I should preface this brief review by stating that I am not at all a
home theater expert. My knowledge of the latest technology is very
limited compared to most of you posting here, as is my ability to
discern differences in video and (particularly) audio quality.
As someone who was planning to sit out the "format war" for at least
another year, I was ecstatic when I was notified that I had won the
Panasonic DMP-BD10 Blu-Ray player here on HTF. I quickly canceled DVD
pre-orders and placed new orders for the same titles in Blu-Ray, and
enabled Blu-Ray in my Netflix queue.
We're still in the early days of this format, and I was reminded of
that when I opened the box - the player is pretty big. It made me
think back to the first DVD player I got in 1999. We sure have been
spoiled by the more compact units that have come out since then. That
said, it's sturdy and I have the space for it so it's no problem for
me.
The player looks very sleek. It has a front panel that you have to
flip down in order to insert or eject a disc. This looks great (no
buttons) but the downside is that you have to flip it up and down each
time (or just leave it open).
After hooking it up, I turned the unit on and had to wait about half a
minute for it to load a disc. I imagine other Blu-Ray or HD-DVD
players have similar wait times, but it was less of a wait than I expected
after reading about the earliest hi-def players.
Other than that I have absolutely no complaints. With only a handful
of TV channels and limited programming available in HD, this player
has been a godsend. I feel like my TV set is finally being utilized to
its intended potential. The picture quality is nearly flawless - I
can't rave enough about it.
Special features have also been taken to a new level. Pirates of the
Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest includes a BD-Java game that incorporates
new footage featuring supporting cast members, which I thought was
pretty unique. Another great example is Ratatouille, which makes the
perfect demo disc. The video quality is the best I've ever seen
anything on my TV, but the bonus features (most of them exclusive to
this Blu-Ray disc) were also presented in full 1080p.
Moreover, my standard DVDs now look better than ever. The upscaling on
this player was noticeably better than the Philips DVP 5960 I'd been
using.
As a bonus, the Panasonic DMP BD-10 also included five movies: 2-disc
editions of both Pirates of the Caribbean films from disney; The
Transporter and Fantastic 4 from Fox, and Crash from Lions Gate.
Thanks again to the Home Theater Forum and to Panasonic! I'm
officially converted now and can't wait for some of the titles that
are coming out.
--Mike Streeter
