Price Comparisons of Panasonic DVD-RV31S DVD Player, Silver

Buy Panasonic DVD-RV31S DVD Player, Silver

Panasonic DVD-RV31S DVD Player, Silver Product Description:

• DVD/VCD/CD player with MP3, CD-R, and CD-RW playback
• Optical digital-audio output for Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound
• Features Panasonic Advanced Surround (VSS) system with Bass Plus, 1-touch cinema memory, and dialogue enhancer
• Discrete subwoofer output routes home theater sound to your subwoofer
• Also includes S-video output, component-video outputs, multibrand remote control, and front-panel shuttle dial

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

51 of 51 people found the following review helpful.
excellent player for the money
By SL
Panasonic DVD-RV30 (older model w/o MP3 capability) was rated excellent for picture quality in the Consumer Report magazine.I found that is true also for this RV31 (silver) model. Unlike my older JVC dvd player, this player allows me to set different black level (light and darker); it allows users to set contrast, brightness, sharpness, color, and tint--features used to be only available in more expensive players. The picture quality, of course, is outstanding. I could notice more details in the black/dark areas when I set the brightness a little higher than factory preset. Among the 3 dvd players I've owned, I find this RV31 to have the best (user-friendly) on-screen menu. This player, however, lacks a screen saver to prevent phospher burn-in. In addition, it lacks a coaxial digital output. It comes with optical output, and of course also regular (a/v) rca outputs. It has component video output as well. The remote control is fine. I didn't think the keys are too small; however,it is not a universal remote. MP3 player, honestly, works flawlessly. I expected that it wasn't going to work based on other reviews. To my surprise, the player was able to read and play all my tracks on every MP3 cd-r and CD-RWs I have. It could be that I have saved all my music files in bit rate of 128 or higher. It does say in the manual that if the bit rate is 96 or lower, it may have problem reading the files. All in all, I was very happy to have purchased this player. I have played DVDs, MP3s and my Hong Kong VCDs without running into any problems. I also like the silver finish (you can purchase in black, as well.)

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent player except for a few kinks...
By John K Yu
I bought this DVD player 3 months ago and I could never be happier with it. Since then I have bought 3 more of these players for friends and relatives. I bought the Black or Silver they are exactly identical in functionality. I prefer the Silver look myself.

The MP3 player was a big plus! It plays my MP3 disks with ease. The only problem is that it only displays the numbers of my MP3 files when playing it. So you may have to memorize your MP3 via numbers. It will play the files in the order the MP3 files are written. Just make sure you make a list of the songs cause there is no way to memorize over a hundred songs in a disk.

Unlike the Toshiba DVD with the MP3 playing capability, the Panasonic DVD/CD/VCD/MP3 COULD Fast Forward/Rewind while playing the MP3 files. Im glad I did not buy the Toshiba, pretty much all the Toshiba players I tried in the electronics store could not fast forward/rewind MP3 file/song. This is bothersome especially if you need to scan through your MP3 songs.

Playback was excellent. I haven't got any bad pixelations where the picture was not completely processed which leaves bigger squares of the image all over the place. I did get a couple pauses/delay/discontinuity while playing the DVD on some disks. The discontinuity usually happens while it switches to the next track. It only happens rarely in the frequency of once in 10 movies I play. It may just be the disk itself causing it, especially if it has scratches.

As far a CD playing is concerned, it has pretty much what a normal CD player has. Search, Fast Forward, Rewind, Random, Scan and more... Just read up on the specifications to find out the rest.

VCD Playback is excellent as well. The image was nice and clear. Of course it will never match up with the DVD's picture quality.

The component outputs and digital audio output is a plus for future expansions. Most new higher end televisions and receivers have component inputs now. And most receivers that support DTS/Dolby digital 5.1 will have digital audio inputs. Though this particular player does not support progressive scan, the picture quality is up to par. Panasonic makes a model that supports progressive scan but it is slightly more expensive. It will look very similar to this one except it will say progressive scan on the front disk tray.

This player also implements special function for surround sound. It will simulate a surround sound through your television even though you don't have any of the complex receivers/audio equipment. Of course it will not match up with having your own surround receiver, but it is good enough if you don't have one.

This player has proven itself to be very reliable to me. Its ease of use and functionality makes it my top pick especially for its price range. At Amazons current pricing on this player (Black or Silver), you cannot find a better name brand in its class!

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful.
Crap!
By A Customer
After 6 months (....)I'm getting "H02" errors on every DVD. Time for the maintenance depot. Stay away from this defected DVD Player!!!

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Where Can I Buy Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED Film Scanner

Buy Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED Film Scanner

Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED Film Scanner Product Description:

• 4,000 dpi optical resolution, 48-bit color
• IEEE 1394 FireWire interface card included; PC and Mac compatible
• LED light source for accurate color consistency
• High resolution scans in only 38 seconds
• Supports film in strip, slide, and Advanced Photo System (APS) formats

Product Description

Item is still in box. Never been used. This item is a must sell.

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

124 of 125 people found the following review helpful.
Truly amazing
By A Customer
I think I was really awed when I scanned some black and white negatives, and got a positive for it and then adjusted the contrast and brightness, bringing out details that were not evident when I originally took the photo. I have also scanned color negatives, and made prints. I got it primarily to archive my extensive slide collection. I found that one of my slides had a scratch across a person's face. Using the sophisticated tools available with the program, I used multiple scans and the finished copy is scratch free. When using the 4000 dpi scanning setting, be prepared for some really large files. If one plans to get this, and one has a lot of material to scan, getting the largest available hard drive would be recommended. I plan to archive my slides to hard disk drive, then transfer copies as lower sized jpg files to a CD ROM. My only wish was that the program would have a way to put annotations on the copied slides; I am using a separate program to do that. I have found that my scans capture even the tiniest detail of the original slide, and one cannot ask for more than that. Some might think it a bit pricey for a scanner, but it does a fabulous job as a dedicated scanner.I wished they had provided a complete written manual; the detailed manual is on their provided CD-ROM, in Adobe acrobat format. The Abode program is provided, but it is 153 pages long and takes a bit of time to print. A shortened manual is provided, and covers most of the essentials so a complete manual printed out is not essential.The software with the scanner is very easy to use and the tools for adjusting the scans are interactive.If one is using XP on their computer, an updated progam for XP is available..., and is about 15MB as a zip file. I recently scanned a 32 year old Ektachrome slide taken under the worst possible conditions (indoors, incandescent lighting, with the outdoor film). It always had a yellow cast to it, which it normally would under those conditions. Upon recent scanning (to preserve it before it lost everything) it showed embeded dirt and scratches. I used the digital ICE, and it came out sparkling clear, and the drapes which looked like yellowed newspaper became a crystal clear cream white, as it was in the room where I first took the slide. I have also scanned old slides that were badly faded, and restored the color and luster.

108 of 109 people found the following review helpful.
The best scanner for 35mm ... period.
By Carl E. Feather
After using a Nikon LS-1000 for two years and constantly being frustrated with the scanner's poor performance on slides, I was blown away by the first scan I did with my Coolscan 4000. The colors were right on, the density nearly perfect and best of all, no more processing artifacts thanks to the Digital ICE. I used to have to spend 15 minutes carefully cloning out those little dust spots and other defects on every high-res scan. Now I can concentrate on scanning rather than retouching.

The sharpness of the images are noticeably improved, which I attribute to the ED lens. The color saturation is wonderful and shadow detail is excellent, even on a constrasty slide.

I use a Coolscan 2000 at work and the 4000 is definitely a huge improvement over that scanner. For the [price] difference, the 4000 is the one to own.

The Digital GEM and ROC are worth that price alone if you have slides or negatives in which the color has shifted. It is absolutely amazing this software restores these old images. I had some very red chromes from the 70s that it restored to full color.

While some reviewers have complained about the sharpness of negative scans, I have not found this to be a problem. And Nikon includes the option of using a film holder rather than the negative adapter for scanning.

In short, this scanner is the one to beat. I can't imagine 35mm film scanning getting any better. This one is a keeper, a real workhorse for the photographer who wants to bridge film and digital with a high-quality scanner.

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful.
Perfection!
By Samantha D. Reynolds
Very easy to use. Beautiful scans. I was extremely tired of labs developing my print film. They would hardly ever get the correct exposure. Now I've gone solely to 35mm slide film. I get perfect scans, and the only time the exposure is bad is if I mess up. The Digital ICE totally gets rid of dust spots and scratches. Then I can just print the good pics on my little Sony dye-sublimation printer.

I have had only one problem. Nikon tech was very helpful, and it turned out that it was just that my computer had too many applications running in the background. Nikon also has a great website with software updates and other useful info.

I recommend the Nikon Coolscan 4000 as the only way to scan.

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Discounted Nikon Coolscan IV ED USB Film Scanner

Buy Nikon Coolscan IV ED USB Film Scanner

Nikon Coolscan IV ED USB Film Scanner Product Description:

• 2,900 dpi optical resolution with fast 42 second scan times
• USB interface for plug-and-play connectivity
• Color Management System ensures vivid, accurate color matching
• Dynamic range of 3.6 for great detail throughout a wide range of tones
• LED light source for accurate color consistency

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

109 of 110 people found the following review helpful.
Does Everything it promises and then some!
By Guy Terry
I had planned to buy a Coolscan III from E-bay to catalog my extensive negative collection, because I couldn't afford the LS-2000. With the SCSI interface and the other technical difficulties of the Coolscan III, I was a little hesitant. Then came the Coolscan IV ED. This scanner and software package offered everything that the LS-2000 did, and is much easier to use and operate. I have not used Digital GEM or ROC, but the Digital ICE is amazing. My brother, a photojournalist, thought that allowing the scanner to automatically remove scratches was silly, since it could be done (so he thought) much faster and better in PhotoShop. After trying two scans of the same frame, he never scanned without the Digital Ice turned on again! The negatives I have are from the middle east, and are very scratched. Fortunately, the Nikon Coolscan IV has a forth, infrared channel that can detect what is a scratch and what is a line on the negative, and remove the scratch without any hint of what damage was on the negative. Using USB (compared to SCSI) with the ICE on makes for a longer scan time that doesn't get much shorter with lower resolution. I have something else open (I'm scanning now) while I work with it, but the results are worth the wait. There is some noise in the lighter tones (negatives, haven't used slides but the noise would be in the darker tones there) but I may try an aftermarket scanner software called Vuescan to eliminate that with multi-pass scanning. The CSIV doesn't support multi-pass scans, but with some aftermarket software it will. The Nikon Scan software is a little strange, and there's not much that's user friendly about it, but if you have a good working knowledge of PhotoShop, PhotoImpact, etc., then youshould understand the controls enough to experiment and figure everything out. If you are a professional photographer looking for something that will allow 11 by 14" enlargement from a 35mm negative, or just an ambitious amateur, driven by the peer pressure of your professional photog dad and brother, this scanner is the one!

91 of 91 people found the following review helpful.
Outstanding Film Scanner
By CAPoiDog
The technology in this device delivers outstanding scans with little effort. The dynamic range is typically better than camera shot film and the color fidelity is outstanding. I attribute this to the RGB LED illumination system that is very well calibrated. Without ICE on, the scans are quick at 40 seconds or so. However, the ICE algorithms chew up a lot of CPU cycles and slow down the process considerably. The good news is that you can easily batch scan and walk away from the scanner for as long as it needs to process.

The software is clunky and nowhere near as powerful as it could be, but Nikon isn't known for software anyway. I haven't encountered any crashes or weird behavior from the unit, but I think that earlier software was pretty buggy judging from some of the reviews I saw on other boards.

I've scanned over a hundred rolls of "legacy" film to build up a digital library of family pictures. I can't say enough about the image quality. ICE is a marvel. It eliminates scratches, dust, film grain and can reconstruct color from faded film.

I've been working with digital photographic systems for over 10 years, starting with high end laser film recorders, so I know a few things about the subject. If you need a film scanner and are willing to shell out more than a few bucks, this is a top-notch product.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
The best way to go for scanning negatives
By CAWireless
The Coolscan IV is definitely worth the price for scanning negatives. I looked at flatbed scanners and cheaper film scanners previously, but in the end I bit the bullet and bought the Coolscan. I have no regrets about doing this. The resolution of the scanned negatives is amazing - I can see details that were not visible the original prints. What really makes the investment worthwhile is the Digital ICE technology, which "cleans up" dusty or imperfect negatives. I am in the process of converting my entire film library into digital images.

This brings me to the downsides of the scanner. It does not utilize USB 2.0, and the process of scanning negatives at high resolutions is very very slow. I basically have to devote 45 minutes to an hour to scan in a roll of film because I have turned on Digital ICE as well as the other touch-up features available on the scanner. However, this is by choice, so for people who don't want the highest resolutions, the process may be somewhat faster. The other problem is that the included software is very powerful but has a steep learning curve. I spent a lot of initial time tweaking the settings to find what produced the best images.

Overall, though, the gripes are minor since the quality of the images is so high. This has changed how I take pictures now. Since the resolution of the digital images is higher than any reasonably priced digital camera on the market, I am now shooting most pictures with a film camera and scanning the negatives. This provides the best of both worlds - a set of cheap prints as well as high-quality digital images. Now I just need to get another hard drive to hold all the images that I am scanning in...

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