Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-Ray Player Review
April 22, 2009
The second generation Blu-ray players have started showing up at retails. Samsung, Panasonic, and Sony have produced some of the best stand alone Blu-ray players since the adaption of Blu-ray as the high definition format. Panasonic DMP-BD30 and DMP-BD50 variations have consistently been a great buy with great features with consistently good pictures. The Profile 2.0 supporting the BD-LIVE features were somewhat of luxury on the last generation players. Not so with players coming out this year. Along with Profile 2.0, high definition audio decoding and streaming capabilities have become defacto standards for most of the players announced at this year’s CES. At 2009 CES, Panasonic announced two mainstream Blu-ray players, DMP-BD60 and DMP-BD80, along with the VHS/Blu-ray combo player. As expected from the model numbers, the DMP-BD80 represents the high end model with more features than the DMP-BD60. Today, we are going to take a look at the DMP-BD60 model.
Features
The DMP-BD60 resembles high end players from the first generation players. The player comes with Profile 2.0 and all the high definition audio decoding out of the box. In this respect, the DMP-BD60 resembles the newly released Samsung BD-P1600. However, unlike the Samsung BD-P1600, the DMP-BD60 does not come with Netflix or Pandora compatibility. Instead, Panasonic introduces the Viera Cast. The Viera Cast is Panasonic’s own online streaming service available on some of the HDTV and the newer Blu-ray disc players. While it’s not complete, you can access YouTube, Picasa, weather, and stock quotes from the Viera Cast. The announced Amazon video streaming service has not been implemented yet. Most of the users will be familiar with the YouTube service. The Picasa is web based picture sharing/editing tool. While these services are nice, the inclusion of Netflix would have been better. The Amazon video service should offset the lack of Netflix if you are looking for streaming capability.
Our favorite gadget: A closer look at remote control
A lot of the buyers don’t pay too much attention to the remote control when they are purchasing television or disc players. The remote control for the DMP-BD60 doesn’t change much from the previous remote controls. The top of the remote houses the volume and channel buttons. This can take some time getting used to since most remotes have them in the middle or the bottom. However, there is separate volume button for your receiver. This is particularly convenient if you have receiver set up and don’t have a universal remote control. The numeric buttons are right below the channel and volume buttons. The playback function buttons and directional buttons are in the middle. The menu buttons surround the directional pad. The bottom of the remote houses the special function buttons like Viera Cast and set up buttons. Overall, it’s a solid remote control. It’s not Harmony but you can do much worse.
Design: Nothing new
There’s nothing remarkable about the design of DMP-BD60. It’s almost identical to the DMP-BD35. It lacks the glossy finish like the Samsung BD-P1600. Like the previous model, the middle portion houses the disc tray with LCD to the right side. The right side includes a manual flip down tray which houses the playback function buttons along with SD card slot and USB port. Back of the player contains the HDMI, component video, optical digital audio ports, and stereo analog audio output. It also has the RJ-45 port for the internet connectivity. Missing are the analog 5.1 channel or 7.1 channel audio ports.
Picture Quality
The real strength of the Panasonic players were the video qualities. The variety of Blu-ray discs movies had no problems on the DMP-BD60 model. As with other reviews, I used the Batman Begins and the Matrix Blu-ray movies. The regular viewing showed no signs of jaggies or moires. There were no blocking issues in fast motion sequences. Only noticeable defect was when I paused the video during the Batman Begins. One of the scene produced noticeable jaggies. This was only noticeable during the pause and normal viewing should have no noticeable jaggies. Overall, the video quality is second to none when compared against other mainstream Blu-ray players.
Performance
Compared to the DVD players, the Blu-ray players have been plagued with slow loading times. This is expected as Blu-ray discs are much more complex than the DVD discs. However, the newly released Samsung BD-P1600 reduced the loading times significantly over the previous models. Unfortunately, this is not the case for the DMP-BD60. The loading of Batman Begins and Matrix took close to two minutes compared to less than half on the Samsung BD-P1600. This might be a major problem for some but shouldn’t be a turn off for most as the video quality is excellent. For most part, I didn’t mind the waiting.
Audiophile rejoice!
The audio quality is fairy similar across all makes and models. Unless you are an audiophile, you will not notice significant differences between makes and models. The real choice between the players is the audio decoding options. The DMP-BD60 doesn’t disappoint in this department. The DMP-BD60 can natively decode Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and the DTS HD audio formats. These should cover most decoding needs for most consumers. The only drawback on audio front was the lack of 5.1 or 7.1 analog audio output. If you have receiver, you won’t miss the lack of output. However, if you don’t own a receiver, you might want to invest in a receiver if you plan to utilize the existing speakers.
All said and done
The DMP-BD60 is a nice improvement over the DMP-BD30/35 models. The inclusions of Profile 2.0 as well as the onboard decoding options are very nice addition. Even with lack of Netflix support, the streaming options are fairly nice via the Viera Cast. The upcoming addition of the Amazon Video On Demand service should add nice value to an already great player.
Pictures
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Blu-Ray Discussions
Join our discussion at BluRayforums.net!
I had an issue with the player sometimes “freezing up” in the middle of a movie. Once I upgraded the firmware the problem disappeared. The latest firmware version is 2.2 release 11/30/09.
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I also have the same problem that the unit frezzes up sometimes in the middle of a movie. Only way to get it to work is do a hard shut down and then restart the movie again.
Anyobe have a answer??
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My player freezes up on occasion, it’s not the disc’s, ran a quality scan on all disc’s and they were fine, also they all played in other players, some people on Amazon board had this problem, and is supposed to be linked to the firmware. the latest is 2.2 I believe.Has anyone else had this problem?
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I bought this when my 37″ Olevia LCD went out on me after 2 years. Thought I would go with a name brand TV this time. I too was looking for LCD’s but noticed how much better the picture was on the Panasonic Plasma’s. The price wasn’t much different either. I settled on the TC-P42S1 and absolutely love it. It was an easy setup and it has many features you can tweak to make the picture perfect for your room.
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I have been shopping for a Blu-ray for a while. read so many things about the manufactures,firmware updates, you have to do out of the box,I was so confussed! Ordered my Pany BD60 on line, read the book and it is easy as plug+play!! 1st. two BD’s were Australia + Black Knight.No problems!! Of course a little bit getting used to than DVD. But getting the hang of it. This has been a great 1st experience!!
I also get great 6.1 thru optical,Older Techics AV reciever,And Definitve speakers. I’m Happy..
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Hey everyone,
I’m thinking of buying this blu-ray player, I only have one problem
with it…
I’m well aware that it doesn’t have Analog 5.1 or 7.1 Audio Outputs,
but can it Output 5.1 anyway using the Optical Audio Out?
That’s my only concern, because I think the BD80 is not worth it
only because it has 7.1 Analog Output. I would rather buy BD60
and then buy a Set of 5.1 Speakers with Optical Audio Input.
Thanks in Advance.
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Great sound and picture quality. Super features at low price.Thats blu-ray.
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Consider the BD80 if you have an ONKYO Receiver.
I have an ONKYO TX_SR806 Receiver. It would not pass the HDMI video signal from the Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-Ray Player to my Sony TV. However, the HDMI video worked directly with the TV. I tried many combinations (pass through, direct mode, different on/off sequencing). Panasonic said it was Onkyo’s fault; Onkyo said it was Panasonic. I upgraded to the Panasonic DMP-BD80 so I could pass the Dolby-HD sound to my receiver via the analog 7-channel audio and the 1080p directly to my TV via HDMI.
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Amazing Movie Viewer!
Purchased this to work with Panasonic Plasma TV..Works great with each other..amazing picture quality and the VIESTA feature makes easy work out of using those features. This Blu-ray player features 1080P upgrade in your DVD movies and is noticeable, being important for all those DVD movies one has collected. Highly recommended!!
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NEW PANNY DMP-BD60
I JUST GOT THIS PLAYER 3 DAYS AGO, I HAD THE PANNY BD-30 I GOT FROM XMAS 07, SO I FIGURED LET ME GET THE UPDATED MODEL, GREAT PLAYER, NO PROBLEMS, THE YOU TUBE WAS COOL, WEATHER AND STOCKS, THE BD-LIVE IS GREAT! FOR THE PRICE-ITS A FANTASTIC DEAL, GREAT JOB, PANASONIC, AND THANKS AMAZON!!
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Great Blu Ray quality, pretty good DVD upconversion
I immediately ran into a technical difficulty the first time I hooked up this player to my receiver (Onkyo TX-SR604 with HDMI 1.1). I had the player hooked up through an HDMI switcher, XtremeMac HD. The receiver couldn’t detect the signal. I hooked up the cable directly to the receiver. Again, the receiver couldn’t detect the signal. Maybe I need a newer receiver that has HDMI 1.3 inputs, I don’t know. This is an issue to consider for those who have TVs with only one HDMI input and one or more HDMI components (like XBOX 360, Tivo HD, etc). Thinking that perhaps I needed to update the firmware, I ran a update setup and found that I had version 1.1 and could update to 1.5. It took, maybe, about 3-4 minutes to update, using ethernet.
I was hoping that the update would fix the HDMI issue. But, it didn’t. In any case, in worked perfectly fine when I hooked up the HDMI cable directly to my TV (Samsung PN-50A55 plasma) . I had to hook up a Toslink/Optical audio cable to the receiver for sound. Out of the box settings were fine for the most part–I tweaked the front light to be dimmer, set the resolution from “auto” to 1080p, set the 24p output to ON, and HDMI RGB output range to enhanced. I popped in a Blu Ray Disc (Sunshine) to test; It took around 40 second to get to the main menu. The quality is, as expected excellent and is better than 1080i HD TV broadcast (I have Comcast). I was actually surprised to find that the sound quality was amazing for both BR and DVD.
Now, what I was really concerned was how well it would upconvert DVD discs. I wanted it to be as good as my Oppo 981HD DVD player so I could sell it. I didn’t want too many components. Panasonic upconversion is quite good but not as great as the Oppo. What I saw in Panasonic which I hadn’t seen in the Oppo player was, 1) occasional jaggies in fast motion scenes, 2) the images were slightly softer and black levels could only be adjusted to high and low. That said, I was still very happy with the result and would have no problem giving up the Oppo player to minimize the setup.
Finally, I tried the Viera link option–currently available are YouTube, Picassa, Weather and Stock. I wasn’t impressed. I have Tivo HD which has YouTube, Netflix, and more. Weather graphics were pretty amazing, though. But I really don’t care for it.
All in all, I am pretty happy with it. I picked it over the new Samsung BD-P1600 because I read everywhere that the DVD upconversion was better. I am now kind of curious to try out the Samsung.
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Quality, at a low price
, how it would look on an HD display. I find this unit quite enjoyable. After hooking it up, I also connected a broad band (cable) hookup, did a firmware update (took about 10 minutes), spent a couple of hours watching YouTube videos, and watched a standard definition DVD.
I do not have an HD TV, but I ‘can’ say that the BD60 delivers great picture and sound on even an older Mitsubishi 36″ tube TV! I can only imagine, for now
Want to watch mpegs on your tv? No problem, when using an SD card. Want to listen to your favorite mp3’s? Just insert your USB memory device. Connect the unit to broad band, and watch YouTube, see your local weather (sites are configurable), read current stocks and news, and more. I guess that some computers can even be hooked up with this unit. I haven’t tried that yet, but it sounds exciting.
For it’s ease of use (both remote and onscreen), ease of hookup, its sound and video quality, its ease of upgrading via the internet, and the internet features itself, I highly recommend the BD60 as a compliment to any current or future HD entertainment system. And as another has commented, there’s not much difference between the BD60 and the BD80… other than the BD60 costs about $100-$150 less. That fact, and the resulting research, was what made me decide on the BD60. I’m happy that I did
.
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Excellent Blu Ray Disc Player loaded with options.
The Panasonic DMP-BD60K Blu Ray DVD player is an excellent DVD player. It raises the bar on Blu Ray players that other manufactures will have to surpass in order to be able to compete on quality and price. The Panasonic BD60K player features a PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus Digital Video processor. (According to Panasonic website this processor produces crisp, natural colors that are extremely faithful to the original movie and features the advanced encoding and authoring technologies developed by Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory (PHL) in collaboration with film industry professionals.) The beautiful images are complemented by an accurate sound achieved leading-edge audio technologies such as Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD. The player outputs 1080p/24fps. The remote has an excellent layout and easy to use interface.
What led me to buy this player over other players was the Ethernet capability, USB port & SD card slots, Viera Cast and 1080p up-conversion. Some of these features are available in other players but to my knowledge not all are available in one single player as is the case with BD60K. The Viera Cast currently lets one access You Tube videos and Picasa Web albums. Panasonic has announced that Amazon VOD (video on demand) will soon be available on Viera cast. In my experience both the Picasa web albums and the You Tube videos worked very well. The pictures on Picasa website are very crisp and in high resolution (but accompanied every time by the same background music that gets annoying to listen to over and over again). You Tube videos look okay (but grainy when expanded to cover the screen). One cool feature is the ability to continually play videos through your search one after the other. The Amazon VOD is not available yet so I can’t comment on it, but I am eagerly expecting its launch through Viera Cast.
I upgraded the player to 1.5 version of firmware using the Ethernet port and I had absolutely no problems after upgrading the firmware. I am using the Panasonic Blu Ray player with the Onkyo 805 receiver and a 1080p overhead Mitsubishi LCD projector (HC4900) on a Carada Precision Series 106″ projection screen and the Blu Ray picture quality (PQ) is absolutely stunning. The PQ for standard definition DVD is bearable on a projection screen and not the same quality as the Blu Ray DVD. I also played this DVD player through a 42″ Panasonic Plasma TV (720P) and the PQ for standard definition DVD or Blu Ray DVD is outstanding. There can be no guarantee for technological obsolescence in today’s fast changing world but the Panasonic BDP-BD60K holds promise.
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Best Blu Ray Player!
Best picture and sound of any player! Beats Playstation 3 in picture and sound!
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More Than Blu
With the BD60, Panasonic adds VIERA Cast online content access to their previous entry-level model, the DMP-BD35. You would think this makes an excellent Blu-ray Player even excellenter (yes, I know that’s not a word), and it does. The BD60 excels in its Blu-ray Disc playback and is very good at DVD upconversion as well, passing difficult tests like the HQV benchmark discs with flying colors (as well as looking good on real movies). The BD60 can decode all of the latest surround codecs (including DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD) to PCM over HDMI or it can stream these to a compatible receiver in their native formats. Also, if past Panasonic players are any indication, the BD60 should prove to be among the best at disc compatibility, something which has plagued many players from other brands.
But there are still a few drawbacks with the BD60 that keep it from getting 5 stars:
* Speed: the BD60 is not quite as fast to load discs as the Samsung BD-P3600 or the LG BD300, though it is faster than last year’s Samsung models.
* Limited online content: YouTube on a Blu-ray player is cool, but it doesn’t compare to Netflix online streaming in terms of quality and selection of content (Netflix is available on LG and Samsung players). Amazon’s On-Demand streaming service has been announced for VIERA Cast but is not yet available. The good news is that VIERA Cast can be enhanced with more content over time without requiring the purchase of a new player.
* Less than integrated operation: moving between Blu-ray and VIERA Cast online content is not as seamless as it could be. You have to completely stop playback and exit back to the Panasonic player’s splash screen in order to get to the VIERA Cast “home screen” to access online content.
* SD card requirement: Like its predecessors, the BD60 lacks on-board storage so you’ll need to add an SD or SDHC card to enjoy BD-Live content. Panasonic at least could have thrown in a 1GB or 2GB SD card in the box.
Also, while the BD60 adds a USB port to the front panel, it does not support DivX or Xvid video playback so this limits the USB port’s usefulness. A USB storage device connected to the BD60’s USB port can only be used for playback of MP3 music files and viewing of JPEG digital images.
If your primary goal is to get a reliable, high performance Blu-ray/DVD player then none of the above should really matter to you (except possibly the operation speed, which is really about average as far as the current players go) and you should strongly consider the BD60. But if you’re more interested in viewing content online as well as on those shiny silver discs, then you might want to wait to see what else VIERA Cast has to offer over the coming months. Or get the best of all possible worlds by buying the BD60 for Blu-ray and DVD and picking up a Roku box just for online streaming.
In terms of differences between the BD60 and the step-up DMP-BD80 model, the main enhancements in the BD80 are multi-channel analog output (for compatibility with older non-HDMI receivers), Divx playback, vibration isolating feet and “High Clarity Audio” which allows you to disable the analog video processing if you’re using HDMI for the video signal, therby (theoretically at least) improving overall sound quality. If these features are not essential, then save yourself some money and get the BD60 instead.
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