Panasonic DVD-S77S DVD Player
Top Notch for the Price and then Some
This DVD player is unquestionably a top bargain for the price. The better the TV you have, especially HDTV, the larger difference you will see between players. While this DVD player has many options that will require you to invest some time in setting it up intially, the payback is worth it as the picture is top notch. <br /> <br />First off, much in this player is very well designed. The \\"annoying blue light\\" that someone complained about earlier is very cool and CAN be shut off, either permanently or automatically when a disc is inserted and the play button is pressed. Pretty cool. <br /> <br />On the down side, the manual is HORRIBLE. That's an understatement. There are times that you will need the manual or you need time to read elsewhere how to set some of the settings properly, e.g. saving user defined settings for your different setups such as viewing over HDMI and over component inputs. <br /> <br />Another downside is that none of the \\"region free hacks\\" or \\"component upscaling\\" work. The miserable, despicable motion picture and music industry have locked your DVD players so DVDs you may legitimately buy in other countries will not work in this machine (the justification for this is questionable at best.) In addition, the component video output is only at 480 pixels native so if you have an older HDTV, this will not increase the resolution. Again, you can thank the same group who for whatever reason believe that this will prevent piracy (even though you can digitally copy DVDs) and results in your diminished viewing pleasure. While the Samsungs have secret codes that can unlock these features, I don't think their cheaper Zoran Vaddis deinterlacer chip provides nearly the same picture. My HDTV does a very good job upscaling for the most part and I don't use any non-USA DVDs (at the moment) so these problems do not really affect me. <br /> <br />All that said, for $200, getting the Faroudja decoder (which may have some of the bugs clipped here) with the otherhigh end components really makes this a best buy.