Panasonic DMP-BD30 vs. Toshiba HD-A35

[Ruined]

Being a longtime owner of the A35 and now an owner of the BD30 I can give some perspective on how they compare.

So, lets start!

Video quality: Hi-Defintion
DMP-BD30: A
HD-A35: A
TIE! Both are awesome with Hi-Def discs.

Video quality: Standard Definition Upscaling
DMP-BD30: C+
HD-A35: B+
The nod goes to the HD-A35. It has far better upscaling than the DMP-BD30, tested with each unit set to 1080i and using the Reon for deinterlacing. The HD-A35's has great scaling but deinterlacing is not great so it lost some points there, while the scaling of the DMP-BD30 seems largely inferior though the deinterlacing is a bit better. Overall, the HD-A35 looks signficantly better.

Audio
DMP-BD30: C+
HD-A35: A-
The A35 gets the easy win here. It has builtin decoders for all nextgen codecs while the DMP-BD30 does not; therefore when watching PiP with the BD30 you can only do it with lossy audio. In addition, the DMP-BD30 has a bug where the LFE is attenuated -5db over HDMI when watching PCM soundtracks; this can be corrected by setting all channels to -5db - except sub, which is set to 0. Still, you should not have to do that. Roger Dressler of Dolby has confirmed the problem and Panasonic is working on it.

Offline interactivity
DMP-BD30: C+
HD-A35: B+
I'm not sure whether its the actual player or simply the state of BD-J, but the offline interactivity of the DMP-BD30 is like amateur hour compared to the HD-A35. Menus chug along, no cool scaling during scene selections, pausing/lagging when activating interactive content, etc. HD-A35 wins easily with its seamless transitions.

Online interactivity
DMP-BD30: F
HD-A35: B-
The A35 works good online however it has too little space to be truly useful. Also the network setup could be better. The DMP-BD30 fails because it cannot do online interactivity at all.

Functionality: Boot Up time
DMP-BD30: B
HD-A35: C
The DMP-BD30 starts a lot faster than the HD-A35.

Functionality: Time to insert disc until movie starts
DMP-BD30: B+
HD-A35: C
Again, the DMP-BD30 is significantly faster to get the movie playing.

Functionality: Responsiveness
DMP-BD30: B
HD-A35: C+
While the DMP-BD30 seems hampered by BD-J execution, it seems more responsive to user input than the HD-A35.

Functionality: Remote
DMP-BD30: A-
HD-A35: B-
I found the DMP-BD30's remote to have better layout than the HD-A35's and be more responsive as well.

Functionality: Front Panel Controls
DMP-BD30: B+
HD-A35: C
The DMP-BD30 has much nicer feeling front panel controls that are better positioned as well (especially the eject button).

Looks
DMP-BD30: B
HD-A35: A-
The HD-A35 looks a lot nicer than the BD30 in my opinion. Still the BD30 is no slouch in looks.

Overall, both are great players. IMO, the upcoming Panasonic DMP-BD50 may just trump the HD-A35 in all areas (except possibly upscaling). But I would recommend this player as well.

[ganthc]

What audio codecs besides DTS-HDMA does the Panasonic not have?

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by ganthc

What audio codecs besides DTS-HDMA does the Panasonic not have?

Dolby Digital+, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, DTS-HDMA

All it decodes is standard DD/DTS. Everything else you need to do bitstream.

[Astrakan]

Originally Posted by Ruined

Video quality: Standard Definition Upscaling
DMP-BD30: C+
HD-A35: B+

This is a disappointment. Hopefully the DMP-BD50 ends up being an improvement in this area...

Upscaling is the second most important aspect of an HD player for me (first being HD picture quality), so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

KM

[Ruined]

I'm really liking this player. Functionality-wise it works a lot better than the Toshiba HD-A35 - if only it had the same upscaling quality & features of the A35! Super fast, too, about the speed of the Panasonic A110 DVD player if you recall. And if only the BD software had the same level of interactivity quality as HDi... Most of the BDs are really primitive in comparison. Oh well.

To get around the dreadful upscaling I think I am going to run both HDMI and component cables from the BD30 to my Integra DTC-9.8 (the DTC-9.8 is quickly becoming my favorite component). Based on the manual it looks like when the HDMI output is being used the Component output is locked in at 480i. Therefore I can run 1080i HDMI to one input on my DTC-9.8 for Blu-Ray and 480i Component to another input on my DTC-9.8 for DVD. The Integra should do the A/D conversion on the component and its Reon chip should scale/deinterlace the signal to 1080p; I am betting the end result will destroy the Panasonic's upscaled output even though its only transmitted via component.

[ganthc]

Wow, I didn't know that the panasonic didn't have true-hd decoding on it. That said, most titles on blu-ray have pcm, and as of now, no player can play the lossless sound of dts-hdma. So you're not doing too bad.

[Derb]

Originally Posted by Ruined

Dolby Digital+, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, DTS-HDMA

All it decodes is standard DD/DTS. Everything else you need to do bitstream.

In other words the only titles your screwed with are ones which have TrueHD only. I know a few Sony titles only offer that. dts-HDMA is a myth, the core you will get is awesome so I wouldn't even worry about that.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by ganthc

Wow, I didn't know that the panasonic didn't have true-hd decoding on it. That said, most titles on blu-ray have pcm, and as of now, no player can play the lossless sound of dts-hdma. So you're not doing too bad.

Not having TrueHD is a pretty big disadvantage considering Sony's insider "paidgeek" has stated that Sony will be transitioning to exclusively TrueHD in the future. As for DTS-HDMA, the lack of decoding is to be expected.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Derb

In other words the only titles your screwed with are ones which have TrueHD only. I know a few Sony titles only offer that. dts-HDMA is a myth, the core you will get is awesome so I wouldn't even worry about that.

Well I can decode DTS-HDMA with my Integra DTC-9.8 anyway. But I agree that lossless audio is more marketing than actual sound difference when compared to high bitrate lossy. Still, TrueHD decoding should have been included if $199 HD DVD players are able to include it.

My main gripe is the awful upscaling. But looking at Secrets it looks like awful upscaling is a common "feature" of BD players, as most the same crappy Sigma Designs processing chip. It would be nice if these BD players gave you the option of disabling their internal upscaling since it sucks so bad. That would me much easier than having to run two video cables and use different inputs for BD & SD DVD.

[Astrakan]

Originally Posted by Ruined

But looking at Secrets it looks like awful upscaling is a common "feature" of BD players, as most the same crappy Sigma Designs processing chip.

I'll be a sonofabitch.

I'm crossing my fingers this will be remedied sooner rather than later. Despite having already bought some Blu-Rays, I refuse to buy a player that doesn't have excellent upconverting capabilities.

Or, rather, I refuse to buy such a player right now. If there are no Blu-Ray players with awesome upconverting capabilities by early 2009 I guess I'll probably cave.

Hopefully something good will come out sooner than that.

KM

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Astrakan

I'll be a sonofabitch.

I'm crossing my fingers this will be remedied sooner rather than later. Despite having already bought some Blu-Rays, I refuse to buy a player that doesn't have excellent upconverting capabilities.

Or, rather, I refuse to buy such a player right now. If there are no Blu-Ray players with awesome upconverting capabilities by early 2009 I guess I'll probably cave.

Hopefully something good will come out sooner than that.

KM

Or you can do what I did. Run two sets of cables and use an external video processor. I highly recommend the Onkyo/Integra line of receivers/prepros that feature the Reon processor, they scale and deinterlace exceptionally. It is truly incredible the quality they offer for the price.

I'll let people know how my experiment fairs tonight. I will be able to A/B Panasonic scaling + Reon deinterlacing vs. Onkyo A/D + Reon scaling & deinterlacing.

[Ruined]

Okay so I did a bit further testing and it appears I was too harsh on the Panasonic's scaling. While its deinterlacing for SD DVD isn't as good, its scaling seems about the same. The couple of DVDs I picked out originally were just extra sucky.