Well, I finally caved in and bought a DVD player. I already own a laserdisc player among other things, which, for the sake of reference, I will list below:

Laserdisc player: Pioneer CLD-D605
Television: Sony KP53XBR45 rear projection (calibrated by Louis Carliner, ISF calibration technician)
Receiver: Onkyo DXTS838 (Dolby Digital decoder built-in)
Speakers: NHT Superones (x5), NHT SW2Pi powered sub

I purchased a Panasonic A100 DVD player (their cheapest model.) Why? Well, I didn't want to spend a whole lot of cash. The Toshiba and RCAs that Nobody Beats the Wiz were stocking looked cheaply constructed (bottom line, the Panasonic looked nicer physically...) And I didn't need another AC-3 decoder...

Anyway, I assumed that if I had any problems, since 'the Wiz' has a 30 day return policy (even if I just don't like it), I'd just give it back.

I purchased two movies, "the Road Warrior" and "Seven". I also have "the Road Warrior" on LD, and am very familiar with it.

Initial Impressions: Better than Laserdisc on all accounts. Noticeably higher resolution, lack of noise...clean clean picture. Sound is on par with AC-3 laserdiscs.

I A/Bed "the Road Warrior" (one of my favorite films), DVD vs. LD, and for the most part thought they were essentially similar. I had to peek at my receiver's display to check which I was looking at. But one scene confirmed the effect of DVD's higher resolution. In the initial action sequence, before Max is soping up spilled gasoline off the pavement, but after the two cars meet their demise (and the mohawked guy and his buddy are left), there is a wide shot, close to the ground, that shows Max backing his car up. On LD, the asphalt is a moire like pattern, and the detail of the pavement is blurred. On DVD, there is no moire like pattern, and you can makeout every detail/stone/pebble of the pavement. This evidence of DVD's increased sharpness/resolution was pretty stunning.

The sound was different than the Pro-Logic LD version, but no different than playing Pro-Logic tracks of say, "The Abyss" (AC-3 rerelease), versus the AC-3 tracks. I'll have to pay more attention to these, but I don't believe that the Road Warrior had that wonderfully recorded a soundtrack (nor were their too too may surround effects...), so the AC-3 5.1 remaster (which they did for DVD) wasn't too much of a leap. It sounded fine overall though.

I have not yet played much of Seven, but the brief skim looked good.

No Laserdisc-like pressing anomolies or infamous digital artifacts were seen. Much different (better) than the artifact filled demo disks I had seen.

Believe me, I was a big skeptic, but now, after experiencing it for myself, I must say it's something I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Terry Jinn
tjinn@interport.net