camo
05-19-11, 12:53 PM
I did a little review of my new panny DMP-BDT210P.
Internet features may not be as extensive as some units because as of 5-19-2011 Hulu was not supported yet. Netflix, Vudu, Amazon video, Youtube, CinimaNow, Pandora, Twitter, Picasa, Skype, Alphaline, Bloomberg, weather, Tagesschau are all supported.
Being a prime Amazon customer my first movie was a free HD selection from Amazon Prime, followed by a HDX (1080P quality)Vudu movie "The Black Swan" you get one 5.99 credit through Vudo without signing up or giving any CC information. The ability to stream the Black Swan @ 4500 kbps = 4.39453125 Mbps over Wi-Fi was impressive without any hiccups. A standard HD movie 720p requires 2250 kbps = 2.19726562 Mbps so the 4.4 Mbps for 1080p was a true test of its streaming ability. My router is a Linksys E3000 wireless N @ 2.4 ghz and located about 30' and through two walls. I'm not a netflix member yet but from other reviews the interface is much better than the Sony units which are really user unfriendly. I can report Vudo,Pandora,and Amazon have very friendly user interfaces.
As far as blue ray movies on disk I tested with Avatar and the movie looked flawless and loaded twice as fast as my older pioneer player it replaced. I had to go into settings and turn off secondary audio for DTS-HD Master Audio to work.
Most players defaults are not set for home theaters so this is normal.
The one area I was not impressed with was the up-conversion on older 480P movies. I tested with Saving Private Ryan and thought my older Pioneer player did a better job. If this is an important feature I would look at another unit. In my case I'll continue to use my Pioneer (BDF-51FD)for 480p movies.
As far as testing the units ability to play files on my computer or USB disk I haven't tested because I'm all ready hooked up directly with HDMI so any file on my computer plays flawless with sound. Using a second interface is impractical and unnecessary in my case. You may ask how I have HDMI going to both computer monitor and TV. I use a HDMI splitter from Monoprice. I don't think there are any dual HDMI video cards yet but honestly I have not looked lately.
Overall its a great player with just a couple flaws, its up-conversion ability with older 480P disk is unimpressive and no Hulu app yet. But the excellent Wi-Fi streaming and very friendly interface for internet apps with great BD playback out weighed the bad.
Internet features may not be as extensive as some units because as of 5-19-2011 Hulu was not supported yet. Netflix, Vudu, Amazon video, Youtube, CinimaNow, Pandora, Twitter, Picasa, Skype, Alphaline, Bloomberg, weather, Tagesschau are all supported.
Being a prime Amazon customer my first movie was a free HD selection from Amazon Prime, followed by a HDX (1080P quality)Vudu movie "The Black Swan" you get one 5.99 credit through Vudo without signing up or giving any CC information. The ability to stream the Black Swan @ 4500 kbps = 4.39453125 Mbps over Wi-Fi was impressive without any hiccups. A standard HD movie 720p requires 2250 kbps = 2.19726562 Mbps so the 4.4 Mbps for 1080p was a true test of its streaming ability. My router is a Linksys E3000 wireless N @ 2.4 ghz and located about 30' and through two walls. I'm not a netflix member yet but from other reviews the interface is much better than the Sony units which are really user unfriendly. I can report Vudo,Pandora,and Amazon have very friendly user interfaces.
As far as blue ray movies on disk I tested with Avatar and the movie looked flawless and loaded twice as fast as my older pioneer player it replaced. I had to go into settings and turn off secondary audio for DTS-HD Master Audio to work.
Most players defaults are not set for home theaters so this is normal.
The one area I was not impressed with was the up-conversion on older 480P movies. I tested with Saving Private Ryan and thought my older Pioneer player did a better job. If this is an important feature I would look at another unit. In my case I'll continue to use my Pioneer (BDF-51FD)for 480p movies.
As far as testing the units ability to play files on my computer or USB disk I haven't tested because I'm all ready hooked up directly with HDMI so any file on my computer plays flawless with sound. Using a second interface is impractical and unnecessary in my case. You may ask how I have HDMI going to both computer monitor and TV. I use a HDMI splitter from Monoprice. I don't think there are any dual HDMI video cards yet but honestly I have not looked lately.
Overall its a great player with just a couple flaws, its up-conversion ability with older 480P disk is unimpressive and no Hulu app yet. But the excellent Wi-Fi streaming and very friendly interface for internet apps with great BD playback out weighed the bad.