I have had this unit for the past six months with no troubles and then suddenly it started pixillating and freezing and I took it in for warranty repair I hope that it is a simple problem and nothing major but who cares is in warranty the bummer is that now I am worried about durability I had the oportunity of going with pioneer now I wonder

I recently purchased the S700 for $699.95 and am very satisfied. The video images and color are quite accurate. This DVD player has all of the features that you could want, including a built in Dolby Digital processor and DTS out. The remote that is included with the S700 is the standard one that comes with many other players. Buy this player for its video quality and many features, but I do not recomend using this player for your main audio cd player. Compared to my CDC-765, the S700 is not as neutral. The S700 sounds a little bright, as though some sort of DSP Hall mode is being used in cd playback. The DVD-S700 is a very good DVD player in this price range.

Incredible picture, when it plays the Disc.

Had to send it back for Warranty work.

When we first got the player, we were blown away by the quality of both picture and sound. 5.1 is an astounding impovement, and matched with the Yammy RXV 995, the overall experience was great. After about 6 months, however, we started getting all kinds of problems, wouldn't play Discs (not just Matrix - tried 3 copies with no success), quirky video skips, not able to skip chapters, (forget about DTS Discs) etc. So, off to the dealer for an exchange. I will post a follow-up. I'm hoping I just got a bad player, and it is not going to be a nighmare of repairs. I was not pleased to find out it is really a Panasonic player. At this price point, the damn thing should work, and it should have been made by Yamaha!!

Great player, haven't had any problems with any DVDs.

I had also bought this player through discount, 300 bucks off. I have had no problems with the player what so ever. Sound and video quality are superb, even on my cheapo Toshiba 32". Compared to a piece of garbage JVC DVD player my friend had, i am happy I chose this. My friend had taken his JVC back and replaced it with a Denon, which looks suspiciously the same as my Yamaha. (and Panasonic for that matter).

Styling, video quality

No direct access to tracks/chapters. Does not play CD-Rs. Made by Panasonic

First let me say that for the money I paid for the unit (only $350 brand new - on eBay) it has been a very good buy. I had problems with only one DVD that gave me clicking sounds and bad video artifacts, but that was some no-name $9 nature disc. I have thrown that disc away and have not had any problems of any kind since then. I have rented the now infamous Matrix disc with no problems there either. I was disappointed to find out after purchasing it, that it is made by Panasonic, and I feel betrayed by Yamaha. For them to simply buy Panasonic, put their badge on it, and nearly double the price is deception - in my opinion. I have an amp of theirs that I love and I am considering an A/V receiver from them. The going price for the unit at the time of my purchase was about $700 and I feel that a unit of that cost should be able to play CD-R discs, but I have found out differently. It does play CD-RWs, but I want only CD-Rs that will play in the DVD and the car CD player, etc. My other stated weakness references the fact that I cannot put a CD in, and simply push "5, Play" when I want to hear just track 5 (for example). Instead I have to hit the forward skip button until I get to track 5, then push play. I much prefer the direct acces of the Yamaha CD player that this unit replaced. I feel that that function would be hugely beneficial to DVD chapter access also. They can never seem to get anything completely right, can they? All of my small gripes are tempered by the fact of the great price that I got on this unit, however if I was to shop for another $700 unit, then it is going to do everything that I want it to do or else I'll stick with this unit.

nice picture, and good sound, built in decoder

getting a constant picture, service from yamaha

I bought this player because most of my setup is yamaha and I have never had any problems with anything else. I knew that the unit was a panasonic in a yamaha case but both were the same price and i think the all black case would fit in better. I got the thing home and for about a month and a half it worked fine. Then it wouldnt play some discs and the ones it would play would freeze all of the time. Both sound and picture would just stop playing. I never thought is was my player, i complained about every movie i rented and got the rental place to refund all of my money all of the time. Not one movie would play straight through. When I took it in to get checked out, the store I went to said it was the pick up and they would have to order the part in. It took them 4 months to get the part and fix my dvd player. It was worked fine since, almost, aside from losing 33% of my warrenty, some movies skip tracks, not all of the time and not the same track, but it does happen. It will be one year at the end of May 2000, with the warrenty gone i have a bad feeling about problems to come.

Great picture quality, and kick ass sound.

None

Had for a year and a half and is wonderful. It has great picture quality and I have had no problems. My neighbors and friends think it sounds great. I have only one gripe about it and that is that it won't play cdr's but if you wont cds go buy a freakin' cd player.