I currently have a 2 year old Technics A-10 DVD-Audio player running to a Sony 32" Wega. I am considering upgrading the player to a Panasonic RP-91. Should I upgrade the player?
Will there be a really noticeable improvement in the video or audio?

Only if your WEGA has high bandwidth component port and your new DVD player does progress scan, than you'll definitely get a improvement.

Where'd you happen to find an RP91? Right after the RP82 this is the other hot player everyone raves about even if it doesn't have the Sage chip in it.

There are a number of places online line, that are offering the RP-91 for sale. Among them Crutchfield, Crazy Eddie, Dbuys. From a price range of $359 up to $549.

What is the Sage chip?

I decided to buy the RP-91 and to upgrade my 32" Wega to the 32" Hi-Scan HDTV ready Wega. So, I can take advantage of the progressive scan. Expensive yes, but I guess I could use the old 32"Wega in the bedroom.

The Sage/Faroudja deinterlacing chip was what Panasonic was using in most/all of their progressive scan players. This is the same chip found in the IScan pro I believe that in tests is one of the best deinterlacer chips on the market and is usually found in more expensive products. The fact that Panasonic was using them in their low cost players was why many people gobbled these players up. This is also the reason I think they stopped using them. They just weren't making their money back on them either even after selling them as quicklyas they made them. The other good thing about the Panny players is that they never had the Chroma bug in their MPEG decoder.

If your into DVD-A and want a PQ zoom with manual panning and scanning of a frame, the zoom icon can disapear also. I would reccomend a PScan Toshiba SD-4800, I bought mine off of J & A for $199 plus $4.95 shipping.


I am into conspiracies and to be able to scan and pan a frame from the disc in any direction, is great for my hobby. Zoom feature is great disapears too just hit exit, if you want to vid cap a special frame. Good luck on your choice, I hope you have good views or music with it.

The RP-91 has gone out of production, but is very easy to find. However, unless you need the zoom feature on the 91, I would suggest getting one of the other Panasonic players with the Sage/Faroudja chip. Better PQ for less money. I used to have a 91 and ended up switching to an RP-82.

More info on the Sage/Faroudja chip and progressive scan dvd players:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-b...rch&articles=5

Panasonic was making money on their players, the decision to stop using the Sage/Faroudja chip was purely a marketing decision, as Panasonic has decided to compete in the terms of price instead of engineering features.

I would not get a Toshiba or Sony because these models have the chroma bug.