December 2002 Reviewed by Anthony Di Marco	Panasonic DVD-RP82S Progressive-Scan DVD-Video/DVD-Audio Player

Description Model: DVD-RP82S Price: $300 USD Dimensions: 2.375"H x 17"W x 10.5"D Weight: 5.3 pounds Warranty: One year parts and 90 days labor Features Progressive-scan video output Capable of playing back DVD-Audio, DVD-Video, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, Video CD, MP3, CD-R, and CD-RW formats Internal DTS and Dolby Digital decoders Sage/Faroudja DCDi video processing Composite and component-video output (RCA)

Features (cont'd) 24-bit/192kHz audio DAC 10-bit/54MHz video DACs Picture control for contrast, color, and brightness (interlaced output only) Cinema modes (for revealing detail in black areas of image) MPEG digital noise reduction Horizontal picture adjustment 16:9 to 4:3 image scaling Black-level control Bass management with 100Hz crossover Program time remaining Transfer modes for video material, flag-encoded film material, and DCDi decoding 75-ohm coaxial digital output Audio Remaster modes Remote control Detachable power cord

Panasonic and Sony have had quite a competitive history. When Sony introduced Professional Betacam, Panasonic failed to compete with their superior M2 format. When Sony came out with their Betamax format, Panasonic put them to bed with an inferior format named VHS. Both companies have different consumer digital-videotape formats as well. Panasonic offers DVC Pro while Sony seems to be winning the battle with the equally competent DV Cam.

More recently, both companies have been vying for market share with different high-resolution, multichannel audio formats. In Sony’s corner stands SACD, while Panasonic is betting that DVD-Audio will woo users. (For more information regarding the SACD and DVD-A formats, please take a look at Jeff Fritz’s "Surrounded" column in SoundStage! called "The Software.")

One nice side effect of this competition is that both companies have been offering SACD and DVD-A playback in very inexpensive DVD-Video players. A couple of months ago SoundStage! editor Marc Mickelson picked-up Sony’s feature-rich, SACD-compatible DVP-NS500V for a paltry $179. This month I’m here to tell you about Panasonic’s equally feature-rich, DVD-Audio, Faroudja DCDi-fortified DVD-RP82S DVD player, which can be purchased for a street price of just a little over $200.

It’s what you know that counts

The DVD-RP82S is a descendant of Panasonic’s highly regarded DVD-RP56 -- only with DVD-Audio capabilities and a boatload more video adjustments. The DVD-RP82S also has an impressive list of videophile and convenience features, such as a 75-ohm coaxial output for digital audio and black-level adjustment. All this is available at heavily discounted prices -- I purchased my DVD-RP82S for $229 delivered from Crutchfield.

Even more impressive, Panasonic includes the same Sage/Faroudja DCDi chip that made the DVD-RP56 such a great value. In fact, if I were Panasonic’s marketing department I would be all over the benefits of DCDi. But surprisingly, no one at Panasonic’s customer-service department knew about DCDi, or that it was installed in the DVD-RP82S.

Panasonic service also couldn’t validate whether the DVD-RP82S has an upgraded MPEG decoder chip. Instead, they politely answered questions about basic functionality and convenience features.

So how did I verify that the DVD-RP82S does have DCDi? I simply looked at Faroujda’s website and referenced their list of products that currently use DCDi. Sure enough, the Panasonic DVD-RP82S and the non-DVD-A-equipped DVD-RP62 are on the list.

It’s what’s inside that counts

Handling the DVD-RP82S made it apparent that Panasonic has the ability to offer considerable technology at a very low price.  You won’t find a high-capacity power supply or a heavy-gauge reinforced steel chassis. What you’ll experience out of the box is a slim-line design that feels deceptively more solid than the tinny DVD-RP56. Look closer, however, and you’ll see construction that is commonplace for mass-produced DVD players in the $200 price range -- namely a golf-ball-sized power supply, a plastic front panel, and thin sheet metal. At a distance, though, the silver paint job and simple face panel does give the DVD-RP82S an elegant look.

Like many mass-produced consumer products, Panasonic offers special features in an effort to differentiate itself from the crowd. This is a common practice used by manufacturers to make their item look like more of a "value" when compared to the competition, on the same shelf, in the same store. In most cases, though, these added bells or whistles do little more than look cool in the dark.

In addition to DVD-Audio support, the DVD-RP82S offers what looks like audio upsampling -- so that "CD audio approaches that of DVD-Audio sound quality." Unfortunately, Panasonic unnecessarily complicates things by naming it "Remaster." And to sweeten the feature list, they extended what should be a single mode into three different modes labeled Rock, Classical, and Jazz. It would have been easier -- albeit, less sexy -- if they just called it upsampling! But marketers have to have their acronyms and cool-sounding hyperbole. Don’t they?

Despite my criticisms about weird terminology and ho-hum build quality, the DVD-RP82S proved to be exceedingly easy to operate. Hitting the "Set Up" button on the rather small but well-laid-out remote accessed a well-designed menu tree. These nested menus help the user set up features like parental lock controls, black-level adjustment, and bass management. It took 20 minutes to configure the DVD-RP82S and connect its component-video output to my Mitsubishi’s DTV input, and its 5.1 DVD-Audio outputs to my receiver.

In interlaced mode, I found the DVD-RP82S’s picture to be much worse than my four-year-old Panasonic DVD-A120. Surprisingly, the DVD-A120 had much better control of color saturation and transitions between colors. On chapter 4 of The X-Files: Fight the Future the DVD-RP82S made Scully’s reddish complexion and hair red hot with smeared transitions. The highly saturated reds found in chapter 18 of From Hell displayed similar bleeding to the point where I thought I was looking at a blown television tube. The DVD-RP82S’s picture control proved to be marginally effective at reducing these problems. Neither the DVD-RP56 nor the DVD-RP82S approached the more refined image of the A120. In addition, the DVD-RP82S’s MPEG noise reduction overly softened the image and caused randomized noise in the blacks and skin tones. Even worse, the DVD-RP82S and the DVD-RP56 amplified problems with poorly produced DVDs like the newly restored The Godfather. Murky blacks became murkier, and washed-out colors looked even more see-through after surrendering more saturation.

Some may think I’m being nitpicky, but I’m sure consumers would be better served if Panasonic improved the DVD-RP82S’s default picture settings in interlaced mode. Otherwise, the person purchasing a DVD-RP82S, after living with a DVD-A120, may wonder why they upgraded.

Luckily, things changed when the DVD-RP82S ran in progressive mode.

The transformation between interlaced and progressive was night and day. The problems with bleeding and noise were gone. Transitions between colors were sharp and clean. Films like The X-Files: Fight the Future and From Hell had incredible depth and palpability, while less-stellar transfers like The Godfather didn’t make my eyes hurt. Blacks were deep and detailed with very little noise. If you looked closely there was some MPEG noise. But none of it was distracting enough to tear me away from the beautiful, crystal-clear pictures the DVD-RP82S’s progressive output produced.

Inside audio

Audio is sort of a mixed bag as well and shows signs that the DVD-RP82S’s audio circuitry is not up to the task of reproducing dynamic peaks.

Stereo playback is clean enough. Jesse Cook’s Gravity [ND-63037] was pristine in its presentation but lacked the drive and tangibility of my Rotel RCD-991AE CD player. Bass had good detail but wasn’t as robust or as articulate as the Rotel. Like many low-cost players, though, the DVD-RP82S doesn’t sound shrill or brittle in the high frequencies.

If you choose to go with a separate DAC or use your receiver’s internal DACs, you’ll find that the DVD-RP82S does make a decent transport. Remaster mode also made a subtle difference in the high-frequency sparkle and smoothness of Bjork’s CD Vespertine [WEA: 62653-2]. What did not seem to matter much are the separate Remaster modes. Since Classical mode seemed to be the flattest of the three, I set it and forgot it.

DVD-Audio playback lived up to all of the promises of the multichannel format. Listening to the DVD-Audio version of Vespertine [WEA 62653-9] yielded a very open and enveloping soundstage with none of the stridency or harshness of the CD version. I also found myself sitting in the middle of a jazz club during Bucky Pizzarelli’s DVD-A Swing Live [Chesky CHDVD222]. Again, neither the two-channel 24-bit track on the DVD-A nor the Red Book CD version of this well-recorded jazz set could hold a candle to the amount of ambient detail that the 5.1-compatible 4.0 mix possessed.

The DVD-RP82S’s DVD-A and the player’s internal Dolby Digital and DTS decoders' performance faltered in their ability to deal with broad dynamic swings without sounding compressed or thin.

I did not get a chance to verify the DVD-RP82S’s claims to MP3 playback, but several PCM-based CD-Rs and CD-RWs I burned on a Marantz DR-6050 recorder played back without a problem.

Old versus new

You already know how the DVD-RP82S stacked up against my older DVD-A120 when outputting an interlaced picture. But how did it fare against the DVD-RP56?

In the case of interlaced pictures, the DVD-RP56 still had problems with saturation, but did provide a picture that was closer to that of the DVD-A120. Noise was about the same, though. Ultimately, I’d rather have the DVD-A120 if I didn’t have a progressive-scan-compatible television.

Most of what I saw when I compared the two, in progressive mode, amounted to lack of video noise in the image. I saw more noise in highly saturated colors and black with the DVD-RP56. This increased noise probably contributed to the DVD-RP56’s softer picture. By comparison, the DVD-RP82S’s lower noise probably factored into its very crisp picture. I will say that these differences were only apparent when I compared the units side by side. Overall, the variations were pretty slight.

Since the DVD-RP56 did not have DVD-A capabilities, I compared their stereo performance. The DVD-RP82S had cleaner high frequencies and slightly tighter bass. The difference between the DVD-RP82S’s coaxial connection and the DVD-RP56’s optical connection were marginal at best. I may have heard better detail and tighter bass from the DVD-RP82S, but I certainly didn’t hear anything approaching an aural epiphany.

Features-wise, the DVD-RP82S clobbers the DVD-RP56 in sheer quantity of buttons -- and menus. Whether those buttons do more than access pretty menus is something I wouldn’t base my buying decision on. My experience showed that these extra features were of little value. I will say, however, that I was ecstatic about the DVD-RP82S's ability to display remaining time! For those who want to know how much longer a film will run or, even better, how long a film’s documentary will keep you up, this feature is worth its weight in DVDs -- and is something the DVD-RP56 does not have.

Is new that new?

You may think that I felt a little bit of buyer’s remorse about the DVD-RP82S. But nothing is farther from the truth. The DVD-RP82S is a player for those who want to get a first-class progressive image, as well as most of what DVD-Audio has to offer, for a ridiculously low price. This is a case where you can spend a little more on your display device and never think that you made a mistake buying the DVD-RP82S as a source.

Purchasing either of these units for interlaced playback would be a mistake, though. The fact that my four-year-old DVD-A120 (which is now relegated to the bedroom) smoked both the DVD-RP56 and DVD-RP82S shows that newer is not always better.

Having owned and used Panasonic’s DVD-RP56 and their DVD-A120, I would say the most significant benefit the DVD-RP82S brings to the table is DVD-Audio playback. If you already own the DVD-RP56, upgrading to the DVD-RP82S will yield little return. On the other hand, the DVD-RP82S is so inexpensive that owning both probably wouldn’t put you in the poorhouse. Just be sure you own a progressive-scan-compatible television, because progressive playback and a real taste of DVD-Audio are where this unit excels.

Manufacturer contact information:

Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company
One Panasonic Way
Secaucus, NJ 07094
Phone: (800) 211-PANA

E-mail: consumerproducts@panasonic.com  
Website: www.panasonic.com

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