DVD: Panasonic RP91K OR Pioneer Elite DV-45A

[DillonW]

I have been trying to decide what progressive scan DVD player to buy. The Panasonic RP91K and Pioneer Elite DV-45A look pretty good on paper. Anyone have either of these? What direction would you fellow Klipschsters go?

THANKS!

[budabear]

As far as I am concerned Pioneer is no longer a choice for any kind of equipment. They use to make really good equipment and sat back and did nothing while the rest of the manufacturers past them by. Nothing made by them last any kind of time. The last piece of equipment I bought from them was a CD Recorder and a friend of mine bought the same one. They are both less then a year old and a half old and they both died at different times. My friend was stupid enough to also by a Pioneer Elite DVD player and that never worked any good. It made noise, mistracked, and then finally just stopped recognizing the discs.

If you want to buy something worth owning go for the panasonic, it would be a much better choice. I have a relatively new Panasonic DVD Recorder and I love it. I use it alot and it doesn't skip a beat.

BTW. I did, once upon a time like Pioneer. I still have my VSX-9500 A/v reciever to prove it.

[Audio Flynn]

I have the RP-91 Panny for over a year and it has been flawless.

I have 5 DVD-As and they sound awesome. Good on Cds too.

No chroma bug. Slow to warm up on initial read of the disc but a diagnostic function rather than a problem I would say.

I have component video into a Toshiba 36 inch direct view Hi Def monitor.

Only a half a step behind in resolution compared to the Hi Def terrestrial feed i get into my Dish Network receiver.

The Rp-91 is probably cheap now.

I paid $ 425 a year ago.

No recent experience with Pioneer to comment on.

[kjohnsonhp]

I don't think there is a clear winner...none seem to do everything well. For just DVD-V the Panny XP-50/rp82 seems like the best value--great pic, lower price, but they are being replaced by units that aren't as good according to reviews.

I have read on AVS that the lower priced Pannys (XP50 & rp82) have better general pic quality than the rp91 but not some of it's features.

The Elite has DVD-A & SACd but has the chroma bug which is no big deal to many.

The Philips is a good SACD/DVD-V player worth investigating.

If SACD and CD aren't your priorities then I would be happy with the Panny XP50 which is hard to find and the newest Panny's aren't described as equal to the older ones.

I have a Sony CD/SACD player ($150 slighly used) for 2-channel music and I'll probably buy the XP50 for DVD-V and DVD-A multi-channel (I don't think I can run both in mult-channel mode). I may just wait on the DVD player until the mult-format units like the 2900 drop in price.

[budabear]

After all is said and done. Nothing makes a difference if you've spent good money and your unit brakes down and needs repair within the first year. And then again the second year! Panasonic will last you.

[DillonW]

Thanks for the thoughts. I know I want a good quality progressive scan unit, but as you all seem to have clairified, there doesn't seem to be any real clear-cut winner. That makes the decision that much more difficult. I want an excellent piece of equipment for a great price... Is that too much to ask?

[BBB]

"I want an excellent piece of equipment for a great price... Is that too much to ask?"

Then get the RP-91. I liked it so much I bought 2 over a year and a half ago. Still going strong. No problems.

[natemil]

I have my RP-91 for 5 months now and can't stop using it. I love the unit's picture processing/progressive scan and play audio almost 50% of the time (audio only selection will by-pass video signals). I believe this unit is a great buy for both quality in sound and picture not forget to mention reliability. just my 2 cents...

FRONTS: RB5

CENTER: RC3

REARS: RS3

SUB: HSU VTF3

AMP: BRYSTON

PROC: AVPS

SOURCE: RP-91

Also, Jolida JD502B w/Dynaudio 1.3SE

[DillonW]

Two cents, from people whose judgement I trust, is exactly what I'm looking for.

THANKS!!

[kjohnsonhp]

If you read the avs forum you can get loads of data on DVD players....especially the Pannys, Elites, Denons, Phillips. Secrets reviews are interesting, too. In the end you need to determine your priorities as each unit has it's strenghts and weaknesses. Of course we aren't talking about VHS quality so all should be enjoyable.

For example this post is a good review of the Elite vs Phillips:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=263865

Here is a good one on the Pannys:

-------------

From Aaron on AVS http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=263616

I currently own an RP-91 and a XP-30. Here's my observations:

The XP-30 has an "edgier" picture than the RP-91. For animated material like Lilo and Monsters its very impressive. In contrast, i feel the RP-91 handles reflections and highlights better. For example, in 5th Element, in the scene in the taxi where they are shooting through the divider glass, the glass looks like glass, where as the xp-30 just looks vague. However, they are very close, and any differences are very subtle. For film based disks that are not a de-interlacing challenge, I pick the RP-91.

For the non-anamorphic letterbox discs in the collection, the RP-91 rules. Having the player do the zooming is a much nicer picture than having my set (Sony 57XBR2) do it.

The XP-30, as expected with the faroudga chip, is a superior player for video and material shot on film / edited on video. I will say that I still see discs that give the XP-30 problems. Futurama still combs on occasion.

I have the family use the xp-30 as the default player. With the RP-91 on occasion I need to go into the menus to properly configure the player for a particular movie. With the xp-30 , just insert and go!

So in general, I feel the overall picture quality of the rp-91 is slightly better than xp-30 for the material that I watch (film based). For the limited amount of video based material that I watch , I use the xp-30.

For CD audio, I use the RP-91 hooked up with the coax connection. (The XP-30 doesn't have one). With my equipment, I prefer sources that have a coax output. On the otherhand, for DD and DTS ( where I admit not being as critical) they sound essential identical to me.

[garymd]

So you're saying stay away from the Pioneer even though you get SACD and DVD-A for $399? I've heard some good reviews on that particular unit. That's so much cheaper than anything else on the market. From what I've read in this thread however, there's a reason it's cheap. It's a piece of crap? Others with the same features cost more than double that price. I like the idea of having both SACD and DVD-A in one unit but I won't pay $1k or more for it. I guess I'll wait for prices to come down.

[budabear]

Keep in mind that cheaper means CHEAPER! As far as I am concerned they are already at the bottom of the heap so to spend $400 for something that looks good on paper doesn't make sense. It has to look good to me. There history tells me if I buy Pioneer I won't have it long. Can we afford to spend out dollars on equipment on equipment that will last a few months. I don't think so.

[Fish]

Panasonic makes great quality,I have a 3 year old A10 dvd-a player that still works perfectly.

[marksdad]

i have had the 45a and the 47ai in house recently, both were good but not good enough, the 45a had cheap build, light as a feather (small undersized components) sound and pik were good but not for 400, the 47ai was better, build still poor, pik and sound much better, but could see traces of the chroma bug, plus it had diagonal line in the picture, i went to the yamaha 2300 superior in every way, did not keep, availibility issues, went to the denon2900 every bit as good as the yammy, maybe better, build is excellent, whisper quiet operation, intuitive operation, may have an input power issue however, while watching die another day the picture collapsed, but it was system wide the display on the face also went out, all in all the 1000 was well spent, it does make a difference in the whole experience, if you are like me you want to get value for your dollar, and ythere seems to be more of a solid value in the yammy, and denon, especially since the 47ai costs the same

[Flason]

From what I understand, the majority of the SACD\DVD-A players are built on the Pioneer platform. All have essentially the same innards. Notice I said essentially and not exactly. All perform well for their intended purpose but I have heard there is a clear winner in this end of the market right now. I have heard the Marantz 8400 blows the competition away in both audio and video catagories. Now it's not me making the recommendation but I heard it from a guy who sells all brands of equipment. I could have purchased a Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo, or a Pioneer but chose the Marantz. He gave me a good price on the piece and was highly recommended by a friend that purchased a Lexicon amp and pre-amp from him.