{"id":811,"date":"2008-02-26T15:02:40","date_gmt":"2008-02-26T18:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hifiplanet.com.br\/blog\/?p=811"},"modified":"2010-09-03T11:18:08","modified_gmt":"2010-09-03T14:18:08","slug":"blu-ray-panasonic-dmp-bd10-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hifiplanet.com.br\/blog\/blu-ray-panasonic-dmp-bd10-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Blu-ray Panasonic DMP-BD10 (2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--more--><strong>Ultimate AV<\/p>\n<p>By Thomas J. Norton   \u2022   December,  2006 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve waited what seems like an eternity for a top performing  Blu-ray Disc player to challenge the head start HD DVD seized when it  hit stores this past spring. Blu-ray&#8217;s launch was dampened by the  format&#8217;s first player being the underperforming and poorly reviewed  Samsung BD-P1000, which shipped with an incorrect noise reduction chip  setting that caused soft imagery but that has since been corrected by a  firmware update (a UAV follow-up is pending).<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also possible that the earliest Blu-ray Discs share some of the  responsibility for the soft Blu-ray launch as well. MPEG-2 coding was  used for the first releases, which were limited to single-layer 25GB  discs. The full 50GB promise of Blu-ray, which requires two layers, has  only recently been realized.<\/p>\n<p>With the release of the Panasonic DMP-BD10 player we can at last  begin to judge Blu-ray&#8217;s potential. And it&#8217;s considerable. So much so,  in fact, that I no longer feel that the Blu-ray format itself is in  question. Its ultimate marketplace success may be, as is the case with  all new products. But it&#8217;s now unequivocally clear that Blu-ray can  provide spectacular performance.<\/p>\n<p>The pricing of Blu-ray players remains an issue, but only because  Toshiba managed to severely undercut the market when it priced its first  HD DVD player, the HD-A1, at $500 (and, some say, chose to lose money  on each unit to grab market share).<\/p>\n<p>So soon we forget. The first CD player was $1,000 in 1983 dollars,  and the first DVD players were priced as high as $1,000 in 1997. By that  scale, the $1,299 Panasonic may be out of line with buyer&#8217;s  expectations, but not with history. The same holds true for all the  current and upcoming Blu-ray players, apart from Sony&#8217;s PlayStation3,  which has two versions at $500 and $600. Lots of luck finding one of  those this year!<\/p>\n<p>Still, the competition for the consumer&#8217;s disposable dollars is far  more intense today than it was in 1983 or even in 1997, 1983, so $1,300  is by no means a trivial investment, particularly amidst the insecurity  of a format war.<\/p>\n<p>End of rant on the pricing of current Blu-ray hardware. The bottom  line is that the DMP-BD10 produces an outstanding picture on the best  discs. It is the first BD player out of the gate that legitimately  deserves a rave review, at least for its main purpose: playing Blu-ray  Discs.<\/p>\n<p>Looking Around<br \/>\nOut of the box, the Panasonic player is elegant but unpretentious in  appearance. Its flat black case doesn&#8217;t attract fingerprints, and a  manually operated drop down panel hides the disc drawer and controls  when the player is not in use. This panel is translucent and allows the  front panel display and blue power light to shine through. This bright  blue beacon turns off when a disc is playing, and both it and the  display may be dimmed.<\/p>\n<p>In most situations, the front panel display shows only the current  run time; other information can be obtained from the on-screen displays.  Two pieces of information I&#8217;d like to have that the player does not  provide are the current video data rate and the video codec used on the  disc. While most studios doing BD do not provide this information on the  jacket, kudos to Fox, which does.<\/p>\n<p>Around back are typical connections. On the video side this includes  HDMI (1.1\u2014which carries both video and audio), component, S-Video, and  composite video. For audio we have coaxial and Toslink (optical)  digital, two pair of L\/R analog outputs, plus a 7.1-channel analog  output set. There is no Ethernet port, so future updates must be  transferred to the player via a CD-R, either downloaded and burned on  your computer or obtained directly from Panasonic. This also rules out  any potential for web-based interactivity features being compatible with  this player.<\/p>\n<p>The detachable power cord is one of those small, polarized, two lead  affairs. Don&#8217;t lose it; while replacements are available, they aren&#8217;t  as easy to find as the larger, detachable IEC cords found on most  high-end gear (and on all of those expensive, aftermarket power cords,  if that&#8217;s your thing). And while there is a cooling fan exhaust on the  back panel, I never heard the fan operate, in contrast to the noisier  (but not, for me, intrusive) fan on the Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player.<\/p>\n<p>Most of your face time with the DMP-BD10 will be via its remote  control. It&#8217;s not illuminated, and its jog-shuttle wheel is annoyingly  sensitive. But you can shut the wheel off, and I found that the remote  was fully functional and less frustrating to use without it. While I  might argue with the button layout and the lack of backlighting, most of  the buttons were of a comfortable size and after a little practice I  could locate those most frequently used in the dark by feel alone. A  flip up drawer exposes the numeric entry keypad together with other less  frequently used functions.<\/p>\n<p>The remote will also operate most televisions when programmed with  the correct code. It may also be used with Panasonic&#8217;s EZ Sync HDAVI  Control feature, which provides unified control of other Panasonic  products equipped for EZ Sync HDAVI operation. I did not test this.<\/p>\n<p>Two characteristics of the remote\u2014and the player\u2014did cause me some  grief. The remote&#8217;s Disc Navigator control did not provide a title  search feature. This is no problem with most DVDs and BDs, which only  have one user accessible title, but on Digital Video Essentials I ran  into a brick wall trying to navigate to its test patterns. There does  appear to be a glitch in DVE&#8217;s own menu system that contributes to this,  but all the other disc players I&#8217;ve used over the years have a  functional title\/chapter search feature that skirts around the problem.  Not the Panasonic. For me, this is an issue as I use DVE constantly for  system setup.<\/p>\n<p>Remote problem two: the buffer that accepts inputs from the numeric  keypad is limited to three digits. No problem on most discs, but many  Sony BDs include several test patterns that are accessed by pressing  7669, followed by Enter. The Panasonic buffer would not accept the  four-digit code, so I was not able to access the patterns.<\/p>\n<p>The player will decode the uncompressed 5.1-channel PCM soundtracks  offered on some Blu-ray discs and play them back from its analog  outputs, or transmit them over its HDMI 1.1 link. Although this is  extremely useful if your pre-pro or AV receiver can extract 5.1-channels  from an HDMI audio\/video connection\u2014beware that not all HDMI-equipped  AV receivers or pre-pros are HDMI 1.1 or later; earlier versions of HDMI  lack this capability.<\/p>\n<p>The Panasonic player will not yet decode either of the new lossless  audio codecs\u2014Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio. Panasonic has,  however, promised a firmware update that will allow the player decode  both of these formats and transcode them to multichannel PCM. Once this  occurs, HDMI 1.1 is sufficient for transmitting these transcoded PCM  signals to an AVR or pre-pro.<\/p>\n<p>But until HDMI 1.3 becomes widely available, no player, including  the Panasonic, will be able to pass Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio  soundtracks directly to a pre-pro or AV receiver for decoding there,  rather than in the player. But no current pre-pro or receiver will  decode these formats as yet, either, so this limitation will only become  relevant when HDMI 1.3 processing is included in those products, too,  perhaps by mid 2007. Only when we actually see and hear players,  pre-pros, and AVRs with these capabilities will we know if  direct-to-pre-pro TrueHD\/HD Master Audio will offer any advantages vs.  the transcoded PCM multichannel link from the player offered currently  from HDMI 1.1.<\/p>\n<p>The Panasonic will also play back discs recorded with MP3 and JPEG  files. And it is the only Blu-ray player that currently offers DVD-Audio  playback.<\/p>\n<p>With the player powered on, its start-up time from drawer open to  the display of a Blu-ray disc menu is about 50 seconds. This is not as  fast as I thought initially, and it does vary slightly from disc to  disc. Chapter skips take longer on the Panasonic than on either of the  Toshiba HD DVD machines or the Samsung Blu-ray player. Nevertheless, the  overall operation of the DMP-BD10 was smooth and trouble free.<\/p>\n<p>Setup<br \/>\nThe on-screen setup menus offer an extensive range of options. The  Panasonic will output resolutions up to 1080p from its HDMI output with  the exception of 480i, an HDMI resolution of interest only to those who  prefer to upconvert standard definition DVDs entirely in an outboard  processor or in their display.<\/p>\n<p>The player&#8217;s 1080p output is 1080p\/60 only, not 1080p\/24. The latter  might offer performance benefits with film-based material, but is  currently compatible with very few consumer displays. We expect this to  change as movies on both BD and HD DVD are encoded at 1080p\/24, and more  and more players that output this format come to market.<\/p>\n<p>As with all upconverting players, the Panasonic will not upconvert  standard definition DVDs to a resolution higher than 480p at its  component outputs. But it will play back Blu-ray Discs at 1080i in  component.<\/p>\n<p>The player offers a number of video adjustments: Contrast,  Brightness, Sharpness, Color, Gamma, 3D-NR, and Integrated DNR (Dynamic  Noise Reduction). These are located under the flip-up cover of the  remote. I find such controls largely redundant when the player is used  with a good video display with a flexible set of its own adjustments. I  also wonder about the possible consequences to the video quality,  however subtle, resulting from the signal passing through these control  circuits even if you have them set to their theoretical neutral  positions (there is no bypass selection).<br \/>\nThere is also an audio control called Re-master. But I usually stay  away from features that offer to &#8220;[reproduce] the frequencies lost  during recording to give you a sound closer to the original.&#8221; News  flash: if it&#8217;s lost during recording, you can&#8217;t recover it. But this  might actually be some sort of upsampling that is just not well  explained in the manual. I didn&#8217;t use it, but you might want to  experiment with it. In any event it&#8217;s hardly a make-or-break feature.<\/p>\n<p>You can even turn off the beeps and squeaks that accompany  selections on Blu-ray Disc menus. In fact, you&#8217;ll want to turn this  feature- BD-Video Function Sound- to Off, along with the PCM Down  Conversion control if you want to play back program material recorded at  an audio sampling frequency higher than 48kHz. If it&#8217;s On, higher  sampling frequencies are converted to 48kHz. (The Down Conversion  control affects only the player&#8217;s digital outputs.) There are a number  of little tricks and traps like this one in the setup of this player,  which is why I recommend a thorough reading of the densely packed, but  reasonably clear owner&#8217;s manual.<\/p>\n<p>If you use the 5.1- or 7.1-channel analog audio outputs, the setup  menu gives you control over speaker size, Small or Large, delay time,  and channel level. The crossover frequency for speakers designated as  Small is fixed at 100Hz. I&#8217;d prefer to see multiple options offered,  particularly lower crossover points like 60Hz and 80Hz. The delay  function operates only on the center, surround (both together), and  surround back (both together) speakers. The lack of delay for the front  left and right speakers means that if any speakers are further back from  the main listening area than the L\/R fronts, you can&#8217;t compensate for  their placement (the phase control on your subwoofer might be come in  handy here). This won&#8217;t be a sonic disaster\u2014you probably won&#8217;t notice  unless the distance involve is more than a few feet. But it won&#8217;t be  optimum, either.<\/p>\n<p>Watching<br \/>\nFirst, a few preliminaries. The Panasonic does a fine job  upconverting standard definition DVDs. It does not, unfortunately,  reproduce signals below black but will go slightly above (100IRE) white  without clipping.<\/p>\n<p>The DMP-BD10&#8217;s performance in upconverting 480i DVDs to 1080p on my  usual battery of scaling and deinterlacing tests ranged from very good  to excellent. It didn&#8217;t do quite as well on the 2:2 cadence test (video  source) as on the 3:2 (film source), but, interestingly, it did slightly  better on 2:2 when set to output 1080i rather than 1080p. This may or  may not be significant. I&#8217;ll have more to say about that a bit further  on.<\/p>\n<p>On to the real world viewing tests. Yes, we&#8217;re still getting  disappointing Blu-ray titles. These include Click (Sony, MPEG-2, 50GB),  with its crushed blacks, odd color palette, and graininess, and the  recent release of X-Men The Last Stand (Fox, MPEG-4\/AVC, 25GB), which in  my system had far too many scenes that were as soft as a mediocre,  standard definition DVD.<\/p>\n<p>But I&#8217;ve now seen too many superb BDs to view the above as typical  of either the DMP-BD10 or the Blu-ray format itself. All three codecs  are capable of excellent performance, including MPEG-2 in both single  layer (25GB) and dual-layer (50GB) MPEG-2 versions.<\/p>\n<p>Most amazing of all was a pristine, MPEG-2 demo disc that Pioneer  produced for dealer demos. It includes both film and video-based  material. The color, detail, contrast, and three-dimensionality of the  images on this disc are amazing. Most of us have too much experience  with good HD by this time to go into cardiac arrest when viewing this  BD, though it&#8217;s hard not to be impressed by what it tells you about the  capability of both the format and the Panasonic DMP-BD10. But show this  BD to an HD newbie, using a big screen and a good 1080p projector, and  you&#8217;d better have a defibrillator nearby! It probably helped at least  somewhat that this disc was apparently mastered at a relatively high  average video data rate of 30Mb\/sec.<\/p>\n<p>Among widely available, general release Blu-ray titles, Kingdom of  Heaven (Fox, MPEG-2, 50GB) is a reference disc. Yes, there are some  soft-focus shots, but they don&#8217;t dominate the movie. Most of the disc is  stunning. The details in this costume period epic are often  jaw-dropping, the colors rich and natural, and the artifacts rewarding  in their scarcity. Check out the massed armies gathering on the plain  outside of Karak (chapter 32). Look deep into the background; while you  can&#8217;t exactly make out the fear in the face of the spear-carriers 50  rows back, you almost feel as if you can. I know that most of the  backgrounds here are computer generated (and there probably weren&#8217;t as  many people in the entire middle east at the time as you&#8217;ll see in both  armies here!), but it still looks very real and very believable, even on  a big screen.<\/p>\n<p>Or how about Haunted Mansion (Disney, MPEG-2, 25GB). The mansion  here is loaded with details, both inside and out, and you can see it  all, from the carvings in the woodwork to the stitching in the costumes.  None of these features jump out at you, but they&#8217;re there if you look  for them.<\/p>\n<p>All the VC-1-encoded titles I watched looked excellent, including  Corpse Bride. The stunning stop-motion animation here is unlike computer  animation in that it involves real figures photographed frame-by-frame  under real lighting.<\/p>\n<p>The player also looked super on several early BD releases, all of  them 25GB MPEG-2 titles. These include Memento, 50 First Dates, and A  Knight&#8217;s Tale.<\/p>\n<p>I did attempt a direct AB comparison of titles that are duplicated  on HD DVD and Blu-ray. Since I lack two identical projectors set up  side-by-side, I ran the Panasonic BD and Toshiba HD DVD player into the  two HDMI inputs of a Sharp XV-Z20000 projector\u2014the display used for this  report (full review pending). And it was in this attempted face-off  that I discovered another advantage for the Panasonic. Unlike the  Toshiba, it did not break lock and stop whenever I switched away from it  to the other HDMI input. While this was a plus for the Panasonic, the  Toshiba&#8217;s habit of stopping whenever the handshake between it and the  display is broken (even through a switcher) made a direct AB impossible.  The best I could do was watch a bit of the disc on Blu-ray, then  restart the HD DVD and search for the same scene.<\/p>\n<p>Using this tedious technique, and with the Panasonic Blu-ray player  set to its maximum resolution of 1080p and the Toshiba set to its peak  of 1080i, the HD DVD and Blu-ray versions of The Phantom of the Opera  (both encoded with VC-1) were very close, but the HD DVD seemed very  slightly sharper. This difference is unlikely to show up on a smaller  screen, but I did notice it at a screen width of 78-inches. I probably  noticed it also because I&#8217;ve watched several reference scenes from this  movie on HD DVD dozens of times in the past.<\/p>\n<p>I next tried the same comparison with the Panasonic set to 1080i and  its Sharpness control increased by a single step. The two discs were  now so close that it would take a direct AB on two identical displays,  of a substantial size and set up side-by-side, to choose between them.<\/p>\n<p>I also compared the 1080p output of the Panasonic with its output at  the 1080i setting. The 1080i setting arguably produced a subtly crisper  image, though the difference was elusive enough that viewers might well  disagree on which was &#8220;better.&#8221; This result will also will be  influenced by the characteristics of the 1080i-to-1080p conversion in  your display.<\/p>\n<p>But if the Panasonic is indeed more detailed at 1080i, however small  the difference, does that suggest that the signal passes through a  1080i conversion on the way from the disc&#8217;s 1080p\/24 to a 1080p\/60  output, as it does in Samsung&#8217;s BD-P1000?<\/p>\n<p>There is no obvious way to yet determine this apart from a  chip-level analysis, short of a clear and unequivocal superiority of the  1080i setting, which was not the case here. The Panasonic uses a Sigma  Designs chip for most of its processing. The same chip is reportedly  used in both of the upcoming Sony and Pioneer players and is capable of  directly converting a disc&#8217;s 1080p\/24 to 1080p\/60.<\/p>\n<p>But does the Panasonic do this? Two observations suggest that it may  pass through a 1080i step on the way. First, I claim no expertise in  video circuit design, but the Panasonic offers those non-defeatable  video controls. Does it have enough processing power to perform those  functions at 1080p? And second, recall that the scaling tests showed one  admittedly very small advantage for a 1080i output setting over 1080p.  This would be very unlikely if the 1080i conversion came after the 1080p  step, but quite possible if it came before.<\/p>\n<p>I did ask Panasonic to confirm or deny a possible 1080i step in the  conversion process from 1080p\/24 to 1080p\/60, but we have not yet  received a response. Since the 1080i and 1080p resolutions looked very  nearly the same in my tests, however, one might argue that the question  is irrelevant\u2014provided your display has good 1080i-to-1080p  deinterlacing.<\/p>\n<p>Listening-Movies<br \/>\nSonically, the Panasonic&#8217;s performance was very good, but with some  important caveats. In my Sneak Peek a couple of weeks back I noted that  the Dolby Digital soundtracks found on most of the Blu-ray releases  sound much like the DD and DTS we&#8217;ve become used to on DVD over the  years. On further listening, however, I&#8217;ve changed my mind a bit. On  some discs, the Blu-ray DD tracks do sound a little cleaner and sweeter.<\/p>\n<p>Why might this be? According to Dolby, many of these tracks are  mastered at rates as high as 640kbps, considerably higher than the  384kbps or, at most, 448kbps DD soundtracks found on standard DVDs. (The  maximum DD rate that today&#8217;s consumer gear will decode is 640kbps.) And  DTS tracks on Blu-ray are encoded at 1.5Mbps; DTS on most standard DVDs  is encoded at half that rate.<br \/>\nWhile what I&#8217;m hearing from the Panasonic&#8217;s coaxial digital output  on DD and DTS soundtracks is not, in general, as impressive as what I  hear from the soundtracks on HD DVD (also from the player&#8217;s digital  out), it&#8217;s very close. I doubt if anyone will be disappointed in the  sound of the DMP-BD10 on the best DD or DTS Blu-ray soundtracks.<\/p>\n<p>One clearly superior BD soundtrack I auditioned was Kingdom of  Heaven. While it&#8217;s encoded using DTS-HD Master Audio, all you&#8217;ll hear  from it as of now (on this or any other Blu-ray player) is the basic DTS  core track at 1.5Mb\/sec. The player extracts this DTS core track from  the full DTS-HD Master Audio track and ignores the higher rez  information. Nevertheless, this track still sounds better than the DD  track on the standard DVD (apart from a rather overwrought bass on the  BD\/DTS version).<\/p>\n<p>We can dismiss any further discussion of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD  Master Audio for the time being, since the Panasonic cannot yet decode  these lossless formats.<\/p>\n<p>But what about the uncompressed PCM multichannel soundtracks offered  on some Sony and Disney BDs? There are two ways to audition these  tracks, only one of which is currently available to me: the player&#8217;s  5.1-channel analog outputs. (My system is currently not set up with a  pre-pro that will accept 5.1-channel PCM over an HDMI link.)<\/p>\n<p>But there&#8217;s a problem with the Panasonic&#8217;s analog outputs on these  uncompressed tracks; it&#8217;s too low in level. Even at the maximum setting  of the level control on the NAD M15 Masters Series pre-pro (review  pending) currently in my system, it would not play at a level I consider  suitable for proper evaluation.<\/p>\n<p>To check this out, I measured the level produced by the player&#8217;s  7.1-channel analog outputs using a DD test disc with a 400Hz tone (left  front channel measured) vs. the level produced by three other players.  The output of the Panasonic was 5.4dB lower than the output of the  Pioneer DV-79AVi DVD player, 11.9dB lower than the output of the NAD  Masters Series DVD player, and 11.3dB lower than the output of the  Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player.<\/p>\n<p>Whether or not this marginal gain will be a problem for you will  depend on the gain in your pre-pro or AV receiver, the sensitivity of  your speakers, and whether or not you like or are able to play your  movies at realistic levels. But I would not count on the Panasonic  producing enough gain for your situation without actually trying it. (To  make my film sound level preferences a bit clearer, I do listen to some  films at relatively high levels at home, but lower than reference level  and considerably lower than I hear in most modern movie theaters,  particularly here in LA where I always bring earplugs to guard against  surprises.)<\/p>\n<p>A more in depth discussion of the uncompressed soundtracks on BD  discs, not to mention the newer, more efficient but still lossless audio  codecs that no Blu-ray player will yet decode, is fodder for a future  Take Two. In the meantime, if you plan to listen mainly to the standard  DD or DTS tracks from the player&#8217;s digital output (which can sound  excellent), or are able to use an HDMI link for digital transmission of  the 5.1-channel PCM tracks from player to pre-pro or receiver, these  reservations will not apply.<\/p>\n<p>Listening-Music<br \/>\nI listened to music on the Panasonic in three ways: CD both through  the coaxial digital output and the analog output, and DVD-Audio from the  analog outputs.<\/p>\n<p>The Panasonic was a better than competent performer on CDs via  either the analog or digital route. I did prefer the digital connection;  the analog link sounded just a bit dryer, brighter, and leaner\u2014less  sweet and natural, if you will\u2014but the difference was not as pronounced  at that description suggests. It will also depend on the quality of the  D\/A converters in your pre-pro or receiver relative to those in the  player.<\/p>\n<p>I also compared the performance of the Panasonic on CDs compared to  that of the Pioneer DV-79AVi, both from their coaxial digital outputs.  The Pioneer is my current reference for CD playback on a DVD player  (when using a digital link to the pre-pro), and it did not surprise me  that I found it somewhat sweeter and more neutral sounding than the  slightly brighter Panasonic. But the two were close enough that I could  imagine many listeners preferring the crisper sound of the Panasonic.  (Yes, Virginia, CD and DVD players can sound different from their  digital outputs, though the differences, as here, are usually of the  audio perfectionist variety.)<\/p>\n<p>Ah, yes, DVD-Audio. The Panasonic did stumble unacceptably on Paul  Simon&#8217;s You&#8217;re the One. This problem did not occur on Pioneer&#8217;s DV-79AVi  universal DVD player, and the disc is in excellent condition. One disc  unplayable on this player but playable without a glitch on a universal  DVD player indicates a problem. Apart from this misstep, which is not  negligible if you plan on using the Panasonic to play back DVD-A discs,  the sound from DVD-Audio discs on the Panasonic was a definite step up  from what I heard from any other source material on the  DMP-BD10\u2014sweeter, smoother, and more naturally detailed. While DVD-Audio  itself is on life support in the marketplace, this experience could  almost be considered a sneak peek of what we might expect from Dolby  TrueHD. There is more than a little DVD-Audio technology in TrueHD: both  make use of Meridian Lossless Packing. We&#8217;ll have more to say about  that when we get a real chance to evaluate the new lossless formats.<\/p>\n<p>CD playback on the Panasonic gives no indication of the track number  in the front panel display; as with video discs, all you see is the  running time. With a CD the track number does flash for a couple of  seconds when you select it, but then goes out. On DVD-Audio, you  sometimes don&#8217;t even get that brief flash\u2014it depends on the disc.<\/p>\n<p>Strangely, the lower output level from the analog outputs, noted  earlier, was a problem only on Blu-ray or DVD, not on CD or DVD-Audio.  But there was one exception. To put it mildly, I got some very strange  results from the player&#8217;s bass management on its multichannel analog  outputs with DVD-Audio recordings. These oddities did not occur with  CDs. To describe this as simply as possible:<\/p>\n<p>1. If you set all the main speakers to Small and designate a  subwoofer, you&#8217;ll get plenty of output level and fine performance  overall on DVD-A. Any LFE on DVD-A discs will be routed only to the  subwoofer.<\/p>\n<p>2. If you set all the main speakers to Large and designate a  subwoofer, the volume level will be ample as in 1, above, and LFE will  again go only to the sub.<\/p>\n<p>3. If you use a setup that designates Large L\/R front speakers and  no subwoofer (the L\/R fronts will automatically be set to large if you  deselect a sub) you&#8217;ll get a drastically reduced output level from all  channels of the multichannel analog outputs\u2014roughly 10dB lower than in  examples 1 or 2, above. If you have full range speakers and no  subwoofer, therefore, you must set the front L\/R speakers to Large and  designate a subwoofer in the setup, even if you have no subwoofer. This  will &#8220;trick&#8221; the setup into providing full range in all channels and a  proper output level.<\/p>\n<p>4. LFE is reproduced only by the sub and never redirected to the  main speakers, even if they are set to large. With no subwoofer, the LFE  will not be reproduced.<\/p>\n<p>5. The low-pass rolloff of the subwoofer is too gradual; there is  too much mid and upper bass, and even some very low midrange, coming  from the sub. In my setup, this was not a problem with the other  speakers operating, but it could be an issue depending on where your  subwoofer(s) is located.<\/p>\n<p>Conclusions<br \/>\nJudged purely as a DVD\/CD\/Blu-ray player, the Panasonic is a superb  product. It does an outstanding job playing back Blu-ray Discs, is a  fine DVD player with good upconversion capabilities, and is a good CD  player as well.<\/p>\n<p>It does have several weaknesses. Its analog outputs will not be  optimum in some systems, and its DVD-Audio playback is problematic. If  you are counting on these other features, I recommend caution, or at  least a trial run. But if you want top quality, first-generation Blu-ray  player, it&#8217;s definitely worth a close look.<\/p>\n<p>Highs and Lows<\/p>\n<p>Highs<br \/>\nSuperb playback of Blu-ray discs<br \/>\nFine upconversion of standard definition DVDs with excellent scaling  and deinterlacing.<br \/>\nExcellent build quality<\/p>\n<p>Lows<br \/>\nLower than average levels from the multichannel analog outputs on  DVD and Blu-ray<br \/>\nProblematic DVD-Audio playback<\/p>\n<p>Review System<br \/>\nPreamp-Processor<br \/>\nNAD Masters Series M15<br \/>\nAmp<br \/>\nNAD Masters Series M25 7-channel<br \/>\nSpeakers<br \/>\nEnergy Veritas v2.8 L\/R, Mirage OMD-C2 Center, Mirage OMD-R  surrounds, Revel B15 subwoofer<br \/>\nDisplay<br \/>\nSharp XV-Z20000 1080p single-chip DLP projector<br \/>\nStewart Studiotek 130, 78-inch wide, 16:9, 1.3 gain screen<br \/>\nMiscellaneous<br \/>\nUltraLink HDMI cables, Kimber AGDL digital cable, Monster and Cardas  interconnects, Monster speaker cables.<\/p>\n<p>Specifications<br \/>\nDiscs played: BD Video,  DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, DVD-RAM (DVD-VR, JPEG), DVD-R\/RW, CD, CD-R\/RW<br \/>\nVideo outputs: composite,  S-Video, component YPbPr, HDMI 1.1 (audio\/video)<br \/>\nAudio outputs: Two L\/R  analog, 7.1-channel analog, optical digital, coaxial digital<br \/>\nLaser wavelength: 785mm  (CD), 662nm (DVD), 405 nm (BD)<br \/>\nDimensions: 16.95&#8243; x 3.4 x  13.4&#8243; (WxHxD)<br \/>\nWeight: 9.9 lbs<br \/>\nPrice: $1,299.99  Manufacturer\/Importer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[105],"tags":[24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiplanet.com.br\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiplanet.com.br\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiplanet.com.br\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiplanet.com.br\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiplanet.com.br\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiplanet.com.br\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":813,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiplanet.com.br\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions\/813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiplanet.com.br\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiplanet.com.br\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiplanet.com.br\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}