Video Asylum

Posted by cfraser (A) on August 22, 2002 at 17:55:49

In Reply to: Panasonic is making some superior gear.. the RP91 also rocks! posted by EdM on August 22, 2002 at 15:45:16:

[I know this is the video asylum...]

Only HMV has them, I went to all the music/video stores, and just a few of them at that. The huge racks of stuff I had been previously pointed to turned out to just be music DVD's...most people didn't even know what a DVD-A is...reminds me of a year ago when looking for SACD's (and they still don't know about them out here, except HMV). Anyway I got The Last Waltz DVD-A, just got the SE TLW DVD about 2 months ago, they're sucking me dry.

I did play a CD in the 82 the other day, but in a different system for a different reason, will check it out in the AV system. I bought the unit strictly for DVD though, video really, but I was curious re the DVD-A. There is up to 192kHz sampling for some audio, don't know if it will upsample redbook, but I think it can from the slightly ambiguous manual. They use non-audio terms to describe it (their "glossary" is amusing), but it sounds like selectable upsampling to me.

You should know that the RP82 does not look at all like the one pictured on the Panny web site for months, at the CES, or in other places around the web. It is not available in black. It also does not have all the same features/controls as mentioned/pictured, but has some not mentioned. It also plays some formats the manual says it won't, but it warns for CD-R and CD-R/W that only ones recorded at up to a certain speed are "guaranteed" to work, 16X and 4X respectively. That suits me OK, as I've been a bit conservative when recording, if I want to try them in the unit sometime.

I have not looked at DVDP's since I had ordered the 82 three months ago, but I noticed tonight that the styling (mirror-chrome plastic) of the 82 is not uncommon, though none of the other units I saw (except from Panny) were nearly as slim. I saw a unit from Zenith that could be a fitting mirror in a haberdasher.