rv80

My preliminary review of the Panasonic DVD-RV80

It has been over a month, and I've been itching to write a review about my DVD-RV80. Although I've only watched about six movies in their entirety (and parts of about 15 others), there is no doubt in my mind that I have years of theater-like movie watching ahead of me.

STORY Well there's not much to tell. My Fisher DVD player that turned me into a frenzied home theater buff could not handle dual layered discs. Frustrated, I looked into getting the finest interlaced DVD player without breaking the bank. I was very interested in the Sony DVP-S7700, and I would have bought one had I not heard about the RV80... Reviewers compare the RV80 to Pioneer Elite DVD players and the 7700. In regards to the 54MHz video DAC found in the RV80, Robert George, a great contributor to the home theater world, said:

"The only other players to use similar video DACs are the Toshiba SD-6200 and Pioneer Elite DV-37, both being progressive scan players that are a good deal more expensive than the RV80. The combination of the 54MHz DAC and other picture enhancement features allows the RV80 to compare favorably to both of these much more expensive players for simple image quality (excepting the progressive scan features)."

Also, based on the reviews at AR.com, I told my brother to buy Panasonic's RV30 long before I heard of the RV80. It has worked flawlessly; no compatibility issues at all. Thus, combined with three months of investigation (i.e. reviews, posts, and e-mails) and the impressive performance of the RV30, I ordered the RV80. I called J&R, and two days later, my RV80 was at my doorstep.

OUT OF THE BOX My RV80 came double-boxed and showed light signs of handling. When I unloaded the player, I immediately noticed its resemblance to the RV30. The RV80 is far from being a tank (plastic parts and light-weight chassis).

SIDE BY SIDE In comparison to the RV30, the RV80 adds a few internal and external features including gold-plated component outputs, a jog shuttle, and a whole slew of internal features (including the acclaimed 54MHz video DAC). However, the true test of faith came from the video performance I ran between the two systems.

SIDE BY SIDE & PERFORMANCE Although I had both setup on a 1998 20" Sony via composite video, the color saturation and layer changes of the RV80 had the RV30 ducking for cover. As for the sound, I connected both players via digital optical cable. Using movies like gladiator and The Matrix for reference, the RV30 and RV80 sounded the same (I've heard claims that the RV80 sounds marginally better than other DVD players, but I cannot justify this yet). All in all, I'm incredibly happy that the RV80 could handle movies my Fisher DVD could not.

WEGA After winter break, I loaded up my car with the RV80 nestled in the back seat and headed back to college (the bittersweet irony is that I have no room for my DTS/DD system at school, and that's why it's at home while my conveniently sized TV is at school. One or the other I guess). I could not wait to hook up my player to my Wega. Well, after I got settled in, I hooked up my RV80 via component video and made some adjustments in the menu. I used the Fifth Element as reference. To say the least, I was not pleased at all! Grainy! Artifacts! Ugh! As it turned out, my TV wasn't calibrated properly [enough], so I ordered the AVIA calibration DVD. After I ran a calibration, the picture was beautiful. Certain DVDs, however, such as American Pie and the Sopranos Season One were lackluster. On the other hand, movies like X-Men, Toy Story 2, When Harry Met Sally, Gladiator, and American Beauty were simply stunning. When I watched Toy Story 2, I thought there would be at least one glitch during a layer change since it's such a complex disc, but to my surprise, my RV80 ran flawlessly just as it has with all my other movies. I cannot stress how great the picture looks! The black levels are incredible. To me, the blues and reds are the nicest on this player. I can't wait to get a front projector and DVDO line doubler to use with my RV80

VALUE The most amazing part of all is that the RV80 is very affordable. This player is well worth its $500 retail price tag, but $320 isn't bad either. As a matter of fact, the RV80 was so cheap that I went ahead and spent an extra $20 for two day shipping. I just couldn't justify spending $600 on the Sony or even $800 on a progressive scan unit.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS From my understanding, the RV80 has long been discontinued due to disappointing sales. If I were you, I'd get online and find an RV80 at once! This legend is fading fast, and you owe it to yourself to take advantage of one of the best interlaced players to grace God's green earth.

2.20.01

In addition to my original article, I have learned more. The RV80 features 4:4:4 upsampling. Simply put, there is more chroma (or color) in each field of the image. Other DVD players use 4:2:2 upsampling, and while not as colorful as 4:4:4, the differences are hardly detectable by the human eye. Still, it's a nice feature and perhaps one of the reasons the RV80 exhibits such vivid and rich color.

Many DVD players suffer from the chroma upsampling error, dubbed the chroma bug. This means that the MPEG decoder uses an inferior algorithm to convert back and forth between the disc's 4:2:0 resolution format and the 4:2:2 (or 4:4:4) format. The result is jagged lines on bright colors, usually red. Panasonics have a long-standing reputation for bug-less MPEG decoders, the RV80 included. Read Secrets' article for better understanding and a list of players with and without the chroma bug.

Every DVD player has some form of upsampling. The 54MHz/10-bit video DAC in the RV80 upsamples the DVD's native 13.5MHz/8-bit data. This "oversampling" provides legroom for extra bits of resolution to be processed and interpolated. In layman's terms, the image is displayed with precision, and is thus improved.

4.26.01