Panasonic DMP-BD30 is available. (sold out now)

[Clare Newsome]

[quote user="borderav35"]Hi Clare just while you are looking at the thread how do you rate the Panasonic vs the PS3 if connected to an Onkyo 875 and Pioneer 428XD. I have had on order for about 3 weeks a Panasonic but the Dealer and Panasonic don't know when they will be with independent retailers. If I would not drop to much sound and picture quality i would swop for the PS3. Mine cost £299 AV Sales. I would love the Pioneer Bluray but £1000 when it may be out of date next week looks like a lot of money. Thanks[/quote]

Ooooh, you're going to love the Blu-ray player Group Test in our issue out next Thursday (3rd; or sooner if you're a subscriber or your retailer's an enthusiastic stocker...) - we've pitted the Panasonic BD30 against the PS3, the Pioneer, Samsung, Sony....

 

[Anonymous]

Just while we are looking at the Panasonic review from the April issue what cables did you connect up with please. I only ask as the normal seems to be 15% for cables in this case say £55 (if you use higher price for the player). So what HDMI did you use and was any mains cables or blocks in use. I guess i was wandering if the rave review would be the same if we never got the same cable types. I do hope you don't think me up front asking. Dont know if i dare say but i have just ordered Merlin Black widow cable for the Player. (Better get my tin hat on someone is going to tell me i am wasting my money) Thanks, and of course i would welcome views from others re PS3 and the cable issue.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Clare I wander if i may be the proud owner of a Panasonic before the mag is issued. I hope i will be pleased with it as i have been without a DVD player for about 3 weeks since my Denon 2930 failed.

 

[Clare Newsome]

[quote user="borderav35"]Just while we are looking at the Panasonic review from the April issue what cables did you connect up with please. I only ask as the normal seems to be 15% for cables in this case say £55 (if you use higher price for the player). So what HDMI did you use and was any mains cables or blocks in use. I guess i was wandering if the rave review would be the same if we never got the same cable types. I do hope you don't think me up front asking. Dont know if i dare say but i have just ordered Merlin Black widow cable for the Player. (Better get my tin hat on someone is going to tell me i am wasting my money) Thanks, and of course i would welcome views from others re PS3 and the cable issue.[/quote]

We'd have used the standard mains cable that came with the machine - because we're not relying on everyone having the budget to upgrade, at least initially - and at that price point the QED HDMI-P (£50).

 

[Clare Newsome]

[quote user="borderav35"]Thanks Clare I wander if i may be the proud owner of a Panasonic before the mag is issued. I hope i will be pleased with it as i have been without a DVD player for about 3 weeks since my Denon 2930 failed.[/quote]

I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you Clare that's great info re cables, when i read the mag i often wander what you are using to connect for the test. I must admit I for one would love to see in the Mag what eqp you used to test the group with.

 

[Juzzie Wuzzie]

FYI - It looks like John Lewis has these BD30s for sale (over 10 in stock) but you are paying £349.

 

[Anonymous]

Do keep up!

http://whathifi.co.uk/forums/p/9400/57544.aspx#57544

 

[PJ1200]

[quote user="Clare Newsome"][quote user="stevee1966"]

Blu Ray rentals - Do blockbuster rent out Bluray titles, and if so are they the same price as normal dvd's.

I'm looking to go down the bluray route but don't plan on forking out £20 for a movie.[/quote]

I think Blockbuster does. Lovefilm certainly does - I get the bulk of my Blu-ray discs from them, as there's a lot of movies I can't justify buying at current prices. Just sent back Close Encounters of the Third Kind (which looked a little grainy but sounded awesome) and Pan's Labyrinth is on its way for the weekend.

[/quote]
Blockbuster to rent BluRay - and I think at normal prices - which is still a rip off and for only one night!
Like Clare, I've just signed up to a 3 month free trial with Lovefilm, and have been sampling the delights of BluRay - excellent!! Their service seems pretty quick and as long as your not 'too' fussy with what films you really want to watch (as I think it might be quite hard if your after a specific film) then they seem great.
Just to note, if you do sign up for a free trial, make sure you select a price package that's quite high and offers unlimited dvd rental (I chose the £12.99 package - unlimited rentals and allowed max of 2 at a time), as if you choose a lower tariff and change it a week later, you loose your free trial offer, and have to pay!!
You can always change the tariff back down to a cheaper one once the trial finishes!
Hope that helps - enjoy!

 

[Clare Newsome]

They do regular pre-pay offers, too - i'm currently on a three-months-for-two deal: that's 2 discs a week for 12 weeks.... 24 disc rentals for £20!

But yes, you have to build up a library of titles you want to watch, as it's always a tad random what you're gonna get next. It's great for TV boxsets, too - plan to rent and rewatch first series of Heroes before they start series 2 on the Beeb...

 

[stevee1966]

[quote user="Clare Newsome"][quote user="stevee1966"]ok then Claire, i've not actually seen blu-ray in action as yet, but in a nutshell from a picture quality point of view, would you recomend the Panasonic DMP-BD30 (at £299) with the equipment i have (listed below).

It would appear i won't get the best out of my amp soundwise, but i assume i'm not getting any better from my Denon 1930 dvd player.

So, as a replacement for my Denon 1930, is it a YES or a NO ?[/quote]

YES

[/quote]

With the magazine test results not being in the public domain yet, i'm just reading between the lines here, but your comments seem to suggest the DMP-BD30 is the business, and dare i say is also going to be higher rated than the PS3.

Anyone want to buy a 'What Hi-Fi Award Winning' Denon 1930 dvd player ? Less than a year old and with Richer Sounds extended guarantee in place ???

 

[Anonymous]

You might want to see how the BD30 up-scales before doing anything drastic, it isn't meant to be great. I suspect that my EP35 is still going to be used as my DVD player.

 

[Anonymous]

Any Idea Clare wil the Panasonic play Sd DVD well and upscale, had a look in my pull out mag from this month but can't find reference to that

 

[stevee1966]

Just been to my local Panasonic dealer and had a look at the DMP-DB30 - was shown Ratatouile and Casino Royale.

I have to say i was very impressed and i think i have made up my mind to get one. They sold all their original stock last week but more are arriving early this week.

My only query now is :-

I was demonstrated the player using a Panasonic 42" Full HD plasma (not sure which model). My plasma is also 42" but is the HD Ready PX70 version

Will the picture quality be of a significant drop or will it (as i'm hoping) still be top drawer ?

Any opinions ?

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="borderav35"]Any Idea Clare wil the Panasonic play Sd DVD well and upscale, had a look in my pull out mag from this month but can't find reference to that[/quote]

Well I've just installed my BD30 and see no difference between it and the Toshiba EP35 on SD. Only tried a couple of SD DVDs, but it was fine to my eyes on a 46" 1080p LCD.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Eddiewood"][quote user="borderav35"]Any Idea Clare wil the Panasonic play Sd DVD well and upscale, had a look in my pull out mag from this month but can't find reference to that[/quote] Well I've just installed my BD30 and see no difference between it and the Toshiba EP35 on SD. Only tried a couple of SD DVDs, but it was fine to my eyes on a 46" 1080p LCD.[/quote]

Thanks for that and the magazine will be out soon.

 

[stevee1966]

In stock at Dixons for £329

http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/store/dix_page.jsp?page=ProductList&category_oid=-33018&fm=undefined&sm=undefined&tm=undefined&show_all=true&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes

 

[Anonymous]

Well voted on the Pansonic with my feet, I have just cancelled it. In fact I for one will for a number of months wait for a better production run from the manufacurers. I think at the moment my reason is that the Discs that are out don't often have a full HD sound i.e true hd etc. It reminds me of when DVD came out and lots of DVD's only had prologic instead of dolby digital. So it's the new Pioneer DVLX50 for me, i will be watching the forums to see how the owners report on Bluray.

 

[Clare Newsome]

I hope you aren't overlooking PCM when perusing those discs - it may not have a flash new name, but it is, after all, uncompressed while the others are still compressed.

We've found Linear PCM scores better than either Dolby True HD or DTS Master HD soundtracks in the A/B comparisons that have been avaialble....

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you Clare i have read the May edition and the only complete player that would probably push the Pioneer dvlx50 is the the Pioneer player. I really don't want to loose SD DVD playback quality for HD Sound. I have had the Denon 2900 and Denon 2930 each offer great picture quality, and from your report the Panasonic would at the £350 price point come nowhere near. I did think about getting 2 the Samsung 1400 and the SDS Pioneer but by the time you price interconnects you may as well just buy the Pioneer Bluray. Just guessing but soon more mid range players will be out and then the SD DVD may perform better. On sound i agree with you for PCM i have some stereo DVD music sound tracks that out put PCM and that for me beats the DD 5.1 by a country mile.

 

[HDNumpty]

'ow do all. Got my subscription mag yesterday and was very interested to note that the Panasonic player is now 'top dog'. However, it still falls down for me on the auio side, I have a Cambridge amp with no HDMI audio, which means my Blu-Ray audio options are limited to DD 640kbps, DTS Core through opt/coax or if I'm really lucky, LPCM through 5.1 analogues. It still doesn't decode in the player and send out analogue sound via the 5.1s like the EP35 and Tosh EX. Blu-ray is still catching up with HD DVD as far as I'm concerned and I'll wait until the players come down in price.

 

[raykearney]

Dabs are offering it £329 but there is a 3 week wait.

 

[stevee1966]

It's at £299 on loads of websites, though there is a wait. EmpireDirect though do have the player in stock, also for £299.

 

[Anonymous]

hi as a new member and also bought latest issue of what hifi sound and vision i like the write up on the panasonic dmp-bd30 dvd blue ray player,i have a budget between £1500-£2000 for a home cinema set up with a 40"lcd in mind wondered what you recomend got to say though first page i opened said lookin to buy a new tv dont not until you've taken preview at latest trends and technology this threw me out as im looking to buy within the next 2 weeks am i going to waste my money cause something better is soon to come out fixed around my budget ive got! many thanks

scott

 

[Anonymous]

Bought mine from shop@Panasonic in staines for £349.90. Comes with the free Disney films and they said they had quite a few in stock. Good service too.

Cheds, with that sort of budget in mind you'd be much better off buying a plasma. Just pick up any of the mags and you'll see that even the best LCD's only just get close to the plasma's.