Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic DVD-S35K Ultra-Slim Progressive-Scan DVD Player , Black

The look and feel of the Panny DVD-S35K is very sleek and modern. We've placed it on a bookshelf in our bedroom, and the slim lines of the unit means that it does not "take over" and visually dominate the other items on the bookshelf.

This unit was so low-priced that I was not sure what to expect in terms of picture quality, but I was pleasantly surprised. The colors are accurate, the image is sharp, and I have not seen any visible video artificats in any of the numerous DVDs we've watched so far. Within the display limits of our television I have absolutely nothing bad to report about this DVD player. Overall, the picture quality from this unit is head-and-shoulders better than that from the flaky and unreliable 3-year-old Sony 530D DVD player I have in our living room.

(When reading my comments as to picture quality, please bear in mind that we are using this player with a Philips 20PF9925 20" LCD panel TV. As many of you already know, there are certain trade-offs in using LCD technology, e.g. lower contrast; and of course a 20" screen is not exactly widescreen and hence certain categories of defect are largely invisible even when they are - or might be - present in its input feed.)

This unit is also feature-rich. As advertised, it can play CD-R's with MP3's/WMA's and JPEG images. Frankly, I assumed that this would probably be poorly implemented and/or frustrating to use. But in fact I was rather startled to see how *well* it worked. I placed into the tray a CD-R made a couple of months ago which contained about 150 family pictures in three different directories. After only a few seconds load time, the player correctly identified the disc as containing photos, indexed all of them, and offered me the choice to begin a slide show. Very easy to operate and highly configurable, for instance if you want to show the whole disc or merely one directory. Easy enough that even the proverbial "grandma" could use it.

Final comments: in giving this player 5 stars, I am relating it to my expectations for a DVD player in the "budget" category. I think that if I wanted a progressive scan player for a dedicated home theater, or for a big-screen (43"+) HDTV monitor, I would probably look elsewhere and buy a more expensive unit with a more advanced decoder chip, SACD or DVD-A support, etc. But among players in its class the Panny DVD-S35K simply cannot be beaten.

We've already got 3 DVD players at home. A 4 year old Onkyo DVD changer, a 3 year old Toshiba, and one of those portable Panasonic DVD players. Well the Onkyo went on the fritz, and I decided to replace it with a progressive scan single disc player, since we have an HDTV and the picture is supposed to be better.

Last time I checked progressive scan DVD players ran $... and up, yet here is the Panasonic on Amazon[.com] for under $. Well the price is right and the product is incredible. The picture quality is very impressive, definitely better than the old Onkyo. Plus the features are better as well.

Zoom is much better with complete flexibility to zoom to any level, not just a few presets. No signs of any artifacts or digital pixelation that I've occasionally seen on my other players. Very smooth transition during DVD layer changes, and excellent sound over my stereo. Plus this player is absolutely skinny!

It has all the outputs you would expect for video and audio(except perhaps audio coax, but I think the industry has committed to optical). Operation is simple, and my kids have no problem using it.

No way you can beat this for the money. I say go ahead and make the purchase.

This is crazy, this professional type DVD player at this price .First off I use to work at a major Electronic store selling DVD players,so I've had plenty of time to look at all makes and models.Not including the 5 or six players i've owned and still do own.This by far is the best player i've seen made to date.I have other reviews on Panasonics 2001 and 2002 models and they both scored 5 stars.Why; you ask A few simple reasons Picture:as good as it gets.Sound:Better than most models.Durability:I,ve had 2002 model for nearly 2 years now not even as much as a githch,skip,bad audio,wont play disc,nothing at all none of this IN TWO YEARS,thats saying alot about Panasonic's durability.Also Panasonics owe so to easy to use own screen display features.
"NOW" lets get back to this years model dvd-s35.There's not much to say but "WOW" its everything like last years perfect model ecsept better,i didn'nt think it was possibell.First off it plays anything and everything you name it it plays it including JPEG (pictures taken from a digital source).Its ultra slim body looks great.One of my biggest problems with last years model was the remote,well Panasonic took that into considiration becouse the remote with this model is nearly as good as it gets with perfect button lay out,easy to operate in the dark.AlSO IF YOUR LIKE ME AND SIT 10 FEET FROM YOUR TV FEAR NOT THIS PLAYER IS LIKE STEALTH you cant here it playing unless you stick your ear up write next to the player.Its very,very quite.Now this is were it goes from 5 stars to six stars in the features or you could say Bells and whislels.Nothing has more "NOTHING" i COULD TYPE 10,000 WORDS ON THIS TOPIC BUT I'LL KEEP IT TO A FEW.First off say your watching a movie in subtitles (Crouching Tiger) and you say to yourself i wish i could move those subtitles to a diffrent part of the screen.Well now you can, you can put them literally anywhere.You can also brighten or dim the color of the subtitles.It has What Panasonic calls Cinema mode(you can see dark images on the screen better) you can choose one of 3 preset modes or custimize it yourself to get the best picture pssible.The on screen display is just plan simple to operate and its just plan silly how many features there are to play with,or not you can just hook it up let it run and you still have the best player out there.Here's a fact this is the best made Dvd player made yet regardless of price,its the new 2003 model and there always on sale when they first come out.This player wont be this inespensive for long.Do yourself a big favor buy this player dont even think of another trust me theres nothing better.Or you can waste your money on some other model for some reason or another,well thats your choice but you'll be wasting your hard earned money.Thankyou Panasonic I finally have the perfect dvd player.

This DVD player gives you so many options that makes you wonder why it doesn't cost more. I've only just recieved mine, but found the entire set-up system to be extra fast (has a "Quick Setup" option that's practically fool-proof). The player is a full-fledged Progressive Scan DVD/CD player, for more versatile home entertainment. It'll give you breathtaking realism and impact of the cinema in your own home. Features Direct Disc Select, Disc Skip, Disc Program Play, Disc Random Play and Dolby Digital & DTS Surround Sound outputs. Also gives you the option for dialogue enhancement, which brings dialogue to the forefront and makes it stand out over the background music. Includes picture enhancement settings combines brightness control with picture noise canceling to provide better picture quality in certain viewing conditions. It lessens glare, giving you colors that are more cinema-like and picture resolution that is gentler to the eyes. Cinema mode also improves the visibility of details in dark scenes (more crisp) by automatically adjusting picture contrast, and helps to suppress color smearing, as well. The player offers Super Hi-Speed Scan up to x200. This feature provides crystal clear scan quality in five speeds, ranging from slow motion to high speed, in both forward and reverse. At the highest setting, you can search at an incredible 200 times the normal speed in order to rapidly locate desired points on a disc. Capable of playing Multi-Disc Playback DVD-Video, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, Video CD, CD, CD-R, CD-RW. And as for the playback--very crisp. One thing: Does not have a clock display when it's turned off (or maybe it does and I haven't figured it out yet...doubtful). But overall, a great player for the price;it will really serve your DVD needs.

I too had the H02 error after about 18 months of flawless performance.

Since everyone is having the same problem at about the same time, is it reasonable to suspect engineered, PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE? Maybe just poor product.. Panasonic wouldn't make so much money if you didn't spend $100 every 1-2 years on another DVD player. Think about it..

Like a few others, however, I am again watching movies on my S35S after taking it apart, blowing in it a bit, fingering and jiggling the gears a bit, and putting it back together (we were going to throw it out anyway, why not play with it freely beforehand? Make sure to unplug it first!). This solved the problem, at least for the time being - may have to do it periodically from now on. I'm too poor to buy a new one every year, so I tinker.

The actual problem is that the spindle-motor stopped turning, thus the laser cannot read the initializing track of a disc to determine that a valid disc is indeed present. Hence, "H02"(Must be Pana-Geek-Speak for 'farked up'..), and finally "No disc."

To be accurate and honest, Panasonic should - instead of "H02" - have their DVD players display a scrolling marquee "P4n450n1k PWNES j00!1@!11one" because that's what they're doing to us with these cheap motors designed to fail at 1 to 1-1/2 years.

Upon opening and observation it was obvious that the spindle motor/flywheel thingy was unable to turn freely, too much friction to get started apparently, too "sluggish," it just simply hummed before disengaging and giving up. Perhaps it needs a bit of re-lubrication; just lightly touching the top of the spindle housing/cover (specifically, the white round thingy that resides above the disc) made it start spinning again.

3 stars for the great flawless performance for 18 months, minus 2 stars for the cheap/underpowered/etc. spindle-motor that goofs up at this time making me spend a couple of hours toying with it just to watch my movies. Luckily I have a PS2/dvd to hold me over for a while if this DVD player craps out for good. Maybe I should try TOSHIBA next time?