Hey all. I was wondering what everyone thought of this player? I am wanting a good, affordable upconverting player and this one caught my eye. I was going to get an HD-DVD player, but with the BlueRay/HD battle I think I will wait and see who wins out before I do so. This will more than likely be hooked to a Toshiba 37HL67 with HDMI.

If you have any questions for me I will answer to the best of my ability. Thanks in advance.

Eric

I was wondering the same thing, I am taking back my Toshiba HD DVD player tomorrow because I am not that impressed (I'll just stick with BR). Just sold my upconverting player last weekend, but now I have to find another one.

i'm buying my parents a upconvert - they have the Panasonic PX80 (42) and i just wanted a nice HDMI player to go with it. figured same brand would complete their setup nicely. any reviews?

Well as long as you ask. I had a S53 for a while, got it for the ridiculous price of $31.99. BB was clearancing out their stock. They had boxes and boxes of new ones. I just couldn't pass it up, even though I love my Sony NS41(non upconverting) player I was thinking about a upconverter that could play RAM discs. Here were my impressions, many comparing it to my Sony:

Minuses-
Flimsy tray, hard to get disc out since no side notches for fingers. Sony is much easier to get disc out.
No next, pause, search on the unit. My Sony has them and I use them frequently.
No disc resume once disc has been ejected. ******this is the #1 reason I love my Sony. I usually have several discs in various stages of playing. The Sony will remember something like 6 different discs and where I left off playing them, even after powering down the machine. The Panny would forget resume after ejecting the DVD.
No chapter Elapsed time, only title elapsed time.
No pan scan on zoomed image.
Did not have Picture/NAVI button, which will give a person a thumbnail for each chapter point on any disc.
No go-to time search.
Can't control TV functions from DVD remote. eg channel, volume, power, input select.

Pluses+
Plays RAMS
Does not display the word PAUSE, PLAY, etc. on the units display. It displays the time, which is nice. So does my Sony.
Upconverts, although I didn't notice any difference in PQ from my Sony using Components on it, not upconverted. The single HDMI cable is a plus though.
Nice feeling remote, uses AA batteries.
Has 2x with sound. Like that feature for zipping through slow scenes with no dialog. Sony does not have this.
Has speedplay. Picture with understandable sound. Similar to Sony.
HDMI VIERA control-Hooking this unit up to my Panny LCD via HDMI cable they were able to talk to each other. Automatically changing inputs, turning each other on/off etc. Kind of nice feature.

Overall it was a nice player and I would have keep it but I have several of the Sonys and I really like the disc resume feature on those. If that's not a big deal for you I'd say get the Panny. You could do much worse, I'm just being very particular in my review. Lastly IMO unless you get a top end player like Oppo or a HD DVD or BR player the PQ upconverted looks pretty much like the PQ using Component. Hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes over here at the players forum(my first post here and all) but at least over in the DVD recorders forum it's the general consensus and I'd have to agree.

thanks for the writeup! i'll probably get the player, though i might look into your Sony.

Actually my Sony is a few years old. The replacement at Sams/Costco lacks some of the front panel buttons that mine have, otherwise I sure hope they've kept the "disc resume" feature. I think they also sell a upconverter which is similar in features, at least they did when I bought mine. As mentioned though I couldn't tell any difference in PQ so I exchanged it for mine which was $50 less. Note the Sony does NOT play RAMs, if that's important to you.

Another player you might want to consider is the Pioneer DV-400. It upscales to 1080p, can also play Divx files and has a USB port for playing Divx files or pictures and music. I've had mine for a few months now and I think it's a great player. They're on sale quite often at Best Buy.

thanks, but my parents don't need that - just want something that'll upscale their current DVD's, very basic. thanks though :) bought the Panny on ebay.

I think they'll be happy with it. It's a nice looking player, very thin, and the remote has nice sized buttons, IMO anyway.

i think the VIERA control thing will be perfect for my tech-novice parents. that way they don't have to think about what input to put the DVD player on. how does that work? you just hit DVD on the remote and it connects?

i think the VIERA control thing will be perfect for my tech-novice parents. that way they don't have to think about what input to put the DVD player on. how does that work? you just hit DVD on the remote and it connects?

If you power up the DVD player, the display will power on (if not on) and change to that input automagically. When you shut off the DVD player or display, the other one shuts off as well. It's a nice feature.

The one annoyance I have with it is, I like to pop in a disc and get it ready while still watching something else, say on cable. Well, the minute you power up the DVD player, the display switched to that input. So, I don't pop in a disc when I'm up... I have to wait til I'm gonna watch the movie.

-comix

probably something that will actually benefit them. but i can see it being an annoyance to me. thanks for the help!

edit - so that means if you turn off the DVD player it turns off the TV? because what if you just want to change back to regular TV and power down the player?