Very competitive DVD player at a NOT so competitive price!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Price, Quality, Many options, Most output types, Dialogue Enhancer, Compatibility

Cons: No Progressive Scan

The Bottom Line: 
Looking for a DVD player with a low price tag, but yet not quite lacking all the goodies of an upper price player? Looks like you've struck gold!

Author's Review
After having used my Playstation 2 as a primary DVD player for a number of years, I finally decided that it was time to maybe consider getting one that would focus more on DVD’s as opposed to video games. Plus, as anyone else with a PS2 knows, they tend to quit reading/playing DVD’s after so long, and I wasn’t ready to retire back to taking it apart or claiming a $100 fix from Sony. Because of my trouble with Sony, I immediately cut them out of the running for a DVD player. Maybe they make decent DVD-only players, but I wasn’t going to risk another $150 in them.

After looking through the available market, and keeping prices and brand names within view, I decided that the Panasonic DVD-RV32S would most likely fit my needs. It seemed to have had all the options I could have wanted, and came with a very decent price tag of $140. I’ve also had a very good history with Panasonic, and they’ve never let me down when it comes to quality.

Appearence

Sadly, right off the bat, I was not impressed with the trendy look of the silver outer layer to the player (The “S” in DVD-RV32S stands for silver), but since black wasn’t available where I purchased mine from, I was content to settle with it. To my surprise, the DVD player itself seemed almost as light as a feather, weighing in at a stunning 5.3 lbs. I guess that when it comes down to, that’s about normal for a DVD player, because it really doesn’t comprise of very many internal electronics. Following the standard 16-15/16 width, you won’t have much trouble sliding this 2-15/16 high DVD player back to a total depth of only 9-12/16. It’s size proved to be very convenient to anyone trying to squeeze it into a shallow cabinet/opening. Some consider its height to be substantially tall, but I wasn’t looking for a slim-line DVD player, so it looked great to me.

Whilst it’s color left me with more of a negative impression, it’s slick styling quickly made up for any trendyness factor which had been implied. Looking sleek and very smooth, most of its edges ran together in sharp angles, which made for mostly good sealing corners. As small and light as it appeared, it’s construction seemed durable and solid, with all of it’s face controls sitting tightly in place. I’ve heard a few claims that its face seems a little too simple, and doesn’t comprise of near enough important feature buttons. To me, this didn’t really make that big of a deal, mostly because the remote controlled a good just of the functions. I did however find it very intuitive and smart to put a traditional knob for fast-forwarding and rewinding movies on the face. Also on the face, you’ll find other buttons controlling many of the optional features, as well as the regular play, pause, stop, and frame forward/back. The last sets of buttons are such features as repeat, random, A-B repeat, and quick replay. Lastly, of course you’d have the Open/Close button, which operates smoothly and refrains from some of the “jerks” or “bursts” that I’ve seen from other DVD player trays.

Instruction Manual

Surprisingly, I found the instruction manual to be exceptionally larger then the manual to my receiver. My first guess would have been because I thought it would contain 6 different languages in it, but it ended up being printed in only English (except for the last page in Spanish). After spending some time alone, and sitting around to read a good part of the manual, I found it to be very helpful when setting up the system. Although it’s not printed in color, it does include tons of pictures and illustrations to help guide you through just about any questions you might have. Charts appear neatly organized, which helps to cut down on frustration when looking for answers. The troubleshooting section has successfully became the first I’ve ever seen that’s actually helped, giving more insight then the regular simple questions, such as why power doesn’t turn on. On a rather humorous note, it’s stated multiple times that the manual is proudly printed with soy ink.

Options

For the price paid, this DVD player has more then it’s share of special features. One of the only features that I would have expected would have been a more meticulous zoom features then the one at hand. Some of its signature features that separate if from other DVD players are as follows:

Resume - With the touch of a button, you can memorize a position on the disc that will be maintained, even after the disc has been changed out and/or the unit is put onto standby.

On-screen Progress Bar - A very simple idea put into use. This feature, found under the “display” menu, shows exactly how much of the movie has elapsed/remains with a convenient half-colored bar. It also states the actual time elapsed/remaining, as well as chapter and title.

Quick Replay - Simple feature that allows you to skip back a few seconds every time the button is pushed. Comes in very helpful if someone was talking during an important part of a movie

4:3 TV Zoom - Just as it sounds, this feature allows you to zoom in on a letterbox movie (widescreen), so that it fills a larger part of the screen. Downside to this feature would be that it cuts off portions of the sides in attempts to fill up the screen. Also, it’s only limited to one zooming size, so you don’t really have control of how close the zoom is. Some DVD’s don’t allow this option to properly function.

Program Play - Applying to both MP3 discs and DVD’s, this function allows you to pick and choose songs/chapters which you would like to be played in a specific order, usually differing then the order which they would normally occur.

Advanced Surround V.S.S. (Virtual Surround Sound) - This quaint little option can come in very handy for anyone not sporting an A/V receiver. This feature attempts to downmix a 5.1 soundtrack to create a surround sound effect by using only 2 front speakers, or even just regular TV speakers. It has 2 different levels of intensity/adjustment, so you can decide which better fits you. While some DVD’s sound really great with this option, others can become terribly distorted by annoying static, or simply from sound overflow.

Bass Plus - If you don’t have an “active” or “powered” subwoofer plugged directly to the DVD player, this feature is deemed useless. However, if you do have one, it just simply boosts the signal coming out of the “subwoofer out” by 2 levels of increasing bass intensity.

Cinema - Simply put, this 2-level option will either mellow your picture, or sharpen it, giving it a special touch, which attempts to mimic movie theater viewing settings.

Dialogue Enhancer - This was one of the options which helped sell the DVD player. If you’re not using an A/V receiver, you may sometimes find yourself struggling just to hear what is being said in a movie, so you turn up the volume, only to be blown out of your seat when a car crashes seconds later. This option helps to strengthen the center channel output of 5.1 movies when being watched on a TV with only TV speakers. I can honestly say that it does a marvelous job of doing so, but like with everything else, depends on the movie being viewed.

One Touch Cinema Memory - The option didn’t serve much of a purpose for me, but some seem to find it useful. By the touch of one button, your “Advanced Surround, Bass Plus, Cinema, and Dialogue Enhancer” settings are stored, so that if you change them later on, you can always revert to your saved settings with the press of one button. In my house, it’s been nicknamed the “lazy man’s button”, mostly because it’s nothing more then a shortcut to adjusting individual settings.

Compatibilty

The DVD-RV32’s compatibility had surprisingly a larger range then I’d originally thought. This DVD claims to be able to play any of the following formats of discs: DVD-Video, CD, VCD, WMA, MP3, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, and sometimes DVD-RW. In my personal experience, I’ve found that CD-R and CD-RW discs only play depending highly upon the burn quality. I’ve yet to get my hands on any DVD-R or DVD-RW’s, so I’m not really able to accurately comment on their quality. When dealing with scratched discs, Panasonic has been known to be exceptionally great, with no exception with the DVD-RV32S.

Outputs

Although it’s not a manifestation of outputs, the RV32 seems to have most of today’s offered audio/video outputs to choose from. Right now, we’ll take a look at audio and video separately.

Audio

While lacking the coaxial connection that more and more people are unexplainingly choosing to use, the RV32 does of course offer an optical (a.k.a. Toslink or fiber optic) digital out, which must be used if true digital 5.1 sound it preferred. For those of you simply wanting to plug this DVD player directly up to your TV, you also have the traditional right and left RCA analog outs. A "passive" subwoofer out is also offered, even though its seemingly kind of obsolete since subwoofers are normally plugged up to A/V receivers. However, if you’ve got an “active” or “powered” subwoofer on-hand, and you’re looking for a simple addition of bass without buying a pricey receiver, this option may very well be what you’ve been looking for!

Video

With video connections, on the other hand, the RV32 seems to offer all 3 types which is currently used in today’s modern TVs. As with most DVD players, the old-time 75ohm-cable connection doesn’t connect directly to the DVD player, but with addition of optional accessories, can be plugged up as well. In order from the highest quality to the lowest, you have a set of Component outs, an S-video out, and the traditional Composite video out. Neither Component nor S-video cables are included, but a Composite video cable (with a yellow head) is included. In my own personal opinion, if Component or S-video connections are available on your receiver/TV, you should definitely go with it. While running Composite video to a DVD player is still clearer then a VCR would be with an S-video connection, you should still try to grab one of the other 2 connections. However, knowing that older TVs don’t offer either S-video or Component, some people just don’t have a choice. No matter which connection you choose to use, you will undoubtedly end up with a wonderful picture.

Sound

Without special equipment used to test sound output, it can sometimes be deemed impossible to properly judge sound output without it being biased by other components of a system, such as receiver, speakers, or connections. However, for the sake of writing a helpful review, I’ll try my best to clarify. I’ve used both RCA cables as well as the Optical cables, so lets take at look at the 2 separately.

RCA Cable sound

Before buying a receiver, I had the RV32 simply plugged up to a TV via RCA cables. It seemingly did a beautiful job of downmixing 5.1 tracks, while creating beautiful sound reproduction of all ranges (excluding deep bass, of course). When using the Advanced Sound V.S.S., I found the sound to be slightly better then it would have been normally, depending of course on the movie being viewed. When the Dialogue Enhancer was used, I found it much easier to understand and decipher what they were saying, as opposed to turning the TV volume up and down all the time. Sound seemed to have been relayed clearly and audibly, and certainly loudly. Since this was the first time I’d ever listened to DVD audio as opposed to VCR, I was blown away from the get go. CD quality was decently produced over the TV speakers, while MP3 quality suffered slightly more then CDs.

Optical (Toslink) Cable Sound

About a ½ year after buying the RV32, I decided I wanted to further my movie experience by buying an A/V receiver (Click to see my Panasonic SA-HE100 receiver review). Once this setup was complete, I had changed over from RCA cables to the Optical (Toslink) cable used to produce 5.1 digital sound. While there were seemingly better ranges of sound, the most obvious difference would have evidently been the 6 discreet channels of recorded audio. Center channel had now become 10 times easier to understand, and the sound didn’t have it’s “run together” that it did when downmixed to 2 channel stereo. Also, because I’d upgraded to digital, now I was also able to listen to tracks recorded in DTS, which was one of the biggest plus of all. The DTS tracks were seemingly even MORE clear and distinct then the Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. However, to listen to an audio track recorded in DTS, you’re receiver must also be DTS compliant. As previously stated, receivers can easily bias this sound, but notably, the sound being delivered to the receiver was very crisp and clear. CDs presumably sounded extravagantly wonderful, and MP3s were just about a level below CDs. Ranges were delivered clearly, and when treble and bass were tuned by the receiver correctly, CD’s very well could sound like a beautifully flowing symphony of sound!

Picture Quality

Regardless of using a receiver or not, I’ve always been connected via an S-video cable. I did try Composite cables once for a comparison, but very quickly changed back after noting the degrading results of Composite. Minimal bleeding was apparent, and the picture seemed to be delivered brightly and wonderfully clear. When using trying out some of the Cinema features, I found the picture to be somewhat better, but a stunningly huge difference wasn’t discernible. When viewing the superbly clear picture produced by the S-video connection, I can’t help but wonder what kind of magic Panasonic would be able to perform with the next step up, utilizing it’s optional Component video connections.

Remote Control

While the remote may not be the most sophisticated, or fullest remote ever, it serves it’s purpose, and does it well. All of the above listed features are available through the remote control, and quite a few more. It operates off 2 AA batteries, and doesn’t seem to drain them very quickly at all. After 2 years, I’m still using the same pair that came with the remote. None of the buttons are illuminated, which comes as a surprise from Panasonic. Seems to fit into your hand comfortably, and most of the important buttons are either larger in size, or made with a different color. Ironically, Play, Pause, and Stop are among the smaller buttons.

Reliability/Durability

As with most Panasonic products, the RV32 is no exception to its flawless play and solidly constructed lifetime use. It’s been almost 2 years now, and it’s still working flawlessly. Even some of the worst discs ever seem to play without problems, though occasional ones may need shined up, but still pose no real threat when cleaned properly. Heck, I’ve even had a cracked disc, as well as one with chips missing. As long as the part of the disc being played was present, you had better believe it was playing! Personally, I wouldn’t expect, or except much less outta a Panasonic product, for I’ve really grown to know their name means quality, as well as durability.

Overveiw

Panasonic has did yet another wonderful job at putting together another market competitive product at a not-so market competitive price! When I bought it, it was right around $140, but as of now, I believe you could pick one up for right around $100! Do be warned however of the biggest drawback to this seemingly flawless player – that being its lack of Progressive Scan. If you don’t own a HDTV (High Definition), then it doesn’t make much of a difference. However, if you do own one, or plan on it in the near future, you may want to save up just a little bit more for it’s step up model, which included Progressive Scan (Such as the Panasonic DVD-S35S). Progressive Scan, in a very summarized version, plays more frames per second, thus creating a smoother picture. However, you won’t even be able to take advantage of that feature unless you’ve got a HDTV. As with most Panasonic products, this is yet another example of how they can offer you electronics with the same number of features (and almost more!) for almost ½ the price as major competitors. Until I’m ready to move up to a progressive scan DVD player, this one certainly won’t be moving off my shelf!