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Panasonic DVD-CV52 5-Disc DVD Player

Panasonic DVD-CV52 5-Disc DVD Player

List Price: $209.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I need to defend this unit
Review: ... The sound and video quality is incredible, which is why i purchased it. After reading about the disasters some people had with operation, i had to see how bad it really was. the answer... really not that bad. the remote is poorly designed, but aside from having to hit stop twice to reset a disc, it's pretty easy to use. it's not very responsive to commands if it's already in process, but considering it costs ... has a 192kHz D/A converter, a five disc tray, progressive scan, and outstanding picture and sound (running the optical wire), i would highly recommend it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WOW!!
Review: A great DVD player!!! Low price and great for a birthday or other holiday gift!!!!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not a good option for playing audio CDs
Review: As an Audio CD player this unit has two big limitations: 1) POOR DISPLAY. The player only displays the track and disc #. To see any more info, you must turn on your TV. 2) SLOW RANDOM PLAY. It takes about 15 seconds to go from track to track in random play. So forget about using this unit to play random music tracks - the delay is too unnaturally long.
This is a fine unit as a DVD player, and ultra slim at 3" tall. I just don't know why anyone would need the carosel function on a DVD player.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Know the limit
Review: Disks it doesn't play: DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW(once rewritten, there's gibberish.)

Changing disks and getting the right one in, out, or to play is as anti-intuitive as possible. The UI screams for improvement.

But, everything it claims to work works so far. I enjoy the 5-disc capacity once you figure out how to load and play them.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Know the limit
Review: Disks it doesn't play: DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW(once rewritten, there's gibberish.)

Changing disks and getting the right one in, out, or to play is as anti-intuitive as possible. The UI screams for improvement.

But, everything it claims to work works so far. I enjoy the 5-disc capacity once you figure out how to load and play them.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great changer no problems here(MP3s work great)
Review: DVDs
·I have not found any DVD this player can not play

Music Discs(CDs)

·Random Play
·Programmable play list
·Random Play mode works both on a single disc or multiple disc

MP3 Files
All of the above work an MP3 disc(CD-r)! This player has played all MP3 I have tried, however I generally just ripp MP3 from the original disc. But, for best results you should only use MP3s that have at least 128k encoding. This Unit will display the list of all titles on the TV screen with long directory and file names.

In addition, I have found the unit to be easy to use.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great changer no problems here(MP3s work great)
Review: DVDs
· I have not found any DVD this player can not play

Music Discs(CDs)

· Random Play
· Programmable play list
· Random Play mode works both on a single disc or multiple disc

MP3 Files
All of the above work an MP3 disc(CD-r)! This player has played all MP3 I have tried, however I generally just ripp MP3 from the original disc. But, for best results you should only use MP3s that have at least 128k encoding. This Unit will display the list of all titles on the TV screen with long directory and file names.

In addition, I have found the unit to be easy to use.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Performance, value, but a headache to use
Review: I bought this at a local store based on price and published reviews. I wanted a DVD player which could play both disks of a long movie and to replace my Sony 5-disk platter CD player. The CV52 does that but I still have my CD player.

The CV52 has great video and sound (though I have limited experience with other DVD players), but a marginal user interface. Also, watching the 2-disk Lord of the Rings DVD (new out of box) my player skipped four times. When I backed up and replayed the error was gone (appeared as a frozen screen for ~1 sec with audio gap).

The player is seriously deficient in "ease of use". Once playing you will be pleased, but its a headache to get there. Sometimes you must press the buttons several times to get the tray to open, to stop play, or change disks. Apparently it ignores input while a disk is loading (automatic when tray closes). The face has only open/close, exchange disk (nice feature), skip disk, and standard play/pause fwd/rev functions. The incomprehensible remote is required for all other functions.

The remote is flimsy and confusing. The buttons all mostly look the same. The various menu buttons are spread around the control making it a bit confusing which button to press. Large navigational buttons occupy the middle of the control. But these only work with menus. The fwd/reverse speed, stop, play, pause, etc are tiny buttons at the top. Most of the buttons are so small that it takes care to press the right one. Although the rubber buttons are nice, the small size , lack of meaningful organization, and generally flimsy feel earn the remote an F.

I don't play CDs in the unit because its such a pain to operate, compared with my several year old Sony changer.

Overall, the price is great for the capabilities. The performance is good. But ease of use is non existent. If you want the capabilities the DVD CV52 offers at a good price, buy it. But the shoddy effort at making this product functional will make me seriously think over another Panasonic purchase. Recommend you try it out at the store first.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best DVD changers for non-HDTV people
Review: I bought this DVD player a couple of weeks ago, and I have completely fallen in love with it. Since I do not have an HDTV (and don't plan to buy one till the plasma tv prices fall to consumer level), progressive scan was not one of my requirements for a DVD player. This player is packed with features - MP3 playback (random as well as sequential), WMA playback (random as well as sequential), DVD-R playback and many others. The best thing about MP3 playback in this deck is the availability of 1 disc as well as 5-disc random playback of songs. A very smart-looking tree comes up showing the directory structure in the MP3 CD-R. You can program a playlist using this tree.

Perhaps the most important thing about a DVD player is the picture quality. And this deck rocks in that department - crisp picture, good coloration and amazing level of detail.

There are several options for audio adjustment, so if you do not own a receiver yet (or one that takes in optical digital input) then you can customize your audio with a great deal of power.

Another important feature of this DVD player is its incredible on screen display. The OSD appears just like a graphical window with icons on a computer. When the movie is being played back, audio, subtitle and angle menus appear on the top portion of the screen when called, again as nicely designed windows.

All in all, I highly recommend this to anyone who doesn't care about progressive scan for now, because other than that, this deck has got it all.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good value, but a few flaws
Review: I bought this DVD player due to the high number of good reviews. However, I have found one bothersome problem. First, I have the CV52K model, not sure if the K means anything different.

Anyway,the player plays movies fine, sound is fine, and I love menu system for the MP3s. One major feature I wanted was the MP3 play capability on a changer and one with a good menu system. It has that, but the playback of Mp3s is where the problem lies. If I downloaded a bunch of MP3s and then burn them to a CD, some play fine others skip or play fast and slow. I thought maybe it was the player itself. Brought it back got a another straight out the box. Played the same disk of MP3s same problem. Turns out the problem is the player won't play certain MP3s ripped with certain software. If I took the same problem MP3s and put them back in WAV format and then converted back to an MP3 with my Musicmatch software these same problem MP3s played fine. I haven't noticed anyone reporting problem, but then maybe everyone else rips there own Mp3s from the actual disk instead of downloading them. (yeah right)

Besides that the player overall has been a good buy. Enough of a good buy that I haven't taken it back to get a different brand. However it did embarass me, because when I first got it I had a party and used a disk I had burned of Mp3s for music. Was fine for most the party till it came across those MP3s it couldn't play correctly. No one likes messed up music when they are trying to get their groove on.!! Now I check all disks beforehand.

Also another note, if you use XPs built in software to burn your MP3s to disk, you may see directories it can't access. They will show up greyed out on your directory list. Fix for this problem is don't use XP to burn it. Musicmatch burns the same disk of MP3s and all directories are accessible on the menu. (and no this is not a review to plug Musicmatch software, just seems to have been able to correct my issues).

Conclusion: If Mp3s aren't a big deal, and you don't download those that you burn to disk, then excellent player for the money. However, if Mp3s are a big deal and you do download and burn a few to disk, and you wouldn't want to waste the time to check and re-rip when necessary, this may not be the player for you.


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