Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment and Panasonic have teamed up this holiday season to sweeten the pot for Blu-ray Disc buyers. If you purchase Panasonic's new fourth generation DMP-BD35 player (a.k.a. DMP-BD35K or simply BD35), you can get two free Blu-ray Discs by mail (a $75 value at MSRP). The titles are Ratatouille and The Nightmare Before Christmas, each of which is known for its exceptional audio and video quality. The offer details and forms are included on a special web site set up just for the promotion.
There was some early consternation among buyers of the player, however, as the fine print of the rebate form stated that the "store receipt must emanate from the same state as the consumer address." Would this leave online shoppers out in the cold? If someone buys the player from Amazon, or Vann's, would they be ineligible for the free discs?
DEAL ALERT: Panasonic DMP-BD35K Blu-ray Player: $203 with 6 Free Movies
We contacted Panasonic and Disney about the offer and were told that online buyers had nothing to worry about - their rebates will be honored. "Of course, we want more people to enjoy the superior sound and quality Blu-ray has to offer - and excluding online shoppers was never the intention!" said a source at Panasonic Hollywood Labs (PHL), the group who masterminded the promotion.
The Panasonic rep promised us that the rebate form would soon be updated to remove this limitation, but any legitimate claims from online shoppers will be honored.
Update (11/16) from Panasonic:
"I just heard back from the legal on Friday and long story short - they could not change the form. So we have instructed the fulfillment house to continue to honor all online purchase redemption so the handling side is all aware of this. I am not sure why they could not change this in time but maybe because of the timing... I sincerely hope this will not cause any more confusion, but please be assured that the online purchase will be continued to be honored."
Panasonic's DMP-BD35 features quick operation, support of the next generation surround codecs and BD-Live.
The BD35 player is one of the first to offer full BD-Live capabilities for interactive web-based content, along with on-board decoding of the advanced new surround sound formats (Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio). And it does it all for under $300. Expect a full review of the player to be posted here on Big Picture Big Sound shortly. In the meantime you can read our review of its big brother the DMP-BD55, which offers similar video performance and features but also adds multi-channel analog output for compatibility with older, non-HDMI-equipped home theater systems.
The two-free-disc offer applies to the DMP-BD35 only and expires January 19, 2009.
More information:
Where to Buy the DMP-BD35 online:
