Customer Reviews

Panasonic BD60EB Blu-ray Disc Player

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Had to return this player on the day I received it as the picture would freeze after about 5 minutes of play and all functions on the unit became locked. Only solution was to switch it off and on again so that I could retrieve the discs. This happened with all the discs that I tried. Contacted Panasonic and it seems likely that the laser tracking is at fault. Amazon with their usual courteous response are sending a replacement player. Not Amazon's fault but if the replacement is OK I will modify the 2 stars rating as the picture quality on Blu-ray and DVD upscaling was excellent during the first few minutes of each disc that it would play.

Update: Received replacement BD-60 player today (15 Sept) via courier service at no extra cost to me and must congratulate Amazon for their attention in this matter. The replacement player works well and the picture clarity, sound and colour purity (on the 'Baraka' Blu-ray disc) are outstanding through my Panasonic Viera TV. It is also an eye-opener as to what the TV is capable of. Set up was incredibly simple as the Viera Link between the BD-60 and TV using the HDMI connection did it all for me, except that if you have a TV capable of 1080p/24fps, do be aware that the 24p output on the BD-60 is not enabled by default. You have to switch it on in the Set-up menu under TV/Device connection, otherwise movement in the picture can show a slight flicker on 24p discs. The so-called slow disc loading that seems to bother some reviewers is not an issue for me. The superior picture quality of this player over other comparable players makes an extra 30 seconds loading time seem insignificant. Do we really think that 30 or so seconds is stealing time from us? Get some Zen in your life. I therefore give 5 stars both to the product and to Amazon.

New Update: December 2009. There has been a problem with this BD player concerning random freezing of the picture for several seconds when playing Blu-Ray discs. Firmware version 2.2 apparently resolves this issue so it is important that your BD60 has this firmware update. It can be downloaded from the internet directly to the player using the ethernet connection. It can also be downloaded to your PC from the Panasonic global site, decompressed and then burnt to a disc (however, not for Mac users). This CD version can also be obtained directly from panasonic by phoning their support line (although this will take a few days to arrive by post). I went for the latter alternative and just put the disc into the player and the new firmware was updated (instructions are enclosed with the disc).

I got this player as a second player to replace a DVD player so I could also play Bluray discs that we now have and use on our main TV and player.

I have been very pleased with this with the bluray pictures looking very sharp and clear with great colour and clarity of detail.
DVD playback is also good with the picture looking very good and definitely better than my old DVD player.

Startup times are not bad, and it loads the Bluray discs in an acceptable time frame.

Another feature that I really like is the Viera link. Where the player had to go is not a direct line of site from the viewing area, but with the Viera link the remote worked fine via the TV and I had no loss of functionality.
Obviously this depends on having a Panasonic TV with Viera link though, which I planned for anyway.

Overall there is nothing about this player that dissapoints me or that I find frustrating. It is easily recommended.

Chose this player as not many of them have a slot for your photo memory card and another thing which was very important to me was the fact that this player plays DVD ram. I have a lot of my videos recorded onto DVD ram and there are not many blu ray players with this function. Quality of picture is very very good and I am very pleased with my purchase and the price was good too so I am one happy bunny. Set up was amazingly easy I did it myself and it took a couple of minutes.

Delivery of this item was super quick - thanks to Amazon. The player is really easy to set up but you do need to purchase an HDMI cable which, if you want full HD, will mean a shock to the wallet - mine cost me £68.00. Picture quality is superb and the sound is really good too. For those who like to delve into the settings, the instruction manual is easy to follow. I cannot recommend this player enough.

Plugged it in, switched it on and bingo in about 5 mins we were playing films through our TV. It's easy to use the only slight irritation is how long it takes to start up, but as we had a Panasonic DVD recorder/player before we were used to that.

Nice slim line casing - slightly smaller footprint than our cable box which sits on top

A Which? best buy, and you can sure see why. Very good.Shame the leads were not included though.

This is a very good Blu-ray player as most of the reviews here and in the press state. However if you're new to the new HDMI world beware if you are not contemplating buying a matching HDMI amplifier!!

I have a good 5.1 Denon amp. but this player expects to connect via HDMI which the Denon does not have. The BD60 does have optical digital out but this does not deliver True HD sound only Dolby B. And you need to be able to increase the sub-woofer volume by 20+dB for blu-ray. There are also reports of lip synch problems (maybe just some DVD's). So if you want to stick with your non-HDMI amp. you could buy the BD80 which has analogue outputs. However the best solution is add an HDMI amp. into your budget e.g. Onkyo TXSR507

..........previous sony 350.

My Sony developed a fault which was returned to amazon, but because it was out of stock at the time i got a refund rather than a replacement and decided to opt for this due to its extra extras-usb/flash drive/youtube stuff.

Had the sony 350 which was fantastic. Great BD picture and fantastic upscaling of DVD's which at the moment due to having loads of them and little BD's is the most important thing.

The picture of BD's is good, but just not as good as the sony. The opening scene of the dark knight on BD where the camera closes in on the skyscraper/office block just blew me away with the sony, but didnt get the same feeling from the BD60. Ive played with the settings on the player and TV ,and just cant get it to be as good.

The biggest let down though is on the upscaling of DVD's-it just isnt as good picture no matter what i do-and at times i think it looks worse than my previous Pioneer DVD player.

All the other extras with it work great-YOUTUBE is great on my TV. My digital photos look great through the USB in HD. And getting online via the ethernet is simple and very quick.

Dont get me wrong, this is still a very good player, but if its the perfect picture you want i would suggest the sony over this one.

Im about to sell this player and replace it with the new sony 360 as i feel the extras i mentioned before dont make up for the lack of picture quality.

This is a great player that will compliment a high quality Panasonic plasma. If it has veira controls, you can access an SD-Card or USB connected to the player from your TV remote. In fact you can pretty much control the basics from your TV control or control the TV basics from this BD player's remote: very useful!

What else is useful: you can access you tube, play DivX/MPG/AVI on a USB stick (and I presume DVD though I have not tried this) which is very useful. I tried DivX/MPG/AVI on a an SD card but this did not work. Its well designed and produces a stunning picture, though I think this is more BD technology than Panasonic.

However, two major drawbacks:
-Very slow to load up (start up) and quite slow to close down!
-FORGETS THE LAST POSITION ON A DISC if shut down! Even on DVD!! I can't believe it; this has proven to be very annoying.

I would give it 3 or even 2 if not for the good compatibility with my Panasonic TV.

Picture quality is outstanding.

Surround sound is great through my Panasonic 5.1 Home Theatre system - even though it is designed for a 7.1 system - (NOTE: I had to adjust the audio settings output to play through the Optical Cable connector though - very easy to do in the Set Up menu).

Remote also operated my VHS/DVD system but that was easily solved by changing the 'Remote' to operate on a different output (Again, very easy to do in the Set Up menu).

Very pleased indeed.