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panasonic

Panasonic Blu-ray player gets price cut, free movies

Among the first-generation Blu-ray players, Panasonic's DMP-BD10 was remarkable for its higher-than-average price tag ($1,300 versus the $1,000 norm) and the company's promise of a future firmware upgrade that would unleash the full sonic power of Blu-ray audio soundtracks. Having made good on the firmware upgrade in April, Panasonic has now shaved 54 percent off the price. In addition to sporting the upgraded firmware, the newly christened DMP-BD10A will retail for $600 and include five Blu-ray movies--Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Transporter, Fantastic Four, … Read more

Panasonic designs Venus-worthy image sensor

I love press releases for really geeky stuff like image sensors, especially the releases declaring amazing breakthroughs. They're fun because there's usually some really interesting development buried in it, but the people who write the releases have no idea what it is. Ditto for many of the Web sites that write about them. So you end up with some verbatim quotes that are so dense, an electron couldn't tunnel through them. This brings me to today's announcement from Panasonic, featuring a rugged, new image sensor designed to withstand the deterioration caused by weather, heat, and ultraviolet … Read more

Panasonic DMR-EX77: Record and upscale Freeview

Because Crave leads such an active social life (read: we can't stop playing World of Warcraft), we're very rarely around to watch TV. This means Freeview hard-drive recorders are absolutely invaluable. One of our faves was the excellent Panasonic DMR-EX75, so we're overjoyed to see an upgrade: the DMR-EX77, which allows digital recording to either DVD or its built-in 160GB hard drive.

The EX77 also has a built-in Freeview receiver, so there's no messing around with those pesky Scart leads to plug in your Freeview receiver and suffering a loss in quality as everything is converted … Read more

Panasonic Viera: LCD from a plasma lover

Panasonic doesn't much care for LCD. It's often telling us how much better plasma is than the liquid crystal displays of other manufacturers. But you have to admire Panny--even though it thinks the technology is inferior, it still produces great televisions using it. The Viera TX-32LMD70 is one such success story--it has made Crave froth with a rabid technological hunger.

The TX-32LMD70 is certainly a handsome-looking machine. Finished in a tasty matte black that says a big "no thank you" to the rather uncouth trend towards shiny piano black. We think the styling is a winner. … Read more

Panasonic fleshes out new plasmas

We first heard about Panasonic's new line of plasma televisions at CES in January. Since then I've gotten a chance to review one of the new models, the 42-inch TH-42PX77U, and I mostly liked what I saw. Today the company is holding a press event in New York where it will detail its full 2007 lineup, so here's a summary of the press release.

The two baseline series mentioned at CES, the entry-level TH-PX75U series and the step-up TH-PX77U series, all received official MSRP pricing today, although that often has little to do with the actual selling … Read more

Candy-colored copiers

Panasonic apparently has an equal-opportunity paintbrush when it comes to equipment. Following the trend of neon appliances in the home, from refrigerators to washing machines, the company is applying its pallette to the color-barren workplace.

Its new line of C3 multi-functional copy machines come in such non-traditional office hues bright red, yellow and blue. We applaud the effort because, as I4U News notes, research shows that colors are generally good for productivity and morale at work.

However, we must say that doesn't hold a candle to Konica Minolta's psychedelic copier-DVD-latte machine--either in function or in hallucinogenic design.… Read more

Panasonic's rugged SD card camcorder

Earlier, we reported on the Panasonic SDR-S10, an SD card camcorder the company claimed was the smallest on the market. Unfortunately, details were sparse. Fortunately, we finally got the full scoop on the little camcorder.

Panasonic officially announced the SDR-S10 at PMA 2007. The SDR-S10 is a compact, rugged, affordable SD card camcorder that can handle both drops and splashes. The S10 measures just 1.5 inches thick and weighs just 6.4 ounces, making it at least one of the smallest and lightest camcorders we've seen so far. It's shockproof for drops up to four feet, and … Read more

'World's smallest' SD camcorder? Your guess is as good as ours

Panasonic is releasing what it calls the "world's smallest SD camcorder," but there's just one problem: We have no idea how big it is. Pocket-lint broke the news of the SDR-10, which has a 2.7-inch widescreen LCD and a 10x zoom. It also has features that could be useful when dealing with any small piece of equipment that could easily slip from one's hand: water-resistance and shock absorption up to 1.2 meters, or nearly 4 feet. But no actual dimensions of the camera were provided, so Panasonic's size claims remain something of … Read more