Hardware Review: Panasonic DMP-BD30Hitting store shelves at an MSRP of $499.95, Panasonic's new DMP-BD30 is one of the more affordable Blu-ray players currently on the market, as well as the first to be compliant with the format's Profile 1.1 specification (more on this below). That makes for a pretty winning combination, but does it live up to its potential as a category killer?
The Bottom Line: Is It Worth It?
Each potential buyer will judge the importance of Blu-ray Profile 1.1 based on their own personal priorities. Previous Blu-ray models will continue to play all discs and traditional bonus features, so if you don't find support for interactive content all that important, this feature may not necessarily be a deal-breaker.
In any case, for the first Profile 1.1 compliant Blu-ray player, the Panasonic DMP-BD30 is a well-priced deal that offers excellent video quality on Blu-ray discs and the capability to bitstream advanced audio codecs to a compatible receiver (still a rare feature in Blu-ray players). On the other hand, it lacks the ability to decode those audio codecs internally as prior Panasonic models could, and has very poor deinterlacing and DVD upconversion quality. The BD30 isn't quite a perfect Blu-ray player, but it performs strongly in core areas and rates a worthy recommendation.
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