Panasonic DMP-BD30K 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player
Blu-ray means incredible full-HD images, breathtaking sound and 5x the data capacity of DVDs. Now Blu-ray means something else too: an entirely new movie-viewing experience, made possible by Final Standard Profile, which adds features never seen before, like four Picture-in-Picture modes including Enhanced Commentary (from directors and actors), Backstage Pass, Peek Behind the Animation and Audio Mixing. Images So Real, You Feel Like You’re in the Picture Combining a PHL Reference Chroma Processor with advanced P4HD (Pixel Precision Progressive Processing) imaging technology, UniPhier the Precise Digital Video processor reproduces crisp, natural colors that are extremely faithful to the original movie. It does this by up-sampling the color information in decoded video signals, while the super high-speed P4HD up-converts content recorded in 480i/p, 720p or 1080i format to 1080p by correctly generating each pixel according to information drawn from up to 60 surroun (more…)
The Panasonic DMP-BD30K is the newest Blu-ray player out there and has most of the latest features including being 1.1 Blu-ray compliant.
Being a previous Sony BDP-S300 owner, I found some important advantages with the Panasonic. It may not be that important overall, but the Panasonic loads in about half of the time that the Sony player does. It has a sleek look with a drop down panel that exposes the disc slot. The Panasonic plays all the current audio formats such as Dolby Digital TotalHD which many of the older player do not. Of course, you need a current receiver to play these newer formats.
On the negative side, the worst is the remote. It has the strangest layout. Logic was not employed very well in the design. There are no lighted buttons as well. If you want to quit certain functions, you must first hit the “Return” button on the remote. Most other players have a return button on the specific function built right into the software. But with the Pansonic, you have to hit the remote to get out of it.
Overall, this player displays a superb high-def picture. Panasonic has cut a few corners from its previous models to keep the price at $500. But for the money, this is the one to get. Now if they would only fix that remote!!!
Being a relative novice to hi-def video, as well as format neutral, it’s hard to review this type of product without dragging compared products in, but I’ll try. I can say right off that Panasonic has taken the sting out of the higher price of Blu-Ray players with a good offering of features you won’t find in the, um, more reasonably priced choice. Not the least of which is performance. After a bit of research, I went with Panasonic due to positive reviews and how I feel about the Panasonic name, which has been associated largely with video, unlike other manufacturers who try to spread themselves across a wider variety of products. It was a good call on my part, as things turned out. Startup is quick, around 15 seconds, and disc loading is snappy as well. Setup is quick and easy, and you have a choice for audio output of either optical or coaxial.
Other nice features of this player include variety of media: You can play not only standard music CDs (a given) but also MP3 discs. That’s a lot of continuous music if you have your files burned to DVD. You can also view JPG digital photos from both disc and SD cards … one almost frivolous feature allows you to run a slide show with music using both SD and CD functions. You can also view full resolution home HD video saved to SD; I don’t have that type of camcorder yet, but it does take home video viewing to a whole new level.
One drawback that keeps this unit from being perfect, though not a biggie for me at this early stage, is no ethernet connectability for firmware upgrading. This means you have to download and burn upgrades to disc, and it’s set up exclusively for Windows; being a Mac user, this kind of leaves me out in the cold. I did not encounter this problem with the other player. Though I have to say, this machine performs so smoothly right out of the box, the adage “if it works, don’t fix it” is appropriate. Remember, high definition video players are more like computers, and if you insert a data file, especially one that’s supposed to upgrade the machine, and it wasn’t formatted properly to the disc, it could mean a trip to the service center.
For many of us with a large library of accumulated titles, upconversion is the bottom line/dealmaker. Some (not all) HD televisions have a built-in Zoom setting; my lower echelon model doesn’t. Fortunately, the BD30K has its own zoom setting, which does a great job with letterboxed widescreen titles, filling the whole screen as opposed to merely stretching it horizontally, a weakness of earlier players.
Note: When I first wrote this review, the format wars were still raging away, and there was more comparison to HD-DVD players, which is now no longer relevant. I’ve revised the review accordingly, gotten a lot of use out of the unit since, and can honestly say I am still very satisfied with this purchase and the flexibility it offers, as well something should for the price I originally paid (about $500 retail), which has come down since. Panasonic does offer firmware upgrades you can download from their site, to stay updated with newer features available on some Blu-Ray titles. The link to updates is:
http://www2.panasonic.com/consumer-electronics/support/Video/Blu-ray-Disc-Players/model.DMP-BD30K#
5.0 out of 5 stars
Refurbished Panasonic DMP-BD 30 works fine!
I formerly owned a Sony BDP s300 for over a year but after reading the many excellent reviews on this unit from CNET and Home Theater, I decided to sell my Sony and cop this fine…
2.0 out of 5 stars
A point of contention
I think its fair to offer my experience with the 30K. I bought my 30K in Nov 07 when it first was released directly from Panasonic Direct.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great standalone!
I have owned this for two months and have nothing but good thigns to say about it. Load/start-up time is MUCH quicker than my other blu-ray player (Samsung BDP1400) and from what…
First of all Amazon needs to go back to the old format that only allowed people who actually bought the product on Amazon to review it. I bought this product on ebay and so far I love it. The quality is amazing even for regular DVD’s. I love that I can plug in the SD Card from my digital camera, the quality of the 12 megapixels pictures look terrific. The two people who wrote 1 star reviews for this product DO NOT EVEN OWN IT. Look at all their reviews, they trash anything blu-ray and give anything HD DVD 5 stars… bias. Anyway, for the price this is an amazing unit. Stay away from the other ones that might be around $300 (Sony, Samsung) because they are not using the final blu-ray format that allows for picture-in-picture (1.2) or the final one 2.0. This one is using the most up to date format, altough the 2.0 format will allow for content download from the internet, I am perfectly happy with this one (Thank you to the people who corrected my mistake with the format). The best you can do go get rid of reviews that are not “real” is to report them as “not helpful” or answer no to the question of “was this review helpful?”. Oh and finally don’t waste $100 on a Monster HDMI cable… mycablemart dot com has great quality cables for a fraction of what other retailers sell them for.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Died After 1 day out of the box!
Product worked for one day. It then would not work the second day. It would not read any discs it would cycle and never play the discs.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Panasonic BD-30K
I was looking for a Blu-Ray player; that also plays AVCHD disk. The AVCHD playback feature works. I perferred the BD-30K; over the newer model, beacause the newer model BD-35; had…
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ergonomics better then ps3
It’s the second blu-ray I ‘ve bought. Not surprisingly, it’s remote is much more user friendly then my ps3. Load time is comparable (quick for blu ray).
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tomco
This blu-ray player is what they say it is. I like the fact that I can use my camera’s memory chip to show my pictures on the TV.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely pleased.
Absolutely awesome picture. For the money, this Panasonic is the best on the market. I don’t own any video game system, so I can’t comment on that, like everyone else.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Industry not mature
I own this product (firmware 2.6 newest) along with 3 brand new movies. The Panasonic will only read 1 of the movies (Fearless). As for Last Samurai and Flyboys…
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Player – DVD and Blue Ray
the BD30AK is all you need. enhances regular DVDs and plays Blue Ray just like you would expect. If you can find one of these at a decent price, get it.