Panasonic DVD-RV31K DVD Player, Black
A Lot of Player For the Money
I spent around (dollar amount) for a Sony DVP-S300 DVD player in November of 1998. When it died unexpectedly last week I decided that it might make more sense to shop for a new one, as opposed to paying for a potentially expensive repair.<br />Am glad that I did, the Panasonic DVD-RV31K fills the void left by the Sony player nicely, for less money! Am especially pleased with the player's downconversion of anamorphic widescreen titles. The resulting letterboxed image is sharp and detailed, unlike the Sony, which produced disappointingly soft images when viewing widescreen titles such as \\"Ghostbusters,\\" (which actually has discouraged me from buying anamorphic DVDs with 2:35 to 1 aspect ratios).<br />Switchovers from one disc layer to the next are quite good--a slight pause is evident, nothing more--another improvement over the Sony player, which had a tendency to stutter at the changeover point on films like \\"Little Shop of Horrors\\" and \\"Rocky Horror Picture Show.\\"<br />Onscreen menus are colorful and quite detailed. The remote, while a bit small, is thoughtfully laid out and quite easy to use. The  player becomes only mildly warm while running, which will hopefully contribute to reliability.<br />Special features such as Dialogue Enhancer (boosts the center channel volume on Dolby Surround titles) and Virtual Surround (widens the soundfield if you don't have rear speakers) are icing on the cake. The unit can even play VCD, CD-RW, and MP3 discs.<br />The DVD-RV31K has a high-tech handsome appearance that belies its modest price tag. The brightness of the display can be dimmed, thank goodness, but cannot be totally turned off--a feature that I wish had been included. The on-screen display CAN be disabled, though--a welcome feature that was once again omitted in the older Sony. An ultra-slim cabinet makes the unit easy to fit almost anywhere.<br />In closing, this is a heckuva buy--a lot of player for a modest sum. Throw in component inputs and you have a product thatwould have easily sold for (dollar amount) just a couple of years back--am amazed, and am happy now that my older DVD decided to die.