Panasonic launch portable Blu-Ray player DMP-B15

January 9th, 2009

Apparently, the DMP-B15 is the world’s first portable Blu-Ray player according to Panasonic. We must admit it’s certainly the first we have seen at our-picks. And the little tyke doesn’t lack any of it siblings’ bells and whistles either

The DMP-B15 provides all the technology found in its stand alone brethren, the DMP-BD60, DMP-BD80 and the VHS-Blu-ray dual player DMP-BD70V.

Which all sounds well and good but who would want of these? We’ve not exactly seen portable DVD players in wide use, except on airlines too cheap to install screens on the back of the seat. So why go out and grab a Blu-Ray portable player? Panasonic are probably just ensuring they have all the niche areas of the Blu-Ray player market covered. Anyway enough waffle from us, here’s the low-down on the Panasonic DMP-B15

* 8.9-inch WSVGA LCD screen
* VIERA CAST™ internet accessibility
* PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus technology
* three hour rechargeable battery
* HDMI connectivity
* HD-Audio compatible AV receiver connectivity
* optional headrest mounting bracket for in-car use
* SD Memory Card slot

For those of you still awake, VIERA CAST

gives the consumer access to select entertainment sites, including Amazon Video-on-Demand, a streaming video service that gives the consumer access to more than 40,000 titles; YouTube™; Google Picasa Web Album; Bloomberg and a weather channel.

and

PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus is a high quality image-processing technology that precisely processes each pixel of the Blu-ray Disc™ video signal in the vertical direction. It reproduces color data with twice the accuracy of conventional systems, resulting in faithful and sharp colors.

Yeah, as you can probably tell we are not enthused by the DMP-B15, portable smortable, just give us a laptop with a Blu-Ray player thank you very much.

For those of you of a differing opinion, you’ll have to wait for a price tag and then wait til May to be able to, err, carry it around with you.