Panasonic F65 or S35?

[sydemon]

I'm thinking of getting either the Panasonic S35 or the Panasonic F65. Other than the 5 disc support are they very different from one another? Do both support a wide range of media? I've heard good things about the S35 but like the idea of having 5 movies to choose from. If the F65 is just a S35 with a 5 disc changer i'll probably buy it.

TIA
sydemon

[MOVIEGEEK]

I have the Panny F65 and the differance(besides the 5 disc) is the the F65 supports 2ch DVD-AUDIO and "High-Mat".F65 works great with CD/VCD/SVCD because it will auto.change disks.

[FulciLives]

I'm thinking of getting either the Panasonic S35 or the Panasonic F65. Other than the 5 disc support are they very different from one another? Do both support a wide range of media? I've heard good things about the S35 but like the idea of having 5 movies to choose from. If the F65 is just a S35 with a 5 disc changer i'll probably buy it.

TIA
sydemon

Looking at the PANASONIC website the two models you mentioned above do indeed appear to be exactly the same except one is a single disc player and one is a 5 disc changer. Feature set otherwise is identical.

However for just $20.00 more than the F65 you can get the F85 which is also a 5 disc changer and has all the features of the F65 but also has one feature that the F65 does not have ... DVD-Audio (the 5.1 high bitrate high sampling rate audio format that may one day replace the standard CD format). Not only that but the F85 also has built-in Dolby Digital and DTS decoders along with some added features such as an MPEG DNR feature which could help to clean up DVD discs with excessive artifacts.

In short if you are willing to pay the extra bit of money to get the 5 disc F65 over the S35 ... well ... you might as well throw in $20.00 extra and get the F85 instead.

According to PANASONIC's website the S35 is MSRP $99.95 the F65 is MSRP $129.95 and the F85 is MSRP $149.95

BUY.COM has the F85 for $129.95 + shipping which seems like a good price. You might even do better if you use PRICEGRABBER.COM to search around for the lowest price.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[FulciLives]

I have the Panny F65 and the differance(besides the 5 disc) is the the F65 supports 2ch DVD-AUDIO and "High-Mat".F65 works great with CD/VCD/SVCD because it will auto.change disks.

It is true that the F65 supporsts DVD-Audio but only 2 channel whereas the F85 supports the full spec (which means you can get 5.1 if the DVD-Audio is 5.1 because some are only 2 channel).

Also the F65 doesn't have the MPEG DNR nor the built-in Dolby Digital and DTS decoders etc.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[sydemon]

Great advice guys, I think i'll look into the F85. I see the F85S (silver) and F85K (black) on their site, hope i can find a F85K looks cooler. thanks