Panasonic DMP-BD60 plus UP blu-ray for $125 (or $115)

[Alex2507]

Way to do your homework first.

I got two words for you and they're not 'Happy Birthday'.

It'll be cool to Netflix Blu-rays like the cool kids do. Should I find somebody who wants to buy those snazy surrounds I may yet get the Oppo and then get all magnanimonious (not 100% on the meaning here ... or the spelling of the word that I don't know the meaning of) and make a present of it to some A/V impaired peasant.

Besides the '80' is still like 1 million dollars and if Jostenmeat says this is good enough for him ...
That's me doing my homework ... (insert any number of 1 word put downs here)

 

[Adam]

Be sure to get the latest firmware. They just released a new one today (v2.2).

I think that once you get this bad boy home and use it for a couple of weeks, all longing for the Oppo will wane. You'll realize that you have a totally capable blu-ray player and an extra $400 in your pocket.

 

[XEagleDriver]

+1

I submitted a new one, but probably should just have put it in this thread. BD-60 is $109 with free shipping today (Cyber Monday) at www.tigerdirect.com I ordered one that I will probably give as a X-mas gift.

Also ordered one, thanks for the tip.

For a mere $110, I could no longer resist the "Borg" and give BR a try. I still hate the BR media prices (~$30 a pop) but, at least now I have a few extra bucks to find a good deal or two on movies.

XEagleDriver

 

[Adam]

Netflix is a nice way to get blu-ray quality at reasonable prices. Also, I often see blu-rays for about $10-$15 at Amazon or local stores.

 

[Adam]

Amazon is going to have a blu-ray player (I'm guessing) on a lightning deal in 30 minutes.

 

[Alex2507]

Be sure to get the latest firmware. They just released a new one today (v2.2).

I'm suddenly gripped with fear. I have no idea what that means and I think my brain is about to turn off.

I think that once you get this bad boy home and use it for a couple of weeks, all longing for the Oppo will wane. You'll realize that you have a totally capable blu-ray player and an extra $400 in your pocket.

I may have to give up my ability to play MCM ...
Or maybe drop the amp and EQ out in the living room ...
and get the spare room wired for real ...

I need a house ... condo dwellers shouldn't be Audioholics.

See? My brain did turn off. I'm babbling.

 

[jostenmeat]

Besides the '80' is still like 1 million dollars and if Jostenmeat says this is good enough for him ...
That's me doing my homework ... (insert any number of 1 word put downs here)

I am not sure yet if I will use it. I am giving either the new 60 or current 30 away as a gift. I will at least play with the 60 before giving either away I think. I have no reason to believe at all there will be any difference of color, but I want to compare any possible color shift between the two, just with the eyes. I'm not getting into why right here.

The 30 is a couple of generations older, and I have really no reason at all to replace it, it works fantastically, reliably. I haven't had even the slightest hiccup in what's probably now been years. And to boot, I've only updated 3 times I think, out of probably double digit updates. I do it if I feel like it.

With my BD30, I actually have to burn a disc to update FW. Not so with newer players, or the BD60. Go to this page for simple instructions if you have internet connection with the 60.
http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/bd/download/bd60/fw_updating_na.html

Here is the page to start burning a disc with, which is most likely more work for you, and it's a good idea to at least have this at your disposal so that you can see what the current FW is on the player (just read step 1), or any other time that you need to see.
http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/bd/download/bd60/bd60_na.html

EDIT: btw, sometimes I forget that some of you regulars don't yet have a BDP! To me, it's sometimes hard to relate to even a normal consumer who hasn't adopted BD, but for you AHers. . . . I dunno . . . well . . . I'm gonna shut up now . . .

 

[Alex2507]

EDIT: btw, sometimes I forget that some of you regulars don't yet have a BDP! To me, it's sometimes hard to relate to even a normal consumer who hasn't adopted BD, but for you AHers. . . . I dunno . . .

Yeah, now that Adam has a 50" Panny you would expect the rest of the world to be a Utopian electronics halo deck with scantily clad beauty queens serving free beer. Well, you need to snap out of it. This is the real world and life is hard. Some of us actually have to switch the source input on our TV's due to non HDMI receivers. It's ugly out here. Projection screens and ambient light control are still just a dream for much of the A/V Third World.

 

[lsiberian]

magnanimonious

If spelled correctly it means you are a noble high-minded forgiving person.

If spelled incorrectly it means you are not quite to the noble high-minded part, but you can be forgiving.

I'm sure you have heard of the ambery decoder so I won't remind you.

 

[GlocksRock]

Tiger direct has this player right now for $110 shipped, and an extra $5 off if you pay with google checkout.

 

[j_garcia]

Tiger direct has this player right now for $110 shipped, and an extra $5 off if you pay with google checkout.

You could also do Bing cash back I believe which would get you a few bucks more than the $5 google checkout.

Note, Tigerdirect price was already posted.

 

[speakerman39]

Oops........just realized that the $30 rebate is actually a pre-paid VISA card and not cash as I originally thought. Oh well, I can still make use of it.



Cheers,

Phil

 

[jostenmeat]

Be sure to get the latest firmware. They just released a new one today (v2.2)

Thanks for the reminder. I updated both my players last night. I had a sort of ongoing experiment with the BD30 in trying NOT to update, to see how long I could go before any issue occurred. Since I'm giving it to my friend, I decided I better I update for the last few FW updates that I've missed . . . .

I still hate the BR media prices (~$30 a pop) but, at least now I have a few extra bucks to find a good deal or two on movies.

Netflix is a nice way to get blu-ray quality at reasonable prices. Also, I often see blu-rays for about $10-$15 at Amazon or local stores.

Yeah. I use the lowest plan, 2 blu-rays a month, for only $6/month. DO IT XEagle.

I'm suddenly gripped with fear. I have no idea what that means and I think my brain is about to turn off.

Alex, if the FW links I supplied scare you, and you can't just easily connect your BD60 to your new router, I will send you my disc I just burned last night. I was planning on giving the disc to my friend who is still waiting for his V10 to arrive, but already has the BD60 in hand. Instead, I am thinking of burning a new one with him so he can see the process. Teach a man to fish . . . Well, I actually doubt he'll do it, hmm, he'll probably just wait for me to give him another disc.

EDIT: all you would do with the disc: Hit open on player. Put disc in and close. Player says "BYE" then starts displaying jibberish, then finally "finish" and shuts off. Turn player back on to take disc out. Process probably takes a couple of minutes total.

You can check your FW by hitting Setup, go to Display, then hold down Status.

 

[j_garcia]

I use Netflix too. It is $9.99 for one-at-a-time unlimited + $2 to add Blu-ray. That is less than buying one disc in general. If I am going to pay $30 for a movie it better be an import or a deluxe edition that has a bunch of extra stuff. I still average about $15/disc and this time of year it is easy to pick them up for between $10 and $20 even for new releases. Frys had a sale the other day with catalog titles at just $7.77 ea.

 

[Alex2507]

Alex, if the FW links I supplied scare you, and you can't just easily connect your BD60 to your new router,

I hooked up the fancy router. The update download put two files on my desktop and I tried like 3 times to update the player with a burned copy of WinRAR. Well, that didn't work because that's some other thing that comes along with it.

So I cut a hole in the wall to get the Ethernet cable through. Then I noticed the other file and burned that onto disc #4. That worked fine. Then I checked to see that I in fact had version 2.2 and I tried to update it via the internet connection to have the TV tell me that I am such a smart motherf^%&er that my sh!ts already up to f^%&ing date.

Hah !!!

Seriously, it didn't look good for a while there and it's a wonder that something hasn't blown up by now.

So who is gonna fix this hole?

 

[Adam]

So I cut a hole in the wall to get the Ethernet cable through.

Yeah, 'cause that's easier than moving the blu-ray player...

It sounds like you got the firmware updated, correct?

 

[Alex2507]

Yeah, 'cause that's easier than moving the blu-ray player...

It sounds like you got the firmware updated, correct?

I did successfully complete the update via a burned disc and now the BR player is hard wired but the instructions on the update thing had me thinking that I needed the BR player hooked up to the display ... well ... yeah, I did need it hooked up to the display. Didn't I?

Listen, this day has not been my idea of a good time.

 

[Adam]

...I did need it hooked up to the display. Didn't I?

If you're navigating menus, a display certainly makes it easier. If you had any other display with an appropriate video input near the router, you could have used that, too. I was mostly just poking fun at ya.

Listen, this day has not been my idea of a good time.

Yeah, but now you get to enjoy blu-rays at home!

 

[Alex2507]

I was mostly just poking fun at ya.

Oh ... LOL !!! That's not funny at all.

I ditched our last extra TV way back. There's a 4:3 20" LCD wall mounted in our bedroom but that's staying put. ADK/Craig pointed out to me that I could not use my laptop as a router. Yes, I'm that dumb. This is a huge step for me ... fancy router and a BR player all at once ... enabling me to use the laptop for Netflix ??? That's later though.

Sort of a side note here: Since my rec'r looses all it's memory whenever the power goes out due to a bad capacitor that's effectively unreachable, I have taken this opportunity to plug the rec'r into the UPS I picked up down south/out west ... whatever. Hopefully that keeps the memory from blanking out on me regular like.

I borrowed Blue Planet from my sister and it looks pretty sharp. Now I gotta reset my channel gains to where they were and put the living room back together.

 

[Adam]

ADK/Craig pointed out to me that I could not use my laptop as a router.

There probably was one, but I don't recall seeing a response to my question as to why you couldn't use your laptop as a bridge for your blu-ray player. I use my MacBook as one - it works great. There are websites explaining how to do it with a PC laptop, such as this one (first hit on Google).

The concept is this: Your laptop is connected to the internet over a wireless connection, and you use the ethernet jack on the laptop as basically an internet source for your blu-ray player (it's like plugging the blu-ray player into an ethernet port on your modem or router).