I would go Panasonic as well. The DMP-BD35 might be cheaper than the BD-60 if you don't care about the extra features on the 60. If you need the analog audio outs, you'll need the BD55 or BD80, both of which are more expensive.
However, I just got my BDP-83 and I have to say that even if you only use it for Blu-ray and DVD and don't care about the universality (like me), I feel it's still worth the cash. The ability to play back DVDs at 24p is a great feature that I haven't found anywhere else, and the overall UI, functionality, and feature set is second to none.
Er, 24p DVD playback works fine on my DMP-BD35. However, you must explicitly enable it after putting the DVD in. Panasonic did this because many DVDs were authored with a 24p cadence flag, even though the video couldn't be properly run through reverse 3:2 pulldown for 24p playback. I thought many Blu-Ray players supported this?
Hmm, well at least I haven't seen 24p DVD playback anywhere else, though that certainly doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Was that added to the BD35 later via a firmware update? If not, maybe I just missed it. I didn't spend a lot of time with it (played with a BD30 for a while, though).
Good to know it's available elsewhere, and yes it's off by default on the BDP-83 for the same reason. I've seen issues with it even on newer, well-authored DVDs, but they're only ever quick glitches (on some cuts to different camera angles, the top 3/4 of the first frame will appear before the remaining 1/4) and they happen so fast and so infrequently that I don't care. I'll take that glitch over juddery camera pans anytime.
“An engineer explained to us that hundreds of ear impressions were gathered in the name of research, and while each one obviously boasted its own unique shape and size, one single characteristic remained uniform across the board: the entrance into the ear canal is not a perfect circle, it's an oval.”
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I would go Panasonic as well. The DMP-BD35 might be cheaper than the BD-60 if you don't care about the extra features on the 60. If you need the analog audio outs, you'll need the BD55 or BD80, both of which are more expensive.
However, I just got my BDP-83 and I have to say that even if you only use it for Blu-ray and DVD and don't care about the universality (like me), I feel it's still worth the cash. The ability to play back DVDs at 24p is a great feature that I haven't found anywhere else, and the overall UI, functionality, and feature set is second to none.
Er, 24p DVD playback works fine on my DMP-BD35. However, you must explicitly enable it after putting the DVD in. Panasonic did this because many DVDs were authored with a 24p cadence flag, even though the video couldn't be properly run through reverse 3:2 pulldown for 24p playback. I thought many Blu-Ray players supported this?
Hmm, well at least I haven't seen 24p DVD playback anywhere else, though that certainly doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Was that added to the BD35 later via a firmware update? If not, maybe I just missed it. I didn't spend a lot of time with it (played with a BD30 for a while, though).
Good to know it's available elsewhere, and yes it's off by default on the BDP-83 for the same reason. I've seen issues with it even on newer, well-authored DVDs, but they're only ever quick glitches (on some cuts to different camera angles, the top 3/4 of the first frame will appear before the remaining 1/4) and they happen so fast and so infrequently that I don't care. I'll take that glitch over juddery camera pans anytime.