Do you mean to change the decoding so that it's not the HD Colorspace and change it to SD Colorspace? If so, the answer is most probably...no (and I doubt that any HDMI DVD player can be changed without hacking the chips themselves).

Tks for the reply, N'Yeti.Do you mean to change the decoding so that it's not the HD Colorspace and change it to SD Colorspace?Nope. The color decoding via HDMI at 720p and 1080i appears to be incorrect on the S52 I'm testing, so was just wondering if there's any way it can be fixed/tweaked on the player. It's fine at 480p via HDMI. But not at 720p/1080i.

This is based on looking at the player on 2 different displays, and comparing with two other upconverting players that have correct color decoding at 720p/1080. Tried to fix the problem by adjusting color decoding on the display as well, but that didn't work.

Ok. Did you set the decoding to RGB instead of 4:2:2 or 4:4:4?

Are you running it with anything beyond the default settings? What kind of display are you using?

Some people have found that if you leave the defaults on but go into the picture menu select User and then put color at - 5 that it clears up a bit of the red push that the S52 seems to have with some displays.

Thanks again N'Yeti. Tested with both a Sony 34" XBR CRT via DVI with RGB, and a Hitachi plasma via HDMI with RGB, YCbCr 4:4:4 and 4:2:2. Same result in every case. Color decoding aligns just fine at 480p, but not at 720p/1080i. Also tried tinkering with the User Picture Adjustments Color setting on the player, and the decoding is still noticeably off even with Color on the player adjusted down to -5 or -7. The decoding won't align correctly for 720p/1080i regardless of how saturation is adjusted on the player or display, even with add'l tinkering to Hue and the color decoders on the display.

Current settings for Sony CRT via DVI...

AV ENHANCER: OFF

SETUP/VIDEO
TV Aspect: 16:9
TV Type: Standard (Direct View)

SETUP/HDMI
RGB Range: STANDARD, to allow passage of BTB/PLUGE. (Have tried Enhanced as well. The Enhanced setting only seems to work w/DVI btw, and not HDMI.)

FUNCTIONS/PICTURE MENU
Picture Mode: USER
Video Output Mode: 1080i (Have also tried 720p and 480p, and 720p has the same decoding issues as 1080i. 480p is the only mode that seems correct.)
Transfer Mode: Auto1
HD Picture Enhancer: 1 to 3, depending on the content (and display).
HDMI Color Space: RGB (have tried both YCbCr 4:4:4 and 4:2:2 as well on the Hitachi plasma.)

FUNCTIONS/PICTURE MODE/USER/PICTURE ADJUSTMENTS
Contrast: 0 (default)
Brightness: 0 (default)
Color: 0 (default)
Gamma: 0 (default)
Depth Enhancer: 0 (default)
MPEG DNR: 0 (default)

FUNCTIONS/DISPLAY MODE
4:3 Aspect: NORMAL or SHRINK
Just Fit Zoom: 16:9 STANDARD for anamorphic widescreen DVDs, and 4:3 STANDARD for Fullscreen 4:3 DVDs
Manual Zoom: x1.00.

I believe everything else is set to the defaults.

I would think that 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 would be the way that you'd want to go with the output. Have you tried using DVE at either of those two settings (especially with the CRT). I've used the S52 with my Panny ct34wx15 and it produces quite a nice picture at 1080i using HDMI and outputting at 4:4:4. Normally, I run my S77 into the Panny...but the S52 has a nice sharp picture (though as I noted, unless you turn down the color a bit it does push a bit more red that I'd like).

What specific color coding issues are you seeing?

By the way, you will find that running DVE at 1080i on 4:4:4 will look different at 480p. Same the other way around.

Interesting to note that the open/close tray button on the remote that operates my Panny DVD recorder also opens and closes the tray on my s52...

Despite your footer, it has been published elsewhere. The open/close button was omitted and substituted for another. On the other hand, if you use another Panasonic Remote with the open/close button or a universal or Logitech type remote, you can use the open/close button there - same for the S77 that also lacks the control on the remote.

Hello,

I spent more than an hour reading this forum. A lot of interesting things but I still didn’t find the answer I was looking for.

I’m looking for a good divx player.

My questions are:

1) I’m buying a cheap Panasonic S42, connect it through component, and wait a little while for a next generation dvd palyers to buy one with a HDMI output?
2) Is it worth to buy now the Panasonic S52 just for the HDMI?
3) Or third, I’m adding 100$ bucks over the price of S52 and going with oppo 971?

I live in Canada so S42 and S52 do play divx. I’m also interested in having a dvd that plays PAL movies and have subtitles for the divx (that is oppo 971).

But, what interests me most is the picture quality. On HDMI, does Oppo 971 have a much better PQ than the Panasonic S52? Does it worth to pay 100$ more just for the difference in PQ?

As a display I’m using a Samsung 32” lcd (LN-328W).

Thank you,

The Oppo uses the Farouja to output over HDMI, a wonderful scaler/deinterlacer. The Panasonic S77 uses the same chip (except the S77 also uses it for 480p component - the Oppo can't do 480p over component). The S52 doesn't have this chip. The S52 puts out a nice sharp image over HDMI (with no pixels being cut from any sides - DiVX looks great). The S52's component is nowhere near as good as its HDMI. The Oppo 970 doesn't have the Farouja but is rated higher than the S52. Both Oppos will play PAL. The S52 doesn't decode PAL.

Does this help?

Yes, it helps. It helps a lot. Thank you very much. It is one of the first posts I saw when actually it is stated: “- DiVX looks great).” I just came from a friend who owns a S52 and saw a movie in divx via component, and no complaints, very very good pq. If you’re saying that over hdmi it has even better pq, that’s great.

I’m sure that oppo is better. But, I would like to know if actually somebody had seen a difference between the two, and can say: “yes, I’ve seen them both and 971 has a much better pq than the S52.”

I’m willing to pay the difference just if it is a striking difference in to the quality. I don’t want to pay an extra $100+ just because 971 passed I don’t know what tests that S52 didn’t, or anything similar, and just because 971 is doing something that I’ll never see or doesn’t help me visually.

Thank you again for your post. At least now I have somebody’s opinion on S52’s HDMI.

Perhaps you can borrow/try out one and see for yourself. I prefer the divx from the S52 over the divx in my Pioneer 588a. But if I had to pick one for picture quality alone, I'd say the S77 beats out the 588a and the S52. The S77 has the same Farouja as the Oppo 971. The 971 has the same mpeg decoder as the 588a (great for errors and seamless layer change). Each has their own particular nuance. Personally, I prefer the S77 over the Oppo 971 but that is only because of the 971 not putting out 480p over component.

If anyone want to spend around $300, I'd recommend the Denon 1930CI. If your panel is under 42", there is no way you can tell the difference between the 1930 and the $850 2930CI or the $3000+ Denon 5930.

At 1080p, most well rendered sd DVDs like Kill Bill 1 & 2, 5th Element, and others will look almost HBO-HD like.

Paul

That may be...But this is the S52 discussion...besides, the Oppo 971 beat the Denon 5910 ($3500) with the S77 coming in third and beating out the Denon 3910 ($1500).

Anyway...try to keep your Denon sales advice in the appropriate discussion area.

I have a Monoprice 5x1 HDMI Switch and am having the following issue with my s52 (or the switch!):

I run a Panasonic AE-900U for display, a Dish VIP622 and just purchased the Panasonic DVDS52 last night. The VIP622 has no issues with the switch, the Panny DVD player does - it won't play through it period, regardless of cables or switch ports used (though it will work directly).

I tried connecting the s52 through all switch ports, to no avail. The VIP622 works through all ports with either of my short cables (used from port to video components). The S52 works fine when directly connected to the AE-900 via HDMI (and looks great!), just does not work via the switch...

Thoughts? Experiences?

Turn off the tv and the dvd player (I'm assuming that the switch isn't powered -if it is, turn it off). Turn on the switch (if it's powered). Turn on the tv. Turn on the S52. Anything?

As a second thought, try running it in 480p via the switch...

Turn off the tv and the dvd player (I'm assuming that the switch isn't powered -if it is, turn it off). Turn on the switch (if it's powered). Turn on the tv. Turn on the S52. Anything?

As a second thought, try running it in 480p via the switch...

No luck. Also, can't configure HDMI at all, just shows Error 1 in the menu, so can't get to the point of defining resolution....

Thanks for the help. Have emailed Monoprice, perhaps they'll tell me something.

I emailed them, they asked for my original invoice number within a few minutes and once supplied sent me the following message moments later:

"Okay. It looks like you have Ver.1.0 HDMI switcher... Rev.2.0 the same HDMI switcher will resolve the problem you're having now. I'll send you a replacement along with UPS Return Label. Truly sorry for any inconvenience it may cause you."

A few minutes later I got an automated email from their support system with the tracking number for the new switch.

That's service my freinds! Oh, and I really like their cables - both the prices and the quality...

Can anyone tell me why my S52 cannot remember my User settings for Picture Mode (under Functions/Picture Menu)? Whenever I turn the unit off, it defaults to Picture Mode - Cinema. I like having it on User where I can leave the Depth Enhancer at 1. What's worse is when it reverts back to Cinema, the previous User settings are lost. The default User settings then has brightness ramped to -7 or some ridiculous number like that. Truly one of the only frustrating features of this unit I've found so far...

It sounds like you may be gettin the User modes in the AV Enhancer confused with the User setting in the Functions/Other Settings/Picture Menu. My recommendation would be to leave the AV Enhancer OFF (at least until someone sheds more light on how this feature is supposed to work). I haven't had any problems with the player remembering my custom Picture Menu/User/Picture Adjustments with it set that way.

I think the AV Enhancer is supposed to be able to store three different custom "User" configs of audio/video settings. But the feature seems to be a little buggy, and can't seem to remember all the Picture Menu adjustments after the player's been turned off.

I tried assigning the same Picture Menu/User/Picture Adjustments to all three AV Enhancer/User modes (User1, User2 & User3) with the Functions/Other Settings/Other Menu/AV Enhancer/SAVE SETTINGS command, per the manual's instructions. And none of the User modes remembered all the settings correctly after the player was turned off. So for the time being, I've just left the AV Enhancer set to OFF.

It looks like the AV Enhancer/User modes may be configured/optimized for certain types of discs OOTB (DVD-Video, Music and DVD-Video Recordables respectively). And the AV Enhancer/AUTO option probably uses whatever the mfr. feels are optimal settings for different disc types. That's about all I can tell so far from reading the manual. Guess I'll have to experiment a little more to see if there's some benefit to these other AV Enhancer modes.

I would think that 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 would be the way that you'd want to go with the output. Have you tried using DVE at either of those two settings (especially with the CRT).The DVI input on the CRT only supports the RGB color setting. But I tried the other color modes on the Hitachi plasma and got the same 720p/1080i color decoding errors in DVE with all three (RGB, YcbCr 4:4:4 & YCbCr 4:2:2).I've used the S52 with my Panny ct34wx15 and it produces quite a nice picture at 1080i using HDMI and outputting at 4:4:4. Those late model Panasonic tubes are beautiful, and have probably the deepest blacks I've seen on an HD display (haven't seen SEDs yet). I like the phosphor response on them better as well, and probably should have gotten one to replace my 4-year old Sony. But I'm afraid the weight issue (and the fact that I had not tried plasma) deterred me from getting another tube. The Sony don't look too terrible with 1080i and a little help in the gamma dept though.Normally, I run my S77 into the Panny...but the S52 has a nice sharp picture (though as I noted, unless you turn down the color a bit it does push a bit more red that I'd like).Agreed. Detail seems to be one of the S52's fortes. The HD Picture Enhancer seems to work well at sharpening fine detail without adding the ugly ringing/EE you'd get on some other players (though it enhances mosquito noise a bit as well). I haven't tried the Depth Enhancer yet, and am not sure exactly what that does, but it sounds like some folks like the effect that has as well.

The color decoding will probably be a deal-breaker though, unless there's a feature hidden somewhere that I've missed to correct that. I wish the Gamma control went darker, as well as lighter too. The Gamma on my Sony tube is already light enough, and maxes out at around 2.25. So a control that goes darker would be more useful to me, on that and possibly on an LCD monitor I'm considering.

There are a couple other subtler PQ issues (some possible scaling artifacts that sometimes appear as subtle vertical stripes in darker backgrounds, and some possible motion blur at 1080i) that I'm still looking into as well.What specific color coding issues are you seeing?

By the way, you will find that running DVE at 1080i on 4:4:4 will look different at 480p.Perhaps a little different, due to the phosphors on the TV probably only being correct for one color space (NTSC/SD or ATSC/HD). I question whether the difference should be as noticeable as what I'm seeing though. My suspiscion is that the difference in color between 480p and 720p/1080i may be more the result of incorrect 720p/1080i decoding on the S52 than to differences in SD/HD color space. The color doesn't look especially bad at 720p/1080i on my otherwise well-calibrated TV. But it doesn't really look correct, and as you mentioned, appears tipped more towards blue and red.

haven't seen/heard of any plans to update the ROM in the S52. You can get a firmware hack at:

http://www.dcevolution.net/panasonic/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
This will make it Region Free and disable U.O.P. (at least that what the site says)

Did anybody try this?

Can't say that I have lubmar.

Unlike most white level/contrast adjustments, the User/Picture Adjustments/Contrast control on the S52 only seems to effect the "luma" part of the video signal (rather than both luma and chroma together). So if you want to increase or decrease Contrast on the player, you should probably set Color to the same level to maintain proper color saturation. IOW, if you set Contrast to -7, then you should set Color to -7 as well, or the player will output an overly saturated picture (unless you compensate by adjusting color saturation down on the TV). If you set Contrast=0, then you should probably set Color=0 as well (unless you want Color saturation lower to compensate for some red push at 720p/1080i).

It doens't seem to be necessary to set Contrast to -7 to pass WTW btw.

Contrary to what I thought previously, it looks as if the player is passing WTW with Contrast=0, Brightness=0 and SETUP/HDMI/RGB Range = Standard... via DVI anyway. (I don't have any HDMI devices to test at the moment*).

WTW only appears to be clipped via DVI if the RGB Range is set to Enhanced, and/or the Brightness increased above 0. So under normal conditions, it looks like Contrast=0 (and Color=0) should work fine via DVI.

If you want standard DVD video levels, with both BTB and WTW passed via DVI, it looks like you can just set the RGB Range to Standard, and leave Contrast, Brightness and Color at the default of 0. If you want "PC" levels via DVI (I don't think this works via HDMI), with no BTB or WTW and video levels expanded from 16-235 to 0-255, then set the RGB Range to Enhanced, and again it looks like you can just leave Contrast, Brightness and Color at 0.

(*I could have sworn that some white information was being clipped on another display via HDMI with things set this way, but that doesn't seem to be the case after a closer look on either of my current DVI displays. Perhaps the luma/chroma thing above or color decoding issue, or RGB Range control, which didn't seem to work the same via HDMI, led to my confusion on this. Or I'm just an idiot. :) Not sure which.)

:)
I gave it a try against my old DENON DVD-2200 . Honestly it is not worth replacing it . I projected on OPTOMA 70HD ( very good by the way) in 720p . The color looked washed and the brightness of my old DENON was gone . I retuned it the following day to Circuitcity.
:mad:

I recently bought the S52 for the upconversion and hooked it up to my Sony KP-57WS500 display via HDMI with a DVI adapter on the end (the display only has one DVI input, no HDMI). Anyway, I set the player up to run on a 16:9 screen but when I tried to watch some discs with a 4:3 ratio, the image filled up the whole screen. Nothing that I have tried will allow the square 4:3 image to appear on the screen.

I think I know the problem. I believe my TV is not future proof. From what I can tell by looking at the documentation that came with the TV, I believe that Sony only intended the DVI port on the back to be used to hook up a hi def set top box, not a DVD player. Also, when I use the DVI input, I am not given the option to change the picture size of the image on the screen (wide, zoom, etc.) like I am if I have the DVD connected via component video cables.

I don't want to have to revert back to the component cables to get a true 4:3 image when needed. I'd rather stay with the HDMI.

If anyone has a similar setup, I'd appreciate any advice as to how to get the discs presented in 4:3 to actually appear that way.

Thanks

Yes, it helps. It helps a lot. Thank you very much. It is one of the first posts I saw when actually it is stated: “- DiVX looks great).” I just came from a friend who owns a S52 and saw a movie in divx via component, and no complaints, very very good pq. If you’re saying that over hdmi it has even better pq, that’s great.

I’m sure that oppo is better. But, I would like to know if actually somebody had seen a difference between the two, and can say: “yes, I’ve seen them both and 971 has a much better pq than the S52.”

I’m willing to pay the difference just if it is a striking difference in to the quality. I don’t want to pay an extra $100+ just because 971 passed I don’t know what tests that S52 didn’t, or anything similar, and just because 971 is doing something that I’ll never see or doesn’t help me visually.

Thank you again for your post. At least now I have somebody’s opinion on S52’s HDMI.

I have both the s52s and the oppo 971. I originally bought the s52 to hook up to my panasonic ae-900 projector via hdmi 720p. After reading all the rave reviews about the oppo 971 i purchased one to replace the s52. I was happy with the picture of the s52 but thought I could get an even better picture with the Oppo. In all honesty I did not notice any difference in picture quality between the two dvd players.

I recently bought the S52 for the upconversion and hooked it up to my Sony KP-57WS500 display via HDMI with a DVI adapter on the end (the display only has one DVI input, no HDMI). Anyway, I set the player up to run on a 16:9 screen but when I tried to watch some discs with a 4:3 ratio, the image filled up the whole screen. Nothing that I have tried will allow the square 4:3 image to appear on the screen.

I think I know the problem. I believe my TV is not future proof. From what I can tell by looking at the documentation that came with the TV, I believe that Sony only intended the DVI port on the back to be used to hook up a hi def set top box, not a DVD player. Also, when I use the DVI input, I am not given the option to change the picture size of the image on the screen (wide, zoom, etc.) like I am if I have the DVD connected via component video cables.

I don't want to have to revert back to the component cables to get a true 4:3 image when needed. I'd rather stay with the HDMI.

If anyone has a similar setup, I'd appreciate any advice as to how to get the discs presented in 4:3 to actually appear that way.

ThanksThere is an option in the S52 DVD player that lets you choose how 4:3 material is displayed in the event that your TV won't let you choose Normal mode. Take a look at '4:3 Aspect' on page 18 of the manual.

Any one else purchase the s52s? read alot of reviews and was going to pick one up for my panny plasma....not alot of bad reviews for this so i might take the plunge ...anyone else have one on their panny plasma?just curious as i was thinking about upgrading from my pioneer 588a and was torn between this and the philips 5960......

You'll find that the S52 doesn't cut off pixels on DiVX (like the 588a).

You'll find that the S52 doesn't cut off pixels on DiVX (like the 588a).

Careful... the USA version of the S52 doesn't support Divx. Supposedly a guy named Tom on another board (2nd google hit if you search for 'panasonic s52') has hacked it to enable divx and other things, but he's a complete tool and is demanding money for the firmware... bleh. I'll post here if I ever get ahold of it, but I'll be damned if I ever pay a dime for a hacked firmware.

Sorry about that, I keep forgetting that my colleagues to the south don't have DiVX in the S52...I have a copy of the original "firmware update" (UOP and Region disabled) but I don't have a copy of the new one (DiVX etc). I've never applied the update.

I currently use have the Sony D175 using HDMI to the 4253 Samsung Plasma. I do not like that when you try to zoom 2:35:1 DVDs it leaves a 1x or 2x blue display box on the screen. I am very happy with the Sony D175 but given the non useful zooming features, I may take it back.

What do you guys think about the zooming feature on the Panasonic? I heard the zooming quality on the Panasonic is really good. Any plasma users on here have any comments? Or should I keep the Sony since I'm very happy with the picture quality. I'm just worried about burn in or uneven picture after viewing movies withe top/bottom bars that are shown in 2:35:1 movies on plasma. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Los

The color decoding will probably be a deal-breaker though, unless there's a feature hidden somewhere that I've missed to correct that.

Have other people experienced color decoding/colorspace issues with the S52? I'm considering this model, but worry about inaccurate colors on upcoverted content.

I don't think that there's a colorspace issue...(standard vs hd). It's more that there's a bit of a red push that some (depending upon the monitor) have been able to comfortably adjust (the S52 has the usual Panasonic "more options than you're ever going to use" adjustments) and other...have not been able to deal with.

What kind of monitor are you going to use it with?

Best situation. Borrow one or try one out...Really, if you're going to try upconverting...that's your best option...

Can anybody answer my question above, please? :o

What kind of monitor are you going to use it with?



I haven't made the purchase yet, but it will likely be a Panny plasma over HDMI.

Can anybody answer my question above, please? :oIMHO, the zooming on the Panny S52 is not very good. But, I'm one of those people that prefers to watch material in its original format (I don't have a plasma display). I would suggest that you pick up the S52 from BB or CC and try it along with the Sony (btw, what is a D175?) and keep the one you prefer best.

Can somebody explain the 4:4:4, 4:4:2, RGB color options for this player? I have this player connected to a Panny 50px60U plasma via the HDMI port. I've seen posts in this thread recommending the 4:4:4 option but with no real reason why. I don't see a difference between them although haven't ran DVE with each.

I recently bought the S52 mainly to play DVD-RAM disc recorded on my DMR-ES25 in another room. Playback is great to my 35" Toshiba CRT TV. Unlike someothers I love the zoom. I wish it had DivX playback but I have two players that play DivX. An SD card reader would have been nice. Player does have a very nice set of features, and the price was right.

I just purchased a 42PX60 and the S52 connected via HDMI using 1080i. The amount of settings combined is daunting to say the least.

Realizing that the settings would be different depending on TV, do you have any recomendatons for the following settings?

picutre mode:
[ ] cinima1
[ ] cinima2
[ ] animation
[ ] dynamic
[ ] user

tranfer mode:
[ ] auto1
[ ] auto2
[ ] video

HD Picture Enhancer:
[ ] off
[ ] 1
[ ] 2
[ ] 3

4:3 Aspect:
[ ] normal
[ ] auto
[ ] shrink
[ ] zoom

Just Fit Zoom:
[ ] auto
[ ] 16:9 standard
[ ] american vista
[ ] cinima scope

AV-Enhancer:
[ ] off
[ ] auto
[ ] user1
[ ] user2
[ ] user3

setup>video>black level control:
[ ] darker
[ ] lighter

setup>audio>dolby digital:
[ ] bitstream
[ ] PCM

setup>audio>dynamic range compression:
[ ] off
[ ] on

setup>HDMI>RGB Range:
[ ] standard
[ ] enhanced

setup>Display>background during play:
[ ] gray
[ ] black

Regards,
Terry

Set it up for the kind of TV that you have (as in I have a 16:9 Plasma) and...leave the rest on their defaults...Ask again when you notice something that you want to change....

Set it up for the kind of TV that you have (as in I have a 16:9 Plasma) and...leave the rest on their defaults...Ask again when you notice something that you want to change....


When I view HDMI status it shows it using PCM. Is this correct or should it be using bitsream? What is the difference? I'm using a Yamaha reciever via optical and appear to be receiving surround sound as all speaker lights on receiver light up.

Also, I noticed that I can get Dolby Digital and DTS. Which one is superior?

When I view HDMI status it shows it using PCM. Is this correct or should it be using bitsream? What is the difference? I'm using a Yamaha reciever via optical and appear to be receiving surround sound as all speaker lights on receiver light up.

Also, I noticed that I can get Dolby Digital and DTS. Which one is superior?

LOL.. Staight Tube Amp with no digital processing. "Superior" is highly subjective, there is no answer.

When I view HDMI status it shows it using PCM. Is this correct or should it be using bitsream? What is the difference? I'm using a Yamaha reciever via optical and appear to be receiving surround sound as all speaker lights on receiver light up.

Also, I noticed that I can get Dolby Digital and DTS. Which one is superior?
You want to use bitstream for Dolby...and DTS

You want PCM for everything else...(for that, your Receiver manual will tell you what kind of PCM signal your receiver is capable of handling)

Hmmmm...I have selected bitstream in the player setup. When I view HDMI status it says PCM. Thoughts?

Ah...I know what you're doing. For Dolby/DTS...use either the Digital Coax or Optical Out to go to your receiver. The HDMI audio will send PCM to your TV (if you've connected it to your TV but don't have Digital Audio capability built into the TV - of course, if you were just using the speakers in your tv...that's exactly what you'd do...PCM to the TV). If you want Bitstream over the HDMI,..you must have an HDMI input on your receiver (in other words...HDMI out from the S52(carrying digital audio and video info)...HDMI in on the receiver (for the audio)...HDMI out to the TV (for the video)...You can, of course, disable the HDMI audio streams (if you don't need them)

I don't know if I've explained this well...do you understand?

That's clear now, thanks.

I have searched high and low for a good DVD player that will fix my audio sync problems with my LCD tv. I have a slightly noticeable delay on most of my dvd's and a very noticeable delay on a few. I just about bought the sony 75 but found out from its forum that it only fixes analog audio. To my understanding the Panny will delay digital audio. Am I correct on this? Also, will it delay the analog audio as well? I doubt that I woudl delay analog audio because I will be feeding it via HDMI. I usually use my receiver for sound but sometimes I don't so that is why I want it to delay all audio signals the same. Thanks for any input.

Page 20 of the Manual (at least the version I'm looking at) notes:
Time Delay
When connected with an AV amplifier and Plasma display, adjust if you notice the audio is
out of sync with the video: 0ms 20ms 40ms 60ms 80ms 100ms

It should work with an LCD (if you're noticing the same delay). Of course, many Digital TV programs coming off of a Digital STB (from Cable) are quite out of sync - this has nothing to do with your TV and everything to do with the service provider and the STB.

As for Digital vs Analog delays...I have no idea if one would be delayed and the other not..if you put in a delay factor in the DVD player.

Perhaps someone else knows.

Thanks for the confirmation. I was wondering if anyone had actually tried the audio delay option. Looks like this is the DVD player for me. I will be hooking it up via HDMI probably at 720p with coaxial going to the receiver for surround.
Another question I have is can you also get surround from the tv back to the receiver? What I mean is that my tv has an optical out that carries the 5.1 surround for regular HD shows. Looks like to me if the HDMI is feeding in the digital signal then my tv should be able to send it back to the receiver and just not use my coaxial cable for surround. Would this work?

N'Yeti, I just downloaded the manual and I see what you are talking about when it says Plasma TV in the time delay menu. Does this mean if select LCD I won't be able to use the time delay option. If that is the case then can I just select the Plasma option to use the time delay? I don't see how it would matter which you selected unless it somehow effects picture quality.

My Denon 1910 DVI player was been acting flaky lately and will shutdown at random, so I went looking for a new player to tide me over between now and when I go HD. I just did a head to head with a S52, V Bravo D1, Denon 1910 (when it worked) and HTPC w/TheaterTek on my Infocus 4805 over DVI (HDMI to DVI for the S52).

I must say I was very unimpressed with the Panny S52 when compared directly with the others. Out of the box the 480p HDMI picture on the Panasonic was just terrible, exhibiting over sharp edges and mosquito noise in the backgrounds. After setting the picture mode to User and turning on the "Depth Enhancer" to +1, turning down sharpness by -4 and turning on MPEG noise reduction to +1 I got a halfway decent picture, but it still lacked real detail and had serious "clay face" on the skin tones and some over saturation. It seems like you could endlessly fiddle with the settings trying to get a better picture, but never quite get it.

Next I switched to the Bravo D1 and setting it to 854x480 resolution and native on the projector. The picture was truly stunning picture with fine texture detail I had never seen before with minimal noise and excellent color balance. The best DVD picture I've ever seen. Video based material was another story with a good overall picture, but poor deinterlacing that showed combing and stair stepping for time to time.

Then I went back to my Denon which worked for about 5 minutes before it shut down. The picture was good, very smooth and clean, but a little soft (the projector is scaling from 480p to it's native 16:9 854x480). The DCDi really helps video sourced material and can make even poor quality MiniDV sports videos look film like. However on film material it doesn't come close to the Bravo D1 due to the softness.

I also tried out my Laptop with TheaterTek connected via DVI. The picture was nearly identical to the Bravo with maybe a slight edge in detail going to the Bravo. Using my laptop isn't a long term solution however.

So it looks like for me anyway the winner is the Bravo D1 due to the fantastic film picture (and due to a bargain price even after the capacitor fix). I found the Panny S52 really disappointing and not up to their usual standards. It obviously had a picture designed to appeal in the store that didn't stand up to extended viewing.

Sorry to hear the Panny didn't work out for you but it seems to really please alot of people on here. Same went for the Sony and Denon I have been looking at, some say their the greatest since sliced bread while others had nothing good to say. Same went for the LCD I bought a few weeks ago but I am happy with it. I'm going for the Panny and if it don't work out then I'll go with another.

I picked up the S52 the other day. So far I am pleased with the PQ.

Just bought the S52 today, can't wait to get it home.

Hey guys ;)

because of differences about site updating policies with the admin of dcevolution.net I have moved to a new forum to discuss issues and exchange knowledge about my existing enhanced firmware releases for Panasonic devices.

You can find the new forum at:

www.xperience.podzone.net/panasonic/forum

Registration is required to access the forum content.

Please note that this is only about support for existing firmware releases !

Have fun ;)

Tom

My Denon 1910 DVI player was been acting flaky lately and will shutdown at random, so I went looking for a new player to tide me over between now and when I go HD. I just did a head to head with a S52, V Bravo D1, Denon 1910 (when it worked) and HTPC w/TheaterTek on my Infocus 4805 over DVI (HDMI to DVI for the S52).

I must say I was very unimpressed with the Panny S52 when compared directly with the others. Out of the box the 480p HDMI picture on the Panasonic was just terrible, exhibiting over sharp edges and mosquito noise in the backgrounds. After setting the picture mode to User and turning on the "Depth Enhancer" to +1, turning down sharpness by -4 and turning on MPEG noise reduction to +1 I got a halfway decent picture, but it still lacked real detail and had serious "clay face" on the skin tones and some over saturation. It seems like you could endlessly fiddle with the settings trying to get a better picture, but never quite get it...If you still have the S52 floating around, you might give the following settings a try.


AV ENHANCER: OFF (*very important)

SETUP/VIDEO
TV ASPECT: 16:9
TV TYPE: Standard (Direct View). This seems to add the least enhancement so I recommend trying this setting regardless of the display type. Though you may also want to try the mode for your particular kind of display as well.

SETUP/HDMI
RGB RANGE: Use STANDARD to pass BTB/PLUGE. ENHANCED can be used to expand the video to "PC Levels" (0-255) for DVI displays though, if desired. (The ENHANCED setting has no effect w/HDMI.)

FUNCTIONS/PICTURE MENU
PICTURE MODE: USER
VIDEO OUTPUT MODE: Try all three settings (480p, 720p, 1080i) and see which works best for your particular display. Color decoding will probably be incorrect for 720p/1080i, but detail will probably be much better than 480p, due to the HD Picture Enhancer.
TRANSFER MODE: Auto 1. Auto 2 may be useful for some TV shows filmed at 30 fps.
HD PICTURE ENHANCER: 1 to 3, depending on the content and display. Use this to enhance the detail of 720p/1080i rather than the Sharpness control which has a much coarser effect.
HDMI COLOR SPACE: This should default to RGB for DVI displays. For HDMI displays, one of the YCbCr settings is probably best.

FUNCTIONS/PICTURE MODE/USER/PICTURE ADJUSTMENTS
CONTRAST: 0 (default)
BRIGHTNESS: 0 (default)
COLOR: 0 (default)
GAMMA: 0 (default)
DEPTH ENHANCER: 0 (default). If the picture looks too grainy or noisy on your display, then you might want to try increasing this to smooth things over. This may enhance the appearance of mosquito noise/artifacts on edges though (especially if the HD Picture Enhancer is set rather high).
MPEG DNR: 0 (default)

FUNCTIONS/DISPLAY MODE
4:3 ASPECT: NORMAL or SHRINK. NORMAL stretches 4:3 content to fill the whole frame. SHRINK pillarboxes it. Use whichever works best with the AR options on your display.
JUST FIT ZOOM: 16:9 STANDARD for anamorphic widescreen DVDs, and 4:3 STANDARD for Fullscreen 4:3 DVDs
MANUAL ZOOM: x1.00.

The Auto-zoom options degrade PQ badly, so I don't recommend using them.

Pirates of the Caribbean 2 looked fantastic last night on my new S52. Still have some tweaking to do.

Hello,

I purchased an S52 about 5 months old and have not had any issues with it up until now.
I was playing a CD-RW with a DIVX file and it worked fine. I left the disc in and turned it on later and got an error saying "F893". Nothing else. No control menu or anything. I can't even eject the disc or turn off the power (the power turns off eventually after some time). I've tried unplugging it for a period of time, but as soon as I try to power it on, "F893" comes up again.

Anyone know what this "F893" code is and what's causing it? Is there a firmware upgrade required or anything? If so, is there any way to reset the player?

Any answers anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks,

Hello,

I purchased an S52 about 5 months old and have not had any issues with it up until now.
I was playing a CD-RW with a DIVX file and it worked fine. I left the disc in and turned it on later and got an error saying "F893". Nothing else. No control menu or anything. I can't even eject the disc or turn off the power (the power turns off eventually after some time). I've tried unplugging it for a period of time, but as soon as I try to power it on, "F893" comes up again.

Anyone know what this "F893" code is and what's causing it? Is there a firmware upgrade required or anything? If so, is there any way to reset the player?

Any answers anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks,

F893 means that the communication between the main processor and the flash-rom doesn't work correctly.

This is a service issue and requires physical repair or replacement.

Regards,

Tom

This player has bugs with saving user adjustments. In fact, when you save your settings, and turn off the player, and turn it back on, the "user1" or "user2" profiles get messed up. Contrast is set to a negative number and several other settings messed up. This makes the picture look washed out. "User3" profile is the only one that remembers the settings when you save it.

I've had no problems with the User 1, 2, or 3 profiles. The thing is, you have to read the manual first:
Auto: The best audio and video settings are configured.
User1§: Suitable for video ([DVD-V]).
User2§: Suitable for music.
User3§: Suitable for video ([DVD-VR]).

1. Select “Save Settings” and press [ENTER]
2. Press [Up/Down ] to select the setting location (User1, User2 or
User3) and press [ENTER].
3. Follow the instructions on the menu screen and press
[ENTER] last.
To recall the settings (➜ page 11)
To confirm the settings
1. Press [Up/Down] to select “User1”, “User2” or “User3” and
press [ENTER].
2. Select “Save Settings” and press [ENTER] twice.

Fry's has the s52s for $57 this weekend

Fry's has the s52s for $57 this weekend

i just picked up 2 of them for gifts. :D

I need some help with the s52 I recently purchased. I am connecting to a Hitachi 50HDA39 Plasma utilizing HDMI cable. When playing DVD's I get a slightly distorted picture every 30-60 seconds along with a slight buzz sound as well. It is not bad but never the less it is not right. I have gone through the manual but with no success. Can anyone offer any insight as I am not technical savy when it comes to tv/dvd set up.

What picture quality should I set DVD to?
480p
720p
1080i

HDMI Color Space
RGB
YCbCR (4:4:4)
YCbCr (4:2:2)

Do I need to adjust play speed or any additional settings?

I appreciate any help anyone can offer

Does anybody know if there is a code to modify the region? I watch a lot of brazilian movies and need to support region 4.

Please let me know.

Thanks

Buy.com is currently selling this model for $69.99 with free shipping, $49.99 if you use Google Checkout.

http://www.buy.com/retail/Product.asp?sku=202900014&SearchEngine=CJaffiliate&Type=CJ&Keyword=202900014&Category=Elec&adid=17662

Hi folks. I just purchased this dvd player as a temporary dvd player until I'm ready for full HDTV.

I currently own a panasonic 42" EDTV. It has a DVI input. I would like to use the HDMI output on this dvd player and plug it into the DVI input on my Plasma. Is this going to be a problem?

What do I need to purchase to do this?

Also, as my tv is an EDTV is there any benefit to upscaling dvds? Will it do anything bad to the picture if I upscale?

Lastly, can anyone make recommendations on settings to get the best picture for an EDTV?

Thanks a lot for your help!

Maynerd

Does this player now play Divx DVDs? Need an answer before i buy.

A new enhanced firmware release (V410B) has been made available for this player:

For more information about the new release check

http://www.xperience.podzone.net

Have fun :)

Tom

I have a friend with an older Panasonic 300u projector. It has a DVI input but no HDMI/HDCP. Will this dvd player upscale properly through the HDMI-DYI connection? Any help is appreciated..

Scott

A new enhanced firmware release (V410B) has been made available for this player:

Changes (compared to original version):

+ Player regionalcode changing capability
+ UOP (User Operation Prohibition) disabled
+ "Manual zoom" limits expanded for all playback modes (0.5-4.0) - This allows for overscan removal

For more information about the new release check

http://www.xperience.podzone.net

Details about the release:

http://www.xperience.podzone.net/panasonic/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=26

Have fun :)

Tom

As far as I can tell this is not FREE (at least I could not download it free), kind of odd given what Mr. Wizard did for Liteon users. I would even pay but it seems to have few pay options and is in euros

Tom9999, are you the one who made this?

any chance for DivX play for USA models?

I'm sorry but I don't support people who are just too lazy to read !

Regards,

Tom

I've been a registered user for over a year now and never felt compelled to post anything but I felt the need to do so today.

I don't know who you are but in reading several of your posts, YOU come off as a raging a-hole.

Be gone beggared.

As far as I can tell this is not FREE (at least I could not download it free), kind of odd given what Mr. Wizard did for Liteon users. I would even pay but it seems to have few pay options and is in euros

Tom9999, are you the one who made this?

any chance for DivX play for USA models?Yes, Tom is the one who did this and is using AVS Forum to "advertise" his offerings while at the same time being rude and rejecting members from his forum that he doesn't like the look of!

To get it you have to join Tom's new restricted web site using a name that he doesn't object to, provide all of your DVD player's firmware info, and then wait for him to manually approve your membership (its not automatic like AVS). Then, you can access the section of the forum that lists the available firmware versions, provides links to the downloads, and also provides the new password (he changes it regularly). But, you'll probably need to act quickly before he closes your account for whatever reason. Good luck!

P.S. Check your PM.

If you still have the S52 floating around, you might give the following settings a try.


AV ENHANCER: OFF (*very important)

SETUP/VIDEO
TV ASPECT: 16:9
TV TYPE: Standard (Direct View). This seems to add the least enhancement so I recommend trying this setting regardless of the display type. Though you may also want to try the mode for your particular kind of display as well.

SETUP/HDMI
RGB RANGE: Use STANDARD to pass BTB/PLUGE. ENHANCED can be used to expand the video to "PC Levels" (0-255) for DVI displays though, if desired. (The ENHANCED setting has no effect w/HDMI.)

FUNCTIONS/PICTURE MENU
PICTURE MODE: USER
VIDEO OUTPUT MODE: Try all three settings (480p, 720p, 1080i) and see which works best for your particular display. Color decoding will probably be incorrect for 720p/1080i, but detail will probably be much better than 480p, due to the HD Picture Enhancer.
TRANSFER MODE: Auto 1. Auto 2 may be useful for some TV shows filmed at 30 fps.
HD PICTURE ENHANCER: 1 to 3, depending on the content and display. Use this to enhance the detail of 720p/1080i rather than the Sharpness control which has a much coarser effect.
HDMI COLOR SPACE: This should default to RGB for DVI displays. For HDMI displays, one of the YCbCr settings is probably best.

FUNCTIONS/PICTURE MODE/USER/PICTURE ADJUSTMENTS
CONTRAST: 0 (default)
BRIGHTNESS: 0 (default)
COLOR: 0 (default)
GAMMA: 0 (default)
DEPTH ENHANCER: 0 (default). If the picture looks too grainy or noisy on your display, then you might want to try increasing this to smooth things over. This may enhance the appearance of mosquito noise/artifacts on edges though (especially if the HD Picture Enhancer is set rather high).
MPEG DNR: 0 (default)

FUNCTIONS/DISPLAY MODE
4:3 ASPECT: NORMAL or SHRINK. NORMAL stretches 4:3 content to fill the whole frame. SHRINK pillarboxes it. Use whichever works best with the AR options on your display.
JUST FIT ZOOM: 16:9 STANDARD for anamorphic widescreen DVDs, and 4:3 STANDARD for Fullscreen 4:3 DVDs
MANUAL ZOOM: x1.00.

The Auto-zoom options degrade PQ badly, so I don't recommend using them.

thanks a lot. I just used ur settings and pq is great.

Guys, has anyone noticed ghosting/ringing/EE added to DVDs played on the S52S?

I've used test patterns to adjust the players internal sharpness (which does help) and I've played around with other user controls in both my projector and this DVD player, but the annoying double outlines remain. They are especially obvious on subtitles -- for example, whenever they are speaking elvish in LOTR. But the ringing shows up just about everywhere else too.

This may be a problem that is created by the interaction of my projector and the player. I'm just not sure.

Has anyone else seen this double outlining effect around objects? It looks like edge enhancement gone wrong.

Moderator:

While trying to post my brief review on this product, I kept getting this error message:

Your Post contains one or more URLs or image calls, please remove them before submitting your message again. To prevent the abuse of spam, we have set this restriction in place until after you make 5 posts.

I do not know what that means but I removed what I felt were all of the symbols and $ signs not knowing what was causing the hang up and the system still won't let my post through.

Please advise.

Hi Guys,
I have posted last week, but I am still trying to find how to hack the S52S to play ALL Regions. Anybody knows?

I would also appreciate if you could point where to find the hack so it plays 720p on component connection.

Thanks so much

I got this player for an early christmas present and I have to say I am happy with it. I've got it hooked up to my LCD throgh HDMI. I bought the Panny mainly because of the audio time delay option as well as the auto-zoom. The auto-zoom is a great idea but it does effect picture quality. Funny thing is that it effects different scenes differently! My TV does a much better job at zooming in on the picture to fill the screen but my lowest setting is 2x which is too much. I know some of you say that you are ruining the movie by blowing up the anamorphic to fill the screen but my tv is a 37inch and I sit 15 feet away. At that distance the picture is too small unless I blow it up.
I think anyone looking for a dvd player that provides a great picture, ease of use, and plays about any type of disc will be happy with this one.

An enhanced firmware release (V435B) has been made available for this player:

For more information about the release check

http://www.xperience.podzone.net

Have fun :)

Tom

An enhanced firmware release (V435B) has been made available for this player:

For more information about the release check

http://www.xperience.podzone.net

Have fun :)

TomThis thread is for the DVD-S52.

This thread is for the DVD-S52.

Hey troll,

It's a new year now so why don't you just leave and start trolling somewhere else ?

I have a few questions about this player.

I am thinlking of purchasing it, but

1: Can I do 480p via HDMI? Will this produce macroblocking, or screenflicking in and out?

2: Is the macroblocking very apparent in 180i/720p?


3: What are all those otehr settings for. I only plan on turning HDMI video out to ON, HDMI Audio out to OFF, and setting the HDMI to eaither 480p/720p/1080i. If I do just these settings, will I be ok picture wiose, by leaving everything else at the default?

Thanks

I've been a registered user for over a year now and never felt compelled to post anything but I felt the need to do so today.

I don't know who you are but in reading several of your posts, YOU come off as a raging a-hole.

Be gone beggared.Agreed!

Hey troll,

It's a new year now so why don't you just leave and start trolling somewhere else ?Back at ya Tom! I can't really take seriously someone that covers his web site and forum with numerous disclaimers and warnings, that has taken someone else's firmware (Panasonic's - I doubt you have their permission to tinker with it) to try and benefit from, that regularly insults people here on AVS that ask you questions, and that regularly eliminates half of his forum's membership because they use names that you don't like or that don't provide enough info in their profile. If the AVS mods looked at your profile with your metrics your accounts would have been deleted long ago.
Now you're telling people in your forum that "Feature requests will be ignored.", are not welcome and if anyone dares to make any suggestions for enhancement their accounts will be terminated...
Quote from thread in your forum named "DO NOT POST FEATURE REQUESTS !":
"Feature requests are not welcome and users who continuously post such requests or send me private messages asking for individual enhancments will get their accounts terminated without further notice."
What this says to me is that you are control freak who is not interested in listening to anybody and would rather "eliminate" anyone who says something or asks a question that you don't like. Quite pathetic really. Yeah, Tom, you're a real professional and we should all bow down before you and do exactly what you say. :rolleyes:

Back at ya Tom! I can't really take seriously someone that covers his web site and forum with numerous disclaimers and warnings, that has taken someone else's firmware (Panasonic's - I doubt you have their permission to tinker with it) to try and benefit from, that regularly insults people here on AVS that ask you questions, and that regularly eliminates half of his forum's membership because they use names that you don't like or that don't provide enough info in their profile. If the AVS mods looked at your profile with your metrics your accounts would have been deleted long ago.
Now you're telling people in your forum that "Feature requests will be ignored.", are not welcome and if anyone dares to make any suggestions for enhancement their accounts will be terminated...
Quote from thread in your forum named "DO NOT POST FEATURE REQUESTS !":
"Feature requests are not welcome and users who continuously post such requests or send me private messages asking for individual enhancments will get their accounts terminated without further notice."
What this says to me is that you are control freak who is not interested in listening to anybody and would rather "eliminate" anyone who says something or asks a question that you don't like. Quite pathetic really. Yeah, Tom, you're a real professional and we should all bow down before you and do exactly what you say. :rolleyes:

So let's show people what kind of troll you really are ;)

The complete post looks like this:

Hey guys,

PLEASE DO NOT POST FEATURE REQUESTS !

I have created this forum to provide support for existing enhanced firmware releases only.

You can check the feature lists for the individual releases by looking at the following web page:

http://www.xperience.podzone.net/panasonic/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=26

Feature requests are not welcome and users who continuously post such requests or send me private messages asking for individual enhancments will get their accounts terminated without further notice.


_________________
Regards

Tom

BTW:

Thanks for your cooperation. By paying attention to my activity you are doing exactly what I want you to do. If there were more people like you I would not need to advertise here ;)

So let's show people what kind of troll you really are ;)

The complete post looks like this:



BTW:

Thanks for your cooperation. By paying attention to my activity you are doing exactly what I want you to do. If there were more people like you I would not need to advertise here ;)Actually Tom I think you're succeeding in showing people what a "troll" you are. Thanks for admitting that you are using AVS forum to advertise in, which is actually against AVS Forum rules. You seem to be such a stickler for rules so if you expect people to abide by your rules and risk termination from your site then you should treat AVS in the same way and abide by their rules.

Actually Tom I think you're succeeding in showing people what a "troll" you are. Thanks for admitting that you are using AVS forum to advertise in, which is actually against AVS Forum rules. You seem to be such a stickler for rules so if you expect people to abide by your rules and risk termination from your site then you should treat AVS in the same way and abide by their rules.

You might think you are a smart troll ;)

Since I I'm offering people a free value without commercial interests your idea doesn't work. Try to find somethin else !

You might think you are a smart troll ;)

Since I I'm offering people a free value without commercial interests your idea doesn't work. Try to find somethin else !You can call me a troll all day and use insincere winks but they'll get you nowhere. We've already witnessed examples of how you resort to insulting people that challenge or disagree with you. On your own forums (Martin's and present) you've deleted numerous posts from members that question, challenge or disagree with you.
Anyway...
As for offering people free value....for a while you were asking people to pay for your firmware (correction: Panasonic's firmware that you've been modifying) and as I understand it you took people's money and provided them with nothing! You then deleted all threads and posts from (Martin's) web site that would incriminate you in this matter. What does that make you?

You can call me a troll all day and use insincere winks but they'll get you nowhere. We've already witnessed examples of how you resort to insulting people that challenge or disagree with you. On your own forums (Martin's and present) you've deleted numerous posts from members that question, challenge or disagree with you.
Anyway...
As for offering people free value....for a while you were asking people to pay for your firmware (correction: Panasonic's firmware that you've been modifying) and as I understand it you took people's money and provided them with nothing! You then deleted all threads and posts from (Martin's) web site that would incriminate you in this matter. What does that make you?

You can argue, you can disagree, you can do whatever you want - but at the end of the day the only thing people got from trolls like you is just "trash talk".

Since you are just expressing your frustration about your non-working attempts to attack me you don't deserve any more attention.

Have a nice day, troll

You can argue, you can disagree, you can do whatever you want - but at the end of the day the only thing people got from trolls like you is just "trash talk".

Since you are just expressing your frustration about your non-working attempts to attack me you don't deserve any more attention.

Have a nice day, trollLOL! Good job avoiding the subject and instead telling me what I can and can't do and continuing to call me a troll. I think I'll stand by my previous comments though.

It makes TOM a loser.

Clearly.

LOL! Good job avoiding the subject and instead telling me what I can and can't do and continuing to call me a troll. I think I'll stand by my previous comments though.

Troll,

I don't need to avoid your "subject". This idea (where people had a chance to get a heavily extended firmware by actively supporting my work with donations) is history.

I have learned that people don't like this idea so I have dropped it long ago.

You have just failed again to find a valid point against me :)

Next try please ;)

Troll,

I don't need to avoid your "subject". This idea (where people had a chance to get a heavily extended firmware) by actively supporting my work with donations is history.

I have learned that people don't like this idea so I have dropped it long ago.

You have just failed again to find a valid point against me :)

Next try please ;)Hmm, I guess you didn't really mean it when you said "you don't deserve any more attention" in a previous post.
At least you're now coming clean and responding to the "subject" after previously avoiding it, so I obviously have NOT failed to find valid points. Too bad you can't respond without having to resort to name-calling though.

As for your stament that you're no longer seeking donations and that you learned that people don't like the idea so you dropped it long ago (only a few weeks ago really)....did you contact and reimburse the people that already paid you or did you just keep the money?

What you don't seem to grasp is that you have previously offended and alienated a bunch of people in this forum through your insults, name-calling, attempts to make money out of selling modiifcations you've made to Panasonic's firmware, and your playground antics. I am just one of several people that called you out on this. Plus, the way you treated Martin in public as well as the way you've treated people that joined your new forum. Yes, I was a victim of your membership cleansing a few weeks ago. Wow, good job, You sure taught me a lesson! :rolleyes:

P.S. I, like many others here, would have considered "donating" a small amount for updated firmware for my S97 but you made it so difficult and were so rude to people that you lost support instead of gaining it.

As for your stament that you're no longer seeking donations and that you learned that people don't like the idea so you dropped it long ago (only a few weeks ago really)....did you contact and reimburse the people that already paid you or did you just keep the money?

Troll,

I suggest you put that question to your american brother called "George" who can be found on Martin's Panasonic site.

I'm really getting tired with you and your TrollOMania.

I don't care about your opinion but I won't allow trolls like you to spread lies because they are frustrated about not getting the firmware features they want!

LOL!

Troll,

I suggest you put that question to your american brother called "George" who can be found on Martin's Panasonic site.

I'm really getting tired with you and your TrollOMania.

I don't care about your opinion but I won't allow trolls like you to spread lies because they are frustrated about not getting the firmware features they want!

LOL!Hmm, more name-calling!
I have not lied about the way you've handled things on your (and Martin's) web site and your previous attempts to charge for modified copies of Panasonic's firmware.
If you're tired of me and don't care about my opinion then stop responding (you've already said that I don't deserve any more attention from you).
But let me make this easy for you so you can at least have a perception of victory. You can go ahead and be childish by calling me more names and try to oppress me and I won't bother to respond any more. People that have tried to obtain your firmware, been insulted by you, had their posts deleted from your forum, had their membership terminated by you from your forum, etc. know exactly what I'm talking about.

Hmm, more name-calling!
I have not lied about the way you've handled things on your (and Martin's) web site and your previous attempts to charge for modified copies of Panasonic's firmware.
If you're tired of me and don't care about my opinion then stop responding (you've already said that I don't deserve any more attention from you).
But let me make this easy for you so you can at least have a perception of victory. You can go ahead and be childish by calling me more names and try to oppress me and I won't bother to respond any more. People that have tried to obtain your firmware, been insulted by you, had their posts deleted from your forum, had their membership terminated by you from your forum, etc. know exactly what I'm talking about.

Troll,

I will tell you once again: You are not as clever as you might think yourself to be.

You are omitting important facts in your postings which is basically the same as posting a lie.

Since you are trying this nonsense again and again talking to you really doesn't make sense... That's the only valid point you have presented so far...

My idea is about firmware and I have spent a lot of efforts to push this topic forward while your trolling efforts are nothing but crap.

I hope you will understand that some day :)

Rest in peace.

I have a few questions about this player.

I am thinlking of purchasing it, but

1: Can I do 480p via HDMI? Will this produce macroblocking, or screenflicking in and out?

2: Is the macroblocking very apparent in 180i/720p?


3: What are all those otehr settings for. I only plan on turning HDMI video out to ON, HDMI Audio out to OFF, and setting the HDMI to eaither 480p/720p/1080i. If I do just these settings, will I be ok picture wiose, by leaving everything else at the default?

ThanksMacroblocking is not really a problem with the S52 as it does not contain the Faroudja DCDi delinterlacing chip like the S77 and S97. Yes, you can do 480p over HDMI. A good starting point would be to set the output resolution to match that of your TV. It comes down to whether the deinterlacer in your TV is better or worse than that in the DVD player.

Hello i just bought my panny 42px60u on black friday and im loving it. and i hook up the Panny DVD-s52 DVD player today but i dont know how to set that up for the best PQ. could someone please help me out. and one more question what would be the best dvd play to get for the panny plasma that would play everything like divx/vcd ect...

Trying to decide between the Panny S52 and the Philips 5960. I live in Canada and so I think I'd get the divx playback on the panny. I'm not impressed that the philips doesn't do dts. Will it pass it to my receiver and it'll still play or will it not work at all?

Any feedback on which is a better player? The cost is fairly insignificant between the two. This unit is hopefully going to be just holdover until the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray battle sorts itself out.

Oh and btw... That Tom guy sounds like an idiot... best to leave him alone and not make him cry anymore!!!

They think, americans are stupid, why would they need pal or divx support, it's ok we give it to europe, the avg joe goes and buys his dvd's from walmart, why would he need region free, pal,.avi support, no we'll give him worthless format's like Highmat, HDCD things they think they'll use but wont.

I believe Panasonic and Sony know that American standards are lower and consumer expectations are controlled by the companies rather than end-users. Advertising tells the US what they want - not the other way around. :o

Let's face it, PAL is superior in terms of frame rate and overall picture quality. I have had this arguement with many people but in my "viewing" experience PAL looks better that NTSC. The problem is that the US is not willing to convert over to PAL. The U.S. likes to be (or likes to think it is) the "world Leader". So until that arogance disappears :rolleyes: change will not exist or be very slow. I guess also the cost of converting studios to PAL would be enormous (or maybe simply a switch ont the control panel).

Also remember, the PAL function has been disabled for whatever marketing reason set by Panasonic. The chipset can still regonise and play both PAL and NTSC- what marketing or political reason there is to disable it is anyones guess.... :(

Trying to decide between the Panny S52 and the Philips 5960. I live in Canada and so I think I'd get the divx playback on the panny. I'm not impressed that the philips doesn't do dts. Will it pass it to my receiver and it'll still play or will it not work at all?

Any feedback on which is a better player? The cost is fairly insignificant between the two. This unit is hopefully going to be just holdover until the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray battle sorts itself out.I tried the Philips 5960 out along with the Panny S52. I rejected the Philips 5960 for several reasons and kept the S52 and have been happy with it (I've also had S77 and S97). However, DivX was not a consideration for me as I don't have DivX. My only real complaint about the S52 is that it lacks 5.1ch analog outputs for DVD-Audio.

Troll,
I will tell you once again: You are not as clever as you might think yourself to be.

You are omitting important facts in your postings which is basically the same as posting a lie.
Since you are trying this nonsense again and again talking to you really doesn't make sense... That's the only valid point you have presented so far...

My idea is about firmware and I have spent a lot of efforts to push this topic forward while your trolling efforts are nothing but crap.

I hope you will understand that some day :)

Rest in peace.

Once again Tom's insults have started. Hey forum admin check out the quoted post - aren't personal insults not permitted??? Are we going to delete the above post or this post for challenging baby "Tom"?

Tom, you are delusional. Your site is crap as no-one has access to the firmware unless they fall under your mind control. Seriously, no firmware is worth Tom's grief and control. TOM, u took all the original firmware away from the dcevolution site even though Martin did nothing wrong apart from kiss your ass and not meet your timetable. The firmware could have been left shared out but no - you wanted control.

You were deceitful in your wording such as "modding project", "getting a group together", etc. It took nearly five posts (and criticisms) before you mentioned the 500 euros you were wanting for your firmware. Some people collected money for it- but where is their money and where is this amazing "un-tested" firmware.

An honest person would have said "I have created new firmware. It has taken me sometime and would like to get 500 euros for it to re-coup some of my cost. I suggest a group of people get together and collect it and once collected arrange with me for firmware shipment/delivery".
Instead: "modding project donation"; "donations"; "you people work it out"; "not my problem". You basically appealed to lowest human denominator "want" and watched as people chased there own tails.

You seem to think you are somewhat "superior" to others. Newsflash - "you can mod firmware" - good luck with that as a career choice. You have one skill that can be learned by others if they were given the babying by Virus that you got. Get over yourself and get real!!! :eek:

Trying to decide between the Panny S52 and the Philips 5960. I live in Canada and so I think I'd get the divx playback on the panny. I'm not impressed that the philips doesn't do dts. Will it pass it to my receiver and it'll still play or will it not work at all?

Any feedback on which is a better player? The cost is fairly insignificant between the two. This unit is hopefully going to be just holdover until the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray battle sorts itself out.

Oh and btw... That Tom guy sounds like an idiot... best to leave him alone and not make him cry anymore!!!

Hey, also the Phillips has really crap sound quality. If u look at phillip player specs their sound to noise ratio, dynamic range, etc are all well below even the crapest Panasonic player. I had a Philips top of the range in Australia and took it back the same day - bad would be an understatement.

I checked the site and DTS is not supported which means it won't pass thru the digital outputs. Stick to Panasonic or maybe Pioneer. If this is a hold over unit most Pioneer units do DivX Ultra as well as DTSm D.Dig, MP3, WMA, etc.

If you have a decent amp and speakers, make sure you have DTS DVD player as discs are increasing with this format for a reason - it shi*ts all over Dolby Dig. :)

I tried the Philips 5960 out along with the Panny S52. I rejected the Philips 5960 for several reasons and kept the S52 and have been happy with it (I've also had S77 and S97). However, DivX was not a consideration for me as I don't have DivX. My only real complaint about the S52 is that it lacks 5.1ch analog outputs for DVD-Audio.


The S52 still offers digital outputs for 5.1 though right? What were your reasons for rejecting the 5960?

Hey, also the Phillips has really crap sound quality. If u look at phillip player specs their sound to noise ratio, dynamic range, etc are all well below even the crapest Panasonic player. I had a Philips top of the range in Australia and took it back the same day - bad would be an understatement.

I checked the site and DTS is not supported which means it won't pass thru the digital outputs. Stick to Panasonic or maybe Pioneer. If this is a hold over unit most Pioneer units do DivX Ultra as well as DTSm D.Dig, MP3, WMA, etc.

If you have a decent amp and speakers, make sure you have DTS DVD player as discs are increasing with this format for a reason - it shi*ts all over Dolby Dig. :)


Thanks mavmarek... just what I was looking for... I'll have to explore what pioneer ones would be in this price range

I messed around with the settings alot this weekend and from what I can tell there is no real difference in picture quality between 480, 720, and 1080! Maybe it is the difference in everybody's tv's but could tell no dfference with mine. Also on the autozoom function I noticed that some scenes can be blurred while others are perfect. It looks like everyscene would either be blurred or normal and not both.

I'm going to buy the Mits HD1000 projector in a couple weeks, and an under $100 upconverting player. Which other players did you test and rule out before you bought the S52? I'm pretty sure this is the one I want. Thanks.

The S52 still offers digital outputs for 5.1 though right? What were your reasons for rejecting the 5960?You can output regular DD5.1 through the digital optical/coax but DVD-Audio can only be output via HDMI due to the lack of 5.1 analog outputs. Aside from the DTS issue one of the reasons I rejected the 5960 was because of its inability to pillar-box 4:3 material. There were some other things also that I can't recall. I also looked at some other players like the LG and the Sony NS75 (which I rejected because it wouldn't coexist with my Somy NC85 5-disc changer due to clashing remote codes). However, my needs and expectations of a DVD player are probably different than other people who may need DivX, PAL, region-free, etc.

Macroblocking is not really a problem with the S52 as it does not contain the Faroudja DCDi delinterlacing chip like the S77 and S97. Yes, you can do 480p over HDMI. A good starting point would be to set the output resolution to match that of your TV. It comes down to whether the deinterlacer in your TV is better or worse than that in the DVD player.


What about the Samsung HLS6187 (Nov build date) - would that have a decent upconverter/deinterlacer? Have mine hooked to a year 2000 Sony DVD player, cant remember model number, hooked thru component, and it looks great. I realize that I could buy the s52s just to see if it looks any different, but wondering whether others have noticed a real diff? For $90 I would do it, but if it is only noticeable on a placebo basis I'll wait till HD/BluRay comes down to sub $200 pricing.

My low-end home theater receiver has 1 each optical and RCA digital inputs for "DVD Player", selectable. My TV has optical out and HDMI in. The S52S has RCA and HDMI out.

I'm connected with the S52S to the TV via HDMI and the S52S to the receiver via RCA digital. My intention is to listen to CDs without the TV on.

A CD plays through the TV speakers, and is output via optical on the TV to my receiver. I appear to be getting no S52S RCA copper output. I've not yet tried to disable HDMI audio out to see if that will enable the RCA. I don't note any exclusions in the manual, but then again, if it didn't jump out at me, I might not see it <g>.

First, does anyone have experience doing what I want? The possibility always exists that the RCA out on the S52S is bad; I took another DVD player off when I bought the S52S which worked through the RCA digital, so it is not the receiver. If so, what do I need to do in the settings?

Thanks!

Happened to be on Panasonic website for their receivers, and I note that the S52 no longer appears at all under DVD Players.

I guess its been discontinued? What's the scoop on its replacement? Perhaps if we don't know, we shall find out next week at CES.

Must say I almost pulled the trigger on a black one, but havent yet. Sounds like performance is good, but I can't say that I love the look of it. Looks to me like a $15 Coby DVD player, with the el cheapo buttons on the contoured front panel. I know I shouldn't care about such, but I do a little bit anyway. Still mulling $150 for an Oppo 970, or waiting to see what CES brings for the new crop of non-Oppos.

Happened to be on Panasonic website for their receivers, and I note that the S52 no longer appears at all under DVD Players.

I guess its been discontinued? What's the scoop on its replacement? Perhaps if we don't know, we shall find out next week at CES.

Must say I almost pulled the trigger on a black one, but havent yet. Sounds like performance is good, but I can't say that I love the look of it. Looks to me like a $15 Coby DVD player, with the el cheapo buttons on the contoured front panel. I know I shouldn't care about such, but I do a little bit anyway. Still mulling $150 for an Oppo 970, or waiting to see what CES brings for the new crop of non-Oppos.Hmm, if you take the 'Audio' --> 'Home Audio' --> 'DVD Home Players' path you get to a DVD Players page that does NOT contain the S52 (but contains some old models) but if you take the 'DVDs & VCRs' --> 'DVD Players/Recorders' --> 'DVD Home Players' path you get to a DVD Players page that DOES contain the S52. How odd!
http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/vModelList?storeId=15001&catalogId=13401&catGroupId=24988&cacheProgram=11002&cachePartner=7000000000000005702

Once again Tom's insults have started. Hey forum admin check out the quoted post - aren't personal insults not permitted??? Are we going to delete the above post or this post for challenging baby "Tom"?

Tom, you are delusional. Your site is crap as no-one has access to the firmware unless they fall under your mind control. Seriously, no firmware is worth Tom's grief and control. TOM, u took all the original firmware away from the dcevolution site even though Martin did nothing wrong apart from kiss your ass and not meet your timetable. The firmware could have been left shared out but no - you wanted control.

You were deceitful in your wording such as "modding project", "getting a group together", etc. It took nearly five posts (and criticisms) before you mentioned the 500 euros you were wanting for your firmware. Some people collected money for it- but where is their money and where is this amazing "un-tested" firmware.

An honest person would have said "I have created new firmware. It has taken me sometime and would like to get 500 euros for it to re-coup some of my cost. I suggest a group of people get together and collect it and once collected arrange with me for firmware shipment/delivery".
Instead: "modding project donation"; "donations"; "you people work it out"; "not my problem". You basically appealed to lowest human denominator "want" and watched as people chased there own tails.

You seem to think you are somewhat "superior" to others. Newsflash - "you can mod firmware" - good luck with that as a career choice. You have one skill that can be learned by others if they were given the babying by Virus that you got. Get over yourself and get real!!! :eek:Yes, and check this out....
http://www.dcevolution.net/panasonic/forum/viewtopic.php?p=478#478
Martin was one of the few allies that Tom had in his ongoing battle against people that wanted his firmware. I'm amazed at the lengths that Tom has gone to to prevent people from getting his "free" firmware.

I just bought the S52 at CC yesterday and purchased component cables but cannot get any DVDs to display any higher than 480p. In a review I saw where HDMI was limited to 720p but over component cables it could reach 1080i. Any suggestions? I'm pretty bumbed out at this point.

I just bought the S52 at CC yesterday and purchased component cables but cannot get any DVDs to display any higher than 480p. In a review I saw where HDMI was limited to 720p but over component cables it could reach 1080i. Any suggestions? I'm pretty bumbed out at this point.I answered a similar question from you in the S97 thread....
Upconverting to 720p or 1080i is available over HDMI only. Component is limited to 480i/p.

Thanks for the response - it's just I keep seeing conflicting information. The review on DailyTech says HDMI is limited to 720p - manual says 720p/1080i through HDMI - CircuitCity is telling me I should be able to achieve 1080i over component - I just don't know what to do so I guess I'm going to have to purchase an HDMI cable to achieve the higher res and we'll see what happens.

Any noticeable differences in the $150 cable compared to the $35 cable??

Thanks for the response - it's just I keep seeing conflicting information. The review on DailyTech says HDMI is limited to 720p - manual says 720p/1080i through HDMI - CircuitCity is telling me I should be able to achieve 1080i over component - I just don't know what to do so I guess I'm going to have to purchase an HDMI cable to achieve the higher res and we'll see what happens.

Any noticeable differences in the $150 cable compared to the $35 cable??Well, I'll stand by what I've said as I have an S52 (and also have had S77 and S97) and know what it can do. The manual is right (720p/1080i through HDMI) and CC is wrong (no 1080i over component) and DailyTech is wrong (HDMI can go up to 1080).
I also wouldn't recommend spending $150 on an HDMI cable. You can get one for much less online or at Walmart. There are other threads that "debate" cable pricing as-nauseum.

Ok, $32 at Walmart, beauty - now I can't get my DVD to send a signal to my JVC 61". I see a red HDMI light on now on my DVD player but I'm not getting any output to the TV. I have it plugged into HDMI 1 and I'm selecting Digital In-1 as the input for the TV but nothing. Any suggestions?

Ok, $32 at Walmart, beauty - now I can't get my DVD to send a signal to my JVC 61". I see a red HDMI light on now on my DVD player but I'm not getting any output to the TV. I have it plugged into HDMI 1 and I'm selecting Digital In-1 as the input for the TV but nothing. Any suggestions?


Get your cables at Monoprice.com. HDMI cables are like $6.00, add a couple bucks for shipping. I got 2 and they work great.

A CD plays through the TV speakers, and is output via optical on the TV to my receiver. I appear to be getting no S52S RCA copper output. I've not yet tried to disable HDMI audio out to see if that will enable the RCA. I don't note any exclusions in the manual, but then again, if it didn't jump out at me, I might not see it <g>.

Thanks!

You must disable HDMI audio for the coax/optical output to work. It implies this in the manual, but its not that clear.

You must disable HDMI audio for the coax/optical output to work. It implies this in the manual, but its not that clear.I disagree. I get audio via HDMI and digital optical/coax outputs simultaneously.

gbynum, I would check the PCM Digital Ouput setting in the Audio section of the Setup menu to make sure it is not set to Off. See page 20 in the manual. Also, try changing DD and DTS between Bitstream and PCM. Lastly, make sure you really are connected to the actual Coaxial output on the back of the player as there is the Left (White) standard audio output between the "Coaxial" Label and the Coaxial jack. See top of page 8 in the manual.

I disagree. I get audio via HDMI and digital optical/coax outputs simultaneously.


Doh! WaldorfSalad is correct. Please ignore my previous post.

Thanks WaldorfSalad (and elwuzzo); your checks make perfect sense. I won't have an opportunity to do anything for several days, but wanted to get the thanks out!

George

I just got my S52. Hookmed it up ia HDMI the pther day. Picture is pretty good, honestly I cant tell between 480p/720p/1080i though, but still it is a huge improvment from 480i.

I jsut have a few questions

1: I watched a half hour TV Show on DVD, played fine. Went back to it, and watched another show, when about 3 min into it, the screen went blank, and the audio kept going. It came back about 6 sec later. II can rewind and watch the black part again, and it was fine. I assumed it was an isolated inciedent, but then in Mission Impossible 3. IT did it again. What is the cause of thise? The HDMI Cable? or is it a fault in teh unit? I returned it and am gettting my replacment on thursday.

2: What exactly is the purpose of an upconverting DVD Player? Does it jsut do the work that the HD TV would normally do? Would I get these black out errors, if I go over component and let the TV do the upscaling?

Thanks
Zero
V

I got one of these units a couple of weeks ago, I am using it with an HDMI connection. The tv I have it connected to is a Toshiba 57H84C that has a native resolution of 1080i. Does anyone have a suggestion regarding which video mode (RGB, 4:4, and 4:2, don't have the manual right now) would be the best for this tv. I have switched them and don't really know if I see a difference, much less know what I should be looking for.

Thanks.

1: I watched a half hour TV Show on DVD, played fine. Went back to it, and watched another show, when about 3 min into it, the screen went blank, and the audio kept going. It came back about 6 sec later. II can rewind and watch the black part again, and it was fine. I assumed it was an isolated inciedent, but then in Mission Impossible 3. IT did it again. What is the cause of thise? The HDMI Cable? or is it a fault in teh unit? I returned it and am gettting my replacment on thursday.


It sound like the unit is faulty. It could be anything and so the move to exchange it was a good one. To me if something happens once it's isolated; 2 or more times it's a fault.

2: What exactly is the purpose of an upconverting DVD Player? Does it jsut do the work that the HD TV would normally do? Would I get these black out errors, if I go over component and let the TV do the upscaling?

Upconverting is supposed to upscale any 480i signal to High Definition 720p or 1080i. Personally i think 720p is better as it is progressive scan as opposed to interlaced 1080i. Interlaced causes flicker on CRT TV's and the whole point of having progressive scan DVD players was to eliminate this. Progressive basically draws vertical lines from one frame all at the same time on the screen. Interlaced on the other hand does 2 passes by drawing a set of lines on the screen (missing every 2nd one) and the draws every 2nd line it missed on the screen from the same frame. It is cheap as you don't need a decent video processing chip.

HD TV's do not upscale (unless they have a built in engine which most don't work well anyway). A HDTV has a "native" resolution, eg. 480p, or 720p or 1080i. It basically means it was designed to run at that resolution for the best picture quality. So when you upscale it it runs the way the manufacter intended. Having said that, upscaing can introduce conversion errors such as discolouration, poor colur saturation, macroblocking (as discussed in this forum), sync issues, etc. If your display is HD then give it a try and see what looks best; everyone sees differently and so how good it is is really up to your eyes and how discerning (and picky) you may be...

I got one of these units a couple of weeks ago, I am using it with an HDMI connection. The tv I have it connected to is a Toshiba 57H84C that has a native resolution of 1080i. Does anyone have a suggestion regarding which video mode (RGB, 4:4, and 4:2, don't have the manual right now) would be the best for this tv. I have switched them and don't really know if I see a difference, much less know what I should be looking for.

Thanks.
Hey,

RGB is the same as a PC so its completely analog colour red, green, blue and provides the worst colouring.

4:4:4 or 4:4:2?? Its up to you. You will find that different movies give different results.

4:4:4 in terms of how it determines colours (pull-down) is the best (technically).

4:2:2 to me looks more natural in terms of how realistic people's faces looks, however the colour seems washed out. Most movies such as I-Robot looks better at 4:4:4.

Remember, whatever mode you choose you need to recalibrate your TV to make sure it is displaying correctly. Just make sure u right down your previous settings before playing with brightness, cont, color, etc...

Personally, i would stick with 4:4:4 unless something looks really crap then change between that and 4:2:2. If after all that it still looks crap just use the component output at 480p NTSC (or 576p PAL).

I'm thinking of getting this player to upconvert to 720p for a Mits. HD1000 projector. Does it allow you to watch 4:3 DVD's without stretching them(centered on a 16:9 screen with bars on sides)? Thanks.

I'm thinking of getting this player to upconvert to 720p for a Mits. HD1000 projector. Does it allow you to watch 4:3 DVD's without stretching them(centered on a 16:9 screen with bars on sides)? Thanks.

Yes, you can set the S52 to display 4:3 with pillar bars on the side or stretch mode. Problem is, if your TV also performs auto aspect stretches you can get strange results. I leave my TV (Sony 50A10) on "Full" setting, this way 16:9 and anamorphic DVD's in the S52 display properly and 4:3 DVD's display with the pillar bars (just like watching a 4:3 show broadcast on an HD channel).

Thanks. I'm looking to use the S52 with a Mits. HD1000, 720p projector. Does it do well at 720p?

I can't comment on performance with a front projector, but with my rear projection's native resolution of 720P, this setting seemed ideal. I found a little bit of screen flicker on some movies with it set to 1080i. I was also impressed with the various settings and tweaks of the S52 unit.

Thanks for the help Mav,

I'm wondering, does anyone have this player teamed up with an Onkyo TX-SR604? I can't seem to find a remote code for the receivers remote control that will allow it to operate this unit.

Thanks.

I picked this thing up tonight at CC. This is some serious bang for the buck. By no means would I call it the best dvd player ever but for less than 100 bucks its quite the deal. I really like that it has a detachable power cord (which is the same as my old ps2 btw). The whole 1 plug for a/v is quite nice, no more 6 rca for dvd/a. The only thing I didn't like was that the sharpness was set to high. I set it all the way down and it looked a lot better. The HD picture enhancer seams to be just another sharpness control, so I turned that off too. I left stuff like dnr off and just used the controls on the tv to setup the rest of the picture. I like the bittrate display graph thing too. I wish they had the black one in stock but I wont complain too much. I think this will hold me over fine until I take the bd/hd plunge.

-sean

While purchasing my new TV (Sony KDS-60a2000) at CC last weekend, I picked up an S52 open-box for $20.

So far, I am pretty happy with it. My HDMI cables are still in the mail, but while hooked up via components, *and the output set to 480p*, the signal is clean. Note: with the S52 set to 480i, the image is very grainy.

How much of a difference should I expect between 480p thru component out and 1080i thru HDMI? Given the combination of a digital connection and the higher conversion (1080i vs 480p), it seems there should be a fairly substantial jump in PQ.

Or should I lower my expectations?

Thanks for your input.

While purchasing my new TV (Sony KDS-60a2000) at CC last weekend, I picked up an S52 open-box for $20.

How much of a difference should I expect between 480p thru component out and 1080i thru HDMI? Given the combination of a digital connection and the higher conversion (1080i vs 480p), it seems there should be a fairly substantial jump in PQ.

Personally, I find that the 480p through HDMI is quite good. The 1080i is sometimes better but not always so. 480p through component is good but not as good as through the HDMI. Your mileage may vary.

It's a great buy for $20.

How about HDMI with 720p ?

Is anyone using the S52S with an Onkyo S790 system? I am curious what cable connections between the two you are using.

How about HDMI with 720p ?

Sorry, I'm running the S52 as a secondary DVD player with my 34" Panny CRT (not capable of 720p - only 1080i and 480p). My primary player is an S77.

Hi,

I need a dvd player with display dimmer (turn off completely) and auto-off. Does the S52 offer these features? Thank you.

No to the display dimmer. Not sure about the auto-off feature. I would have to lean towards saying no to that one too because I left my S52 on overnight and it was still displaying the pause that I put on it the day before.

I have a cable with one HDMI connector and one DVI. Does anyone know if I can use this calbe (with an adaptor) from my new S52 to my AE900 projector? Or will I need a new HDMI to HDMI cable? Any help is appreciated.

Scott

Hi,

I need a dvd player with display dimmer (turn off completely) and auto-off. Does the S52 offer these features? Thank you.

You can get the dimmer to only display when you do something but not off all the time. You can have autopoweroff after 30min. Go to the Panasonic site and read the manual.

You can get the dimmer to only display when you do something but not off all the time. You can have autopoweroff after 30min. Go to the Panasonic site and read the manual.

You can?

I guess I need to read my manual again.

I guess I need to read my manual again.

Yup! Page 20:
http://media.*******.com/Image_Products/Panasonic/DVDS52.pdf

******* = o.n.e.c.a.l.l (no dots)

Picked up one of these players last weekend to hold me over because I wanted something with HDMI to cut out the d>a>d conversion that component outputs do. Now as a bonus I see that this player can do HDCD decoding and all of my store bought Grateful Dead cd's are HDCD. My question is, is the HDCD decoded and passed on the digital outputs or with the analog or both. I know this player uses 192/24 bit dacs but so does my Yamaha RX V1300 and am curious as to what others might be doing in this instance.

I have recently noticed while watching movies with the panasonic s52 player and samsung lns3252d tv, that when there is a white or bright image on a black screen, the image is "burned in" for a few seconds before fading away. This is especially annoying during credits at the end of a movie for example. i can't tell if this is a problem with the dvd player or the tv, but thought i'd ask if anyone else has noticed this?

I have not noticed this with mine. I am watching mine on a LCD tv with no problems like that.

Anyone know what code the S52S remote uses for an Onkyo remote?

I have recently noticed while watching movies with the panasonic s52 player and samsung lns3252d tv, that when there is a white or bright image on a black screen, the image is "burned in" for a few seconds before fading away. This is especially annoying during credits at the end of a movie for example. i can't tell if this is a problem with the dvd player or the tv, but thought i'd ask if anyone else has noticed this?

You may have never noticed such things before on a CRT television (possibly because you have never watched a TV in a darkened room). They all do this. It's the last moments of the phosphors as they lose their excited state.

After reading *all* the posts, I did not see any discussion about dialog clarity..
MY wife and I are both having troube hearing some passages of dialog. Here is
what I have connected:

S-52 HDMI to TV ( Sony 50E2000 )
S-52 Digitial coax to receiver ( Denon AVR - 1707 )
Mirage Omnisat V2 FS floor standing speakers
Mirage Omnisat CC
Mirage Sub S - 8

What can I do at the S-52 to improve the clarity of dialog ? and then
what can I do at the receiver to do the same ?

Thanks.

This is my *first* ever receiver / speakers set up, so all this is new to me..

After reading *all* the posts, I did not see any discussion about dialog clarity..
MY wife and I are both having troube hearing some passages of dialog. Here is
what I have connected:

S-52 HDMI to TV ( Sony 50E2000 )
S-52 Digitial coax to receiver ( Denon AVR - 1707 )
Mirage Omnisat V2 FS floor standing speakers
Mirage Omnisat CC
Mirage Sub S - 8

What can I do at the S-52 to improve the clarity of dialog ? and then
what can I do at the receiver to do the same ?

Thanks.

This is my *first* ever receiver / speakers set up, so all this is new to me..You might want to look into the Dialog and AV Enhancer features.

Dick, have you tried the night mode on your 1707? This is from page 33 of the denon 1707 manual.

Night mode
The night mode can be set when playing Dolby Digital sources. The
dialogues are easier to hear at night and when listening with the
volume low.
Press [NIGHT].

-sean

thanks for the replies, I will try the dialog enhancer on the S-52 AND the night mode on the Denon.....

Sean, based on your response, do you have the Denon AVR- 1707 ?

Dick

A Fry's Electronics here has this player for what I think is a good price of under a hundred by 30. I noticed it upconverted to 720P/1080i and the one here just says S52 with no "S" at the end, any difference? I have a sony progresive now hooked up to a Mit's 57732 would I see a small or big diffeerence with SD DVD's? Is there another player for close to this pricer I should consider? thanks for any help on this

A Fry's Electronics here has this player for what I think is a good price of under a hundred by 30. I noticed it upconverted to 720P/1080i and the one here just says S52 with no "S" at the end, any difference? I have a sony progresive now hooked up to a Mit's 57732 would I see a small or big diffeerence with SD DVD's? Is there another player for close to this pricer I should consider? thanks for any help on this

I believe the "S" at the end simply signifies silver color (while a "K" means black). I was impressed by the difference in picture quality on my S52 with 720P HDMI over my original Toshiba 480i player. The differences are subtle, but noticeable. The S52 is also very "tweakable" so experiment, although the recommended settings earlier in this thread are an ideal place to start.
atek99

Thanks would you happen to know if this a good price for it? anything better at this price range or close to it? I'm debating on keeping the HD-DVD add-on for the 360 or go with something like this until the stand-alone's comes down in price or a great deal. The add-on does SD-DVD at 480P,thats what my sony does now.

Thanks would you happen to know if this a good price for it? anything better at this price range or close to it? I'm debating on keeping the HD-DVD add-on for the 360 or go with something like this until the stand-alone's comes down in price or a great deal. The add-on does SD-DVD at 480P,thats what my sony does now.
That's about as good as it gets right now. I found it for three less last month, but that was a short-term deal. I'm very satisfied with this unit's upconversion via HDMI. The picture is noticeably better than my Sony's 480P output via component cables to the same set. This is a great place-holder until the HD format war is settled and prices drop considerably.

Has anyone been able to up convert an unprotected DVD thru the component cables at 1080i on a Panasonic s52 DVD player? I know it won't up convert a protected DVD thru the component. Thanks.

The S52 won't upconvert anything through component. It only upconverts over the HDMI. Over component you can only get 480i or 480p (or their PAL equivalents at 5xx)

I got an S52 on loan from RadioShack (returning the next day). I had the component and HDMI hooked up at the same time to my HD100U. I tested 720 and 1080 upconvert on the HDMI and 480p on the component. My observation is that first of all this is definitely a better player than my phillips dvp642, even on component at 480p. However, it's not a one-size-fits-all solution, in my opinion. I tested Over The Hedge, Pirates of the Carribean II, Band of Brothers (Part 7) and the Matrix. All at different resolutions and outputs. What I noticed is that it did very well with animation in Hedge. It didnt' seem to help Pirates much at any resolution. Band of Brothers (i picked that part because it's entirely in the snow) did look better than on my dvp642. Matrix did very well. I think so because of all the close up shots it has of peoples faces and during the fight scenes they arent that far from the camera. At any resolution, when playing a standard dvd, objects in the distance weren't helped at all by the upscaling. Overall it did make the movies better. Pirates is the exception because of all the wide shots of scenery that just wouldn't sharpen up. I still want to test an oppo before i decide on waiting for hd-dvd to drop in price. Feel free to ask any questions about my setup or test.

OK i have a Samsung HS5087 50 inch DLP 1080p and just got the Panny s52s. How come when hooked via HDMI to TV the picture sucks. When hooked HDMI to Yamaha RX-V1700 then HDMI to TV it looks better but i notice wicked motion blur.

But when hooked via S-Video to my Yamaha Reciever and HDMI out to TV the picture is stunning? I don't get it.

Does my TV upconvert better then DVD player? I thought if i had the player directly HDMI to TV would be the best connection.

Please someone chime in if i'm wrong.

something sounds strange there. have you checked your set-up to make sure you are outputting 1080i from HDMI?

in general I've found that HDMI is no better, and is often worse than component, but for this player the HDMI is supposed to actually do a good job (per the DVD secrets site).

Yeah not sure like i say when hooked via HDMI straight to TV it looked like crap. When hooked HDMI to receiver then HDMI to TV it looked better but with much motion blur.

But when hooked by measly S-Video to reciever then HDMI to TV i get the best picture. Thats 480i out to reciever which converts to 480p by the receiver.

I would at least use component over S-Vid for your 480i/p

Have you checked the settings on HDMI? Use the "Format" button on the remote.

Warning: The S52, just like the S77 and S97, does NOT come pre-configured for 720p or 1080i out-of-the-box. So, the PQ can look like cr@p over HDMI!. You have to go into the Display/Picture menu (NOT the Setup menu) via the Functions button on the remote to set the output resolution to 720p or 1080i.

Sorry, "Function", not "Format"

Troll,

I suggest you put that question to your american brother called "George" who can be found on Martin's Panasonic site.

I'm really getting tired with you and your TrollOMania.

I don't care about your opinion but I won't allow trolls like you to spread lies because they are frustrated about not getting the firmware features they want!

LOL!

Hello, everybody. The "George" Tom's referring to is me. I want you all to know I in fact returned the donations I collected once that project fell through. I just wanted to interject and clarify that for anyone who was thinking otherwise.

Do NOT use 480p over component. Much worse than 480i on my 3LCD. 480i is worse than my XBOX over component.

Hoping HDMI upconverting does better (friend is using my HDMI cable).

Anyone have any opinions? Would like to get either SonyNH75, Panny or Oppo. Thanks.

Well, everyone says the Oppo is great. My problem is, if I'm going to spend $150 on a DVD player, I'm pretty compelled to spend $350 for HD-DVD.

Anyways, I finally hooked up the S52 with HDMI - used DVE to calibrate - and kept the component plugged in as well to do a back and forth. This is on a Sony 3LCD 46E2000 720p which is known to have a pretty dang good upscaler.

1. 480p is terrible, regardless of connection
2. Calibration is key. The upconverted 720/1080 was awful vs 480iCOMP before calibration.
3. COMPONENT has major overscan and cuts off a lot of the image. It's the equivalent of about a 1.12 zoom on the HDMI.
4. No difference between 720/1080 on HDMI
5. Image quality on 720/1080 HDMI is "slightly" better than 480iCOMP. This is in the background details and overall color saturation. Close-ups on faces are about the same as far as detail.

Picture with the HDMI looks about as good as the HD-Lite channels on DirecTV HD. Not as good as OTA HD.

Overall, worth the $75 to use HDMI and get some of my picture back. Overall image quality was only a slight improvement.

I don't think I would be very happy if this was the results from a $150 player. So I think I'm going to buy an A2, which has better upconversion AND can play HD content, which is where the real improvement comes from.

Also, I set-up the Sony 75 for a friend last weekend on his plasma. It ended up with a great picture, but I wouldn't pay 2x for it vs the Panny.

Well, everyone says the Oppo is great. My problem is, if I'm going to spend $150 on a DVD player, I'm pretty compelled to spend $350 for HD-DVD.

Anyways, I finally hooked up the S52 with HDMI - used DVE to calibrate - and kept the component plugged in as well to do a back and forth. This is on a Sony 3LCD 46E2000 720p which is known to have a pretty dang good upscaler.

1. 480p is terrible, regardless of connection
2. Calibration is key. The upconverted 720/1080 was awful vs 480iCOMP before calibration.
3. COMPONENT has major overscan and cuts off a lot of the image. It's the equivalent of about a 1.12 zoom on the HDMI.
4. No difference between 720/1080 on HDMI
5. Image quality on 720/1080 HDMI is "slightly" better than 480iCOMP. This is in the background details and overall color saturation. Close-ups on faces are about the same as far as detail.

Picture with the HDMI looks about as good as the HD-Lite channels on DirecTV HD. Not as good as OTA HD.

Overall, worth the $75 to use HDMI and get some of my picture back. Overall image quality was only a slight improvement.

I don't think I would be very happy if this was the results from a $150 player. So I think I'm going to buy an A2, which has better upconversion AND can play HD content, which is where the real improvement comes from.
How do you calibrate a DVD player? I am clueless on this one . Thanks.

How do you calibrate a DVD player? I am clueless on this one . Thanks.

Normally you don't tweak much on the dvd player you tweak the settings on your tv. A video setup disc might be the easiest and best place to start for you.

Something like the Avia Disc (http://www.ovationmultimedia.com/avia.html) or the Digital Video Essentials disc (http://www.videoessentials.com/)

Search around on this site The Display Calibration (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=139) thread is a lot of help on this subject.

You could also pay an ISF certified calibration technician to come do it all for you but that can get a bit pricey.

-Sean

A good ISF calibrator will do A LOT more than just calibrate your DVD player.

Guys I just wanted to chime in...I returned my Panny and got the Oppo 970 and there is by far a better picture running at 720p on my Panny 50" (native 720p) vs. any setting I could come up with on the Panny DVD player. It is so worth the extra $75 and I should have known better to begin with as I own a 971 on a different set in the house.

Just hooked up the new S52 and I must say I couldn't be more disappointed. I'm connected through HDMI to my Samsung 61 DLP 1080P and the picture quality looked awful. I even switched out HDMI cables and still no improvement. I switched from 720p output to 1080i output several times with still no luck. Am I missing something or did I expect too much?
:mad:

I read all the messages in this thread about this player not handling PAL discs, or sending a straight PAL signal out. I bought this player today and I can tell you that it does play PAL discs, with a caveat: it only plays them through the HDMI port. Now, I cannot be sure if it's sending the signal in NTSC or PAL, but since my TV is a Sanyo LCD purchased in the US which according to the specs is only NTSC, I have to assume the S52 is converting the signal to NTSC. However, it doesn't send that same signal through component, which is maybe why so many people here posted that it doesn't do PAL. The output from the only original PAL disc that I have is outstanding, both the colors and the motion are perfect. Of course the disc is multiregion, that's why I can play it.

Perhaps they started incorporating PAL playback in the latest units? Mine is manufactured in 11/06.

I read all the messages in this thread about this player not handling PAL discs, or sending a straight PAL signal out. I bought this player today and I can tell you that it does play PAL discs, with a caveat: it only plays them through the HDMI port. Now, I cannot be sure if it's sending the signal in NTSC or PAL, but since my TV is a Sanyo LCD purchased in the US which according to the specs is only NTSC, I have to assume the S52 is converting the signal to NTSC. However, it doesn't send that same signal through component, which is maybe why so many people here posted that it doesn't do PAL. The output from the only original PAL disc that I have is outstanding, both the colors and the motion are perfect. Of course the disc is multiregion, that's why I can play it.

Perhaps they started incorporating PAL playback in the latest units? Mine is manufactured in 11/06.Hi, the S52 will indeed play PAL discs but it outputs a PAL signal because it does NOT contain a PAL-to-NTSC converter so it appears that your TV is capable of receiving and displaying a PAL picture. There are other TVS also that will display a PAL signal. I think the Samsung DLPs can but most newer Sonys (I have the XBR1) can't.

P.S. Here's a link to a web site that confirms that the S52 does NOT contain a PAL-to-NTSC converter...
http://www.regioncodefreedvd.com/panasonic52.html

Hi, the S52 will indeed play PAL discs but it outputs a PAL signal because it does NOT contain a PAL-to-NTSC converter so it appears that your TV is capable of receiving and displaying a PAL picture. There are other TVS also that will display a PAL signal. I think the Samsung DLPs can but most newer Sonys (I have the XBR1) can't.

P.S. Here's a link to a web site that confirms that the S52 does NOT contain a PAL-to-NTSC converter...
http://www.regioncodefreedvd.com/panasonic52.html

That's interesting. I wonder why my TV would be able to display PAL only if it's coming through the HDMI port and not component. I guess it's designed only to receive PAL digitally.

I have an early S52 and it will output PAL but, as Waldorsalad says, it will only play PAL on a PAL tv.

As far as I know, all the JVC and Pioneers have PAL->NTSC coverters. Then again, I only have 1 PAL disc so it rarely matters...(since I have a JVC and a Pioneer in other rooms).

Guys I just wanted to chime in...I returned my Panny and got the Oppo 970 and there is by far a better picture running at 720p on my Panny 50" (native 720p) vs. any setting I could come up with on the Panny DVD player. It is so worth the extra $75 and I should have known better to begin with as I own a 971 on a different set in the house.
I've been meaning to ask, and I know this is probably a dumb question, but I have a Mitsu WD-52531 that is a rear pro LCD and is native 720P: should I set my DVD player to output at 720 or 1080i ? (For that matter, what about the output of my Directv HD receiver?) I have tried both ways and I don't see a difference, but is there a right/best way? Thanks.

output to the native format

AFAIK "All-Region" does not mean PAL, it refers to geographic regions the Hollywood lawyers divided the world into so they can squeeze out extra profits from DVD sales. PAL is a video format, and incompatible with the USA format known as NTSC.

All DVDs that are coded Region 2 or 4 are in PAL format., or is it just the players?

is this the right hdmi cable to get for this player and a panny 600u?
HDMI Cable male to male 28AWG w/Ferrite Cores

Just hooked up the new S52 and I must say I couldn't be more disappointed. I'm connected through HDMI to my Samsung 61 DLP 1080P and the picture quality looked awful. I even switched out HDMI cables and still no improvement. I switched from 720p output to 1080i output several times with still no luck. Am I missing something or did I expect too much?
:mad:

I had a similar problem, even though my Samsung is a 4095. No matter what I did, the picture was soft and "pinkish." I was horrified that this would be my life with upconverted dvds. I pushed the green tint all the way up and STILL couldn't get rid of the pink skin tones and soft, grainy picture. Especially bad were dvds of old Technicolor transfers. Just awful. I was even planning to ditch the S52 since I knew it wasn't the TV (beautiful picture when not coming through the dvd player.)

Turns out the HDMI color space setting on the S52 made ALL the difference in the world. I read through all of these postings and kind of got the impression that the default 4:4:4 setting was best and that RGB would result in washed out colors. Completely untrue in my case. Switching the color space to RGB brought the colors to where I knew they should be, and had the added bonus of immediately improving the clarity and gray scale of the upconverted image. Technicolor "popped" again.

I haven't seen it talked about a lot here so maybe it's a Panasonic/Samsung thing, but try setting your HDMI color space to RGB and trying from there. You'll need to up the color a few levels, but I couldn't be happier now.

I had a similar problem, even though my Samsung is a 4095. No matter what I did, the picture was soft and "pinkish." I was horrified that this would be my life with upconverted dvds. I pushed the green tint all the way up and STILL couldn't get rid of the pink skin tones and soft, grainy picture. Especially bad were dvds of old Technicolor transfers. Just awful. I was even planning to ditch the S52 since I knew it wasn't the TV (beautiful picture when not coming through the dvd player.)

Turns out the HDMI color space setting on the S52 made ALL the difference in the world. I read through all of these postings and kind of got the impression that the default 4:4:4 setting was best and that RGB would result in washed out colors. Completely untrue in my case. Switching the color space to RGB brought the colors to where I knew they should be, and had the added bonus of immediately improving the clarity and gray scale of the upconverted image. Technicolor "popped" again.

I haven't seen it talked about a lot here so maybe it's a Panasonic/Samsung thing, but try setting your HDMI color space to RGB and trying from there. You'll need to up the color a few levels, but I couldn't be happier now.Does your Samsung 4095 (sorry, not familiar with it) have HDMI or DVI input?

The Samsung is HDMI

I recently bought a Panasonic 42" TH-42PX600U plasma and received a Panasonic DVD-S52S upconverting DVD player as part of a bundle deal at no extra cost. :) Currently, the DVD player is hooked up via an HDMI cable (from Monoprice) to the TV's HDMI1 port.

Anybody here have the same setup?

1. Any recommendations for an optimal setting? I've tried 480p, 720p, 1080i and to my untrained eyes, I don't think I can tell a difference between 720p and 1080i. I believe I do see a difference between 480p and 720p/1080i though. All other settings on the DVD player are at the default out-of-the box for now. The TV is currently undergoing its 100 hour break-in and is set to "Standard" mode with all settings at "0".

2. Is the TV or the DVD player doing the upscaling? I'm a little confused as to which one actually does the converting; correct me if I'm wrong but I set it to 480p, then the TV does it, but if I set it to 720p/1080i, then it's the DVD player that's doing the job?

Pardon the newbie questions...

Thanks.

Regards,
David

Hi everyone.
I have a movie that has the following info as read on VLC:

Video:
Codec: DIV3
24.998 FPS

Audio:
Codec: WMA2
Sampling freq: 44100Hz
16 bits
64Kb/s

If i try to play it on a Panasonic S42, there's no sound, but everything is ok on a Oppo 981HD. Both players used at 480i
Could someone pls tell me the reason it won't play on the Panasonic, which was bought a couple of weeks ago ?

Is the TV or the DVD player doing the upscaling? I'm a little confused as to which one actually does the converting; correct me if I'm wrong but I set it to 480p, then the TV does it, but if I set it to 720p/1080i, then it's the DVD player that's doing the job?



I think that you may answer it yourself if you set the DVD player to 480i and see if the tv upconverts it to 480p. I won't! Page 54 of your manual notes what it can do. You'll notice that your manual doesn't mention upscaling or upconverting anywhere. It's all coming from your DVD player. Your plasma tv; however, probably does do a better job than your old SDTV (though possibly not in all cases). The result is that, by and large, your picture looks better.

I have just installed a Panasonic TH-42px600u ordered online along with the Panasonic DVD-S52. What settings do you recommend for the DVD player? For example, the DVD setup asks the scanning frequency of the set (48, 96, 192). The TV manual was sufficiently opaque that I was unsure of this setting.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Bryan

I have just installed a Panasonic TH-42px600u ordered online along with the Panasonic DVD-S52. What settings do you recommend for the DVD player? For example, the DVD setup asks the scanning frequency of the set (48, 96, 192). The TV manual was sufficiently opaque that I was unsure of this setting.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Bryan

Bryan,

Did you also get your TH-42PX600U and DVD-S52S from Vann's as part of their combo deal? :)

On my DVD-S52S, I have it set to:

- Plasma (16:9) for screen size
- 1080i output

Everything else at default out of the box.

Regards,
David

I have run into problems playing DVD-R media in this player. They have DVD video on them from a Pioneer LX1. I think we have isolated the problem to the fact that the LX1 does not include the AUDIO_TS folder when recording straight to DVD. According to the DVD video standard, an AUDIO_TS folder is not necessary for the DVD to function correctly. Is this somethign that anyone else is experiencing. Is there a workaround? Maybe an updated firmware? For speed, we need to be able to record directly to disc using the LX1 but we may have to return these players if they are incompatible with the discs made by the LX1.

DMR-ES25

Hey all, We bought the above model yesterday at Circuit City for $209 base price without taxes. I just want to confirm that this model does indeed have an ATSC tuner before we give it to the parents on Mothers Day. Those little tags on the display where no real help and it doesn't really mention it on any of the boxes..

Thanks :)

DMR-ES25

Hey all, We bought the above model yesterday at Circuit City for $209 base price without taxes. I just want to confirm that this model does indeed have an ATSC tuner before we give it to the parents on Mothers Day. Those little tags on the display where no real help and it doesn't really mention it on any of the boxes..

Thanks :)Wrong forum. This thread is for the Panasonic S52 DVD Player. You need the DVD Recorders forum. Here...
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=30&f=106
However, I can tell you that the ES25 does NOT have an ATSC tuner (just NTSC analog) as it as a last years model. To get an ATSC tuner you need one of the newer DVD recorders like the Panasonic EZ17, EZ27, etc. You'll find this out in the DVD Recorders forum.

Whoopsie, didn't even notice that. Thanks.

I just did a blanket search for the model number and this was the only thread dedicated with a similair model number that I found. I did manage to find it listed on Cnet, but yeah, thanks for confirming that I picked up the wrong one.

We'll be exchanging it ASAP. Sorry for the unintentional thread fart :).

A new enhanced firmware release (100E436) has been made available.

For more information about the new release check

http://www.xperience.podzone.net

Have fun

Tom

I have a panasonic dvd-s52. I've read and searched through this post, but hopefully someone can give me definite answer. I am wondering what format and/or codec this dvd player likes to playback from dvd-r and dvd-rw discs? I have a good converter that can convert to about any file format, but there look to be numerous mpeg4 varieties. I'm trying to figure out which one would be the correct one. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Regards,
Bill w.

Does any one have settings for Panny S52 DVD player and Sony KDL 40V2500? Thx