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Panasonic's Next Big, Blu Thing
May 12, 2008

Late last week, Panasonic executives were proudly showing off their latest babies - the company's first Web-enabled BD-Live player and first all-ecompassing BD home theater system.
Apart from the Web stuff, the BD-Live equipped DMP BD50, appears to be nearly match Panasonic's last BD entry, the DMP BD30. With the help of Panasonic's proprietary Chroma Processor, the Blu-ray image quality is the same with the BD30 and BD50.  However, a standard DVD should be upscaled even more pristinely on the BD50 over the earlier model.
I just wonder if consumers are going to pay that extra $100 premium that separates the $599 BD50 over the $499 BD30. When Dark Knight finally hits Blu-ray, I know I'll be swooning over whatever special features are available about the greatness that is Christian Bale. Yet I can conceivably satisfy cravings by hopping over to various Web sites on my home PC. But maybe that's just me.
Panasonic did blow me away with its BT100 'home theater in a box system,' which I know I really can't afford at the moment at $999. I was sold on just the sound alone during the demo of Master and Commander.  And I seriously would have loved the experience with my eyes closed. The system arranges the speakers in a way so you can hear virtual 7.1 surround sound on every movie. You can also achieve true 7.1 surround sound with extra components.
Also neat, there is a built-in dock for your iPod, so you can watch any content from your iTunes library on your BT100 system.
Candidly, Panasonic execs said that initially retailers weren't so sure they could successfully sell a Blu-ray player-speaker combo at a high price, no matter how awesome it might be. As a smart trick however, a Panasonic exec said that to win over retailers he first demo-ed the product, and then asked them what they thought it would cost.
Retailers admitted they loved the system, but didn't know if they could move something that had to be tagged anywhere between $1,199 and $1,499.
The Panasonic exec said retailers were visibly happy that it was priced at a much lower than expected $999.
Both these players are shipping to stores in the next month or so. And I have to think that by fourth quarter, Black Friday sales might push the home theater system to something within my price range!

Posted by Susanne Ault on May 12, 2008 | Comments (0)