subject: Panasonic DMP-BD45 Ultrafast Booting Blu-ray Disc Player-Panasonic DMP-BD45 Ultrafast Booting Blu-ray Disc Player Review [print this page] Panasonic DMP-BD45 Ultrafast Booting Blu-ray Disc Player-Panasonic DMP-BD45 Ultrafast Booting Blu-ray Disc Player Review
I don't typically write reviews of electronics, but I got this about a week or so ago and already watched a few movies on it and there were enough things that I liked about it (many that were not already mentioned) that I thought I would in this case. Most importantly, it is lightning fast compared to my previous blu-ray player (my old one seemed to take forever before it was ready to load and play, this one is ready to load in 30 seconds or so, and ready to play just as fast). This is a major plus in my eyes. Second, the on/off button is on the top right, and the open/close button is on the top left of the player (rather than on the front of the player -- this is very handy because you can see and press both very easily... not a huge deal, but I really like it and it makes it noticeably easier to use, so I thought I'd mention it). Third, it is very light and easy to hook up (unfortunately, it does NOT come with the HDMI cable -- but you can get one of those for less than $10; and it does come with the standard red/white/yellow wires so you can at least hook it up until your HDMI cable arrives). Finally, blu-ray disks look amazing on it (at least on my HD TV), and it also plays standard DVDs which look at least as good as the would on a non-blu-ray DVD player (so, if you have lots of regular DVDs, you can still watch them without losing any quality).
Finally, the remote is easier to use then the one I got with my other blu-ray player (big and easy to find play, search backwards, search forward, stop, and pause buttons... the open/close butto is a bit small, but still pretty easy to find, and the power button is in the upper left as usual making it very easy to find/use). All for a very reasonably low price on Amazon.com (much cheaper than anywhere else I looked, and with free shiping and no sales tax no less!).
I'd also like to note that the fact that there is a slot on the front where you can directly plug in a SD or SDHC memory card is a major plus. You can watch the HD videos you record right off this player (and use the remote to select videos from a menu it creates of all videos on the memory card). Or, you can look at your photos directly on the TV (it even automatically rotates them so they are always upright... and it again creates a menu so you can select, or once you select, you can go through them one by one and look at them on the big screen). Both the videos and the photos looked amazing on my TV (I have a Samsung HD TV set). In sum, this is a great feature that is remarkably easy to use!
This is my first Blu-Ray player. I wanted a new model (2010) but was not interested in the BD Live features. This deck has the legendary Panasonic image processor (the same as in the expensive, top of the line models) but at a very low price. Speed is not quite as fast as advertised but better than earlier models. A great deck for anyone who doesn't need BD-Live features.
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