The Panasonic DMP-BDT100 is the latest in Panasonic's line of Blu-ray 3D players, and at the moment, the least expensive. That's not to say it isn't a full featured player. Full Internet streaming capabilities (via VIERA Cast), Panasonic's P4HD upconverting technology, fast boot-up, decoding and bitstream outputs of the latest audio codecs, and a 192kHz/24bit Audio DAC.
Panasonic's more expensive 3D players (the DMP-BDT300 and DMP-BD350) have an additional HDMI output, which helps them to work with pre-HDMI 1.4 receivers, an HDMI "Jitter Purifier" for the audio, 7.1 analog output, a second USB input, coax digital audio output in addition to the BDT100's optical digital output, and built in wireless (the BDT100 is wireless ready). The DMP-BDT350 is also DLNA compliant, the only one of the bunch that is. Owners of Samsung and Mitsubishi 3D-ready DLP TVs will be happy to see the 3D checkerboard output option (also on the BDT300 and BDT350) which makes this player compatible with those TVs in 3D mode without the need for a separate converter box.
Choosing the BDT100, you'll save at least $150 over the BDT300 and $180 over the BDT350, though Panasonic's Wireless LAN Adaptor will set you back about $80 negating some of the savings if you need/want to go wireless.
But as long as it performs, it's looking like a good bargain already.
SETUP
The time it takes to go from off to when you can mess around in the menus is a fairly impressive 21 seconds, and only about twice that to load into a BD. There's is a Quick Start feature that turns the player on in about 2 seconds. This feature should really be called the "Never Off" feature as the player is effectively always on. So if you like wasting electricity, don't want to lose 19 seconds of your life, or you hate the Earth, by all means use this feature.
Most main options are pre-setup for you already, of course, but you'll want to enable the "24p Output" if your display is capable of changing it's refresh rate for 24p content. This setting is rather buried, you'll need to go into "TV/Device Connection" then "HDMI Connection." Also, the BDT100 is one of only a handful of players that can support 1080/24p output from DVDs. This must be enabled while viewing the disc in the "Display... Disc" menu.
The setup menu is also where you to go to set up your network connection. I used a wired connection, and the DMP-BDT100 was able to autodetect everything with just a few button pushes.
PERFORMANCE
With the Spears and Munsil Test BD, the DMP-BDT100 picked up the 3:2 sequence with 1080i almost instantly and correctly deinterlaced it. With the Jaggies test pattern, the rotating bar starts showing jaggies around 10, or the beginning green area.
The sailing ship test, a real world jaggies test with ropes that are nearly all diagonal lines, looked very good. There are some slight jaggies on some of the near horizontal rigging, but overall the performance was well above average.
On the HQV Test DVD, the rotating bar pattern starts showing small jaggies just past vertical, though they go away and then reappear at around 10 degrees. Again, above average. In the second jaggies test, where three white blocks frantically wave back and forth, only the bottom of the three shows any jaggies, and they're small. With the waving flag video test on this disc, there are only tiny jagged lines along the top of the flag. There's a little noise in the background of the building.
The moire distortion in the grandstand in the "Super Speedway" extract on the HQV disc goes away pretty quickly, showing that 3:2 film-based content is correctly picked up and dealt with on both test patterns and actual film-based 480i content as well.
Instant Queue? Meet the CUE
Scaling SD content, whether it's Netflix based or DVD based, is done quite well. Detail is well above average. It's a touch noisy in fine details, but not overly so. Amazingly, with Netflix SD content the infamous "Chroma Bug" (Chroma Upsampling Error or "CUE") seems to have reappeared. Blu-ray and DVD content is fine, but specifically with Netflix standard def content, the colored banding artifact of the so-called Chroma Bug has returned. I checked several different shows and it was apparent on each. The Chroma Upsampling Error occurs when the player attempts to fill in missing color information while deinterlacing MPEG compressed SD content. If the color upsampling is done incorrectly, you can end up with color banding in solid colors or jagged lines on the borders between colors in the image. It's particularly noticeable on diagonal lines of color transitions.
The most visible example I noticed was the opening of the 13th episode of the first season of Farscape. As the camera pans past the bright red flowers and the solid red sheets, you can see visible color banding. This banding wasn't visible on other Netflix streaming devices I've tried, such as the Apple TV, my computer, and a Sony BD player I've got in the queue to review. When we notified Panasonic's engineering team about this issue, they said they had also recently become aware of the CUE problem on Netflix and are working toward a fix.
Using The Dark Knight on Blu-ray Disc, the DMP-BDT100 had smooth transitions from light to dark, with no extraneous noise or artifacts. For DVD viewing, I used my favorite DVD, the Superbit version of The Fifth Element. Chapter Two had an above average amount of detail, though there were some small jaggies visible in the background as the kid runs down the hall. Like most of the performance, the DMP-BDT100 was above average with this clip.
Processing, then, is generally well above average, and very good considering the price of the unit. The Chroma Bug error, though, is troublesome. If you watch a lot of Netflix SD content, knock at least a half a star off the performance rating.
3D
Not sure what to say about 3D other than that, yes, it does 3D. Control was a little more sluggish, but the 3D picture looked fine on the TC-P50VT25 I tried it on. Coraline looked sharp and noise free, with all the depth inherent in this disc. Because the BDT100 has only a single HDMI output, you'll need to either connect this player directly to your 3D display, or use a receiver with 3D passthrough capabilities in order to get Blu-ray 3D discs to work in 3D mode.
STREAMING
If you don't insert a disc when you turn on the player, a simple text menu pops up where you can select "Network." This, or a press of the VIERA Cast button on the remote when a disc is stopped, brings up Panasonic's web content portal. You get YouTube, Picasa, Amazon VOD, Pandora, Netflix and more. The beauty of Panasonic's system is that all the updates done to VIERA Cast are done on their end. So if they add a new content provider, older devices can access it as well. Netflix streaming was one of the few exceptions. Because of significant changes required in the player to support Netflix streaming, the service could not be ported back to the 2009 model year players.
Speaking of which, Netflix access is reasonably quick, though the interface leaves much to be desired. Unlike the newly enhanced Netflix interface on the PlayStation 3 or Apple TV, there is no way to search for new content. You have to add movies/TV shows to your Instant Queue via a computer or any device with a Web browser, then they'll show up on the Netflix interface on the DMP-BDT100. This is cumbersome, but the picture quality almost makes up for it.
The scaling done by the DMP-BDT100 to the predominantly SD Netflix content is quite good. Far better looking than the non-scaled output of the PS3 or marginally-scaled Apple TV. If the scaler in your TV or receiver is decent, then this benefit may not be a big deal for you. HD content is good, though Amazon VOD is a little less noisy. This will vary with content, of course. The Chroma Upsampling Error, as I mentioned earlier, may or may not be a big deal for you. If you're bothered by this artifact, or need pristine video all the time, the DMP-BDT100 is probably not a good choice for you if you're a Netflixer. The larger your screen size, the more obvious the problem becomes.
The Pandora implementation is better, with a big friendly interface that shows your channels, cover art and so on. It's like a slightly more angular version of Pandora's regular interface. Sound quality is OK, but that's Pandora more than anything. The interface stays up on the screen, but after a few minutes it starts rotating around Superman II style, presumably to minimize a chance of burn in or image retention.
Amazon's Video on Demand interface is even faster than Netflix, and HD picture quality is excellent, with minimal artifacts and excellent detail. Your mileage will vary, though, depending on your connection speed. SD looks about as good as Netflix's SD, though again that will all vary depending on the original content.
Turn Ons
Turn Offs
Final Thoughts
In all I think the DMP-BDT100 is a great Blu-ray 3D player, given the price. Its processing is all above average, it works quickly for most features, and VIERA CAST is a decent web portal. And, of course, it gets you 3D if you're so inclined. The Chroma Bug with Netflix is worrisome, though I can't say it's a dealbeaker given it's just with SD content on Netflix, and not on the discs this player was created to play.
If you're looking to upgrade to 3D on the cheap, you'll get a lot of bang for your buck with the DMP-BDT100.
Features and Specifications
Connectivity:
Manufacturer's Contact Information:
Panasonic Corporation of North America
One Panasonic Way
Secaucus, NJ 07094
On the Web: Panasonic.com
Where to Buy:
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