The Panasonic DMP-BD60 is an entry level Blu-ray player from the brand that brought us the BD35, one of the first Blu-ray players we really got excited about. This new model aims to move things on in the Blu-ray world, and adds a few extra features to help it stand out from the crowd.
Like most Panasonic products, the design is simple, but the clean black finish and subtle silver flashes exude an air of quality that is becoming increasingly common on their equipment. The front of the player has no visible buttons, but a fold down flap on the bottom right of the player reveals some simple playback buttons, a USB port and an SD card slot for downloading BD-LIVE content.
The back of the Panasonic DMP-BD60 reveals the standard connection options, HDMI, Component and Optical, as well as an ethernet port for connecting to the internet for Blu-ray online content. What the BD60 lacks is any multi-channel outputs, but it’s bigger brother, the Panasonic DMP-BD80 does have these if they are important to you.
Whilst the BD60 is fully up to speed with the latest Blu-ray Profile it also has an additional feature in the new ‘Viera Cast’ function. This allows you to stream videos from YouTube and photos from Picasa direct to your television. This functionality is still in it’s infancy, but we expect more options to be made available through firmware update over the coming months.
High Definition is of course well catered for with 1080p upscaling as well as being able to decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master audio soundtracks and output them as bitstream or uncompressed PCM.
Performance is excellent, and the BD60 remains probably the best player at this price point. We couldn’t actually tell much quality difference between this and its predecessor the DMP-BD35 which is probably because the BD35 was so good already there wasn’t much room for improvement.
There is a new version of the Blu-ray player available: Panasonic DMP-BD65
What to consider before you buy the Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray Player
If you need multichannel surround sound outputs, you should go to the next model in the range, the DMP-BD80.
Why you should buy the Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray Player
Sparkling performance and some nice new features make sure the Panasonic remains at the head of the pack. Great stuff. Rating:
/5Compare Panasonic DMP-BD60 Best Prices
Need help deciding between this player and the DMP-BD80? Read our blog article: What are the differences between the DMP-BD60 and DMP-BD80.
View more details about the DMP-BD60 on the Official Panasonic website.
[…] the Panasonic BD35 and BD55 were both very highly rated, and they have now been replaced with the Panasonic DMP-BD60 and DMP-BD80. According to the reviews they have similar performace to last year, but a few more […]
Good finish and great quality with super features. Also great performance.
Whats this BD Live thing? Do people actually use it, or is it just a gimmick?
BD LIVE is being used more and more by the latest movies, so it is definitely a feature worth having. See our blog post on Blu-ray profiles for more info.
Hi,
Recently bought a BD60.
Absolutely cracking picture.
Can you recommend a decent multi speaker system to use with it please?
Thanks
Ken
Hi Ken
It’s a fantastic player, and a really good purchase. It doesn’t have multi channel speaker outputs so you’ll need either an all in one home cinema system that will accept an HDMI input, or a separate amplifier and speakers, which is probably your best bet. The Jamo A102 Speakers and the Onkyo TX-SR507 make a good pairing.
Hi,
I like the “sound” of the separate amp & speakers concept so will check out your suggested pairing.
Thanks very much for the advice it’s much appreciated
Regards