Panasonic BD10 experiences and photos

[Petri Teittinen]

I got a pre-production BD10 in for testing some days ago. Unfortunately this happened during a crunch week, so I didn't have as much time to play with it as I would've liked. The player came with what the Panny rep called "beta firmware ", but I call it pre-beta since the player crashes like every two minutes. Very unstable indeed.

This pre-production sample actually has a Panasonic BD-burner in it. Don't expect to find a burner in the final product. Update: added 4 shots of the remote control to the hardware gallery.

Shots of the player's set-up menus:
http://saitti.kuvat.fi/kuvat/BD10menus/

Shots of the OSD during playback:
http://saitti.kuvat.fi/kuvat/BD10OSD/

Handheld shots from BD movies:
http://saitti.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Blu-ray+screenshots/

I can't compare PQ to the Samsung player, as I haven't seen Samsung in action. It wouldn't be fair to comment on the PQ of a pre-production player anyways. Build quality feels quite flimsy and plastic-y, definitely not what I'd expect from a EUR1500 player. Popping the top and looking in my first thought was "That's it?! Looks like a $50 DVD player!"

There's no option to change SW crossover frequency in the audio menus. There's no on-screen display to show codec or bitrates.

Connecting the player to a Crystalio II scaler resulted in 1080p option greying out. Direct hook-up to a Sony Ruby enabled 1080p output at 1080p60 only.

The unit has a region coding for 2 (DVD) and B (Blu-ray). It plays both PAL and NTSC DVDs, however, but only R2 discs or ones without any region coding. So far every single US BD title (region A) I've tried has played in the Panny, so it looks like the discs do not have region coding on them.