Panasonic DVD-S55S Digital Remastering Progressive-Scan DVD , Silver
Features & Great Styling Don't Translate To The Screen
Features & Great Styling Don't Translate To The Screen<br />I bought a Panasonic S55S with high hopes, based on reviews of the models it has just replaced, several of which used the Faroudja FLI2200 deinterlacing chip, without advertising that fact on the outside or tech specs. The RP82 and XP30 in particular had great pictures. Talk is that for the S55S Panasonic shifted to an in house produced deinterlacing chip.<br />The S55S has wonderful styling, a very good remote, and just about every form of setting, adjustment, multiple picture output profile (Cinema 1, Cinema 2, User, Fine, Soft, Normal, etc.), picture noise filtering, picture gamma and color adjustment and more informative pop up data bars than you could possibly want. It supports all kinds of other audio and video formats, including high bit rate DVD-audio, but not SACD. It's very reasonably priced. The LCD display on the front is sharp and easy to read and shows icons for all the various modes the player may be in. Faroudja FLI2200<br />Unfortunately, it also has a basically good but also very flawed picture, that has trouble delivering film like  movement without noticeable artifacts and non film like blurring, and which is rather contrasty with plugged up shadows, even with full use of the picture adjustment tools provided.<br />The Denon DVD-910 by comparison has the styling of a brick, a very minimalist, uninformative and hard to read LCD display on the front panel, hard to read labels on the black face plate, a really clunky remote, hardly any adjustments at all, doesn't support many of the extended DVD and picture formats available on the S55S, and would appear to be inferior in every regard except one: the picture quality is outstanding and first rate in every way with none of the artifacts and picture gradation glitches visible in the S55S. The Denon DVD-910 is based on the same chipset combo that was used in the now discontinued and much sought after in the used market Panasonic RP-82.<br />Basically, any DVD player based on the Panasonic RP-82 \\"kit\\", assembled at the same factory in China for a number of manufacturers, will completely smoke just about any player at any price point out there. There are several currently avilable players from Denon and Yamaha at price points all the way from $200.00 to $999.00 that use the same combo, including the Faroudja FLI2200 with DCDi deinterlacing, but MOST IMPORTANTLY a 54mhz 12-bit video DAC.<br />So, don't buy a S55S? That depends on your set. The higher end and more unforgiving your set is the more the picture quality issues of the S55S become very important. If you're using a top of the line HDTV CRT or Plasma, you may be disappointed if you have experienced a better player to compare it to. If you're hooking up to a 27\\" or 32\\" conventional TV you may think it's an outstanding player.<br />It cannot, however, stand up to players using the Faroudja FLI220 or FLI2310 chips with 54mhz (or faster) 12-bit video DACs (including Panasonic's own model from just last year) that value picture quality above features when the output device is good enough to show the difference.>Basically, any DVD player based on the Panasonic RP-82 \\"kit\\", assembled at the same factory in China for a number of manufacturers, will completely smoke just about any player at any price point out there. There are several currently avilable players from Denon and Yamaha at price points all the way from $200.00 to $999.00 that use the same combo, including the Faroudja FLI2200 with DCDi deinterlacing, but MOST IMPORTANTLY a 54mhz 12-bit video DAC. <br />So, don't buy a S55S? That depends on your set. The higher end and more unforgiving your set is the more the picture quality issues of the S55S become very important. If you're using a top of the line HDTV CRT or Plasma, you may be disappointed if you have experienced a better player to compare it to. If you're hooking up to a 27\\" or 32\\" conventional TV you may think it's an outstanding player. <br />It cannot, however, stand up to players using the Faroudja FLI220 or FLI2310 chips with 54mhz (or faster) 12-bit video DACs (including Panasonic's own model from just last year) that value picture quality above features when the output device is good enough to show the difference.