Panasonic DMP-BD35 and DMP-BD55

[Ilya]

I just picked up a BD35 player at Circuit City for $299. They also have BD55 for those who need analog audio autputs ($399)

Specs look very good:
- BD Live / Bonus View
- 1080p24
- 7.1 audio decoding
- HDMI 1.3 (Deep color, x.v.Color, High Bit rate Audio)

What else can you ask for from a $299 player?

I'll post my first impressions shortly. If you have any questions - ask away!

 

[Paradox-SJ]

I just picked up a BD35 player at Circuit City for $299. They also have BD55 for those who need analog audio autputs ($399)

Specs look very good:
- BD Live / Bonus View
- 1080p24
- 7.1 audio decoding
- HDMI 1.3 (Deep color, x.v.Color, High Bit rate Audio)

What else can you ask for from a $299 player?

I'll post my first impressions shortly. If you have any questions - ask away!

What more you say? A $50.00 gift card that I used to buy my 55 for 349.00. Will be setting mine up tonight....I need the analog outs

 

[Ilya]

...I need the analog outs

At the moment, I actually need them too, but I decided to save $100 toward a new A/V receiver and didn't want to give myself another excuse to postpone its purchase

 

[Ilya]

Here are some pics:

 

[Ilya]

The third picture shows an SDHC slot. I love this feature! It allows to view JPEG photos in High Definition directly from SD and SDHC cards. It also supports AVCHD format and can be used as a local storage (up to 32GB) for playing virtual packages on BD-Video.

 

[teamerickson]

The 55 looked like the player for me but after reading a review I think not. Apparently, if you have it hooked to HDMI and 7.1 analog out there is an issue. In order to send multi channel through the analog outs you must disable HDMI audio in the setup. That is probably a deal breaker for me. I don't want to have to change it back and forth all the time. Bummer.

 

[teachsac]

I've had my 55 for almost two weeks now. Been too busy to do a review. Even though my Lexicon has HDMI, I picked up the 55 for the DivX. I then moved it back up to the theater room where it belongs and put the Integra and 30 downstairs in the family room. DVD upscaling is very good with the 35 and 55. Panasonic puts out a nice product and they support their players. The SDHC slot is also for BDLive persistant memory.

Enjoy.

S~

 

[teamerickson]

Here's a review of the 55.

Panasonic DMP-BD55 (DMP-BD55K) Blu-ray Player: Review by Chris Boylan on BigPictureBigSound

 

[MrBoylan]

The 55 looked like the player for me but after reading a review I think not. Apparently, if you have it hooked to HDMI and 7.1 analog out there is an issue. In order to send multi channel through the analog outs you must disable HDMI audio in the setup. That is probably a deal breaker for me. I don't want to have to change it back and forth all the time. Bummer.

Why is that a deal-breaker? Do you need multi-channel analog outputs and multi-channel digital outputs live at the same time? If so, why?

-CB

 

[Paradox-SJ]

What more you say? A $50.00 gift card that I used to buy my 55 for 349.00. Will be setting mine up tonight....I need the analog outs

Weird....The external box is all in english but all the paper work inside is in French.

Anyone else run into this...purchased at CC.

 

[teamerickson]

Why is that a deal-breaker? Do you need multi-channel analog outputs and multi-channel digital outputs live at the same time? If so, why?

-CB

Currently I have a Samsung 1400 with HDMI into the TV and optical and 5.1 analog into the reciever. When I watch a Blu I usually use the 5.1 (unless the kids are sleeping). If myself or the wife want to put on a movie for the kids we usually don't use the reciever. If I'm not home I can't expect my wife to go into the settings in the panasonic 55 and change the HDMI settings so there will be sound through the TV for a movie. I'm not quite ready to upgrade the reciever. I like my current setup and the only thing I wish the samsung had was profile 1.1.

 

[MrBoylan]

Currently I have a Samsung 1400 with HDMI into the TV and optical and 5.1 analog into the reciever. When I watch a Blu I usually use the 5.1 (unless the kids are sleeping). If myself or the wife want to put on a movie for the kids we usually don't use the reciever. If I'm not home I can't expect my wife to go into the settings in the panasonic 55 and change the HDMI settings so there will be sound through the TV for a movie. I'm not quite ready to upgrade the reciever. I like my current setup and the only thing I wish the samsung had was profile 1.1.

Thought it might be something like that. Many TVs have an HDMI input with analog audio input (typically used for PCs). Do you have one of those? If so, you can use HDMI to the receiver and 2-channel analog into the TV. I tested that and it works on the BD55.

Is that an option?

Also, I didn't specifically test the 2ch+5.1-channel analog output of the 55 with the HDMI output active. My issue was when testing the 7.1-channel analog out. Let me check out the 5.1-ch out and see if it HDMI audio still works.

-CB

 

[MrBoylan]

Just tested and as long as HDMI audio is ON, you can only get stereo audio from the analog jacks, whether it's in 7.1 or 2ch+5.1 modes. So unless your TV does have an analog audio input for one of its HDMI jacks, then this probably isn't an ideal player for you.

Of course, you could use the component outputs instead of HDMI for the TV-only connection (using stereo analog audio) but then you'd be stepping down the video res to 1080i so that's not an ideal solution either. Sorry!

-CB

 

[gadgtfreek]

If my current experiment doesnt pan out, Ill be picking up a BD35 for sure. Great player.

 

[teachsac]

If my current experiment doesnt pan out, Ill be picking up a BD35 for sure. Great player.

I ended up with the 35 and 55. Daughter will end up with the 10 afterall to go with the XBR4 she took with her to Stanford. I switched the 55 to the bedroom to match my Hitichi Director's series 47x902. Absolutely sweet. Put the 35 in the theater room. My how things change in one day.

S~

 

[gadgtfreek]

Showoff, hehe.

 

[teachsac]

It's nice not paying retail on HT equipment.

S~

 

[gadgtfreek]

Very true

I used to have a bud at CCity, when he'd show me their cost on crap it made me sick.

 

[teachsac]

I'll be working on a review of both and posting it here.

S~

 

[gadgtfreek]

Nice, thanks.

Im really interested in load speed and upconversion. Also it seems Blu-ray picture quality was slightly improved too.