Panasonic DMP-BD60K
Manufacturer: Panasonic Part number: DMP-BD60
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- The Panasonic DMP-BD60 offers excellent image quality and reliable Blu-ray playback, but it doesn't have as many features as the competition.
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CNET editors' review
Panasonic DMP-BD60K price range: $127.95 - $299.00
- Reviewed by: Matthew Moskovciak
- Edited by: David Katzmaier
- Reviewed on: 03/27/2009
- Released on: 03/20/2009
The good: Excellent image quality with Blu-ray movies; Profile 2.0-compliant; onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Essential; access to YouTube and Picasa; Amazon On Demand streaming coming in May.
The bad: Competitors offer more next-generation features like built-in Wi-Fi, Netflix streaming, and onboard memory; operational speed slow compared with newest players.
The bottom line: The Panasonic DMP-BD60 offers excellent image quality and reliable Blu-ray playback, but it doesn't have as many features as the competition.
From our perspective, the Panasonic DMP-BD35 was a landmark for the Blu-ray format, as it was the first standalone player we could wholeheartedly recommend, earning the Editors' Choice award. The Panasonic DMP-BD60 is the successor to the DMP-BD35 and it keeps everything we liked about last year's model, including Profile 2.0 support, excellent video quality, and onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Essential. The big addition to the new model is VieraCast, which is Panasonic's proprietary online content portal that currently offers YouTube, Picasa, weather, and stock quotes, with Amazon Video On Demand coming in May. VieraCast is a nice addition, but unfortunately it's not enough to keep up with the huge leaps the competition has made, adding features like Wi-Fi connectivity, Netflix streaming, and onboard memory to its new 2009 Blu-ray players. The DMP-BD60's strength is its rock-solid performance, but if you're looking for the latest and greatest features you'll have to look elsewhere.
Design
The exterior design is nearly identical to the DMP-BD35. Compared with the sleek and glossy designs of Samsung and LG, the DMP-BD60 looks pedestrian, as if it has a job to do, rather than attract attention. The disc tray is in the center of the unit, behind an automatic flip-down door, and farther right is a manual flip-down panel that reveals an SD card slot, a USB port, and some minimal playback controls.
Their remote is the same as last year's, and for the most part we like it. Important playback buttons are large and in blue, and the main directional pad is surrounded by unique buttons for important functions like the pop-up menu. Our biggest gripe is that the VieraCast button--which allows you to access online content--is small and hidden at the bottom of the remote. We'd expect it to be more prominent, with all the attention Panasonic gives to its online content portal.
For its primary Blu-ray playback functions, the DMP-BD60 features the same lackluster user interface as previous models. It's perfectly acceptable in terms of navigation and ease of use, but it doesn't compare with the eye candy available on competing players.
VieraCast
VieraCast is Panasonic's proprietary online content portal, available on its Blu-ray players and some HDTVs. As of publication time, the available services on VieraCast include YouTube, Picasa, weather, and stock quotes; Amazon Video On Demand is slated to be available in May. The inclusion of Amazon's streaming service contrasts to competing Samsung and LG Blu-ray players, which offer Netflix streaming on all their players. Both online video services have different strengths and weaknesses. Netflix streaming is free with a subscription, but has a somewhat limited selection of content with few new releases; Amazon has more new releases, but it costs about $4 per rental. Which service is "better" is to some extent a matter of personal preference, but we find Netflix's service more attractive, especially since your subscription can be used to rent new Blu-ray releases.
The VieraCast interface is more aesthetically pleasing than the standard interface. We easily navigated the most popular YouTube section and were streaming a video in seconds, albeit in a small window. Clicking on the video again makes it fill the screen, but there's no aspect ratio control, so in our case it incorrectly stretched out the 4:3 video to fill our 16:9 screen. When we tried to pause the video using the button on the remote, it didn't work; you need to use the onscreen playback controls for YouTube content. Our Picasa experience was better as photos appeared in the correct aspect ratio and we could see it being a convenient way to show friends and family your latest photos. We also appreciated that photos appeared in the correct aspect ratio. One final nitpick: every time you press a button on the remote, there's a beep sound and it gets tiresome quickly.
Features
The DMP-BD60 is Profile 2.0-compliant, which means it's capable of playing back the Internet-enabled BD-Live features available on some Blu-ray Discs. To access the features, you'll need to connect the DMP-BD60 to your home network over Ethernet; there's no Wi-Fi option available, like there is on the competing Samsung BD-P1600 and LG BD370. That's unfortunate, because most home theaters don't have Ethernet connections available, and while you might not care about missing lackluster BD-Live content, you'll be also missing out on the online services available via VieraCast.
The DMP-BD60 has onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Essential. That means it can decode those soundtrack formats so they can be played back on almost every HDMI-capable AV receiver. Bitstream output is also supported, if you'd rather the decoding be done in your AV receiver. (DTS-HD Master Audio Essential differs from standard DTS-HD Master Audio in that it lacks decoding for a few legacy DTS DVD soundtracks formats such as DTS 96/24, ES, ES Matrix, and Neo:6. It still decodes all the high-resolution Blu-ray DTS soundtracks.)
Connectivity on the DMP-BD60 is standard. There's an HDMI output, capable of outputting 1080p HD video, and high-resolution multichannel audio. Component video, which can output Blu-ray movies at 1080i and DVDs at 480p, is also available. Audio connections are minimalist, with just an optical digital audio output and a stereo analog audio output. Rounding out the connectivity is an Ethernet port, and both an SD card slot and USB port on the front.
If you have an older non-HDMI receiver that requires multichannel analog outputs, Panasonic also offers the DMP-BD80. The only other upgrade on the DMP-BD80 is that it supports DivX.
Blu-ray performance
We started off our Blu-ray image quality tests by looking at test patterns, and Silicon Optix's HQV test suite was up first. The the DMP-BD60 aced the Video Resolution Loss Test, depicting the full resolution of the test pattern and no jaggies on the rotating white line. Next up were a pair of jaggies tests, and the Panasonic was solid again, with few jaggies to be seen on these video-based tests. Last up was the difficult--and most important--Film Resolution Loss Test, and again the DMP-BD60 looked great, crisply displaying the test pattern and showing only slight moiré on a panning shot of Raymond James Stadium. We had the Samsung BD-P3600 on hand as well, and it performed nearly identically on these test patterns.
Next up was program material, and we put the DMP-BD60 through our standard barrage of test scenes. First up was the end of Chapter 6 in "Ghost Rider" and the Panasonic performed well, with no moiré present in the grille of the RV as the camera pans away. Next up were a couple scenes in "Mission Impossible: III." The beginning of Chapter 8 is a great scene for exposing bad 1080i deinterlacing, but the DMP-BD60 was solid again as the stairs in the background look crisp and free of moiré. Later in Chapter 11, the Panasonic handled the trimming on the limo perfectly, free of jaggies often see on lesser players. Last up was the video-based "Tony Bennett: American Classic," and again the DMP-BD60 performed well, with only some minor jaggies present in the shirts of the performers. It's worth mentioning, however, that we had the Samsung BD-P3600 on hand for comparison and it fared just as well in these scenes.
We also tested operational speed, which was comparable to last year's DMP-BD35. However, we had it set up with the BD-P3600, and the DMP-BD60 seemed sluggish comparatively. The DMP-BD60 isn't necessarily slow--and if you don't mind waiting a minute or two before your movie starts, you won't care--but apparently Panasonic didn't make the same speed improvements that Samsung did with its new players. The DMP-BD60 loaded "Mission Impossible III" in 20 seconds with the unit powered on and 24 seconds with it powered off (with quick start mode active). "Pirates of the Caribbean" took 1 minute and 53 seconds, while the same movie loaded about 35 seconds faster on the BD-P3600. "Spiderman 3" loaded in a minute and 27 seconds, while the BD-P3600 loaded it in about a minute flat.
Standard DVD performance
We started off with Silicon Optix's HQV test suite, and the DMP-BD60 performed identically to last year's DMP-BD35. The initial resolution test looked excellent, clearly resolving all the detail that DVD can offer. It stumbled somewhat on the following video-based jaggies tests, as a test pattern with three pivoting lines had plenty of jaggies on it. On the upside, it passed the difficult 2:3 pull-down test, and also had no problem with scrolling CNN-style text.
We switched over to program material, starting with "Star Trek: Insurrection." The DMP-BD60 rendered the opening scene smoothly, showing no jaggies in the curved railings of the bridge or boat hull. The opening also features a long panning shot, which can look pretty hurky-jerky, so we used it as a test case to see if Panasonic 24p mode made a difference. We flipped between 24p mode and standard mode several times and it was difficult to see any difference at all. We moved onto the difficult introduction to "Seabiscuit," and the DMP-BD60 handled this well, showing only minor video artifacts where lesser players often have movie-ruining jaggies. Overall, the DMP-BD60 is perfectly fine for DVD playback; DVD image quality sticklers may want to look at Samsung HQV-equipped BD-P2500 if you need a Blu-ray player with outstanding DVD performance.
User reviews
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Solid BD and DVD Player, no regrets
by gparris on April 15, 2009
Pros: Excellent BD and DVD playback, easy operation, clean design, fast loading, good remote.
Cons: No Wi-Fi, but for $89, I can easliy attach Wi-Fi capablily if I really need Profile 2.0 and other online features.
Summary: I do not agree with cnet about the 3 stars in their rating, the BD35 model it replaces (which I have in another HDTV room) does everything right without exception. ...
Summary: I do not agree with cnet about the 3 stars in their rating, the BD35 model it replaces (which I have in another HDTV room) does everything right without exception.
Not everybody who buys a BD player even WANTS a interactivity and to give the Samsung models 3.5 and 4.0 stars instead of the Panasonic, is just wrong.
I have had several Samsung models and if cnet went by the number of unplayable Blu-ray Discs, jamming, bad playback (when they did try to play) and overall lesser quality of my previous Samsung BD players, cnet should raise the Panasonic players to at least 3.5 stars and LOWER the Samsungs to no more than 3.5 stars or less! I had two other Panasonics that replaced my previous Samsungs (the BD10's) and these were above Samsungs in playback and QUALITY, that is why I trusted cnet with the the Panasonic BD35.
I would buy the Panasonic BD60 or BD80 if I had to do it all over again and if the need ever arises that I would need Wi-Fi, I would buy the addition that you can buy aftermarket instead of any Samsung BD player.3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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An outstanding Blu-ray Player
by GK-Kenny on May 11, 2009
Pros: Great image quality with Blu-ray movies, Panasonic is considered a relatively good Blu-ray Player. I recommend you to check out http://www.squidoo.com/best-blu-ray-player for information on what is the best and cheap Blu-ray player this year.
Cons: Operational speed slow compared with newest players. Samsung Blu-ray players still slightly better in overall visual performance according to the CNET's reivew.
Summary: I think Pansonic is a good brand, but still not as good as Samsung Blu-ray Player.
Summary: I think Pansonic is a good brand, but still not as good as Samsung Blu-ray Player.
3 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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My first Blu Ray player
by rich8363 on April 11, 2009
Pros: Everting about it is great to date
Cons: Nothing yet
Summary: Bought the Sharp at Costco. Took it back the same day. Would not play Slumdog Millionare. No problems with the Panasonic. Have see dozens of movies with no problems. FAST ...
Summary: Bought the Sharp at Costco. Took it back the same day. Would not play Slumdog Millionare. No problems with the Panasonic. Have see dozens of movies with no problems. FAST loading...
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Excellent DVD Player despite some drawbacks
by kabadsv on July 30, 2009
Pros: Excellent image quality and set is a breeze. I bought the Panasonic after returning 2 LG BD390s and 1 Samsung BD3600. The LG had an audio problem with the sound sometimes disappearing when you forward a chapter. The Samsung simply refused to play.
Cons: Load times are slow. Does not have bells and whistles of LG/Samsung such as Netflix streaming and wireless but works well with ethernet. Network setup took some time to figure out. The quality of remote seems cheap, buttons not very intuitive
Summary: As I mentioned above, I returned 3 DVD players before getting the BD60. Panasonic is the good ol' faithful in my book. My first DVD player that I bought 11 ...
Summary: As I mentioned above, I returned 3 DVD players before getting the BD60. Panasonic is the good ol' faithful in my book. My first DVD player that I bought 11 years ago was a Panasonic and I have yet to face a problem with it. The image quality of the BD60 is second to none and it costs less than $200. Youtube and Picasa also works well via VieraCast plus you can access the weather, stock quotes, and headline streaming from Bloomberg. I heard that Panasonic will be adding Amazon VOD this month which will make it more competitive with the Samsung/LG. Highly recommend this player.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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OUTSTANDING PQ/AQ from SD and HD sources
by azhtfreak on May 30, 2009
Pros: Gives me an additional 30 seconds to pop my popcorn vs: other BD players. WHY do reviewers continue to manufacture such "controversy" about a 1/2 minute load time delta? Much ado about nada... $220 at Amazon...
Cons: It doesn't serve coffee... or scones :-| Can you imagine the GALL of Panasonic's engineers to produce a product that ONLY whups a$$ in PQ and AQ - at a smokin' price. I... am... apoplectic...
Summary: Buy it.
Summary: Buy it.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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a great blu ray player but Slow loas times
by xFrankx on October 31, 2009
Pros: amazing picture-output and a nice simple design with easy to use remote/fetures
Cons: slow load times but other than that nothing else to complain about
Summary: great player but the load time is not good but other than that i can't complain
Summary: great player but the load time is not good but other than that i can't complain
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OUTSTANDING 1st BLU-RAY!
by sommer182 on October 23, 2009
Pros: 1080P/24FPS video performace, Amazon On-Demand, smallish footprint, plays almost all discs.
Cons: No happy with 1080P upconvert of standard DVDs
Summary: Just hooked this up to my LG55H40 LCD a couple of days ago, and welcomed myself to the world of true HD film watching. So far I have only watched "...
Summary: Just hooked this up to my LG55H40 LCD a couple of days ago, and welcomed myself to the world of true HD film watching. So far I have only watched "Dark Knight" and "Transformers Revenge of The Fallen" in Blu-Ray, but I can say I am truly impressed.
Set up was a snap, did a quick firmware update, and was ready to play in less then 5 minutes. Images were lifelike, and the IMAX portions of "Dark Knight" just about jumped off the screen. For the first time I had seen film that looked better than the local 1080i over the air TV broadcast video. Audio was equally impressive, but I only have 5.1 so won't unlock the true potential of the machine yet.
So far there is only one area that I question: standard DVD upconversion. At 1080P/60FPS the images look muted, the colors washed out a bit. I noticed this on the Sony upconverting DVD player that I use on my upstairs 32" Vizio as well. My old, HD-A2 HD-DVD player set to 1080i upconversion looks FAR superior when playing standard DVD's on the big 55" panel, with bright colors and crisper lines. My conclusion is that 1080P on a standard DVD is not all it's cracked up to be. And that I wish the Panasonic had a setting where it would go 1080P/24FPS automatically for Blu-Ray, and change to 1080i when I slap a DVD into it.
As a blu-ray player, and for quality in general when it comes to video players, Panasonic can not be beat. -
Picture is Amazing!
by ozzie33 on September 22, 2009
Pros: Excellent picture, Panasonic Brand, I like the GUI, mine came with HDMI cable, Good deals are out there.
Cons: Glossy Black face plate is a magnet for fingerprints but now I'm getting picky.
Summary: First, I'm a big fan of Panasonic products so I might be partial. I had a problem with a phone a few years back and customer service solved my ...
Summary: First, I'm a big fan of Panasonic products so I might be partial. I had a problem with a phone a few years back and customer service solved my problem to my satifaction. I have never had any other problems with a Panasonic product, I still have a 25 yr. old VCR that works. This is my first BD player. I watched BD players at the show rooms over the years and I just didn't see that good of a picture for the price of the players. I bought the Panny because I found it at auction and bid $150 thinking if I can get it for that price, why not, my Sony upscale DVD player was getting old and I was really happy to get it for $130+$5.95 shipping. After a quick and easy set up to my plasm Pioneer 5010 I was literally amazed at the picture. I ran an ethernet cable through the hallway and hooked it up to the internet. It was a little bit of a pain to go through the process connecting to the internet but I wanted to play with the Viera Cast. It is a cool feature but I'll probably never use it(my wife won't allow the cable laying on the floor) The rest of the setup was straight forward. Like I said before, the picture is amazing to me. I've only played 4-5 movies so far and had no problems. The speed of loading doesn't bother or matter to me, big deal if you save 30-45 seconds, I guess I don't get it. Again the option of accessing the internet to get movies or weather or whatever just does not appeal to me, I got it to watch movies, maybe in the future I'll hook it back up to get movies from Amazon, I just don't see myself doing it that often. If you want the abilitly to access the internet and the additional features like Movies on demand and BD-Live and don't mind paying for those features, then I would get a player with wifi because this player is not for you. If you want a player that produces a great picture without all the whistles and bells, this is it.
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No frills with THE best image quality
by stockyjoe on July 27, 2009
Pros: When I rate a Blu-Ray player image quality and consistency of handling that image quality for both Blu-Ray and DVD is key. In that regard this player is better then the LG, Samsung etc.
Cons: Does not have Netflix integration or some of the web service stuff offered on some other players.
Summary: If you want the best image quality from your Blu-Ray or DVD player this one is it. If you also want Netflix and other web integrated services look at another ...
Summary: If you want the best image quality from your Blu-Ray or DVD player this one is it. If you also want Netflix and other web integrated services look at another player. This player based on playback quality should receive far more then 3 stars. Thats ridiculous Cnet.
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Great BD player. Few extras.
by SunDevilsFan on July 22, 2009
Pros: Outstanding picture and sound Plays everything thrown at it. Got it cheap when I bought it along with a TC-P46S1 from Amazon ($1080 for both). Amazon on Demand is scheduled for release on July 28.
Cons: No frills. If you need WiFi or onboard memory, look at another player. I have it hooked up via ethernet and it's flawless. Timely firmware updates from Panasonic (3 in the past 3 months). Doesn't do Netflix. No big deal. Get a Roku box for $100.
Summary: My buddy has the Samsung BD4600. That player has trouble with all kinds of BDs. Contrast this with this cheap Panny player which plays everything. Samsung has a hit and ...
Summary: My buddy has the Samsung BD4600. That player has trouble with all kinds of BDs. Contrast this with this cheap Panny player which plays everything. Samsung has a hit and miss track record with reliability. Panasonic is one of the best in terms of support. I think it's a no-brainer. 4 1/2 stars for price-per-functionality.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Panasonic
- Part number: DMP-BD60
- Description: PHL reference chroma processor plus is a high quality image-processing technology developed by Panasonic to precisely process each pixel of the Blu-ray Disc video signal in the vertical direction. It reproduces color data with twice the accuracy of conventional systems to keep colors faithful and sharp. Through the Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory, Panasonic has collaborated with Hollywood filmmakers for more than 15 years to accumulate the know-how and expertise that are needed to achieve faithful color reproduction between original movie footage and Blu-ray media. The image playback technologies that have been gained from this know-how and expertise are fully reflected in all Panasonic Blu-ray Disc products. This allows Panasonic to bring outstanding images that approach original cinema quality right into your living room.
General
- Product Type Blu-Ray disc player
- Form Factor Tabletop
- Width 16.9 in
- Depth 9.8 in
- Height 1.9 in
- Weight 5.7 lbs
- Enclosure Color Black
DVD
- Media Type CD, DVD, BD-R, CD-R, BD-RE, CD-RW, DVD+R, DVD-R, BD-ROM, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL
- Media Format PAL, NTSC
- BD Profiles Profile 2.0 (BD-Live), Profile 1.1 (Bonus View)
- Video D/A Converter 12bit / 148.5MHz
- Audio D/A Converter 24bit / 192kHz
- Built-in Audio Decoders Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD
- Media Load Type Tray
- HDMI Version 1.3a
- Upscaling Yes ( Up to 1080p )
- Supported Digital Video Standards DivX, AVCHD, MPEG-2, MPEG-4
- Supported Digital Audio Standards MP3, PCM
Network & Internet Multimedia
- Network Connection Ethernet
- Internet Streaming Services YouTube
DVD Features
- Parental Lock Yes
- Additional Features BD-Java, Cinema mode, Dialogue enhancer, JPEG photo playback, Progressive scanning, x.v.Colour technology, 3:2 pull down compensation, Video playback from USB devices, Digital audio playback from USB devices
Audio System
- Sound Output Mode Stereo
- Response Bandwidth 4 - 44000 Hz
- Dynamic Range 100 dB
- Digital Audio Format DTS digital output, Dolby Digital output, DTS-HD digital output, Dolby True HD digital output
- Signal-To-Noise Ratio 115 dB
- Total Harmonic Distortion 0.003 %
Remote Control
- Type Universal remote control
- Technology Infrared
- Features Multi-brand compatibility
Connections
- Connector Type 1 x HDMI output ( 19 pin HDMI Type A ) - Rear, 1 x Ethernet ( RJ-45 ) - Rear, 1 x Audio line-out ( RCA phono x 2 ) - Rear, 1 x Component video output ( RCA phono x 3 ) - Rear, 1 x Composite video output ( RCA phono ) - Rear, 1 x SPDIF output ( TOSLINK ) - Rear, 1 x USB ( 4 pin USB Type A ) - Front
Slot(s)
- Type 1 x SDHC Memory Card
Power
- Power Device Power supply
- Power AC 120 V
- Power Consumption Operational 22 Watt
Manufacturer info
- Panasonic
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Panasonic products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.panasonic.com/
- Address:
One Panasonic Way, Secaucus, NJ 07094 - Phone: 800/662-3537
