CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[MYoung]

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I've been questing for a decent Blu-ray player with 5.1 analog audio output to squeeze more life out of my old receiver. I was considering settling for an older, used Sharp Blu-ray player from Amazon.com, though was still toying with blowing ~$250 on a Sony BDP-S550. I then came across the Panasonic DMP-BD80K for sale on NewEgg.com for $180 with free shipping. It looks like a pretty solid player for the money. Anyone have one? If so, how does it perform? I can't seem to find much about it online. The YouTube sticker on it looks pretty tacky. Hopefully that will come off easily!

Edit: I found a pretty decent review of it... http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/Panasonic_DMP-BD80_Blu-ray_Disc_Player.shtml#

[Ron W]

I have the BD55 which was the previous model to the BD80K. It essentially very similar in looks and features to the "80". For the record, when the "55" was introduced late last year, it was reviewed as possibly the best BR player to-date at the time especially when looking at price/performance.
I also have an Oppo BDP83 so I can make some meaningful comparisons. In terms of video performance it matches up very well with the Oppo. Of course it doesn't have all the features of the BDP83 and it loads a little slower but basically you can't go wrong with it especially for that price. Personally, I would pick the Panasonic over the Sony any day even if their prices were the same. Also, if you have any of the peripheral equipment like the Fury2 or any of the other converters talked about in these forums, it works very well and stable even when everything is hooked up thru my Pre-Pro. From time to time it has been mentioned on these forums that the Sony's have problems.

[MYoung]

Good to hear that it compares reasonably well against the Oppo BDP-83 as the Oppo is the player I'd have if I had cash to burn. I'll be matching the DMP-BD80K up with my VisionHDP. I'm glad I stumbled on it, and on NewEgg no less! I was probably otherwise going to probably settle for a Sharp BD-HP20, and the DMP-BD80K blows that one away from the specs!

[draganm]

f*ck,I paid $275. just a couple of months ago.
I like the player though, not one skip or lock-up yet and sound and video are excellent. I think Pani stuff, even though it's still made in China, is just a notch or 2 above Sony and the rest of the cheap crap.

[MYoung]

It's pretty sad that Sony's standalone players aren't, without question, the best of the bunch considering how much of a hand they had in Blu-ray. Though I suppose they have the PS3, which I also own. Standalones were maybe an after-thought seeing as though they banked a lot on the PS3 to get the format going. No analog outputs on the PS3 though! No friggin IR remote either, dammit! I remember my first DVD player -- a Sony DVP-S330. That was a very slick player. It looked sexy, it worked damn well, and it had great decoder.

[Ron W]

In recent years, Sony has always reminded me of IBM of twenty years ago when they thought their name was key to buying their products and that circumvented everything else when buying choices were made. Of course, that complacency cost them dearly and others caught up and in many cases surpassed them in performance and value. I am not sure if they still have learned yet. I can recall not too many years ago when they produced a plasma set that cost $20,000 and an LCD that was $8-10,000. Well, we can see how long that last. Also I think Pioneer kinda got in to that same mindset when, as good as their plasma monitors and current Blu-Ray players are, considering the options, they just are no longer competitive. Hence, after 2010, Pioneer, unfortunately, is out of the plasma business.

Interesting to note when I purchased my Panasonic BD55, I compared it to a Pioneer "Elite" Blu-Ray player that was at least "double" in cost and once you got past the nice "look" of the Pioneer, the "Panny" outperformed it in every way. Even when plugged in to their own equipment, the Pioneer player was "much" slower loading and didn't have all the latest surround codecs while the BD55 was right up-to-date. This is from someone that, in the past, has owned TWO Pioneer "Elite" players. Never again. And then there is OPPO!