Blu-ray Panasonic DMP-BD35

Panasonic DMP-BD35

Publicado pela revista inglesa What Hi-Fi Sound and Vision

Preço: £ 250
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Sensational all-round performance makes the DMP-BD35 a real contender for the budget Blu-ray player crown

For
Scintillating Blu-ray playback; good DVD replay; dynamic sound; decent features; easy to use

Against
Nothing at this price

It doesn’t seem like two minutes since we were handing Panasonic’s DMP-BD30 as a Group Test win. Well, that was back in May and there’s a new kid on the block. Say goodbye to the BD30 and hello to the new and improved DMP-BD35, which goes on sale in the UK from October.

But improved in what way? Well, for starters, the BD35 is smaller in stature. Panasonic has knocked a whole centimetre off the player’s height (down to 4.9cm) and it’s also 8cm shallower.

The new player is Profile 2.0 enabled and BD-Live compatible. This means you’re able to access special features and content that’s available on compatible discs. There’s an Ethernet socket on the back for accessing online content and any future firmware updates. You’ll need to take advantage of the onboard SD Card slot to access disc-specific content and BD-Java applications.

Sadly, no more 5.1 multichannel output
There is however, one slight drawback compared to its predecessor. Panasonic has seen fit to do away with the 5.1 multichannel analogue output. We know that this is a cheaper player, but it would have been nice to have – owners of old-school receivers that don’t have any HDMI inputs would then be able to enjoy the benefits of HD audio too.

It’s a real shame, especially when you consider that the new player can decode all the latest HD audio formats onboard – something that the older player couldn’t do.

Inside the BD35 there’s a brand-new version of Panasonic’s proprietary picture processor. It’s called the PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus and has been designed to produce a clearer and sharper picture than its predecessor.

The player can output a 1080p/24fps Blu-ray signal, but it’s also compatible with DVDs that have been formatted in 24fps too. Apparently, it’s entirely possible to engineer DVD discs with 24fps (although we don’t currently know of any discs that meet this specification) and it’s the first time we’ve ever come across this feature in a Blu-ray player.

It leaves us scrambling for superlatives
But the proof is in the picture performance and, to put it mildly, the BD35 leaves us scrambling for superlatives. The player paints a glorious, punchy and vibrant Blu-ray picture, delivering amazing levels of detail during Spiderman 2.

The texture of Spidey’s suit looks real enough to touch, while the blue and red hues maintain a natural balance. As he swings through the city chasing Doctor Octopus the BD35 handles all the rapid movement with ease. The player is also one heck of a DVD upscaler too. Play Forgetting Sarah Marshall and you’re treated to a vibrant picture that’s detailed and sharply defined.

HD audio sounds clear and open. The Dolby Digital TrueHD soundtrack of Spiderman 2 highlights the BD35’s dynamic strengths. It doesn’t quite have the solidity of Sony’s BDP-S350 player, but we found decoding onboard the player can bring it closer to matching the Sony’s sonic character.

In sum, the Panasonic DMP-BD35 is a feature-packed and exceptionally talented Blu-ray player. We ran it in a Group Test against its Sony BDP-S350 and Samsung BD-P1500 rivals in our November issue of the magazine, and it beat them, making it our 2008 Best Buy Blu-ray player £200-£300.

HD DVD
No
Blu-ray
Yes
DVD-Video
Yes
DVD-A
No
SACD
No
CD
Yes
MP3
Yes
DivX
Yes
DVD-R/-RW
Yes
DVD+R/+RW
Yes
DVD-RAM
Yes
HDMI out
1
HDMI 1.3a
Yes
DVI out
0
Component out
1
RGB Scart out
0
S-Video out
0
Composite out
1
Optical digital out
1
Coaxial digital out
1
Phono audio out
1
FireWire out
0
Multichannel analogue out
8ch
Video scaling
1080p
24fps
Yes
Dolby Digital Plus decoding
Yes
DTS HD decoding
Yes
Dolby TrueHD decoding
Yes
DTS HD Master Audio decoding
Yes
Dolby decoding
Yes
DTS Decoding
Yes
PCM decoding
Yes
Dolby Digital Plus HDMI output
Yes
DTS HD HDMI output
Yes
Dolby TrueHD HDMI output
Yes
DTS HD Master Audio HDMI output
Yes
PCM HDMI output
Yes
Dimensions (hwd, cm)
43x25x55

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