Saw them in boxes in circuit city today. Even when they put one on display, they never have dvd players displayed while connected to tv sets though. (I wonder why?)
I don't see them on panasonic's website yet (I wonder why that's the case, also.)
It upconverts over HDMI, and seems to play a plethora of disk types.
And incredibly enough, it was the most inexpensive upconverting dvd player in the store at the moment.

I'd like to know about this player also. Mainly, what chip for upconverting does it use? The S97 and discontinued S77 both used Faroudja.

Calinb has one over at avforums...http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=295553&highlight=s52

Here's a picture of the Panasonic DVD-S52EG-S (http://www.panasonic.ch/doc/6701_6800/6728/pict/dvd-s52eg-s_9.jpg)

I picked the DVDS52S up from CC yesterday, but was only able to play with it briefly yesterday evening. I didn't see any indication of the chipset. I connected it to a panny ae700u projector (I swapped out my LG dvd418).

Must be doing something wrong, because I could not get it to recognize any Divx discs, though it supposed to support mpeg4. Tried dvd+r and cdr; will give dvd-r a shot tonight.

I tried a couple of DVDs upconverted to 720p. Pirates of the Carribean looked marginally better on the DVDS52S. I backed up Star Wars III - Revenge of the Sith to a DVD+r double layer to give it a shot. Revenge of the Sith on the DVDS52S was stunning (the best picture I've seen outside of a true high definition signal).

If I can't resolve the divx issue, I'll end up returning it to Circuit City. Though it does appear to be a heck of a buy if you're limiting it to DVD videos. It's currently on sale on their web site for $8 bucks cheaper than what I paid in store.

Sounds good. I took advantage of that $9 discount on line (free shipping too!) and am awaiting my S52 to be delivered.

Just out of curiosity, does the rear have analog outputs for 5.1 surround sound speakers? I have read that it only has digital outputs for 5.1 (coaxial and optical), but the instructions / owners manual that I have seen on the web suggests that there are analog (rca jack type) ports for 5.1 connection.

I've also heard that DVD-A output is sent only through the HDMI connection. Is that true?

Thx.

I have read that it only has digital outputs for 5.1 (coaxial and optical), but the instructions / owners manual that I have seen on the web suggests that there are analog (rca jack type) ports for 5.1 connection.

Where did you see a owners manual on the web

DR

Where did you see a owners manual on the web

DR

You can find an English manual here: http://www.panasonic.co.uk/customer-Support/download-centre.asp?did=140828&fmt=pdf
Which is odd as it doesn't appear to be available in the UK yet :confused:

That's what I'm talking about. See page 8 ---> analogue 5.1 connectors are shown and discussed.

The only actual picture of the player's rear I've seen is-
http://www.avforums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25619&d=1140594153
Which clearly lacks 5.1 outs. So, maybe the UK manual indicates the UK model will have these. This would make more sense, since they are generally of more use than MC via HDMI, which few people have on an amp. The only other way to get MC DVD-Audio out is via 5.1 outs. The player in the picture is not a UK (Euro?) model since it lacks a SCART socket. Maybe it's US/Canadian? The owner of the pictured unit does say he was given a 'CES demo' unit as a gift. Lucky chap!
As you say, the manual does clearly state 'To enjoy multi-channel surround sound, connect with 5.1 ch AUDIO OUT terminals (➜ right ) or HDMI terminals (➜ page 7).'

I purchased the DVD-S52 last night. From what I could tell, the most dramatic difference was in digital animation and movies with lots of digital effects. Standard movies were clearly better as well but not as dramatic. It replaces a six or seven year old Samsung.

Seen this player at CC, it looked cheaply made.

I might pick one up this week, maybe it wont have any shift problems with my panny plasma like my LG 418 has.
With CC's great return policy unlike BB where they test it for you and give you a hard time,CC doesn't even look in the box.

I might pick one up this week, maybe it wont have any shift problems with my panny plasma like my LG 418 has.
With CC's great return policy unlike BB where they test it for you and give you a hard time,CC doesn't even look in the box.

As a fellow Panny plasma owner I would be interested in what you think of its HDMI upscaling feature with that display. Please post your comments when you get a chance. thanks.

dsmith901, i picked it up at lunch, when i get home tonight i'll give it a try!!
I'm most excited about the mpeg4 playback, what ive read on the player is it will play mpeg4 on cd-r, i will run it thru the paces with all my stuff tonight.
Just hope the HDMI doesnt have a 1/2" top shift like my LG and Sony players ive owned.
Ive been waiting for a year to get a panny player, that supports playback of multiple formats.

Anyone care to take some pictures of the inside of this player, so we can see which chip(s) it uses?

The guy on the other forum wasn't happy with his divx playback...how's your experience been? Any sync issues?

I took the cover off at work, there's a big chip near the hdmi connector that say's Panasonic, the other smaller chips i never heard of and need a maginfiying glass to recognize.
Initial impressions are nice, alot i mean alot of different adjustments, 100 times more than i've ever seen with any other player i've tried.
Xvid/Svcd's burned on a DVD are a No Go
DTS Audio on a CD-R ...no go
PAL as usual a NO GO!!
No more Shift problems!!!
The zoom feature is the most advanced ive ever seen
I will keep the LG for all the other stuff, but this looks like a keeper!!
Panasonic needs to still wake up and get with the internet revolution...but this is a start!!
There might be hacks for this player and could be hope

I still dont know what panasonic's problem is with PAL!!

I will report back soon with inside pic's!

Bud-man, thanks. So it looks like it does not use the Faroudja processor, which may be a good thing if it avoids the MB issue that is worse on plasmas (from what I have read). Looks like maybe Panasonic has designed their own processor?

Looks so dsmith901, i saw no macroblocking issues when i tested a few dvd's, pq looked pretty good, with the amount of adjustments it might take awhile to get it right on.
Main thing i'm happy about is no more shift issue's when setting to 1080i.
Also i found a divx firmware update for the S47, i dont know there actually the same or not. ......possibly!!
This player finally appears to be a match for our 50 series plasma's.

Does anyone know how the zoom is? I currently have a Panasonic S97S. I like the picture, but the zoom looks horrible through HDMI, although the settings are very flexiable. I would like to be able to zoom 2.35 movies to 1.85 aspect ratio. Thanks

Teddy

teddyc23, look in the above threads for the manual, page 13, let me know if it's any different than your 97.

Hi Bud-man. I took a look at the manual. The zoom functions look the same as my s97s. I was wondering how the quality of the zoomed picture looks? On the s97s as soon as you do any zoom (Even like 0.05), it looks like half the lines are missing. I was wondering if this DVD player actually has a watchable zoom. Like to take a 2.35 movie and fill a widescreen TV. Thanks so much for your information.

Teddy

anybody compared this with the new sony dvp ns75h? im debating with these 2 players. if the picture is comparable i might get the panny since its cheaper and is available in black.

teddyc23 -- I don't understand why you want to do that to a 2.35:1 movie. You are making the picture bigger (true zoom) and you lose all of the information that is on each side (and on a lot of 2.35:1 movies that's a lot of information that can be key to what the movie director intended you to see). It sounds like you've been brainwashed into thinking that all pictures have to be 16:9 in order to be "good".

I picked the DVDS52S up from CC yesterday, but was only able to play with it briefly yesterday evening. I didn't see any indication of the chipset. I connected it to a panny ae700u projector (I swapped out my LG dvd418).

Must be doing something wrong, because I could not get it to recognize any Divx discs, though it supposed to support mpeg4. Tried dvd+r and cdr; will give dvd-r a shot tonight.

I tried a couple of DVDs upconverted to 720p. Pirates of the Carribean looked marginally better on the DVDS52S. I backed up Star Wars III - Revenge of the Sith to a DVD+r double layer to give it a shot. Revenge of the Sith on the DVDS52S was stunning (the best picture I've seen outside of a true high definition signal).

If I can't resolve the divx issue, I'll end up returning it to Circuit City. Though it does appear to be a heck of a buy if you're limiting it to DVD videos. It's currently on sale on their web site for $8 bucks cheaper than what I paid in store.

I'm having no luck either with Divx or Xvid, burned on either DVD or CD-R, ive tried plenty of disc's my 418 plays flawlessly.
Calinb and the AVForums are from UK, there models are different, only place i saw mpeg4 is on the cardboard flip cover that stuck to a new dvd player, does not say anywere on the box it supports divx, i think it's not in the firmware or decoder chipset.

Pal disc's play sound but not video, blank screen

Actually all the adjustments dont really have any effect on PQ or sound quality, maybe mines a lemon?

I was looking at one of these at CC last night and it looked intriguing-but then I asked myself "you already have 6 dvd players-do you really need another one?"-especially since I have an LGA-511 amd an LGDVB418 in my collection which in my opinion are the best xvid/divx players out there right now.

The manual from the link above states that it can't read divx/mpeg4 files burned on DVD+R/RLs but DVD-Rs should work. Thats too bad.

Manual from above is from the UK, my manual shows nothing about divx, just mpeg 4 thats used on there camcorder recordings, .asf standard bullcrap.
wont play any divx/xvid whatsoever!!
yea zrdb, i too own them players and then some...why did i buy this?
no more shift on my panny plaz, adjustments that ive never seen before from a sub $100 player, supefast tray loading and detection, real nice PQ, blow's our LG's outta the water!!
Lack of PAL support is the deal killer for me, i can live without divx but not PAL...i dont need to worry about if it's gunna play or not, hell, i havent worried about that sine my first apex player 7 yr's ago!
That is the reason ive never bought a mainstream player to this day yet!
Maybe next yr panasonic will get there head outta there arse!!

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.
Sony is another brand i'll never buy do to the same thinking!
Until they realize the internet revolution is going strong here, then they will give us what we want!

Just playing your standard DVDs that you buy? I have the Sony N75 for my Philips plasma which is great...but I'm always looking for the better quality/cost ratio :)

Even if the PQ is the same, it would be hard to beat Sony's audio. Anyway, just curious.

Manual from above is from the UK, my manual shows nothing about divx, just mpeg 4 thats used on there camcorder recordings, .asf standard bullcrap.
wont play any divx/xvid whatsoever!!
yea zrdb, i too own them players and then some...why did i buy this?
no more shift on my panny plaz, adjustments that ive never seen before from a sub $100 player, supefast tray loading and detection, real nice PQ, blow's our LG's outta the water!!
Lack of PAL support is the deal killer for me, i can live without divx but not PAL...i dont need to worry about if it's gunna play or not, hell, i havent worried about that sine my first apex player 7 yr's ago!
That is the reason ive never bought a mainstream player to this day yet!
Maybe next yr panasonic will get there head outta there arse!!

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.
Sony is another brand i'll never buy do to the same thinking!
Until they realize the internet revolution is going strong here, then they will give us what we want!

Since you live in the US and have first access to every Hollywood DVD, why do you need PAL support? Keep in mind that 99.9% of US consumers do not need or want PAL, so you can see why a company like Panasonic would prefer to put its money elsewhere, like into video circuitry.

Since you live in the US and have first access to every Hollywood DVD, why do you need PAL support? Keep in mind that 99.9% of US consumers do not need or want PAL, so you can see why a company like Panasonic would prefer to put its money elsewhere, like into video circuitry.

I also said the same thing until I purchased the Oppo and started looking at titles overseas. I've purchased 7 or 8 PAL titles and 4 of them are not available in the States even though they were mainstream titles here. Often you'll also find better versions of American films in other regions like e.g. the Jessica Lange title "Music Box." This film is only available in a shoddy pan and scan version here where as the R2 version is in glorious anamorphic widescreen.

I've got a US version...as stated above, no reference in manual to DivX, and burned DivX CD-Rs don't seem to work. Also, the unit does not have on its settings menu an activation code for DivX's VOD (Video on Demand) feature, which the UK version seems to have. This all suggests to me that for the US version, Panasonic removed DivX support (why, I don't know). It doesn't really bother me that much, since I don't really plan on watching DivX movies on my DVD player, but it is annoying that Panasonic includes "DivX support" as one of the bullet point features on this sales/marketing info, and even puts it on the box, but yet doesn't have it.

Oh well. Sound and picture on regular DVDs is great. DVD-A functions is a nice feature to have, since I own a few, but it was a dumb design decision to only allow multi-channel DVD-A audio to be sent through the HDMI port. How many people who buy a $100 DVD player own an amplifier with a HDMI connection??

I do like the HDCD functioning, since I've discovered that I already own some HDCDs. Sounds really great.

Honestly, the few complaints I have are minor in comparison to the good quality of the picture and sound. What do you want for 90 bucks? NASA Radar Link-up Capability?

Bubick, just wondering as I asked in my previous post, how is the visual quality of the zoom? Thanks

Teddy

Bubick, just wondering as I asked in my previous post, how is the visual quality of the zoom? Thanks

Teddy


I played around with the zoom capability when I first set it up, just to see if it worked. I remember it working, but I really didn't take notice of the picutre quality with the zoom. I will try again tonight and let you know, for what it's worth. I'm not a real techie, so I don't know how much value my opinion has, but I can tell you if there is something real obvious.

Teddyc23, the zoom is just the same as your 97, it "zooms" the picture in cropping the the sides and top as it zooms.

Thanks Bud-man. I understand how the zoom works and how it crops. I am curious if the resulting picture quality is watchable (ie. not blurry). The S97 zoom looks horrible, like its lost tons of detail. Thanks guys for any information you have.

Teddy

The detail looks the same to me, just starts to crop the sides and top.

Thats good to hear Bud-man. This is from Paul Bigelow on the front page of the S97 thread:

"Zoom: Yes. Auto screen-filling, anamorphic zoom. Virtually continuously variable. While the zoom feature is extremely flexible, the picture quality suffers even with the minimum of zoom, introducing jagged lines and reducing sharpness. If a problem with the picture quality is seen, check the zoom settings and ensure that it is not enabled."

I want to make sure before I purchase this player, that the zoom does not suffer like the S97.

Teddy

Well Ted, buy it local at CC, if you dont like it it return it!

Unfortunitely, Bud-man I don't have a CC nearby, but I do plan on ordering it. Thank you everyone for your help, although the "lecture" on how I should and shouldn't watch my movies was uncalled for.

Teddy

I've got a US version...as stated above, no reference in manual to DivX, and burned DivX CD-Rs don't seem to work. Also, the unit does not have on its settings menu an activation code for DivX's VOD (Video on Demand) feature, which the UK version seems to have. This all suggests to me that for the US version, Panasonic removed DivX support (why, I don't know). It doesn't really bother me that much, since I don't really plan on watching DivX movies on my DVD player, but it is annoying that Panasonic includes "DivX support" as one of the bullet point features on this sales/marketing info, and even puts it on the box, but yet doesn't have it.

Oh well. Sound and picture on regular DVDs is great. DVD-A functions is a nice feature to have, since I own a few, but it was a dumb design decision to only allow multi-channel DVD-A audio to be sent through the HDMI port. How many people who buy a $100 DVD player own an amplifier with a HDMI connection??

I do like the HDCD functioning, since I've discovered that I already own some HDCDs. Sounds really great.

Honestly, the few complaints I have are minor in comparison to the good quality of the picture and sound. What do you want for 90 bucks? NASA Radar Link-up Capability? For me lack of xvid/divx playback would be a deal breaker, I'm an anime addict and can't live with out my downloads!!

Anyone know the specs of the DAC?

Pal disc's play sound but not video, blank screen

I guess this is like S97, the player can play pal format but your TV cannot handle it. You need a pal-ntsc converter but the converter is not built in the DVD player

I also said the same thing until I purchased the Oppo and started looking at titles overseas. I've purchased 7 or 8 PAL titles and 4 of them are not available in the States even though they were mainstream titles here. Often you'll also find better versions of American films in other regions like e.g. the Jessica Lange title "Music Box." This film is only available in a shoddy pan and scan version here where as the R2 version is in glorious anamorphic widescreen.

That is a good reason to want PAL. Would a separate PAL/NTSC converter like the Tecnec TR-10 work?

If your gunna waste money buying a convertor you might as well stick with a LG or a Oppo
Mines going back tommorow.
Like i said before they need to get with it!

I opened the casework today to see if I could figure which chipset is used and it looks to me like Panasonic is using their own proprietary design. I've got one on loan from Circuit City and I plan on doing some comparison tests tonight with my Panasonic S97 and Panasonic AE900. I'll post my findings later.

If someone could tell us if it can push 480i over HDMI without clipping or any other nasty side effects, that would be nice.

Seen this player at CC, it looked cheaply made.

Do you think? Let me ask you this, what $99 DVD isn't? I thought the beloved S77 was built like a royal piece of xx but then realized that it was actually pretty solid compared to the other junk.

I think it's made pretty solid, tray mechanism is real fast as with loading a disc.
If i recall, no 480i over hdmi, just 480p,720p,1080i in the settings menu.

How is this player compared top the new Sony DVP-NS75H? Does anyone have both and done comparisons?

If i recall, no 480i over hdmi, just 480p,720p,1080i in the settings menu

Thanks Bud Man!!

Is a HDMI cable included?

Is a HDMI cable included?

No

How is this player compared top the new Sony DVP-NS75H? Does anyone have both and done comparisons?

Sony DVP-NS75H has more cleaner picture. Panny S52s is faster to load the DVD but not as quiet as sony when loading.

Sony DVP-NS75H has more cleaner picture. Panny S52s is faster to load the DVD but not as quiet as sony when loading.
Which output better DD 5.1/DTS sound via an optical cable?

Does the S52S have 3D-DNR like the S97? I've seen that feature in action on the S97 and like it a lot - cleans up the background noise without smoothing the picture.

I'm pretty sure it has 3D DNR mbaxter, i do recall seeing it in the menu's

I bought mine over the weekend. I had to trek down to the CC on the south side of town (I live on the north side) and endure their lousy customer service (it took them more than 30 minutes to ring me up). I at least I got to see the remainder of the Bulls/Heat game while waiting.
How is this player compared top the new Sony DVP-NS75H? Does anyone have both and done comparisons?I would agree with the post some numbers above me that the Sony does appear to provide a cleaner picture. In fact, I do notice some macroblocking on the S52S. It varied greatly between movies and it made some scenes in Unbreakable almost unwatchable. For example, Batman Begins and Matrix Reloaded, even in their dark scenes, were quite acceptable, but Unbreakable was a textured mess in almost every moderatly dark scene. So far, Unbreakable is the only DVD that I have any gripe with and if the trend continues this will be a keeper, but only because I couldn't get the Sony to display 720p/1080i on my LCD. That Sony may be a bad unit, but I don't care to go through the trouble of finding out.

Hmm, I can't decide between the Panny s52 and the Sony 75/85H. Anyone else seeing Macroblocking on the S52?

I have an DVP-NC85H and haven't seen any macroblocking at 1080I or 720P.

Guys I have bought both the S52 and the Sony 75H. I'll be doing a comparison here in a day or two. So far I've only hooked up the S52 and I like it so far. I'll directly compare it to the Sony probably sometime tomorrow.

Is the S52 Faroudja based? Macroblocking is an artifact inherent in the MPEG codec that arises in certain circumstances and is visible on quite a few poorly encoded DVDs. However, the MBE (macroblock enhance) artifact should only be apparent on Faroudja based devices, otherwise it's in the DVD at fault, and should be visible on any player.

Is the disc tray on this model, the same as previous recent players? That is, with no depressions/recesses either side of the disc, nor circular hole for the thumb, with which to grasp the disc when inserting/removing it? How are you supposed to remove the disc, apart from sticking your pinky in the centre disc hole?

Tray is very thin, only the center hole.

Thanks Bud-man, but, how are you supposed to remove the disk if your fingers are a bit on the chubby side? Are you meant to poke it up from underneath? Am I the only one who objects to this apparent regressive trend towards thin trays with no provision for grasping the disk, and more often than not, the tray not fully extending (short loader?) such that you have to tuck the disk under the fascia's lip? Earlier players had much more convenient trays, but they're becoming increasingly hard to find. Sorry, rant over.

FYI, during development of the DVD standard one of the options considered was whether to put the discs in a caddy for protection, and they could be loaded like a floppy. Panasonic was the main proponent of caddies. But the marketing guys won out because they wanted them to look like CDs, and that has been considered a factor in the huge success of DVD. But one could argue that caddies would have been more practical.

Unfortunitely, Bud-man I don't have a CC nearby, but I do plan on ordering it. Thank you everyone for your help, although the "lecture" on how I should and shouldn't watch my movies was uncalled for.

Teddy

I just started reading this thread today and also wanted to chime in to say that I am looking for the same thing as Teddy, here. I have a Westinghouse LVM-37w1 1080p LCD screen which I love. However, as with all LCDs the black is not perfect. Watching a 2.39:1 movie with black bars on the top and bottom seems (for me personally at least) to accentuate non-perfect-blackness of the screen. Expanding the movie (while maintaining the same pixel aspect ratio) to fill the screen makes for a much more pleasant viewing experience for me, and I am willing to put up with the loss of the extreme left and right sides of the image.

Like Teddy, I do not enjoy being told I have been brainwashed, or lectured on the heretical dangers of (GASP!) altering the movie from the way the director intended it. The director is not a god, and this is not a sacred text we are talking about...it's a movie made for entertainment purposes. To assume that one's personal viewing preferences should be shared by the rest of the world is both ignorant and arrogant. Having been involved in 3D immersive graphics visualization for many years now, I can assure you that there is a huge variation in the way that people's visual systems process information, and that different people are sensitive to different things. No one viewing solution fits all. That's why it is so great that we live in a world that offers so many choices.

I am disappointed to hear that the S97S does not do the zoom well. It is one of the players I have been lusting after. Panasonic and Samsung (with "EZ-View") are the only two brands that seemed to have some feature that enables getting rid of the black space on > 16:9 movies. The Oppo has zoom factors that will allow you to do this, for example, but when I asked Oppo customer support about it, they admitted that when zooming, the player does not push the image through the DCDi chip, so image quality is substantially degraded. I was really impressed with the quick, accurate response from Oppo and their honesty, and am sad that thier information kept me from buying their product.

I also would very much like to hear other people's experiences with the S52 and zooming. I am waiting for the Samsung DVD-HD960 player to come out (Faroudja DCDi with 1080p output for my 1080p LVM-37w1...although I am not completely conviced that 1080p coming out of the player would make much difference since the 37w1 has what seems to be an excellent inverse 3:2 pulldown). If the HD960 comes to a big box store near me, I may just buy it and the S52 and do a head-to-head comparison.

Mofongo

Hello Mofongo. I am glad I am not alone in this quest to zoom a dvd. I have an update to my original posts. This is what I found with zooming on different DVD players.

Panasonic S97 - Great picture, horrible zoom. I actually just ebayed it a few days ago.

Oppo - Tried it way back when. Not so hot zoom.

Panasonic S52S - Tried one. Picture was quite good for around $100 bucks. Zoom looked just as bad as the S97.

LG 511 - Only allows you to zoom Verticaly. Looks good though. Only use could be to stretch non-anamorphic dvds.

Zenith 318 - From th reading I have done, this one seemed to do a very flexiable zoom. Too bad they are hard to get and have other issues. I figured the other LGs (418 etc.) would be the same but they are not. Vertical only just like the LG 511.

Other players I looked at only started at 2X zoom, worthless to convert 2.35:1 to 1.85:1.

I stumbled on a thread talking about the XBOX 360 zooming. I happen to have one, so I gave it a shot. Believe it or not it does excellent at zooming. Although the DVD quality isn't perfect. Its not bad.

It allows about 10 steps. 2 leaves very thin bars. 3 seems to totally eliminate them, but I prefer a little less zoom. The quality is actually decent considering the zoom. Thats whay I sold my Panasonic. I figured I watch 40% DVDs are 1.85, 30% are 2.35 and 30% are 1.33 (Full Screen). Which means I would only use the Panasonic on the 40% of 1.85 DVDs. (I cant use full screen in upconvert mode because my TV only stretches at 480p). So I sold the Panany. Let me know if I can be any further help.

Teddy

Thanks for the update! It is definitely a bummer that the S52 does not do any better with the zoom. It seems strange that Panasonic would incorporate a zoom feature specifically designed to get rid of black bars around >16:9 aspect movies, then implement it so poorly.

Have you considered a Samsung, then? None of their currently available players are rated the best in terms of picture quality (compared to comparably priced models of other brands). However, they do have Samsung's EZ-View "letterbox eliminator" feature which is supposed to work well, although I have not yet tried it our personally. Has anyone else? I would really be interested to know how this feature performs.

I am hoping Samsung's new DVD-HD960 and DVD-HD1080 players at least have competitive picture quality this time around, so I can have a good picture *and* no black bars. (BTW, I just started a new thread on these two players. I would post the link here, but I still need one more post after this one before I can include URLs) :).

Mofongo

I had checked the samsungs manuals and the zoom didn't look very flexiable. If they have changed it in the newer models I would be curious to see one.

Now that I think about it, I was under the impression that the EZ-VIEW was for 4:3 TVs primarily.

Me too i would like to find a dvd player with a good flexible zoom. I have a crt 51 in and it is just perfect for my room. But for a 2.35 movie it is a little bit small. I lose part of the impact of a big screen. And there is also the fact that Hitachi does not recommend to watch with black bars for more than 20 % of the viewing time. The zoom on the tv is so-so.

The description of EZ-View in the Samsung manuals is a bit vague (and in rather poor english), but it definitely has different modes of behavior for 4:3 and 16:9 TVs. Depending on what aspect your TV is (and what aspect ratio the pixels on the DVD are), it does different things. It does not appear that you manually can set the exact aspect ratio for what you want, but rather the player itself figures out the "bounding box" of the image on the DVD and scales until the black bars (either horizontal or vertical depending on the exact combo of display/DVD aspect ratio) go away. The scaling method it uses, however, is selectable by you. For example, watching a 2.35:1 moving on a 16:9 screen, it will either do a "screen fit" where it stretches the image vertically (my TV does this and it looks too distorted for my comfort) or a "zoom fit" where it scales the image equally in all directions until the horizontal black bars go away, thus clipping the extreme right and left of the movie.

Unfortunately, I have not fiddled with this feature personally, so I am just going by reading Samsungs product literature and snippets of people's comments on their various DVD players. I would really love it if somebody who has played with this feature could describe it in better detail. Anyone?? :)

Mofongo

Boys, do I have a player for you! My old (and no longer used) Toshiba 2300 is NUON enhanced and has probably the best zoom quality I have seen on a DVD player. On more than one occasion I zoomed a small detail in a screen larger just to get a better look (usually a part of the female anatomy). Unfortunately it is a non-progressive player, but if your TV has a good scaler or you use a VP, it could be just what you want. It was starting to freeze up more on problem discs, and I suspect the laser is getting weak, but last time I had it in my system (about 18 months ago) it was working otherwise. PM me if you are interested in buying it cheap.

Glad to see others on the continual quest for the perfect zoom/aspect-ratio-converter solution.

Re the Toshiba SD-2300, I found an article that states 'The zoom of the SD-2300 is also beautiful. Using additional filters to anti-alias the filter as you zoom in, the player manages to magnify portions of the image extremely without ever introducing the pixel-look of traditional players.'

Maybe the best solution is an external scaler/processor like the DVDO VP30 or similar that packs aspect-ratio conversion. Although, I haven't read any comments regarding the conversion quality.

It seems any NUON equipped player might be able to do this too, such as the Samsung Extiva DVD-N2000. What became of NUON? Did it just evaporate?

I actually just picked up a used Samsung DVDN2000 on Amazon for $46 bucks shipped. From the reviews it looks like it should zoom as well as the Toshiba. I will post when I get it.


UPDATE: Scratch that. The seller refunded my money and made the proce $100. No thanks. They also changed it from good condition to condition unknown.

Teddy

I have a Jaton PSD7611K player that I got a few years ago and while it doesn't have the best pq it has the best zoom and scaleing I've ever seen on a dvd player. You can zoom out and in, you can scale the x and y axis (increase or decrease vertical and horizontial width and height), you'd be surprised at how much overscan there is on a lot of dvds (of course you can always go into your tv's service menu and screw around).

Any more words/reviews on this player? I'm thinking of eitehr this one or the Sony 75/85H. One reason why I might like the Panny is that it plays DVD-Ram which may be useful since Ihave a new Panny DVD Recorder which uses Ram discs.

I just picked up an S52 (Canadian Vers)
1) It does DiVX just fine - old and new...no problems
2) Contrary to some reports it has both Coax and Optical outs for digital sound

Why do Panasonic and Samsung always remove xvid/divx capability from dvd players they sell in the usa I wonder?

It's probably got to do with your copyright laws. Canadians are taxed extra on every blank cd, dvd etc and the extra tax goes to the recording industry. That's why cds and dvds cost more in Canada. The other side of it is that p2p swapping isn't illegal in Canada (at least so far - the courts told the recording industry that they can't have it both ways...they can't have the tax and make copying illegal)

I'm quite interested if anyone knows what the HD Enhancement settings (I'm using the HDMI connection) in the S52 really do. I does make things sharper; however, after using DVE I usually keep my tv's (a Panasonic CT-34WX15) sharpness down to almost zero). Is using the HD Enhancement settings really doing what I am trying to eliminate on the tv? Or is it something different?

I picked one of these up on sunday. I am very pleased with it so far, my previous DVD was quite old although it has given me great service over the years!

I liked having an audio coax as well as optical. This allowed me to plug right into my logitech sound system without having to add yet another optical to my rotary optical cable switch. Now I can switch between sound from my DVR (optical) and my DVD (coax) without having to get up off the couch! It passes DTS just fine through the coax. One nice feature (which I dont need but am glad to have) is the ability to fix lip synch delay on audio in 10ms increments.

The picture seems good to my eye via HDMI.. I am running through a $30 HDMI cable I got at BJs.. CC wanted me to buy a $100 HDMI cable.. cant see spending the same for a cable as I do for the DVD player.. especially for a digital signal. I am running with the unit set to "720p" to best match my Samsung 720 DLP set. I played with the HD Enhancements and saw no real difference. I turned it off. I cant speak for the zoom, this is not a feature I use.

The tray is flimsy and thin. I expect it to break in a year or two.

Menus are fast. Given I am coming from a second generation DVD player that is almost 10 years old.. I was delighted to discover how much faster navigation is on these new units.

I have had no luck getting the unit to play anything I have burned.. but I dont have much experience with that. I dont have a huge use for playing mpegs and such.. but I do occasionally like to play a game trailer downloaded movie trailer when I have friends over. I was trying to get the Warhammer Online movie to play on a DVD-R. I converted it to a number of formats as indicated by the manual but none would work. I didnt see any indication in the documentation or the box of mine about divx. I am looking forward to the fall when I build my new PC and this one can go into the living room and solve this problem for me..

Over all I am pleased.. for $100 I got a "nice enough" upconverting HDMI DVD player to replace my aging but beloved JVC dvd player and at the same time fixed a weird "only I probably have this problem" thing of having a coax and optial input on my sound system and finally able to use them both to reduce mechanical switching..

Regards,

Artuk

Finally! Panasonic Canada now has the DVD-S52 Manual Online:

Slight differences to the UK manual that has been the sole one available for weeks.

Oh wait...it's the same manual...different size 1.67 MB compared to 1.69 MB, different file name...same manual. Wonder if Panasonic.Ca could only find the UK manual and wanted to post something...anything.

Guys I have bought both the S52 and the Sony 75H. I'll be doing a comparison here in a day or two. So far I've only hooked up the S52 and I like it so far. I'll directly compare it to the Sony probably sometime tomorrow.

Have you reached the conclusion yet? - Ralph

Originally Posted by kurt_fire
Guys I have bought both the S52 and the Sony 75H. I'll be doing a comparison here in a day or two. So far I've only hooked up the S52 and I like it so far. I'll directly compare it to the Sony probably sometime tomorrow.

Have you reached the conclusion yet? - Ralph

I have had both the S52 and the Sony 75H. I wound up taking the Sony back. Picture (HDMI@1080i) was nearly identical on both units with a slight edge (picture seems sharper and more detailed) to the Panny. Menus and disk loading much faster on the Panny, although the tray is a little flimsy as noted in previous threads. Many more features on the panny such as voice enhancer, night sound mode, HD picture enhancement, etc. -most of which I do not use (but it's nice that they are available).... Sound quality on both units (digital-optical out) is identical.

Please note that I did not compare picture quality with component outputs. Since the Sony has a 12 bit video DAC, I would imagine the Sony would be better over component. Build quality seems to be slightly better on the Sony but I have no doubt that the Panny will hold up for a year our two until the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players come down in price....

Keith

The S52 is now appearing as a product on the Panasonic Com site (the USA site). No manuals available yet.

Please note that I did not compare picture quality with component outputs. Since the Sony has a 12 bit video DAC, I would imagine the Sony would be better over component. Build quality seems to be slightly better on the Sony but I have no doubt that the Panny will hold up for a year our two until the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players come down in price....

Keith

Thanks for the response. I tend to agree with what you said about the picture quality of the two players.

I actually purchased the Sony NS75H first and returned it due to its refusal to play all-region dvd movies. I connected it to my Panasonic PT AE900U front projector. It seemed to me that the picture quality from component outputs was better than HDMI outputs. I didn't do many tweaks though.

I changed to a Samsung HD860 player and ended up returning it due to random pause problem. The Panasonic S52S is the one I use now. It can play all-region dvd movies and doesn't have pause problem thus far. I can only recall the picture quality of a movie from the Sony through HDMI 720p. It seems that for the same movie the Panasonic produces noticeable sharper image through HDMI 720p than the Sony did out of box. I don't have both in my hands and can not compare them side by side. To me Panasonic is the best choice for this price range for sure.

Ralph

Thanks for the response. I tend to agree with what you said about the picture quality of the two players.

I actually purchased the Sony NS75H first and returned it due to its refusal to play all-region dvd movies. I connected it to my Panasonic PT AE900U front projector. It seemed to me that the picture quality from component outputs was better than HDMI outputs. I didn't do many tweaks though.

I changed to a Samsung HD860 player and ended up returning it due to random pause problem. The Panasonic S52S is the one I use now. It can play all-region dvd movies and doesn't have pause problem thus far. I can only recall the picture quality of a movie from the Sony through HDMI 720p. It seems that for the same movie the Panasonic produces noticeable sharper image through HDMI 720p than the Sony did out of box. I don't have both in my hands and can not compare them side by side. To me Panasonic is the best choice for this price range for sure.

Ralph

Huh? all region dvd's which means PAL, it doesnt play neither here my friend, you must not be from the U.S.
I returned mine after it doesnt play anything including advertised Divx.
The LG still reign's supreme!!!!

Looking at the specs for this player at J.R. .com it appears that it does not play dvd+r. That description is as follows: "Plays DVD-R, CD-R & CD-RW; MP3, WMA, JPEG & MPEG4 playback with on-screen navigator "

If this is correct, then this player would not be a real possibility for me, as I have archived much video tape footage, etc. on the +r dvd medium.

If anyone with this player could confirm, I would be most appreciative! :D


LIY

Yes-it most definetly plays dvd+r's & +rw's.

Finalized (closed) DVD+R discs play fine - as should any finalized disc (I must admit though that I always burn and close my discs and I never leave them open to futher burning - call me cautious).

Huh? all region dvd's which means PAL, it doesnt play neither here my friend, you must not be from the U.S.
I returned mine after it doesnt play anything including advertised Divx.
The LG still reign's supreme!!!!

Yes, I am in USA. I am not sure if all-region means PAL. I have a dvd movie that can not be played with the Sony NS75H and can be played with the Panasonic S52 when connected to my Panasonic PT AE900U front projector. The interesting thing is the same movie can not be played with the Panasonic S52 when connected to my Hitachi 53" tv. This leads me to believe the display device also plays roles. The manual clearly states that the player can play dvd disks labels region '1' or 'all'.

When I purchased the player I thought it could play Divx since it states that it will play mpeg-4 format. By looking at manual, by mpeg-4 it means the format that camcorders use. I don't care much about this format though.

Ralph

The S52 will play a PAL disc (you can hear the audio) but the picture will not be watchable unless you have a PAL TV connected to it (so, your Panasonic projector probably "reads" PAL and NTSC). For the few PAL discs that I have, I put them into my JVC or Pioneer players.

As for DiVX, as I noted earlier, the Canadian version plays DiVX (apparently, there's a difference with the American version of the player - can anyone verify this? If true, perhaps you might want to come across the border to shop.)

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.

I liked having an audio coax as well as optical. This allowed me to plug right into my logitech sound system without having to add yet another optical to my rotary optical cable switch.

Turns out I had it the other way around, optical form the dvd and coax from the dvr. There is a coax audio out.. but I have not used it. Sorry for the confusion.

I have had trouble getting any video to play I have made from my computer. I am trying to get a .wmv trailer to play.. and have tried a lot of methods. One method it actually did take (using pinnacle to author a dvd) but my tv wouldnt play the signal over HDMI :(.

How are the rest of you making disks with playable video for this player?

Regards,

Artuk

Turns out I had it the other way around, optical form the dvd and coax from the dvr. There is a coax audio out.. but I have not used it. Sorry for the confusion.

I have had trouble getting any video to play I have made from my computer. I am trying to get a .wmv trailer to play.. and have tried a lot of methods. One method it actually did take (using pinnacle to author a dvd) but my tv wouldnt play the signal over HDMI :(.

How are the rest of you making disks with playable video for this player?

Regards,

Artuk

The S52 won't play WMV files. It will play WMA (audio) files. If you want it to play your wmv files you'll need to convert them (hint: search google Convert WMV to AVI or DiVX). You'll probably see some loss with the conversion (are you sure you really want to do this?)

Well, I had thought that the Sony was a keeper: plays everything (that I need it to play), reasonably well built, great detail in upconversion to either 720p or 1080i, significantly better and more detailed picture that my cherished Panny RP91, and inexpensive. I now find that the Panny S52 gives a more detailed, less noisy picture, with greater depth, than does the Sony. Running the S52 with most ehancements off - at 720p into my Pio 1130. As has been reiterated often in this thread, the tray is certainly flimsy (wonder if it can be swapped out?) But for shear picture quality, at this price point - I don't think that it can be beat.

Only one nit to pick (these are initial impressions) - had to set the hue control on the Pio to -11 (after calibrating with Avia), indicative of significant red push. (BTW, the Pio is set to "pure").

LIY

Edit: 1080i was an error. Changed to 720p.

I just got a Panny S52 and a Sony Sony NC85 (5-disc version of NS75). I think the NC85 puts out a nice, clean, detailed picture. I think the S52 provides a slightly less detailed and noisier picture than the NC85.

The S52 seems to have a little MB, though this is much less than on the S97 that I had (and recently sold). The Sony of course has no MB. I may get around to opening up the S52 to see what chip it has and to try and confirm if it does, or does not, have the Faroudja chip and so if I am really seeing MB-enhance or just regular MB. I've tested a number of scenes on a number of DVDs and found that the S97 exhibited noticeable MB, the S52 much less (though still noticeable) and the NC85 not at all.

Yes, the S52's tray is very flimsy. The S52 remote does not have an eject button and, unlike the Sony and the S97, lacks the ability to control TV volume. Also, whoever at Panasonic made the decision not to include 5.1 analog outputs for DVD-Audio should be flayed! My AVR has 5.1 analog inputs, not HDMI.

Just like other Pannys, the S52 does NOT have a PAL-to-NTSC converter and so won't play PAL DVDs to an NTSC TV even if the player could be made region free.

P.S. The S52 is a good bang-for-the-buck upconvert DVD player that DOES provide a very good PQ and gets the job done. Its hard to pass this player up for < $ 90 (on sale at CC). At the end of the day, some people will prefer the Sony, some will prefer the Panny but there is no loser here, they are both very good players.

Perhaps we can urge HomeTheatreHiFi to do some testing. In the meantime, it sure looks as though depending upon your setup you'd be quite happy with one or the other (I'm running the S52's HDMI into my Panny CT-34WX15 and am very pleased)

I just got a Panny S52 and a Sony Sony NC85 (5-disc version of NS75). I think the NC85 puts out a nice, clean, detailed picture. I think the S52 provides a slightly less detailed and noisier picture than the NC85.

The S52 seems to have a little MB, though this is much less than on the S97 that I had (and recently sold). The Sony of course has no MB. I may get around to opening up the S52 to see what chip it has and to try and confirm if it does, or does not, have the Faroudja chip and so if I am really seeing MB-enhance or just regular MB. I've tested a number of scenes on a number of DVDs and found that the S97 exhibited noticeable MB, the S52 much less (though still noticeable) and the NC85 not at all.

Yes, the S52's tray is very flimsy. The S52 remote does not have an eject button and, unlike the Sony and the S97, lacks the ability to control TV volume. Also, whoever at Panasonic made the decision not to include 5.1 analog outputs for DVD-Audio should be flayed! My AVR has 5.1 analog inputs, not HDMI.

Just like other Pannys, the S52 does NOT have a PAL-to-NTSC converter and so won't play PAL DVDs to an NTSC TV even if the player could be made region free.

P.S. The S52 is a good bang-for-the-buck upconvert DVD player that DOES provide a very good PQ and gets the job done. Its hard to pass this player up for < $ 90 (on sale at CC). At the end of the day, some people will prefer the Sony, some will prefer the Panny but there is no loser here, they are both very good players.

Disgruntled1, I wonder what type of TV you set the S52 options to feed into in the setup menu: i.e. direct view, lcd/lcd projector, plasma - and what, if any, effect this might have had on the p.q I am a little surprised that you found the S52 to be noisier than the Sony; so just trying to see if these settings affect this!

LIY

Anyone else seeing macroblocking on the S52?

Disgruntled1, I wonder what type of TV you set the S52 options to feed into in the setup menu: i.e. direct view, lcd/lcd projector, plasma - and what, if any, effect this might have had on the p.q I am a little surprised that you found the S52 to be noisier than the Sony; so just trying to see if these settings affect this!

LIYRear projector (or something like that). On reflection, its probably not really worth getting into this as the difference is so slight and you really have to look for it. Some will think the PQ of the Panny is better, some will favor the Sony. Some will think the Panny is noisier or cleaner, others will think the Sony is noisier or cleaner. I think we're probably splitting hairs. Bottom line is that the two players are more similar than they are different and you can't really go wrong with either for the $$$. Best thing to is to snag both and keep the one you think is better.

I just got a Panny S52 and a Sony Sony NC85 (5-disc version of NS75). I think the NC85 puts out a nice, clean, detailed picture. I think the S52 provides a slightly less detailed and noisier picture than the NC85.

The S52 seems to have a little MB, though this is much less than on the S97 that I had (and recently sold). The Sony of course has no MB. I may get around to opening up the S52 to see what chip it has and to try and confirm if it does, or does not, have the Faroudja chip and so if I am really seeing MB-enhance or just regular MB. I've tested a number of scenes on a number of DVDs and found that the S97 exhibited noticeable MB, the S52 much less (though still noticeable) and the NC85 not at all.

Yes, the S52's tray is very flimsy. The S52 remote does not have an eject button and, unlike the Sony and the S97, lacks the ability to control TV volume. Also, whoever at Panasonic made the decision not to include 5.1 analog outputs for DVD-Audio should be flayed! My AVR has 5.1 analog inputs, not HDMI.

Just like other Pannys, the S52 does NOT have a PAL-to-NTSC converter and so won't play PAL DVDs to an NTSC TV even if the player could be made region free.

P.S. The S52 is a good bang-for-the-buck upconvert DVD player that DOES provide a very good PQ and gets the job done. Its hard to pass this player up for < $ 90 (on sale at CC). At the end of the day, some people will prefer the Sony, some will prefer the Panny but there is no loser here, they are both very good players.I have an NC85 that I've got feeding my Insignia 27" through the HDMI input (yeah-I know-go ahead and snigger about the cheap piece of crap tv-but it has a better picture at a better price than any other crt hdtv I've tried) and it has a nice, cleanly defined picture and I've yet to see any evidence of macroblocking, I tried the S52 and took it back cause the Sony has a better picture, but having said that judging picture quality is very subjective-it's more of an individual preference thing than anything else.

Rear projector (or something like that). On reflection, its probably not really worth getting into this as the difference is so slight and you really have to look for it. Some will think the PQ of the Panny is better, some will favor the Sony. Some will think the Panny is noisier or cleaner, others will think the Sony is noisier or cleaner. I think we're probably splitting hairs. Bottom line is that the two players are more similar than they are different and you can't really go wrong with either for the $$$. Best thing to is to snag both and keep the one you think is better.

Agreed...and, I note, after switching back forth between the two, using Monsters, Inc. and Serenity, I'd give the edge back to the Sony! So go figure. Very close indeed. ;)

LIY

Edit 5/12/06: I can't stand the dvd tray on the S52 - initially thought I could live with it. But I can't. How much more would it have cost to put the traditional tray in that machine?:mad:

LIY

I opened up the S52 and took a look at the LSI chips inside. There are three LSI chips on a small board next to the drive. The chips are very hard to read because the writing is rather faint.

One of the LSI chips (square shape) is over next to the HDMI connector so its obviously the HDMI chip. It is a Panasonic chip with the following legends: MN864701 and 602U7ME9

Two other chips are:
1. SPANSION (Copyright is 04): S29JL032H70TCI31 & 0607F33 E
2. ELPIDA TAIWAN: S6416AHTA-75-E & 05480R318000

There is also another smaller chip:
BA5818FM & 603 H51

There may be others buried under the main board.

[B]I can't stand the dvd tray on the S52 - initially thought I could live with it. But I can't. How much more would it have cost to put the traditional tray in that machine?:mad:
LIY
Trays are, of course, a primary source of cost savings (take a look at the PS2 versions as an example). Yeah, the S52's tray is pretty bare...what's next? A top loader? Still, the tray works. Most of my machines with fancier loaders died first...the simpler loaders, for some reason, outlasted the others. Perhaps I'm more careful with the flimsier ones?

The S52 won't play WMV files. It will play WMA (audio) files. If you want it to play your wmv files you'll need to convert them (hint: search google Convert WMV to AVI or DiVX). You'll probably see some loss with the conversion (are you sure you really want to do this?)

I have tried converting to a variety of formats.. I dont think my US unit will do DiVX, at least not according to the documentation.

I tried making mpeg4, asf, and even authoring a disk using mpg2. I also tried burning a .vob file into the right directory. The only one that would play was the authored disk then my TV gave a "cant play this signal" or some such error for the HDMI.

Regards,

Artuk

[QUOTE=liy]
Only one nit to pick (these are initial impressions) - had to set the hue control on the Pio to -11 (after calibrating with Avia), indicative of significant red push. (BTW, the Pio is set to "pure").
[QUOTE]
As I've mentioned before, I'm using the S52 with a Panny CT-34WX15. I've been thinking abut your red push comment for days and decided to check my S52 with DVE. I had to make no changes at all. The S52 was not pushing red at all. I should mention that I had previously set up the Panny tv using a JVC XV-N410 and a Pioneer DV-588A as the players to run the DVE disc (running both through Component Video). Using the HDMI, at 1080i and the S52, I had to make no adjustments whatsover. The Panny tv, of course, like all Panasonic tvs pushes a bit of green (like the Sonys push a bit of red). The intensity though was the same as with the older players.

There may be some other factor in your Pioneer leading to the need to lower the red...did you use the same inputs?

Okay, I'm a newbie but I had to join up because I just couldn't solve this problem for myself. I've been reading, searching, looking, browsing, thinking, for about two weeks, and decided I would go out today and not come back home until I had an HD Upconverting DVD player.

I am strongly leaning towards the S52S. However, I have read too many great things about the new Sony [75 and 85] units and have read some raves about Samsung as well.

Currently, I am using a 5 disc DVD/SACD changer hooked up to a Panasonic 30 inch HDTV via component. I have been very happy with the image so far but I recently tried a Cyberhome 655 that I bought for $30 and while the colors and overall feel on my standard def Sony [NC875B] were better, I noticed an obvious difference in text clarity and over all detail.

I am definitely keeping the current player, I can not let go of SACD, and the 5 disc changing is great for anime and TV shows. However, I have my doubts. I just really need an opinion or two.

If you had to go for one of the players right now,

Panasonic S52S
Samsung HD860
Sony DVP-NS75H

Which one would you pick?

I would happily get the 85H Sony [HDMI version of my current player] but since it doesn't support SACD, I just don't see the point in getting it.

DVD Audio on the S52S was going to make the choice for me, but I found out it had no analog outs and I would only get 2 channel stereo from any DVD audio playback.

And I don't know much about Samsung except it's supposed to have a really good picture quality. Should I just follow my original instinct and get the 52S Panasonic?

[QUOTE=liy]
Only one nit to pick (these are initial impressions) - had to set the hue control on the Pio to -11 (after calibrating with Avia), indicative of significant red push. (BTW, the Pio is set to "pure").
[QUOTE]
As I've mentioned before, I'm using the S52 with a Panny CT-34WX15. I've been thinking abut your red push comment for days and decided to check my S52 with DVE. I had to make no changes at all. The S52 was not pushing red at all. I should mention that I had previously set up the Panny tv using a JVC XV-N410 and a Pioneer DV-588A as the players to run the DVE disc (running both through Component Video). Using the HDMI, at 1080i and the S52, I had to make no adjustments whatsover. The Panny tv, of course, like all Panasonic tvs pushes a bit of green (like the Sonys push a bit of red). The intensity though was the same as with the older players.

There may be some other factor in your Pioneer leading to the need to lower the red...did you use the same inputs?

Same inputs. Same everything. The issue is peculiar to the S52 and no other DVD player that I have ever tried (and I've tried many). Could just be a bad unit. You never know.

LIY

[QUOTE=N'Yeti][QUOTE=liy]
Only one nit to pick (these are initial impressions) - had to set the hue control on the Pio to -11 (after calibrating with Avia), indicative of significant red push. (BTW, the Pio is set to "pure").


Same inputs. Same everything. The issue is peculiar to the S52 and no other DVD playerc that I have ever tried (and I've tried many). Could just be a bad unit. You never know.

LIY

Have you checked the HDMI colour space options...?

Okay, I'm a newbie but I had to join up because I just couldn't solve this problem for myself. I've been reading, searching, looking, browsing, thinking, for about two weeks, and decided I would go out today and not come back home until I had an HD Upconverting DVD player.

I am strongly leaning towards the S52S. However, I have read too many great things about the new Sony [75 and 85] units and have read some raves about Samsung as well.

Currently, I am using a 5 disc DVD/SACD changer hooked up to a Panasonic 30 inch HDTV via component. I have been very happy with the image so far but I recently tried a Cyberhome 655 that I bought for $30 and while the colors and overall feel on my standard def Sony [NC875B] were better, I noticed an obvious difference in text clarity and over all detail.

I am definitely keeping the current player, I can not let go of SACD, and the 5 disc changing is great for anime and TV shows. However, I have my doubts. I just really need an opinion or two.

If you had to go for one of the players right now,

Panasonic S52S
Samsung HD860
Sony DVP-NS75H

Which one would you pick?

I would happily get the 85H Sony [HDMI version of my current player] but since it doesn't support SACD, I just don't see the point in getting it.

DVD Audio on the S52S was going to make the choice for me, but I found out it had no analog outs and I would only get 2 channel stereo from any DVD audio playback.

And I don't know much about Samsung except it's supposed to have a really good picture quality. Should I just follow my original instinct and get the 52S Panasonic?It would definetly be the HD860-it'd be out the door faster than you can say nuts. I have the Sony 85 and I love it for the same reason-lots of anime without excessive disc changing-for me sacd and dvd audio are non issues, I have a Panny DVDF87 that supports dvd audio-and again it's a non issue for me.

I just got the 52S and was impressed by the progessive scan on my TV. I am waiting for my HDMI connection to see the higher resolutions.

I picked up the s52 yesterday at CC, and have been comparing it to my other player, a Panasonic s47. I have the s52 connected via HDMI and the s47 via component to my Sharp 37" LCD. After a lot of A/B switching with the same DVD in both players, I'll be damned if I can see much, if any difference. I really tried to convince myself that it looked better upconverted thru HDMI, but I couldn't. Don't get me wrong, it's a really nice player, and the PQ is excellent, but to my eye it's the same as my s47, so I guess the s52 goes back. Bummer...

In general, it might be more useful to others if when making comments about the S52 (or other players) that you note what the tv is that you were connecting it to, what resolution and whether you were connecting via HDMI (or HDMI ->DVI) or Component Video. If you had used any of the settings of the S52 (or others) that might be useful as well.

Well, I decided to buy the S52S. I have it connected to a Panasonic 30 inch HDTV direct view CRT

I have not done any comparisons to my NC875B [Sony] but do feel the image is very clear, very clean, and looks very realistic: where I can really notice the difference is text, menus, even company logos

I have all audio and video enhancements on the S52S turned off, the auto picture correction off, and have not tweaked any video settings manually [everything set at 0 or default]

The only thing I did was switch from 480p default to 1080i. I turned off sound via HDMI [using optical out] as well

I have one real question, what should I pick in the color settings? There is RGB , YUV 4:4:4 and YUV 4:4:2

A quick clance on still shots, menus, etc did not show any difference in anything, but which is the optimal setting?

I still don't know whether or not I'll keep it, I think I will wait until I do direct comparisons. However, I will say, the remote is nice and the menus are super quick.

Well, I decided to buy the S52S. I have it connected to a Panasonic 30 inch HDTV direct view CRT

I have one real question, what should I pick in the color settings? There is RGB , YUV 4:4:4 and YUV 4:4:2

A quick clance on still shots, menus, etc did not show any difference in anything, but which is the optimal setting?



I believe that the colour settings should be set to 4:4:4 for your television (I think that it's just the 30" version of my CT-34WX15) - The UK/Euro version has a SCART (RGB) out but since you're spelling colour as color I don't think that that applies to you.

I haven't changed any of the settings from their baseline either (though I did notice that the HD Enhancement setting did some sharpening - I've left it at 0 until I know what it really does)

Well I'm hardly a guru at this stuff, but I picked up a Sammy HD860 April 1st and an S52 this weekend.

After fumbling through the controls on the S52 trying to figure out why it woudlnt' zoom correctly (duh, lets' try setting the output to 720p perhaps and not 480? Man I felt stupid!), I think the Panny does rings around the Sammy. I should have held off, so now the Sammy goes back in the box, perhaps moves upstairs into the bedroom, or goes to my mother who's using an old Magnavox on a regular 27" CRT.

I did run the S52 through HDMI (Video only, turned off audio since I run Optical to my Sony 5.1 Receiver) and the picture is crisp, but I'm not a videophile or audiophile, I don't have much of a background for comparison. I also picked up at the same time an ES25 for recording, and am waiting on my 2nd HDMI cable to arrive to run that as well to my Aquos 32" LCD.

I could have probably gotten away with just the ES25, but I'm not a huge fan of running the life out of my recorder, I'd prefer to save that for the recording and get cheaper players to knock around. My last player, a GE I picked up in '98, still is in the back room, it had a great run.

So, bbrowne74,

Is then the zoom of Panasonic S52 ok?. Did you see any difference in quality
using HDMI with no zoom and with zoom?. Can you see the full image with high quality in HDMI avoiding black letterboxes bars in 2:35 movies?.

Thanks a lot,
SBforero

I just got the 52S and was impressed by the progessive scan on my TV. I am waiting for my HDMI connection to see the higher resolutions.

I was able to test my HDMI connection today and it was pretty good. I must admit, I saw the biggest difference from 480i to 480p pm the component output. I tried 720p and 1080i and didn't seem much of a difference. I did notice a slightly difference in favor of 1080i(HDMI) over 480p through the component. Overall I am satisfied, it should hold me over until bluray/HDDVD war is over.
BTW my TV is a panny TH50px60u.

So, bbrowne74,

Is then the zoom of Panasonic S52 ok?. Did you see any difference in quality
using HDMI with no zoom and with zoom?. Can you see the full image with high quality in HDMI avoiding black letterboxes bars in 2:35 movies?.

Thanks a lot,
SBforero

I'm embarassed to say that even as a "technical guy" with macs and PCs (I'm an IT Director, Network Engineer and Project Manager) you're talkin' above my head here!

The zoom on the Sammy didn't do it for me, plus I'll be honest I hate their interface. This is my 3rd bad experience in 3 mos. with Sammy stuff - the SlimFit 30" CRT HDTV I was a sucker and bought (and returned for my Aquos LCD), a R120 burner that went back, and now this HD860. I'm new to the game here folks, I'm still using my DE935 Sony 5.1 Receiver for Optical Digital Audio, but I see night and day.

Now I haven't played with Pioneer, Oppo, or Sony stuff so I can't say if the Zoom is horrific or not, but I was pleased as punch with it, once I figured out what the heck I was doing.

This is all soo embarassing - I can find my way out of any jam on the PC side, but this A/V stuff has got me giddy like a kid because it's all so new.

Is anyone using the S52 with a Panasonic plasma (ED or HD) that has looked for and seen macroblocking (MB) issues through either component or HDMI output? If so your comments would be helpful to me and probably a few others. Thanks.

The zoom on the Sammy didn't do it for me, plus I'll be honest I hate their interface. This is my 3rd bad experience in 3 mos. with Sammy stuff - the SlimFit 30" CRT HDTV I was a sucker and bought (and returned for my Aquos LCD), a R120 burner that went back, and now this HD860.

I was also thinking about a Samsung 30"CRT but after discovering that there wasn't a straight horizontal line to be had in any of them, I went out and got the 34" Panasonic CRT HDTV. I was kinda shocked that Samsung would put out such a piece of technology (I'd always considered them to be pretty good). I can't say that I got the S52 because I didn't want a Samsung product after the 30"CRT...but it did leave me with a few doubts about their product line.

I'm actually returning it today. I've pretty much come to the conclusion on a CRT, especially at this size, it makes no difference.

However, my NC875B Sony [5 disc sacd/dvd] completely blew away the Panasonic in terms of sound, and the image quality was nearly identical [1080i upconvert vs 480p component]

Star Wars Episode III scene 27
Madagascar Scene 5
End of Evangelion Scene 11

I pretty much feel that this was enough of a test, i played each scene at least 2 times on each player. The sound quality difference was very obvious on Evangelion and Star Wars, less on Madagascar. The Panasonic had a problem with the DTS track on Eva.

The picture quality was pretty much the same for each DVD, the color was slightly different on the Panasonic, but everything else pretty much the same.

The real difference was in the subtitles, the EVA subtitles were so much easier to read on the Sony, very clear and crisp...I feel let down kind of...

I think I might give the Sony a shot even if it's not SACD...

I'm actually returning it today. I've pretty much come to the conclusion on a CRT, especially at this size, it makes no difference.

However, my NC875B Sony [5 disc sacd/dvd] completely blew away the Panasonic in terms of sound, and the image quality was nearly identical [1080i upconvert vs 480p component]

Star Wars Episode III scene 27
Madagascar Scene 5
End of Evangelion Scene 11

I pretty much feel that this was enough of a test, i played each scene at least 2 times on each player. The sound quality difference was very obvious on Evangelion and Star Wars, less on Madagascar. The Panasonic had a problem with the DTS track on Eva.

The picture quality was pretty much the same for each DVD, the color was slightly different on the Panasonic, but everything else pretty much the same.

The real difference was in the subtitles, the EVA subtitles were so much easier to read on the Sony, very clear and crisp...I feel let down kind of...

I think I might give the Sony a shot even if it's not SACD...


I am a little confused by your post. First, most people watch DVDs with the audio sent via digital connection to a receiver, which means the sound quality is determined by the receiver, not the DVP. Of course DVD-A and SACD will require use of the analog output for full resolution. How did you have the two player set up for audio?

Also, you first describe the Sony as "[5 disc sacd/dvd]" and then in your last sentence you say it does not have SACD. Which is it?

I am a little confused by your post. First, most people watch DVDs with the audio sent via digital connection to a receiver, which means the sound quality is determined by the receiver, not the DVP. Of course DVD-A and SACD will require use of the analog output for full resolution. How did you have the two player set up for audio?

Also, you first describe the Sony as "[5 disc sacd/dvd]" and then in your last sentence you say it does not have SACD. Which is it?

Sorry for the bad wording...what I meant by "it doesn't have SACD" is that I can't settle for the NC85 [5 disc with HDMI] because it doesn't replace my current 5 disc player [which has wonderful SACD reproduction with 5.1 analog outputs]

I also realize it's not usually the DVD player that determines sound quality. However, doing A/B switching between both the Sony I own and the new Panasonic, the sound quality was just so much more full on the Sony.

Also, the Panasonic had problems with DTS. I don't know if it's an internal configuration or something, but for example, End of Evangelion has a 6 channel DTS soundtrack: my original Sony 5 disc has no problem with it at all, the Panasonic downmixed it to 3 speakers. On Star Wars it decoded the 5.1 perfectly, but on the Sony it sounded so much more full and just alive..

Both were hooked up via optical input, so it's not the difference in connection, in fact, both optical cables were the same spec and brand.

Interesting that the S52 uses the DTS Digital Out logo (hardware features: DTS bitstream pass-through is necessary for playback of DTS soundtrack through a DTS-capable system) but my other players use the DTS Surround Sound logo (hardware features: DTS 5.1 decoding inside)

See: http://www.dtsonline.com/consumer/technology/at-a-glance.php

Anyone know if there's really any difference?

My receiver is DTS ES 96/24 capable and, so far, I haven't noticed any problem with DTS and the S52.

Sorry for the bad wording...what I meant by "it doesn't have SACD" is that I can't settle for the NC85 [5 disc with HDMI] because it doesn't replace my current 5 disc player [which has wonderful SACD reproduction with 5.1 analog outputs]

I also realize it's not usually the DVD player that determines sound quality. However, doing A/B switching between both the Sony I own and the new Panasonic, the sound quality was just so much more full on the Sony.

Also, the Panasonic had problems with DTS. I don't know if it's an internal configuration or something, but for example, End of Evangelion has a 6 channel DTS soundtrack: my original Sony 5 disc has no problem with it at all, the Panasonic downmixed it to 3 speakers. On Star Wars it decoded the 5.1 perfectly, but on the Sony it sounded so much more full and just alive..

Both were hooked up via optical input, so it's not the difference in connection, in fact, both optical cables were the same spec and brand.

You need to be sure both players are outputting the same audio soundtrack. One may automatically select 5.1 but the other (Panasonic?) may require you to go into the Audio menu and select the 5.1, depending on the movie menu prompts. I have had this happen more than once. You may need to manually select DTS if that is what you want. Furtheremore, some Panasonics will allow you to adjust channel output levels and enhance the center channel. Any or all of this may be affecting what the player is sending to your receiver. You want to be sure you are comparing apples to apples, because you may not be in this case, or especially comparing a DVD-A player with a SACD player.

I'm pretty sure it has 3D DNR mbaxter, i do recall seeing it in the menu's

Any chance you could check to be sure? It would be nice to find out before plunking down cash.

thanks

You need to be sure both players are outputting the same audio soundtrack. One may automatically select 5.1 but the other (Panasonic?) may require you to go into the Audio menu and select the 5.1, depending on the movie menu prompts. I have had this happen more than once. You may need to manually select DTS if that is what you want. Furtheremore, some Panasonics will allow you to adjust channel output levels and enhance the center channel. Any or all of this may be affecting what the player is sending to your receiver. You want to be sure you are comparing apples to apples, because you may not be in this case, or especially comparing a DVD-A player with a SACD player.

In the case of Evangelion, here is what I did [I have two copies of End of Eva]

I put both in, selected from the movie's set up menu, "JAPANESE DTS 6.0", there is also 5.1 DDEX

On the Sony, it started playback in Japanese DTS 6.0 with English subtitles

On the Panasonic, it started playback in English 2.0 no subtitles, so I adjusted it from the remote, I pressed subtitle and picked the subtitles, they showed up, then audio, I got four options in the audio menu

1. English 5.1
2. English 2.0
3. Japanese DTS 3.1
4. Japanese Dolby Stereo 2.0

This is very confusing because the End of Eva has English 6.1, English 5.1, English 2.0, English 2.0 commentary, Japanese DTS 6.1, Japanese 5.1, Japanese 2.0, yet it only displayed 4 options for playback

And now that I remember, the night I got it I watched X-Men 1.5 just to try it out, and I selected the DTS and it started out just 3 channel, and had to end up picking the Dolby from the menu. I've had four DVD players and a PS2 and I've never had a problem with DTS playback, and my receiver supports DTS, DTS-ES, DTS Neo 6, pretty much every DTS standard on that DTS online page...

I'm glad since I returned it already, but now I'm wondering, does the S52S have a problem with DTS output? Does it have a problem with audio tracks? I was contemplating getting it again if it ever got cheaper, but now I'm concerned

does the S52S have a problem with DTS output? Does it have a problem with audio tracks? I was contemplating getting it again if it ever got cheaper, but now I'm concerned

I've had no problems with the DTS on my S52 using Coax into my Sony Receiver. However, based on your note, I played two DTS 6.1 discs - Lord of the Rings (Extended) and Ghost in the Shell (Special Edition). In both cases, I selected the 6.1 Soundtracks (though in GITS I chose the Japanese 6.1). Sony received correctly identified that 3/3.1 DTS was the audio. The S52's audio select showed, as is ever the case, that 3/2.1 DTS was chosen. In any event, the correct DTS was playing and sounds great.

What's causing your problem? it could be the discs - some DTS discs are not coded correctly despite their noting that they have DTS 6.1 or 5.1. For some reason your Amp/Receiver/(or Decoder/Amp) is having a problem with it. It could be the particular S52 but you're the only person that I've heard of that's having the problem.

Does this player have HDAVI?

Does this player have HDAVI?

Oh, this ( http://blog.hometheatermag.com/geoffreymorrison/012406hdavi/)...
Nope!

Does this player have HDAVI?
Oh and, by the way, I think that JVC has had something like this for years (though not using HDMI - they used a separate cable. If I remember correctly, the cable was hard to come by so nobody used it...besides, how many people buy all of their components from the same manufacturer?...ok...forget that...lots do...

They (JVC) sure did, I was thinking that when reading the link. I believe it was called CompuLink. I had my receiver and CD player hooked up together so that it would start playing a CD with the press of a button. I bought those components in 1998.

I purchased the S52 but haven't had a chance to use it yet. I sold my parents my Philips Q50 that had Faroudja, so I hope I didn't move a step backwards. I'll be using the player with a Panny 900 projector-hope it looks good!

Has anyone gotten the S52 to play DIVX or MPEG4 on the US models? From the posts here it didn't look like anyone had. Not a deal breaker for me but I'd like the feature.

I found it interesting that the only bad review thatI found on the video quality of the Panasonic S52 was that it didn't come with an HDMI cable and that they cost as much as the player itself. I don't know where the guy was shopping but there are reasonably priced HDMI cables out there if you look around. ehdmi's site has quite a few of them and I was please to find their site.

In the case of Evangelion, here is what I did [I have two copies of End of Eva]

I put both in, selected from the movie's set up menu, "JAPANESE DTS 6.0", there is also 5.1 DDEX

On the Sony, it started playback in Japanese DTS 6.0 with English subtitles

On the Panasonic, it started playback in English 2.0 no subtitles, so I adjusted it from the remote, I pressed subtitle and picked the subtitles, they showed up, then audio, I got four options in the audio menu

1. English 5.1
2. English 2.0
3. Japanese DTS 3.1
4. Japanese Dolby Stereo 2.0

This is very confusing because the End of Eva has English 6.1, English 5.1, English 2.0, English 2.0 commentary, Japanese DTS 6.1, Japanese 5.1, Japanese 2.0, yet it only displayed 4 options for playback

And now that I remember, the night I got it I watched X-Men 1.5 just to try it out, and I selected the DTS and it started out just 3 channel, and had to end up picking the Dolby from the menu. I've had four DVD players and a PS2 and I've never had a problem with DTS playback, and my receiver supports DTS, DTS-ES, DTS Neo 6, pretty much every DTS standard on that DTS online page...

I'm glad since I returned it already, but now I'm wondering, does the S52S have a problem with DTS output? Does it have a problem with audio tracks? I was contemplating getting it again if it ever got cheaper, but now I'm concerned

That's what I suspected - you were not (for whatever reason) comparing apples to apples. You should be able to play DD 5.1 in both players and hear exactly the same sound quality. Why DTS 5.1 or 6.0 was not an option in the Panasonic I don't know unless you need to do something more in the player's setup menu for audio options.

Has anyone gotten the S52 to play DIVX or MPEG4 on the US models? From the posts here it didn't look like anyone had. Not a deal breaker for me but I'd like the feature.

I found it interesting that the only bad review thatI found on the video quality of the Panasonic S52 was that it didn't come with an HDMI cable and that they cost as much as the player itself. I don't know where the guy was shopping but there are reasonably priced HDMI cables out there if you look around. ehdmi's site has quite a few of them and I was please to find their site.

Too bad if you can't get the US version to play DiVX. The Cdn version does a great job with it. The only problem is that the Cdn version of the S52 costs $169 or so Cdn while the US version is $99US (much less expensive in the states).

As for cables, http://www.tigerdirect.com/ (in US) or http://www.tigerdirect.ca/ (in Canada) have some reasonably priced HDMI cables. Even BestBuy sells AR HDMI cables for 1/2 the price of the Monsterously Expensive Monster Cables.

Super Multi-Format Playback—Play Almost Anything
Incredibly versatile and format friendly, this DVD player can play back just about any DVD or CD you can throw at it. Specifically, it can play back the following disc formats: DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, DVD-R1 (including dual layer), DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R (including dual layer), DVD+RW, CD, CD-DA, HDCD, and CD-R/RW2 (including MP33, JPEG, and WMA4).

Well the US version doesnt play just about anything!!
No Divx
No Pal
No region free
the first 2 are deal killers for me...ohh i forgot no optical out!!
If your internet savvy like me you need all those features, so my LG is gunna have to keep me happy until they release there HD/Blu-ray player

... it can play back the following disc formats: DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, DVD-R1 (including dual layer), DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R (including dual layer), DVD+RW, CD, CD-DA, HDCD, and CD-R/RW2 (including MP33, JPEG, and WMA4).

Well the US version doesnt play just about anything!!
No Divx
No Pal
No region free...


Wierd, the Cdn version has Optical and Coax outs and DiVX. I don't think any of the Panasonics will display Pal on a non-Pal tv or NTSC on a non-NTSC tv (I use my Pioneer and JVC for my two Pal discs).

No offense, but isn't DivX mainly used for downloading internet porn? That's not someting most would want to show off in their HT room to the neighbors, at least for most of us.

No offense, but isn't DivX mainly used for downloading internet porn? That's not someting most would want to show off in their HT room to the neighbors, at least for most of us.

I think that the point is that it isn't quite an all format machine in the US. To me, if a player can handle DiVX and PAL it's a plus but hardly a reason to bypass a player (since neither is a priority to me - my 600+ DVDs are almost all NTSC Region1 - only 2 are PAL and I don't have more than a handful of DiVX discs)

Your point is well taken in that I would hardly want to use DiVX files to show off my system.

To some folks though, DiVX and PAL (in an NTSC Region) playing ability is a must. Personally, I would sooner have a really good player and buy a cheaper all region all format player to play the rest.

Super Multi-Format Playback—Play Almost Anything
Incredibly versatile and format friendly, this DVD player can play back just about any DVD or CD you can throw at it. Specifically, it can play back the following disc formats: DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, DVD-R1 (including dual layer), DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R (including dual layer), DVD+RW, CD, CD-DA, HDCD, and CD-R/RW2 (including MP33, JPEG, and WMA4).

Well the US version doesnt play just about anything!!
No Divx
No Pal
No region free
the first 2 are deal killers for me...ohh i forgot no optical out!!
If your internet savvy like me you need all those features, so my LG is gunna have to keep me happy until they release there HD/Blu-ray playerDon't forget that DVD-Audio is only via HDMI as they removed the 5.1ch analog outputs! So, as far as I'm concerned, this player doesn't do DVD-Audio. Seriously, how many people that purchase a sub-$100 DVD player are going to invest in an AVR receiver with HDMI inputs!

No offense, but isn't DivX mainly used for downloading internet porn? That's not someting most would want to show off in their HT room to the neighbors, at least for most of us.
It what alternate reality? I download anime fansubs and there are more of us than you can imagine or will ever know.

Don't forget that DVD-Audio is only via HDMI as they removed the 5.1ch analog outputs! So, as far as I'm concerned, this player doesn't do DVD-Audio. Seriously, how many people that purchase a sub-$100 DVD player are going to invest in an AVR receiver with HDMI inputs!

Yeah, that's what really made me return it, actually. I was like, "YAY! DVD AUDIO!" but I cringed when I found out it was HDMI only. It wouldn't cost Panasonic to put 5.1 outputs that much more, I've seen them on cheaper DVD players. Maybe compared to some of the DVD players some people here buy it's a cheap one, but $99 is a lot more than $39, so it shouldn't be as limited as the budget players..

Is anyone using the S52 with a Panasonic plasma (ED or HD) that has looked for and seen macroblocking (MB) issues through either component or HDMI output? If so your comments would be helpful to me and probably a few others. Thanks.

I've picked up the S52 to go with my Panasonic HD plasma (HDMI connected) and noticed that the color and picture were a lot brighter then my current DVD player. But to my disappointment, certain areas within the picture, whether it be objects or portions of the character's skin, displayed "patches" of even toned color. The patches looked as if the character went overboard with the make-up and erased all details that should have been apparent (e.g. wrinkles, shadows, scar, etc.). Being new to this HD field, I'm not sure whether the "patches" are considered macroblocking or not, but what ever it was, it was quite prevalent and made the movie (Matrix Revolution) and others difficult to watch. I tried the different modes (1080i, 480p, etc.) and the patches were still there. Sigh.... anyway, it went back to Circuit City from where it originated. If anyone had a better experience or knows of another brand which works well with a Panny plasma, any info will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

I've picked up the S52 to go with my Panasonic HD plasma (HDMI connected) and noticed that the color and picture were a lot brighter then my current DVD player. But to my disappointment, certain areas within the picture, whether it be objects or portions of the character's skin, displayed "patches" of even toned color. The patches looked as if the character went overboard with the make-up and erased all details that should have been apparent (e.g. wrinkles, shadows, scar, etc.). Being new to this HD field, I'm not sure whether the "patches" are considered macroblocking or not, ...

Thanks.

You may have just been seeing makeup...HD often reveals what you've never really looked at before...Have you set up the Panny Plasma with Avia or DVE?

You may have just been seeing makeup...HD often reveals what you've never really looked at before...Have you set up the Panny Plasma with Avia or DVE?

Thanks N'Yeti for your reply.

As for your question, I haven't set up my plasma with Avia or DVE. The current non-HD pictures are good and the HD pics are great. If calibrating the plasma with either Avia or DVE will make it better, I'll give it a shot (but it looks pretty good already).

Also, with regards to the "makeup", I understand what you're saying, but the patches are also noticeable throughout the picture. The patches are seen on the clothes, background, furnitures, etc. and not just the actors. I've read in other posts where plasmas have the tendency to exacerbate any macroblocking, and I'm just wondering if this just an example of it.

Thanks N'Yeti for your reply.

.... the patches are also noticeable throughout the picture. The patches are seen on the clothes, background, furnitures, etc. and not just the actors. I've read in other posts where plasmas have the tendency to exacerbate any macroblocking, and I'm just wondering if this just an example of it.

Could be. Though not many folks have note that they're seeing this with the S52. If you could try one of the other players mentioned throughout this thread (without making any changes to your Panny tv) and see if they exhibit the same thing (I'm assuming that you made no changes to the S52 except to choose the type of tv that you were using) . Also, try some Superbit DVDs and see if you see the same thing.

I'm sure (at least I hope so) that you'll get some comments from some other plasma users.

Could be. Though not many folks have note that they're seeing this with the S52. If you could try one of the other players mentioned throughout this thread (without making any changes to your Panny tv) and see if they exhibit the same thing (I'm assuming that you made no changes to the S52 except to choose the type of tv that you were using) . Also, try some Superbit DVDs and see if you see the same thing.

I'm sure (at least I hope so) that you'll get some comments from some other plasma users.

N'Yeti,

Thanks for your suggestions.

I'll try another player in the near future and hopefully thing will work out better. I did mention this issue to my friend and he also mentioned he had the same problem with his LCD flat screen with a Samsung upconverter. Hmmm.... just wondering if this issue is more prevalent then I thought it was.

Once again, thanks for your suggestions (including the Superbit DVDs) and your replies, they are greatly appreciated.

Can someone please check if the S52S has 3D-DNR? Check under the "Picture" menu.

Can someone please check if the S52S has 3D-DNR? Check under the "Picture" menu.

MPEG DNR Yes, it has. Under Picture and then the submenu User

Go to page 17 at:

http://www.panasonic.ca/PDP/OperatingInstructions/dvds52-oi-eng.pdf

(BTW, these are the UK instructions. In the note that I got from Panasonic Canada they told me that they haven't yet been provided with electronic versions of the S52 Canadian Version - Panasonic.Com [the US site] doesn't have any manual link yet from their site)

Ah, ok so the S52S doesn't have 3D-DNR. The S97S has both MPEG-DNR and 3D-DNR. The MPEG-DNR isn't worth using as it blurs everything. 3D-DNR manages to remove much of the background noise without throwing away picture detail.

I would never use MPEG-DNR but definitely need 3D-DNR or something equivalent. No S52S for me then. I'll just stick with my HTPC.

Every few months I investigate the possibility of ditching my HTPC for a set-top DVD player. And every time, I go away disappointed when I can't find anything at a reasonable price that compares. I don't know how everyone puts up with all the horrible compression noise on DVD's, even supposedly well-mastered ones. So far only an HTPC can effectively deal with the inherent drawbacks of the DVD format.

I guess I need to lower my standards, but I've been spoiled for too long.

Ah, ok so the S52S doesn't have 3D-DNR. The S97S has both MPEG-DNR and 3D-DNR. The MPEG-DNR isn't worth using as it blurs everything. 3D-DNR manages to remove much of the background noise without throwing away picture detail...

Yes, it does have a Depth noise reduction as well. It's the setting just about the regular MPEG DNR. I don't think that you looked closely at the manual page that I quoted

No there's three settings I'm talking about:

Depth Enhancer (tried this on the S97S; has no effect, it's useless)
MPEG DNR (attempts to get rid of noise by blurring everything; worse than useless)
3D-DNR (uses an intelligent algorithm to remove noise without sacrificing picture quality)

3D-DNR is actually pretty darn neat. It really does work. Not as well as ffdshow's "denoise3d" setting, but good enough for a set-top component. S97 has it, the other Panasonic players (including the S52S) don't.

N'Yeti, thanks for checking I appreciate it. You confirmed what I needed to know.

I've picked up the S52 to go with my Panasonic HD plasma (HDMI connected) and noticed that the color and picture were a lot brighter then my current DVD player. But to my disappointment, certain areas within the picture, whether it be objects or portions of the character's skin, displayed "patches" of even toned color. The patches looked as if the character went overboard with the make-up and erased all details that should have been apparent (e.g. wrinkles, shadows, scar, etc.). Being new to this HD field, I'm not sure whether the "patches" are considered macroblocking or not, but what ever it was, it was quite prevalent and made the movie (Matrix Revolution) and others difficult to watch. I tried the different modes (1080i, 480p, etc.) and the patches were still there. Sigh.... anyway, it went back to Circuit City from where it originated. If anyone had a better experience or knows of another brand which works well with a Panny plasma, any info will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Here is the definition of "blocking" (macroclocking - MB) from the DVD Glossary:

"blocking - A term referring to the occasional blocky appearance of compressed video (an artifact). Caused when the compression ratio is high enough that the averaging of pixels in 8 x 8 blocks becomes visible."

I suppose this is always there on compressed video (including DVDs or any compressed video stream such as cable or satellite) but some DVD players and displays (or combinations thereof) do a better or worse job of handling it, and it is in part a function of bandwidth. I believe the Panasonic players are supposed to do a better job of "hiding" MB when you use component connections, so you may want to try that, though I know that does away with upscaling.

...N'Yeti, thanks for checking I appreciate it. You confirmed what I needed to know...

No problem. I did notice that the S97's manual didn't seem to have the same HDMI picture enhance (a different sort of sharpness control from the regular sharpness control) feature of the S52 (page 18 of the manual). Then again, the S97 had the Farouja chip.

Here is the definition of "blocking" (macroclocking - MB) from the DVD Glossary:

"blocking - A term referring to the occasional blocky appearance of compressed video (an artifact). Caused when the compression ratio is high enough that the averaging of pixels in 8 x 8 blocks becomes visible."

I suppose this is always there on compressed video (including DVDs or any compressed video stream such as cable or satellite) but some DVD players and displays (or combinations thereof) do a better or worse job of handling it, and it is in part a function of bandwidth. I believe the Panasonic players are supposed to do a better job of "hiding" MB when you use component connections, so you may want to try that, though I know that does away with upscaling.

Based upon your "macroblocking" definition, I believe that was the cause of the "patches" that I was observing in the picture.

As for using the component connection, I didn't try that route since I was really (and I mean "really") hoping to utilize the upconversion feature with my newly purchase HDMI cable. Unfortunately, as stated before, the MB was pretty much intolerable which relegates me back to watching DVD on my non-upconverted (component connected) DVD player.

Although my "upconverting" experience has been quite disappointing, I do want to say "thanks" for taking the time out to provide me the info you've mentioned above.

Panasonic Canada finally has the S52 up on their site:
http://www.panasonic.ca/english/audiovideo/dvdvcr/player/dvds52.asp

Compare this to the US model on Panasonic.com
http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/vModelDetail?storeId=15001&catalogId=13401&itemId=97354&catGroupId=24988&modelNo=DVD-S52S&surfModel=DVD-S52S&cacheProgram=11002&cachePartner=7000000000000005702

This page at the Panasonic site compares specs on the S42/S52/S77/F87:

http://www.panasonic.ca/english/audiovideo/dvdvcr/player/specs.asp

Check out the information on the S52's features on this page:

http://www.panasonic.ca/english/audiovideo/dvdvcr/player/features.asp

It's way more informative than the manual. Especially the HD Enhancement feature.

dumb question here if you don't mind....do you need to use an hdmi connection to get an upconverted signal to the screen or can you use a component connection as well??

just got an aquos 37 and need to get a new dvd player. the aquos only has one hdmi connection so i'm hoping to be able to use the component for now rather than getting a switch.

dumb question here if you don't mind....do you need to use an hdmi connection to get an upconverted signal to the screen or can you use a component connection as well??

You'll need to use the HDMI to get the upconversion with the Panasonic. The component out are great but not upconverted.

The Samsung aficionados have noted that they don't require HDMI for an upconversion; however, I should note that the advantage of the HDMI is that it is a digital to digital connection (so an upconverted HDMI is going to be better than an upconverted component output - of course, whether or not you'll be able to notice the difference depends upon your setup)

You'll need to use the HDMI to get the upconversion with the Panasonic. The component out are great but not upconverted.

The Samsung aficionados have noted that they don't require HDMI for an upconversion; however, I should note that the advantage of the HDMI is that it is a digital to digital connection (so an upconverted HDMI is going to be better than an upconverted component output - of course, whether or not you'll be able to notice the difference depends upon your setup)

can anyone send me a link to the info about samsung players upconverting even without using an hdmi connection? i just went to the product description on the samsung website and it says you need the hdmi to get an upconverted signal to a screen. i'm trying to avoid buying a switch that will cost more than the dvd player...thanks!!

can anyone send me a link to the info about samsung players upconverting even without using an hdmi connection? i just went to the product description on the samsung website and it says you need the hdmi to get an upconverted signal to a screen. i'm trying to avoid buying a switch that will cost more than the dvd player...thanks!!

Looks like you may be asking too late. Check out post #1396 in this thread:

http://avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7745328#post7745328

Perhaps LG has some Component Out Upconverting ability? You may need to hunt around...The major players might be all HDMI only at this point.

I was looking at one of these at CC last night and it looked intriguing-but then I asked myself "you already have 6 dvd players-do you really need another one?"-especially since I have an LGA-511 amd an LGDVB418 in my collection which in my opinion are the best xvid/divx players out there right now.

Do both or either of these do 1080i upscaled out to component outputs? I just started going through this thread and somewhere along the way it seemed like the issue of up-scaling to 1080i and outputting that via component got lost along the way, but it's my main issue as I'm still trying to keep my Toshiba theaterview alive and kicking (displays 1080i ota HD pictures beautifully)?

So what I'm looking for is the "best" up-scaling DVD player that'll up-scale to 1080i and output that via component (contrary to the DVD Industry Standards, I know, I know).

The 418 and 511 will both upscale to 1080I and 720P through componet if you apply the remote control hacks mentioned elsewhere to disable the hdcp and macrovision.

just bought the s52s from cc yesterday
it looks a little better than my older pioneer 656
have any of you who had this unit for a while know which settings to use on the sub menus any help would be appriciated

have any of you who had this unit for a while know which settings to use on the sub menus any help would be appriciated

There're so many to choose from...are you using it with the HDMI or Component?

hdmi

hdmi

I've found that the HD Enhance works quite nicely. You have a choice of 3 levels of THMI "sharpness" which are apparently not the same as the sharpness controls on your tv or elsewhere since it doesn't add the same sort of edge enhancement. It's explained (a tiny bit) on this page:

http://www.panasonic.ca/english/aud...er/features.asp

It really does at some clarity to the background areas of the picture without changing the foreground. Depeding upon the size of your tv and close you are to it you may notice a tiny or a great deal of difference. Try it out with levels 1-3 on a regular dvd and then on a superbit. You should notice some difference. I haven't used any of the audio features since I prefer to rely on my receiver for that. I haven't bothered with the depth enhancer nor the mpeg nr.

Can someone please tell me if this unit supports FF/REW with Sound? The Sony 75H has this feature (fast playback with sound), but I would much rather buy the Panasonic if it also supports this. Thanks!

Why would you rather have the Panny than the Sony?

Can someone please tell me if this unit supports FF/REW with Sound? The Sony 75H has this feature (fast playback with sound), but I would much rather buy the Panasonic if it also supports this. Thanks!

Yes, you can have sped up dialogue (if you really want it)...

Why would you rather have the Panny than the Sony?

from what i have read, the panny & the sony have similar picture quality..but...

1) the disc load time on the sony is s..l..o..w. i hate that in a player.
2) the 200x speed scan & features like the dialogue enhancer on the panny are appealing
3) i have a panny plasma & so assume the remotes will automatically control each other (i know...minor point)
4) this is a panny thread & i thought that would be the right thing to say :D

I have a Panny F87 and a Sony 85, the Panny takes as long or longer than the Sony to load, I am not brand loyal but I think I prefer Sony over Panasonic most of the time.

Anyone know if there is a way to update the firmware in the US version of the S52 to play divx like the foreign versions can?

Has anyone seen the black version of this in Canada at any retailer? The Panasonic Canada website lists both versions along with pics of the silver (S) version and pics of the black (K) version.

Has anyone seen the black version of this in Canada at any retailer? The Panasonic Canada website lists both versions along with pics of the silver (S) version and pics of the black (K) version.

I have only seen the silver version here in Toronto. You may need to do a special order. Apparently, most people buy the silver versions so the black versions stay in stock longer - no retailer wants this, of course.

S52S Secrets Benchmark Results (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=130#PanasonicDVD-S52%20(HDMI))

I've been using the HDMI exclusively in my S52. A good thing, given the article in the benchmarks. I don't plan on using the component video out (also a good thing after reading the benchmarks article).

As the Benchmark test points out:

"The core performance on the HDMI side was quite good. The S52 is not cropping any pixels via HDMI and retains the full dynamic range of the luma signal. It does not clip below black or above white information in the image. The player also doesn’t have any signs of Y/C delay via HDMI, which helps with the overall sharpness of the image.

The S52 does suffer from some slight flickering in our CUE testing with alternating 3-2 cadence based material. This cadence is common in some of the early Pixar and Disney DVDs and can be noticeable at times. All of the other CUE tests were passed, including the 4:2:0 ICP test which means this player does some chroma filtering.

The core performance of the component (analog) outputs was completely different and not nearly as good..."

So, not too bad at all out of the HDMI...forget using the component video outs though...As an HDMI out only beast...not too bad at all...

Should it play an audio cd? I put in an audio cd and the time/play display came on screen suggesting that it was playing the cd, but I was getting no sound. It is hooked up by optical digital to my Pioneer receiver--could it be that I have to use the stereo rca outs from the dvd player to hear cd audio?

Thanks!

Should it play an audio cd? I put in an audio cd and the time/play display came on screen suggesting that it was playing the cd, but I was getting no sound. It is hooked up by optical digital to my Pioneer receiver--could it be that I have to use the stereo rca outs from the dvd player to hear cd audio?

Thanks!

I've always attached an digital coax and analog rca outs for both digital and analog sound so...I'd suggest that you add the analog rca outs...

You did try pushing the play button, eh?

Very funny...yes I did push play and the little time indicator was moving. I'll try the RCA outputs.

anyone try this player on a pio 4360hd??? also has anyone tried the hd860 on the same plasma??? thanks!

Hi all,
I am also interested in buying the Panasonic 52 model, but after reading this thread I am not so sure. The main reason for me buying a new DVD is because I need a new DVD player to go with my LCD Tv, which is Panasonic 32LX600. I'm not sure but I think I need an upconverting DVD player to maximize the functionality of this TV. The price point of the 52 is what attracted me, and is also what concerns me. I have also been looking at the Oppo970, and I think I am leaning towards that one. I just wanted to ask for some opinions. Is this a fair comparison, or is it apples and oranges? Is expensive or cheaper always better? In terms of video quality and audio quality alone (not considering other features like playback formats), which one is better? Are there others at similar price points?

By the way, I watch only DVDs, and I have a pretty solid home theater in a box. I intend to connect via HDMI, with optical audio output. I cannot call myself a videophile, but I can tell the difference between crappy signals and good signals, not necessarily good signals and fantastic signals.

Any reply is appreciated. Thanks in advanced.

Hi all,
I am also interested in buying the Panasonic 52 model, but after reading this thread I am not so sure. The main reason for me buying a new DVD is because I need a new DVD player to go with my LCD Tv, which is Panasonic 32LX600. I'm not sure but I think I need an upconverting DVD player to maximize the functionality of this TV. The price point of the 52 is what attracted me, and is also what concerns me. I have also been looking at the Oppo970, and I think I am leaning towards that one.


The S52 provides nice HDMI output (sharp/clear/good colour) for its price. The SecretsOfHiFi Benchmark review, for the most part, lowered the S52's score due to its Component Video outputs. If you're just playing your clean store bought DVD collection with it you may not need anything else. The Canadian version plays DiVX as well (and does quite a good job of it).

The Oppo971 is a fantastic player with wonderful reviews. The Oppo970 hasn't really been reviewed by Secrets of HiFi Benchmarks yet. All we really know is that Oppo doesn't expect it to get the same kind of reviews that the 971 received (though, one may still expect great things of it). Here's the AVS Forum thread on the 970: http://avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=682896

The Oppo 971 outputs to DVI but gives you the DVI:HDMI cable. Yes, you won't be getting HDMI:HDMI but that won't make any difference to your Video signal.

So, at slightly more $ than the S52, the 970 offers a lot. Personally; however, I would think that if you can afford the $50 more for the Oppo971 then go with it. The 971 offers slightly better performance than the Panasonic S97 and S77 (and they are/were both very fine machines - though, I should note that they both could give you 480p through component video and the Oppo971 only offers 480p through DVI/HDMI).

get the new pio 490v. the s52s has a lot more features but when it comes to pq the pio beat it in my tests

Hi all. :)
get the new pio 490v. the s52s has a lot more features but when it comes to pq the pio beat it in my tests
standard141, how did you test these two players and what with?

i tested them with a bunch of dvds on my 4360hd. im just an average tv user who looks for pq and in lord of the rings, star wars, indiana jones, the untouchables, troy, saving private ryan, the matrix the pio came out ontop with blacker blacks and overall nicer more vibrant colors. i did tweak the settings on all players to make sure i had the best possible picture, the panny and sammy just didnt do it for me. it takes a couple of seconds for the dvd player to actually start however once its on its really responsive. plus divx playback was amazing, it also plays xvids. another great feature is this plays pal i dunno why but it plays them; i have an ntsc unit. it really beats the other 99 dollar players.

Thanks, standard141. :)

...another great feature is this plays pal i dunno why but it plays them...

The Panasonics pass PAL information to the tv but will only be able to display PAL if the TV can display PAL. The Pioneers, Oppos, JVCs (and quite a few others) convert PAL to NTSC so that NTSC TVs can display.

Thanks, standard141. :)

np hope i helped

I got this player yesterday and some of the settings confuse me. Not sure which HDMI color space mode I should be using and what the RGB range should be set to.

I calibrated it with AVIA and popped a few DVDs in and the colors were way too bright (flesh tones were orange/red and not natural at all). I put AVIA back in and checked it again and the hue and saturation were perfectly calibrated. I put some DVDs back in the player and manually adjusted the color saturation and hue and then put AVIA back in and it was way off again (too colorful again). I've never had this problem before and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

This player is connected to my Westinghouse 32" LCD with a HDMI cable and I have it set to 720P (not sure if 1080i would be the way to go or not).

Just a quick guess. Set the color space to 4:4:4. Keep it on 720p. Put the picture into User mode; move the color control to -6 or -7. Now calibrate it with Avia.

Any better?

Just a quick guess. Set the color space to 4:4:4. Keep it on 720p. Put the picture into User mode; move the color control to -6 or -7. Now calibrate it with Avia.

Any better?
I had it set to RGB and user mode with everything at 0. I set it to 4:4:4 and put color at -7 and it still is way too colorful. When I used Avia this time I paid better attention and the red push is about 10-15%. Not sure if it is the dvd player or the tv.

teddyc23 -- I don't understand why you want to do that to a 2.35:1 movie. You are making the picture bigger (true zoom) and you lose all of the information that is on each side (and on a lot of 2.35:1 movies that's a lot of information that can be key to what the movie director intended you to see). It sounds like you've been brainwashed into thinking that all pictures have to be 16:9 in order to be "good".

The only time using a Zoom function yields better results is when watching a non-anamorphic DVD.....the zoom allows you to watch the movie without being stretched.

Is anyone using thier S52S to display videos taken with a digital camera? According to the manual the S52S will only play MPEG-4 videos, and they have to be in .ASF format.

Has anyone successfully converted MPG and MOV files to the type of ASF that the S52S requires? If so how did you do it?

I apologize if this is covered elsewhere or in another thread... it's hard to
search for this.

This player seems to play audio in fast/slow playback.
Does it also display subtitles during fast/slow?
thanks in advance.

I apologize if this is covered elsewhere or in another thread... it's hard to
search for this.

This player seems to play audio in fast/slow playback.
Does it also display subtitles during fast/slow?
thanks in advance.

Do you really think you could read subtitles during fast forward? Anyway, I doubt it, but don't know for sure.

I don't think that you can do subtitles at a faster than normal speed...I'm sure that you have a reason for wanting this...other than editing, I can't think of one...Is there a speed subtitle reading course?

The S52 (and other Panasonic Divx DVD-players) have a very advanced playback speed control. They all can fast forward (with manual speed) with sound and keep the subtitles showing. It is handy to skip trough a certain boring scene without missing the plot or scan for a specific part.

Btw, recently a new firmware hack was released for the S52 wich makes the player RCE region free and removing UOP. You can find it on the Panasonic S52 Info Site (search on Google, as I still can't post URL's). Many more info about the S52 can be found there as well.

When I play a CD or DVD with JPEG files burned onto it, the S52 displays them but they look jaggy and pixellated. I thought this player used it's full selected resolution to display JPEG's. Is this not the case? Pictures displayed from the S52 sure don't look like 1920x1080... they look like SD.

When I hookup my laptop to my RPTV it looks much better. Both the laptop and the S52S are connected to my RPTV at 1080i yet the laptop does a vastly superior job displaying pictures (no jaggies\stairstepping).

So can anyone confirm how the S52 really displays JPG's? The manual doesn't say.

Page 5 of the manual:
Format
[JPEG]
Disc
DVD-RAM
DVD-R/RW
CD-R/RW
Extension“.JPG”
“.jpg”
“.JPEG”
“.jpeg”
Reference
≥ JPEG files taken on a digital camera that conform
to DCF Standard Version 1.0 are displayed.
– Files that have been altered, edited or
saved with computer picture editing
software may not be displayed.
≥ This unit cannot display moving pictures,
MOTION JPEG and other such formats, still
pictures other than JPEG (e.gTIFF) or play
pictures with attached audio.

On page 26

Exif Ver 2.1 JPEG Baseline files
Picture resolution: between 160k120 and 6144k4096 pixels (Sub sampling is 4:0:0,
4:2:0, 4:2:2 or 4:4:4)
Extremely long and slender pictures may not be displayed.


So, it'll display them...but, of course, at the resolution limits of the source format...they aren't going to look like HD...

I read all that, but it doesn't address the question of how the S52 processes jpeg's. What many DVD players do is simply process the photo at 720x480 then rescale that your selected output resolution (1920x1080 or 1280x720). So obviously, this looks like crap on any respectable TV.

I suspect this is what the S52 is doing but was hoping for confirmation or perhaps some way to correct this shortcoming.

I'm just going to return it and get the Samsung HD860, which specifically states HD jpeg capability.

I just picked up an S52-K (black colour) here in Canada. Waiting on a Monoprice HDMI cable before I hook it up. I'll post back after I try it out.

I have the Panasonic S52S connected via HDMI to a Panasonic HD Plasma TV. I have the Canadian version of each. My problem is with the DVD player, it seems to randomly black out. At least once per 2 hour movie it will send a black signal to the TV for 3 or 4 seconds. I can rewind the movie and watch the same scene again without any problems. Anyone else have a similar experience???

I have the Panasonic S52S connected via HDMI to a Panasonic HD Plasma TV. I have the Canadian version of each. My problem is with the DVD player, it seems to randomly black out.

Unless your cables are loose or broken, I suggest that you get the player replaced. This sounds like you got the lemon in the bunch.

Unless your cables are loose or broken, I suggest that you get the player replaced. This sounds like you got the lemon in the bunch.

I'll try that. I think I've had the player for about 2 months. I'll see if they take it back at my local best buy.

Any of you s52 owners using HDMI and getting occasional pink tone over the picture? Sometimes when a DVD changes from the menu to the movie or back to the menu, etc the picture will cut out during the change then come back all washed out in pink. It also happens when changing between 480/720/1080 in the s52 menu. I can change the tv input to a different source then back to the HDMI input and it is fixed. I suspect my DELL lcd is the problem, but wondering if anyone else has seen this on there s52. Thx.

Have you tried a different HDMI cable or reseating the connectors?

Any of you s52 owners using HDMI and getting occasional pink tone over the picture? Sometimes when a DVD changes from the menu to the movie or back to the menu...
Nope, no pink tone here.

Have you tried a different HDMI cable or reseating the connectors?

I haven't tried a different cable. The cable is brand new from Monoprice and I suppose it could be a cable issue but I highly doubt it. I did reseat both ends of the cable as well as try both HDMI ports of the Dell. Same behaviour exists. I did discover that it only happens using 480p. When set to 720 or 1080 I have not been able to make the "pink" appear. At 480p the tv seems to have trouble syncing or something. While playing a movie, if I press "stop" the player goes to the "home dvd - 'press PLAY to resume'" screen. Sometime that screen goes pink but sometimes not. Even if it doesn't go pink then, when I press PLAY to resume the screen cuts out for a second then goes pink with the movie and sound playing behind it.

Note that this tv has had glitches with 480i/p over component from my cable box. Occasionaly when syncing to 480 the picture would corrupt but in a totally different way (scrambled screen). It may not be related but it tells me this tv has issues (don't get me going on that topic, ugh).

Here is a pic which is a little "glowing" due to camera exposure, but the pink is what the screen looks like.
pink screen HDMI (http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dylanf99/detail?.dir=/2b9cscd&.dnm=38d4scd.jpg&.src=ph)

I think I'll take the dvd player and my cable back to the store I got the s52 from and see if I can test it on one of their (non Dell) tv's.

Can you guys try putting it into 480p mode over HDMI and play around for a bit to see if the pink pops up (playing the movie, press stop once, wait for dvd background screen, then press play to continue, etc) a few times. Thx!

Also... does anybody else's tv flash into "no signal/no video input" mode while the dvd player is changing from the menu to the actual movie or in between the title screens prefacing the movie (like studio logo screens, thx certified screen, etc)?

You don't have the component cables connected as well as the HDMI, do you?

Anyway, I've never seen this behaviour in the S52.

You don't have the component cables connected as well as the HDMI, do you?

Anyway, I've never seen this behaviour in the S52.

Hmm, actually yes I do still have the component cables connected. I did that to see the difference between Comp and HDMI. Comp is outputting 480p. Maybe I'll undo them to see what happens.

Again, if anyone can change HDMI to 480p then play around a bit that would be great.

Thanks Nyeti for the idea!

Hmm, actually yes I do still have the component cables connected. I did that to see the difference between Comp and HDMI. Comp is outputting 480p. Maybe I'll undo them to see what happens.

Again, if anyone can change HDMI to 480p then play around a bit that would be great.

Thanks Nyeti for the idea!

Let me get this straight you have both component and HDMI hooked up together at the same time on he S52? I would disconnect one of them and see if that makes a difference.

Let me get this straight you have both component and HDMI hooked up together at the same time on he S52? I would disconnect one of them and see if that makes a difference.

I tried again with only the HDMI cable connected. Same behaviour :( It only does it when connected to HDMI at 480p. During this testing I've found that this unit does produce some Macroblocking at 720p and 1080i. The Matrix showed it, while I haven't seen it on other movies so far. No MB at 480p though.

I might switch to the Sony 75s.

I tried again with only the HDMI cable connected. Same behaviour :( It only does it when connected to HDMI at 480p. During this testing I've found that this unit does produce some Macroblocking at 720p and 1080i. The Matrix showed it, while I haven't seen it on other movies so far. No MB at 480p though.

I might switch to the Sony 75s.

I'm sorry to hear that the composite cable wasn't the cause... (I've never seen anything like what you photographed with the S52). Perhaps it is in your monitor (or you've got an S52 that should go back to the store).

Anyway, you seem a bit confused about Macroblocking. Macroblocking is in the source material. (please see polychromeuganda's answer 1/3 down this page:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=623845 - or here, http://www.hometheaterfocus.com/blog/archive/2005/05/29/207.aspx

For sure you're not seeing the MBE (macroblock enhancement) which is a Farouja chip based bug that makes the bad worse (though, as many of us have found out, it only affects a few tv/dvd combinations).

Some people have noted that macroblocking can be made less obvious by slight gamma and/or brightness adjustments to your tv. Still, it's in the DVD not the DVD player.

Yeah I know about MB being in the source and about Faroujda MB enhance. It seems some players even non-Faroujda show this (like on a grey wall in the background, the moving "grain" will show up as red small moving "blocks". At 480p the same scene in Matrix will just be grey and grainy background but no color/blocky abberations. The exact same scene at 720 or 1080 will show the moving red blocks. So either the HD res is showing them/ehnancing them or the 480 res is "hiding" them.

I remember years ago I had two 480i players (using component). The Pioneer dv-525 dod not show MB in these scenes of Matrix, but am Apex ad-600 did show the red MB-ing (similar to what the new Panny s52 is doing - Apex was much worse though. So I'm not sure what the 'true' picture is red moving blocks or just moving grain w/ no visible blocks or somewhere in between.

Some people find that the MPEG filters in the DVD players or the tv can make the MB less noticeable. Part of the problem may be the sharpness of the S52's HDMI output.

On another note, back to my original problem.

I took my s52 and my Monoprice HDMI cable back to the store and plugged them into a Panny plasma. It had no pink problem at all through HDMI at 480 like I have with the Dell TV. So that shows it is my POS Dell. Whenever the dvd switches from menu to movie or movie to menu, or movie to setup screen, etc...the Dell loses the signal, shows "no input" for a few seconds then gets the signal back but comes up washed out in pink as the movie and sound plays on behind it. The plasma moved flawlessly through menus.setup. movie, etc.

Some people find that the MPEG filters in the DVD players or the tv can make the MB less noticeable. Part of the problem may be the sharpness of the S52's HDMI output.

nyeti- i tend to agree with you. HDMI at 480 (when it's not pink) doesn't show the MB, just the upconverted rez's. Overall I like the pic quality of the player though. Also, I think gamma/brightness is affecting it because I tried changing the tv type in the s52 menu from LCD to standard CRT direct view and it seems to dim the picture slightly and the MB becane less noticable. I imaging the setting for different tv types make some pic setting adjustments automatically though not sure exactly what. Does everyone find that for LCD tv's they keep the s52 setting on "LCD TV"?

Thanks again for those that are assisting me!

MB is more noticable with brighter settings, sitting to close to monitor (searh for many charts on the net), or dvd data. I didnt like the number of settings for color brightness etc with the panny or any other dvd player for that matter, it becomes so unmanagable. The dvd should be sent to the TV and let the TV control the color. Point I am trying to make is that when some people have brought their panny dvd player home they dont like it, imo they have not played around with the settings to get the most from their tv. So they are more happy returning it then finding a better picture on a different brand because that one is "in-sync" with their tv out of the box.

It makes sense that changing to CRT would give less mb, since it seems to lower the brightness. I do not know why you notice less mb with 480? (using HDMI)I see more of it at 480, than 720p or 1080i which look very similair to me. However, I do notice alot less MB when watching HD OTA 1080i signals, I have to get up to about 5 feet to notice any MB on my 32'' panny lx60.

ZZen,

Re the pink issue... Did you try changing the color modes (YCbCr, RGB) and/or subsampling (4:4:4, 4:2:0) for HDMI, if the S52S has those options?

ZZen,

Re the pink issue... Did you try changing the color modes (YCbCr, RGB) and/or subsampling (4:4:4, 4:2:0) for HDMI, if the S52S has those options?

Just tried it. Running HDMI at 480p pink issue showed up on both 4'4'4 and 4'2'2 settings. However at RGB setting the pink issue didn't show. The thing I noticed is that at RGB setting the tv never went into "no signal" mode when switching between dvd menu and movie, resume/play etc. I think it is an issue with the tv when it loses the HDMI signal momentarily then it has trouble syncing with the 480 ( no pink issue with 720/1080 remember). Now RGB isn't a solution though because the colors are very faded/washed out/off compared to the ycbcr modes (not fixable with calibration) it's just the wrong mode for the tv i think.

The issue is the Dell tv HDMI signal handling I am 95% sure.

The issue is the Dell tv HDMI signal handling I am 95% sure.


Try looking for answers here:

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board?board.id=dce_W1700LCD

In fact, this may be your answer:

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?docid=111704AF8B00DDF5E0401E0A551769A1&c=us&l=en&s=dhs

Hope that it works...

N'yeti - thanks for the links. I have looked at the froums over there already, but I never saw the link about the pink or green tint you pointed out. It does sound related to my problem. The thing is that link says it only happens when connecting a DVI device to the Dell HDMI port, then the Dell fails to auto-detect the RGB color space resulting in a pink tint. I am using an HDMI to HDMI cable with the DVD player set to YUV(YCrCb). Also the setting in the tv is not available to me to manually change the tv's DVI settings (probably due to me not being connected to a DVI device or cable). So although my problem isn't exactly like the link to posted it seems to be a related issue and clearly lies with the TV's handling of the HDMI signal as I suspected.

Thanks again!

Hi everyone,

I bought the Panny player and tried it at 1080i with my Toshiba 65H85 CRT TV connected with HDMI.

When I put it at 1080i, I see some artefacts in the pictures that I don't see when I put it at 480p.

for example, in chapter 6 in SW Attack of the Clones, I see what seems like compression artefacts in the dark scene when they try to assassinate Senator Amidalla with those poisonous bugs. When I put it back in 480p, the scene looks much better and I don't see those artefacts.

I saw the same thing in numerous other movies.

I can make them disappear if I lower the brightness and contrast but after that I lose too much details in the image. I can barely see what is going on.

Anyone else has that problem?

BTY the image of the 480p is great but I would still like to be able to use the 1080i

thanks in advance.

cassou - yes, in addition to the problem with pink screen that is the fault of my tv I have found that I see macroblocking when using 720 or 1080 that is not present at 480p.

Have anyone used the Panasonic DVD S52S for playing back MPEG4 or WMD-HD material downloaded onto either standard CDs or DVDs from a computer?

Also, how big of a HDTV set have you used the Panasonic DVD S52S with? 40", 60"? How good does it hold up with larger LCDs or plasmas?

Thanks.

cassou - yes, in addition to the problem with pink screen that is the fault of my tv I have found that I see macroblocking when using 720 or 1080 that is not present at 480p.

Hi ZZen

thanks for the reply.

I just don't see the point of the upconversion if it makes the image worse than in 480p. I wonder what would cause that?

You may want to read this "Sticky" Thread:

http://avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=477740

Not all combinations of tv and dvd player will show a positive difference going from 480p to 1080i. Of course sometimes, it's just the source material that's the problem. Othertimes, it's the result of what's connected.

Michael

cassou - yes, in addition to the problem with pink screen that is the fault of my tv I have found that I see macroblocking when using 720 or 1080 that is not present at 480p.

Zzen:
I have same TV you have. I read your posts and decided to order Sony DVD player instead. Did you buy it already? I also have HDMI cable from monoprice. I will post my review as soon as I connect it

cnews - So far I still have the Panny s52 player. I'm awaiting another replacement tv and will then test it again for the pink screen issue (tv's fault). Honestly I couldn't see much difference between 480 and 720/1080 and on SOME dvd's the upconversions showed macroblocking. I may stick with the Panny at 480p if I can solve the pink problem. Mostly I wanted an HDMI player for ease of connection. I will keep you posted if I switch to the Sony dvd player ( I still have 2 weeks to return the s52).

When you get the Sony hooked up to your tv it would help me out if you could spend a few minutes playing with the different outputs (480/720/1080) during a dvd movie to see if you get the pink screen issue. Things to try are set to 480 then play a movie, during movie press 'stop' to bring the player to the sony dvd background screen, then "resume/play" to go back to the movie. Do that several times. Also experiment with changing resolutions from 480 to 1080 then back to 480, etc. I don't know how quickly the Sony makes the rez changes so it might do it so quick that you don't get an issue. The s52 blacks out for a second to change rez then comes back and that is where the Dell pukes on syncing with 480 and comes up pink (changing to a different input, then back to proper input corrects).

Thx!

cnews - So far I still have the Panny s52 player. I'm awaiting another replacement tv and will then test it again for the pink screen issue (.........or a second to change rez then comes back and that is where the Dell pukes on syncing with 480 and comes up pink (changing to a different input, then back to proper input corrects).

Thx!
I tried whatever you mentioned, I do not see the issue. The only difference I see is that Sony does not allow you to flip between different outputs (480/720/1080) while dvd is playing. You have to stop the dvd, change the output format and play again(it remembers where you stopped). When changing resolutions sometimes I do see the familiar message - no input selected for a second.
Everything is well. The DVD player is good and it works well with the TV.

Just spent an hour reading these posts, that was exhausting :eek: . My question is, if I am not interested in upscaling and HDMI connection (from the posts here, sounds like it's not a big differene), is there a better DVD player for the money? I have a Panny 34" 4:3 HD CRT that I will use the component video input rather than deal with a HDMI/DVI cable. I have a TX-303 Onkyo reciver that will take the digital audio.

Ideas people?

Thanks.

Just spent an hour reading these posts, that was exhausting :eek: . My question is, if I am not interested in upscaling and HDMI connection (from the posts here, sounds like it's not a big differene), is there a better DVD player for the money? I have a Panny 34" 4:3 HD CRT that I will use the component video input rather than deal with a HDMI/DVI cable. I have a TX-303 Onkyo reciver that will take the digital audio.

Ideas people?

Thanks.
It would seem to me that any progressive player within your price point would do.

Jim

Page 8 of the manual downloaded from the Canadian Panasonic site indicates discrete analog out puts for 5.1 audio. And under specifications on page 26 it describes them again. Nowhere does it say that DVD audio out is only a function of the HDMI connection.

Page 8 of the manual downloaded from the Canadian Panasonic site indicates discrete analog out puts for 5.1 audio. And under specifications on page 26 it describes them again. Nowhere does it say that DVD audio out is only a function of the HDMI connection.

The online manual must be wrong. I have an actual paper manual that came in the box of my Canadian s52 and it does not indicate 5.1 analog outputs and does say DVD audio must use HDMI connection.

The online manual is the UK version. Panasonic told me that it is the only one that they have available in electronic format.

Question..I have the S52 connected to Sony KDF -50E2000 HDMI to HDMI.
I recorded a football game on ABC in a room with cable out of the wall staight to Panny DVD recorder and TV ( obviously 4 x 3 ).

When I played it back on S52, it filled up the screen when I expected it to have bars on the side...The quality wasn't bad and it did not appear to suffer from any stretching effects. I just wanted to see if the quality would be better if I viewed in 4 x 3 but I could not figure out to *make* it view 4 x 3 ( I did change to pan and scan ) and this did not work.. Why is it displaying 16 x 9 and can I change it ?

Thanks.

Leave it for the tv that you are using. Change the picture auto settings to 4:3

Either change your actual tv to 4:3 mode or go into the Panny s52 setting and change the 4:3 setting to "shrink"(or "auto").

Just picked up one of these in Canada and am amazed by the upconverting to 720p that it does on my Sony 42" RP-LCD KFE42A10. My previous unit was an LG LDA-531 and the upconversion is noticeably better on the Panny. My question is, which A/V Enhancer features do you use to get the best out of this player?

However one bit fault is it's divx/xvid playback. I had a disc of Lost episodes that it would not even accept, then a disc of Alias episodes which it played very jerkily and with horrible macroblocks/articats. The LG in comparison beats the Panny hands down when it comes to MPEG-4 playback. Too bad too, cause I really like the user interface on the Panny. Might have to return it if I decide to bite the bullet and get the Oppo 971!

okay I figured out that it was the packed bitstream and QPEL on my encodes that was causing the problem. Once I made encodes without those features the xvids played better on the S52 than the LG (which suffers from bad black and white crush). The colour reproduction on the S52 is just outstanding and the Depth Enhancer feature works wonders on both MPEG-4 files and my DVD-Rebuilder encodes (which are DVD-9 to DVD-5 encodes). Couple questions:

1) Does anyone know if Panasonic is working on firmware upgrades to this unit? Specifically I'd be interested in seeing greater MPEG-4 support (such as the features I mentioned earlier which currently do not work)

2) Is it possible to jump to a specific time in a movie? Divx file? My LG could and I rather liked that feature.

Very sad there is no Position Memory on this panny. I have an old progressive scan Panny that had it and all of us in the house got very used to it and it's horrible to see Pan has decided to let that feature go.

I 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)

It's too bad that DVD-A plays only via HDMI on the 52; there are not alot of AVR's with HDMI inputs and outputs yet. I have to play DVD-A through my Panny DMRes20 and that is not great. I like the player's audio enhancements. The recorder is good as a recorder but it did not fit the bill as a player which the 52 does well.

Is there any way to adjust the color decoding for 720p/1080i on the S52?