Sony BDP360 Vs Panasonic BD60EB

[Dwight Schrute]

Which one is better?

[connect42]

I don't have a Panasonic, but I love my S360. It is extremely reliable - plays everything I put in it.

[jstute55]

I was torn between buying one of these two players for Christmas. I have the Panasonic BD35 in our living room and wanted to get a player for our den. The BD35 has played every disc I have put into it, and have yet to upgrade the firmware from the original version 1.4 that it came with. However, I read the problems with freezing on the BD60, so I went with the Sony S360 just to be able to compare the two brands (I guess the "don't put all your eggs in one basket" phrase came to mind). Plus, I got the S360 from Amazon on black Friday for $118 shipped! The price had a lot to do with it as well.

I just got the player, but promised my wife I'd wrap it and open it up on Christmas so now it is under the bed.

I will definitely follow the poll results.

[callas01]

like wise with the guy above me, he has the BD35 from panny and the BDS360 from sony. I however have used the sony and the panasonic. I have been really busy but tomorrow I am going to play both blu-ray copies of Terminator Salvation to see if there is a PQ difference or not, plus to see how the audio processing works. I can get back to you about that later.

I have noticed that the sony start up time is quicker then the BD35, Now I know that I am not make the direct comparison you are inquiring about, but the bd35 and the bd60 are pretty much the same machine. One thing I do like about the Sony is that it selects if your TV display is 10 bit or 12 bit, so I wanted to test the players to see if there is a PQ difference. To my naked eye I thought the Sony looked just a smidge better, but I will test it out later to see.

[Grand Bob]

Originally Posted by jstute55

I read the problems with freezing on the BD60

I have been using the BD60 for the past several months and haven't had any problems, it works great and is a huge improvement over my previous two.

[Harry88]

S360 for me. Had it for a few months now and has worked with every disc I wanted to play.

[Finallyblu]

I had the Panasonic before and now have the Sony. There was nothing wrong with the Panasonic except the one I had stopped recognizing any discs after about 5 months. I'm pretty sure it was an isolated infant mortality case.

I have now used both and here are my observations:

1. Both the Panasonic and Sony recognized just about any discs I put in it, not just the BDs (until the Panasonic failed that is).

2. The Panasonic load time is twice as fast as the Sony literally. This is the part I don't like about the Sony...you pop a BD in and wait and wait...

3. I might be imagining this but I definitely felt that the Sony PQ is slightly better but the sound is slightly worse. I have a non TruHD capable receiver so I'm talking about the down-conversion of audio here. With the Panasonic, the surround sound was so much more distinct. In reverse, the Sony PQ is much more striking.

4. I missed the Panasonic ability to connect to youtube and Picassa web albums, but only a little bit.

5. Since I have a Sony HDTV, the TV & BD player syncs together nicely...I can use one remote control and when I turn the BD player on, the TV auto turns on and switch to the correct HDMI input...very nice.

6. You can't turn the Sony BD player on with the remote. I missed this with the Panasonic.

7. Someone mentioned freezing. I had this happened with both players so go figure. The one with the Panasonic was about half a second and the one with the Sony was 15 seconds or so. That was very disturbing...not sure what happened...


Overall, I'm quite happy the Sony and I was quite happy with the Panasonic too.

[Cortiz]

Originally Posted by Finallyblu

I had the Panasonic before and now have the Sony. There was nothing wrong with the Panasonic except the one I had stopped recognizing any discs after about 5 months. I'm pretty sure it was an isolated infant mortality case.

I have now used both and here are my observations:

1. Both the Panasonic and Sony recognized just about any discs I put in it, not just the BDs (until the Panasonic failed that is).

2. The Panasonic load time is twice as fast as the Sony literally. This is the part I don't like about the Sony...you pop a BD in and wait and wait...

3. I might be imagining this but I definitely felt that the Sony PQ is slightly better but the sound is slightly worse. I have a non TruHD capable receiver so I'm talking about the down-conversion of audio here. With the Panasonic, the surround sound was so much more distinct. In reverse, the Sony PQ is much more striking.

4. I missed the Panasonic ability to connect to youtube and Picassa web albums, but only a little bit.

5. Since I have a Sony HDTV, the TV & BD player syncs together nicely...I can use one remote control and when I turn the BD player on, the TV auto turns on and switch to the correct HDMI input...very nice.

6. You can't turn the Sony BD player on with the remote. I missed this with the Panasonic.

7. Someone mentioned freezing. I had this happened with both players so go figure. The one with the Panasonic was about half a second and the one with the Sony was 15 seconds or so. That was very disturbing...not sure what happened...


Overall, I'm quite happy the Sony and I was quite happy with the Panasonic too.

The latest firmware Sony released vastly improved the loding time. I've owned both of these players, and after the firmware, Sony is the faster player. I agree that PQ is slighty better on the Sony and AQ better on the Panny....You can't go wrong with either player, but if you have a Bravia TV, I think the Sony would be the best bet.....

[callas01]

Ok, here is my follow up on the differences with the Panasonic BD35 and the Sony S360 that I just got.

I hooked up both to my Samsung HDTV via HDMI cables, first I turned Terminator Salvation on to the opening jail scene. There I adjusted the blu-ray players to where they looked almost equal. And on their standard settings the Panasonic had a much brighter look. Sony had a much darker look. Both connect directly to the TV.

Settings, Sony had less setting adjustments on the player. Standard, Bright Room and THeater. The Panasonic allowed me to adjust everything just like TV settings do: color, contrast, gamma, tint, sharpness etc. To get them to about even the contrast on the panny was at -7, color -1, all other settings at 0. Sony had to be adjusted to Bright Room. Both players were set to 24p output.

First this movie has a touch of grey to the movies overall look. Now the Grey scale on the Sony seemed to be better. Greys looked more grey. On the Panasonic the Greys had a bluish tint to them. Smoke on the first battle field scene looked slightly grey/blue, as did the ground when John Conner comes up from the hole in the ground. Colors on the Sony were more accurate and true to life. Understand that this difference was slight, it was like you say "ta-mato", I say "toe-mato ". Although I want you to understand what I was looking at.

The Panasonic had more of a POP look to it(like people describe LCDs) and the Sony a little more Darker look to it(like people describe Plasmas).

Playing a movie was just about the same. Both players did a great job rendering playback. Watched 2 of the same exact scenes and they both seemed identical to me.

The Sony does have the ability to detect if your HDTV has a 10 or 12 bit display which is nice for the whole Deep Color and x.v.YCC color gamats. The Panasonic does not, that I know of, although it does have Deep Color and x.v.YCC output. So I am guessing that the Panasonic does output to whatever is the default bit rate.

Load times were faster on the Sony, but I don't know if the new BD60 from Panasonic has improved over my BD35. If so then that may just be a moot point. But I cannot answer the load time on the BD60 as a disclaimer.

The sony does not have an eject button on the remote like the Panasonic, so you have to get up and press the button to open, but it is fast and so that is not a big deal to myself.

I didn't put in any DVDs and test them, although I kinda wish I had now, but I think my wife was over my testing and just wanted to get back to her Friends DVDs.

As far as recommending one or the other, it would be a toss up.

[Finallyblu]

Originally Posted by Finallyblu

7. Someone mentioned freezing. I had this happened with both players so go figure. The one with the Panasonic was about half a second and the one with the Sony was 15 seconds or so. That was very disturbing...not sure what happened...

I just want to give y'all an update on the Sony "freezing" problem...My Sony kept freezing more and more often and with longer duration... I finally figured it out...it was my cheap HDMI cable that I got from ebay... I got a better one and no more freezing problem...actually the unit didn't really freeze...the picture went away but the audio was still playing...apparently my HDMI was getting worse and worse...

[Blu Jedi Master]

I bought the Sony and have enjoyed it tremendously. It plays all that I have put into it with the original firmware. PQ is excellent