2004 Model Panasonic (1 Viewer)

[JoeyR]

Just a heads up, picked up a 2004 model (believe it was)D34 or 35D at local Best Buy, there were none on display but the top shelf had about 30 on it, asked salesperson how much he said 150-this one has progressive scan-was looking for one for my parents, when he pulled it down I asked for the exact price and when he scanned it it was only 99.99

Just some info for you panny lovers out there

 

[LanceJ]

Do you mean maybe a DVD-S35? I saw a buttload of these in the overhead stock at my BB this past Monday.

LJ

 

[JoeyR]

Yeah Lance thats the one

 

[george kaplan]

If they were just lowering their prices, that would be great. Unfortunately, they are doing so by significantly downgrading the components, and hence the picture quality. I'd rather they raise the price to 499 and improve the quality, but alas, this is the way they are going. :frowning:

 

[WesleyHester]

George Kaplan hit the nail on the head. Panasonic is going after low, low end market share. I guess that is where the greatest demand is right now with the number of newcomers to DVD and home theater growing rapidly (I don't have actual figures to back that up though, just a feeling--alot of my friends are newcomers anyway).

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Has anyone done an A/B comparison between the new and previous models yet to see what's been sacrificed with regard to pq??

I'd like to see an evaluation by Secrets of Home Theater before coming to any conclusion about pq degradation.

The build quality of my CP-72 isn't exactly stellar, though pq is very good indeed.

 

[JoeyR]

Well guys I bought this one for my parents because they had no DVD player,coulda bought an Apex,but alot of members talk about Panasonic

P.S.I have a JVC FA900BK changer I bought in December and when I watch Men In Black II every once and a while a few brown blocks show up on my tv for about 4 seconds, while watching it on the Panasonic at my parents they never saw the blocks

 

[LanceJ]

Even as a Panasonic fan, I'll admit their build quality is starting to worry me. My parents bought a DVD-R32 recently , and its super light and the tray makes too much of a whiny gear noise as it moves. My DVD-R31 (made in Japan) feels generally better and not as noisy. But picture quality on both is still very good.

I have yet to see/feel an S35 in person but here's a guess as to how they can lower the price so much: the new players are using a new "mega-chip" that combines the functions of 4-6 previously separate chips into just one. Even dvd-audio DACs are on there (so I bet the extra $$$ for the S55 player is mostly for the six analog output stages required for dvd-a output).

Unfortunately, it looks like the new players use that same totally sucky remote the R32 uses. Bleh! Teeny-tiny buttons that have practically no "pop" when you push them (so you KNOW you've actually pushed them--ergonomics experts call this "tactile feedback"). And it's ugly too! Of course, this is all my own opinion.......

LJ

 

[Jason Pugh]

I bought the S35 about a week ago and posted about a problem that I had with it. I can tell you that this unit is super light but I didn't notice any bad noise from tray movement or anything else. I liked that it had the jpeg playback but I'm not sure how much it will get used. The problem I've found, if you haven't read my other thread, has to do with the S35 and still images such as menus or the sharpness test on the Avia disk. Fine lines are VERY unstable in progressive scan mode as they shake and shimmer but as soon as you switch to the regular movie the picture looks top notch IMO. Now I'm just trying to decide if I can live with this annoying problem or if I want to try to find an older Panasonic unit that is prog scan and have to live without the nifty jpeg playback. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated whether here or in my other thread.

Yes, the Pansonic S35 has a horrible menu interface and the remote sucks but I've become accustomed to this with most electronics. I think they let the same people who designs the chips in these things design the remote too.

 

[WesleyHester]

JoeyR, I have the JVC XV-FA902SL or Silver 900. Where in Men In Black II do you have the brown block problem? I'd like to look for it on mine. Thanks.

Also, if you use your player in Progressive Mode: do quick white dissolves/flashes that fill most/all of the screen cause video dropout for a tiny fraction of a second?

 

[JoeyR]

I have an old crappy tv and am not totally up on everything but I do not think I am using Progressive

On MIB II it just happens in different parts, no exact frame, about every 20 minutes for about 2 to 3 seconds, just long enough to notice, I only have 30 DVDs and this is the only one Ive had problems with

Thanks for the assistance Wes