Panasonic DMP-BD80

Pros: Picture and sound quality are amazing! Remote is easy to use. Set up menu is easy to follow. Analog outputs for 7.1 surround sound.

Cons: Slower load times than the competition. Not as much fine control over the 7.1 audio settings as I would like (ie speaker cross over settings, etc.)

Summary: I have owned this blu-ray player for just over a month. I use my BD player with a Samsung LN-52A630 LCD TV and a Harman Kardon AVR 445 stereo receiver. I opted for the higher end BD 80 (over the BD 60) because it has the 7.1 analog outputs for surround sound since my receiver is not able to decode the newest HD sound modes.

The picture quality is incredible. My home movie experience is even better than going to a movie theater. The picture quality is far superior to that of my Dish Network HD programming (I am even talking about the likes of ESPN broadcasts which are entirely filmed and broadcast in HD). The player does an amazing job producing a picture on the screen. I have watched several blu-ray titles, and they all look impressive. Several reviews of blu-ray players used the movie "Master and Commander", and I watched that movie on my home theater system as well. The picture was very life like. The detail was stunning, and; with the surround sound up and running, I felt like I was in the heat of battle.

I opted to pay a slightly higher price for a blu-ray player that could decode those audio formats for my stereo. My receiver is only a few years old, but it is unable to decode the Dolby HD or DTS HD surround sound formats. The BD 80 has a simple menu to configure stereo speaker settings. My only complaint is that I wish I was afforded a little more control of my speaker adjustments, but it still sounds pretty darn good after getting things configured. Even though I cannot control fine speaker settings (like cross over control), the BD 80 still does a pretty darn good job at making movies sound good.

I highly recommend this player to take movies to the next level.