To satisfy those put off from buying into Blu-ray due to region-coding, leading internet-based disc-importer MovieTyme is offering the Panasonic DMP-BD60 in a 'hacked' edition able to play Blu-ray discs from Regions A, B and C and DVD discs from Regions 0 to 7.
On test here, it's a 240V-powered UK model, guaranteed for a year, which doesn't involve any tricky importing, or extra duty payment – and MovieTyme even promises that any firmware upgrades can be done without affecting the unit's multiregion capabilities. This modded unit is currently selling for £360 on the Movietyme site. To check current availability click here.
Regional coding is less of an issue with Blu-ray than it was with DVD, but it's still around – and, confusingly, Blu-ray regions aren't the same as DVD regions. More confusing still is the fact that some studios implement it and others don't. Importing a US machine is one solution, but having a hacked UK model is a better one – and this is the first time we've seen this done on a mainstream Japanese-branded player. Indeed, we showed the unit to one of Panasonic UK's senior product managers who was fascinated – and couldn't wait to take the lid off to see the not-so-subtle mod work inside.
And what a good machine it is to have modified. An update on the award-winning BD-35, or a cut-down version of the BD-80 (reviewed in HCC #169) and also available in hacked form), the BD-60 is sleek and slim. Features include a USB port and an SD/SDHC card slot. You'll need the latter to store downloaded updates and web content, as this model has no built-in memory. BD-Live and BonusView are present, as is Panny's Viera Cast system.
The UniPhier single-chip LSI in the BD-60 is the same one found in its predecessors, so it's no surprise that picture quality is equally impressive. Another advantage of integrating so many functions onto one chip is that power consumption is relatively low. 
Impressive performance
Blu-ray pictures are sharp and smooth, colours are vibrant, and black levels are excellent. Upscaling of DVD material to 1080p is also impressive, and digital sound performance is strong too, despite poor analogue audio jitter results, with movie material offering clarity and separation, and music CDs coming across with plenty of punch.
The GUI is identical to that of previous Panasonic players, as is the remote control, and it supports the same generous range of disc and data formats, including DivX, MP3 and JPEG. The BD60 also supports Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS HD, outputting them as a bitstream or uncompressed PCM from the HDMI output, and also offers 1080/24p output.
Region changing is accomplished by powering down and pressing the appropriate remote control button (the instructions tell you to remove the disc, but I couldn't make region-changing work until we inserted a disc – go figure). Startup is moderately slow, requiring almost a minute to begin spinning a Java-heavy disc, even when you use Quick Start mode. But then, you can't have Quick Start mode active when you switch regions anyway.
The DMP-BD60 is a supremely solid solid piece of Blu-ray hardware from Panasonic, and this hacked version should prove a worthwhile investment for avid disc importers. With a recent price cut to around £360 from Movietyme it's a bit of a steal.
HCC Verdict 4/5
Copyright 2006 - 2010 Future Publishing Limited
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I hear this player is great.
Alan Smithee (not verified) - 22 August 2009 - 4:27pmI hear this player is great. It's £345 at MRMDVD:
http://www.mrmdvd.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22_98&products_id=1014
Annoyingly they also sell it without BD MR (just DVD MR) for £215. £130 is a lot for BD MR. I'd do it but most wouldn't.
Worth it
Nick C (not verified) - 24 August 2009 - 4:04pmI've bought many players from Multi Region magic, they have good after sales and have been doing it for years, bought my 1st Multi Region Panny for £650 back in 99, crazy I know
Earlier this year bought the DMP-55 which is fully Multi region from them and works the same as the above, you switch off and then change the region, it worked out about £150 more for multi region but it worth it as quite a lot of my imports i.e fox stuff is locked to region A
Although saying that I did buy a PS3 from Movietyme about 2 years ago and their service is good to
I would also recommend http://bluray.liesinc.net/ which is great for checking worldwide releases region coding
Panasonic BD60 is a great player
Panasonic BD60 (not verified) - 6 September 2009 - 11:02pmBuying a multiregion DVD player used to be an absolute essential, but I very rarely buy a Region 1 DVD now and I have not bought a non-UK Blu-ray disk at all. That said a multi-region upgrade would still be very tempting - who knows what better versions of Blu-ray discs will come out in the US in the future.
Great link by the way Nick C.
Multiregion Blu-ray Player
Alan Smithee - 26 January 2010 - 11:31amI bought my Panasonic from Multiregion Magic (in Peterborough, UK) just before Christmas (2009). I used to own 2 Sony PS3's, one US-sourced, as a rather expensive workaround to the blu-ray multiregion conundrum. In November 2009, my US PS3 started playing up and I was unable to play my US region-coded discs any more. Now I have one machine, which takes away the necessity of changing around the HDMI cable etc. I am absolutely delighted with my purchase - both with the player itself and its multiregion capabilities. Yes, I had to pay a premium for this convenience, especially as I had to import the player to Europe and the one off shipping costs were high (ca. 50 GBP). However, I had already done the maths. In fact, importing a US player - factoring in the shipping costs, import duties and tax, whilst also considering the warranty issues and the fact that I will be moving back to the UK within 2 years, meant that in fact a UK purchase, despite the higher shipping cost in my case, made better sense. On my model the player automatically detects the relevant region and plays the disc regardless, with no further action necessary on my part. Great stuff!
I tend to import quite a few US blu-ray special editions. However, I also purchase a lot of discs from the UK and even here in mainland Europe, so blu-ray regional coding is really an anachronism in my view.It deserves to be phased out. In the unlikely event of that happening anytime soon, this has got to be the next best solution!
Multiregion Blu-ray Player
Alan Smithee - 26 January 2010 - 11:34amI bought my Panasonic from Multiregion Magic (in Peterborough)just before Christmas (2009). I had 2 PS3's, one US-sourced, as a rather expensive workaround to the blu-ray multiregion conundrum. In November 2009, my US PS3 started playing up and I was unable to play my US region-coded discs any more. Now I have one machine, which takes away the necessity of changing around the HDMI cable etc. I am absolutely delighted, both with the player itself and its multiregion capabilities. Yes, I had to pay a premium for this convenience, especially as I had to import the player to Europe and the one off shipping costs were high (ca. 50 GBP). However, I had already done the maths. In fact, importing a US player - factoring in the shipping costs, import duties and tax, whilst also considering the warranty issues and the fact that I will be moving back to the UK within 2 years, meant that in fact a UK purchase, despite the higher shipping cost in my case, made better sense.
On my model the player automatically detects the relevant region and plays the disc regardless, with no further action necessary on my part. Great stuff!
I tend to import quite a few US blu-ray special editions. However, I also purchase a lot of discs from the UK and even here in mainland Europe, so blu-ray regional coding is really an anachronism in my view.It should really be phased out. In the unlikely event of that happening anytime soon, this has got to be the next best solution!
hack code
Alan Smithee - 25 August 2010 - 8:26amcan anybody tell me the hack code to make my Panasonis DMP BD 80 Region Free to play Region A Blu Ray Discs?