Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 Uncompressed Digital Audio without a upgrading your Home Theater June 14, 2008
86 out of 107 found this review helpful
This is the FIRST Blu-ray Disc player to offer BUILT-IN decoders for "DTSHD Master Audio". This allows you to listen to the highest quality audio available on Blu-ray WITHOUT purchasing a new Home Theater receiver. Currently all Blu-ray Disc players are capable of decoding "Uncompressed PCM" and about half can also decode "DolbyTrueHD" (which sounds better than the "PCM"), but only the "Panasonic DMP-BD50" can decode "DTSHD Master Audio" (which sounds better than the "Dolby") in addition to the other two uncompressed HD audio formats.
The other UNIQUE feature is the "Profile 2.0" compliance. This is the FINAL standard for the Blu-ray Disc format and the "DMP-BBD50" is the second Blu-ray Disc player (the first being the PS3) to include it in its design specs. This allows the player to connect to the internet and access bonus content, play games and interact with other Blu-ray Disc players which are viewing the same disc. Very cool, indeed.
But honestly, if you've already purchased a new receiver with "DolbyTrueHD" and "DTSHS Master Audio" decoding and you don't care about "Profile 2.0" support, you can save $200 and just get the "Panasonic DMP-BD30". It lacks the BUILT-IN decoders for the 3 uncompressed HD audio formats but can transmit them over an HDMI cable to your capable receiver for decoding and playback (the "DMP-BD50" can do this as well).
[the only DRAWBACK is that the ANALOG output ONLY supports 5.1 (5 speakers) and NOT 7.1 (seven speakers) - the "Sony BSP-S550" due out this Fall ($500) will do EVERYTHING the "DMP-BD50" does, plus 7.1 analog output AND for $200 less - patience is a virtue]
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 Bad Start for Panasonic July 5, 2008
51 out of 80 found this review helpful
Bought the unit on from 6th Ave.Electonics on 6/27/08.
Received our Panasonic DMP-BD50K 7/3/08. Followed installation instructions per manual. When to Walmart and bought two Blu-ray movies.
Loaded the first Blu-ray movie, Error message on screen " this operation is disabled". Loaded the second movie, the same message. Checked the disc for problems, they seem OK. Loaded DVD movies and got the same message. Reveiwed the setup menus instructions again. Checked out the Trouble Shooting section of the manual. The manual mention the error, but has no
corrective action to take. Checked the Firmware, menu shows 1.1 firmware.
Called Panasonic customer support number,got the talk to a computer. The computer made no mention to this player, it could help me with a DMP-BD30k. Called again and the computer told me that the support center was closed for the evening.
When online to the Panasonic website. No mention of the DMP-BD50k player,except about the release of this unit in Europe. I checked the back of the unit to make sure I had a US unit. It was marked 1 and A, that is the correct. Checked the Firmware download page for updates for this unit, nothing shown. Found a page for E-mails to customer supprort, so I explained the problem I had. I don't expect a reply til 7/7/08.
Surprisingly my wife called the customer support center by phone on July 4 and she was talking to a real person. The support is located in Virginia. The gentleman spent over 1 and 1/2 hours with us trying to help.
First he was sursprised we had the unit. He stated that these units are not dated for release til the end of July 2008(RETAIL). We then started going through all the steps. Cables installations, setup menus, Blu-ray disc and Dvd disc. Checking the back of the unit for correct area codes.
Everthing was correct, but still the same error message. The agent could not call the Panasonic technical center, cause they were closed for the holiday. His opinion was the reading head inside the unit was out of aligment, due possilbly to shipping handling,even though the shipping box showed no damage. He suggested that we ship only the unit to Panasonic Technical Center in Illinois, so that their engineers could review the unit and make repairs. We were to include a letter discussing the problem and list the movie disks we tried in the unit. He could not send us a shipping return label til 7/7/08. Shipping would be at Panasonic expense.
I asked if there were any firmware updates. He stated that 1.1 was the latest version.
7/5/08 My wife called 6th Ave. They said to repack the unit and all the items and use the return shipping label to return to their Springfield, N.J. Center. They have some in inventory, but don't know when they will ship us a replacement.
I think I'm going to ship the unit to Panasonic.
I'll post again when the unit returns to our home.
 HD audio will still require a new receiver July 18, 2008
15 out of 42 found this review helpful
I selected this blu-ray player over the competition specifically because it has built-in decoding for the latest high-definition audio formats. I continue to be happy with my ten-year-old Sony TAE-9000ES preamp, and the DMP-BD50 seemed to be the perfect way to get HD video and audio in one box. Panasonic's web site promises, "The true to the original source images are complimented by an exceptionally pure, accurate sounds achieved through Audio Re-master and integrated decoders for the lossless Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio formats." Although it will decode these formats (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, etc), an internet search is required to discover that it can't pass the data through digital coax or fiber optic cables. For that, you need to have an HDMI cable or 5.1 analog cables and a receiver to plug into. Had I known that, I would have bought an up-to-date preamp that had the HD audio decoding capability, and saved $260 (based on current amazon.com prices) by buying a DMP-BD30, which is just about identical to the BD50 except for the audio capabilities. On the video side, the BD50 seems to be a quite capable blu-ray player (the BD30 is similarly well-regarded, though.) Frankly, I think Panasonic (and enthusiastic reviewers) should be much more clear about its actual capabilities in their marketing, because I doubt the casual user is aware that digital coax and fiber optics are unable to carry the needed data stream. Because of its premium over the BD30, I don't expect the much-anticipated BD50 to be on the market for long, but I bought one and so may a lot of other people. (Interestingly, Panasonic is already offering the BD50 for $600 on their web site, so they may have realized that the original MSRP of $800 was too high.)
Confirmed - HD Audio output from analog outputs August 7, 2008
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
OK so I am one of the many who were waiting for this player for one big reason. I have expensive audio components and didn't want to replace them just to get HDMI input for True HD and DTS Master Audio. Now that I own it I can positively confirm that this player decodes both of the Hi-Def audio formats internally and sends them to the analog outputs... and OH MY what a huge difference over AC-3 or DTS!! The most noticeable thing is the ambient sound that is lost in compression. Watched 5th Element last night and the beginning of the movie starts with this echoing reverberation during the credits. In AC3 it sounds like an echo, but in TrueHD it's all filled in with a very deep sound field and detailed ambient sound. The overall impression is sound that is much fuller and balanced. It also has a nice feature called Dialog Enhancer which bumps the volume of dialog in soundtracks so you can hear the dialog when listning at low volume levels (so your spouse can sleep...feelin' me?). In 2 words - Worth it!
Next the features and a bonus for older Mitsu owners. I have a Mitsubishi WD-62628 1080P DLP TV. This unit was one of the first 1080P TV's made. They did not have the video processing capability at the time to take a 1080P input. So it's max input on the main HDMI connector or component video is 1080i and the TV upconverts to 1080P. This has left owners of this family of TV's with a quandary in that they want to see movies from their Blu-Ray player in 1080P not 1080i. There have been rumors that you can use the HDMI-2 input for native 1080P input if you tell the TV that a computer is connected. Well I can confirm that this actually works just fine !! You set the Net Command to enable HDMI-2 and that a PC is what is on that input. Disable the audio part (if you are going to use the analog outputs from the Panny like me) and then tell the blu-ray player to output at 1080P (rather than auto-detect). The TV will momentarily display a message that the video signal is non-standard, but will then display it anyway. So I get HD audio and 1080P video with my older TV and non-HDMI audio processor!! Bonus #2 is that this Panny player also has picture controls for brightness, contrast, gamma, color, and black level so you can tweak the picture if necessary. It also has canned settings (normal, cinema and 2 others). I find that movies look best in Cinema. It deepens the color and seems to provide better color spectrum.
I hope this answers the questions for a bunch of you that are still sitting on the wall. This one finally does it all, A/V wise. I have not hooked it up to the LAN yet for BD-Live functions. That was not a big part of my plan for this but will happen shortly.
Happy viewing!
Post Review Note: One thing I have discovered is that the picture controls on the BD50 don't offer as much adjustment as the controls on a TV. The straight 1080P input is a little on the bright side. I found that the BD50 will not enable 1080i component video and HDMI at the same time, it's one or the other. Once you turn on HDMI, it drops the component video to standard def no matter what you set it on. This means I can't look at upconverted 1080i (via component video) with full picture controls vs 1080p on HDMI-2 with the minimal controls offered by the BD50 without stopping the movie and re-starting it... Jury is still out on this one.
Panasonic DMP-BD-50 August 14, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is my first Blu-ray player and I must say I'm glad I waited for the BD-50. Finally a complete Blu-ray player (profile 2.0). The picture quality seems to be on par with my HD-DVD Toshiba XA2. According to Home Theater Magazine this player comes very close to having the same quality picture as a well known $2000 Blu-ray player. The HDMI input is a little on the bright side, but I adjusted the contrast on my XBR4 a few notches down and it made it just right. I tried many of the known difficult to play discs, such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Cars, Ratatouille and all played flawlessly. Having analog output jacks for 5.1 surround was what sealed the deal for me. I have an older receiver so this was a necessity to be able to listen to the lossless audio tracks. Feeling the top of the player indicates that it runs cool. All in all I couldn't be happier. I guess the only thing I don't like is the display window on the front of the player only shows time and not chapter. But that is a very minor annoyance.
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