Which is better? Is that debatable? I notice Panasonic Players tend to have a lot less CLV Smearing compared to it's Pioneer counterpart. What exactly is causing CLV smearing? Is it because players are trying to get a little extra detail out of the picture quality or is it more of a defect with players? The CLV smearing can be horrendous at times on my Pioneer Players depending on the movie. You can notice streaking on the video. Also the colors are little bit different on Pioneer and Panasonic players. I the answer I'm going to get from most people is which ever player works? Well, all my players work.