The Short Form

$399 / PANASONIC.COM / 888-843-9788

Snapshot

Panasonic’s newest player delivers all of the Blu-ray format’s many features, and its excellent performance and reasonable price make it a great buy

Plus

• Speedy operation • Crisp, clean upconversion of regular DVDs • Slim profile

Minus

• Confusing audio-setup options

Key Features

• BD Profile 2.0-compliant • 1080p/24-fps video output • Onboard Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding • SD card slot for JPEG or AVCHD playback • Outputs: HDMI 1.3, component-, composite-, and S-video; optical/ coaxial digital audio, 7.1-channel analog audio, stereo analog audio • 17 x 9 ½ x 2 in, 5 ¾ lb

While I’ve been quick in the past to recommend the Blu-ray Disc format to friends and strangers alike, when it came to endorsing a specific player, I’ve been less forthcoming. That’s because machines that handle all of Blu-ray’s high-rez audio codecs and also meet the Profile 2.0 specification have been limited to Panasonic’s DMP-BD50 — at $700, a somewhat pricey option — and Sony’s PlayStation 3 game console, a device that, depending on one’s world view, is either a multimedia powerhouse or a toy.

In the Blu-ray lexicon, Profile 2.0 means the player provides dual audio and video decoders to facilitate picture-in-picture features like onscreen video commentaries, an Ethernet jack to plug into a broadband home network, and 1-GB local-storage capacity to accommodate the online applications and audio/video extras that BD-Live discs can unlock. A Profile 2.0 player isn’t required for watching movies in high-def; Profile 1.1 and 1.0 machines can easily handle that. But if you’re going to shell out a few hundred bucks for a new disc player, why not get a future-proof one that can handle the Blu-ray format’s full suite of cool tricks?

Panasonic’s new DMP-BD55 ($399) is a Profile 2.0, BD-Live-compliant model that performs cool tricks galore; if it didn’t look like a disc player, you might mistake it for a trained seal. Along with its networking and PIP capabilities, the BD55 features built-in Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding; a 7.1-channel analog-audio output for connecting to older, HDMI-less receivers and processors; and a front-panel slot that accepts SD memory cards loaded with both digital still pictures and AVCHD video shot by high-def camcorders. Also, its HDMI 1.3 output can pass high-rez Dolby and DTS bitstreams on to a recent-vintage receiver or processor for external decoding.

After unboxing the BD55, you’ll immediately notice its slim design. At just under 2 inches high, Panasonic’s model makes most other Blu-ray players look like fatties. Aside from the disc tray, the only other front-panel features are the open/close and power buttons and a flip-up door that hides the SD card slot and the play, pause, and stop controls. Along with its HDMI, Ethernet, and 7.1-channel analog-audio ports, its output selection includes component- and composite-video, optical and coaxial digital-audio, and stereo analog-audio jacks.

Panasonic’s remote control is a bit bulky for a disc-player wand, and its surface is densely covered with large buttons and text labels. But since the keypad isn’t backlit, all those big buttons and labels can help you identify specific controls in a dark room. If you use HDMI to connect the player to certain Panasonic TV models, its Viera-Link feature uses HDMI CEC protocol to let you control the player with the TV’s remote.

SETUP

For most folks, BD55 setup will mean running a single HDMI cable to an A/V receiver and then using an Ethernet cable to connect it to a home network. For my purposes, I ran component-video cables directly to the TV, hooked up the BD55 to a powerline Ethernet adapter, and made HDMI and 5.1-channel analog connections between the BD55 and a Denon AVR-4308CI receiver. (I’ll admit it: I don’t have a 7.1-channel speaker setup, although with so few 7.1 surround titles available, I’m not missing much yet.)

Configuring the BD55’s video output was a simple matter of visiting the setup menu’s TV/Device Connection section and selecting the HDMI Connection option. Choices here include HDMI Resolution (Auto or, depending on your TV’s capabilities, 480p through 1080p) and 24p Output (on/off). Another video option, Component Video Resolution, lets you tailor the player’s component-video output for a particular display, with resolution topping out at 1080i for high-def disc playback.

While video setup is a snap on the BD55, configuring its audio can be more daunting. This is definitely one case where you’ll need to read the manual. When using an external receiver to decode standard or high-rez soundtracks, you first select the “Bitstream” Digital Audio Output option in the Audio menu for both Dolby and DTS variants. But if you have an older HDMI-equipped receiver that lacks Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD decoding, you’ll need to select “PCM” here instead. To experience the soundtracks in full high-rez form, you also have to remember to switch the BD-Video Secondary Audio option to Off, or you’ll just get plain-vanilla Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1.

For folks with receivers that predate HDMI’s arrival, the Connection menu’s Analog Audio Output option offers two choices: 7.1 Channel and 2 Channel (Downmix) + 5.1 Channel. Since I was working with a 5.1 speaker system, I chose the second option, which downmixes 7.1 soundtracks for 5.1-channel output. One catch here is that you’ll need to double-back to the HDMI setup menu and switch the HDMI Audio option off. If you don’t, the player will downmix all soundtracks to 2 channels — something that’s only mentioned in passing in the manual’s extensive footnotes.

Last but not least is network setup. After plugging a cable into the player’s Ethernet jack, I called up an intimidating-looking submenu labeled “IP Address/DNS Settings.” Fortunately, all I had to do here was click the Connection Test bar at the top, and the player indicated that it had tapped into my home network. After I unsuccessfully tried to access the BD-Live features of a few discs, however, it dawned on me that there was no SD card inserted in the player. (Panasonic doesn’t include one with the BD55.) But once I filled that slot with a 1-GB card, BD-Live was up and running.

PERFORMANCE

The first high-def disc players were painfully slow at loading. The BD55 is a speed demon by comparison: It only took 20 seconds to power up and load a BD-Live Blu-ray Disc, while DVDs and non-BD-Live Blu-ray Discs started playing in a mere 15 seconds.

The DMP-BD55 features a new version of the PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus found in earlier Panasonic players. What’s changed is that the processor now upsamples the image’s color up to 4:4:4 bit-depth. (Movies are typically encoded for disc at a 4:2:0 color bit-depth.) While the benefits of this can be subjectively appreciated, what really brought it home was a demo I saw where a Panasonic engineer ran a test disc with a special Chroma Zone plate pattern on the BD55. Compared with a Samsung BD-UP5000 Blu-ray player, the Panasonic clearly displayed better color resolution in the pattern’s overlapping concentric rings.

As I watched Transformers on Blu-ray, the BD55’s picture looked remarkably detailed and punchy. In a scene where Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) flips over the handlebars of the girls’ bike he’s riding past a prominently placed Burger King, the pink bike and red/orange signage in the background looked vivid and clean. And when the mysterious muscle car that’s been chasing him enters the scene, its yellow body paint displayed a wide range of finely delineated hues. The same scenes viewed in 1080i using the player’s component-video output looked notably softer when compared with HDMI, but that’s often the case with Blu-ray players and other high-def sources.

The player’s upconversion of regular DVDs was also very impressive. It passed all of the tough upconversion tests on the Silicon Optix HQV DVD with the exception of the Assorted Cadence test. Compared with other high-def disc and upconverting DVD players I’ve handled, its performance here rivals, if not exceeds, the best of them.

The BD55 had no problem passing Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio bitstreams on to the Denon receiver, and the same tracks also sounded great when conveyed through the player’s multichannel analog-audio output. The setup menu for the analog output lets you select a large or small speaker size, adjust channel delays, and trim the output level for all main channels. But there’s no test tone to adjust subwoofer output, so I wasn’t shocked when the bass sounded weak as I watched a scene from X-Men: The Last Stand where Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) have some kind of mind-control face-off. When I switched over to an HDMI connection, the DTS Master Audio soundtrack’s bottom end had far greater authority when Xavier, and the house he’s sitting in, exploded.

After testing out the player’s BD-Live capability using Transformers and Men in Black, I don’t have much to say about this feature other than it works. Men in Black’s BD-Live screen let me download a high-def trailer for Lakeview Terrace. And Transformers let me download a “skin” that enclosed the image within a window containing “widgets” that delivered extra information like GPS tracking points for the movie’s locales and technical data on its robots. Exciting stuff, that.

BOTTOM LINE

My past reluctance to recommend a specific Blu-ray player was based on one key point: There were too few models that delivered all of the format’s capabilities. But now comes Pansasonic’s DMP-BD55, a Profile 2.0 BD-Live-capable player with Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding, HDMI 1.3 and 7.1-channel analog outputs, and more. Panasonic’s $399 player also delivers both excellent audio and video performance with Blu-ray Discs and stellar upconversion of regular DVDs. My assessment of the DMP-BD55? Highly recommended.