Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic DVD S75EBS Multi-region DVD Player

WOW! This DVD player is amazing, it has it all. By far the best looking DVD player I have every seen. Its super slim design and transparent DVD tray make it unique. It goes perfect with my silver Panasonic 32" 50 Hz 16:9 Widescreen TV.

At the back, it has every connection possible. Scart out (RGB/Video/S-Video Selectable), Video/S-Video out, Component Video out, Digital Audio Optical/Coaxial out, Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS out (all channels), etc.

In terms of performance, the unit does not disappoint in the least.

Picture quality is outstanding (using RGB scart out), thanks to the 54MHz/10-Bit Video DAC Processing. The image has a cinema feel and quality to it. It is sharp, detailed and colourful. There are also plenty of settings to enhance the picture, such as soft, fine, cinema and user defined. The zoom mode works nice, especially if you still have a 4:3 TV. It allows you to enlarge the picture. For example, you can watch widescreen (16:9 anamorphic) movies with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio in full-screen and 2.35:1 in 1.85:1 or full-screen. In fact, you can you can enlarge the picture as much as you like (up to 2.0x). One zoom mode converts poorly recorded 4:3 Letterbox DVDs to 16:9 anamorphic widescreen (can be very handy, but results vary). On-screen is very good, with loads of settings for counter, time remain, bit-rate, etc. Menus are nice and easy to use. You can adjust the position and brightness of subtitles. Playback controls are excellent, perfect pause, slow-motion, frame advance/back (using menu buttons < > - frame accurate!) and fast forward/rewind. It even has progressive scan (NTSC) via the component video connections. However, I have not tried this as my TV does not have the sockets.

The sound is amazing due to the 192 kHz/24-bit D/A converter, much better than I had expected (Since my TV only has 2 speakers). I cannot believe that is has built-in dts and Dolby Digital Decoders too, at this silly price. Some of the much dearer DVD players do not even have them. The sound is the best that I have heard on any DVD player. It is rich, clear and gives a real sense of atmosphere. All movies with 5.1 or DTS sound are down mixed to 2 channels, so you get all the sound effects. Personally, I used to think that DVD sound was a bit flat and low in volume. However, this unit has proved be wrong. Just imagine what the results would be like through a 5.1/DTS amplifier and speaker setup. There are many settings to enhance sound and dialogue too.

Compatibility is good, DVD-R/DVD-RAM, CD-R/RW, MP3/WMA, JPEG, VideoCD, Super Video-CD, etc. All imports VCDs, homemade VCDs/S-VCDS and DVD-Rs played fine. I was impressed. CD-RWs can be a bit troublesome, but then again it is not even the best format on the PC.

Last but not least, it is multi-region out of the box. I had no trouble playing any of my Region 1 US - DVDs.

This is my 4th DVD player. I 1st was a Samsung, which was good. My 2nd was a Sony, which are very good. My 3rd was my Sony PS2 Console, which was average (easily better than VHS though). This Panasonic DVD player has really blown me, it has everything and more. The price is a complete bargain, in fact it�s ridiculous. All my friends and visitors have commented on the units design and shape. Everyone loves it!

Performance is as good as the DVD format gets. The only flaw that I can think of is that is slightly slower at loading than the Sony DVD player I had. However, it�s not a big deal. It out performs all others player in every level.

If you want a player that is both stylish and which has excellent performance, then get this. You will not be disappointed. Try the new Indiana Jones trilogy on DVD; this really brings out the best.

This player is magnificent. Wonderful image clarity, great sound definition (particularly on DVD Audio when double remastered) and an amazing feature set for the price: progressive scan; component video output; highmat/mp3/jpg support; multiformat support (including dvd-r, svcd and vcd support); wide-ranging controls on black levels, gamma correction, noise reduction and colour balance; disc position memory for 5 discs; a wonderfully designed ultra-slim case; intuitive menu systems and a well thought out remote; the list goes on and on. The home cinema magazines have quite rightly declared this to be the best midrange DVD player money can buy, and with the multi-region modifications available through Amazon (including support for troublesome RCE discs) you should run out and buy this player immediately. You will not regret it.

My 5 year old Sony S715 was showing it's age. I had also just bought a state of the art Panasonic 32" widescreen tv (from Gotch's in Selby) - the fantastic 32 PD30. So what better choice than the matching S75 dvd player. I use the tv in 833 line, 75Hz mode so it needs a top quality source to give of its best. Thankfuly, I just can't see anyway of achieving a better picture - it is simply flawless and devoid of all artefacts.
With every connection you could want including a coax electrical digital output (which Panasonic's website fails to list) and a component video output (with progressive scan on NTSC discs) I should not need to upgrade for another 5years.
However, the CD replay doesn't compare well to my Arcam Cd player though this is hardly a fair comparison in view of the £300 price gap; I have yet to try any DVD-audio discs.
In a crowded market I doubt any dvd under £1000 would beat it significantly!!! Buy one!

I chose this to replace my Pioneer 636 which died
after only about 2 years light use. I don't play
that many DVDs so I didn't want to spend a great
deal of money. I chose the Panasonic at £128 over
the cheaper players (around £100) for the built
in Dolby and DTS decoders.

So far I am very impressed with this player! The
pictures are crisp and bright, menu system is simple
to use (although a bit slow) and the sound seems pretty
good bearing in mind that I am using the TV speakers

at the moment (my hi-fi amp and speakers are in a
different room due to decorating).

The slide-show feature is a good way to casually view
digital camera pictures, although still images will
never look wonderful on an interlaced TV.

The slimline design, silver finish and mirrored
display all look good. A slight let-down is the
rather unattractive remote. One thing to watch
our for is the disc loading tray is made of clear
plastic, so if you leave it open it's very easy to
miss seeing it and walk into it.

I exchanged an Acoustics Solutions bag of Bolts for the Panasonic rather than have the former repaired. It cost me £60 and is the best money I've spent. One thing from the outset - I was told Panasonics didn't play DVD+R or DVD+RW. Panasonic may not have signed up to this media but this machine plays them - it has a long, long think about RW but eventually it kicks in perfectly. DVD+R plays just like an ordinary disk. I have no idea why they don't push that facility - lots of people now have a DVD Recorder and a lot of them are + RW media driven but until I wrote this review I couldn't find one word on the net and took a gamble. Everything else has been said about this machine - it is a beauty - but it's also robust - I know because for the first time in my life I dropped it straight out the box - it fell 3 feet onto a hard floor and made a horrible noise. Plugged in, the disk drawer wouldn't shut - I had that awful sinking feeling.. I managed to spot a small piece of trim that has risen under the drawer - clipped it back down - perfection - if I'd dropped an Acousitc Solutions I'd still be hoovering the bits up ( if I could be bothered). I have now tried standard DVD's, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW and they all play on mine. I hope that's useful for you to know if like me your pc has been in melt down backing up your DVD collection onto DVD+R disks. Buy this - you won't regret it and Panasonic have always had a touch of class about them.