The Panasonic DVD-H1000: Cheaper To Just Hire Fish and Keanu to Slap Each Other Around
Written: Sep 10 '02
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Pros: Awesome picture quality, unbelievable sound quality, intuitive remote control, cool features.
Cons: Good news! Now most electronic retailers will accept a kidney as a down payment!
The Bottom Line: If you can afford this, go ahead and check it out. Everyone else, look at the price tag, laugh, and walk on by.
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| madtheory's Full Review: Panasonic DVD-H1000 DVD Player |
So I recently got to show my new DVD player purchase to a technophile friend of mine. Since I was pretty happy with my reliable and inexpensive unit, I thought he might appreciate it as well, but instead, upon seeing it he exploded into uproarious laughter, saying that he “didn’t know Fisher Price made DVD players.”
Later that day, we trekked to his house so he could show off his “top-of-the-line” stuff. When we got there I laughed too, but only because his devices and wires were placed haphazardly. He’s not exactly a neat person when it comes to wiring and connecting; his entertainment center looked like a Borg drone on crack had tried to assimilate it.
All the laughter stopped though when he slipped The Matrix into the DVD player. Combined with the pure viewing excellence of his 36” Sony FD Trinitron XBR WEGA HDTV that the DVD player was hooked up to, the video quality was jaw dropping. The movie looked and sounded exponentially better than it did in the theater. After several minutes of drooling watching the slo-mo “bullet time” effects, I jumped up to look at the brand of the player. It was a Panasonic DVD-H1000, easily one of the sweetest DVD units I had ever seen.
The unit is flat back and very solidly constructed. With dimensions of 15-1/2" x 17" x 4-1/2" and weighing 37 lbs, its fairly large, but will still fit snugly into most entertainment center shelves. The somewhat bland front panel of the unit houses controls for normal disc functions such as play, pause, skip, pause, etc., all of which are mirrored by the remote control. The dimmable LCD readout in the middle of the panel is comparatively simple, displaying the usual functions such as track number, time, and the current function being executed. The back panel houses both 480I and 480P component connectors.
The extremely speedy, whisper-quiet unit comes with an array of cool functions. There are five variable speeds forward and in reverse, the obligatory super “slo-mo” mode, and still mode. The onscreen menu interface gives the user even more options, such as modifying the audio and video settings, gamma correction, choosing the viewing angle, and changing the subtitles, titles, and chapters. Also, the device remembers the last stopping point even when it’s been turned off. Not too shabby.
Video quality for this unit is nothing less than amazing. No interlacing here, the DVD-H1000 spews beautiful progressive scan video in vivid, precise color and with negligible noise. Seeing the picture generated by this Panasonic DVD player makes one truly realize just how much loss there is with interlaced video, and even on some of the lower-end DVD players. Apparently processing the digital video before transferring to analog is the best way to eliminate errors.
The Panasonic DVD-H1000’s audio performance is awesome as well. Movie sound effects are realistic and crystal clear and the background music comes through flawlessly. We dropped in Sade’s Lover’s Live and the Alkaholik’s X.O. The Movie Experience DVDs and they both sounded equally amazing. The satellite home theater speakers certainly helped, but the music and sound would have still sounded great without them, as the unit processes sound using multi-bit Burr Brown PCM1704 digital to analog converters with signal-to-noise ratios of 120db.
Though my friend doesn’t like the included remote, I loved it. It’s somewhat light, but has a very solid construction. Buttons are reasonably sized and spaced, and placed very ergonomically around the centered thumb control on the surface of the device. The layout is very logical and intuitive, so after a little bit of use your fingers will be dancing from button to button effortlessly. In addition, the buttons do glow in the dark for users who like to watch movies in complete darkness.
After being thoroughly wowed by the Panasonic DVD-H1000, I finally asked him how much he paid for it. I knew I would be saving up for a while to buy this, but from what I had seen, this baby was definitely worth it.
“So man, how much?”
“Two grand…”
“WHAT?!?”
“Yep.”
“Forget that. I could hire Fish and Keanu to slap each other around in my living room for half that.”
That price range helped me to remember how little I watch movies anyway. Sure it would be nice to own such a breathtaking DVD player, but the $2000 stole my breath first, and I didn’t don’t want to pass out from the lack of oxygen.
If the price tag didn’t automatically make you gag on your Cheerios, then you definitely want to consider taking the Panasonic DVD-H1000 out for a test drive. The audio and video performance is nothing less than incredible, and is guaranteed to enhance your DVD watching experience. For everyone else, don’t fret. There are many impressive and reasonably priced units on the market. To check out a more reasonably priced unit, copy the link below into your browser’s address bar and click go:
Panasonic DVD-RA60 DVD/CD/DVD-Audio Player
http://www.epinions.com/content_72532921988
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2000
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Epinions.com ID:
madtheory
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Location: Dallas,TX
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DON'T CALL IT A COMEB... wait. I guess you actually can call it a comeback.
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