Big Picture Big Sound

Panasonic DMP-BD35 Blu-ray Disc Player Review

Big Blu on a Little Budget

It seems Panasonic is determined to stay ahead of their competitors in putting out quality standalone players that offer all the best of what Blu-ray has to offer. From their very first player the DMP-BD10, which was the first standalone to offer onboard decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, to the DMP-BD30 which dropped the load times into the realm of acceptability and became the first player outside of Sony's Playstation 3 to offer BonusView (Profile 1.1) support in addition to its capability of bitstreaming the advanced audio codecs (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD HR/MA, Dolby Digital Plus).

Now, they have given the world two of the earliest standalone Blu-ray players to support full Profile 2.0 (BonusView + BD-Live) capabilities complete with onboard decoding of all the new audio formats in the DMP-BD55 and this, its little brother, the Panasonic DMP-BD35. And perhaps the biggest surprise of all was that they were able to do all this at an MSRP of only $299.95 (and a street price significantly lower).

Features

The Panasonic offers all the same features and performance as the step-up DMP-BD55 minus playback of DivX video files and the 7.1 analogue multichannel audio outputs.  Audio outputs include HDMI 1.3 (bitstream or PCM), optical digital output (legacy Dolby Digital, DTS or 2-channel PCM), or 2-channel analogue.

The slender unit should easily fit into most home theater systems. The front panel's disc tray is hidden behind an automatically operating flip-down panel. The disc tray is the sturdiest I have felt on a Blu-ray player so far and it inspires a feeling of confidence in the unit. In case you misplace your remote, the player's basic playback controls are hidden behind a manual flip-down panel on the front right side of the unit, which also hides the SD card slot. Flush against the top left edge is where the "Power" button is to be found and against the top right is the "Open/Close" button.

The rear of the BD35 includes the essentials for BD playback and networking. You'll find an HDMI output (1080p/24, 1080p/60, 1080i, 720p, 480p) a Component Video output (BD: 480i, 480p, 1080i; DVD: 480i, 480p) and Composite Video out (480i BD/DVD). Audio output options include the HDMI output, optical S/PDIF digital output and 2-channel analogue outputs. There is also a broadband Ethernet port which is used for BD-Live and firmware updates.

The BD35 supports playback of numerous disc formats including BD-ROM, BD-RE/BD-RE DL, BD-R/BD-R DL, DVD, DVD-RAM, DVD-R/-RW/-R(DL), DVD+R/+R(DL)/+RW, CD, CD-R/-RW. Unfortunately for audiophiles, playback of the increasingly niche formats SACD and DVD-Audio is not supported, but the player does support playback of AVCHD and high definition JPEG files from an SD card or DVD.

As mentioned before, the unit supports the full 2.0 profile, so BonusView and BD-Live content can be accessed, just make sure you have an SD or SDHC card with at least 1GB of memory in the SD slot if you want to use BD-Live features.
The BD35's BD-Live playback functioned well. Using the feature-laden titles Sleeping Beauty, Wall•E, and Transformers, BD-Live content loaded much faster than on Sony's S350, but a tad slower than on Samsung's BD-P1500. I did run into one problem with a BD-Live feature freezing up the entire player forcing me to unplug the unit, and that was with the Image Entertainment IMAX title The Alps.* At first I thought it was just on the BD35, but after trying it a second time on the Sony S350, it also froze that unit, so this seems to be more of a problem with the title than the player.

One issue I have with this player is the lack of a true screensaver. There is a "Screensaver" option in the "Setup" menu, but, as I later found out, that selects either a black or grey color for the pillarbox bars on the screen for 4:3 DVDs, and applies to MP3 and image playback, or certain menu screens - it does not appear to have any effect when pausing Blu-ray or DVD playback. So, for people with displays that are very sensitive to image retention or burn-in, such as older plasma screens or CRTs, (truth be told, even an LCD can potentially suffer from some image retention) this could be a problem. No matter how long you leave the unit turned on to the home screen or paused on a disc, no screensaver engages. At least there is an off timer, but the lowest it goes is 2 hours.

*A couple months later I tested the BD-Live features of The Alps and Mystery of the Nlle on the BD35 and S350 and they both played flawlessly. Perhaps whatever issue there was intially with the software was fixed.

Setting it Up

If you have the BD35 connected to the Internet when you first power it on as I did it will automatically search for new firmware. When I first turned the unit on I was greeted with the notification:

"Latest firmware is available:
Latest Online Version 1.5
Current Installed Version: 0.3
Do you want to start firmware update?"*

After confirming the firmware update, the player downloaded the firmware and went through the update process, even restarting the player without a hitch. Finally I was brought to the wallpaper screen and could go into the setup menu and tweak the player's settings to my liking. Setting up the BD35 was by far the most straight forward and most logically laid out of any Blu-ray player I have yet dealt with. The audio settings were the simplest to figure out of all the Blu-ray players I have handled, and that includes my very own Sony BDP-S350, a Samsung BD-P1500, and my first Blu-ray player, a Panasonic DMP-BD10.

First up for me were the audio settings. I wanted to have the player bitstream the high bitrate and legacy codecs to my Onkyo TX-SR805 A/V receiver rather than decode them internally. Doing this was as simple as going into the player's "Audio" menu and setting everything to "Bitstream" and turning "BD-Video Secondary Audio" off. For those who want the player to decode everything internally and send the signal as PCM, then simply set everything to "PCM" instead of "Bitstream." In this case, "BD-Video Secondary Audio" can be turned on (though this will sometimes cause the player to revert to lossy tracks if it has to mix in secondary audio or menu click sound effects).

Video output settings were only slightly more complicated. Setting the proper aspect ratio for 4:3 content can be a bit tricky of you don't carefully scrutinize your owner's manual. For some reason, the way the BD35 handles playback of 4:3 content is listed under the "TV Aspect" submenu of the "TV/Device Connection" settings menu -- no mention of actual content playback whatsoever. Anyhow, that's a minor quibble.

Under the "TV/Device Connection" menu is also where you adjust the output resolution for the BD35. Using the "HDMI Connection" submenu, I set "HDMI Resolution to 1080p". There are also options for 480p, 720p, 1080i and an "Auto" mode, which will automatically match the native resolution of your display. Sadly, as with most Blu-ray players on the market today, there is no "source direct" mode, which would playback the natively encoded resolution on the disc as-is into the display. I also turned on 24p output to take advantage of my Samsung LN52A650's native 24p playback capability. Unlike the Sony BDP-S350, however, the Panasonic's 24p playback option is limited to either "On" or "Off" there is no "Auto" mode, not that it makes much of a difference.

For those out there using Component Video cables, the "TV/Device Connection" menu is also where you'll find the menu to set the proper output resolution to match your display, from 480i to 1080i.

*At a later date, Panasonic updated the firmware from 1.5 to 1.6 stating the update was for "BD-V playability", but I did not notice any difference in playback. [editor's note: Panasonic discovered compatibility problems with some of the bonus material on The Dark Knight and delivered the fix a day or two after the Blu-ray Disc's street date].

The Fast, the Slow, and the Ugly

A lot of people fret over disc load times and outside of the Playstation 3, Blu-ray players have been notoriously slow at loading discs.  Panasonic's players have been among the worst, although they did make some major progress with their last generation of players.

So how does the DMP-BD35 do when it comes to loading discs? Well, let's take a look:

When the BD35 is completely turned off, it takes 22 seconds for the player to power on and reach the Blu-ray Disc splash screen.  That's 12 seconds quicker than the Samsung BD-P1500, but 17 seconds slower than the Sony BDP-S350 in "Quick Start" mode.

When loading Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. A disc with a heavy amount of BD-Java content, the BD35 took 59 seconds to load the disc and reach the trailers and an additional 80 seconds to skip through the trailers and reach the disc menu. Compare that to ~60 seconds and another ~60 on the Sony S350 and 67 seconds and 43 seconds respectively on the Samsung P1500.

When loading Wall•E, the BD35 took 82 seconds to reach the BD-Live update screen and an additional 2-minutes to download the BD-Live update. In comparison, the S350 took approximately 10 minutes to download the BD-Live update.  So at this point, the latest generation players are not that far off from each other in load times, with some differences in how they handle BD-Live updates, and all are noticeably perkier than the first and second generation BD players.  Also, unlike the earliest generation Blu-ray players, standard DVDs load about as quickly as they do on regular DVD players. 

High Definition Playback

Running the BD35 through its paces using the Silicon Optix HQV High Definition test suite on Blu-ray Disc, the player proves its worth. On the Video Resolution Loss Test, which tests unit's ability to properly deinterlace 1080i content, the Panasonic passed all 1080 lines and properly reconstructed the source into a progressive, 1080p image. On the Diagonal Filtering or "Jaggies" tests, the player passed both tests easily, showing no stair-stepping on or jagged edges on the first test with three waving white bars or the second test with a rotating white bar in a white circle. The player also proved itself up to the challenge of handling both film and video sources properly in HQV's tests for 2:3 reverse telecine. The test pattern showed no visible strobing or flickering and in a clip showing a pan across Raymond James Stadium, moiré was nowhere to be found whilst the empty seats showed a fine level of detail in the background.

Playback of actual content was also spectacular. I ran quite a few discs on the BD35, including some that are simply meant as eye candy, like the IMAX titles Mystery of the Nile and The Alps. Mystery of the Nile displayed incredible amber and blazing reds in the horizon during some of the opening scenes of the film. I also compared Coastal Dawns on the BD35 and S350 using the "Hawaii" episode as a reference. Blacks on the BD35 are far deeper and colors more saturated, natural, and well delineated. It is possible, however, that the blacks may be a bit too deep causing some unwanted crushing in dark scenes. Perhaps one's system would need to be recalibrated to take full advantage of the BD35, or some experimentation with the player's own video settings is worthwhile if the blacks look too dark on your specific display.

Standard Definition Playback

How did the BD35 do on standard definition playback? Quite well, actually.  Moving onto the standard definition HQV test DVD, on the test with the rotating white bar, the bar showed only slight jaggies at around 20-degrees. The pattern of three waving white bars showed only the lowest bar in the pattern displaying some slight wavering. Testing this out using Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, I went to chapter 40 where Anakin and Obi Wan have their showdown.  The BD35 definitely put on a good show as an upscaling DVD player here, with fine detail and a clean image, but the diagonal columns on the wall in the background behind Anakin and Obi Wan showed a few more motion jaggies than on the Sony BDP-S350 during this scene. Overall, however, the BD35 outperformed the S350 and the Samsung P1500 playing back this particular material.

On the HQV disc's detail tests, the BD35 again did well showing detailed images of a brick bridge and bronze statue. It passed the 3:2 cadence tests flawlessly, locking in on the signal quickly and showing no artifacts during the pan across an empty grandstand. On a mixed cadence test, with scrolling horizontal titles on a film-based background, the BD35 again locked in quickly to make the correction as it did with the same test using scrolling vertical lines. The text in both cases was displayed legibly and smoothly.  Overall, the player performed well as an upconverting DVD player and even better as a Blu-ray player. 

Turn-Ons

• Onboard decoding of Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution and DTS-HD Master Audio via HDMI
• Proper deinterlacing of 1080i content and excellent 1080p playback
• Price: Low $299.95 MSRP and even lower street price is hard to beat

Turn-Offs

• No analogue multichannel outputs
• No "source direct" mode
• Still fairly sluggish on load times
• No screensaver

Final Thoughts

During 2008's slow holiday shopping season, Blu-ray proved its mettle and emerged as one of the "must have" technologies of the year with many thousands of players sold both at retail Brick and Mortar stores and online. 2009 will see Blu-ray finally looking at a full year where it is the only format in the high definition optical disc market and companies are picking up the pace on their offerings on both the software and hardware side.

Panasonic's DMP-BD35 Profile 2.0 is an excellent Blu-ray player that offers stunning high definition playback as well as strong standard definition DVD playback. With its full support for all of the audio codecs and features of the Blu-ray specification, this player will be hard to pass up for anyone wishing to ride the coming Blu wave that surely lies ahead.

Editor's Note: the holiday selling season was perhaps too good as the BD35 is getting difficult to find at many online and Brick and Mortar retailers, even though it has only been available on the U.S. market for about three months.  The player is variously known as the BD35, DMP-BD35, DMP-BD35K and DMP-BD35AK - they are all the exact same player.  From what we've seen, Sears.com, some local Sears stores, some Costco and Best Buy stores currently have the player in stock.  It is slated to be replaced by the DMP-BD60 this spring which features similar audio/video processing, but adds Panasonic's VIERA Cast feature for access to online and web-based content such as YouTube.  If you have trouble finding the BD35, you shouldn't have to wait too long for its replacement.  We'll report more about the new players as soon as we know more.

Where to Buy

• Panasonic DMP-BD35 at Sears.com
• Panasonic DMP-BD35 (Amazon.com)
• DMP-BD60 (2009 model) on Amazon.com
  

Manufacturer's Specifications:

• FORMAT:   
  • BD-ROM Playback
  • BD-Live
  • BD-RE / BD-RE DL
  • BD-MV (BD-RE version3)
  • BDAV (SESF), JPEG (HD)
  • BD-R/BD-R DL
  • BD-MV (BD-R version2)
  • BDAV (SESF)
  • DVD Playback
  • DVD-Video
  • DVD-RAM Playback: DVD-VR, JPEG (HD), AVCHD
  • DVD-R/-RW/-R(DL)  Playback
  • DVD+R/+R(DL)/+RW Playback:  DVD-VR, AVCHD
  • CD, CD-R/-RW 2 Playback: CD-DA, MP3 (CD-R/-RW only), JPEG (HD) (CD-R/-RW only)
  • SD Memory Card: AVCHD, JPEG (HD)
• VIDEO:  
  • PHL Reference Chroma Processor
  • P4HD (Pixel Precision Progressive Processing for HD)
  • Precise Pixel Generation
  • 16-Level Motion Detection w/ Pixel-Based Motion Adaptive
  • Diagonal Processing
  • 3:2/2:2 Pull-Down Progressive Processing
  • i/p Conversion for 1080p  Playback
  • Up-conversion to 1080p  Playback
  • Video D/A Converter: 148.5MHz/12bit
  • Progressive Scan
  • Digital Noise Reduction: 3D-NR/Integrated NR
  • 1080/24p Playback
  • Deep Color
  • x.v.Color
  • Picture Mode: (Normal/Soft/Fine/Cinema/User)
  • Picture Adjustment: (Brightness, Color, Contrast, Sharpness, Gamma Correction)
• AUDIO:
  • Audio D/A Converter:  192kHz/24bit
  • Dolby Digital/Dolby Digital Plus Decoder Decode and Bitstream output
  • Dolby® True HD Decoder Decode and Bitstream output
  • DTS/DTS-HD High Resolution Audio DecoderDecode and Bitstream output
  • 96kHz Surround Re-Master   (for all formats)
  • Advanced Surround (V.S.S.)
  • Night Surround Mode
  • Dialogue Enhancer
  • Dynamic Range Compression
    
• CONVENIENCE:
  • Super Hi Speed Scan
  • Audio/JPEG Navigation Menu
  • VIERA Link (HDAVI Control 3)
  • INPUT/OUTPUT:    .
  • HDMI™   Support features: Deep Color, x.v.Color, High Bit Rate Audio
  • Component Video Out (Y, PB, PR)
  • Composite Video Out
  • 2ch Audio Out
  • Digital Audio Out:  1 optical
  • SD Memory Card Slot
  • Ethernet for Network   
    
• SPECIFICATIONS:   
  • Audio S/N: 115dB
  • Dynamic Range: 100dB
  • Power Source     AC 120V, 60Hz
  • Power Consumption     20W (approx)
  • Dimensions (H x W x D)     115/16'' x 1615/16'' x 913/16''
  • Weight: 5.7 lbs

Manufacturer's Contact Information:

Panasonic Corporation of North America
One Panasonic Way
Secaucus, NJ 07094

Website: http://www.panasonic.com