BD30

The DMP-BD30 is a very small Blu-ray dvd player. The front of the unit has a flip-down panel, beneath which is an SD Card slot (useful for displaying JPEG images or creating a slide show). Next to this is another motorised panel that will automatically flip down when the disc tray is ejected. Like many Blu-ray dvd players, positioned above the front LED display is a bright blue light, just to make sure we know it's blu-ray inside.

On the back of the DMP-BD30 are the usual selection of video and audio connections: Composite and S-video (both useless for High Definition, so don't bother with them), Component Video, HDMI, and both Coaxial and Optical S/PDIF. The HDMI output is Version 1.3 compliant (more on this below). There are separate sets of stereo and 5.1 analog audio outputs.

The remote control the comes with the DMP-BD30 isn't the best looking thing I've ever soon though and has a frustrating button layout featuring no less than three separate Menu commands. There's a button for the Pop-up Menus available during Blu-ray playback, a button for jumping straight to the Top Menu (if the disc offers one), and another button called Sub Menu that brings up an on-screen menu of other menu options.

Best be careful when doing the initial setup too as the DMP-BD30 defaults from the factory to a resolution setting of "Auto," which will output 1080p60 video if connected by HDMI, or 1080i if connected by Component. If your HDTV doesn't support 1080p input signals then connecting by HDMI may lead to either a blank screen or messed up video.

The BD30 does boot up very quickly for a blu-ray dvd player, you can be looking at as little as 20 seconds. The DMP-BD30 setup screens are pretty simple usually, though again the player does require use of the Return command to navigate them.

BD30

Testing the with DMP-BD30 out with a projector on 1080p24 resolution, all the films looked terrific as expected. The sharpness of the picture really stands out, maybe even more so than the colours.

Picture controls on the BD30 consist of Contrast, Brightness, Sharpness, and Colour, and are available through the Display menu. Usually best to adjust these on the display set though. Use of these functions is usually a matter of personal taste.

When playing normal DVDs the 4:3 aspect ratio discs will be automatically pillarboxed into the center of a 16:9 screen. Using the "Screen Aspect" setting in the DMP-BD30 Sub Menu, the player does have an option to zoom in a bit to help sort this out.

BD30

You need to judge the importance of DMP-BD30 Blu-ray Profile 1.1 based on your own personal priorities. Previous Blu-ray models will continue to play all discs and traditional bonus features, so if you don't find support for interactive content all that important, this feature might not put you off.

Anyway, for the first Profile 1.1 compliant Blu-ray dvd player, the Panasonic BD30 is a well priced unit that offers excellent video quality on Blu-ray dvds as well as the capability to bitstream advanced audio codecs to a compatible receiver

The BD30 isn't quite a perfect Blu-ray dvd player, but it performs strongly in core areas and rates a worthy recommendation.

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