Purchase Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray Disc Player, Black

There's a reason why this player is currently the top-selling BD player on Amazon: it offers the best performance at the lowest price. No, it does not offer WiFi connectivity (who wants to stream HD over WiFi anyway?) and you cannot access Netflix (although Amazon VoD is a good alternative, especially for those who do not want to subscribe to a service). What the BD60 does offer is great BD playback performance for under $200. As others will attest, you may encounter an occasional freeze during playback, although these incidents are infrequent (average of around one per 20 hours of playback for me) and last only a few seconds after which the player resumes as if nothing had happened. Virtually every standalone BD player on the market (except perhaps the Oppo BPD-83 which costs $300 more) has some playback issues. Blu-ray is still a new standard and if you buy now you are beta-testing the technology to some extent. The good thing is that you will not find a company with a better track record of customer support and reliability than Panasonic. Since I have had this player (a little over a month) Panasonic has released two firmware updates for the player. It doesn't get better than that, IMO.

Picture and sound quality are as good as it gets with this player. Check any review on the web and you will see that there is not a player out there, regardless of price, that outperforms the BD60 in picture and sound. Load times are average, although BD-Live enabled discs can be slow to load sometimes. BD-Live functionality can be turned off which would probably eliminate this problem although I have not tested this. Load times have never been a concern of mine. The difference between 20 and 40 seconds is irrelevant to me.

The only other player I would consider at this price point is the JVC XV-BP1. JVC does not have the track record that Panasonic does with respect to Blu-ray, but the XV-BP1 seems to be a very nice player. The JVC reportedly loads almost as fast as the Oppo. It does not have video streaming content, however. It also lacks WiFi capability like the BD60. I'd still go with the BD60 just based on Panasonic's reputation.Get more detail about Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray Disc Player, Black.