Panasonic DMP-BDT320 review

A touch-remote and Viera Connect augment this great Blu-ray player

Panasonic DMP-BDT320 review
Best in Class
Viera Connect makes its first appearance here on a Panasonic Blu-ray player, making this a truly smart deck

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Panasonic DMP-BDT320 review

After loading and playing a Blu-ray disc in under 40 seconds, the Panasonic DMP-BDT320 impresses with its core picture quality.

New for 2012 is an increase in vertical colour data, and it's certainly true that the Panasonic DMP-BDT320 outputs highly accurate, warm tones and awesome contrast.

Also making its debut is Adaptive Chroma Processing, which helps extract a high amount of detail, serving 2D images on the Panasonic DMP-BDT320 well.

Panasonic DMP-BDT320 review

It also produces some impressive 3D images, as viewed on a Panasonic Edge LED-backlit TV with active shutter glasses. Everything about the images is just so pristine, stable and thoroughly engaging.

The Panasonic DMP-BDT320's P4HD chip manages reference-level DVD upscaling, although that can't be said about 2D to 3D conversion, which reaches its usual level of being occasionally convincing.

It's a technology that has little chance of working for more than fleeting moments, though it does work with an impressive number of sources. Actually engaging 2D-3D mode while watching an HD trailer for 2012, for instance, proved long-winded, but rather impressive in a short, special effects-laden burst.

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Jamie Carter

Jamie is a freelance tech, travel and space journalist based in the UK. He’s been writing regularly for Techradar since it was launched in 2008 and also writes regularly for Forbes, The Telegraph, the South China Morning Post, Sky & Telescope and the Sky At Night magazine as well as other Future titles T3, Digital Camera World, All About Space and Space.com. He also edits two of his own websites, TravGear.com and WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com that reflect his obsession with travel gear and solar eclipse travel. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners (Springer, 2015),