be a good feature. As a cd player I am quite pleased. I tried using the digital outs to my Pioneer Elite receiver, but didn’t really like the sound. In that mode my receiver won’t let me use my tone controls…and that may have a lot to do with it. I decided to use the internal DACs in the player and use audio out. This way I can use my tone controls. Very pleasing sound. Great clarity, I have modified Klipsch Heresy speakers. Better than my 10 year old CD player. I have never tried the internal DACs for surround sound decoding. You can set it up for randomn play, all play, or program in memory up to 32 tracks in any order you want. I nearly always let cds play straight through.
The user’s manual is well written, gives examples, good graphics, and covers everthing…a big plus.
Overall I am very pleased with the quality, picture, sound of this unit.

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Pioneer 525, 2nd generation player

Flexible settings, Processor Speed, Color, Resolution

construction,analog output

RV80 overall picture is very good to excellent. The 4x over
sampling error correction coupled with 54mhz 10 bit video
dacs translate into good performance characteristics.
As a result camera pans and backround clarity is enhanced.
The variety of video settings offers the user with greater
flexibility in fine tuning the RV80 to match almost and
monitor or projector.

After comparing the RV80 other units listed above,It was
clear that in many ways DVD Video performance is not
necessarily a function of dollars spent. In evaluating the
performance of the RV80, it became quite clear that Panasonic did a few things right.Although the RV80 is very
good it is not perfect, but it is doubtful that anyone
intersted in this unit would walk away disappointed.

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Sony 9000ES, Camelot Roundtable, Pioneer Elite DV37
Meridian 596

Good pic, great sound

None yet besides I already found out the disc has to be really clean or it won't play correctly.

Got the RV80 on sale. I checked out some internet prices but $299 at Douglas TV/Tweeter was the best price I found.

I've watched four movies so far. I really don't care for wide view but I'll get accustomed to it eventually.

The picture is very good but I don't think it's as good as many people make it out to be. I have a six year old 26" Mitsubishi TV. Maybe I need a new TV?

The sound is great. I watched Santana Supernatural Live and the sound is great. I have a Phase Linear amp, Adcom preamp, and Infinity speakers.

Overall I'm very happy with the player. I like the convenience of the disk versus a tape.

Panasonic makes a very good product I recommend it.

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None. This is the first DVD player I've owned

Dave, I totally agree with you. Ever Since I bought the RV80 in February, I've done additional research in order to come to a consensus...and the consensus is a great one. There's a huge following for this player at avsforum.com, and I encourage everyone to do a search for the RV80 at AVS as well as other HT sites. Since it was discontinued long ago and the RP91 hit the street, there hasn't been much talk about the RV80, but owners know that it's exceptional.

Oh, by the way....hundreds of discs, tens of new disc formats, and several CDs later, not one prob.

Excellent picture and sound quality, supreme finish, quiet operation

Remote could have used lights under all buttons, not only cursor control ones

I am quite picky when it comes to the home electronics. I went through 8 receivers, for example, until I settled on Harmon Kardon AVR80 MKII. The same was true with the DVD Player. I wanted the best non-progressive DVD player with the built in Dolby Digital decoder for the money. I knew that the picture quality of Sony DVP-S7700 is a reference point to many knowledgeable people, so I borrowed that model from my friend and over 2 weeks auditioned it side by side with Pioneer DV333, Sony DVP-S560D and JVC XV-D723GD. TV used was 32” Sony XBR.

Pioneer DV333 ($199 at Sears) (Made in Taiwan) looked cheap, had the worst picture and lacked a built in DD decoder.

Sony DVP-S560D ($250 at Sears) (Built in Malaysia) had a very decent picture and good sound, but it choked on Matrix DVD (started to lock up on chapter 15).

JVC XV-D723GD (Made in China) was quite sturdy, looked gorgeous, exhibited excellent picture and sound, boasted a lot of useful features, but was the most expensive unit (could be bought over the net for $454), and the maker - JVC has earned a horrendous reputation in terms of quality and customer service.

Panasonic DVD-R80 ($320 delivered, NY tax included, from Jandr.com) (Made in Japan). Medium weight, very elegant look, the best remote of the bunch (still could use some improvement, though), quiet and fast mechanics, picture on par with Sony DVP-S7700 (The 54 MHz video processor definitely helps), reads all problem discs - Matrix, Terminator 2 UE, Perfect Storm, Lost in Space etc.

Still and slow pictures are very clear and smooth, fast forward and reverse scanning has several speeds up to x100 and works quite well.

Menu system is very user friendly, allows to select "softer" and "sharper" image modes and to fine-tune picture to the extent of complete satisfaction of any video nut, it provides for specialized settings according to what type of TV is used (regular, projection, CRT, etc.) also.

Layers change is almost unnoticeable (0.5 seconds pause - same as JVC and Sony).

This player has S-VHS and component video outputs as well as optical and coaxial digital audio outputs.
I could not check the digital audio stream, because my receiver is “Dolby Digital Ready” only – six analogue audio inputs and no built-in decoder. Player’s decoder, though, produces a truly astonishing sound while viewing both DD and DTS encoded discs.

I do not intend to listen to music CD’s on this player, so its inability to read the CD-R’s was not an issue to me at all. Regular audio CD’s sounded as well as on my really good dedicated CD player.

The player has the ability to boost the central channel sound level +6dB to enhance dialogue when needed and to compress sound for “night” viewing.

Panasonic reliability is constantly better than of any other home electronics brands judging from the posts in any newsgroup or forum and from the Consumer Reports.

My final word - Panasonic DVD-RV80 is the best value among the non-progressive DVD players on the market now.

It is priced reasonably and works like a charm.

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Sony DVP-S7700, PIONEER DV333, Sony DVP-S560D, JVC XV-D723GD

Built in Dolby Digital Decoder and DTS Decoder, backlit remote, Virtual Surround Sound

lacks zoom capability

The Panasonic DVD-RV80 is the replacement for the A320. The best feature is that in addition to a Dolby Digital decoder, it also has a DTS decoder. Very easy to setup. This is my first DVD player, and I have been very pleased with it so far. I would recommend getting it from outpost.com. They have FREE overnight shipping.

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Toshiba 3109

DTS DD5.1 PRO-LOGIC DECODER NICE REMOTE SMALL SLEKE LOOK. GOOD FF/FR SPEEDS VERY EASY TO SET UP.

NONE SO FAR.

THE PANASONIC AV80 IS A SOLID CONTENDER FOR THE BEST DVD PLAYER IV OWNED.IV ONLY WATCHED 3 MOVIES SO FAR BUT..WOW WHAT A DIFFENCE IN PICTURE QLTY THEN MY OLD DENON.THE PICTURE ON THE NEW T2 DTS WAS OUTSTANDING! IT IS CLEANER,CRISPER AND MORE VIBRIT THEN ANY PLAYER IV OWN.I BOUGHT THIS PLAYER BECAUSE MY DENON1500 WOULN'D PLAY T2 OR THE ABYSS OR ID:4.IM VERRY HAPPY WITH THIS CHOICE.THE DTS SOUND IS JUST AS GOOD THE THE DENON AND WAY BETTER THEN THE MARANTZ. SO IN A WORD........I LOVE IT..OK THATS THREE WORDS.

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DENON-1500 MARANTZ 810