Q I have a Denon DVD-3800 player. I am having problems playing two discs, the first disc in "Band of Brothers" and the Imax movie "Super Speedway" (The Mach II Special Edition). Disc one on Band of Brothers "freezes" several times before just locking up completely (but the disc plays fine on an old  "cheapo" Sony player) and the Super Speedway disc freezes/"skips" several times throughout the movie (VERY ANNOYING!!!) and keeps playing. I have tried to change the video settings to no avail (interlaced/progressive, Auto/Video/Film, Mode1 & 2,etc.) I also am seeing evidence of the chroma bug.

A Every player seems to have problems with different discs. It is indeed extremely annoying, but the wide variety in disc production encoding is the reason, and there isn't anything that can be done, because they just don't follow all the specifications. As to the chroma bug, it will take several years for all the MPEG decoder chips to eliminate it.

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Q When I was getting ready to purchase my new DVD player I checked your shoot-out scores and found a score in the 90's for the Panasonic DVD-RP91. It said (auto1). Now all I can find is a score of 60 in (auto2). Did I make a mistake? The other Panasonic DVD players have scores for (auto1) and (auto2). Please help me out. I want to be confident in my choice.

A The Auto 1 and Auto 2 are settings on the player that you can choose between. So, for the Panasonic RP91, just use the Auto 1 setting.

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Q When using your receiver's internal test tones along with an SPL meter to calibrate your speakers, do you calibrate them to 75 dB or 85 dB on the SPL meter for use in a HT setup?

A It does not really matter, but I would use 75 dB since that is in a range that is safer for your ears.

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Q  When comparing specs on the Panasonic DVD-RP91 vs. the DVD-RP82, it seems as if they hacked up all the features and hiked up the price. What is the scoop on this model? Is it a good choice and does it compare to the DVD-RP82?

A The RP91 does not have the CUE (chroma bug), but it uses an older deinterlacing chip that results in combing. When Panasonic comes up with a reasonably priced universal player, I sure hope they use the RP82 platform.

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Q  I have a Hitachi 43" HDTV (43UWX20B) It has Virtual HD for upsampling to either 540p or 1080i. I must select one for any inputs below 720p/1080i. I have standard DirecTV and a Panasonic (RP62) progressive DVD player. I don't really know the output for the DirecTV receiver.  I was wondering what upsampling I should use for each. I was guessing the progressive DVD to upsample to 540p. But I don't really know what setting to use for DirecTV for the best picture. Can the TV really upsample from Interlaced to Progressive? The Hitachi website has a video explaining the need for this Virtual HD due to the extra lines in High Def.  I would have gaps in the picture without upsampling. But Hitachi never explains what should be used depending on input.

A "Virtual HD" is just Hitachi's marketing term for converting a lower res picture to a higher res one. The output of your DirecTV sat box is 480i unless it is one of the High Def boxes that are just now coming on the market. Depending on the quality of the deinterlacer in your TV, you might want to use the 540p, but you really just need to switch between the two and see which one you like better. It will probably be best to use progressive output from the player rather than interlaced output. It is too bad your TV won't let you keep a 480p input as 480p. I suspect there are some artifacts in converting 480p to 540p.

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Q I saw you on the Screen Savers and the biggest thing that I took away from your appearance was to try and get a TV that is capable of 720p. How important is that?

A 720p is the most demanding of the HDTV formats. It would be nice to have it in case some programs are broadcast that way, but most, at least for now, are at 1080i, which is a little less demanding, but still a great picture. It all depends on your budget. If it is a stretch, then skip the 720p because you will be able to view most of HD programming in its native 1080i, but whatever 720p is out there, will simply be converted to 1080i in the TV. In other words, you still will be able to view all the HD programs.

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Q  I have just purchased a Denon DVD-1600. My question regards the player being able to play a 24/96 disc. The manual states if a disc has copyguard, the output will be down-converted to 44.1 kHz, this also will happen if the disc is greater then 176 kHz. My receiver, Pioneer's VSX35TX, displays "96 kHz Stereo" if such a signal is present. When playing Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors" (DVD-A), and I select the "96 Stereo" option on the disc, the display on my receive reads "Stereo" not "96 kHz Stereo". My receiver's manual says to set the input select to "auto-digital" to pass a 24/96khz signal - I would have though to set it to analog (I did try both). I have the Toslink, 5 ch audio outputs and 2ch audio outs on the player into my receiver. Did I miss something or is the player down-converting the signal to 44.1 kHz because of the disc being copyguarded?

A DVD-A does not deliver a 24/96 digital bitstream at the digital output of players. There are some two-channel 24/96 discs out there that will allow output of the 24/96 bitstreams, but they are part of the DVD-V spec, not DVD-A. When you select "96 Stereo" option on the disc menu, you are electing to play it in two-channel rather than 5.1, but there is still no digital output allowed. It simply outputs all the music in two-channel analog rather than 5.1 channel analog.

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Q Panasonic's 2003 DVD players will be out very soon (April release). Please review the DVD-S55 and DVD-F85, given that the RP-82 and XP30/50 have been discontinued.

A We will try to stay ahead of the curve for new players from now on, rather than reviewing players that are at the end of their life. This will be easier to do now that our Benchmark procedures are established.

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