Panasonic DVD-S53S Up-Converting 1080p DVD Player Silver
By: Panasonic Average Rating: 4.5 Total Reviews: 18
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 On: 2008-02-11
Plays everything ive thrown at it so far. Quality is nice. The remote is user friendly. Only thing is that I cant seem to change my display from 480p to 720p or 1080i.. my 32" westinghouse lcd can display up 1080i resolution too.. Other than that great player
 On: 2008-01-02
Player was delivered in a timely manner. The player is everything they said it was. I have purchased many Panasonic products in the past and have yet to be disappointed.
On: 2007-12-28
This is Panasonics only DVD player that can play MP3s on DVDs. All the others (and all the units I happened to see from other manufacturers) play MP3s only on CD-R/RWs. Being Panasonic, it also plays DVD-RAMs which I want because I use DVD-RAMs on my PC a lot (most people just dont seem to understand why DVD-RAMs are so useful). The low price is nice but honestly I would pay twice that or more for the audio playing capabilities.
 On: 2007-10-15
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.
 On: 2007-09-16
I bought this DVD player at Circuit City earlier this yr for about a $100. I hooked it up to a 47" Vizio LCD (which by the way has an awesome picture) using a HDMI cable. After fine tuning this product, I was very, very, very diasppointed. The picture was very "grainy" (lots of pixels). I have a $35 DVD player that only utilizes an s-video cable that produces a much more crisp picture. Be warned, the picture stinks.
On: 2007-09-08
Before purchasing the Panasonic DVD-S53S Up-converting player -- I had a cheap DVD player I received for free when I signed up with Direct TV service. This player was an APEX. Had trouble with this player stopping all through the various movies I would watch. The Panasonic DVD-S53S Up-converting got rid of all the previous problems I was having. For simple playback of DVD movies I highly recommend this machine. Well worth the money for just under $100.
On: 2007-09-08
This is a great upconverting 1080p DVD player. It has all the bells and whistles. I have had a Toshiba upconversion and it doesnt even begin to approach the clarity and definition. Panasonic always means quality. It does not come with HDMI cable but you can find on the web for $4-$6. And yes they work everybit as good as the $100 cables.
On: 2007-09-07
This is a great upconverting 1080p DVD player. It has all the bells and whistles. I have had a Toshiba upconversion and it doesnt even begin to approach the clarity and definition. Panasonic always means quality. It does not come with HDMI cable but you can find on the web for $4-$6. And yes they work everybit as good as the $100 cables.
On: 2007-09-06
I got this product (S53K) 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 dont buy this, instead buy an Oppo 981HD.
On: 2007-09-05
I got this product (S53K) 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 dont buy this, instead buy an Oppo 981HD.
On: 2007-09-02
Weve only had this unit a few weeks, but its performed beautifully so far. As for long-term durability and reliability, time will tell.
On: 2007-08-31
I was looking for a DVD player to my movies and picture shows that I have on CD-R discs and this did the job. Picture and sound quality are great and it has all the bells and whistles.
On: 2007-08-30
I had had bought two Samsung 1080p upconverters that were to be compatible with my new Samsung 50" Plasma. Took both back because of striping at the bottom of the screen.
Bought this Panasonic instead. It makes SD DVDs look and sound great via HDMI. The on screen menus are much more polished and user-friendly than the Samsungs.
My Samsung FP-T5084 HDTV, however, is ABSOLUTELY fabulous
On: 2007-08-27
This DVD player works well and quality is definitely improved over my old 480p Samsung model. Ideally, wouldve liked a 5-disc changer with 1080p upconvert, but they dont seem to make those anymore.
Overall, this was a great buy unless youre willing to shell out the cash for a BluRay disc player.
On: 2007-08-23
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 dont 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.
On: 2007-08-23
I hooked this dvd player up to a 13 inch Panasonic tv and so far it has worked great. Easy to use.
On: 2007-07-15
I was looking for an upconverting DVD player since I am waiting for the format war to end between Blue ray and HD-DVD. For less then 100 dollars this is a great player. I had just spent al lot on my HDTV and did not want to spend a fortune on components. Player does not have gold connectors or to many connecting options but the only one I was looking for was HDMI which is why you buy this player. I highly recommend this player. This also upconverts full 1080p. I never give full five star because and product can be improved on. I highly recommend reading booklet gives setting options that I did not think of which improve picture quality. HD enancer,picture modes, dialog enancer - helps increase voice clarity.
by: dschryer On: 2007-07-10
When I bought this up-converting DVD player I expected that it would improve the picture guality of my conventional DVDs when played on my new Samsung plasma HDTV. However, I doubted that it could actually give HD picture quality. I was wrong. The picture on a good DVD played with this player is equal in quality to that of a high definition cable broadcast. Panasonic rates the upconversion quality of this player at 1080p. I can neither confirm nor deny this level of resolution since my HDTV is a 720p unit and 720p is the resolution broadcast by my cable company. But this unit definitely is capable of 720p picture quality and may well approach 1080p on HDTVs with this resolution. Considering both its terrific performance and bargain price, I highly recommend this DVD player. Please note that Panasonic recommends connecting this unit to your HDTV with an HDMI cable -- which I did -- for optimum performance.
On: 2007-07-09
When I bought this up-converting DVD player I expected that it would improve the picture guality of my conventional DVDs when played on my new Samsung plasma HDTV. However, I doubted that it could actually give HD picture quality. I was wrong. The picture on a good DVD played with this player is equal in quality to that of a high definition cable broadcast. Panasonic rates the upconversion quality of this player at 1080p. I can neither confirm nor deny this level of resolution since my HDTV is a 720p unit and 720p is the resolution broadcast by my cable company. But this unit definitely is capable of 720p picture quality and may well approach 1080p on HDTVs with this resolution. Considering both its terrific performance and bargain price, I highly recommend this DVD player. Please note that Panasonic recommends connecting this unit to your HDTV with an HDMI cable -- which I did -- for optimum performance.
On: 2007-06-21
For under $100 this is a great product. If you dont wanted to spend money at this time on expensive Blue Ray DVD Players then this is the product to buy. The picture & sound quality is very very good.
On: 2007-05-31
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.
On: 2007-05-30
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.
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