Panasonic DVD-S53S Up-Converting 1080p DVD Player Silver

This is a really nice DVD player for the price. To "upconvert", you need to use an HDMI cable (not supplied??!) Very clear picture and smooth running. A ton of adjustments can be made, my favorite being the "Zoom" option which when put in AUTO, takes away the black bars on the top/bottom of the screen and fits it to your screen without distorting the picture. Another plus is it is "Energy Star" compliant. Too many of my other devices have stupid led lights or otherwise stay "on" even when turned off. No problems like that with this model, off means off. The only con I can think of is that no HDMI cable was supplied, only component cables. Read more

Ok, first the cons. Really, just one. I like to burn a few dozen of my music CDs to a DVD in MP3 format at 320/kps. You can fit a LOT of albums on one DVD and not need to buy a CD changer. You just have them queued up on a single DVD. The S52 had a GREAT method of displaying the foler names on the DVD. Whereas a very long file or folder name would still be truncated, it would display out to 16 characters or so before that would happen. With the S52, the dual column display is gone, and even worse it seems to display even less than conventional pc 8.3 filenames. A BIG dissapointment, this was one of the major reasons I have been sticking with Panasonic rather than a different brand. The pros - It's cheaper than the S52 was, and the picture quality is the same. Very nice on my Samsung LCD panel. I wish they would throw in a better tray rather then the composite video/audio cable, which I doubt that anyone on the planet uses, but I have no complaints with playing DVDs on this unit. Plus, it plays Divx files just fine. The S52 would not play Divx files at all. Bottom line - I have few Divx files and a lot of music CDs. I like the S52 better! Th4e S53 is a nice set, and if you have a lot of Divx files it is obviously better suited to your needs, but for displaying music file names the S52 was vastly superior. I hope this helps you decide which to choose if you can still pick either or! Read more

This Panasonic player replaced another Panasonic DVD player that was lost to an electrical storm - and although I could have still found the older model, reviews led me to select this unit. Not only is it 1/2 the height of the older unit, but eliminated many of the front mounted controls that were rarely used and cluttered the face of the player. In the month of use - very heavy use - it performs flawlessly. The same features such as quick replay and variable scan (forward and back) that I had on the other unit were one reason to stay with this Panasonic series. In addition, this newer unit supports 90% of the types of CD's and DVD's you will encounter whether commercial or user created. I would recommend the unit to anyone. Read more

I replaced a DVD/CD player that did not upconvert with this one. The price is excellent and so is the quality and satisfaction. My previous machine had a 5-disc carousel and we never actually used this feature. This Panasonic has a single drawer and we don't miss the carousel at all. This machine plays nearly every disc - DVDs and all types of CDs (even homemade MP3s, etc). It also plays VCDs and several other exotic, esoteric formats. The upconversion is very good - DVDs look great on our 42" plasma now. The HDMI connectivity is enhanced since our TV and this player are both Panasonic. Highly recommended. Read more

I got this product after a long research. Put the first CD (The lord of the Rings) and image quality was disappointed. Up-conversion was the worst. Returned this product quickly and got and Oppo 981HD. What a difference!! If you are looking for a good DVD player don't buy this, instead buy an Oppo 981HD. Read more

I ordered this unit based on Panasonic's reliability and quality. Indeed it has come up to a very high standard. Great picture with DVD's using HDMI connection. Very simple hook up. Outstanding sound from CD's. Reasonably priced. Doesn't come with HDMI cable. Read more

I bought this DVD player to feed some HD signal to my newly purchased HDTV since I was not ready to spend close to $500 for a bluray player even though it looked pretty clear bluray would not be on the losing side of the format war (maybe universal players win in the end). The set-up of the S53S is pretty complicated and made worse by the fact that they give you many choices but do not tell you what they are supposed to do in the manual. I had two DVD players already, one standalone and the other built-in the home theater system. Both have progressive scan (convert 480i standard signal to 480P). Because my HDMI cables arrived a couple of days after the S53S, using component cables, I first compared the 480P images from my old players with the S53S. The S53S is much worse. After I received the HDMI cable and 30 minutes of "tuning", it was still a little hard to convince myself that the 1080P image from S53S was really better than the 480P from my old players. The last straw was when I discovered my home theater (also a panasonic) had an HDMI output, and once I connected it, I was amazed to realize that my home theater was capable of doing 1080i conversion already and there was definitely no difference between the 1080P from the S53S and the 1080i from the home theater. I eneded up returning the product. Bottom line is, take a hard look at what you already have and maybe enable the 480P (or higher) before purchasing. If there is no DVD player that does any up-conversion, this is a good unit to own. Otherwise, you should bear in mind that the up-converted signal is still nowhere near real HD signal. Also, get the HDMI cable. It is less than 10 bucks if you browse Amazon for market place sellers. I do not understand why some people suggest to get a "gold plated" one. HDMI cable is used to transfer digital AV signals and for digital product, the product either works (passes all the "1" and "0"s correctly) or simply does not work (messes up the "1" and "0"s), there is no such thing as noise, degradation, etc any more. Read more