We never buy products without checking our Consumer Reports magazine recommendations AND the Amazon.com reviews from buyers. Both sources led us to a decision to buy this unit - the 5-disc unit enabled us to get rid of our old, bulky 5-disc Sony CD player. Since our VHS player works fine, we didn't need a combo VHS/CD player, so we feel we made the right choice. The slim, sleek lines of this unit are a decided plus!

The unit arrived within a couple of days of ordering, and we are AMAZED to find how much we've been missing!! WHO KNEW there were so many electronic enhancements?? -- certainly not us ordinary people! Our surround sound system is finally being used to its best advantage on our CDs, and we'll be exploring all of the audio and video options soon. We did have to buy some additional cables and my husband had to draw on his electronics experience, but this unit is a wonderful addition to our home entertainment set-up.

OH! I failed to mention some important decision-making factors: SUPER price and FREE SHIPPING from Amazon.com. We couldn't be more pleased.

Low cost but not low quality (Rating: 4.00)
Review : After searching and comparing many dvd changers, I decided to give this Panasonic DVD-F85S 5-Disc Player a try. I received it in 2 days. Set up was a brief. I've to purchase a new optical digital cable since it doesn't have coax. digital output. I was initially hesitated to purchase a silver one (the only color amazon has to offer) because all my existing equipments are black. But this silver dvd is so handsome and slim. It actually fitted well with my black projection TV and other sound system equitments. The quality of the picture is superp. The sound is great; 2 major things I was looking for. I love the audio only function which allows you to turn the video signal off when playing audio CD--it makes audio cd sounds better. The player allows you to randamly play any songs within and among cds but the menu is not very well written. This DVD comes with so many great features; like dialogue enhencer-allows you to hear the dialogue bettter during the movie, double re-master(to choose from pop, rock, jazz etc when playing cd); position memory-which is so useful for watching movie if you need to turn off the movie and come back to watch it next time. With the position memory, you will be able to watch the movie from where you left off and not from the very begining. Midnight mode; sleep timer; sequential(allows you to play audio cd one after another automatically without having you to push a button after finish playing one cd) However, I am surprised that Panasonic did not incoporate a screen saver in this DVD. To me, lacking of screen saver, I would be quite uncomfortable to use it with an expensive plasma TV; althouth the dvd will switch to stand by mode afer stopping for 30 mins. My final words, you can't go wrong with this DVD 5 dics changer. It combines beauty, quality and Low cost.

Stay away from Panasonic!!! (Rating: 1.00)
Review : I would put it below 1 star. My 5-disc Panasonic unit died of the infamous H07 code after 14 months. After searching H07 on google, the H07 is common on Panasonic DVD players, and it means it is time for a new player. Stay away from Panasonic!!! This changed my mind about Panasonic entirely.

above average (Rating: 3.00)
Review : I have the black unit but besides the color, it's the same. 5 disc couroussel is nice, pretty sturdy (I've used a 3-disc changer from apex and that thing died with about 6 months use). It actually does not come out all the way so you have to

What's good
The progressive scan dvds through composite look awesome. So sharp, if you have something like a hdtv monitor, you'll be pleased. The s-video pales in comparison. I've succesfully played cd/cd-r/cd-rw/dvd-r/dvd+r with this drive and it works mostly, I have a minor complaint further down the review. The rewritable cds do take a long time to load, as do mp3 cds.

There's a cool way to play all cds loaded up in your player as they end. They will switch to the next disc. But turning this feature on will interrupt current disc play and this setting does not seem to be saved after you power the player off. I guess there's a rational for both sides to have this setting saved.

What's missing
This is very common but basically the dvd player cannot output to both composite and s-video at the same time. In order to switch from composite video to s-video or regular rca (yellow cable), you need to go through an on-screen menu. It really should have been a physical switch on the remote or on the dvd player because if you are not set in the right mode, you basically have to switch cables around to find the on-screen menu, then switch. This little omission makes it very unpractical but I suppose most people only set this thing once and let it be.

Clear indication of what disc is playing. Current, 5 small leds get lit up depending if there's a disc or if you are playing it but from far away you really can't tell if you're playing disc 2 or 4. A larger problem is there is no counter for the minutes elapsed (or left), what were they thinking?

The remote interface isn't the best. They saved some space by having a disc button which you have to press first then a number button to switch the disc. This gets old after a while, a dedicated button or "next disc" button would have been nice
Remote control button response is in general average

You can play mp3 and jpeg cd though I only tried mp3s. The general interface isn't much better than other players I have owned. Basically you have a limited display of filenames (long filenames are chopped, sorry out of luck), and the general browsing through file folders is very slow. You can program things up but I really have not bothered with that. If I use mp3 cds at all, I just pop them in and turn shuffle on.

Finally, I've had some problems playing burned dvdr or svcd. This is my experience with brand name players vs. the no name ones that basically play everything

In conclusion, this is a neat drive if you play lots of stuff. In reality people really don't play dvds back to back (how long can you sit) but for the tv series in dvd box set, this is cool. Also if you want to play several audio cds or mp3cds, it works out. I received this player for free from referring a friend to buy an expensive tv.. it's on the higher end in terms of prices for dvd player today (you can easily find something that cost bout $40). I am not sure I would have bought it otherwise.

Great multi-disc DVD player for less!!!! (Rating: 5.00)
Review : Panasonic has come out with one of the best multi-disc, progressive scan DVD players on the market.. AND they have priced it where ANYONE can own it. The picture quality is great as is the sound. Only one thing to remember: when setting the player to progressive scan, you need to go to the on-screen menu to set the output to progressive scan. If you use the setup menu, it will say "progressive scan" but it won't display the DVDs in that mode unless you set it on the menu display.

I highly recommend this player to anyone who is getting into progressive scan DVD players for the first time. Great player at a great price!!!