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Quality DVD Internet Base - Panasonic DMP-BD55K Blu-ray Disc Player
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List Price: $399.95
Our Price: $499.99
Your Save: $ ( % )
Availability:
Manufacturer: Panasonic
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Batteries Included: 1
Batteries: 2
Binding: Electronics
Brand: Panasonic
Color: Black
EAN: 0037988257171
Feature: Blu-ray Player
Is Autographed: 0
Is Memorabilia: 0
Label: Panasonic
Manufacturer: Panasonic
Model: DMP-BD55K
Publisher: Panasonic
Studio: Panasonic
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Features
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Blu-ray Player
BD Live / 7.1 Lossless Decode and Analog Output
VIERA Link: Operate with your VIERA Remote Control
SD Card Slot
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: An Excelent Player for the Money!
Comment: The first Blu-ray DVD I watched was The Dark Knight and I was absolutely blown away! The reason? The audio is superb!
My Denon 3910 DVD player was having problems reading some regular DVDs and it seemed the right time to upgrade. I use a Yamaha LPX-510 projector that only displays up to 1080i video resolution, not 1080p. I use component video cables for the 75-foot run, not HDMI. I am projecting to a 92-inch screen, so video quality (good or bad) from a DVD or player shows up quickly. Although the Denon 3910 was $1300 when I purchased it a few years ago, the Panasonic DMP-BD55K is a much better player.
Up-conversion of regular DVDs on the Panasonic is almost as good as a Blu-ray DVD (remember, my maximum video quality is 1080i). Color is richer and detail is much clearer. That means that I won't need to replace my current DVD collection with Blu-ray discs.
The biggest benefit for me was the improved overall sound quality. For comparison, I played 'The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over' and 'Bee Gees - One Night Only' on both players using their DTS sound tracks. An amazing difference! Individual instruments were more distinctive and the total audio experience was measurably better, as was the video. I also compared 'The Fifth Element Superbit' DVD and got the same results. Video and sound differences comparing "Super Speedway' (filmed in IMAX format) did not show noticeable differences.
Another major difference was in viewing homemade DVDs. Video is much better on the Panasonic.
I went through all of the setup options twice. The manual that comes with the product is great if you are an audio engineer but leaves a lot of unanswered questions. For example, the 5.1 vs 7.1 detail is somewhat lacking. When I first connected the Panasonic to my pre-amp, I used a cheap coax wire (I couldn't find my extra fiber optic cable). The resulting sound was highly distorted. Later, I did find and connect the fiber optic cable and WOW! There is nothing mentioned in the manual about the number of audio channels supported when using fiber optics/coax instead of HDMI cables. Trust me, it works great on a 5.1 configuration.
I played NCIS Season 1, disc 4 and the faces of the actors were bright pink! No help in any of the video adjustments and all of my other discs seemed to have none of this problem. I hooked the BD55K to the Internet and downloaded an update to the firmware. This took about 5 minutes for the complete update process. I went from firmware version 1.4 to 1.6 and the pink faces now displayed in normal skin tones.
You won't be disappointed with the Panasonic DMP-BD55K Blue-ray Disc Player. It's a great product for the money.
As a reference, here is my home theater configuration: Video: Yamaha LPX-510 projector; Screen: Sterling SNDQ092H 92-inch; Pre-amp: B&K Reference 50 Series 2; Power amp: McIntosh MC207; Speakers: M&K S-150THX (front/center), M&K SS-150THX Tripole surrounds, M&K MX-350THX powered subwoofer.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great, but divx support somewhat limited
Comment: The Bluray and DVD disks play great. The divx support is limited to DVD-R, DVD-R DL and SD cards. My luck most of my divx was on DVD+Rs. Not a big problem though. A bigger problem is that even the documented support for divx may be a little "iffy". I have one large certified Divx file (2.77G) that is burned to a DVD-R. When I try to load this the BD55 says, "Unsupported Disk" which of course is an incorrect error message. It may be there is a file size limit for the BD55, but none is documented and the disk plays fine on my computer and on my old standard DVD with Divx support. If it's a bug, hopefully they will fix it with a firmware upgrade. Even so, it's quite a nice player.
Customer Rating:
Summary: flawless
Comment: This player has been flawless. Picture is pristine on blu-ray and very good on standard DVD. Some DVD's are so good I forget I am wathcing a DVD and think it is a blu-ray. Sound is excellent. The player is also fast, easy to use overall. I have no complaints.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great BR player
Comment: The Panny BD55K is one of my wiser purchases and overall I am very happy with the unit.
PRO's:
Unit is fast to start up compared to my other HD player (Tosh HD-A35) and both the picture and sound quality is brilliant. Range of audio outputs is excellent and was the main reason behind my choice of this unit. It was a close call but I chose this unit over a Sony BDP-S550 after careful reviews due to the better audio output support.
CON's:
Had the player about 2 months now and not found one 'CON'. I guess if I was being picky, I'd like the start-up time to be even quicker (from power-on to playing a DB disk).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Slow and missing a few features
Comment: I've had the Blu-Ray player for a little over a week and have overall positive comments about it. I specifically picked this player because I have a somewhat older receiver (Yamaha RX-Z1) that does not directly decode the newer HD audio formats, but does have a 6 channel input mode. As I expected, the picture is beautiful and the audio is impeccable.
That is, once the machine starts up. I only have plain old DVD's to compare to and maybe compared to others, this unit is fast, but, IMHO it is still way too slow. It kind feels like watching an older Windows XP machine boot. There is little feedback about progress aside from a "Loading..." message and then circles run around in a circle and then the disc finally starts. If you are trying to watch something during a meal, be sure to fire up before you sit down because you will be almost done eating before the movie starts if you do not. There is also a noticable lag when you hit a button on the remote before things move on the screen.
I was also disappointed to find that the unit has no memory of its own, so if you want to use the BD-Live features, you'll need to go out and buy an SD card, as others have pointed out. Not a huge expense, but certainly an inconvenience. With the drops in memory prices, the unit really could have shipped with some memory. Also, with respect to the BD-Live features, on some discs, a cursor seems to be missing or invisible on some of the navigation screens so you just end up guessing which item you are selecting. Makes for some interesting (at times, exasperating) trial and error sessions.
Last, the other big missing feature, which seems like a given, is that there is no memory or bookmark function that works for BluRay discs. Like many other people, I rarely can watch an entire movie in one sitting. I have to either leave the thing on with the disc spinning and blue light on or write down the chapter number on a pad and endure the startup process again the next time I can watch. Maybe they'll fix this with a firmware update.
Overall, a B+ in my mind.
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Editorial Reviews:
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PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus is a high quality image-processing technology developed by Panasonic to precisely process each pixel of the Blu-ray Disc video signal in the vertical direction. It reproduces color data with twice the accuracy of conventional systems to keep colors faithful and sharp. P4HD processes more than 15 billion pixels per second and applies the optimal processing to every pixel. So that it can render progressive images superbly, expresses motion smoothly, and draws crisp diagonal lines.The DMP-BD55 can decode HD Audio (Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD) and output 7.1ch digital audio signal. The resulting audio is studio master quality sound. This signal can be connected to an HDMI compatible receiver that does not support HD Audio Codec. Besides, the 7.1-channel analog signal converted by 192kHz D/A converter is transmitted in high quality. This signal can be connected to a receiver that does not support HDMI. BD-Live lets users access to the Internet to download data such as images and subtitles, and to join in quizzes and multi-player interactive games that are linked to bonus movie content contained on Blu-ray disc.
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