Editors' note, October 1, 2008: This 2007 product has been replaced by the Panasonic DMP-BD35, which offers more features at a better price.
Editors' note, June 9, 2008: The rating of this player has been changed since its initial publication to reflect changes in the marketplace.
Editors' note, November 29, 2007: This review has been edited since its initial publication to include some additional observations regarding image quality.
While the majority of home movie watchers avoids Blu-ray because of the ongoing format war and high costs, AV enthusiasts lately have been hesitant to pick up a new Blu-ray player for another reason: They've been waiting for the impending Blu-ray Profile 1.1. All Blu-ray players certified to bear that magic logo after October 31 must meet the more-stringent hardware requirements of Blu-ray Profile 1.1, which should allow players to take advantage of special features, like picture-in-picture commentary. Incidentally, the rival HD DVD format has had these features from the start. While some manufacturers have rushed to get their players out before the deadline, Panasonic has taken a different approach by releasing the first Blu-ray Profile 1.1 player, the DMP-BD30, before October 31 even hits. And while the price of the player is still high overall--$500 list--that's about the cheapest you can get a standalone Blu-ray these days. The DMP-BD30 certainly doesn't beat the value proposition of the PlayStation 3, but if you insist on getting a standalone Blu-ray player as opposed to Sony's console, it's one of the top contenders.
Design
We were happy to note that DMP-BD30 lacks the extremely annoying flip-down panel of its predecessor, the DMP-BD10A. While a large panel still conceals most of the BD30's front-panel controls, the disc tray hides behind a separate, smaller panel that automatically flips down when you hit the Open/Close button. We definitely prefer this arrangement to having to manually lower the BD10A's panel every time we wanted to change a disc. On the right half of the DMP-BD30's face player is the LED display, which was sized to be easily legible from a seating distance of about 7 feet.
The DMP-BD30's disc-tray door opens automatically, a welcome improvement over the DMP-BD10A.
We absolutely hated the remote on the DMP-BD10A, but luckily Panasonic wised up and included a more reasonable clicker on the newer model. Toward the bottom half of the remote is the circular directional pad, which is surround by three large buttons (Top Menu, Pop-up Menu, and Display) and four smaller buttons in the corners (Sub Menu, Status, Functions, and Return). Directly in the center of the remote are the Stop, Play, and Pause buttons, and we appreciated their large size and blue color, which makes them easy to find. Because the DMP-BD30 lacks the annoying flip-down door, the clicker is able to include the handy Open/Close button--so the tray will be waiting for you by the time you get off the couch. Our biggest complaint with the remote is that the setup menu button was buried at the bottom, but overall it's one of the better disc player remotes we've used recently.
Features
The DMP-BD30 is the first Blu-ray player we are aware of that is Final Standard Profile, also known as Blu-ray Profile 1.1. In technical terms, this means it meets several hardware requirements, including 64kb of onboard persistent memory, 256MB of local storage, and both secondary audio and video decoders. In practical terms, this should allow the DMP-BD30 to play picture-in-picture commentary and perhaps take advantage of other, as yet unspecified, interactive features available on Blu-ray Profile 1.1 discs--none of which are on the market yet. All current Blu-ray players (Blu-ray Profile 1.0) should still be able to play these discs, but they won't be able to take advantage of some of the interactive content.
Panasonic's DMP-BD30 is one of the first Blu-ray players that can output both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks in bitstream format, to be decoded by compatible receivers. This feature is a boon for audiophiles, as there is currently no Blu-ray or HD DVD player on the market able to decode DTS-HD Master Audio internally, and only some Blu-ray players are capable of decoding Dolby TrueHD internally (every HD DVD player, on the other hand, can). Both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio are losslessly compressed audio formats, which means that the playback on your system should be identical to the digital master and should, with the right equipment, sound better than standard Dolby Digital and DTS. Actually getting the DMP-BD30 to output the high-resolution audio soundtracks in bitstream format is a bit of a headache, too--be sure to check out our Tips and Tricks section for easy instructions.
While high-resolution bitstream output is great for owners of new receivers, DMP-BD30 owners with older receivers are somewhat out of luck. The DMP-BD30 has no internal decoding for Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, or DTS-HD Master Audio. This lack of internal decoding is particularly disappointing because the older DMP-BD10A itself offered internal decoding for all of these formats except DTS-HS Master Audio. Any DMP-BD30 owner whose AV receiver lacks built-in decoding for the new audio formats won't be able to enjoy the high-resolution soundtracks available on many Blu-ray discs (unless the disc includes an uncompressed soundtrack, as well.) Among AV receivers CNET has reviewed, the following have the requisite internal decoding capabilities: the Sony STR-DA5300ES, the Onkyo TX-SR605 and TX-SR805, and the Pioneer Elite VSX-91TXH. The Panasonic DMP-BD30 does, like almost every other player, have built-in decoding for standard Dolby Digital and DTS.
The jack pack is pretty complete, including multichannel analog outputs.
The connectivity package on the DMP-BD30 is very good. The main video output is naturally HDMI, which is capable of outputting both 1080p video signals (at either 24 or 60 frames per second) and multichannel, high-resolution audio signals. For analog video, there is a component video output, as well as S-Video and composite video output. Blu-ray discs can be outputted at 1080i over the component video connection, although DVDs are limited to 480p output.
Audio can also travel via the aforementioned HDMI output, as well as via optical and coaxial digital audio outputs, although only the HDMI output has enough bandwidth to pass the high-resolution audio bitstreams mentioned above. The DMP-BD30 also has 5.1 multichannel analog outputs for making the connection to older receivers, although the lack of internal high-resolution audio decoders makes these analog outputs less useful than on other Blu-ray players. Additionally, there is a standard analog stereo output.
The SD card slot is found under the flip-down panel on the front.
Panasonic stashed an SDHC card slot under the flip-down panel on the front. This slot can read many different media types, including MP3s and JPEGs with resolutions up to 1,920x1080. More interestingly, it can play back high-def AVCHD video from high-def camcorders that record on SD cards. According to Panasonic representatives we talked with, it's also possible that in the future movie studios will make extra content available for Blu-ray movies, which you could download to the SD card, and then watch on the DMP-BD30. That's certainly not the ideal case--it's really just a workaround because the player lacks an Ethernet port--but it's better than nothing.
Blu-ray performance
We started off by looking at some test patterns via Silicon Optix's HQV test suite on Blu-ray. The DMP-BD30 performed excellently by properly deinterlacing 1080i signals to 1080p without artifacts or jaggies. It passed the video resolution test easily and also had no problem with the film resolution test, including the slow pan across Raymond James Stadium. The DMP-BD30 did stumble on the two video-based HQV tests--showing some jaggies on a rotating white line and three pivoting lines--but we tend to give these tests less weight as there is very little Blu-ray content shot on video (as opposed to film) currently available. Considering the lackluster 1080p performance from some recent high-def disc players, including the Toshiba HD-A30 and the Sony BDP-S300, we were happy to see the DMP-BD30 passed the important film-based tests--especially considering its price point.
Moving on to actual movies, we started with Mission Impossible: III. We immediately took a look at the stairs at beginning of Chapter 8, and the DMP-BD30 had no problem outputting a clean image. We also looked at trimming on the limo in Chapter 16--another tough scene--and there wasn't a jaggy in sight. Switching to Ghost Rider, the DMP-BD30 passed the difficult sequence at the end of Chapter 6, having no problem rendering the grill of the RV in the background.
After spot-checking some known problematic scenes, we sat down with the excellent-looking Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. As usual, the image quality of Blu-ray was vastly superior to DVD when viewed on a big screen. Details are razor sharp, and the jaggies of the DVD era were nowhere to be seen. Details as minute as individual strands of hair and facial stubble were easy to make out and the colors were nicely saturated to give the image "pop." The jaggies seen on the video-based HQV tests were nowhere to be found in all the program material we watched. Overall, home theater fans will be wowed by the image quality of the DMP-BD30.
While the DMP-BD30's Blu-ray image quality is excellent, we wouldn't say that it's necessarily better than other top-performing Blu-ray players. In fact, as along as the player is capable of properly performing 1080i deinterlacing, we've seen virtually no performance differences between Blu-ray players, including the PlayStation 3. Similarly, we've seen no difference in image quality between Blu-ray and HD DVD.
Standard DVD performance
We were impressed by the DMP-BD10A's performance on standard DVDs, so we had high hopes when we fired up Silicon Optix's HQV test suite on the DMP-BD30. The initial resolution test looked rock solid, clearly displaying all the detail of DVD without any flicking or image instability. The results on the next jaggies tests were more disappointing--while it did a decent job with a rotating white line, it performed rather poorly on three pivoting white lines. The DMP-BD30 also struggled on the relatively easy scrolling titles test, with words exhibiting comb-like tearing as they moved horizontally across the screen. On the upside, it performed well on the difficult 2:3 pull-down test, by kicking into film mode in under a second as the racecar drives by the grandstands.
Nobody sane likes to watch just test patterns, so we moved on to actual program material. The DMP-BD30 showed off its 2:3 pull-down prowess once again on the introduction to Star Trek: Insurrection by smoothly rendering the curved railing of the bridge and the hulls of the boats. We also looked at the difficult opening sequence of Seabiscuit, and, for the most part, it performed well. While many players struggle and display lots of jaggies, the DMP-BD30's image was clean aside from a few instances of flicking on the grilles of cars. Overall, we were disappointed that the DMP-BD30 didn't handle the difficult video-based HQV tests as well as its predecessor, but it still did a solid job with film-based DVD content.
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Panasonic DMP-BD30K