Designed to take full advantage of both audio and traditional video DVD formats, the DVD-LS55 delivers super high-fidelity (192 kHz/24-bit) sound of DVD-Audio. DVD-Audio software titles offer classic music titles in both multichannel and stereo, though be aware that this model plays discs in stereo only. Most DVD-A discs have compressed Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1 surround tracks, however; these can be passed through the unit's digital-audio output to a compatible surround receiver and speaker system.

Audio features also include DTS and Dolby Digital 2-channel decoding and multichannel passthrough, built-in stereo speakers, and Panasonic's Dialogue Enhancer for DVD movie viewing. Advanced Surround Sound (VSS) simulates surround effects from any two speakers or from headphones.

Cinema Mode reduces the detrimental effects of screen glare from ambient light, rendering cinematic colors in pictures that are gentle on the eyes. Further, Cinema Mode improves the visibility of details in dark scenes by automatically adjusting picture contrast. High-speed, five-step Smooth Motion Scan provides crystal-clear forward and reverse scan. At the highest setting, the unit scans at an incredible 200 times normal speed.

Panasonic's Dialogue Enhancer boosts the center channel volume--where most of the principal dialogue emanates when playing a Dolby Digital 5.1 disc--by 6 dB. Cinema Mode lessens glare, providing colors that are more cinema-like, and picture resolution that is gentler to the eyes. It also improves the visibility of details in dark scenes by automatically adjusting picture contrast, and helps to suppress color smearing as well.

This player is HighMAT compatible. High-Performance Media Access Technology is a standard co-developed by Panasonic and Microsoft to improve interoperability for digital media programming between PCs and electronics devices. HighMAT provides an efficient method for arranging digital photo, music, and video collections on recordable media.