The Panasonic DMP-BD50 is a Blu-ray, DVD, and CD player, available since summer 2008 and currently selling from around 400 GBP.

• Crisp HDTV picture with 24p support and plenty of video settings.
• SD-card reader.
• Decodes analog and digital high-bitrate audio.
• Supports BD-Live.

• DVD de-interlacing is not perfect.

Panasonic's DMP-BD50 is a tasty package, and stands above even its highly-praised predecessor, the BD30. This powerful Blu-ray player retrieves HDTV-quality trailers and bonus material from the Internet, and masters various multimedia applications.

Connections:

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Introduction

Panasonic's third Blu-ray player combines proven technology - inherited from its much-loved older brother, the BD30 - with extended audio capabilities. There's also an internet connection for BD-Live content, equipping the player well for future developments in this fledgling technology.

The BD50 is a step ahead of similarly-priced competitors, and is one of the rare devices in this price class to decode all high-definition audio formats for both analog and digital output. Owners of older AV receivers will relish this opportunity to enjoy the full quality of the modern formats.

Déjà-vu: The DMP-BD50 looks almost identical to its predecessor, but offers an Internet connection and analog output of HD audio formats.

Apart from the new Ethernet interface, the DMP-BD50 looks almost identical to the earlier DB30 model, which already offered an HDTV-compatible SD-card reader, 24p format support with high-definition bitstream audio, and picture-in-picture functions according to BD Profile 1.1.

The newer model currently sells for 200 GBP more, and has the Internet connection required for Profile 2.0 (BD-Live), as well as a 1-gigabyte internal memory. However, if you want to download trailers or other bonus material from the Internet, you need to supply the player with an SD memory card.

The DMP-BD50 has an internal decoder than can optionally convert all high-definition audio formats from Dolby and DTS into discrete, 7.1-channel PCM-audio. This means older AV receivers with only HDMI 1.1 or 1.2 technology can still enjoy perfect HD sound quality. The user can specify the level for the analog, 5.1-channel output, as well as the delay values for seven channels.

Practical: The BD50's remote control has direct-access buttons for important player functions.

Remote Control and Menu:
Luckily, extensively annotated menu entries help you navigate through the settings. The remote control's "Display" button brings up information about the current video and audio format for the main and secondary picture (in picture-in-picture mode).

The player does not, however, recognize the difference between the two DTS-HD audio formats "High Resolution" and "Master Audio".

The clear menu also provides access to the three "Re-master" functions for audio CDs and to the "User" picture mode, with adjustable image parameters.

A strong feature:
The BD50 displays JPEG photos in Full HD resolution, and even with CD-music accompaniment. Home-movie fanatics can play back AVCHD-format camcorder videos in HDTV-quality via the SD-card reader.

Excellent: We use this sequence in Chapter 11 of Pioneer's Blu-ray test disc "Demo Contents 2008 Summer" to put Blu-ray players through their paces. The BD50 only rarely showed fringing on the digits in the car's license plate, and de-interlacing was perfect in practically every scene.

Blu-ray:
Apart from tiny digital-level deviations, the BD50 provides perfect pictures. Navigation through BD-Java menus is speedy, and the player renders them in perfect form. It handles even our pitfall test-sequences with ease. For example, in Chapter 4 of "Casino Royale", neither the tell-tale stripes on the sea plane nor the slanted roof of the Land Rover show flicker. Judder-free 24p playback is also immaculate, and the BD50 correctly signals the 24p format to the display.

The internal video-processing converts HDTV concert recordings, or documentaries such as "Galapagos", into sharp, flicker-free progressive pictures. The only slip-up we noticed was the occasional, slight fringing on the license plates of fast-moving cars.

DVD:

Satisfactory: The sun loungers in this scene from Chapter 5 of the DVD "Six Days Seven Nights" really put a player's de-interlacing to the test. Some of the time, the Panasonic gave smooth edges with no stair-step effects, but flicker appeared as the camera panned horizontally across the beach.

The video-processor's subtle sharpness control works wonders with good DVD recordings - there's not a false edge in sight. Movies with a progressive flag, such as "One Night at McCool's", resolve fine details in dazzling clarity.

Without the help of the progressive flag, on the other hand, the player occasionally trips up. For example, some edge-flicker crops up in the horizontal camera pan across the beach in "Six Days Seven Nights".

Excellent: The BD50's audio frequency response shows almost do dampening of high-frequency information, and the player scores full marks in almost all sound quality criteria.

Thanks to the BD50's internal decoder, it can output high-definition audio formats via HDMI as either a bitstream or multichannel PCM. Both varieties sound fantastic, audibly more dynamic, and spatially better defined than traditional DTS or Dolby Digital sound.