Death’s Notes and Thoughts

I got me my own christmas present a bit early this year but whatever. I couldnt wait anymore, so I got it, and I must say I just love it. He works perfectly fine together with my TV (a Panasonic TH-42PZ80EA Plasma TV) and together they make a lovly picture on my japanese documentation blurays. The picture looks so real, so colorful that u actually think u can just grab into the picture and touch the objects. Also he not only does great on playing back bluray but also do a wonderful job upscaling my dvds to 1080p. The dvd player I used so far (Panasonic DVD-S54, codefree) is nothing compared to this scaling capacitys, he is now in my bedroom so I can watch TV there (currently I just have an 17 inches screen there, so its ok). Also he features nice features like YouTube, News, and Picasa (more will come according to Panasonic), but that I consider as bonus. It wasnt a reason to buy the big one. Some might argue this one is more or less identical to his lil’ brother, the Panasonic DMP-BD60, and I got to say “Yes, that’s right!” here. BUT this one feature a better audio circut, giving him the ability to work with DTS-HD Master/High audio and decode it or send it to your reciever via HDMI (bitstream), which the small one can’t do. Also (well I dont depend on it) feature a complete 7.1 decoder, so u can directly hook up your amp, if it dont get along with HDMI. That was the reason, the more abilities in the audio sector, that made me buy the big brother and buy a lot more. A lot more u ask? Well, yes. In the regular stores the difference is around 100 bucks, but for me it was some more. The reason for that is that the choice of stores was limited by the fact that I wanted a codefree BD player, that dont care about BD region or DVD regions. Also I wanted a hardware mod, that can’t be killed by some software upgrade or make me depending on the modders will to hack the new update and the time it takes. I got me one with the so called ICOS modification, that gets sold by bluraymods.com. I didnt buy at theirs, but at a partner store of them as the model of choice was cheaper there, and also s&h was for free^^. But back to the ICOS mod, I can only say it’s working and it’s great. I already upgraded my player from FW 2.0 to 2.1 without having any problem. And its very easy to switch regions, just turn it into stand-by, press a key from 1-3 to set em to a region between A and C, then turn it back on and the region is set. Also nice is, that DVD goes automatic, so there he complete not care^^. Also good was that they (Panasonic) gave u a 1 GB SD card along for free, it’s required for BD Live stuff, as it acts as cache memory, so if u get my or the smaller model, make sure to insert it. It probably works also without but then it will I think take longer to load up. You may read on some pages that they player have big response times, but as for the wake-up time people forget that it have a 2nd modus of stand-by, where he goes up faster BUT also use more energy during stand-by. If u use the default mode (I must cause of my modification, but would use it anyway), it consume just 1 Watt compared to 6-7 Watt in the fast stand-by mode. So, those around 20 sec I have and I can get along with. Also later on he could may be slower but I also saw worse, the speed currently is acceptable and I think Panasonic may increase even more the reponse time in the future. Also I cant say I experience any problems with him so far, and I used around 40 discs in him. Its a damn fine high-quality model for a great price. For my in the regular stores u pay around 280 Eu, which is ok. If u say I’m ok with the small one, you’re at 199 Eu. I also liked that u can switch the IR code set, so that if u got multiple Panasonic Devices u dont control them all, like could happen when u dont have the possiblity to switch those. What I was noticing is that no HDMI cable is included, just a cinch one. Thats the only that makes a bit meeh, but well, most players regardless the maker have that. I just wonder, since if they make their player 10 bucks more and include one, I dont think anyone would rip off their heads. But all together definitly a great choice for people having a Panasonic TV and also for those who not. Also he plays back without whining back your AVCHD DVDs with subtitle and multiple audio (insiders know what I wanna get on^^). Funny thing was, that the store where I bought included some sweets. I liked that, helped to stay calm cause when I get a new toy I go all excited^^.

Without more words, here we have some pictures I took while I unpacked him and hooked him up:

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

On one of the later pictures u also can see my lil’ setup. My TV, my BD player (below tv/in the middle), then we have there also a T-Home IPTV reciver (left), and my Xbox (right). On the left side, next to the stand of the tv is my Popcorn Hour A110, a great lil’ multimedia box that keeps the promise that it makes. It features easily beats a PS3 and many many of those other cheap multimedia boxes/hdds even from brand makers. If u still need one, I suggest it, through u should buy the follow up modell C200.

For those who wanna know more about my BD player, u can see here some info, and there is also the panasonic webpage on it.

Both videos are from PanasonicUK, so copyright and stuff goes to them.

Homepage of the DMP-BD80. I took the UK page as I have the euro model. And we have also the lil brother, the DMP-BD60.

If you get one of them too, I hope you will love it the same as me and enjoy it! And if you want your friend codefree, and be willing to spend a bit more for that, go for bluraymods.com.

-Death