Panasonic DVD-CP67K 5-Disc Progressive-Scan DVD Player , Black
From Panasonic
Have a seat. You're about to enter the digital dimension. Inside the DVD-CP67K, you'll find a digital Cinema Mode that combines brightness control with picture noise canceling. The result is a clear and crisp image that appears on your screen. And from the comfort of your chair, you can adjust the picture on your screen. Built-in Advanced Surround (V.S.S.) and Bass Plus provide channel surround sound that will blow back your hair. It's like going to the movies or a big concert without ever leaving your home. That's the digital dimension.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #96586 in Consumer Electronics
- Color: Black
- Brand: Panasonic
- Model: DVD-CP67K
- Dimensions: 3.00" h x 16.90" w x 10.90" l, 10.00 pounds
The best thing about a DVD changer is that it doubles as a CD player (how often will you watch five movies back to back?). Panasonic's DVD-CP67 excels as a player of both movies and music, offering remarkable quality for its price. Its standard interlaced and progressive-scan (HD-ready) images are above average, and it provides the best DVD-based navigation we've seen for MP3 files. The stylish DVD-CP67's progressive-scan outputs produce smooth, vibrant images that must be seen to be believed. Its composite-video and S-video outputs are superb. Other features include "top menu," which zips right to the disc's primary content menu (past irritating copyright warnings and previews), sequential CD playback (plays through all five discs), and the ever-handy Quick Replay.
MP3 CDs burned on a PC are a great way to audition songs from the Internet on a home stereo. They also provide the ability to load the DVD-CP67 with about 50 of your favorite albums--that's roughly 10 albums per MP3- or WMA-encoded disc--for some serious uninterrupted playback. The MP3 navigation features on this player are a delight. Wander between albums (folders) with the remote's menu controls, scan within tracks, or select a new song while one is playing and skip right to it quickly. The manual states that the player doesn't support ID3 tags (which display artist, song name, genre, etc.), but in our testing, complete artist and file names were visible.
The player grants both disc and track access from the remote control, where many players make you rely on the "disc skip" button when you're changing selections from the couch. The supplied remote is sensibly laid out, though the buttons are a tad small. The box includes a detachable power cord and a composite-video/stereo analog audio interconnect. --Michael Mikesell
Pros:
- Easy setup
- Stylish design
- Direct-disc and direct-track access on remote
- Above-average picture quality
- Above-average disc loading speed
- Above-average read abilities for MP3 discs
- Excellent MP3 disc navigation
- Fast switching among disc chapters, tracks, and MP3 files
Cons:
- Slow start-up
- Analog audio output slightly light in bass
- Does not play JPEG CDs
A mere 3 inches tall, Panasonic's DVD-CP67K (also available in silver) gives you the convenience of five-DVD and/or CD playback with multiple-format video outputs, including stunning progressive-scan video for use with an HD or HD-ready set. Whether you currently have HDTV capabilities or you're merely thinking of "someday," the CP67K stands ready to deliver. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts.
This player's Cinema Mode cuts down glare and improves color resolution in a darkened living room, Quick Replay jumps back seven to 10 seconds, variable zoom converts any widescreen image to full screen on a 4:3 aspect-ratio TV (eliminating the black bands at the top and bottom of the screen), and high-speed smooth scan zips through a two-hour movie in just 40 seconds. The CP67K is compatible with standard DVD-R (it's guaranteed to play Panasonic DVD-Rs recorded and finalized with a Panasonic DVD video recorder, though others may work as well), CDs, audio CD-Rs and CD-RWs, and discs encoded with MP3 or WMA (Windows Media) audio files. A 192 kHz/24-bit digital-to-analog converter ensures optimal decoding of all disc formats except high-resolution DVD-Audio.
To round out the stereo experience, Advanced Surround (V.S.S.) simulates surround-sound effects using only two speakers, dynamic range compression limits the peak levels of Dolby Digital-encoded programs (found on most DVDs), and the Dialogue Enhancer increases the relative volume of the center channel, making center-channel content easier to hear.
For connections, you get the works: standard composite-video, S-video, and premium component-video outputs. The latter can be switched to deliver either 480i or 480p (progressive-scan) video. The player also has a single set of stereo RCA analog-audio outputs and an optical digital-audio output to feed a surround-sound signal to your Dolby Digital-decoding or DTS-decoding audio/video receiver.
Dont buy for playing CDs
I bought this to replace my old 5-CD changer, and thought I'd get DVD as a bonus. Unfortunately, its design as a multifunction device makes it a poor choice for playing CDs. A bad UI and frustrating useability finally caused me to return it.
* Too long to startup: you must wait through a 30+ second "boot up" cycle while it scans all discs, ignoring the Play button until a small cryptic indicator on the front panel indicates it's ready. Only then can you press Play.
* No auto-play: unlike my old CD changer, you cannot program it to start playing a CD at power up. You are forced to wait through the entire boot cycle in order to manually press the Play button.
* No automatic sequential disc play: after the boot sequence, you must press the dedicated Sequential play button on the front panel - you cannot set Sequential play from the remote!
* No "Disc Skip" button on the remote: you must know which disk is currently playing, and specifically select the next one.
* Remote is too small, too many buttons, clearly DVD-centric
On the plus side, the CD audio quality was good, and the picture out of the S-video port was great, although on the 3 DVDs I rented there were always some sections on the "Extra Features" tracks that glitched during playback.
In short, I could only recommend this product if you don't have enough room for 2 dedicated devices and need multifunctionality - otherwise, take the same $...and buy a...DVD and a...CD changer.
Good Value for the price
I got this DVD changer couple of weeks back and am quite impressed with the superior performance and sleek design. The picture and sound quality is pretty good and it plays mp3 audio as well. The only drawback is the on-screen display and the remote which are not too intuitive and easy-to-use. It took me a while to figure out how to use the progressive scan output with my HDTV - also, the on-screen menu displays cannot be easily manipulated without reading the manual.
This one has the Sage/Faroudja chip too
I was shopping for the Panasonic DVD RP-62 player because it has the Sage/Faroudja video chip and then I saw this changer with a $30 rebate (until 31 March, 2003). With the rebate, the RP-67 is currently less expensive than the RP-62. So I thought to myself, "What is the chance Panasonic designed and builds a different video board for this player?" Being an engineer, I realized the answer was "Slim to none." I ordered this player with the idea that I'd return it if it didn't have the FLI2200 chip. After taking the player apart, (Note to Panasonic: I didn't really open up my player; why would I do a silly thing like that and void my warranty?) I found the Sage/Faroudja FLI2200 chipset on the underside of the video board. Just like the RP-62, you won't find any indication on the box, brochures or player that they use the FLI2200 chip, but they both use it.
As far as video quality goes, AT THIS TIME the RP-67 has to be the best value in DVD players. Buy it before the rebate ends on 31 March, 2003. Of course, in a year this player will probably be obsolete, but that is just the nature of electronics.
