Panasonic DVD-S55S Digital Remastering Progressive-Scan DVD , Silver Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Big pluses imho:
1. Bookmarks
2. WMA support (in addition to MP3, etc)
3. Amazon's price was not just competitive, it was amazing.
4. Arrived to my door in great shape
All the other goodies are here too: built-in decoders (sometimes it's really useful to have these built-in), zoom support, simulated surround sound (which actually works), DVD Audio/VCD/JPEG/MP3 support, speaker delay setting, progressive scan, etc.
I personally found the on-screen display/setup to be easy to use & quite sophisticated for this level of price.Also, according to reviews elsewhere, this model is one of the absolute latest panasonics out there, with the latest/greatest firmware, etc. - in other words, people often thought that dvds look better played on this model, relative to other players in the same or slightly higher price range.Mine was built in June 2003.
For what it's worth, decide whether you need built-in decoders or not, if you want to save money.I personally wasn't willing to live without them or bookmarks, and amazon's price for them (and all of the above) was still amazing.
This thing hooked right up & worked flawlessly straight out of the box.

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Product Description:
Proving that big performance doesn't necessarily mean "big ticket," Panasonic's DVD-S55S DVD player offers nearly unparalleled format handling, from standard DVD-Video to audiophile-quality multichannel DVD-Audio, DVD-R, and DVD-RAM, CD-R and CD-RW, and even support for MP3, WMA, and JPEG CDs. You also get high-tech features like digital re-mastering, which infuses CD music playback with interpolated high-frequency harmonics that wouldn't otherwise be present, and HighMAT (High-Performance Media Access Technology), a technology developed by Panasonic and Microsoft to ensure digital media compatibility between PCs and consumer electronics.
The deck features a progressive-scan video processor that doubles the scan lines of an interlaced signal (from 480i to 480p) by scanning all 525 lines in 1/60 of a second for each pass. The higher-density video signal (designed for high-definition and HD-ready TVs) brings a film-like quality to DVD images. Other video enhancements include Cinema Mode (which diminishes glare and improves the visibility of details in dark scenes by automatically adjusting picture contrast), Depth Enhancer (which reduces image background noise), and Hi-Speed Smooth-Motion Scan (which enables fast-forward/reverse at up to 200 times normal speed, offering a quick way to access desired scenes).
DVD-Audio offers super high-fidelity (192 kHz/24-bit) sound. Because the DVD-Audio signal is too high-resolution for the digital-to-analog converters in current surround receivers (and also as an anti-piracy measure), the DVD-S55S performs its own decoding of DVD-Audio signals, passing high-resolution analog, not digital, audio to a surround receiver for these special discs. But you'll need an audio/video receiver with multichannel analog-audio inputs to appreciate this feature.
The DVD-S55S also boasts audio features like Dialogue Enhancer (which boosts the volume of the center channel during Dolby Digital 5.1-channel presentations), and an optical digital-audio output for channeling DTS and Dolby Digital surround sound to a surround-decoding audio/video receiver (in case you aren't using the player's onboard decoder).

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