Panasonic DMP-BDT220 3-D Blu-ray player for under $150(Oct 2011 Home Theater magazine

[HDTV1080P]

Panasonic DMP-BDT220 3-D Blu-ray player for under $150

(October 2012 Home Theater magazine review is located on pages 74-76)

** Reference quality video processor on a Blu-ray player for under $150 is outstanding **

** Better Netflix streaming quality when compared to the OPPO BDP-93/95 **

The Panasonic DMP-BDT220 is a 3-D Blu-ray player with a list price of only $149.99. Currently Amazon offers the brand new Panasonic DMP-BDT220 for only $112.95 with free shipping (prices sometimes change daily at Amazon). Possible around the Christmas season the Panasonic DMP-BDT220 might sell for around $99.99. The Panasonic DMP-BDT220 will only play Blu-ray discs, DVD’s, and standard audio CD’s. It does not offer SACD playback and DVD-Audio playback like the OPPO BDP-93/95 and some other more expensive Blu-ray players. Blu-ray playback includes the ability to play both 3-D and 2-D Blu-ray discs (3-D display needed to view movies in true 3-D). Like all modern Blu-ray players the Panasonic DMP-BDT220 does not offer a component video or S-Video output. Consumers with 480i displays will need to use the composite video output on the Panasonic DMP-BDT220. The Panasonic DMP-BDT220 offers one HDMI 1.4a output for lossless audio and HD video signals. Lossy audio for legacy receivers is an option with the optical digital output or with the 2.0 left and right stereo analog audio output. The Panasonic supports both wired and wireless Internet connections. The Sony Playstation 3 supports 1Gbps networking but the Panasonic DMP-BDT220 like all other standalone Blu-ray players only supports up to 100Mbps networking speed. There are some Internet providers that are now offering 1Gbps Internet speeds. Verizon FIOS nationwide is offering 300Mbps Internet speeds so 1Gbps networking jacks like the Sony PS3 has offered since 2006 is starting to become an important feature. BD-LIVE HD downloads are extremely fast with high speed Internet service plans.

The Panasonic DMP-BDT220 lacks 1GB of built in memory for BD-LIVE. Consumers need to purchase a SD card with a minimum 1GB capacity in order to use the BD-LIVE feature (4GB is ideal for some Blu-ray titles if one wants to download all the extra features). The Panasonic DMP-BDT220 accepts SD, SDHC, and SDXC memory cards for BD-LIVE storage. ExFAT, FAT32, and FAT16 are supported on the Panasonic DMP-BDT220 for reading and writing.

The Panasonic DMP-BDT220 has a detachable power cord which is a nice feature to have if the power cord were to every become damaged (replacement of the power cord is easy). The Panasonic DMP-BDT220 has an excellent video processor with a 24P feature that will convert film based 480i DVD’s and 480i/P streaming services to 1080p/24 with around the same quality as the OPPO BDP-93/95. 720P 60Hz and 24Hz film based streaming services will also be upconverted to 1080p/24. Native 60Hz video based resolutions with no 3:2 pulldown will be upconverted to 1080P/60. According to the Home Theater magazine review the Panasonic DMP-BDT220 video processor is one of the best on the market. Also Netflix streaming on the Panasonic DMP-BDT220 is reported to be better quality when compared to the OPPO BDP-93/95. Most likely because the Panasonic supports 1080P Netflix with 5.1 surround sound compared to the OPPO BDP-93/95 that only offers Netflix 720P with 2.0 stereo (The review did not mention why the Netflix was better quality on the Panasonic but in theory this is the reason).

When Home Theater magazine tested some recent Fox Blu-ray titles they discovered that the Panasonic DMP-BDT220 was slower at loading Blu-ray discs when compared to the Sony PS3 and OPPO BDP-95. CNET using different Blu-ray titles had the opposite results. According to the 2012 CNET speed rating the Panasonic DMP-BDT220 is the fastest Blu-ray player, even faster than the Sony BDP-S590, OPPO BDP-93, and the Sony PS3 slim. According to CNET the PS3 slim received the slowest speed rating, followed by the OPPO BDP-93 being the second slowest Blu-ray player. Different Blu-ray titles appear to load faster on certain players. CNET used the OPPO BDP-93 and Home Theater magazine used the OPPO BDP-95, but both the OPPO BDP-93 and BDP-95 share the exact same motherboard and are the same when it comes to disc loading speed (BDP-95 just has better analog audio outputs). CNET's 2012 comprehensive Blu-ray chart

The following are select quotes from pages 74-76 of the Home Theater magazine review

“Reference-quality Blu-ray playback”

“Lots of streaming options”

“The DMP-BDT220 is a pretty zippy player, through it’s not the fastest I’ve used. There’s a quick-start feature that works pretty well, but load times on some titles were slower than my PS3 and Oppo BDP-95.”

“The DMP-BDT220 features only one HDMI output (1.4a) and it’s 3D compliant. There’s also a composite video output but no component video or S-video options.”

“Another nice feature on the video processing side is the ability to scale any of the streaming sources. The Panasonic’s video processing chip is one of the best out there, and it did a great job with feeds from Amazon and Netflix. You can even change the frame rate to 24p if you want. This helped out some material, and I rarely saw any dropped frames or tearing in the image.”

“The DMP-BDT220 passed all of our Video Test Bench tests with flying colors on the HDMI connection. Out of curiosity, I even tried some of my more advanced deinterlacing tests that I typically reserve for scalers, and the DMP-BDT220 passed nearly every one of them with ease.”

“Streaming services such as Netflix and Vudu were better than I expected for what they are. Vudu was definitely the standout. The HDX 1080p video service delivered images that weren’t quite as good as what I get from Blu-ray but not that far behind”

“Not surprisingly, Netflix wasn’t as good, with obvious compression artifacts and mixed detail/resolution performance, but it was better than the performance I get when I stream it from my Oppo player.”

“The Panasonic DMP-BDT220 player delivers 2D and 3D Blu-ray images that rival even the heavyweights.”

“If all you want is a great Blu-ray player for Blu-ray and DVD playback along with a host of streaming services, you can’t go wrong here. Like last year’s model, this one goes straight to the top of my budget player recommendations and delivers the Blu-ray experience in spades.”

http://www.hometheater.com/content/p...-ray-3d-player

[Hamiota]

Thanks for the info on this player!
I've had an itchy trigger finger for the last couple days and I may just pull that trigger tonight. I'm new to all this video stuff and stumbled on this site while trying to compare some other players to this Panasonic. The price certainly is appealing.

I got my first flat screen HD television, via UPS, the day before yesterday so this forum really came in handy.

Thanks again for the thread!

Al

[dcv1979]

S590 is an option


Sent from my iPhone 4 using Tapatalk

[HDTV1080P]

Home Theater magazine just released the complete review on their website. Here is the link to read the review on the Panasonic DMP-BDT220.

http://www.hometheater.com/content/panasonic-dmp-bdt220-blu-ray-3d-player