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Panasonic DVD-F85S 5-Disc Progressive Scan DVD Player (Silver)

Panasonic DVD-F85S 5-Disc Progressive Scan DVD Player (Silver)

List Price: $149.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Low cost but not low quality
Review: After searching and comparing many dvd changers, I decided to give this Panasonic DVD-F85S 5-Disc Player a try. I received it in 2 days. Set up was a brief. I've to purchase a new optical digital cable since it doesn't have coax. digital output. I was initially hesitated to purchase a silver one (the only color amazon has to offer) because all my existing equipments are black. But this silver dvd is so handsome and slim. It actually fitted well with my black projection TV and other sound system equitments. The quality of the picture is superp. The sound is great; 2 major things I was looking for. I love the audio only function which allows you to turn the video signal off when playing audio CD--it makes audio cd sounds better. The player allows you to randamly play any songs within and among cds but the menu is not very well written. This DVD comes with so many great features; like dialogue enhencer-allows you to hear the dialogue bettter during the movie, double re-master(to choose from pop, rock, jazz etc when playing cd); position memory-which is so useful for watching movie if you need to turn off the movie and come back to watch it next time. With the position memory, you will be able to watch the movie from where you left off and not from the very begining. Midnight mode; sleep timer; sequential(allows you to play audio cd one after another automatically without having you to push a button after finish playing one cd) However, I am surprised that Panasonic did not incoporate a screen saver in this DVD. To me, lacking of screen saver, I would be quite uncomfortable to use it with an expensive plasma TV; althouth the dvd will switch to stand by mode afer stopping for 30 mins. My final words, you can't go wrong with this DVD 5 dics changer. It combines beauty, quality and Low cost.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: HighMAT audio and images only. NO HighMAT video support.
Review: Good value for the money. If you have a digital TV the Progressive Scan should improve the picture quality of DVD playback a little. This model includes on-board surround sound decoding, a step up from its cheaper sibling F65. Useful for those that already have 5.1 channel inputs in their audio systems and don't want to buy a separate decoder.

I was hoping it would play .wmv videos burnt to CD-R by Windows Movie Maker Version 2 using the new HighMAT format. I should have read the small print. Currently there is only support for audio and still images. Look closely underneath the highMAT logo on the box ! Panasonic HighMAT video support (for DVD) models may be out several months from now. This was announced in May. The Panasonic web site for this model has been amended to clear up any confusion and confirms support for only audio and images.

Others have confirmed it plays .wma audio files OK. I was able to see JPEG images though it seemed a little slow reading them.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: above average
Review: I have the black unit but besides the color, it's the same. 5 disc couroussel is nice, pretty sturdy (I've used a 3-disc changer from apex and that thing died with about 6 months use). It actually does not come out all the way so you have to

What's good
The progressive scan dvds through composite look awesome. So sharp, if you have something like a hdtv monitor, you'll be pleased. The s-video pales in comparison. I've succesfully played cd/cd-r/cd-rw/dvd-r/dvd+r with this drive and it works mostly, I have a minor complaint further down the review. The rewritable cds do take a long time to load, as do mp3 cds.

There's a cool way to play all cds loaded up in your player as they end. They will switch to the next disc. But turning this feature on will interrupt current disc play and this setting does not seem to be saved after you power the player off. I guess there's a rational for both sides to have this setting saved.

What's missing
This is very common but basically the dvd player cannot output to both composite and s-video at the same time. In order to switch from composite video to s-video or regular rca (yellow cable), you need to go through an on-screen menu. It really should have been a physical switch on the remote or on the dvd player because if you are not set in the right mode, you basically have to switch cables around to find the on-screen menu, then switch. This little omission makes it very unpractical but I suppose most people only set this thing once and let it be.

Clear indication of what disc is playing. Current, 5 small leds get lit up depending if there's a disc or if you are playing it but from far away you really can't tell if you're playing disc 2 or 4. A larger problem is there is no counter for the minutes elapsed (or left), what were they thinking?

The remote interface isn't the best. They saved some space by having a disc button which you have to press first then a number button to switch the disc. This gets old after a while, a dedicated button or "next disc" button would have been nice
Remote control button response is in general average

You can play mp3 and jpeg cd though I only tried mp3s. The general interface isn't much better than other players I have owned. Basically you have a limited display of filenames (long filenames are chopped, sorry out of luck), and the general browsing through file folders is very slow. You can program things up but I really have not bothered with that. If I use mp3 cds at all, I just pop them in and turn shuffle on.

Finally, I've had some problems playing burned dvdr or svcd. This is my experience with brand name players vs. the no name ones that basically play everything

In conclusion, this is a neat drive if you play lots of stuff. In reality people really don't play dvds back to back (how long can you sit) but for the tv series in dvd box set, this is cool. Also if you want to play several audio cds or mp3cds, it works out. I received this player for free from referring a friend to buy an expensive tv.. it's on the higher end in terms of prices for dvd player today (you can easily find something that cost bout $40). I am not sure I would have bought it otherwise.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great but inexpensive player
Review: I initially bought the 35S player, but had to return it for a few reasons: slow start-up time, slow loading time, inability to read certain DVDs of poorer quality, inability to read certain VCD discs. This player, besides having a 5-disc changer, corrects all the faults I found with the 35S. The video and sound quality are amazing, especially for a player which does not cost too much.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Stay away from Panasonic!!!
Review: I would put it below 1 star. My 5-disc Panasonic unit died of the infamous H07 code after 14 months. After searching H07 on google, the H07 is common on Panasonic DVD players, and it means it is time for a new player. Stay away from Panasonic!!! This changed my mind about Panasonic entirely.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Does play toast
Review: I'm no expert, thank God, on bells and whistles. All I wanted was a player that will play all the DVD's I made, DVD's from stores, CD's that I made and have pictures on and music CD's. So far it does it all, but with one little glitch, when I fast forward a DVD, I will sometimes get a black box on my TV screen. No big problem, I click my recall button on my remote for the TV and it's gone. Again, this is a once in a while thing and only happens when I fast forward a DVD. I don't believe there is anything wrong with the player, I believe it's from my TV. To get back on my main issue, it does play everything I have and had made with other brands of DVD burners and CD burners and I love it. What made me buy this unit was one person said his played everything and probably play toast if he could get it in there. He had the one disk version. Well, he was right, I do believe it will play toast. I'm very happy with it so far. If it breaks down sooner then it should, I'll write another report but for now, I give it five stars. I'm thinking of buying the one disk version for the bedroom, the price is right and it does what it should.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Does play toast
Review: I'm no expert, thank God, on bells and whistles. All I wanted was a player that will play all the DVD's I made, DVD's from stores, CD's that I made and have pictures on and music CD's. So far it does it all, but with one little glitch, when I fast forward a DVD, I will sometimes get a black box on my TV screen. No big problem, I click my recall button on my remote for the TV and it's gone. Again, this is a once in a while thing and only happens when I fast forward a DVD. I don't believe there is anything wrong with the player, I believe it's from my TV. To get back on my main issue, it does play everything I have and had made with other brands of DVD burners and CD burners and I love it. What made me buy this unit was one person said his played everything and probably play toast if he could get it in there. He had the one disk version. Well, he was right, I do believe it will play toast. I'm very happy with it so far. If it breaks down sooner then it should, I'll write another report but for now, I give it five stars. I'm thinking of buying the one disk version for the bedroom, the price is right and it does what it should.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cant beat it for the $
Review: I'm sure there are better players out there, but not for this price. The slim design looks cool, but has 2 drawbacks, 1. if you listen to alot of music on it without the tv on its kind of hard to see whats going on, although the track numbers are large the rest of the info is tiny 2. the remote sensor is all the way to the right side, so the frame of the door that closes on my stereo rack blocked the signal, then again the slim design made it easy to find a hole to fit it in. Great picture, great sound I'm extremely happy

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cant beat it for the $
Review: I'm sure there are better players out there, but not for this price. The slim design looks cool, but has 2 drawbacks, 1. if you listen to alot of music on it without the tv on its kind of hard to see whats going on, although the track numbers are large the rest of the info is tiny 2. the remote sensor is all the way to the right side, so the frame of the door that closes on my stereo rack blocked the signal, then again the slim design made it easy to find a hole to fit it in. Great picture, great sound I'm extremely happy

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Very disappointing. This player is a junk.
Review: I've read the reviews for this DVD player and they were all positive and for this price the Panasonic was obviously my winner. I went to Circuit City and bought one and when I put my MP3 CDRs it was a great disappointment. It did not read all the CDRs. The ones it read had different number of MP3 files recognized every time I inserted the discs. ALL MP3 files that I tried played terribly. The sound was torn with scratches every 3-4 seconds. I tried more than 5 different CDRs with no success. I returned it to Circuit City and got another one thinking that the first one was defective. For nothing, the second player had exactly the same problem. It was playing OK DVDs, Audio CDs and Audio CDRs but it was awful with MP3s.

This DVD player is a junk. If you want to get all the features listed on the box you better buy something else.


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