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Panasonic MW-20 adds a new twist to the photo frame – music!

Ian McGurren — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 22:18:26 +0000

Are you one of those people who has a bedroom full of tech bits and bobs like digital photo frames, a Hi Fi, iPod docks, a clock radio? Well how about if you could roll them all up into one (reasonably) handy device? Panasonic may have the answer to your prayers with the new Panasonic MW-20.

The MW-20 is the follow up to the MW-10 (clever!) multimedia audio system photo frame – that’s Panasonic’s tag line, not mine – and offers a souped up take on its older brother at the expense of the CD player.

What is a multimedia audio system photo frame?

Looking less like a tiny TV and now more like a very sleek photo frame, the MW-20 plays photos from its 2GB internal memory, an SD card and any attached iPod/iPhone device.

Panasonic claims the MW-20 supports video playback, but annoyingly doesn’t elaborate on what formats it accepts.

The MW-20 will also play music from your iDevice through the frames built-in 5.6″ speaker, although there doesn’t appear to be any stereo out so you’ll have to appreciate the unit’s inbuilt DSP to make the most of the sound.

It’s a sleek setup, executed with the usual Panasonic panache, and although there are similar devices like the Elonex Cube 3 and Sony’s ICF-CL75iP, the MW-20 is certainly worth casting your ears and eyes over this Chrismas.

It’s slated for $249 in late November with a UK release date to be announced.

[Source: Slashgear]

Panasonic adds pearlescent buff to its Viera D28 HDTVs

Ian McGurren — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:08:10 +0000

Ever open to new ideas, Panasonic’s new Viera Pure line aims for maybe a slightly different demographic to the usual AV buffs. The LCD TVs are to be made available in a selection of different coloured frames from the industry standard black, including purple, silver and ice white. Panasonic have also added a pearlescent buff to each, claiming that they will take on different colours in different lit rooms.

While this may appeal to interior designers and not TV experts, the screens still pack an excellent LED lit IPS panel for those deep blacks and wide viewing angles. The excellent Viera Link network technology for all that internet interactivity with YouTube and more is included with the 32″ and 37″ models but don’t feel bad for the 22″ and 19″ models, as instead of Viera Cast, they boast iPod docks.

The 19″ and 22″ also have Freeview, with the 32″ and 37″ models coming equipped with Freeview HD and Freesat HD.

While these TVs are evolutionary rather than revolutionary, being able to get a TV for the bedroom or lounge that goes with your decor has until now been difficult – however now you can, and what’s more is that it’s from an excellent brand.

Panasonic shows off Skype on HDTV in the lamest demo ever

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:43:01 +0000

Panasonic have been showing off Skype on their HDTVs at CES 2010. I say showing off – what they’ve actually been doing is inflicting pain on anyone watching the demo! Check the video after the jump and you’ll see what I mean.

They’ve hired some third rate actors to take part in what must be the lamest, most excrutiatingly embarrassing staged demo since the Truman Show gave us “nutritious and delicious!”

The technology looks cool. It’s all part of Panasonic’s VIERA CAST, which lets you access a host of Internet apps direct from the TV or other VIERA CAST-enabled gadget. In this case, it’s Skype and HDTVs. What the demo doesn’t show, though, is Skype being used in real-life. Quite how good Skype on your telly looks when its usual delays and jitter kicks in is anyone’s guess!

Hopefully if you do buy this system, your conversations won’t be quite as stilted, but then again, I’ve never had an easy free-flowing video chat on Skype, so who knows? Maybe this demo is just like real life (albeit without the jitter!)

Annoyingly, the webcams cost $200 each on top of the cost of the TVs, which aren’t exactly going to be cheap. So although a number of Skype-enabled HDTVs have been announced at CES this year from Panasonic, LG and others, I can’t see video conferencing in the living room taking off anytime soon until the technology gets a whole lot cheaper.

[Source: Engadget]

Panasonic DMP-B500 portable Blu-ray player lets you tweet from your remote

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:04:34 +0000

Panasonic were showing off their new DMP-B500 and DMP-B100 portable Blu-Ray players at CES 2010, both of which feature high resolution screens (10.1″ and 8.9″ respectively) and Panasonic’s new VIERA CAST technology, which it uses across a variety of Blu-Ray players, home theatre systems and HDTVs.

VIERA CAST (apparently the capitals are important!), will give access to a full range of social media apps, which you can watch on the high resolution screen that the new portable Blu-ray players offer.

Seems everyone is stuffing social media apps onto their gadgets theses days, but it’s how easy they are to use that will make or break them. Seeing your tweets on a portable Blu-ray player is one thing, but how easy can it be to write your own tweets from a remote control?!

For its part, VIERA CAST now supports

Netflix
Pandora
Twitter
YouTube
Picasa

as well as Fox Sports, Bloomberg news, and Amazon Video on demand. That’s quite a range, so even if text entry is tricky, you’ve at least got easy access to videos and music.

Both portable Blu-ray players feature tonnes of connectivity options, including Wi-Fi, an SD Memory card Slot (which can also play back JPEG images and High Definition video), a USB port, Dolby Digital and DTS HD, and VIERA Link, which uses HDMI to control all VIERA Link combatable products with one remote.

[Source: Engadget]

Panasonic DMP-BD35 Blu-Ray DVD review

Mike Evans — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:46:21 +0000

The Panasonic DMP-BD35 Blu-Ray player that I’m reviewing here has the perfect combination that you want from a gadget – fantastic features combined with huge discounts despite the fact it was only released back in October 2008! So you get a fantastic, award-winning gadget at a fantastic price – bonus!

Of course, it’s only really a bargain if it’s actually any good, so I thought I’d find out to see what you get for your money these days for a decent Blu-Ray DVD player.

Panasonic DMP-BD35 Blu-Ray DVD player overview

The first thing that hits you about the DMP-BD35 is the name – I mean, could Panasonic throw any more letters and numbers at it? It’s a source of constant annoyance to me that consumer electronic manufacturers give their products such appalling names. I know it’s because most of these gizmos are simply commodities that have a half-life of 6 months before something better is released, and so it’s not worth spending the money on branding them.

But still, you’d think if they were going to give it a name, even if it’s only a codename, they could make it short!

Clearly not, though, so we’re stuck with the appallingly long DMP-BD35, which isn’t just annoying to read, it’s annoying to type as well!

OK, rant over. Name aside, the DMP-BD35 is just like most Blu-Ray players from the outside – sleek and black with a few minimalist features letting you know whether the thing’s alive or not, and a hugely ugly remote control. It’s the inside of this beast where all the goodness lies.

Panasonic DMP-BD35 features

The DMP-BD35 comes with the following array of features:

VIERA Link
SD Memory Card Slot
HD Audio Decoding and HDMI Out
Progressive Scan
1080/24p Playback
Playback: BD-ROM, BD-R (Blu-Ray Disc Recordable), BD-RE (Blu-Ray Disc Re-Recordable), DVD+R/RW (Re-Recordable), DVD-RW (Re-Recordable), DVD-R (Recordable), DVD RAM (Re-Recordable), MP3 (MPEG-3), CD-R (Recordable), CD-RW (Re-Recordable), JPEG (JPEG/Image CD), DivX

Panasonic BluRay player with ultimate accessory: VHS

Mike Evans — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:50:46 +0000

There’s been a huge variety of different technologies over the years for playing back video on your TV. Everything from Betamax and VHS through to DVD and now BluRay. The engineers over at Panasonic were clearly reflecting on these different ideas one night, when one of them suddenly had a brain wave and thought: “I know! Why don’t we include all of these technologies in one box?!”

Sony, of course, wouldn’t let them add Betamax support, but nobody stopped them adding VHS support! So that’s what they did: they built a state of the art BluRay player and bolted a VHS video recorder onto it as well, presumably just because they could!

Whether anyone prepared to spend $1500 on the latest BluRay payer (for that’s what the Panasonic DMR-BR360V costs) actually owns any old videos that they desperately need to see is anyone’s guess, but Panasonic is clearly hoping they do! My advice: buy an MPEG4 converter to transfer your old analogue VHS tapes to digital. You can do what you want with them, including burn them to DVD, so you don’t have to waste time hideous old VHS technology!

[Source: OhGizmo]

Pioneer Pro-111FD vs Panasonic TH-50PZ850U who will win?

admin — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:43:36 +0000

This is the show down between the two 50-inch plasmas vying for top spot, there is a $1500 price difference between them but are there any other differences? This is what the HD Guru set out to discover in his latest review. The long