Panasonic DVD-RP62 DVD Player

I hardly watch movies. I tend to not like the concept of watching movies in general, too much time devoted to one thing. I'm more of a music buff, so I can't give any good analysis on the quality of the experience playing DVD movies on this player other than it played the 10 or so DVD movies I've watched without a hitch.

What I can say with some experience is the mp3 playback. I bought this DVD player because I researched how it could play back mp3 files in random mode. I was delighted to experience this at the store and snatched one. Random play works like a charm. I found though that mp3's encoded at 192kbs or higher would skip continuously.

Thinking this was a defect, I returned the RP-62K for another. I didn't realize until I opened up the box that that it was silver (RP-62S), not black. I played it and found that it played all my encoded mp3's perfectly, even the ones that the previous model didn't. I had to return this one though because the silver didn't match the other black components. The third DVD player (second RP-62K) had the same problem the first had, skipping playback on high encoded mp3's. (An email to Panasonic tech support resulted in a response that there is no difference between the silver and black models, perhaps there are some quality issues on the build of the 62K).

My solution was to return this unit for its successor, the RP-35K (now selling for $99, when I bought the RP-62K for $170 just months ago). The RP-35K plays all the mp3 files, including the high encode mp3's without a hitch. It also has the random mp3 playback like the 62K. In addition, the RP-35K offers JPEG picture file support that the 62K doesn't.

I've read from people more concerned about DVD playback that the RP-35K doesn't incorporate a special hardware chip that the 62K did, perhaps explaining the price drop. For me, the 35K has more features and much better mp3 support.