Panasonic DVD-S77S DVD Player
A great player but wasn't happy with up-conversion - personal preference
I bought this to go with a new 500U Panasonic Plasma 50\\". Hooked up with HDMI. No problems thanks to other reviewers revealing the quick way to the up-conversion toggle in the menus. My wife and I both thought the up-conversion actually did the picture a disservice by blurring. Background elements and distant people (i.e. small items on screen) got blurred to a very 'mushy' appearance in our opinion. However, closeups looked incredible and sharp!!<br /><br />Until HD-DVD, this is probably the best you can do if you want sharper close-ups. Standard DVDs just don't have the resolution data to look great all over when enlarged to 50\\" or more.<br /><br />For me the choice is normal viewing (in my case DVD playing through an XBox) which is somewhat grainy vs. smoothed over pixels that appear blurry (through an up-conversion processor). Grainy won out in my home over blurry so I returned the player and will hold out for HD-DVD when available to get the sharpest picture all over and not just in the close-ups.<br /><br />One odd item about audio - To get full 5.1 surround from this unit you must use 6 RCA cables (or HDMI) into a receiver with split channel input. I did, and it sounded great. But the manual says if you use the optical or coax digital out, which I would have preferred to use, you only get 2 channel audio not surround.