Hands on with the Panasonic DMP-BD80 Blu-ray player - initial thoughts

[MrBoylan]

I just finished going through the BD60/80 operating instructions manual now available online from Panasonic and I have a question if you have time to check it out as part of your review.

On pages 7 and 45, the manual shows that both models supports MPEG2 video on SD Cards.

MPEG2 is a new feature with these models and I'm wondering exactly what is supported (file structure, file extensions, supported resolutions, etc.).

Likely difficult to answer with no details in the manual, but the question is now on the table.

Sorry but there's one question I don't think anyone but Panasonic would be able to answer definitively and MPEG2 isn't something that I think alot of people are going to have a use for, on SD cards. So I won't be covering that in my review which is pretty much in the can now just awaiting some confirmation of a few things this evening.

I'm surprised Panasonic didn't cover that in the manual as they did discuss file extensions and folder structures related to Divx, Jpeg, MP3 and AVCHD in there.

Later,

-CB

[MrBoylan]

I just finished going through the BD60/80 operating instructions manual now available online from Panasonic

I couldn't find the manual on the US web site, but is is available on the Canadian site. Here's a link to the Canadian version:
Panasonic DMP-BD60 DMP-BD80 Operating Instructions.

Edit: Here's the version on the .com site (Thanks rvp819):

Panasonic DMP-BD80 and DMP-BD60 Owners Manual (US Version)

Note: to make this easier to find for others who search the forum for the owner's manual, please allow me to go a little keyword-crazy:

• DMP-BD60 (DMP-BD60K) User Manual
• DMP-BD80 (DMP-BD80K) User Manual
• DMP-BD60/DMP-BD80 (DMP-BD60K/DMP-BD80K) Owner's Manual
• BD60/BD80 User Guide
• DMPBD60K DMPBD80K Operating Instructions

If you're looking for any of these items, please see the above links for the online PDF versions of the manual for US and Canada.

-CB

[rvp819]

Funny, I'm in Canada and didn't think of looking on panasonic.ca.

For completeness, it's available from panasonic.com on the following list:
Operating Manuals for Panasonic Products

and here's the direct link:
http://service.us.panasonic.com/OPER...MPBD60-MUL.PDF

The same manual covers 60, 601, 605 and 80. Never seen any reference to 601 and 605 before, but according to the manual, the 605 comes with an HDMI cable. Otherwise, 601 and 605 seem identical to 60.

[Daylightdon]

Hi Chris, When I click on those manual links, I just get a blank white page and in the lower left my computer says "DONE".
????

[MrBoylan]

Hi Chris, When I click on those manual links, I just get a blank white page and in the lower left my computer says "DONE".
????

Well the links are correct. I tested them both. Do you have the PDF reader installed on your PC? It's pretty standard these days.

You can also try right-clicking on one of the links and then "save target as" to save the PDF to your local machine, but it will still require that you have the PDF reader installed to open it. The PDF reader can be downloaded from adobe.com in the unlikely event that you don't already have it.

BTW, these are pretty large documents (11 MB) so depending on your network speed, they might take a while to download.

-CB

[MrBoylan]

My BD80 review is live:

Panasonic DMP-BD80 Blu-ray Disc Player: Review by Chris Boylan on BigPictureBigSound

And there's a new thread in the forum to discuss it here:

Panasonic DMP-BD80 Review: Forum Discussion for Q&A (Big Picture Big Sound)

First review in North America. Enjoy!

-CB

[Daylightdon]

Hi Chris, That is a fine review.
You ought to get a job as a review writer!

PS, Had problems with Firefox conflicting with Adobe.
It is now resolved!

[MrBoylan]

Hi Chris, That is a fine review.
You ought to get a job as a review writer!

Yeah I should really look into that.

PS, Had problems with Firefox conflicting with Adobe.
It is now resolved!

Cool.

-CB

[Mazinger]

We just got the BD80 (DMP-BD80) in for review and so far it looks great. It's basically the BD55 plus VIERA Cast. I played around a little with YouTube last night and it looks pretty good except for not having control over the screen aspect ratio for YouTube videos. But even at Full Screen on a 50-inch HDTV, many YouTube videos still look watchable.

Over the BD55 it adds a USB drive for playback of video files (including DivX) and MP3 songs. I tested this and the player detected that the drive had videos and music on it, and it asked which I wanted to watch or listen to - playback of both types of media worked like a champ. Unfortunately I was not able to zoom in on a DivX AVI file to view it full screen but at least the aspect ratio did look correct (unlike the BD55 which stretched DivX videos horizontally).

For Blu-ray playback, I only watched a little bit of Bolt - the upcoming Disney animation Blu-ray which was giving the BD55 some trouble (on a BD55 with 1.7 firmware). It played back with no problems on the BD80 and the detail and color accuracy seemed on par with the BD55 (though I have not done any real testing yet of video performance).

There is a "Quick Start" option which does consume a bit more power in stand-by but allows the player to boot up faster. Also, there is a new "High Clarity Audio" feature that allows you to disable the analog audio processing if you're only using the digital/HDMI out.

Overall, the menus and operation seem to be very close to the BD55, but with the addition of the VIERA Cast feature for direct access to web-based content. And all at the same exact price point - sweet!

Expect a full review to be published on the site next week.

-CB

Mr Boylan...have you noticed any difference in sound when the " high clarity audio" is selected??? does this feature work when the audio is connected through the 7.1 multichannel inputs???

Thanks

[MrBoylan]

Mr Boylan...have you noticed any difference in sound when the " high clarity audio" is selected??? does this feature work when the audio is connected through the 7.1 multichannel inputs???

Thanks

Hi,

I haven't really played around with this feature too much so I can't say whether it has much of an impact on the sound, but yes, it should improve the sound quality over the multi-channel analog outputs. I am holding onto the player to do some testing of the Amazon on-demand movie download service when it becomes available so if I get any free time between other reviews, I'll see what this does for the sound quality.

Regards,

-Chris