Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray Disc Player (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)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. (12/03/09 update - this is about 20% faster with the 2.0 firmware and above)
* 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 (update: it is available now). 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. And what's with that annoying BEEP when you go through the VIERA Cast menus?
* 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, thereby (theoretically at least) improving overall sound quality. If these features are not essential, then save yourself some money and get the BD60 instead.
12/03/09 Update: Some owners of the BD60, BD70V and BD80 have reported a random freeze or pause in playback while watching Blu-ray Discs. While we never saw it during our review of the BD60 and BD80, we did see it on the DMP-BD70V (review available on Big Picture Big Sound web site). Panasonic released firmware version 2.2 this week to address this issue and so far (though it's early), the consensus on the great and vast interwebs is that it may have actually worked.
1/19/10 Update: Netflix is coming to VIERA Cast (yay!) but it will only be available on 2010 players and displays (boooo!). If you've been holding out for Netflix on the BD60, BD70V or BD80, you're out of luck. At CES earlier this month, Panasonic told us Netflix will be available in the 2010 players (DMP-BD65, DMP-BD85, DMP-BDT350) as well as in 2010 HDTV models with VIERACast but they will not be able to retrofit it to the 2009 players.

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