Panasonic will launch its first BD Live player, the DMP-BD50. Described as the ultimate playback source for high definition 1080p content, the machine will launch in Europe later this year. Blu-ray media offers a wide range of functions that foster the transition to HD - including 1080p image quality, lossless Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio and versatile Picture-in-Picture applications.
The BD50 BD-Live function ‘opens up a myriad of interactive possibilities for the consumer,’ says the company. In the future BD-Live will allow users to connect the DMP-BD50 to the internet to download such data as images and subtitles, and to join in multi-player interactive games that are linked to bonus movie content contained on Blu-ray discs.For optimum image quality the DMP-BD50 features the PHL Reference Chroma processor and P4HD i/p conversion processor, which combine to create Uniphier, a precise digital video processor that produces sharp, crisp, natural colors that are extremely faithful to the original movie. Uniphier reflects the advance encoding and authoring technologies developed by Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory.
It will be joined in Europe by the cheaper DMP-BD30, the UK’s first profile 1.1 Blue-ray player. The company will announce its pricing plans at a European press conference in Valencia, Spain in a matter of weeks. For more details click here.