Panasonic Shows Off New 3D Blu-ray Player

Leading the 3D race, Panasonic showed off a 3D Blu-ray player at the recent CES2010. The player showcased is the Panasonic DMP-BDT350. It will need to be used with a 3D HDTV and a set of active shutter 3D glasses. The BDT350 has received the prestigious Consumer Electronics Show Innovations Award. It plays 3D Bluray, upscale DVD and standard audio CD, and comes with the standard Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD decoding. It also features an SD memory card slot for digital phots and video playback, BD-Live and the VIERA Cast range of online streaming media.

Panasonic have also announced three regular 2D Blu-ray players, starting with the Panasonic DMP-BD45, then the mid-range Panasonic DMP-BD65 and concluding with the high end Panasonic DMP-BD85. The BD45 is the elementary player, and does not have networking capabilities nor DIVX support. The BD65 and BD85 share many functions, including HD audio decoding, VIERA Cast online streaming media, an SD memory card slot, 96kHz audio surround re-mastering for improved CD performance and Panasonic’s PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus image processing technology. What separates the BD85 is built-in Wi-Fi, DivX video support via the SD card slot, 7.1 analogue audio outputs, an HDMI Jitter Purifier, gold-plated terminals, a 192kHz-24 bit D/A converter and something called a Digital Tube Sound Simulator, which is said to recreate the sound from a tube amplifier.

In keeping with Panasonic’s pledge to make their products more ‘green’, all the new players will have a Power Save function that automatically turns off the player when you switch to watching TV.