Panasonic announced its new line of mainstream Blu-ray players, which now include Netflix and Pandora streaming.
LAS VEGAS--Panasonic fell a little behind in the Blu-ray features wars last year, with the company's players lacking Wi-Fi, Netflix streaming, and onboard storage, which were available on competing players. At CES 2010, Panasonic introduced three new mainstream Blu-ray players, the DMP-BD45, DMP-BD65 and DMP-BD85, that address some of these criticisms, although with some caveats.
Key features of the Panasonic DMP-BD45:
Key step-up features of the Panasonic DMP-BD65:
Key step-up features of the Panasonic DMP-BD85:
VieraCast was available on Panasonic's 2009 Blu-ray players, but the content portal gets a significant boost 2010 by the addition of Netflix and Pandora streaming. (It's unclear if 2009 VieraCast products will be able to use the new services.) The addition of Wi-Fi to the product line is also a much needed upgrade, although we would have preferred if it were built-in, as offered on the competing LG BD570 and Samsung BD-C6500. We're still trying to confirm if any of these players have onboard storage.