Customer Reviews
Player was good...for as long as it worked (which was not long). 
2006-05-04
It's pretty much the same story that so many others have told. Unit works well for a short time, H03 pops up, unit is now not working so well. The DIY repair procedures detailed on several web sites did not work. The 90 day labor warranty is a joke. The cost of getting this thing repaired is almost 50% of the price of the unit when purchased new.
I will not even go too deep into the sub-standard customer service provided by Panasonic. I will say that I sent the unit in for repairs and Panasonic kept shooting letters back to me asking for such things as a proof-of-purchase (which I had already sent with the unit),what repair option I wanted to take, etc, and introduced a whole lot of delay in the process. So the unit sat at the repair center for 30 days, because Panasonic could not get their facts straight, and it was returned before I could even get the work authorized. Even so, once your 90 day warranty on labor has passed, all you will get is a refurbished unit - unless you send it to a faciltiy besides the central service, in which case you will get your own unit repaired and returned. Then you may find that the labor charges are even higher than those quoted by the central service facility.
Sure, the battery life is great, etc, etc. What good is a ten-hour battery for a unit that works for a few months and then will have to be reparied for an exorbinant cost?
Bottom line: Find another player from another manufacturer. Avoid this thing like a pack of Ebola monkeys.
Superb battery life and a DIY fix for that dreaded H03 problem! 
2006-04-08
There are several easy DIY fixes for the H03 problem to try before despairing and turning your back on the otherwise excellent Panasonic LS55 DVD portable DVD player!
I've owned my LS55 for about a year and lived in dread of the much discussed H03 message appearing. To be fair I travel a great deal and although my DVD player has a snug neoprene case and I've never dropped it off a tray table or hotel bed, nonetheless it really does get stuffed into bags, and carried around a lot. The LS55 has been a pretty solid performer and the 10+ hour battery is absolutely incredible. My last Panasonic 5" screen portable payer was amazing and super durable until lost. However I did have to carry around the regular battery as well as an extended play one to be able to watch a couple of movies (say 2 1/2). The LS55 allows me to watch at least 3 or 4 plus a few TV episodes (on DVD) including skipping around alot. If I've charged it fully before a long distance international flight, I've never ever run out of juice! The battery is genuinely good for at least 10 hours which is an incredible and puts this player ahead of the competition in this respect. Whatever else it's faults, battery life is not one of them!
However the picture is also excellent. I still think my Panasonic 5" screen was crisper but the number of lines and resolution for smaller screens is the same as 7" and 9" models (I believe) so a small screen is always going to be sharper. A 9" model is just a little too big for convenient portability and the 7" is just about right for 1 or 2 people.
The sound via (noise cancelling) headphones is incredible. The speakers are a bit weak but if played in a car using the FM transmitter, the quality is superb. Instead of using the player's speakers, I tend to plug the DVD player into my ipod speakers for very good strong stereo sound. I've had half a dozen people crowded around entralled in a movie with big sound making the 7" screen seem much larger.
All in all an excellent DVD player. However no discussion of the LS55 is complete without addressing the dreaded H0 problems. The H03 message seems the most common certainly here on Amazon. Many people have spoken of very indifferent treatment from Panasonic and repair bills/estimates ranging from $100 to $200. I agree with many people that there is a serious issue that Panasonic has not addressed at all and I think this has seriously impacted customer trust in what I've always felt was a very superior brand for quality and durability. Anyway, I myself recently got an H03 message. I feared the worst - that the DVD player was essentially a write-off with prohibitive repair costs. However I quickly found several posts on line with various solutions/fixes. Some ranged from removing the bottom plate of the player with a small (jeweller's) screw driver and very carefully using compressed air (Dust Off etc...) to spritz away any dust and debris. Other options included moving the laser head along the track or straightening bent parts, unhooking and re-attaching the electric ribbon wire connectors etc... You can read all the various solutions.
Personally I decided that I was going to start with the simplest and most benign methods and gradually take more intrusive steps.
I was lucky. The most simple step is to switch the DVD player off and leave it off for a couple of minutes. Then power on. You'll still see the H03 message (unless you're really lucky!). Then press the skip back (l<<) and skip forward (>>l) buttons (bottom left 2 buttons on the LS55 at the same time you press the play button (>). Hold all three buttons down for 4 or 5 seconds. Apparently this will re-initialise the DVD player's system software/firmware. In many cases especially where there are stories of brand new players getting an H03 message, the H03 message does not refer to an actual physical problem but a diagnostic glitch. The method I described worked for me and I really hope it works for everyone who experiences this problem. If it doesn't work if I ever experience this problem again, I'll take the next step - of unscrewing the bottom plate (10 small screws - no problem) and carefully dusting the exposed mechanism with Dust-Off to dislodge any dust or debris that might have triggered a H03 diagnosis that then tells the player to disable itself.
Apparently there are several steps one can take with this and most other DVD players using a combination of keys pressed down while powering on or after powering on to reboot the system just as one would with a computer (of course this player has a micro-chip of it's own).
Good luch with this method if you experience an H03 message. Don't despair - go online to research a number of methods one can take to reboot the system or solve the problem. It's very likely that there isn't a serious problem and certainly not one that justifies immediately throwing the player in the trash after getting no where with Panasonic or deciding to spend $100+ on getting it "repaired". I'm not sure why Panasonic hasn't done more to help it's customers solve these problems - perhaps it would be an admission of a problem that is probably a software/firmware gremlin instead of a mechanical flaw.
Anyway H03 suffers - don't despair there are lots of success stories of people no more technical than you, fixing their LS55 DVD players with a bit of ingenuity and refusal to accept that an otherwise pretty solid little machine could inexplicably tell you it's "broken" - thing is, the thing just thinks it is but it's probably fine, just needs a little prod. I recommend you start with the method I described - took all of 6 seconds and I felt so smart (happy and relieved) after. The more intrusive methods are pretty easy too. So far from all the stuff I've read online, the success rate with the button method has been very high. Combined with other quick fixes some more intrepid using a small screw driver - I believe the chances of "fixing" the H03 message is incredibly good.
A one year warranty on parts not labor 
2006-03-09
I loved the DVD player until I got an H03 error. I thought it was no big deal since I had the player for less than 1 year. I guess Panasonic was right not to have faith in their own product since only the parts are warranteed for 1 year. It will cost me $100 to repair. Thanks Panasonic for great customer service and reliability. Next time I'll buy another manufacturer's product.
Great Portable DVD Player! Purchased a year ago... 
2006-02-26
My wife and I purchased the Sony DVD-LS55 Portable DVD Player 11 months ago. We had several long plane flights ahead of us and were also looking for an extra DVD player for around the house. We did a a lot of research and we have not been disappointed with the money we spent on this player. Excellent picture and sound. This model is easy to use and the long life battery can last for as much as 10 hours. I definatley recommend spending the money on this model.
Tony C
6 months of limited use and it won't work 2006-02-07
I have had this for less than 6 months of very limited use. Just got the H03 error code. Called customer service. Of course its out of the 90 day warranty period and will have to go 10 miles to an authorized dealer to have repaired. Repair estimate is about 150-200$. Will NEVER buy another panasonic product again, should have stuck with Sony.
Don't buy this product 2008-04-21
Used this product for 12 months and just received the H03 code. Tried to fix using recommendations, but didn't work. Total waste of money.
Great for long flights 2008-02-17
This DVD player is ideal for long flights because of the battery life. It also works well in a pinch as a DVD player for a televison.
Thanks to mkb for - "Easy HO 3 error fix" 2007-04-18
We bought our Panasonic DVD-LS55 in Nov '04 and it lasted until Jul '06, when we finally got the dreaded HO3 error and the player stopped working. It sat in the closet collecting dust after I heard from a Panasonic tech rep how much it would cost to fix it. Before purchasing a new portable player, we decided to see if anyone else had this error and if anyone else new of a way to fix it.
That's when we found the Amazon review for the DVD-LS90 by mkb that gave step by step instructions on how to try one thing that fixed the HO 3 error on 2-3 players he worked on. We tried the procedure and it worked!!
So thanks to mkb, wherever you are. We owe you big time!
Here is what we did:
1) Find a clean place to work and the following tools: you;ll need a very small precision screwdriver set, tweezers, exacto knife, a small magnet, and canned air to remove dust.
2) Unplug and take out the battery for safety. Remove the 12 screws on the back of the player. I used the small magnet to help get the screws out of the holes and hold on to them. Put in a safe place, you don't want to lose these.
3) Pick up disc tray off of the 3 rubber suspension feet. Be careful with the 2 flat wire cables. Turn this tray over.
4) Find a small black cover on the back of the tray that has 2 screws. Take the this black cover off to reveal a small electric motor and a set of small plastic gears. Use tweezers and canned air to clean/pick out any debris. I had small plastic shavings caught up in mine.
5) I'm not sure if this was really necessary, but I picked up the small white gear in the middle with the tweezers and used the exacto blade to trim a small amount of platic away from the side of the large cog that comes very close to rubbing against the large black gear.
6) Put the white gear back in place. Make sure the metal axle it rotates on is in place. Make sure the cog from the electric motor engages the white plastic gear. Try to gently rotate the white gear to make sure it will rotate the other gears smoothly and move the laser reader assembly along its track.
7) Use the canned air to remove any more dust/debris from the inside of the player.
8) Put the cover back together and the screws back in place. There were 2 screws that go down by the battery compartment that took me forever to find where they went.
9) Give it some power and try it out.
This procedure may seem daunting at first, but really, if you are about to trash the machine anyway, what do you have to lose? In my opinion, loosening and getting all the screws out, in order to open up the machine, was the hardest part.
After these steps, our player started working again. I hope this saves someone else the money of having to go out and buy another player just like it helped us. Good luck!
Had this for over a year and still going strong! 2006-11-09
I received the Panasonic LS55 in July 2005 and it still works wonderfully. I love how you can adjust the viewing screen, and the two headphone jacks are essential when watching movies with a friend on those long bus, plane, and train rides. It has been over a year but this baby's battery life still amazes me. I watched 10-11 hours of dvds in a row when flying to Asia and then checked the battery life display - it had 2 out of the 3 bars available. Like a reviewer mentioned below, you will tire of watching dvds before the battery runs out! The screen has some minor scratches from carting it around, but they are hardly noticeable when watching a movie.
Note: Be sure to remove the battery from the player when not in use. When the player is fully charged, make sure to remove the battery soon after as well. This will ensure the battery's life over time.
I haven't encountered this dreaded H03 signal (knock on wood). but if I do, I will surely follow the instructions that Now Voyager so nicely provided below.
HO3 Success Story 2006-07-13
After 16 months, I finally received the H03 message two days ago. I considered all fixes recommended on this site and others. Manually spinning the disc worked once, but the message reappeared. Re-initialization did not work. Ultimately, I needed to open the machine. I was surprised to find a lot of dog hair inside the machine, and I imagine there was a lot of other dirt/dust inside the machine that was not visible. After spending ten minutes cleaning the insides (using a tweezer), the machine now works again perfectly. I think that, in my case, the H03 message was caused simply by the accumulation of dog hair/dirt/dust inside the machine.
If this wasn't a great gadget, I wouldn't have bothered trying to fix it. Hopefully, it will work for another 16 months.
