All I have to say is that on the surface, Blu Ray picture and sound is definitely all it's cracked up to be and then some. I still have my first generation Sony XBR 1080i I bought in 2006 with 2 HDMI outputs and I must say with this player via HDMI (Monster Ultra High Speed 1000)I can really really tell the difference. I used used the same Monster cable and hooked it up to my DirecTV box, and I must admit as a skeptic of HDMI fraud, it definitely gave me a slightly clearer picture than the hdmi cable they provided me when I got the new HD Box a couple of months ago. I have only tested a few regular standard DVD's on it (The Dark Knight, Constantine, Underworld 2 and Day After Tomorrow) and the picture and sound seemed more enhanced and clearer than on my old regular DVD player. However, Constatine in some scenes seemed a bit grainy and overenhance a bit but still enjoyed it better than on my original dvd player. The frozen scenes on the Day After Tomorrow were spectacular.
I've only had this model since April 2 so I haven't even begun getting into the BD-Live and hooking it up to the internet as of yet. However, I specifically bought Quantum of Solace, Bolt, Wall-E, Night at Museuem and Kingdom of Heaven and I must say the picture is breathtaking. The sound is so clear and crisp I had to turn down the normal volume I usually have my 5.1 surround sound receiver at down several several notches. I don't have a fancy receiver with hdmi ouput, just used a digital coaxial cable and connected to the back of the bluray player along with hdmi for the stunning picture. I can only imagine what it would look like on a newer 1080p t.v. if there is really that much of a difference than the quality I see now. However, i noticed something about the audio connections or maybe I have it wrong. For some reason it seemed like the sound from the player was slightly louder and when I had audio cables as compared to the digital coaxial cable i'm currently using which seems to be much clearer but compressed. Maybe it's me I don't know i'm still new at this blu ray thing.
Cons
The load up times is really really slow. Though this model has a feature for quickload which is actually slightly faster but be prepared to wait a while. It's a bluray disc with way more content stored so what are you gonna do. By now you'd think they'd work this kink out of Blu Ray after 3 years.
Of course you can't stop and pick up where you left off. Why, Why has this not been fixed yet. You'll just have to remember where you left at by hitting the status button to show you the chapter it's currently at or I think there is a bookmark feature but it hasn't worked for me as of yet.
The remote looks sort of cheesy and I wish it could have been a universal style remote to allow you work more than one different brand of component (I'll just buy a Logitech Universal to cure this problem).
If you accidently choose 1080p as your source for your television and you only have a 1080i (which i found out the hard way as the idiot from Tweeter conned me into thinking my televsion would be able to deliver 1080p via some de-interlacing of some sort and suprise, it doesn't) you will not only lose your picture and won't get a signal but only audio, in order for me to get the signal back I had to disconnect the hdmi plug from both the t.v. and bluray unit and reconnect them and restart the machine all over again. Of course the instruction booklet didn't tell you this in the troubleshooting section.
Other than that, I'm really quite happy with the player. Looking forward to getting the "The Day The Earth Stood Still". I know it was a crappy movie but the special effects was awesome and i can only imagine how good it would look on my big screen. It think the Blu Ray is going for 16.99 on Amazon at last check and you even get the orignal version of the movie included. Can't beat that no matter how bad the movie is. Can't wait for Underworld 3 in Blu Ray. Get more detail about Panasonic DMP-BD80 High Clarity Audio Blu-ray Disc Player, Black.
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