PanasonicDMP-BD87 Ultra-Fast Booting Blu-ray Disc Player

I do have to say I am one of the few who read the reviews, and then bought this anyway. I actually bought 2. It works really nice for me, but we are not streaming folk here. I am about picture and sound for dollar value.The picture and sound are really REALLY good for the price.First setup is with a Panasonic Plasma, Direct TV, JBL Sound Bar, HDMI Switch, and Harmony One Remote. Wireless set up flawlessly. Firmware setup flawlessly. Player runs flawlessly, if a bit slow (switching functions etc.). Gets to the media streaming content well (not super fast). Haven't tried the pictures, USB, music, or whatnot, but I don't really need them anyway. I have used players as media servers before and they don't work as nicely as a remote controlled laptop hooked up with HDMI to a sound system (no remote can ever browse 1TB worth of music hooked up via a removable HDD fast enough to be truly functional...it's gimmicky). Most media, Netflix, and all streaming services run better on an actual computing platforms anyway IMHO.Setup 2 is a little trickier, and why I gave it one less star.I have a Pioneer Plasma that is about 4 years old, a Pioneer THX 7.1 receiver that is the same age, and the BD87. As before, the wireless and firmware set up flawlessly. My one drawback is that it only either has HDMI, or 2 channel analog. There is no optical or digital coax out. It is not a big deal except that my Pioneer THX receiver is now dated, as it has no HDMI, and I can't seem to cheat the optical from my Pioneer Plasma to the receiver (but it is only a problem if you plan on using apparently NOW LEGACY home theater sound). The only reason why it is not a show stopper for now is because I just moved to a new house, and I don't have my 7.1 THX surround set up, and it looks like it will be a couple months before I do. Long story short, if I want a fully functional Blu-Ray with my legacy home theater, I will be upgrading to the 220. This one will go in my bedroom.I will say one thing about the firmware. Even though you can, it is not generally a good idea to update firmware over wireless. Wireless signals, no matter how strong, are not as reliable as a hardline. I would say it is a flaw with Panasonic players for being so testy for those who have bricked their players. If you need optical or digital coax, this unit also might be a deal breaker, but the 220 is only like, $30 more.

Ok, so at the heart of this story is my deep dissatisfaction with Panasonic's technical support. It is because of the miserable experience that I had with them that this product is getting a 4 star rating instead of 5. First, about the player. It's boot times have been quick and video render quality looks great on my 46" Panasonic plasma at 1080p.Where this player really shines though is the extended features. I was able to mount my network share's (after Panasonic support told me it couldn't) and access and play all the mp3, mkv, and mp4s that I had. It also played USB media of the same types without a hitch. I miss DIVX and other codec support a little, but being that MKV is open source, I can't help but support their decision. The Player's firmware is user upgradable via burning a DVD with the update file or via a web update. There are some features that I'd love to see come in future firmwares, but more on that later. The player has integrated WIFI as well as wired networking and setup was pretty simple. There's a provision for setting up 4 custom home screens, which they call user profiles, with custom backgrounds and user icons. Eh, it's pretty. But also pretty trivial. Gripes: The reason why I bought this Blu-Ray player specifically was to stick with the Panasonic brand and make use of the Viera Link. Viera is Panasonic's implementation of the HDMI CEC standard. The Consumer Electronics Control messages are passed along HDMI. Talking to Panasonic support, they had almost no understanding what CEC was. While I had been hoping to have the Blue-Ray player tucked away in a cabinet and to relay control messages through the TV, Panasonic informed me that CEC only allowed the TV to tell the DVD player to turn on. I found out that this is not entirely accurate. This model player does not fully support CEC spec which would allow for player control messages, but it is supported by higher tier models. It's not easy to tell to what degree the Panasonic Models are compliant, sadly.Good: Fast capable player, good upconversion, great network support, good media file handling. Turning on the player will turn on the TV and automatically switch to the correct input, if you're TV supports it.Bad: Panasonic support is not very technical, no matter how you escalate. Panasonic isn't great at letting you know how much or little their models support CEC.Plea: Panasonic!! If you're reading this, PLEASE add full CEC in a firmware update! And your support could be much better.