Panasonic DMP-BD35 And DMP-BD55 Are The Best Quality Blu-ray Players Available

[HDTV1080P]

On pages 82-84 of the December 2008 Home Theater magazine there is a professional review on the Panasonic DMP-BD35 and DMP-BD55 BLU-RAY players. According to the review these new Panasonic players have the best picture quality, sound quality, and over all best performance compared to any other current BLU-RAY player on the market at any price. Of course the players are not perfect. The Panasonic players do not have 1GB of internal memory for BD-LIVE, hopefully future 2009 Panasonic players will have 1GB of internal memory. At least the Panasonic players are using a front loading SD memory card slot for external memory instead of the hard to access rear panel external USB memory slot found on the Sony BDP-S350 and BDP-S550. The Panasonic players are one of the fastest BLU-RAY standalone players on the market with only the PS3 machine having faster load times. The PS3 has 1GB networking speed and the Panasonic only offers 100MB networking. One awesome unique feature found on the Panasonic BLU-RAY players is the ability to up convert film based 480I DVD's to 1080P/24. All or most current BLU-RAY players only upconvert DVD's to 1080P/60 with 3:2 pulldown. The Panasonic is the best BLU-RAY player for DVD player up conversions.
I have also noticed that many retail and mail order companies are out of stock on the new Panasonics. The new models are one of the most popular players for consumers to own.

Quotes from the review

"Despite the DMP-BD50's recent release, these two players replace the current DMP-BD30 and DMP-BD50 models. These new players are identical except for their analog audio outputs. The DMP-BD35 only has a two-channel analog output, while the more expensive DMP-BD55 supports 7.1 channels of analog audio. All the other features are the same, so for this roundup, I'll fuse these two players together in regards to performance unless otherwise noted."
"As I mentioned earlier, the only difference you'll find with these players is with their back panels. The DMP-BD55 features a 5.1 analog audio connection that you can couple with separate stereo output for full 7.1-channel analog output. The DMP-BD35 is limited to two-channel on the analog audio side. Both players support HDMI 1.3a, with Deep Color."
(Note above quote author met to say 7.1 instead of 5.1.)

"Both players are BD-Live compatible and have a LAN connection, which lets you link up the player to your home network so you can download Blu-ray features and firmware updates. Please note that Panasonic still requires you to purchase an SD card to meet the BD-Live requirement of 1 gigabyte of "local storage." While SD cards are quite cheap, I'm disappointed that Panasonic didn't include onboard memory to meet the minimum spec or at least supply a card with the player. Uninitiated consumers may scratch their heads when the latest BD-Live disc doesn't work."
"Panasonic has made some headway with its transport speed. These new players power up and load a bit faster than Panasonic's last generation of players, even if they still come up a bit short compared with the lightning-quick Sony PS3."
"They also support DVD upconversion to 1080p/24 via HDMI." "Panasonic has included the ability to play back standard DVD's at 1080p/24, which is a rarity for Blu-ray players. For all the people with 1080p/24 capable displays, it's a bonus to be able to take advantage of removing the judder that's associated with 3:2 pulldown."
"On the audio side, they support both bitstream output and full internal decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio lossless. The DMP-BD35 is the cheapest standalone player on the market that offers full audio decoding, and I'm glad we're seeing this level of flexibility."
"Internal decoding is convenient for Bonus View titles since the Picture - in - Picture audio needs to mix with the main soundtrack. This isn't allowed when an AVR or surround processor does the audio decoding. By decoding internally, the player can mix the soundtracks and output the audio as PCM (or in the case of the DMP-BD55, as multichannel analog), which makes the process seamless."
"Connecting to the Internet was simple. The player automatically set the IP protocol after I connected it to my network. The player can trigger updates from the setup menu, which makes firmware updates simple and easy.
"Unlike some Blu-ray players, the Panasonic players do not offer a bitrate meter for video and audio."
"These new players did outstanding in our new video processing test set. They support full deinterlacing of high-definition and standard DVD playback with great results. These players have definitely set the bar for video performance at these price points, and it will be interesting to see how the competition responds."
"The DMP-BD35 and DMP-BD55 did a spectacular job in our video tests. These are the first Panasonic players that pass all of our video processing tests for deinterlacing."
"You would truly be hard-pressed to find better video performance with Blu-ray and DVD playback at any price."
"Menu navigation and load times were never an issue. It was a big step up from the majority of the standalones I've used so far."

Conclusion
"The DMP-BD35 and DMP-BD55 deliver the best standalone values I've seen from the format yet." With Bonus View and BD-Live compatibility, great video processing, and full support of Blu-ray's advanced audio, its value is hard to beat."

http://hometheatermag.com/discplayer...u-ray_players/