NEWS: Panasonic Blu-ray player supports Final Standard Profile v1.1 – but not v2.0

Panasonic claims its DMP-BD30 Blu-ray player is the first in the world to support Final Standard profile (v1.1) that adds enhanced features and functionality to Blu-ray discs.

For example, a Picture-in-Picture feature displays a sub-screen, and an Audio Mixing function lets the user switch the playback sound between the main screen and sub-screen. Film studios can also add enhanced commentary and additional information about the film in pop-up sub-windows on the disc.

The £350 DMP-BD30 can also output Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Audio in bitstream form with no degradation via HDMI 1.3a, and it supports 1080p/24fps video playback.

Other technical highlights include 192kHz/24-bit digital-to-analogue converters, Panasonic's own P4HD (Pixel Precision Progressive Processing for HD) technology, and the inclusion of a PHL Reference Chroma processor to create clearer colour boundaries.

For networking convenience, the DMP-BD30 comes with an SD memory card slot for easy viewing of video or images from an HD camcorder or digital camera.

The player comes bundled with two Blu-ray discs, Ratatouille and Cars.

We'll be bringing you a full review of the Panasonic DMP-BD30 in the special High-Definition supplement free with the April issue of What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision, on sale from March 6.

Technorati Tags: 1080p, 24fps, Blu-ray, HDMI 1.3a, Home cinema

Andy Clough

Andy is Global Brand Director of What Hi-Fi? and has been a technology journalist for 30 years. During that time he has covered everything from VHS and Betamax, MiniDisc and DCC to CDi, Laserdisc and 3D TV, and any number of other formats that have come and gone. He loves nothing better than a good old format war. Andy edited several hi-fi and home cinema magazines before relaunching whathifi.com in 2008 and helping turn it into the global success it is today. When not listening to music or watching TV, he spends far too much of his time reading about cars he can't afford to buy.