Changing disks and getting the right one in, out, or to play is as anti-intuitive as possible. The UI screams for improvement.

But, everything it claims to work works so far. I enjoy the 5-disc capacity once you figure out how to load and play them.

It has always been difficult to get it to play the disk you wanted it to. You just cant select a disk; you must first stop the player then select the disk. Very bad programming interface.

As a DVD player, the unit meets all my admittedly lax standards. I have no need for progressive scan, and the picture is certainly crisp enough for my 29" TV. Its got all the features I would want or need, including variable speed fast forward and reverse, zooms, subtitles, and dozens of other things Ive never used. The only annoying thing is that you have to use the remote to select the disc (no direct disc access, in marketing speak).

As an mp3 player, the unit is more lacking. It doesnt support id3 tags, which is a very basic function that any mp3 player should include. But far worse than that, the chip is so basic that it will only play mp3s that are encoded with specific codecs. If you are ripping your CDs yourself this is no problem, but it is a pain if you are grabbing mp3s from the internet or if youve already encoded your CDs in a different codec. Specifically, it will correctly play mp3s created with the Fraunhofer codec and the Radium codec. It wont play files created with LAME, the free encoder. Luckily for me, my mojo has the same problem, so I had already been using Radium when I bought this unit.

The mp3 interface is pretty robust, although not as good as my mojo. You can select songs on the TV, which is a cool feature. As long as your mp3s are organized in logical directories, youll have no trouble selecting songs. The sound quality, if the files are encoded properly, is decent at 128k and good at 160k or 192k. Id put it at better than radio quality and slightly inferior to CD (or even rivaling CD depending on what type of music it is).

The unit also plays VCDs well. If you feed Nero (burning software) some MPGs and tell it to create a VCD, it will play nicely in this DVD player, although the picture isnt great (a limitation of the VCD format). The unit technically does not support SVCDs, but if you use the "SVCD header trick" (search the internet to find out more), it will play correctly with a much clearer picture than a VCD. Ive had it work every time Ive tried it, but YMMV of course. Alternatively, Ive heard that you can convert an SVCD to an XVCD, but I havent tried it.

I havent had any trouble with the unit reading media, and Ive given it CDRs, CDRWs, and DVDRs. I havent tried burning mp3s onto a DVDR, though, which sounds interesting.

There are several complaints in these reviews about the user interface, but I think the problems are overstated. Some things are not particularly intuitive (you have to press stop twice to get a disc out), but they are not complex. To play random mp3s from a single disc, you turn off sequential mode; to play from all discs you turn it on. Thats pretty simple. Note though, when youre playing from all five discs, there is a delay between songs that lasts a few seconds.

All in all, the unit has its drawbacks, but its very cheap and has a lot of features that you would not expect in that price range.

The CV52 has great video and sound (though I have limited experience with other DVD players), but a marginal user interface. Also, watching the 2-disk Lord of the Rings DVD (new out of box) my player skipped four times. When I backed up and replayed the error was gone (appeared as a frozen screen for ~1 sec with audio gap).

The player is seriously deficient in "ease of use". Once playing you will be pleased, but its a headache to get there. Sometimes you must press the buttons several times to get the tray to open, to stop play, or change disks. Apparently it ignores input while a disk is loading (automatic when tray closes). The face has only open/close, exchange disk (nice feature), skip disk, and standard play/pause fwd/rev functions. The incomprehensible remote is required for all other functions.

The remote is flimsy and confusing. The buttons all mostly look the same. The various menu buttons are spread around the control making it a bit confusing which button to press. Large navigational buttons occupy the middle of the control. But these only work with menus. The fwd/reverse speed, stop, play, pause, etc are tiny buttons at the top. Most of the buttons are so small that it takes care to press the right one. Although the rubber buttons are nice, the small size , lack of meaningful organization, and generally flimsy feel earn the remote an F.

I dont play CDs in the unit because its such a pain to operate, compared with my several year old Sony changer.

Overall, the price is great for the capabilities. The performance is good. But ease of use is non existent. If you want the capabilities the DVD CV52 offers at a good price, buy it. But the shoddy effort at making this product functional will make me seriously think over another Panasonic purchase. Recommend you try it out at the store first.

Music Discs(CDs)

· Random Play
· Programmable play list
· Random Play mode works both on a single disc or multiple disc

MP3 Files
All of the above work an MP3 disc(CD-r)! This player has played all MP3 I have tried, however I generally just ripp MP3 from the original disc. But, for best results you should only use MP3s that have at least 128k encoding. This Unit will display the list of all titles on the TV screen with long directory and file names.

In addition, I have found the unit to be easy to use.

Anyway,the player plays movies fine, sound is fine, and I love menu system for the MP3s. One major feature I wanted was the MP3 play capability on a changer and one with a good menu system. It has that, but the playback of Mp3s is where the problem lies. If I downloaded a bunch of MP3s and then burn them to a CD, some play fine others skip or play fast and slow. I thought maybe it was the player itself. Brought it back got a another straight out the box. Played the same disk of MP3s same problem. Turns out the problem is the player wont play certain MP3s ripped with certain software. If I took the same problem MP3s and put them back in WAV format and then converted back to an MP3 with my Musicmatch software these same problem MP3s played fine. I havent noticed anyone reporting problem, but then maybe everyone else rips there own Mp3s from the actual disk instead of downloading them. (yeah right)

Besides that the player overall has been a good buy. Enough of a good buy that I havent taken it back to get a different brand. However it did embarass me, because when I first got it I had a party and used a disk I had burned of Mp3s for music. Was fine for most the party till it came across those MP3s it couldnt play correctly. No one likes messed up music when they are trying to get their groove on.!! Now I check all disks beforehand.

Also another note, if you use XPs built in software to burn your MP3s to disk, you may see directories it cant access. They will show up greyed out on your directory list. Fix for this problem is dont use XP to burn it. Musicmatch burns the same disk of MP3s and all directories are accessible on the menu. (and no this is not a review to plug Musicmatch software, just seems to have been able to correct my issues).

Conclusion: If Mp3s arent a big deal, and you dont download those that you burn to disk, then excellent player for the money. However, if Mp3s are a big deal and you do download and burn a few to disk, and you wouldnt want to waste the time to check and re-rip when necessary, this may not be the player for you.

The Bad - Not user-friendly. I had hoped for more intuitive interactive controls. The instruction book is hard to follow with the vague on-screen icons.

The Ugly - Not for older eyes. The remote has miniscule buttons that are hard to read...with or without reading glasses, especially without a light. Worse, the on-screen icons all look alike, if you can see them at all!

Im the electronics and computer guru in my family and I chose the Panasonic CV52 player based on reviews from Amazon, Consumer Reports and a few other audio/video sites.

I blew off the warnings that this unit was not user-friendly thinking, "Cmon, how difficult can it be". Well, lesson learned for me. The reviews were all correct and I wholeheartedly agree that the problems with the remote and on-screen icons makes it a challenge to enjoy actually watching a DVD movie.

Then again, I love a challenge and have resolved to overcome these mechanical difficulties. The greater challenge will be to then teach my husband (the NON-technophile in the family) how to start using it!

Perhaps the most important thing about a DVD player is the picture quality. And this deck rocks in that department - crisp picture, good coloration and amazing level of detail.

There are several options for audio adjustment, so if you do not own a receiver yet (or one that takes in optical digital input) then you can customize your audio with a great deal of power.

Another important feature of this DVD player is its incredible on screen display. The OSD appears just like a graphical window with icons on a computer. When the movie is being played back, audio, subtitle and angle menus appear on the top portion of the screen when called, again as nicely designed windows.

All in all, I highly recommend this to anyone who doesnt care about progressive scan for now, because other than that, this deck has got it all.

Other than its MP3 capabilities, its a pretty standard DVD/CD changer. It is not a progressive-scan player, though, which is odd since its so new. The manual says it can play DVD, CD, Video CD, CD-R, and CD-RW, as well as DVD-R discs that were "recorded on a Panasonic DVD video recorder". Things it says it wont play include DVD-Audio, SVCD, Divx, and Photo CDs.

Panasonic opted for minimal controls on the face of the unit, which probably allowed it to be fairly thin (its the shortest multi-disc unit Ive seen) but means that you have to run most things from the remote, including choosing which disc to play. On-screen menus help you set up the player and show you which special options youve selected. Oddly, pressing the Stop button on the remote or the unit stops the current feature (song or movie) but the disc remains active - you must press Stop a 2nd time to tell the player that youre done with the disc and want to switch to something else (like change to another disc). When the unit powers off, the power stays off, so theres no point in plugging it in to your amplifier hoping that you only have to use a single Power button.

No changer is perfect, but the only things Ive run into with this one are minor annoyances rather than actual problems. And its great to finally find a changer with true random functionality for both my CDs and MP3 discs. If you want a single unit to function as both a DVD player and a CD changer, this one does it all for you, in a very slim package.

By the way, despite what the Amazon information about this changer says, it does not have a "shuttle dial" or a "unified remote control".

Pros:
- DVD changer with CD, MP3, WMA capabilities
- MP3/WMA songs can be played in random order from one or all discs
- Change 4 discs while playing the 5th
- On-screen setups and MP3 file/folder selection

Cons:
- No progressive scan
- Must use remote for most functions