Panasonic DVD-S700P-K HDMI 1080P Up-Converting All Multi Region Code Zone Free PAL/NTSC DVD Player

Over the years, as part of my music collection, I acquired a number of CD and DVD sets where I could enjoy the CDs but the DVDs were PAL so I was unable to watch them. I tried a number of pay and free 'cracks' on several domestic DVD players that were supposed to make them region-free. None ever worked and a few trashed the players. The price of many of the region-free players were always cost prohibitive. In my way of thinking, if I have $500 to spend on digital entertainment I'd rather buy $500 worth of CDs than a $500 player to be able to watch several dozen DVDs. (I'm the same way with tools and tool boxes- If I have $1000 to buy gear for my shop with, I'd rather spend $700 of it on tools and maybe $300 on a minimalist tool box to hold them than spend the whole $1000 on a more fancy tool box and not buy more tools!)The day I bought this player I had decided to see if prices had changed any since I last looked. They had indeed come down for many units. I was actually quite surprised at both how affordable many region-free players had become and even more amazed at how widely prices varied for the same unit from retailer to retailer. There were many units that sold anywhere from near $500 at some places to less than $150 at others. Seeing the prices I decided I wanted a region-free player right then and there!Since I still wasn't 100% certain these things would actually work without forcing me to assign a region I chose a moderately priced one, this Panasonic. Since the PAL DVDs in my collection were all standard definition (meaning not Blu-ray) and that the region-free Blu-Ray players started in the $150 to $200 ball park, I price shopped and this is what I bought.I bought Panasonic because I wanted a brand name and I felt comfortable with the Panasonic name. (Yeah, yeah, somebody else likely makes it and Panasonic is one of several names that get hung on the unit.) I owned Technics audio gear too many years ago and it was good stuff! I still have a set of Technics SB2760 speakers as mains on my living room TV/surround sound system.When I got the player my first impression was I am amazed at how small the unit is. It measures 12" wide, 6" deep and 1 1/2" tall. (I also recently bought a Sony BDPS 3500 Blu- Ray player for same main audio/video system which is also surprisingly small for all its features. It measures 9" X 7" X 1 1/2" ) NOTE: The Panasonic player was an addition to my bedroom audio/video system.Outputs on this unit are sparse: one HDMI and an RCA component set, yellow (video) and white and red (stereo audio, left and right). The absence of an optical output wasn't an issue. What's there is fine for my application. The HDMI plugs into my 32" LCD monitor and the stereo outputs connect to a vintage Nakamichi RE-1 receiver which drives a pair of fully restored vintage JBL-L100s (These were JBL's first home speakers sold to the public).After playing many discs over a couple weeks I can summarize with this: The Panasonic S700 kicks butt!While I know the audio I hear and video I see are ultimately the result of the quality of the receiver/speakers and TV monitor, if what was being fed to those devices was lacking, the resultant output would also be lacking.In use I have no problem playing PAL discs and finally got to see some live Golden Earring and Pink Floyd discs I have been wanting to see for years. I have played DVDs, DVD-Rs, CDs, CD-Rs and they all work splendidly. I get DVDs from Netflix and some are, well, not in the best condition and the player has worked perfectly with every one with nary a skip or stutter. I haven't tried a dual layer DVD simply because I don't have any and I have encountered maybe two or three of them over quite a time span. Of course, this player isn't Blu-Ray capable, so that's a moot point.A comment on audio quality: I have a music only audio system in my bedroom as well that consists of a Sirius/XM Onyx II satellite radio receiver, an NAD Monitor Series Stereo Preamp 1000, AudioSource Model Eight Series II equalizer, an NAD C565BEE CD player, Parasound HCA 750A High Current Power Amplifier driving a set of old Sansui S917 3 way speakers. It is surprising how close in sound quality a CD sounds playing in the Panasonic/Nakamichi/JBL system compared to the NAD based system! It's that good! I'm not saying they are equal, but they are closer than I would have believed! Relate that quality to the audio coming from DVDs and this Panasonic player is nothing to sneeze at!A feature I do like about it is that it turns itself off after a period of inactivity which compliments the TV monitor I use which has the same feature. I can doze off without worrying about shutting everything off.The player has a remote and I'll just say it works. The button configuration is a bit different than what I'm used to. Skip forward a chapter and skip back a chapter are side by side and fast forward and fast reverse are side by side, all in the same row. I'm used to, from left to right, skip back, fast reverse, fast forward, skip forward across a row. It just took a bit of getting used to, especially since the remote is smallish with the buttons close together and I am blessed with fat little fingers! Then again, I never had a remote for anything I felt was perfectly laid out.The ultimate question is "Would I buy it again now that I have had it and used it for several weeks?"The ultimate answer is "Absolutely!" In fact I am looking at region-free Blu-Ray players for my main entertainment system!.

It allowed me to connect to my BoseSoundWave system and play CD’s saving me costly repairs .

I bought this to play PAL region DVD's in the US. Easy to connect and automatically played PAL DVD's. Good value. Would buy again.

My player came from seller "Bombay Electronics" and played PAL and region 6 discs right out of the box without my having to do anything. Manufacturing date was said to be November 2015. Setup was easy as pie, and the form factor (not super extra wide) I found to be preferable to the Philips DVP5990 it was replacing. Also, I was relieved to learn that the analog audio-out L/R RCA-type connectors on the back of this Panasonic still output audio while using HDMI for video (with HDMI set to PCM mode). So if you only have an old-school analog non-HDMI speaker or audio system in your living room, this will accommodate you.Some cautions, though:* this is an up-converting and not upsampling player. You can google around for the difference, but the picture quality on this was noticeably inferior to the upsampling Philips it replaced (which no longer worked). If I had to do it all over again, I'd make sure to get an upsampling player. (Not necessarily Philips, though. They seem to have troublesome remotes, in my experience). On the other hand, if you've got an awesome expensive HDTV or A/V receiver that upsamples (I do not), maybe let those toys do the necessary upsampling work for you, treat this S700 as a dumb VCR and you'll get (possibly) better picture quality results. In the S700's defense, it does have controls for sharpness and black level that I have not yet played with. They might improve things.* this Panasonic does not have S-Video output or Component Video (3 cables for video signal) output. Your choices for video output are HDMI or composite (typically, the "yellow" in a three-headed Red-white-yellow cable).* while this S700 has a USB port in the front, note that like many DVD/Blu-Ray players which have been playing video off USB sticks for years now, the only media you can enjoy off a USB stick on this are MP3 files or JPEGs. No video. (Note also that the S700 model was introduced in 2011, so really, no surprise there that it isn't more advanced.)All three of these "negatives" were in plain view in the available owner's manual before I bought, and were not hidden from me. I knew what I was getting into going in and that I could work around these deficits in my living room. Still, it is these three points that make me take away 1 star, and I only point them out in case you can't find the owner's manual online. This hardware does meet my particular needs at this particular time. I'm highly satisfied with the merchandise and the seller.

Exceptional quality, reasonably priced and haven't had any problems with older cd's, dvd's and cdr playback! 5 STAR Seller and product