I'm a long time reader of this site and forum and now request the help of the members here

I'm in the market for a new dvd player, but I'm fed up with the one's I've had recently. I want something that plays dvd (and dvd-r), cdr, vcd, svcd and preferably, mpeg 1/2 iso...dvd-audio would also be nice.

Because of this feature set, especially wanting mpeg 1/2 iso and also kinda wanting to throw mpeg 1/2 files onto a dvd-udf without authoring, I've gone with Apex players in the past and I'm fed up with them. I'm not too happy with the audio/video output quality, and even less satisfied with the construction of them (or lack there of), and reliabilty. My latest Apex loves to freeze, make a loud grinding sound for 10 seconds and them resume playback, about 3 times during a average length movie.

So I want a nice, solid, name brand unit that will be more reliable, have better quality output, and perhaps support dvd-audio for future compatability. I've been going through the player reports and have seen what is availble in my area, and I've narrowed it down to 4 models.

So my real request here (now that you know my situation background) is help in picking one of these models, and perhaps get futher confirmation that they support mpeg iso and good vcd/svcd playback performance. Sometimes in the comments, some people say they do support mpeg iso, and some say they don't, but no one ever talks about mpeg iso playback other than listing it in their comments, so I'm not 100% sure if it really is supported since there are no futher comments or discussion on the feature by the commenter, kinda leaves me uncertain about feature support.

So please help me pick one
  • Yamaha DV S5650
  • Panasonic F85
  • JVC XV-N55
  • Philips DVD 727

These are 4 models that are available to me retail (so I can try to test them, but they might not be hooked up in store). I'm kinda leaning towards the Panasonic F85 since it has a changer, and commenters on this site says it does mpeg iso as well.

So, please help me pick one, I'm bad as making decisions. I narrowed it down to these 4 from about 50 I have been looking at the past week.

Thanks for any help!

-vasu