Panasonic DMP-B100 Review

Last year we looked at a handful of portable DVD players and only a portable Blu-ray player, the Panasonic DMP-B15, which was the first of its kind. While portable DVD players are a mature product category – offers many features and functionality at a reasonable price – portable Blu-ray is just entering its infancy. Maybe that’s why even entry-level Panasonic DMP-B100 is expensive. As portable movie watching is your goal, a device such as an iPad, a traditional laptop or a portable DVD player is a better choice, especially because the image quality advantages of Blu-ray in general are not worth it at this screen size. If you are looking for a way to Blu-ray collection to watch on the go, however, the DMP-B100 is the least expensive way to do so, although Blu-ray equipped laptops like the Gateway NV5933u’re almost there.

Design

The B100 has a much more minimalist look than other portable players we’ve seen, with few buttons or ports cluttering the design. The device is covered with matte silver plastic, and has plenty of attractive curves and edges. Weighing just 1.36 pounds, it’s certainly mobile, but heavy enough to need its implementation in a bag or backpack.

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Most notable is the 8.9-inch LCD screen that can be partially detached from the table stand, making it possible to be viewed on a number of ways. The screen can lay almost flat on top of the disc tray or propped in a more traditional clamshell fashion. Volume buttons are secretly recorded along the right of the screen, all other display and menu functions rest on the disc lock itself or directly below it. Along the bottom of the screen are the speakers, the lonely headphone jack can be found on the right side at the foot of the player. Finally, the SDXC card slot on the left edge, with a slide-down flap hiding the port.

The B100 is included remote control is lightweight and small enough to carry, but the large number of keys is intimidating. All buttons are the same size and are arranged in a grid format, so no chance of navigating by feel. This is less a problem with a portable player, which generally would be used in a well lit environment, but more attention to usability would be appreciated at this price.

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Features

The B100 can play Blu-ray, DVD and CD discs, and recordable versions of each format. The player can read a number of file types from these discs, including JPEG pictures, MP3 audio files and video formats (MPEG-2, 4 and H.264 codec). It also supports high capacity cards SDXC home can be one of the above formats. Our tests with different files worked fine with basic MP3, JPEG and MPEG-2 formats, but we do not MPEG-4 AVCHD on hand to try to have the player. Panasonic advertises this as a convenient link between your HD camcorder, so it definitely sweet deal if you happen to have one.

The B100 can decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD formats to stereo soundtrack, although we doubt you a sonic advantages over plain old Dolby Digital and DTS to hear this player. Unlike other players we have seen, the B100 offers only a headphone jack, meaning you need an adapter if two people want in one listen.

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So many features go, that’s about it. Unfortunately there is no HDMI output, so you can not use the B100 as a stand-alone player connected to a TV. The B100 lacks any kind of Internet connectivity and on-board storage, so streaming media capabilities or BD-Live content are unacceptable. There is no USB port, or support for other popular file formats like DivX, which is almost standard on portable DVD players. The B100 comes with a standard car charger and AC adapter, but no means the unit to attach to a headrest.

Performance

The B100 is 8.9-inch screen has a native resolution of 1024×600 pixels, not even 720p let alone 1080p resolution Blu-ray is capable of. That said, although the resolution is not light years beyond other portable DVD players, the jump in quality is immediately noticeable with Blu-ray discs.

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We were impressed by the quality of the films we screened as The Corpse Bride, Super Troopers, Pirates of the Caribbean and Mission: Impossible III and battery performance seemed on track what Panasonic claims. A full load netted us about three hours and 10 minutes playing with the LCD screen on the default setting for brightness. Our only complaint is the poor experience the battery charge and power indicators lit up front. They are far too boring to see in normal light, and we had to cup our hands over them to show properly.

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