Panasonic Progressive Scan DVD Player, Model DVDS97S

Features:

• One Cable Carries High-Quality Digital Audio and Video
  If you have even a moderately complicated home theater setup, you probably have a pile of tangled cables on the floor behind it. Imagine replacing all those cables with a single cable that carries both digital video and audio at the same time. With the new HDMI standard, that's exactly what you get. HDMI carries high-quality digital video and audio over the same thin cable, allowing you to run one cable from your DVD player to an HDMI-compatible TV or home theater receiver.

• Film-Like Image Quality
  The goal of any playback device should be accurate reproduction of the original content. In the case of DVDs, most of that content is film-based. Utilizing advanced progressive scan¹ playback techniques and very accurate MPEG video decoders, this DVD player provides an image that faithfully represents the image you see at your favorite movie theater.

• Play Many Popular Music Formats
  Most people think of their DVD player simply as a movie machine. This DVD player not only plays prerecorded DVDs and DVD-R²/DVD-RAM discs, but also MP3s³, CDs, CD-R/RW⁴ discs, WMA⁵, and DVD-Audio discs.

• Pick Up Where You Left Off
  Let's say you're enjoying the latest Hollywood blockbuster, and one of your kids needs to watch his favorite animated character perform his antics—right now. With our position memory feature, you can mark the exact point on the DVD where you stopped it. Even after removing the disc and playing another, you can put the original disc back in the player and pick up right where you left off. This DVD player can memorize positions on up to 5 DVDs, so even if it's a kiddie movie marathon, you're covered.

• Digital Recordings Sound Like the Original Performance
  When compressed digital audio such as MP3s and movie soundtracks is created, higher frequencies are lost due to limited frequency response. Most of these frequencies can't be heard by human ears, but their presence conveys subtle nuances. When they're missing in a digital recording, it doesn't quite sound the same as the live performance. Our multi re-master feature examines the audio signal and helps compensate for these lost frequencies, providing sound quality closer to the original performance.

• CD-R/RW Playback
  You can enjoy listening to CDs that you make, since our players enable playback of CD-R and CD-RW discs.

• MP3 Playback
  Capable of playing MP3 audio files stored on CD-R/RW formatted discs. Select models allow you to generate a playlist of your favorite songs or use repeat and random play modes to add variety.*
  * Please see individual model specifications for specific playback options.

• Progressive Scanning
  Progressive Scanning (480p) creates a picture signal with double the scan lines of a conventional DVD interlaced picture (480i), resulting in higher picture resolution, sharper image quality, and the elimination of virtually all motion artifacts. In order to take advantage of a progressive scan DVD player, your TV must be capable of accepting and displaying a progressive scan signal (480p).

• Advanced Surround (V.S.S.)
  Simulates a surround sound effect using only the front two speakers*, so you can enjoy Dolby Digital® 5.1 channel discs without an elaborate home theater system.
  *This effect also works with Dolby Digital 2-channel discs. "Dolby," "Dolby Pro Logic" and "Dolby Digital" are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation.

• Dialogue Enhancer
  Most of the movie dialogue recorded in surround sound formats (Dolby Digital®, DTS®*, Dolby Pro Logic®) is heard through the center channel speaker, and sometimes this channel can be overwhelmed by particularly loud sounds emanating from the other speakers in your surround sound system. The Dialogue Enhancer increases the center channel volume (relative to other channels), making movie dialogue easier to hear and understand.
  * "DTS" and "DTS Digital Surround" are trademarks of Digital Theater Systems, Inc.

• Direct Navigator
  When playing back a DVD-RAM disc only, this feature allows you to use the navigation menu on the disc that was created using a Panasonic DVD Recorder as specified above. No editing of the navigation is possible using a DVD player.

• Playlist Playback
  When playing back a DVD-RAM disc only, this feature allows you to use the custom playlists on the disc that were created using a Panasonic DVD Recorder as specified above. No editing of the playlists is possible using a DVD player.

• HighMAT (High-Performance Media Access Technology)
  High-Performance Media Access Technology (HighMAT), co-developed by Panasonic and Microsoft, designed to significantly improve interoperability for digital media content between PCs* and popular electronic devices such as CD players, car stereos and DVD players. HighMAT is a digital-media standard that provides a dramatically improved method of storing, arranging and playing back personal digital photo, music and video collections on recordable discs such as CD-RW media. At this time, our HighMAT-compatible Panasonic products have HighMAT Level 2 functionality which includes compatibility only with audio files and JPEG still image files