Customer Reviews

Panasonic DMP-BD10AK 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This player will start the movie from where you stopped it or even if you power it off unlike other players where if you press stop or power off will go back to the very beginning. Excellent picture and menu controls. Comes with 5 Blu-Ray Discs in the box and you also can mail a rebate form in for 5 more discs.

I'm quite pleased with the Panasonic DMP-BD10AK. That said, if you're now in the market for a high-end Panasonic Blu-ray player, I suggest you wait for the just-announced Panasonic DMP-BD50. The BD10AK is discontinued and it's replacement seems to be the DMP-BD50. The DMP-BD30 looks nice on paper but it seems to be targeting a lower price point (ie. fewer features).

I went with the BD10AK because I needed the analog decoding built into the player as I have an older AVR that cannot decode the new higher definition audio formats. With the BD50 now announced, it is best to get that instead.

We decided not to wait for the HD wars to settle and jumped for BluRay. I figure that I can buy a player for each format for less than a combo player.

This Panasonic player seemed to be in the top-three for performance at a ressonable price. It is a new design. Since we were going with a Panasonic display (58" Plasma), I opted for the Panasonic player. This was a good decision. Panasonic has integrated the control between the DVD and the monitor to provide one-button simplicity. Press play, the TV powers up, the proper HDMI is selected, the movie starts. Simple.

More important than simplicity is the picture. We had just updated from a Samsung 42" LCD on Dish Satellite with an upconverting DVD player. We thought that was good. When we converted to Plasma and DirecTV, we got a much better picture along with many more HDTV channels. The picture went to beautiful.

I didn't think I could see an improvement over DirecTv. But with this player, the system is simply awesome. The picture is vivid and fast. The sound, processed by an Onkyo 805 7.1 Receiver is far better than sound from DirecTV.

The player came with about $150 worth of action videos. (Pirates, Fanatic 4, etc.) That was enought to get me to buy a few more. Mainly we use NetFlix, but I want to have some owned content to showoff the system.

Don't wait on high def DVDs - jump it - the technology is great.

I ordered a DMP-BD10AK, and Amazon's selling partner (not mentioned in description) shipped a DMP-BD10APPK. In an e-mail exchange, their partner has implied that it is the same unit and that "The manufacturer's box adds the PP to the SKU for internal inventorypurposes". In any case, after the first disk played locked up ten minutes in, I upgraded the firmware from v2.4 to v2.5 using Panasonic's download service. Note that the downloaded file is a PC ".exe" file, so Mac users might want to use a cross-platform helping application to decompress the firmware update prior to burning it to CD. No problems since the firmware upgrade. (By the way, the process was easy and painless.)

Performance: The picture is excellent, as is the sound. The quality varies according to input. For instance, I had hoped "Planet Earth" would display without the blurring motion artifacts that were seen on the cable broadcast, but no, the compression artifacts were still there; "Flags of Our Fathers" was crisp (albeit with lots of video gimmickry). DVD-processing is very good, and my one Superbit DVD, "Lawrence of Arabia" is even "gorgeous-er". The unit upconverts DVD content to 1080p quite well: you'll be saying "No lines! No lines!".

Audio seemed stunning, even though I'm using 5.1 right now and not 7.1. It SEEMS clearer with a better S/N ratio. No instruments, just my well-tuned ears.

Operability: (meh) I'd like the setup button more easily-available, and like reviewers in other media have noted, it's sort of a pain not being able to get a jump on disk load/eject from your chair. That button is on the player itself.

Overall: This player seems very, very good. It will show the best material spectacularly. And I can see all the blemishes, since I'm watching 1080p on a very large front-projected screen. There don't seem to be many blemishes, though.

Buy one.

I've been a die-hard Sony supporter, but after blindly buying the Sony BDP-S300, watching it take several minutes to boot up, and load a movie, lock-up several times, which requires that you shut it down, and go thru the painful process of re-booting, I decided it was time to check out the competition.

I did some research, got on the A/V forums, and the Panasonic DMP-BD10AK came out on top. It is by far the best player for the money. Boot-up, and loading a movie takes less than a minute, and so far it has yet to lock-up. The controls are not at sleek and smooth as the Sony, but they work nicely without a hitch.

Another perk at the time was the 5 free discs that come in the box, plus the 5 free by mail. One of the free discs in the box is Pirates of the Carribean, #2. I never had the opportunity to play this on the Sony, but I read that quite a few people had problems even getting this one to play on the it. The Panasonic plays it smoothly.

Anothe nice perk is being able to up-date the firmware. That is a definite must in my book. The process is relatively simple, and painless.

All in all, if anyone is looking for a somewhat affordable High Def player this is the one I recommend without reservation. I am very pleased with it's performance.

1080P picture was as expected. With the user settings you can furter tweek the picture- some scenes on Pirates look 3-D. It's the upconversion that's just as impressive. Every bit as good as the reviews say. You'll actual enjoy standard dvd's on a 1080P set! I didn't think I would. As for sound I'm running the 7.1 channels straight into my pre-amp inputs and it's stunning.If you have a Buttkicker or similar device you might want to install seat belts in your furniture! Way better than over over HDMI(if you have a new reciever that's 1.3 compliant with Dolby TrueHD processing the results might be the same, if you don't but have the 7.1 inputs you'll have the best sound possible). Plus while supplies last it come with 5 movies and you can get 5 more by mail. Bring on the movies in 7.1 TrueHD!!

My only concern with the Panasonic DMP was that the first unit would not work - the disk tray would not open, even after I tried the troubleshooting guides suggestions on button sequences to overcome this problem.

Amazon was great in getting the unit replaced immediately and reimbursing my shipping costs, and the replacement unit works wonderful! What a great picture, even for the old DVDs!

The new Panny has top rate picture and sound. It supports the newest HD Dolby and DTS sound tracks. When played through a A/V reciever that supports the new audio HD tracks the sound will rattle the windows. The load time is improved over earlier players and the unit has a great sleek look. Upconvert is great on your old SD discs. If you are looking for a BD player this is the one. Much better than the Samsung and Sony's. If you are looking for a lower price for a next gen DVD player go with the Toshiba A2 it's picture and sound match the Panny in every aspect except load time. I had to have both formats because I wanted access to all the movies in next gen.

Probably the best Blu-ray currently available. Stay away from Samsung and Sony players. I would recommend this player, but if you need profile 1.1(PiP menu support) or 24p(fps)video input support wait for the new Panason BD30 player that will be availabe very soon. Otherwise this offers the best Picture and Sound quality among the rest of the current players and is one of the fastest loading ones to date.

I purchased the Panasonic DMP-BD10A player after first trying out the Sony BDP-S300 blu ray player. I went through two of the Sony players and gave up on them due to lock up problems and very slow load times/response. After returning the second Sony, I took a look at the Panasonic. Am I glad that I did! I realize that Sony invented Blu Ray technology, but they should take a lesson from Panasonic in how to design and build a quality Blu Ray disc player.

The Panasonic player is incredible. It provides flawless picture and sound quality with blu-ray discs and really nice upconversion of DVD's. It's very responsive to commands (fast forward, chapter skip, rewind) and very fast loading. I highly recommend this player to anyone interested in getting in on the latest high definition blu ray technology.

I read a few of the previous reviews and there was a complaint about the remote control, however I like the remote. It has large buttons that are easy to find and press and provides a wheel for scrolling (fast forward or reverse).

The player that I bought came with 5 free blu ray movies included in the box and a rebate for 5 more free by mail which was very nice! That's 10 free movies total. If you are in the market for a blu ray player, check this one out. I'm very happy with mine and would not hesitate to recommend this player to a friend or family member.