Panasonic DMP-BDT110 review

Performance-wise the Panasonic DMP-BDT110 Blu-ray player is every bit as good as the BDT310, offering scalpel-sharp 2D pictures that'll bewitch anyone who claps eyes on them. Key to its success is the inclusion of Adaptive Chroma Processing, which upsamples colours to make hues look more convincing and gets rid of aliasing artefacts that can sully colour clarity.

Picture minutiae such as fine skin textures and patterns are rendered cleanly and crisply, resulting in deep, dazzling images, and the deck tracks motion with utter smoothness and freedom from judder when viewed on a 1080/24p compatible TV. This really is Blu-ray at its best.

Its 3D pictures are even more awe-inspiring, layering objects and scenery in Avatar with the sort of inviting depth you look for in 3D pictures, without falling foul of blur or dreaded crosstalk. Out of the box it delivers sharp, smooth and focused images, but if they don't sit right with your eyes then the useful 3D adjustments do a great job of ironing out any awkwardness.

Sadly the DMP-BDT110 isn't equally assured when converting 2D to 3D. With movies such as Inception or Iron Man 2, the picture appears virtually flat most of the time, with only a vague sense of layering.

Certain movies and scenes look better than others, particularly those with obvious 3D cues such as the 2D version of Avatar or the exploding street scene in Inception, but most of the time it fails to impress. By Panasonic's own admission its early 3D conversion technology is 'conservative' and has some years to go before it rivals real 3D.