Panasonic PV-20D52 20-Inch TV-DVD Combo

by Panasonic

Product Details

Product Manual [2.36mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 18.6 x 20.2 x 19.9 inches ; 50.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 60 pounds
• Shipping: This item can only be shipped to the 48 contiguous states. We regret it cannot be shipped to APO/FPO, Hawaii, Alaska, or Puerto Rico.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B00006ANXV
• Item model number: PV-20D52
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #422,615 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Equally suitable for apartment, kitchen, dormitory, or bedroom, this 20-inch TV/DVD combo features a two-line digital comb filter, outputs for digital surround sound, and support for MP3 files and DVD-R discs. The PV-20D52's DVD player does double-duty as an audio CD player. In addition to playing conventional CDs, the set can play MP3 files from CD-R and CD-RW for hours of audio enjoyment. The combo unit can also play home-recorded MPEG2 video that's been saved on a DVD-R using a Panasonic DVD-Video recorder.

Home theater-ready, the PV-20D52 has an optical digital-audio output to help you enjoy surround sound audio. When it's connected to a Dolby Digital or DTS-decoding audio/video receiver and a six-channel speaker system, you'll enjoy exhilarating digital surround sound. The PV-20D52's two-line digital comb filter enhances resolution by removing blurred edges between colors and reducing dot crawl (tiny moving dots of color along a sharp color separation in a vertical line, as in a depiction of a character's striped T-shirt). Additionally, the DVD player offers fast, smooth-motion scan (in five speeds up to 100x), picture zoom, and auto switching field/frame still. Depending on the content of the disc, you can select from up to eight language soundtracks, 32 subtitle languages, and multiple camera angles.

A front-panel audio/video input (with composite- and S-video) affords easy hookup of camcorders, gaming consoles, or other devices. The unit includes an earphone jack, a sleep timer, on timer, and wake-up alarm. Onscreen icons and front-panel cursor keys and menu control make setup and operation simple. It also comes with built-in FM radio and a multibrand tower remote.

Finally, Panasonic has set up the PV-20D52 with Ready-to-Play: as soon as you plug it in, the combo automatically sets its own clock and local TV channels.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Practical purchase, February 26, 2003

By 

Richard Braun (Cambridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Panasonic PV-20D52 20-Inch TV-DVD Combo (Electronics)

Panasonic pros: noticeably better picture, nicer remote, clean integration with the DVD player, built-in FM tuner, has (limited) channel labels, is name-brand, has nicer-looking black plastic cabinet.

Apex pros: lower price, flat screen picture tube, base/treble audio controls, S-video input.

You can download the product manuals from both manufacturers (the latter is at apexdigitalinc.com) and compare for yourself; like most consumer products, the manuals exist primarily to publish CYA disclaimers from the law firms of the manufacturers, not to actually help consumers.

A word about the channel labels in the Panasonic: there are 24 hard-coded labels from commonly-used stations like ABC, HBO, CNN. You have to first scan your cable for available channels, then you can associate a channel number for each of the labels. You can't define your own labels; you're out of luck if you want to label one of the lesser channels like FOOD, HGTV, E!, etc.; and 24 is a small number. This limitation, along with the lack of S-video connectors, leads me to believe this is an OLD Panasonic design. Still, when I went to Sears to check out the Apex, I found that its built-in menus lack channel labels entirely, and is even more bare-bones than this simple Panasonic set.

One other comment about this first generation of TV/DVD players: you can't play a CD or the FM tuner in the built-in unit while watching the TV. Bummer. I would like to be able to put in some music and perhaps watch the news (muted with closed-captions) and not have to listen to the TV's yammering. So it won't fully replace a CD player or stereo if you're hoping to do that (as I was, in an exercise room).

The Panasonic's audio-out is optical, which IMHO is a win over the Apex' coaxial audio-out. It seems that 5.1 receivers with multiple optical inputs are the wave of the future; I've only seen 1 or 2 coaxial inputs in most.

Bottom line: the Panasonic is a better unit but not better. And I'm surprised at the lack of S-video inputs.