Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray Disc Player, Black Order Now

If you've been holding back on a Blu-Ray Disk, or BD, player because of player price, performance quirks, rapid changes in the BD standard, movie cost and availability, the time may have come to upgrade. The BD60 performs for me much like many of the reviewers here have spoken off, but Panasonic products have a large reputation for reliability, has its prior model of BD60 proven for over a year, has its current model out for over 3 months with glowing user reviews, and BD movies have dropped in price quite a bit since 2009 began.

To highlight specific issues that are circulating on other review web sites:

My disk load time is mostly under 1 minute, more like 30 seconds. Its longest only if the BD has to start up from power off. There is a quick load feature, but this keeps the unit partially powered on, so the phantom power is 6 watts OFF, versus 0.5 watts if the quick load feature is off.

I have the disk freeze, seen after 40 hours of usage. It lasts under 3 seconds, so it easily tolerated when it occurs. Its detailed here by another reviewer. It has not happened when playing main movies, but only with extras if they are HD but not 24 fps material. It has happened 4x in 40 hours.

The remote is ugly but very ergonomic. It was far easier to program my basic Sharp TV control codes into it that most remotes. Its buttons are logically arranged, so its easy to find related functions for menus.

Unlike DVD, there is a noticeable pause between moving between the movie and some menu items, such as fast forwarding. Given that the BD is 7x more data than DVD9, the delay seems proportionate. However, the frame advance, slow mo etc., are as responsive as my DVD player. My DVD player remembers were I left off when changing player functions, while the BD60 may restart the disk.

However, all these subtle annoyances disappear once the BD movie's breathtaking clarity takes hold.

Compared to my Sony DVD player, the upconversion of DVD is also more vibrant, and noticeably superior. Until more BD movies are available, even watching DVD on this unit shines.

A good number of DVD and BD movies are being sold for near the same price, at least from Amazon. While the boxes and inserts are far more Spartan for basic BD movies versus DVD, the disk data is the thing, and the picture quality in incomparable. With blank BD media running $4-5 25GB disk, and over $10 for a single blank 50GB disk, re-releases sold for $10-15 a disk are a bargain.

One critical item that has held me back from BD, besides the HD vs BD wars, was that BD or HD disk mastering or player technology itself had on occasion provided marginal improvements over DVD imagery. This has led to a plethora of review sites comparing HD or BD to DVD, so upgrading your old DVD collection is not a no-brainer, and one should look into BD reviews before upgrading your current DVD collection.Get more detail about Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray Disc Player, Black.