Editors' note: The Panasonic DMP-BD35 and DMP-BD55 are virtually identical in most respects, and therefore their reviews are similar as well.
Over the last couple of years, the Sony PlayStation 3 has been one of the best bargains for home theater fans. It plays Blu-ray discs as well as any other player, handles high-def gaming, streams digital media, rents movies over the Internet, and, until fairly recently, it cost about the same as standalone Blu-ray players. Not to mention the fact that earlier standalone players had older Blu-ray profiles, incomplete high-resolution audio decoding, and were just plain slow to use.
The Panasonic DMP-BD35 significantly changes the game. It's a Profile 2.0-compliant player with onboard decoding for both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, and it carries a $300 list price. Furthermore, it offers excellent image quality on Blu-ray movies and it looks pretty good with standard DVDs as well. In many ways the PS3 is still a better Blu-ray player, especially when it comes to responsiveness and the fact that you can use it play games, stream media, and rent movies. But for home theater fans who just want to watch Blu-ray movies, the DMP-BD35 is the best value we've seen, and so it deserves our Editors' Choice award--the first we've given to a Blu-ray player.
Design
The DMP-BD35's exterior design has been updated significantly over previous models. It has a slim profile and because it lacks the "vibration-reducing feet" of the step-up DMP-BD55, it's a little bit shorter. Gone is the large, clunky, flip-down panel from the DMP-BD50--replaced instead by a DVD-like disc tray in the center of the unit. On the far left is the LCD screen, which can be dimmed but not turned off completely. Also on the right is a flip-down panel, underneath which you'll find the SD-card slot and a few playback controls, although chapter forward/backward skip goes missing. In all, we like the sleeker redesign.
Under the flip-down tray, you'll find a couple of playback controls and the SD-card slot.
The remote is virtually unchanged from previous designs. The center is dominated by big, blue playback buttons, including chapter skip and fast-forward/rewind. Below is a large directional pad, surrounded by other important buttons for disc menus, pop-up menus, and a general display button. Overall it's fairly well laid-out and easy to use, and the remote control can also control a TV and an AV receiver.
Features
Panasonic's DMP-BD50 was the first standalone Blu-ray player to offer Profile 2.0 support, and the DMP-BD35 is also 2.0 compliant. This means it's capable of accessing Internet-enabled special features (often referred to as "BD-Live" content) available on some movies, such as Rambo and Walk Hard. To access the features, you'll need to have the DMP-BD35 connected to the Internet via its Ethernet port, as well as have an SD card in the front panel slot. So far, BD-Live features have been pretty underwhelming, but we expect the content to improve as more compliant players hit the market and disc makers get a handle on the new technology. We will note that the DMP-BD35 still offers a significantly inferior experience to the PS3 on these interactive features--the PS3 is just faster, and its built-in hard drive is more convenient.
We were happy to see that the DMP-BD35 handled nonanamorphic wide-screen DVDs correctly. While there's no manual setting, we popped in an older version of Carlito's Way and the DMP-BD35 automatically detected the aspect ratio and properly displayed the movie. This is particularly useful on some HDTVs that lack aspect-ratio control for HD sources.
The DMP-BD35 has all the audio decoding you'll need.
Soundtrack support is comprehensive on the DMP-BD35. It has onboard decoding for all high-resolution soundtrack formats, including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, so you don't need a new receiver to take advantage of the improved audio quality. The player can also output high-resolution soundtracks in bit-stream format, so you can opt to let your AV receiver handle the decoding duties itself. There should be absolutely no sound-quality difference between the receiver decoding the soundtracks or the Blu-ray player doing so--and we've never heard any difference ourselves--but some people just like to see their receiver's "Dolby TrueHD" indicator light up.
The connectivity package should be enough if you've got an HDMI capable receiver.
Connectivity is standard on the DMP-BD35. The HDMI output is the most important connection, capable of outputting high-def video up to 1080p resolution, as well as high-resolution multichannel audio. There's also a component-video output, which can output Blu-ray Discs at 1080i and DVDs at 480p, along with a legacy composite-video connection. Audio connections include an optical digital-audio output, while analog audio is limited to a stereo output. If you have an older receiver and need multichannel analog audio outputs, check out the step-up Panasonic DMP-BD55.
There's also an Ethernet port in the back, which can be used for firmware updates and downloading content for BD-Live-enabled discs. Rounding out the connectivity is the SDHC-compatible SD-card slot under the front panel, which is used for BD-Live content as well as for accessing JPEGs, MP3s, and high-definition AVCHD video.
Blu-ray performance
For our Blu-ray tests, we compared the DMP-BD35 with our reference Blu-ray player, the Sony PlayStation 3. We started off looking at test patterns with both players connected to a full suite of top-performing HDTVs, including the Pioneer PRO-111FD, the Panasonic TH-50PZ800U, the Samsung LN46A950, and the Samsung PN50A650. The first disc we looked at was Silicon Optix's HQV test suite on Blu-ray.
We started off with the two film-based resolution tests, and the DMP-BD35 handled them both with ease. On a shifting resolution pattern, we clearly saw every line of the detail and the panning shot of Raymond James Stadium was almost completely moiré-free. We also took a look at video-based test patterns, on which we place less importance since there aren't that many video-based Blu-ray Discs. The DMP-BD35 had no problem on the video-resolution loss test, clearing showing every line of the test pattern. It also passed two video-based jaggies tests, with moving white lines staying stable and jaggy-free. In all, the DMP-BD35 aced the test patterns we threw at it.
Patterns can be useful, but the real test is looking at the DMP-BD35 with actual program material. We started off with a few movies we know have difficult sequences. First up was Chapter 8 of Mission Impossible: III, and the DMP-BD35 had no problems with the stairs in the background, which looked detailed and free of moiré. It also handled Chapter 11 well, as the trimming on the limo was jaggy-free. Next up was Ghost Rider, and again the DMP-BD35 was excellent, showing no artifacts in the grille of the RV as the camera pulls away at the end of Chapter 6. For what it's worth, the PS3 looked just as good on the same sequences. To finish off our film-based tests we watched Pan's Labyrinth, and the DMP-BD35's image quality was outstanding, with rich colors and tons of detail.
We also looked at Tony Bennett: American Classic, which is mastered at 1080i and has some video-based material in it. The DMP-BD35 handled the disc expertly, and jaggies were nowhere to be found, not even in the difficult Chapter 7. That's impressive, as we've found several other Blu-ray players struggle with this disc, although again the PS3 was able to match the DMP-BD35's performance.
In sum, the DMP-BD35 and the PS3 offer essentially identical image-quality performance. Additionally, the differences in image quality between any one Blu-ray player and the next is generally fairly small--pretty much all the players put out a great-looking picture that blows DVD away. So, while the DMP-BD35 does look great--and we were particularly pleased with how it handled video-based material--only picky videophiles will appreciate the minor differences.
Rounding up our Blu-ray tests, we also tested the DMP-BD35's Blu-ray Disc loading speed. The DMP-BD35 performed identically to the step-up DMP-BD55. It loaded Mission Impossible: III in 20 seconds flat when the player was on after drawer close, and in 33 seconds starting with the player turned off. It was slower on discs with BD-Java menus. Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest took about a minute and 55 seconds to load while Spiderman 3 took about a minute and 35 seconds. Overall, that's pretty good for a standalone Blu-ray player, but it still pales compared with the superfast PS3.
DVD performance
When we popped in the HQV DVD, the DMP-BD35 handled the initial resolution test well, clearly displaying the full resolution of DVDs. Next up were two video-based jaggies tests, and here the DMP-BD35 stumbled a little; we could see plenty of jaggies on a test pattern with three pivoting lines. It did better on the next test of a waving flag, smoothing out many of the jaggies we usually see, and it also passed the difficult 2:3 pull-down test, eliminating moiré in the grandstands after about a second. Lastly, it handled test footage with scrolling CNN-like text with ease, which is a nice improvement over last year's DMP-BD50.
We switched over to program material and started off with the opening sequence of Star Trek: Insurrection. The DMP-BD35's 2:3 pull-down processing kicked in and rendered the curved edges of the bridge railing and boats smoothly. We switched over to Seabiscuit, which we were particularly interested in, since the DMP-BD50 struggled with this movie. Surpassing our expectations, the DMP-BD35 handled the disc with ease, showing only some mild moiré at one point during the opening sequence. Lastly, we finished up our tests by watching selected portions of The Matrix, and we were quickly sucked into the film by the DMP-BD35's image quality. Sure, if you need the absolute best, you'll want something like the Oppo DV-983H, but the vast majority of home theater fans should be satisfied with the DMP-BD35's DVD playback.
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Panasonic DMP-BD35