new panasonic dmp-bd-50 review

[gene9p]

link to review


http://dvdfile.com/article/panasonic...c-player-12620

[Arkadin]

don't tell me, the sd dvd upconversion isn't the best.

[Aurora]

The most interesting part, everyone's favorite issue:

For those with HDMI… Armed with my HDMI 1.3 equipped Marantz 8002 receiver, I first configured the Panasonic DMP-BD50 to send native advanced audio bitstreams over HDMI to my receiver (something that my Sony PS3 cannot do). I then loaded my new favorite Blu-ray Disc for audio testing: Across the Universe. Without even needing to swap back to my Sony PS3, I was instantly and profoundly impressed by how much better the bit streaming Panasonic sounded. The improvement was almost troubling; the unequivocal improvement in clarity, soundstaging, detail, realism, and musical timber with the Panasonic was unexpected to say the least given my strong familiarity with the audio on this particular disc. I was hearing a higher level of detail for the first time, and the improvement was across the board with every Blu-ray title I tried. Wondering if I was hearing some issue with the way that my receiver might be handling compressed bit streams versus PCM input, I then reset the Panasonic BD50 to decode internally everything to PCM before sending out via HDMI, just like my PS3. I assumed that the Panasonic would then sound much more similar, if not identical, to the PS3.

Imagine my surprise when the Panasonic decoding to PCM sounded even better than it did bit streaming the native compressed signals. The difference between having the Panasonic bit stream versus decode internally was slight, but the soundstage seemed even more cohesive and the speakers tended to disappear even more than it did with PCM decoding. This was consistent even after about an hour of disc-swapping and turning out the lights to listen to movie tracks in total blackness just as I would if critically evaluating music. The Panasonic seemed to open up an entire layer of realism, low-level detail, and crystal-clear front-to-back soundstaging I had not heard before in my system, ever. It was like visiting a high-end audio showroom with a familiar CD and enjoying a journey into the recording for the first time. I have no answer as to why this improvement exists with the BD50 decoding to PCM versus having it bitstream, nor can I fathom why either choice on the Panasonic sounds better than my PS3 (which can only extract to PCM). It’s possible that clock jitter or some sort of undocumented decoding/digital processing might be affecting the signal from the PS3 versus the Panasonic, there’s no way to be certain.

Basically, the issue of bitstreaming vs. internal decoding seems completely arbitrary with no real resolution in the matter. Given lack of consistency between what is and isn't better, this whole issue seems to be conceived in people's minds.