Panasonic DVD-RV31K DVD Player With CD-R, CD-RW and MP3 For $99 !
Written: Jul 03 '01 (Updated Dec 22 '04)
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Pros: Price, excellent picture and sound, easy to use, features, MP3, CD-R/W,
Cons: Remote could be better, no SVCD playback but with XVCD playback who cares?
The Bottom Line: The Panasonic DVD-RV31K is an excellent choice (which is the reason I bought it). It is excellent in picture quality, sound and ...
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| dkozin's Full Review: Panasonic DVD-RV31 DVD Player |
The Panasonic DVD-RV31 has two variations - 31S (silver) and 31K (black). I bought a silver 31S in June of 2001, since I think that silver color looks better.
After purchasing silver Panasonic DVD-RV31S for myself (for $190), I was so impressed with it that I got a black Panasonic DVD-RV31K for my father in April of 2002 (for $130). And now, Amazon.com sells it for $99!
Why I Bought It
I bough the silver Panasonic DVD-RV31S after having got fed up with my old Sharp DV-600U. Yes, Sharp played DVDs somewhat, but I was getting more and more frustrated with it, for several reasons.
First of all, the Sharp was very slow both while loading a disc (by this I mean the initial period of time it takes after the tray is closed before anything appears on the screen) and responding to the commands.
Then, it had all directional buttons on the remote in one vertical row making it impossible to operate in the darkness. The remote also had to be pointed directly to the player's front panel.
And, worst of all, sometimes it would overheat and start freezing in the middle of the movie, until I shut it down and let it cool down from half an hour. Some discs would not play at all.
Then I heard about a new Panasonic DVD player that plays CD-R, CD-RW, VCD and even MP3 (for less than $200)! Which led me to two actions:
1. I went to Amazon.com and ordered it for $199 less $10 coupon, no sales tax and free shipping.
2. I went to eBay and posted my Sharp for sale.
Why did I do this? As you will see from the description below, the RV31 is a great DVD player. Given the choice between it and other DVD players in this price range (Sony NS300, Toshiba SD1600, SD1700, Pioneer DV-343, Samsung M301 and others) I would take RV31. Oh, wait, this is what I did!
It Is Inexpensive!
The RV31 costs less than the predecessor (RV30), plays MP3, CD-R and CD-RW. You can buy it now at Amazon.com for $99 with no sales tax and free shipping - see the table with the RV31K prices below.
The newer model (Panasonic RV32) sells for about $50 more, so the RV31 is still a good choice.
Looks
Although I prefer silver RV31S, the 31K looks nice and solid too. The front panel features a shuttle control so you can adjust playback/scan speed, as well as buttons for basic and some advanced functions, including skip, cinema mode control, etc.
The shuttle controls speed for DVD-Video as well as CD-Audio and even MP3 playback! The tray looks very solid and its operation is very smooth. The word "flimsy" does not belong here, everything is rock-solid. The player has the same width as stereo components and "component-width" VCRs, so you can stack them up.
I put the player on my VCR and have no problems with heat dissipation. The player has quite small size in depth.
MP3 Playback
Finally a brand-name manufacturer released a DVD player with MP3 playback (and the one that doesn’t cost a fortune). Before that you would have to settle for Apex or other player from the manufacturer you know nothing about with questionable reliability.
Now you can have an MP3 playback without sacrificing reliability, ease of use and picture and sound quality. Samsung M301 plays MP3s too, but given the choice between Samsung (with well-known issues in previous models) and Panasonic... Give me RV31 and you can keep M301.
I made a CD-RW with 3 albums of Nirvana (located in different directories) and the player quite quickly read the file structure and allowed me to play all the songs in succession. The sound quality was excellent (I usually use MP3s encoded at at least 128Kbit/sec) and the shuttle control could be used to adjust the playback/scan speed.
The only issue is that there is no way to program the MP3 playback and it does not show file names when playing MP3s. The existing file structure gets "flattened" - you see the song's number but not the name (i.e. "3 of 97"). There is no random MP3 playback either. As manual says, the playback order depends on file names.
Video CD, SVCD and XVCD
I have a lot of homemade Video CDs and, recently, XVCD. Keep in mind that in comparison with DVD, the picture quality of VCD seems significantly worse and comparable to VHS. However, the XVCD looks much better than VHS and can approach the picture quality of DVD.
The VCD features 352x240 resolution with video bit-rate of about 1150 kbps using MPEG-1 encoding. But you can also make XVCD with resolution of either 352x240 or 720x480 (I use the latter – it is the same resolution DVDs are recorded at) at up to 2500 kbps and RV31 will play it! I use TMPGEnc and Nero 5.5 to create XVCD. You can also use bit-rates lower than standard 1150 to fit more on one CD.
The ability to play XVCD is not advertised anywhere, but my RV31 plays them fine and the picture looks very good, especially at 720x480 resolution using 2500 kbps bit-rate! Unfortunately, the amount of video that fits on one CD-R or CD-RW shrinks as the bit-rate (and quality) increases.
The RV31 will also play SVCD, but only specially encoded ones. I found out that to make the RV31 play SVCD you have to multiplex the resulting MPEG-2 file as MPEG-1 (VCD). Otherwise, the player would go into slow motion playback, freeze and have problems with sound.
Anyway, after extensive testing I know that the XVCD at 720x480 looks better than SVCD (480x480) and requires much less hassle to create. The only [small] issue I noticed is that after 15 months of use, some XVCD discs produce artifacts (block noise) if the player has been working for a while (seems like it overheats a little). The discs in question were PNY CD-R with 720x480 VBR XVCD with maximum bit rate of 2500 Kbps.
CD-R/W
The RV31 plays both CD-R and CD-RW discs - it employs twin-laser pickup (for CD-R/W playback) and built-in stabilizer. The ability to play computer CD-R/W - recorded CD-R/W is essential when you want to play your MP3s or custom-made Video CD. It plays Video CD, DVD-Video, CD Audio and MP3 discs.
Performance
The first thing I noticed in comparison with my Sharp 600U, is that the operation is superfast. There is no delay after you press a button, everything happens immediately. The disc is also very quick to "load".
Picture
The RV31 features excellent picture and sound quality. I have never seen better picture quality from a non-progressive-scan player. The detail level is high, even in the dark areas. You easily can see the texture of the people’s skin in "The Mummy" and small details.
Sound
The sound is excellent, especially when using "real" surround sound (not VSS). My old Sharp DVD-600U (which I happily sold on Ebay) used to provide much worse Dolby Pro Logic sound than the RV31 does.
Error Correction
Panasonic CD and DVD players are known for ability to play scratched CDs and DVD discs much better than other players, and RV31 is no exception. On the DVDs that my Sharp wouldn’t even load, RV31 never skipped once! Recently I tried to watch a very scratched DVD of "Daylight" and, although the disc looked like it can be used as sandpaper, it played it only skipping in four places.
Advanced VSS
The RV31 features Advanced Virtual Surround Sound (VSS) circuitry that simulates the "presence effect" by downmixing Dolby 5.1 signal to two channels, so you can enjoy audio effects with just 2 speakers. But RV31’s version also includes an additional channel for subwoofer (AVSS with Bass Plus). Although not replacement for "the real thing", it is a nice feature.
Dialogue Enhancer Makes Everybody Happy
It finally happened: Several days ago, while watching U571 (a movie that has a lot of sound effects (read explosions), which completely drown (pun intended) out dialogues) with my surround sound system running at 60% of its power, I heard somebody knock on the door.
It was the apartment complex manager who asked me to turn the volume down, because my neighbors complained to her. She wasn’t happy. Neighbors weren’t happy. And after I turned the volume down, I wasn’t happy.
To make everybody happy, this player has dialogue enhancement feature, which boosts the volume of the center channel by 6 dB when playing a Dolby Digital 5.1 disc so that the dialogue doesn't become drowned out by the left and right speakers. I also found this feature helpful when watching "Trainspotting", where it’s hard to hear what people say, especially taking into account their accents.
Digital Cinema Mode
The player has the Digital Cinema Mode in which (on paper) the picture is enhanced by reducing glare, softening resolution, and improving visibility of details in dark scenes, resulting in a more realistic, cinemalike image. For me it looks like the lightness is increased and the black areas become gray, so you have to decrease lightness on the TV.
You also have a choice of a "User" mode, where you can control brightness, contrast and colors manually, and "Standard" mode. I leave it in its standard setting and have no complaints.
Inputs
Audio: the player has analog audio outs (left and right - RCA-type jacks) as well as an optical digital audio output (both Dolby Digital and DTS compatible), which you can use to connect it to Dolby Digital or DTS receivers or mini-systems. Optical digital out is immune to the electromagnetic interference. There is no coax out.
Video: you get a composite output, S-video output and component video out (some other players lack the component outs). You can use either S-Video out to connect the player to your TV or, even better, component video out, which is the best possible way to connect DVD player to your TV.
The component out digitally separates the video signal into its luminance (Y) and separate chrominance (PR and PB) elements, allowing delivery of a reference-quality picture with precise color reproduction.
Of course you have to have a TV that is compatible (has component inputs) to utilize the benefit of this feature. But you will have to deal with 3 cables instead of one S-Video cable. Besides, the difference between component connection and S-Video is difficult to see.
The "standard" composite connection, on the other hand, will create cross-luminance artifacts (rainbow like Moire patterns, dot crawl, etc.), due to the inability of a TV’s comb filter to correctly separate luminance and chrominance. Thus, if your TV has an S-Video input, S-Video cable will improve your picture tenfold comparing to the composite connection. The cheapest S-Video cable will provide significantly better picture than the most expensive premium composite cable.
Note: From the descriptions at the online stores it looks like the player comes without an A/V cable, but it does include it. I bought one in anticipation of the receipt of my new RV31 and now will have to return it. But you will have to get your own S-Video cable, if you need one.
Features
The player features still and frame advance (both directions) modes, chapter preview mode. As every Panasonic DVD player, this model features high-speed, five-step, smooth-motion scan, which provides crystal-clear forward and reverse scan in five speeds.
The front panel has a jog/shuttle control to allow you to adjust the scan speed. Once again, I was surprised to find out it works in CD-Audio playback as well as in MP3 playback. That is you can adjust the "scan" speed in audio playback modes also.
And during high-speed scan you can hear audio. Although it works only in the first high speed and you can hear sounds and some short words, but there is no way to understand what people are talking about.
The RV31 remembers where you stopped and can resume from that moment. The "Play Mode" button allows the player to remember where you stopped, even if the player is turned off (it employs "soft" power button). There are also 5 bookmarks you can return to and you can jump to any moment on the disc by entering the time.
The player also has shuffle/random mode, direct track access. The menus can be switched between English, Spanish and French. The menus are very intuitive with descriptions of what buttons to use. The onscreen displays allow you to control everything on the fly and even move itself in vertical direction.
Remote
The remote control is very easy to use. The button layout is intuitive and the remote is lightweight. It allows you to operate the player without pointing the remote directly towards the player.
But it does not allow you to control your TV and "Eject" is located directly above "Play", so I pressed it accidentally a couple of times. Remote is not backlit and the battery compartment door in my RV31S is flimsy, but the same remote in my fathers RV31K doesn’t have a flimsy battery door compartment. His RV31K was purchased recently so this might mean that recent remotes are produced better.
There is no way to slow down the fast scan or sl ow motion from the remote – you have to press "Play" to go to normal playback and go from there. It would be nice if that shuttle moved from the front panel to the remote.
I wouldn’t say that remote is bad (just nitpicking), but it could be better.
Bottom Line
The Panasonic DVD-RV31K is an excellent choice (which is the reason I bought it). It is excellent in picture quality, sound and ease of use, plays VCD, XVCD, MP3 and CD-R/W, features superfast operation, looks great, inexpensive... Why would one buy anything else?
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 99
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Epinions.com ID:
dkozin
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 in Electronics |
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Location: California
Reviews written: 848
Trusted by: 521 members
About Me:
I love to push buttons on electronic (audio and video) equipment. It makes me happy.
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