Panasonic DMP-BD87 Ultra-Fast Booting Blu-ray Disc Player

The panasonic Blu-ray player is my third, which I got because each company seems to have contracts or agreements with different services. I made the mistake of buying 2 players from the same company (LG) before I knew that, as part of a larger project to get rid of my cable. Because the LG players offered a subset of available material, I got a player from another company to broaden the options. Like the LG, this player offers Netflix and Amazon on demand. It also provides hulu and vudu (if you subscribe). It can be used wired or as part of a wireless network, and has hdmi and usb inputs.

Set up was relatively easy (but for the plethora of cords and connections from the millions of other devices we have hooked up). It is also relatively easy to use, although somewhat less intuitive than some of the other players we have (e.g. it took me a good half hour to enter my login for Netflix). Netflix takes a little longer to load than it does on the LG, but streaming was very smooth, and uninterrupted (which probably has more to do with my teen being offline than with the player itself).

I did not notice any difference in the loading speed vs. my LG, although as noted earlier, Netflix took a little longer to load up. I would say that this is about average as players go, maybe a little better than a generic blu-ray player because of all the connections and options. There was not a single feature which stood out that impressed me or would make me recommend it over the LG or Phillips. The three cost roughly the same, and all 3 companies make quality components. I would say that your choice of player may be determined by the content that you want as each company provides a slightly different set of options.

The blu-ray player itself is average. It may be that I did not notice much of a difference because I chose my first player carefully. The Lg does not take a long time to load or have confusing menus, so the feature which Panasonic is promoting is somewhat lost on me.

The remote is pretty basic, but not as nicely laid out or intuitive as many others I have (one could even say Too many! ;)

In contrast to just a year or two ago, it is not an expensive purchase and you get a lot for the money. I would recommend this player, but not not over the other 2 I mentioned, again, your choice being determined somewhat by what content you want to access.

If you are just looking for a blu-ray player and do not care about streaming, it works well, and my personal experience with Panasonic electronics has been good (LOVE their cameras!!)

I have not had it long enough (around a month) to discuss durability, but, that said, all of the other equipment I have from Panasonic has held up well. (I have had my TZ camera for at least 7 years now and it is still as good as new).

It is easy to use, plays disks well, streams well and provides a lot of options for input and connections. I gave it 4 stars because there is nothing about it which really stands out, and the remote control is not as user-friendly as some. Otherwise it is a pretty decent little machine.

The first one I purchased froze as I was entering in the wi-fi password to join a network. After that the system never recognized the internal wi-fi adapter and had to replace the entire player unit. I decided to give Panasonic the benefit of the doubt and received another of the same unit. The unit always recognized the internal wi-fi adapter, but it could not even connect to an unsecure network whose access point was 2 feet away

I am absolutely stunned and floored about the difficulty I had from this Panasonic product and would not trust or recommend this product to anyone.

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Streaming Netflix works very poorly. It seems to run into network problems 3 out of every 4 tries. A 6 year old laptop placed right next to it gets a good wi-fi connection and can stream without problems.

Navigating the menus is painfully slow, and sometimes locks up. Once it completely froze up and wouldn't even power off. After 5 minutes, I needed to unplug it just to get it to shut off.

Returning it only 3 hours after the package arrived. Here's hoping that Amazon's return process is as painless as the web pages imply. I've never had to use it before.

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I finally got on the Blu-Ray bandwagon a couple years ago once the HD format war was settled in its favor. However, I wasn't prepared for the complexity of Blu-Rays compared to regular DVDs. I figured that one Blu-Ray player was as good as another, but a couple of missteps involving cheap models showed me how wrong I was. Certain discs with more complex content had problems playing, or wouldn't even load at all on bargain players. So I took a risk on the inexpensive Panasonic DMP-BD87 would it do the trick, or falter? Thankfully, it was the former at least when it came to discs.

For those of you who hesitate to order electronics on the web, you might as well face the fact that it's becoming more of the norm, especially as the big box stores close their doors. After being burned by cheap players from a brick-and mortar outlet, I bit the bullet a couple of years ago and bought an Oppo through Amazon because it got great ratings and I couldn't find one at a store nearby. It worked fine out of the box and so far has been an excellent primary player. That positive experience ended my fear of online electronics shopping, so when I decided to get a relatively simple and inexpensive bedroom player the Panasonic fit the bill, in part because of a good review of another Panasonic model I read in "Home Theater" magazine.

When the Panasonic BD87 arrived, I connected it via an Amazon HDMI cable (great cable for the money, by the way) to my Denon receiver, put the batteries in the remote, and went right to the Setup menu. The non-backlit remote is uncluttered and about half the size of my Dish and Denon receiver remotes. Although I can't say that the cross-shaped GUI menu system was the most intuitive I've seen, I was still able to configure the device without much effort. I soon connected to my wireless Verizon 4G hotspot, and right away was prompted to download and install a firmware update. After that smooth experience I was ready to play a movie, and I figured I'd start with one that had choked a previous Blu-Ray player: "Kick-Ass."

Thankfully, "Kick-Ass" didn't live up to its name with the Panasonic, as it quickly loaded and played through without incident. I also tried a regular DVD that tended to choke on fast-forward in an older model Blu-Ray player, and it too worked well. Video on the 40" Toshiba LCD TV and sound via the 5.1 Denon configuration was fine for both formats, and tweaking the audio setup on the Panasonic was easy and provided a good contrast between the player's aural capability and the Denon receiver's translation of the disc's sound (if you are fuzzy on this sort of thing, there are plenty of magazine and online resources to get you up to speed; they are worth looking into before you buy). Finally, I went ahead and fed it the newest Blu-Ray in my arsenal: "Prometheus".

At first, that's where I thought I had a problem an error message warning me that I had no installed memory came up, but I was able to continue through it and watch the flick. After checking the manual, I found out that I needed a flash drive to provide a place to store optional BD-Live downloadable content. So I popped an inexpensive Sony flash drive into the front USB port and was able to stream and view some extra features for "Prometheus" via the Internet. This noticeably slowed down the disc's load time, and the stream was not quick or steady, but I noted that the Panasonic was only getting two reception bars from my hotspot (I imagine connectivity would be better from a regular cable modem with wireless capability va. a rural hotspot relying on a 3G/4G cellular data connection).

Keep in mind that this was the first time I'd bothered to access online content through a Blu-Ray player. Indeed, there are two things I'm still on the fence about when it comes to my television viewing habits: 3D and video streaming. I'm planning to avoid the whole 3D deal until the technology stabilizes (much as I did with Blu-Ray until it beat HD-DVD), and as for streaming, it is something I would have to research based on different criteria than merely watching discs. Therefore, in my test of the Panasonic I mainly focused on the Blu-Ray viewing experience, which worked well compared to some other comparable entry-level models from Toshiba and Samsung.

Overall, the Panasonic BD-87 has proven to be a good secondary Blu-Ray unit. The ability to download firmware updates is a plus as discs become even more feature-packed, as long as Panasonic continues to supply them as needed. Internet video via the built-in wireless connection will appeal to some folks more than others (just don't forget to buy a flash drive; it's not included). Bottom line, go for a high-end player if you're a frequent movie watcher and Internet streamer, but if you're on a budget and want to simply watch discs vs. accessing a lot of online content or demanding a cinephile experience, then the Panasonic DMP-BD87 should do the trick.

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This Panasonic Blu-ray player really makes my big plasma TV look great. The Blu-ray discs look good, but the upconversion on my regular DVD collection is what's most amazing to me. It was easy to set up and use the network features too. I highly recommend this player--great performance for the money.