help me help a friend.

[Matt Broeska]

hey everyone.

a friend of mine tells me he's getting a dvd player for his birthday this july and wanted to know what would be the brands to look at and which brands to avoid. i hafta say that i'm not the expert on this since my thought process when buying my dvd player was "one of my friend's parents have a toshiba, so it must be good."

i've told him that i won't buy a tosh again based on anamorphic downconversion and the crappy fast forward that always keeps going just a bit even after hitting play. i have however recommended either a sony or panasonic from what i've read in other threads. another bonus with the panasonic is that with the new players coming out this summer (?) last years models could probably be had slightly cheaper, no?

anyway, we're talking entry level, but nothing like an oritron, or sorny, or magnetbox, or crazy al's discount dvd...

thanks in advance for the help.

[P-Dub]

From the specs the Panasonic 31's look to be a good player. I'd hold off buying a previous year model as sometimes newer discs might not work on them. Although these are pretty rare these days.

Plus the Panasonic will play CDR's and MP3's.

Pricing wise, I'm still finding that newer players are priced cheaper than last year models.




Paul

There are three kinds of people in this world; those that can count, and those that can't.

[Lexman]

Matt, personally, I am liking Pioneer Elite very well, but then some don't want to spend that much. My only Pioneer experience is my 301 disc changer. Love it.

For the most part though, I do like my Tosh 9000.

Lex





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[Bob Santos]

Matt,
I just purchased a new DVD player tonight.
I currently cant use progessive scan, so I decided to go with a reletively inexpensive unit.
I bought the Pioneer DV-343.
I just finished putting it in my rack.
I replaced my aging Toshiba 3107 that I love dearly. It has never given me a ounce of trouble in the 3 and 1/2 years I have had it.
I just played with the pioneer, and It seems great. The transport is way quieter than my old Toshiba ( The new ones may not be slow, and loud)
Picture looks great, and the sound is so far great. The pioneer is also able to play CDR's.
I would definately look at this in the under $200
price range. The Sony 360 looks good as well, if you dont need to play CDR's. In toshiba I saw the SD1700 for $189, and the 2700 for $209 at the Wiz
this past weekend. I'm sure with the names you mentioned what ever he get's he will be satisfied.

[KennyG]

I use htpc, but from a couple friends experience, the Panasonics seem to be good players that offer alot for the money.

[Andrew Pratt]

I like the Panasonics for all round image quality and ergonomics. I've always liked Pioneers image but honeslty their scanning funcitons suck compared to the Panasonics and the 333 was to loud for me. Sony's are nice too but tend to be pricer then the Panasonics which puts them at a disadvantage.

[Matt Broeska]

thanks for the help, guys. i'll forward this along to my friend so he can start looking.

also... does anyone know when these new panasonics are gonna hit the street? i'm seriously considering the rp-91...

[Robbie]

I'll also throw my vote for the Panny. I've had my JVC for several years but wished I'd gone with the Panny although I've been happy with the JVC.

My .02

Robbie