Customer Reviews

Panasonic DVD-S38 Progressive Scan DVD Player, Black

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

purchased the panasonic dvd s-38 on 6/1/10 and it does everything stated..and it should. it has been running approximately 10 hours every 24 hours, so it is truly being tested. i have dvd's recorded on two samsungs purchased in 2007 and 2008 which are now in dvd heaven and a sony which is closely following them.

all the discs from the sanmsungs and some of the discs from the sony are recorded in the usual 2-6-8 hr. format which play quite well on the panasonic. here it comes...BUT.... the discs from the sony that are recorded in 1-1/2, 2-2/2, 3 and 5 hrs can't seem to "audio" very well. the picture is just dandy but the lips and sound just can't seem to get together. only the sony discs recorded with the unconventional hrs are affected. i use close caption 100 percent of the time so it doesn't really bother me, BUT it might annoy someone hearing the words and seeing closed lips.

so for all you sony users out there recording with the unusual hour format, take into consideration for your NEXT dvd player and/or recorder. i don't know if it makes a difference on all brands but it does come to light on the panasonic.

as i said, the panasonic s-8 is a great little machine. it can only give you what you put in and apparently off-hour recording(audio) (picture is okay) is not one.

It has easy to understand controls, it works, and the price is very reasonable. We bought this for a rental unit and are quite happy with it.

I was surprised at how good it plays also I played a few cd's it did well I am saving my money to purchase a home theater system but this will do fine and for under 40.00 dollars you can't go wrong

Just a heads-up note to advise the unwary shopper that the SC38 DOES NOT support the DVD-RAM format, as it states in the product info' section, and they will NOT playback.
Aside from that, it is the typical fine Panasonic product.

Shopping for a DVD player is something I've dreaded. It seems every DVD player model I've seen fails. My dad got a brand new Sony combo VCR and DVD--it skips on new movies. My brother got a used Samsung--same thing. My friend's Xbox spins up and never plays, just starts grinding. My friend's Philips will sometimes read movies and sometimes won't--how scratched they are or not has little impact, except that they're slightly more likely to confuse it if they are. But brand new DVDs without a spot on them still confuse it. It got so frustrating that I finally caved and decided I needed to replace the thing, as much as it was nice to be able to watch movies (sometimes, at least) for free (albeit with lots of headaches).

When I ran across this Panasonic, there were no serious negative reviews. No total red flags. The price was good and the features were suitable.

But the very first time I tried to load a DVD, the tray withdrew as the DVD was half in--it extended to its full open position and hovered there for a split second when it reversed course. The DVD, which it snatched from my hand in the process, got stuck, and I feared it would be destroyed. But I pressed the eject button and it came out. But again, the tray withdrew very quickly. I looked in the manual--nothing. Inexplicably, one time it stayed open like other DVD players I've seen--long enough to put in or take out a movie and then some. But then it reverted back to its spastic opening and closing behavior. And sometimes when you press open (or click it on the remote), it didn't actually open, it just stuck out a little and said it was open. And then horrible grinding noises came out of it. And then I clicked close and it closed, and then I clicked open and it opened--and then withdrew. The grinding noise stopped. And once it a while it worked fine--I think maybe 3 or 4 times out of dozens of times opening and closing it, it actually did what I asked it to do.

Putting a DVD in is like trying to draw a gun faster in a duel: You watch intently and you keep your trigger finger ready, but if you're off by a fraction of a second, you're a dead man. It's completely unacceptable, which is a pity, because I was going to give Panasonic a chance. Now I'm thinking of hitting a couple other brands and seeing if any actually work or if all DVD players are doomed to bugs like these.

Ironically, so far it has had little trouble actually reading the movies and playing them. The remote works fine, although as other reviewers mentioned it's a bit small without much finger space. And there's no separate pause button, which is annoying because sometimes I accidentally hit pause.

I'd order a replacement of the same type since feature wise it's perfect, but a bug like this right up front just doesn't give me any confidence the replacement will not also fail soon. And since DVD players seem to only have 90 day warranties (on labor, which they'd likely bill it as) most of the time, I'm not confident the manufacturer has any confidence in their product lasting longer than that. So, I've decided to return it.

I've always said that I'm not one of those folks that buy a brand name. I don't care if I have a McCafe or a Starbucks... I just want a warm drink. However, when it comes to my electronics, I am a faithful Panasonic customer. I have a Panasonic stereo (20 yrs old and still works great), Two flat screens and now two DVD players. This latest one works great. The remote is easy to use and the unit doesn't have that annoying red light on the power button just to tell me that it's "Off" I don't know if there's any kind of phantom electrical draw while it's powered down, but those little red lights on some products really annoy the hell out of me.

The unit is very low profile and elegant in it's simplic design, however I wish it wasn't so wide...nothing really wrong with that, I would just like one that's narrower. The only thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't automaticaly shut off after the movie is done. I like to pop in a movie and go to sleep. I set the sleep timer on the TV so it shuts off after 90 minutes, but I get up in the morning and the DVD player is still running. My last player would automatically shut off about 15 min after the DVD was finished.(wasn't panasonic)

It gets 4 stars for looks, ease of use, and no red OFF light! But no star for not automatically powering down after DVD is finished.

got it to replace my 11 year old Panasonic DVD player, it works great I just don't care for the remote, its so small you have to have light to see the buttons. my old remote had glow in the dark buttons, and was much easier to use.

The description on this player quoted that it play DVD-RAM but this is not true. The instruction manual does not show DVD-RAM. To me this is false advertising. I would not have bought this player.

Just a word of warning... in this day and age when a lot of cheapo DVD players have HDMI, THIS unit does NOT. Would be nice if Amazon would actually list the output specs - component and composite.

You don't need the very best blue ray for the grandkids, so we got this one for the guest room! But put it in the living room because it had a better pitcher the the one we haad in there!