New Panasonic Blu-ray Player Bundles Films

Panasonic is rolling out a new Blu-ray player for $599.95 - and, just to make it more appealing, is including five Blu-ray movie titles with the unit.

Panasonic has announced its new DMP-BD10A Blu-ray player, aiming to lower the cost of consumer Blu-ray players, and capture market share by bundling popular movie titles with the unit.

The DMP-BD10A Blu-ray player will retail for $599.95, and features the company’s high-end audio processing supporting 7.1 surround, DTS-HD, and Dolby TrueHD—along with Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital, and DTS. The system also features Panasonic’s P4HD rendering technology, a 297 MHz 14-bit video D/A converter with 4× oversampling, video noise shaping, and theoretical support for almost 4,400 billion colors, and of course it supports BD-Java interactive elements, and can play standard DVd titles with 1080p up-scaling via HDMI. The unit is also compatible with H.264 video, which means it can be used to play video captured with Panasonic’s HDC-DX1 camcorder.

“Panasonic is deeply committed to the success of Blu-ray,” said the VP Panasonic’s Entertainment Group Gene Kelsey, in a statement. “High definition entertainment is a truly unique experience and nothing powers the HD experience like Blu-ray. With that in mind, we feel strongly about providing the ultimate high definition entertainment to the consumer and are thrilled to offer five Blu-ray mega hits with the purchase of the BD10A.”

The $600 price tag alone might be enough to get consumers’ attention, compared to the $1,000 prices initial Blu-ray units have been commanding. The DMP-BD10A is made even more appealing with the bundle of five Blu-ray titles with the player: Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl,Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,Transporter,Fantastic 4, and Crash. For folks looking for a Blu-ray starter pack, this player might just fit the bill.