Panasonic Announces Pricing for DMP-BD50

Paul Hillenbrand · 05-06-2008, 01:27 PM

Per Blu-ray.com:

Panasonic Announces Pricing for DMP-BD50

MSRP: $699.95

**HTF Ads**

Jeff F. · 05-06-2008, 01:30 PM

Yikes! No sale for me. These players have to come WAAAAAY down in price in order to entice me to enter the BD realm.

JeremyR · 05-06-2008, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Hillenbrand

Per Blu-ray.com:

Panasonic Announces Pricing for DMP-BD50

MSRP: $699.95

Lol... But really.. we don't want to be a niche technology. Somebody needs to tell the blu-ray consortium to try and convince their manufacturers of that.

Camper · 05-06-2008, 01:50 PM

So they're giving us a choice going into the second half of 2008..........

Buy a 'cheap' player for $300-$400--lacking some features: built-in decoders, 7.1 analog out OR

Buy a 'loaded' player for $500-$700--Oh wait the $700 Panny BD 50 DOESN'T HAVE 7.1 analog out

I've been dying for a blu-ray player since before they pull the rug out from under HD DVD and left me with a $300 upscaler..

I guess I'll be dying for a blu-ray player for at least another year.
But I guess there's plenty of folks out there with lots of money or no kids to feed and cloth.

Paul Hillenbrand · 05-06-2008, 02:17 PM

Wonder if this is going to change the projected SRP of the Sony BDP-S550 ($499 ) which also would add the 7.1 analog audio outs?

Quoting Engadget on February 26th 2008:

Quote:

Originally Posted by engadget

the S550 will run you $500 this fall.

.

Paul

chuckg · 05-06-2008, 03:38 PM

I guess I must be pretty stupid, because I can't figure out what in these players costs over $500. You've got a somewhat modified CD player here, with a tiny computer brain and some DSP chips. Maybe it's the glowing front panel?

I'll wait until they come down to a reasonable cost, say under $400.

RobertR · 05-06-2008, 04:11 PM

My interest in this player is fading away. In addition to the high price, you need to plug in a 1 gig SD card (that you need to have/buy) to get some of the advanced features. Bleh.

Grant H · 05-06-2008, 04:48 PM

Future PS3 sales just increased!

Seriously, I didn't know they were dropping the 7.1 analog outs. I was thinking about getting one at some point to pair with my old receiver. But not anymore.

If the Sony offers everything that's an option. Otherwise one day it will be a 2nd PS3 and there won't be lossless sound in the bedroom.

Paul.S · 05-06-2008, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grant H

Seriously, I didn't know they were dropping the 7.1 analog outs.

Just to be clear: they didn't eliminate analog outs entirely. They've switched from 7.1 to 5.1. This isn't a huge deal IMO given the lack of much 7.1 software. Only New Line has supported 7.1 with any frequency. And by the time LOtR hits BD, a lot more of us will have HDMI receivers.

Scott-S · 05-06-2008, 05:32 PM

Chuck, the custom Video and Audio decode chips PLUS the lazer diodes are vastly different than a cd player. It takes a brand new type diode and some really precise optics and mechanics to be able to read this wavelength. The wavelength on a Blu-ray player is it is much smaller than the old cd/dvd wavelengths.

Paul.S · 05-06-2008, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobertR

My interest in this player is fading away. In addition to the high price, you need to plug in a 1 gig SD card (that you need to have/buy) to get some of the advanced features. Bleh.

What's your source re this?

I think it remains to be seen, via both future software and a review of this player, what the significance is of the 2.0 spec allowing for the higher memory requirement to be met with either onboard or external memory. Until then, all the press release says about the SD card is:

Quote:

The included SD Memory Card slot allows for easy transferring of images from an HD camcorder or digital still camera via an SD Memory card. By inserting the SD card into the BD50, images can be viewed on a large screen HD flat panel television with AVCHD format video images or JPEG stills in full 1920 x 1080 resolution.

Paul.S · 06-04-2008, 01:39 PM

The slow trickle of specific info about this player continues. With the caveat that I don't think the card you buy has to be 1G (but likely the larger the better), you are correct, Robert:

Quote:

Unfortunately, the DMP-BD50 lacks the minimum 1GB of onboard memory required for BD-Live. Instead, you have to bring-your-own SD Card for use in the player's SD Card slot. When I questioned Panasonic, company representatives could not yet offer a firm guideline as to its recommendation of what speed SD Cards you should use with the player.

Panasonic Shows Off BD-Live Blu-ray Player

In some messy examples of Japanese English, the manual (on page 16) gives some semblance of information about what role the SD card will play. There's some confusing conflation of Profile 1.1/PIP and Profile 2.0/BD-Live functionality going on here though.

If the meeting with Panasonic reps happens at HME, I'll definitely be asking for some clarification on this.

Cees Alons · 06-04-2008, 04:12 PM

Quote:

I can't figure out what in these players costs over $500.

And what about licences? BD, BD+, AACS, to mention a few.

Cees