Panasonic BD80EB Blu-ray Disc Player

Russell Dodd

at 10:38 pm

This player would be perfect, if it allowed me to add some delay to the analog audio. Watching King Kong with a direct HDMI connection to my new Samsung LCD TV (both are HDMI 1.3), and using the analog audio output connecting to my older 7.1 amp, the lip sync problem was horrendous (HDMI 1.3 is supposed to cure this). Other discs weren’t quite as bad – but things did seem to get worse when using 24p mode. Why doesn’t this player use the HDMI 1.3 info supplied by the TV to automatically add some delay to the analog sound? So I am returning this today, and thinking of buying the Sony BDPS550 which is supposed to have a manual audio delay option (not idea, but better than nothing). If you don’t need the audio outputs, buy the Panasonic BD60 instead.
Rating: 4 / 5

B. Hill

at 4:24 am

Had stuck with PS3 for blu-ray playback for over a year, while waiting for ‘stand-alone’ players to come down in price and improve in quality. However, had been unhappy at niggles in the PS3 playback (juddery picture on panning shots, sound quality a little ‘thin’) and needed a player with on-board decoding and multi-channel outputs for the new HD sound formats (my home cinema amp is a few years old so doesn’t support these formats unless they’re fed through the external Analogue Inputs).

Have found the BD80 to be a superb upgrade; picture quality is noticably superior when fed through a decent display (50″ pioneer, 1080p) with much smoother motion on fast moving scenes, improved detail in dark scenes, and generally a much greater sense of depth and detail to the image. The audio is also a huge improvement – if your wondering whether there is much difference between the old ‘Dolby Digital/DTS’ formats and the new HD audio formats then rest assured there is, you will hear the difference!

Slime line format also makes it ideal for slotting into a crowded AV rack. Minus 1 star for long loading times and cheap remote, but well worth the upgrade cost over entry level players/ps3 if you have a high quality display and a decent amp/speaker set-up!
Rating: 4 / 5

Mr. T. Ellis

at 6:07 am

This is a very good blu ray player for the money I believe – I have it running on a Pioneer LX5090 and when the film is good quality you do get a very impressive image. Motion is very good, fast moving scenes are not a problem

It does show up poorer discs quite badly but that is to be expected of a good player / setup.

I use the on board high def sound decoding as I have an older style av amp. This is also very impressive.

I have no doubt that a good av amp would do it much better, especially panning and throwing the sound around the room with precision but its still very good what you do get. The onboard high def sound decoding is the reason I bought this machine.

Be warned the better the analogue cable you use the better it will sound – if the rest of your setup is of a certain level to notice.

If you are very much into your sound like me then you may find yourself looking at buying 3 sets of good cables = more money!!

The player is actually quite a good cd player as well to my amazement. It has seperate stereo outputs for cd playback. I have only played music through the 5.1 front channel (L&R) analogue outputs to test and I was more than impressed. Its a detailed, comprehensive sound, more than good enough for most.

It has quite sleek and modern styling, it looks nice and modern on your stand / rack etc

The negatives – My first player would pause randomly for a few seconds before carrying on.

It also packed up after a firmware update so I needed to send it back to get a new one. Amazon were brilliant I must say, new one here it approx 24 hours.

Its a slow player in terms of loading and pretty much everything, you will definately notice this if this is your first blu ray player.

Its also quite noisey when reading discs.

I am hoping firmware updates will sort this issue out – when you press stop on the remote it doesnt save your place on the disc should you want to continue watching (by pressing play), so you have to press pause which I dont like to do for too long.

None of these negatives would stop me buying this player, they are just annoying.

At the end of the day you get excellent picture and excellent sound and that is all that really matters!!!
Rating: 4 / 5