Panasonic DVD-RV20, £300
As one of the
pioneers of the DVD format it behoves Panasonic to adhere strictly to the
specification, so you can forget any notions of an easily disabled region locks
on any of its machines. Fair enough, but there are plenty of other ways the
company can demonstrate its undoubted expertise, especially on a player with a
price tag that puts it slap-bang in the middle of one of the most fiercely
contested sectors of the market, or so you would think…
Panasonic is
going to have to trade heavily on its good reputation to get the DVD-R20
noticed. The price of basic entry level players now starts at £150, there are
several machines with built-in Dolby Digital decoders for less than £200, so
for £300 or thereabouts – which is what you can expect to pay for a DVD-R20 –
you might be forgiven for expecting something a little more exciting. Don’t get
us wrong, this is a fine little machine and as we’ll see in a moment, AV
performance is beyond reproach but you would, have to be a very big Panasonic
fan to include it on your shortlist when there are so many other
better-equipped players available for the same sort of money, or less.
In terms of
features it is very much in the entry-level mould; as we’ve already pointed out
there’s no 5.1 decoding, but why has Panasonic left out basic and we presume
relatively inexpensive features, like a coaxial digital bitstream output and an
RGB output option on the SCART socket? Apart from the standard playback
facilities there’s only a couple of extras, x100 picture search is one of them,
the others are 2-mode ‘Virtual Surround Sound’ (VSS) and it has a separate
sub-woofer output. Admittedly it is a very sleek looking machine with its
compact case and neatly presented front panel, but other manufacturers are
going for the slim-line look and DVD players don’t sell just on looks – at
least they shouldn’t.
Okay, so it’s
basic but surely it has other redeeming features? The fact that it uses the
same tried and tested on-screen display system as most previous Panasonic
players should count for something, but there again, even after all this time
it’s not without its funny little ways. For example take the way the operating
system handles picture format changes. On most other players it’s a single
option on the set-up menu, allowing you to choose between 16:9 and 4:3 in
letterbox or pan & scan mode. On the RV20 these options are split, on the
first menu page there’s 16:9 and 4:3 mode switch, the pan & scan/letterbox
option is on another menu page, under ‘other settings’, so instead of 3 or 4
button clicks to make the selection, it can take 20 or more actions to achieve
the same result on the RV20.
If the feature
list is disappointing then you’ll be glad to know that the RV20 makes up a lot
of lost ground with the on-screen performance. In short it’s one of the best
pictures we’ve seen on any player this year, and that includes some quite fancy
mid-market and top-end models. Resolution is impeccable, the smallest details
are crisply revealed and do not mush out, even when the video processing
circuitry is working overtime with lots of movement and rapid variations in
brightness and colour. Colours are accurate and lifelike and there’s none of
the blotchiness in skin tones that spoil the picture on a lot of players, and
we’re not just talking about budget models. The contrast balance is good,
shadows and moody scenes are crisply rendered and the fact that is doesn’t have
any user picture controls isn’t a problem, it doesn’t need them!
Trick play is
fluid and you get to hear the soundtrack at x2 normal speed, though we can’t
say it’s much use since it’s an unintelligible babble. There were no processing
artefacts to speak of though our sample didn’t much care for scratched or dirty
discs and layer change is only average, taking a quarter of a second or
thereabouts.
Background
noise on the analogue mixed stereo output is very low and it has a broad and
flat response, Dolby Surround soundtracks have plenty of room for loud and
bass-heavy dynamic effects – it’s well worth making use of that separate
sub-woofer output -- but it carries low level effects equally well and does a
pretty good job with audio CDs too, comparing favourably with mid-range decks
and systems. The optical bitstream output is clean but we can’t help feeling
that leaving off the coaxial digital output is a mistake since it is the more
commonly used system.
In the end
picture and sound quality save the RV20 from mediocrity and when it comes down
to it, this is, or should be the number one buying criteria. Obviously we would
have liked to see a few more bells and whistles and in the end we suspect a lot
of would-be purchasers will be lured away by extra knobs and buttons, and lower
prices, but for loyal Panasonic fans those who put performance first, the RV20
has to be worth considering.
BOX COPY 1 –
REMOTE VIEWING
Panasonic has a
bit of a chequered history with remote controls but the one supplied with the
RV20 isn’t too bad at all. Good points include the large four-way cursor
controls, sensible layout and clear labelling. However, several points are
deducted for putting the picture search and chapter skip buttons so close
together, this makes using the handset by ‘feel’ alone more difficult than it
needs to be and until you get accustomed to it, you can find yourself skipping
chapters, when trying to find the picture search buttons
BOX COPY 3 –
AROUND THE BACK
Panasonic has
been a bit mean with the output connections, which is a pity considering that
it is capable of above average picture quality. The omission of an RGB
connection on the SCART socket is regrettable, it doesn’t have S-Video either,
though this is available on a separate mini DIN socket and it has a second
composite video output. In addition to the standard analogue mixed stereo
output there’s a line-level sub woofer output, just begging to be used with an
active sub. There’s only one digital bitstream output, it’s an optical type,
which is less common than coaxial bitstream connections and it’s possible this
could cause problems on some set-ups.
Contact Panasonic (08705) 357357, www.panasonic.co.uk
THE HARD FACTS
Panasonic
DVD-RV20
OUTPUTS
SCART Y
S-Video Y
RGB out N
Component N
Optical digital Y
Coaxial digital N
5.1 decoder N
EXTRA FEATURES
Region 2,
PAL/NTSC replay, multi-speed replay, dts compatible bitstream output, 2-mode
Virtual Surround sound, sub-woofer output, 5-scene marker
GOOD POINTS
Outstanding AV
performance, compact neat design
BAD POINTS
Meagre
specification for the price, no coaxial bitstream or RGB outputs
Ease of use 4
Picture 4
Sound 4
Features 3
Overall 4
BUYERS GUIDE
EXTRA INFO
Price £300
SCART 1
S-Video 1
Digital out optical
Decoder none
Good Points
Outstanding AV
performance, compact neat design
Bad points
Meagre
specification for the price, no coaxial bitstream or RGB outputs
Rating
4
---end---
Ó R. Maybury 2000, 0207
| 
