New: Netbook Tablet with touchscreen
Entered CNET Catalog: 04/16/2003
SKU: 0037988406616
Manufacturer: Panasonic
Manufacturer description
Panasonic's vision of the digital future is driven by the needs and aspirations of its business customers and millions of consumers around the world who use its products every day. The company shares their dream to live a fuller life by providing ways of working smarter and enjoying the rewards of technological advances.CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 04/21/2003
An informative blue display can be set to dim after 5 seconds of play, but you can't turn it off completely. The setup menus are straightforward, and a Quick Setup option is included for those who want to avoid the more advanced process.
The remote is the same generic-looking, many-buttoned affair included with last year's DVD-RP62. It gets the job done, and you can differentiate the main keys by feel, but there's no illumination. We also would have liked better placement of the zoom control as well as a couple of other useful keys. Aside from progressive-scan playback, which requires a digital television to work, the DVD-S35K's main claim to fame is its ability to play CDs filled with JPEG, MP3, or WMA files.
You can navigate a disc of both digital stills and music using a familiar Windows-like file tree. MP3 functionality is impressive; a big menu displays filenames up to 32 characters long, and the deck can randomly play an entire disc of MP3 tracks. The search function will comb a disc for whatever filename you enter. The unit's ability to play JPEG stills is among the best we've seen. It defaults to a slide show that you can adjust to display each picture for 1 to 30 seconds. Shots take only 2 to 3 seconds each to load, and MP3 and JPEG discs themselves take 10 to 30 seconds to load.
The DVD-S35K doesn't have aspect-ratio control; players that do (such as the JVC XV-S502SL) will better serve wide-screen sets that can't resize progressive-scan material, especially nonanamorphic and full-screen 4:3 video. The DVD-S35K's zoom function includes three levels of magnification for 16:9 TVs and five for 4:3 sets. It's designed to help viewers eliminate letterbox bars, but the trade-off is that zooming cuts the left and right edges off the picture and reduces image quality.
A couple of other bonuses are on hand, such as very useful subtitle brightness and position adjustments. Three picture presets are provided, along with a 6-second Quick Replay and a feature that remembers your custom resume points for up to five discs.
On the back panel, you'll find the now standard selection of jacks, including composite, S-Video, and component-video outputs; a stereo analog-audio output; and an optical digital jack. To switch the component-video output between interlaced and progressive-scan mode, you must stop the disc and delve into the menu system. In our tests, the DVD-S35K proved compatible with a wider range of test discs than any other player we've seen to date. We were pretty surprised when it played one of the more problematic DVD-RWs we have. It also plowed through every other disc in our library, including DVD-Rs, DVD+Rs, DVD+RWs, DVD-RAMs, and various discs filled with JPEG and MP3 files.
We moved on to the trusty Video Essentials test disc to evaluate the unit's progressive-scan playback, and we came away generally impressed. Resolution measured out to the full extent of the DVD format, and 3:2 pull-down worked well to eliminate interlaced artifacts. The one problem came when we looked at the waving American flag to test video de-interlacing ability. The DVD-S35K didn't perform this feat quite as well as the older DVD-RP62, and we saw slight stair-stepping patterns along the flag's edges.
The DVD of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial provided more evidence of the DVD-S35K's video capability. The scene in which Elliott and the kids confront E.T. in the closet looked good, and there was lots of three-dimensional detail on the alien's skin as it stretches toward the light. The stuffed animals' fur had plenty of realistic depth. A view out over the town was rendered cleanly, with no movement in the rooftops.
Like most players we've seen, the DVD-S35K didn't do the best job converting anamorphic or Enhanced For Widescreen DVDs for display on normal televisions. A pan over some haystacks revealed subtle movement artifacts and a crawling effect. But this won't be a problem if you're watching on a wide-screen TV or a 4:3 TV with vertical compression (a.k.a. 16:9 mode on some sets and 16:9 Enhanced mode on Sony sets), and the trouble is much less visible on smaller TVs.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 User Rating: 
7/10
Excellent DVD player!!!
Pros: Although I have not tried out the MP3 and JPEG, the video and sound quality are really good. Comparing my Sony player which costed more than this one, this player is a lot better in term of video and sound quality. By the way, it play DVD+R, too.
Cons: For the price I paid for it, I don't see any cons for this player.
Review:
User Rating: 
8/10
It plays everything
Pros:
Cons:
Review: It plays everything. Very low profile. Super sharp when viewing JPEG. I highly recommend this product.
