Panasonic DMP-BD80 Blu-Ray Player

I recently purchased the Panasonic DMP-BD80 Blu Ray player. I consider Panasonic the most technically reliable video brand around, so that was a major influence on my buying decision.

The front panel is simple and clean. Too simple, in fact. As with much modern equipment, there are very few buttons and controls on the front panel, and the remote control is vital to controlling your unit.

To hook up the Blu Ray player, the most important connection is the video HDMI cable. This is a digital video signal from your player to the HD screen, and it is the best looking image quality by far, with exceptional color fidelity. It also provides copy protection between the disk and the digital screen, with little way to get another high quality video signal out of the Blu Ray player, except for the YPP component video output, which I have not yet had  a chance to test on my video edit system. I will update this review to see if the component outputs of the blu ray arer compatible with the component inputs of my video card. But one glaring omission -- there is no S VIdeo output on this unit, which I thought was a strange omission.

Another thing which bugs the heck out of me is the unit has no ANGLE button, so it is difficult to switch from remastered Star trek to original Star trek. I think next time I will try to get a unit that has an ANGLE button.

Angle changes are available from within an onscreen menu, but it is a big hassle to change your angle.

There is a 5.1 or 7.1 analog output group on the back, which I have not yet utilized. Due to HD image processing, there is a significant timing difference between the audio output of the HD monitor, and the audio output direct from the Panasonic. If you pull audio from the Panasonic, it will come about 1 to 2 video frames earlier than from the HD monitor.
Operational delays on disk insertion, disk ejection, and remote control are sluggish, as with most modern units. When you press the EJECT button, there is no reason a disk should not eject immediately, but apparently some kind of software is executing so ejection usually takes at least 10 seconds if not longer.

All that being said, the image quality produced by the DMP-BD80 is gorgeous. How could it NOT be? -- it's digital! Thus far on this 3 month old unit, I have experienced absolutely no glitching or skipping with Blu Ray media.

This is a fine unit. The only thing it needs is an angle button.