Panasonic has announced that their upcoming Blu-ray players - the Panasonic DMP-BD60 and DMP-BD80 - are set to be released in April. Both players will feature Panasonic's new Viera Cast technology which allows the players to stream video from Amazon, YouTube, Bloomberg, and many others.
The BD60 is listed at $299, while the step-up BD80 will cost you $399. And those of you who are looking for a way to utilize your VHS collection (remember that format?), Panasonic will also be releasing the DMP-BD70V Blu-ray/DVD/VHS player for $299.
If I have read correctly the only difference between the DMP-BD60 and the DMP-BD80 model is that the DMP-BD80 has analog 7.1 output...? Is that correct?
if the VHS component is so you can copy your old home videos to BD I would love this, but if it is just to watch old VHS movies...not a good idea at all.
It's not really expensive. These are reasonable entry prices for what are expected to be top-
quality follow-ups to a very well-received product line (I love my DMP-BD55).
The price of the aforementioned models will be marked down accordingly, and BD in general
will be the better for it.
These are not reasonable prices. So far, new BD players all are starting above the $299.99 mark, it is taking far to long to get new player prices to the $199.99 mark. This will only keep BD from growing at a faster rate. It should not be, keep new players high in price and mark down older units, it should be newer more advanced players for less then what you paid for the inferior model before that which will entice people to replace Blu Ray players as well.
Is there any mention of wireless, otherwise, why buy a new player, as PQ and AQ will be the same?? As I still have my insignia first edition and have never had any problem with.
I see this as a way to combat movies on demand from the cable companies and satellite companies. A distribution channel for Amazon etal. and a way to watch those movies on something other than a computer monitor. Don't the PS3 and the X-Box do this?
Panasonic is producing hands-down excellent players. I couldn't be happier with my BD-50, short-lived
as that model was. These two seem to be brilliant additions, and cost way less than the $600 I paid.
Why is everyone complaining that these aren't priced as the players for the masses?
You don't go to Panasonic for those. You go to store brands and suchlike. Panny is an excellent mid-
level solution, and *saves you from buying a new amp*, which can't be stressed enough.
These prices are a little more like it. I'd love to tell co-workers they could gat a Panny Blu-ray player for $150-$199 but this is still better than the $500-$600 announcement prices we saw a year ago. Maybe next year even good brands like Panny and Sony will start off in the "butter" zone price-wise.
GO GET A MAGNAVOX or something of the like if you think these are to expensive. These are in fact reasonable MSRPs for PANASONIC! Remember these are MSRPs and should be available for somewhat less at online stores.
Id really like to see Panasonic make a more complete player (Wi-fi). Thats the only thing holding
me back from upgrading my BD-30. It surprises me they still have yet to do so.
The 2009 players are $100 less than outgoing 2008 models and thats bad? The price complainers seems to come from people that really don't know the difference between MSRP and selling price. The 2008 Sony S350, Samsung P1500 & Panasonic BD35 all had a 'initial' release MSRP of $399.99. These new 2009 models all have an 'initial' MSRP that is $100 less - at $299.99. The Sony and the Panasonic normally sell around $299 and the Samsung around $249. Those prices are $100 to $150 less than the 'initial' MSRP. You do the match for the 2009 models if they also sell between $100 to $150 less than their 'initial' MSRP of $299.
Hmmm. The new Sony (BDPS 560) due out a month later has wireless capabilities and is $50 less than the BD80? There will need to be some really significant bells and whistles on the BD80 to win me over from the new Sony.
I can't understand why are so many people complaining the price ? First, street price will be definately be lower. Also people just don't consider the consequence of driving price down. I personally prefer a more durable and quality product.
Sounds nice and I will be looking for a second player soon for my bedroom. BD60 is $299 list I wonder how long before I see it near $200.00 on sale some where? After being amazed by my 58" 800U TV I got a few weeks ago I wonder how else can panny amaze me.
All well and good and i am sure they will be wonderful players but the streaming from Amazon(where everything has to be payed for ala carte) and youtube(my Bluray player is the last place i want this freakshow to turn up),Bloomberg(?!) is almost useless compared to LG,Samsung, and Microsoft's hardware ability to stream Netflix(and Pandora to a much lesser extent).It's a neat feature on Panasonic's part but id muchrather have seen them hop on the Netflix bandwagon than the bunch it has.
Panasonic has announced that their upcoming Blu-ray players - the 
