Panasonic's mainstream Blu-ray players get Wi-Fi, Netflix
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:
- PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus video processor
- SD card slot
- Lower power consumption--14 watts in usage, 0.1 watts in standby
- 14 second boot up time
- Limited to 5.1 audio decoding
- Available spring of 2010; no pricing announced
Key step-up features of the Panasonic DMP-BD65:
- Wi-Fi ready, requires USB Wi-Fi dongle (sold separately)
- Supports Panasonic's VieraCast streaming content portal, which will feature content from Amazon Video on Demand, YouTube, Picasa, Netflix, Pandora, and Twitter
- Onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio
- Supports full 7.1 audio decoding
- USB port
- Available spring of 2010; no pricing announced
Key step-up features of the Panasonic DMP-BD85:
- Includes USB Wi-Fi dongle
- 7.1 analog audio outputs
- Digital Tube Sound Simulator mode "to produce the warm, realistic sounds associated with a tube amplifier"
- Available spring of 2010; no pricing announced
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.
