Got my DMP BDT500 yesterday
, here is first impression on this deal:
Order: I placed my order on 29Dec13 via ishopinternational, when this was listed for 149.99USD on amazon. ishop website was showing that they have placed order to amazon on 30Dec, but the status didnt change till 7Jan, and i had called them 3-4 times to know the status but seems ishop has very defficient tracking process. nobody was able to answer whether the product was actually orderd or recieved by their NY warehouse. All of a sudden, on 8Jan, the online status changed and was showing a BlueDart tracking number. When i checked bluedart, the product was actually reached bangalore and delivery was done in next 3 hours. I was happy but surprized how ishop people dont know that product has reached india? Just for fun, i called them again on 9Jan morning, asking the status, and they still have no clue. however i informed them that i have recieved
Packing: The product was in original panasonic box, which was damaged at several places. The player was sitting very loosely inside, and while opening the box i was very much concerned about the damages inside. bring out the player from inner sleeve, a small (3-4 mm) crack on the front flip cover made me disappointed at first place.
Keeping my fingers crossed, made the connections with TV/AVR etc. Its 110V player, and as i already own a stepdown for my AVR, plugged it to the free 100V point on transformer.
A deep breath of relief.... the player is alive no other issue....
Out-of-box impression:
Build & Finish: just wow, player is solid build and very rich finish.
(Just tried with USB as of now)
Video: I am not an expert, but my layman's point, it is superb, very nice colors and motion handling. I have used Denon's DBP2012, and the result with bdt500 is very much close to it, at least for my eyes Or my TV
. The most improvement i see is the fast moving scenes which is damn smooth with bdt500.
Audio: The sound quality is definitely a plus, while watching BR/MKVs i tried different audio modes and they really give a impressive output particurly night surround mode. Played some 320kbps mp3, not much difference then denon 2012. I think i dont hear difference bcoz my speakers (I had same feeling when i plugged Asus Xonar E1 DAC
)
Convenience: Touchpad in Remote is really a bad idea. If you want to scroll to 50 songs in a folder, you might need to swipe atleast 10 times
Another limitation i see is, it cant play videos continuosly (like video songs).. cant move out of the folder while playing a audio(mp3 etc) without stop playing....
may be i will come out of this problems once i have used this for few hours... remember this is just 'first impression'
A friend of mine has decided to buy LX55, once it is there, hopefully we will meet some weekend to a-b comparision... will write up if that happen sometime soon
