Panasonic DMP-BD10 Blu-ray player priced, accesorized

Panasonic officially announced their first Blu-ray player, the DMP-BD10, still due in September. They also announced the retail price of $1299.95. It will (of course) play back Blu-ray discs and upconvert all other video content to 1080p via HDMI. They also mention their proprietary P4HD technology to improve 1080/720p output over the analog connectors, but we don't see anything else specific on the spec list that justifies the price premium over other Blu-ray offerings. It does include their Viera Link HDMI control technology so it can work well with the matching $999 SA-XR700 receiver. The 7.1 channel receiver also has two HDMI inputs and one output to pass 1080p through. Just to round things out, the $2999.95 SB-TP1000 speaker system with "Twin Center Speaker" technology that they claim gives a center channel, without a dedicated center speaker.

[hmurchison Posted Jun 22nd 2006 3:33PM]

I'm hurt.

I love Panny stuff but I was hoping they'd come in a little cheaper especially with the receiver.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 22nd 2006 5:11PM]

No center channel. WTF are they thinking?

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 22nd 2006 5:26PM]

dual centers are better for flat panels,similar to what you have on most plasma/lcd tv's

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 23rd 2006 7:48AM]

its not a dual centre, its no centre - look at the pictures, its 6 speakers, which in a 7.1 configuration (as stated) would go front LR, Side LR, Rear LR.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 27th 2006 6:26AM]

Hey, if Bose can do 5.1 with 321 than why shouldn't Panny do 7.1 with ( from what i can see ) 6.2 ;-)

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 19th 2006 2:16PM]

It is a known acoustical effect that if you play the same material (lets say the center channel information) out of two identical sources at the same level, the acoustical image will appeare symetrically between the two sources (Front Left and Right). It's also called a phantom center. 10 bucks says that there are two inputs on each of those front speakers, Left and Center, and Right and Center. What makes this hard to do is that about 60 to 70% of what you hear in a movie comes from the center and get the full depth of a scene, not just width, that requires a well engineered speaker. The reviews will show.