Panasonic DVD-CV52 5-Disc DVD Player
Great versatile DVD/CD/MP3 player
There are lots of 5-disc DVD/CD changers available now, and a few of them even play MP3 discs, but what sold me on this one was the fact that it will play my MP3s in random order. I've looked at about a dozen 5-disc changers with MP3 capabilities over the last few months, but the one feature they were all missing was the ability to play MP3 songs randomly. When you can cram 100+ songs onto an MP3 CD, you don't usually want to hear them in the same order every time. This DVD changer can play the tracks from 1 disc randomly, or you can load up 5 MP3 discs and have the random pick from all of them (500+ random songs). An added bonus for some people is the ability to play WMA-encoded songs, but watch out - WMA's that have been flagged as copyrighted won't play. If you turn on the TV when MP3 files are playing, you can see the folder and the first 30 characters of the song that's playing; an on-screen menu also lets you easily select folders or songs to play.<br />Other than its MP3 capabilities, it's a pretty standard DVD/CD changer. It is not a progressive-scan player, though, which is odd since it's so new. The manual says it can play DVD, CD, Video CD, CD-R, and CD-RW, as well as DVD-R discs that were \\"recorded on a Panasonic DVD video recorder\\". Things it says it won't play include DVD-Audio, SVCD, Divx, and Photo CDs.<br />Panasonic opted for minimal controls on the face of the unit, which probably allowed it to be fairly thin (it's the shortest multi-disc unit I've seen) but means that you have to run most things from the remote, including choosing which disc to play. On-screen menus help you set up the player and show you which special options you've selected. Oddly, pressing the Stop button on the remote or the unit stops the current feature (song or movie) but the disc remains active - you must press Stop a 2nd time to tell the player that you're done with the disc and want to switch to something else (like change to another disc). When the unit powers off, thepower stays off, so there's no point in plugging it in to your amplifier hoping that you only have to use a single Power button.<br />No changer is perfect, but the only things I've run into with this one are minor annoyances rather than actual problems. And it's great to finally find a changer with true random functionality for both my CDs and MP3 discs. If you want a single unit to function as both a DVD player and a CD changer, this one does it all for you, in a very slim package.<br />By the way, despite what the Amazon information about this changer says, it does not have a \\"shuttle dial\\" or a \\"unified remote control\\".<br />Pros: <BR> - DVD changer with CD, MP3, WMA capabilities<BR> - MP3/WMA songs can be played in random order from one or all discs<BR> - Change 4 discs while playing the 5th<BR> - On-screen setups and MP3 file/folder selection<br />Cons: <BR> - No progressive scan<BR> - Must use remote for most functions