Panasonic DMP-BD30K Blu-ray Player

Worth the money

Strengths: Loading time is slower. Quiet machine.Easy set up. HDMI 1.3. Easily stackable.

Weaknesses: Remote is too busy and hard to find buttons you need quickly.

Summary: The appearance is awesome especially with the blu-ray blue light on. It loads faster than my HD DVD player. I was a little hesitant to buy this for $100 more than another brand on sale, but after advice from a retail store manager opted to get this model. I'm so glad, it's definite worth the money. The quality of the output was amazing!

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Fantastic players

Strengths: Stellar picture, sound quality. Ease of setup and use. Feature rich, quick load times.

Weaknesses: Poor remote design, pricey.

Summary: It seems that Blu-ray is winning the format war, so I took the plunge. This player offers the best technology (with the exception of remote and Ethernet connection) at a reasonable price point. I researched other players heavily and found the reviews consistently favorable for this player. Everything positive is true: fantastic picture, sound, features, ease of use. This product is a leader in the Blu-Ray market and is worth the extra dollars.

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Panasonic DMP-BD30K Blue Ray player

Strengths: Amazing picture quality, quick disc load time, choice for audio output of either optical or coaxial.

Weaknesses: Remote control could be much less confusing and difficult to use.

Summary: It looks like blu-ray is winning out over HD DVD and, combined with a discount for also purchasing a Panasonic Plasma TV, I decided to go for it! I am thrilled with the quality and performance of this player. The picture is stunning and even my SD DVD's look better because this player upconverts them. Load times for discs are quick at about 15 to 20 seconds. The player does not have an ethernet connection but upgrades of the firmware was simple to accomplish by burning the upgrade to a CD. Overall, I am very pleased with this unit and recommend it.

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• When Panasonic adopts Sharps design and starts updating firmware ...

Highly Recommended!!!

Strengths: Picture quality is amazing! Upconversion to 1080p is much better than upconverting DVD players

Weaknesses: Pricey, but you get what you pay for. What's another $420 after spending $5k on a plasma screen?!

Summary: I bought this after extensive research and found that all the praises are well deserved. Excellent BluRay player and loads fast! Picture quality is incredible. Upconversion is near HD. Very forgiving in reading rental discs.

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Almost perfect, but ruined by a fatal flaw

Strengths: Best Blu-ray player for the money, rock-solid picture quality, ability to bitstream all HD audio formats, smaller and quieter than the PS3, frequent firmware updates show commitment to quality

Weaknesses: Has issues playing 1.1 ("Bonus View") discs (could be fixed by Feb08), hardware design causes LFE signals on PCM audio tracks output via HDMI to be 5dB TOO LOW (the fatal flaw)

Summary: I love this player in so many ways that it hurts me to say that it'll probably have to go back to the retailer because of the low LFE issue.

In a nutshell: LFE stands for Low Frequency Effects, and represents the signals from a film soundtrack that are specifically sent to the subwoofer (the ".1" in a 5.1 or 7.1 channel speaker setup). The LFE issue, which affects both the BD-10 and the BD-30, affects all PCM soundtracks output from the Panasonic player to the A/V receiver via HDMI. A significant proportion of Blu-ray discs contain only these PCM soundtracks - specifically, every single Disney title and the majority of Sony titles. Several Warner Bros. titles (e.g., the Harry Potter movies) contain PCM tracks as well - check the back of your disc case for the exact specifications of your title.

This LFE flaw means that all PCM soundtracks will be attenuated (decreased) by 5 decibels when output via HDMI. If you are connecting this player to your receiver via the analog connections (6-8 seperate RCA connecting cables), you will NOT be affected by this issue.

Five decibels is quite a bit - it means much less rumble and "oomph" from your sub, compromising the overall movie-watching experience. Various workarounds have been suggested by owners, the most popular of which is simply to increase your subwoofer output by 5dB. However, this "fix" will also boost the redirected bass signals send from your speakers to the subwoofer, unless they can individually handle deep bass like the sub. Other LFE adjustment options in the receiver's settings only attenuate the LFE signal further - there is currently no option on ANY receiver (Denon, Marantz, Onkyo, etc.) to increase the LFE signal to compensate.

A compromise fix is to boost the sub's output by only 2-3dB. This gives you some boost in LFE and some boost in redirected bass, so it's not ideal.

Many people may claim their Panny players don't have the LFE issue because their system sounds fine. This may be because these individuals already have their subwoofers calibrated "hot" to begin with (or not calibrated at all). Be assured, this issue affects ALL Panasonic BD-10 and BD-30 machines, whether people recognize it or not. No other Blu-ray player on the market has this issue.

This issue has been independently tested and verified by Panasonic. However, it does not appear that is can be fixed with a firmware update. It's a real shame, because this machine is a top performer in nearly every other area imaginable, and even in its compromised state is better than every other Blu-ray player available (and this is speaking as a former PS3 owner).

Bottom line: people looking for a bug-free Blu-ray player would be best advised to wait until the summer or fall, when 2.0 spec ("BD-Live") players will be introduced and Panasonic will have hopefully ironed out this problem in the BD-50, the next model.

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A loaded Blu-ray player at a reasonable price

Strengths: Panasonic includes features only found on previously more expensive players. Loads faster, too!

Weaknesses: Remote has confusing buttons. No remaining time display. No lighted remote buttons!

Summary: For those waiting for a Blu-ray player with high end features, check out the Panasonic DMP-BD30K. This player doesn't skimp on features.

It is one of the fastest loading Blu-ray players out there. It puts my previous player, the Sony BDP-S300 to shame. It offers bitstream support for all audio formats. It is the first player to be natively Profile 1.1 specific. The HDMI is 1.3 compliant, ahead of Panasonic's competition.

Although lighter in weight than other players, it has a cool look featuring a blue light with a hidden drawer that opens to expose the tray. The resulting image is amazing.

This player does have some minor downsides. Most troubling is the included remote. It has a weird layout making it difficult to operate some sub-functions without checking the manual. A lighted remote would have been extremely helpful. Like other players, this one does not offer remaining time on a disc like many standard DVD players.

If you're looking for a Blu-ray player with most of the high-end bells-and-whistles, checkout this Panasonic. Sure you can find cheaper players, but not with all the goodies on this model.

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A highly recommended Blu-ray Player

Strengths: Fastest start-up & disc load times of present freestanding Blu-ray players. Excellent Hi-Def picture quality.

Weaknesses: Remote is confusing to use. Picture with factory settings is too dark. No "time remaining" display.

Summary: I first bought a Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray player, but was immediately appalled by the terribly slow startup and disc load times. I quickly replaced it with the Panasonic DMP-BD30K player whose startup and disc load times are much more in line with those of standard DVD players. The video & sound quality of this unit is excellent. It supports all the latest specs such as HDMI 1.3, 1080P, 24frames/sec, TrueHD audio and Dolby Digital HD-Master Audio via bitstream, and is able to have its firmware updated as enhancements are created. It also does a great job of playing & upscaling standard DVDs. I used to use my Oppo OPDV971H player for this, but find the Panasonic DMP-BD30K player does just as good a job. (I am viewing the picture on a 52" DLP HDTV.) This unit can also display JPEG images from CD-R/RW, BD-RE & DVD-RAM discs or from an optional flash card plugged into the SD memory card slot on the face of the unit.

On the negative side. I am having trouble getting accustom to the remote control layout, and find myself having to refer to the user manual in order to find some lower level functions. Also, out of the box, I felt that the image in darker portions of video were too dark, and detail was lost. I corrected this by going into the video setting menu while playing a Blu-ray disc (Display button, then down or up arrow button to select Video). Then right arrow to the Picture setting selecting "User" from the available options. Then to Picture Adjustment changing the Gamma value to a +5, leaving all the other settings at their default 0 value. This has greatly improved the detail in dark scenes. Another annoying item is that this player will show the amount of time the DVD has played and the DVD's total time, but does not display the amount of remaining time. Interestingly, the Sony Blu-ray player that I replaced with this Panasonic unit also did not display amount of remaining time. This is a rather small point since the user can simply do the math, but all the previous standard DVD players I have owned, including those that cost a lot less than these Blu-ray players, did the calculations for for you so that it was a quick button push to learn how much time was left in a video.

All in all, I highly recommend the Panasonic DMP-BD30K Blu-ray player. It is definitely ahead of the present competition in features and quality.

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Excellent Blu-Ray player addresses concerns from 1st gen players

Strengths: Outstanding image quality Easy setup Very reasonable start-up and disc load times

Weaknesses: Price Firmware update by CD

Summary: I'm new to the hi-def disc formats, and decided to buy a Blu-Ray player based on the studio support. I knew this decision meant I'd be paying more for the player (at least in the short term). This player was more expensive than a number of alternatives, but most of those were HD-DVD, or were 1st gen Blu-Ray players.

I chose the Panasonic DMP-BD30K due to reviews that indicated it addressed some of the usability/convenience concerns of the early hi-def players, in particular the start-up and disc load times. On this player, I see about a 25 second start up time, and about 20 seconds from when the try goes in until the first screen appears. Sadly, that's usually an FBI or similar screen, but that's not Panasonic's issue.

I connected this player via HDMI (video) and composite (audio) to my A/V receiver, and view it on a 720p-capable projector (see my other reviews for more details on the other equipment). With those connections, there was no setup required -- I just attached the cables, turned it on, and it worked.

I've only had this player a week or so, but I've tried it out with a couple discs. I watched Planet Earth on Blu-Ray and it was spectacular. I'd watched the series on HD cable, and this was a bit crisper, and certainly lacked some of the occasional noise of the cable broadcast. I also watched the standard-def DVD of Love Actually to see how the DMP-BD30K upconverted, and it was excellent. I thought it was an improvement over my previous 720p upconverting DVD player. I'd imagine if I had a 1080p screen it'd only be better.

One thing not so great about this player is the firmware update mechanism, which requires you to download from the website and burn a CD. It worked great, and was actually pretty straightforward, but it limits to whom I'd recommend this player, as there are lots of people for whom that is not an easy task.

Other folks have complained about the remote on this unit. I have no opinion -- I immediately threw it in a drawer and programmed my Harmony remote, which controlled the DMP-BD30K perfectly from the start.

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Awesome Blu-Ray Player

Strengths: Sleek and stylish player. Hi-def picture. Hi-Def sound with bitstream is incredible.

Weaknesses: None

Summary: This player not only looks good, but has the best hi-def picture I have ever seen. Do yourself a favor and buy this amazing Blu-Ray player and you will be glad you did.

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Panasonic Blu-Ray

Strengths: Easy setup, plays all BD and DVD I have.

Weaknesses: Could be cheaper.

Summary: I bought this player to replace a Samsung that I had. The Samsung needed to be updated every time that I got a new BD disc. So far, the Panasonic 30 has given me no problems.

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DMP-BD30K Blu-ray Disc Player

Strengths: high quality

Weaknesses: expensive

Summary: Bought it with my new Panny 42" 1080p plasma TV. Watched a lot blu-ray movies and surprised by the picture clarity and was impressed with the excellent job this player did to upconvert it to 1080p. Highly recommended.

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bd30 is a great player and with ps3 you have it all!

Strengths: plays all audio formats for blu-ray

Weaknesses: not internet capable but with ps3 you got it all!

Summary: if you want dts hd master audio bitstreamed to a receiver then this is the player to get! Great player! Picture quality is excellent and the player is easy to use.

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lfe bug fixed

Strengths: great sound great picture

Weaknesses: none

Summary: great sound great picture great 1.1 player. dts hd master audio bitstreamed to receiver. The best player currently available and if you have the ps3 and this player you should be set to utilize all blu ray features.

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Blu-ray discs look fantastic

Strengths: Blu-ray disks look really great. Load up times are good.

Weaknesses: Non blu-ray discs don't look that good.

Summary: I decided to jump on the Blu-Ray wagon once I knew it was the format winner. This unit got pretty good reviews so I went with this one.

First, I am hooked up to a HDTV only. I don't have a receiver or a home theater system so all the advanced audio capabilities are wasted on me. I upgraded the firmware on the unit I received to 1.6 before I tried anything. That was a relatively painless process.

Picture wise, at 1080p, blu-ray disks look fantastic. I have only tried a couple of titles but they load up quickly and play fine, no problems. I can't complain at all about its blu-ray capabilities so far.

My problem is with non blu-ray disks. A good DVD looks fine when this unit plays it. The problem is with the titles where the quality wasn't the best to begin with. When upsampled to 1080P, artifacts that didn't look too bad or were hardly noticeable, become very noticeable. You can soften the picture some which helps but the best thing to do is to set the unit to play at 480p. This is not impossible to do but not as easy as a button on the remote.

When processing digital photos, you have the same problem of trying to extrapolate more detail out of an image than is recorded. You can only estimate and its not perfect. Sometimes it is more pleasant to view a low res image than a low res image upsampled to try and be hi res.

Rather than automatically upsample a DVD, I wish there were a very simple way to just play it at its recorded resolution without having to go through a bunch of menus.

Only time will tell though as I build up my collection of Blu-ray DVDs how well this unit will fare.

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Panasonic Blu ray DMP-BD30K

Strengths: Nice built and faster than the previous generation of bluray players. Comes with HDMI 1.3b and will do 1080P plus decode true HD.

Weaknesses: Still too expensive as compared to HD DVD.

Summary: I got this paired with a Panasonic 42 inch plasma and the picture is just gorgeous when playing those bluray movies. This is much faster than the previous generation of bluray.

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