[andrei]

I wanted to get a nice Faroudja based DVD player that can also double as a changer. Panasonic CP72 fit my parameters. Apparently they are hard to come by, but I thought I finally found one for sale online, only to discover that they canceled my order the next day. So, I'm back to where I started.


I saw that RP91 has been highly recommended and I wouldn't mind buying that. It means that I'd have to get a separate CD player/changer, but I don't know if those are able to play MP3s burned onto CD-R/W discs yet.


Is RP91 Faroudja-based? Are there any good currently available players on the market that use that chipset?


Thanks,


-Andrei

 

[mikepa]

Andrei,


While the RP91 is based on a Genesis deinterlacer it is not the Faroudja DCDi chip you may be thinking of. The RP82, on the other hand, is based on the Faroudja chip but is no longer produced and rather pricey in the used/refurbished world.


BTW, While I liked my RP91 on my 58" Elite 610 RPTV, I was very disappointed recently when my RP91 kicked the bucket after less than two years use (average two full DVD's per week).


After much research, I decided to purchase and am waiting delivery of a new Denon DVD-1600. It has the same DCDi deinterlace chip as the RP82 and a full year parts and labor warranty. You may want to check it out since you can get it for less that $50 more than the RP91.


mikep

 

[Poncho]

What broke on your RP91?


Check with your local Circuit City stores. You may luck into a returned/refurbished CP72. They can also check other stores' inventory from their computer.

Also check ebay. I recently missed a nice CP72 that went for $170.

 

[andrei]

Did a bit more reading on RP91 today.. audioreview.com's reviews praise it almost unanimously. But elsewhere it is said to have a not so good deinterlacing. Is it really that bad? I understand it does not have Faroudja chipset, but from people's experience, does PR91 provide good PQ?


-Andrei

 

[Chris Loker]

I think the RP91 does excellent on film based material. However, with video based material it has problems (combing primarily).

 

[Kevin Korom]

The deinterlacing is the R91's only major shortcoming; it looks excellent, otherwise. Is it that bad? Depends on how annoyed you are by it, and the size of your screen.


RP91 has an extensive array of video adjustments that can be very helpful with problematic discs.


I also have the XP30, which has the Faroudja; while the XP30 doesn't comb like the 91, I ever-so-slightly prefer the RP91's picture over it. The differences are slight, though.


The most highly recommended units with Faroudja are XP30/XP50, RP82, DVD-1600. The 1st three are discontinued and the 1600 is on the way out. All fetch good money on the used market these days and can be hard to find new.

 

[mikepa]

Poncho,

There are a few threads in this forum on RP91 failures. Mine simply starts to freeze after about an hour of operation. I opened it up, cleaned it up, check everything out as best as I could and saw no improvement. Rumor has it that the tray needs replacement. While my credit card will pay for the parts, the service is out of its 2x (i.e., 180 day) warranty period. My guess is that the labor will run at leat $100, with no DVD player for three months to get it fixed. I may still pursue this repair but thought it was a good time to simply upgrade.


The jury is out on whether the DVD-1600 will be the upgrade I hope it will be. I should, however, know later this week and will report back in this thread.


mikepa

 

[andrei]

Quote:

Originally posted by Kevin Korom The deinterlacing is the R91's only major shortcoming; it looks excellent, otherwise. Is it that bad? Depends on how annoyed you are by it, and the size of your screen.

I have a 42" plasma TV on the way. Would the artifacts be more noticeable then, I guess?

Quote:

The most highly recommended units with Faroudja are XP30/XP50, RP82, DVD-1600. The 1st three are discontinued and the 1600 is on the way out. All fetch good money on the used market these days and can be hard to find new.

Tell me about it. Hunted down CP72 on shopping.yahoo.ocm, placed an order, just to have the merchant cancel it the next day. Suppose Faroudja chip didn't exist, what DVD player (or chipset) would you suggest for the TV that I am getting? How are the new Panasonics, F85 and such?


-Andrei

 

[Chris Loker]

I believe there is a thread describing the tray problem and how to fix it yourself. It supposedly has something to do with the magnet being too strong and pulling apart part of the tray.

 

[Kevin Korom]

Combing an issue on a 42" display? IMO probably not that bad; I have a 116" wide screen and it can be pretty annoying at that size, though!


I'm lucky enough to have both; I can use the superior (IMO) RP91 for film stuff, and switch to the XP30 for DVDs I know will comb. I can also just switch the RP91 to interlaced output & let my PJ do the interlacing. If I could only keep one of them, it would be the RP91.

 

[Poncho]

I wrote the fix for the magnet pulling the washer out of the drive spindle. In my case the player worked fine, but the platter on top of the disc rattled and gyrated like crazy. I was surprised that it would still play a disk. It would be worth checking out with any tray problem or "won't play disk" problem since it only takes 5 minutes to disassemble and inspect.


Also if someone doesn't reinstall the tray correctly and misaligns the gears, it will jam, but this is pretty obvious since it won't load a disc and close all the way. Just play with the tray alignment untill it works smoothly.

 

[mikepa]

Poncho,

Actually, one of the reasons for taking my RP91 apart was to check the washer per you post. Thanks. Everything, however, was where it belonged.


I also recall reading one or two posts about a failed power supply.


If anyone has any other suggestions on why mine has died, feel free to comment.


My DVD-1600 should show up today.


mikep

 

[mikepa]

I hooked up my new DVD-1600 late last night and must say I am very happy with the results on my 58" Elite RPTV.


I have not yet tuned the TV input with my VE disk, but in testing just a few favorites including Fifth Element, Gladiator, Red Planet and Saving Private Ryan the picture appears sharper than my RP91. In fact, even the colors seem more vibrant.


Of course, I will calibrate the player and look forward to testing more disks, including some video-based, tonight.


On top of having a great picture, I loved the fact that I did not have to reprogram my Pronto.


mikep

 

[zoro]

Keep us posted mike? How abt sound?

 

[andrei]

Quote:

Originally posted by mikepa Of course, I will calibrate the player and look forward to testing more disks, including some video-based, tonight.

How do you calibrate a DVD player?


Also, have you tried playing audio CDs on it? I read that DVD-1600 does not shine in that particular department.


-Andrei

 

[egrady]

Mikepa,


I have an Elite 510 and my Sony 9000es just bit the dust. I'm considering the 1600. Does it have a sharpness control? With a 4x3 dvd does the 1600 display black or gray side bars? Can you switch between interlaced and progressive on the remote or the front of the unit itself?


egrady

 

[ThumperBoy]

The Denon DVD1600 doesn't have a sharpness control - you have to use the TVs. It also does not squeeze a 4:3 video to format for a 16:9 display, it will be stretched out horizontally. To display a 4:3 video in 4:3 aspect ratio you would need to use your TVs feature to do that - and some TVs use gray bars, so it depends on the TV.


Some newer model DVD players have video adjustments like sharpness and also can format a 4:3 video as a windowbox with black sidebars for a 16:9 display. JVC models have this feature and I also confirmed the new Mitsubishi DD-8040 (has Faroudja DCDi - similar to the Denon DVD1200 model features) also have these features. There is a switch on the back to switch between interlaced and progressive.

 

[kirkvolk]

Quote:

Originally posted by mikepa I hooked up my new DVD-1600 late last night and must say I am very happy with the results on my 58" Elite RPTV. mikep

On Thursday I also rcvd a DVD-1600 and a RP-91. I am demo'ing the two units for 30 days trying to settle on one. I'm displaying on a Sony 10HT projector and I haven't optimized the projector for either player. So far - after a couple hours of viewing the jury is still out. The performance of both players is stunning when compared to my vintage 1997 Sony DVP-S500D but the video quality on either player is too close for me to assess. I haven't done any true A/B testing yet. I'll need another copy of several DVDs first. I want to repeat some of the tests the DVD shootout performed to give me better sense of what the failure mode is. I haven't viewed any discs that I've made from miniDV yet and apparently that is where I'll see the biggest difference. I need to look at the reliability issues with the RP91 since there seems to be some question about it. I have a couple questions for the forum if you could help me out:

- What are your experiences with the reliability of the 1600?

- I'd like some input from some one else who has done some side-by-side testing.

 

[gary miller]

Mikep and I have similar setups. I have an Elite510 and Panasonic RP-91, also two years old...no problems yet, but I'm discouraged to hear that others are crapping out so soon.


No doubt, the Panasonic is an eccentric player to set up and to use. I had to do a little macarena with the front panel and the remote control just to center the picture initially. After inserting a disc and pressing play, the start- up screen reads "press play to preview chapters". Say what???... I've never understood what this means. Some of the important features are clumsy to access (the all important scaling features are deep in the menu system, next to the indescribably surreal "output" control).


Those caveats aside, it's the first player I've owned that I haven't had serious reservations about. The first and second generation progressive scan Toshiba's I owned had noticeable, noisy chroma issues. The Sony 9000ES seemed about equal in PQ to this Panasonic, but, as I recall, it didn't quite have the scaling versatility of the RP 91. I didn't think it was worth the money by comparison. Given the anamorphic "lock" design of the 5-710 series Elites, I couldn't imagine being satisfied with a player that didn't address this as well as the RP-91. The PQ on film (99% of what I watch) is excellent. Many here are passionate about the deinterlacing agility of a given player, but I'm not one of them. I haven't watched enough poorly flagged material to notice deinterlacing flaws very often and I'm more forgiving of video based material.


At $299.00 delivered,(about half of what I paid two years ago) I just bought a 2nd one for the bedroom or for potential backup.

 

[Kevin Korom]

Here's something I've found A/Bing my RP91 and XP30 (the XP30 reprtedly having essentially identical video section to the 1600)- the XP30 has a faint digital haze to it that looks like fixed pattern noise. It shows up mostly on fast pans; in fact when I first set up my PJ (HS10) I thought it was FPN on the PJ.


But it isn't. My RP91 doesn't have the same noise, or if it does it's at a much lower level. So now that I'm locked into that defect, it bugs me & I always end up using the RP91. So I would be very curious if the 1600 really looks identical to the XP30, or if it's better.


(LURKER ALERT: when I say "much lower level", this is of course by anal-compulsive standards- your family/friends would never notice it. We return you to the regular post.)


I've been really tempted to pick up another RP91, since they sell so cheap these days. While something better may come out down the line, it may cost 3-5x as much, and it sure seems like DVD players are getting cheaper (build-wise), not better.