Panasonic DMP-BD55 Withdrawn????

[Squonk]

Has Panasonic withdrawn the DMP-BD55 Blu-ray player as I see it's no longer to be found on their website, all that's there is the DMP-BD35?
See: http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_GB/372504/module/general/compare/productsCategory.html

 

[Dave_]

It's been discontinued! there's a couple of threads on here about it somewhere

 

[Clare Newsome]

Yep - it's not withdrawn, just coming to end of its life (in other words, when shops are out of stock, that'll be it).

New Panasonic Blu-ray players and TVs due from @ March time. We're having a full briefing on UK-specific product in late February - in the meantime, here's the new 2009 Blu-ray line-up as revealed in the US last week.

 

[Squonk]

Thanks guys!

I'm surprised though, it doesn't seem that long ago since it was released, or am I just getting old!

So it's the $64,000 question again, do I buy one now or wait for the new models in 3 months time? I suppose it depends on whether the price of the DMP-BD55 is reduced substantially from its current £350 approx.

 

[Clare Newsome]

You're not wrong - the DMP-BD55 only went on sale 1st October! (Mind you, the BD50 only lasted April-September...)

The '55 remains a corking player, with full Profile 2.0 spec - so if those prices come down, i'd still be tempted.

But then who knows what the 2009 ranges have in store? At last count there's about 20 new players coming our way before summer....

 

[Squonk]

Many thanks Clare, much appreciated.

 

[Anonymous]

A word of warning. From my experience this player has severe firmware problems. The 7.1 analogue output levels and many of the 'user' picture settings cannot be adjusted even though the menus show that the settings have been changed. This is the same whether firmware version 1.1 or version 1.2 is installed. More than one sample of this player has exhibited this fault so it doesn't appear to be a one off.

 

[Squonk]

Thanks for the warning idp1.

Has anybody else come across similar problems?