CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

GEBrown · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 729 Location: Denver

I'm surprised no one else posted this here, so I will. With the BD-35 and BD-55 officially being taken off the market, here are their replacements. Unfortunately, I cannot find any preliminary pricing anywhere on the Internet.

FYI

http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/Panasonic_s_New_Blu-ray_Line_Includes_VHS_Combo_Deck_and_Portable_Player.shtml

ecrabb · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 5:10 pm Post subject:

Thank God they finally have a model with a VHS deck. I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for a 1080p-upscaling solution for all my 20-year old VHS tapes.

Rolling Eyes

SC

Zebu Fellenz · Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 2567

If you think that is stupid just wait until Sony comes out with the ultimate combo player with BETAMAX Laughing

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

Clarence · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 6:17 pm Post subject:

Ooooh.... will it let you record BD onto VHS, too? Razz

Clarence · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 6:27 pm Post subject:

Talking about BD with a buddy this morning...

Outside of your CRT, HT, A/V geek friends... do you have any friends, neighbors, co-workers, family members that have bought a BD player? I know a few that have a PS3, but 99.44% as a game player, not a BD player.

ecrabb · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 6:38 pm Post subject:

Hmmm... ummmm.... Well..... Ummmmm... No. I don't know a single person that has a Blu-ray player that isn't also into HT/front projection. I know a ton of people with Wii's, but I can't even think of anybody with a PS3, let alone a BD player outside my immediate circle.

Funny anecdote. I was at Best Buy a few days ago. I'm picking up two BD's they had on sale, and two guys probably in their late-40's/early-50's are looking, too. One guy says to the other, "You got a Blu-ray player?" The other guy says, "Yeah." They browse for a few more seconds, and the first guy says, "How do you suppose they put the old movies on Blu-ray? Do they "upconvert" 'em or something?" By that time, they were starting to walk away, so I didn't hear the other guy's response.

Oh, man.

SC

Clarence · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 6:55 pm Post subject:

Yeah, we were visiting the inlaws at Christmas. One of my boys said "we have that on Blu-Ray"... in-laws said "what's blu-ray?".

A lot of people even at AVS still ask how they can put old John Wayne and James Bond movies on BD... "if they didn't even have HD cameras back then?!" Rolling Eyes

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 10:31 pm Post subject:

GEBrown · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 729 Location: Denver

Here's a Panasonic link with a little more technical info. It implies, but does not outright state that only the BD-80 will have 7.1 analog outputs.

Also, there is NO mention of upscaling to 1080i, only 720P and 1080P.

http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/prModelDetail?storeId=11301&catalogId=13251&itemId=322744&modelNo=Content01072009023243932&surfModel=Content01072009023243932

I also read in a forum that a guy at CES was told by the booth that the list pricing would be the same as the BD-35 and BD-55 - but I still haven't seen anything in print from Panasonic.

**kal** · Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:00 pm Post subject:

Clarence · Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:07 pm Post subject:

ecrabb · Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:36 pm Post subject:

Clarence, check out Ken Rockwell's page on the Scan Multi Pro...
http://www.kenrockwell.com/minolta/mp.htm

That's the newer version of the older Scan Multi II I have and it's a really nice scanner. If you only need to do 35mm, check out the Minolta Scan Elite 5400 - it's a hell of a scanner. They're still around for $600-700. You can probably buy it, scan everything you need to scan, and then turn around and sell it 3 or 4 months later and not be out anything.

SC

dropzone7 · Joined: 12 Jun 2007 Posts: 1069 Location: Charlotte, NC

Geez...these players are being replaced faster than I can keep up. It seems like just yesterday I was reading about the BD35. I'm actually using a BD30 and I LOVE it. I don't see a need to upgrade for a while as I'm just enjoying Blu Ray movies and don't really care about Live and the other fluff.

Gary M. · Guest

Panny BD players are the best right now, but all BD players will be forgotten when the Oppo hits, trust me Wink

-Gary

GEBrown · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 729 Location: Denver

fuzzybee · Joined: 26 Sep 2006 Posts: 187

What's funny is that you guys mock the VHS-BD Player, but we have a *very* wealthy client that has now decided that he wants to watch VHS tapes in his close-to-be-completed new home. We don't have the infrastructure or rack space for separate VHS decks, so this could be a Godsend. Hopefully it comes out very quickly.