dmp-bd35

Panasonic discontinues DMP-BD35 Blu-ray player

Over the past several weeks, we've noticed that our favorite standalone Blu-ray player to date, the Panasonic DMP-BD35, seems almost impossible to find. The player is either out of stock at nearly every retailer, or priced at excessive premiums ($700 at Amazon Marketplace--more than double its $299 MSRP).

Indeed, a Panasonic rep we contacted confirmed that the DMP-BD35 has been discontinued. (The same is presumably true for its big brother, the DMP-BD55.) The good news is that it will soon be replaced by the Panasonic DMP-BD60, which offers a nearly identical spec sheet plus the addition of Viera Cast (… Read more

Review: Panasonic DMP-BD35 Blu-ray player nabs Editors' Choice award

We've been hard on standalone Blu-ray players from the start. At first, they were astronomically priced, while HD DVD was able to deliver much of the same performance for less. Then HD DVD dropped out, but the PlayStation 3 was able to offer great Blu-ray playback, plus media streaming and high-def gaming for the same price or less than standalones. And lately we've seen some standalone Blu-ray players priced significantly less than the PS3, like the Insignia NS-BRDVD and Philips BD7200, but their image quality performance isn't quite as good as we'd like.

The Panasonic DMP-BD35 … Read more

Pricing revealed for new Panasonic Blu-ray players?

When Panasonic announced its two new Blu-ray players in early September--the DMP-BD35 and DMP-BD55--the press release was long on features but mum on pricing. Now Video Business (via The Digital Bits) is reporting that the BD35 will retail for $400 and the step-up BD55 will cost $500. (Except for the latter model's analog 7.1-channel audio outputs, the players--both of which will boast cutting-edge Profile 2.0/BD-Live capability--are largely the same.)

By comparison, the older Panasonic DMP-BD50 retails for around $600. The new models are said to deliver improved video quality, faster disc-loading times, and lower power consumption, … Read more

Panasonic announces DMP-BD35, DMP-BD55 Blu-ray players

Rumors of new Panasonic Blu-ray players have been kicking around for weeks, but now it's official. Panasonic has announced two new Blu-ray players at CEDIA, the DMP-BD35 and DMP-BD55, which look to be mostly a refinement of the cutting-edge DMP-BD50 that was released this spring. There is no pricing or release dates yet, but let's take a look at the major features of these new players.

Panasonic DMP-BD35

Key features of the Panasonic DMP-BD35:

Blu-ray Profile 2.0 Onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, as well as bitstream output Blu-ray and DVD playback at 24 … Read more

Rumor: Panasonic, Yamaha to announce new Blu-ray players at Cedia?

Cedia is still a couple of weeks away, but a few rumors are starting to trickle out about what will be announced at the show.

According to Blu-ray.com (which is not the official Blu-ray site), both Yamaha and Panasonic will be announcing new Blu-ray players. Yamaha will reportedly be rolling out the S2900, which will be a Profile 1.1 player and looks to only support Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio in bitstream format. There's no price yet, but we have to imagine it will be relatively affordable given the spec sheet.

For Panasonic, the rumor is … Read more