Panasonic DMP-BD80 user reviews

Pros Crisp beautiful image. Fabulous sound.

Cons Can't play correct screen aspect on AVIs as it stretches the image (yes, I've tried all the aspects offered on both the TV and bluray). Can't play DVD-RW which means I still need to connect 2 players to my TV. Also, CDs only come out on 2 speakers.

Summary Beautiful Bluray player though DOES NOT come close to solving my original problem of only wanting to have one machine connected to the TV and receiver.

Bottom line is that the ideal bluray player still hasn't been produced. I want one that plays AVIs correctly, will allow you to play DVD-RWs (so I don;t have to waste new discs every time I want to watch this week's Smallville), and will play CDs on all speakers instead of just two.

Also, when you play TV shows (DVD season types) on this bluray player, you are stuck with gray lines on the sides instead of black. What the heck is up with that? It's so distracting. I didn't have any of these issues with my $50 upgrade DVD player. Not happy about this.

Do Panasonic Engineers even watch TV?? Do they have absolutely no idea what people want?

Updated on Aug 31, 2009

I forgot to mention that when I first got the player, I had "freezing image" issues (nice, huh?). I then installed the latest firmware. I haven't had a freezing issue since (crossing fingers).

It's a nice player. However, I hate feeling like I already have to be on the lookout for a replacement for a one month old player. It's a turn off.

Panasonic customer service were no help at all.

Pros Very sharp Blu-ray picture, great sound. The analog outputs allow you to connect to an older receiver that doesn't have HDMI connections, quiet operation (no disc-spinning noise or fan noise).

Cons No Netflix streaming, no wireless. Some Blu-ray discs take a little while to start up, but I don't have another Blu-ray player to compare the time to.

Summary First, I have a 50" Panasonic 720p TV and use a Sony HDMI cable to connect this BD-80K to the TV. I didn't know how much of a difference Blu-ray would be with a 720p, but it makes a big difference. I was leery about buying a Blu-ray player because the movies always looked "fake" or "weird" at Best Buy. But this Blu-ray player makes movies appear just as clear as HD cable channels without the weird movement issues that movies have at Best Buy. Those guys just don't have the settings correct. As far as upconversion of regular DVD's, I don't see any difference at all between a DVD played on this Blu-ray player vs. playing the same DVD on my old standard Philips DVD player that's connected using an S-cable. But the difference between DVD and Blu-ray is like standard definition TV channels vs. HD channels. I bought the BD-80K because of the 7.1 analog outputs to get the "lossless" sound, and the ability to connect it to my 10-year old Harman/Kardon receiver that doesn't have HDMI inputs. I used the "6-channel direct" inputs, which is 5.1 not 7.1. I also connected a digital coax cable to the receiver just to compare the difference in sound. Using "Terminator Salvation" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" both on Blu-ray, the sound difference is VERY hard to tell and I have great speakers that I paid a lot of money for. The difference in volume is very easy to hear. Using the analog outputs, the volume is much louder at the same receiver volume setting, but when I played the same scenes using the coax cable and turned up the receiver so the actual listening volume was the same, it was very hard to tell the difference in sound between the coax and the analog outputs. I think the digital coax setting on the receiver sends more of the movie to the center channel than using the analog outputs, but the BD-80K settings and receiver can be changed to get more of the 'theater' type effect of using more of the left and right speakers. I bought the Panasonic instead of the Samsung P3600 (which has Netflix capability) because of the bad reviews on cnet of the Samsung reliability. I've had good luck with previous Panasonic products, and so far, so good with this BD-80K. Apparently Blu-ray discs can't resume play where you left off if you stop the movie, so that's a bit annoying. It does take a bit of time to load a Blu-ray disc and start playing the movie, but that's just time you can spend going to the fridge or shutting off the lights or whatever - not a big deal.

Pros Picture quality is fantastic, easy to set up, analog audio outputs, ethernet connection

Cons long load times, Top Menu button never seems to work (see below)

Summary Overall, I really like this player. The long load times are annoying, however this could be attributed to the fact that the player is connected to the internet and could be checking for updates or BD Live content.

Once a disk is loaded the Top Menu button seems to be useless. It fails to navigate to the menu when you're trying to skip all of the B.S. trailers and commercials at the start of most discs. I find this infuriating!

On the plus side, the picture is amazing. "Avatar" looks great on my 46-inch Sony Bravia and Pixar movies are beautiful to watch.

The analog audio outputs are the reason I purchased this player, since I have an older home theater system. Set up was a breeze.

I know some people think the ehternet connection is useless, but since I have a wireless bridge set up in my entertainment center for my 360 it works perfectly for me.

I'd definitely recommend the Panasonic DMP-BD80

Pros great picture and awesome sound, even without all the 7.0 sound

Cons not many features, remeber most people do not have internet connections in their living rooms

Summary for me iam into sound and picture, this is why i got this unit after trying the sony, which was loaded with every extra feature you could imagaine. maybe in the future their will be a firmware update with extra featrues such as wifi and internet stremaing