Panasonic has announced that its next generation Blu-ray Disc player, the DMPBD30,is now shipping and is available prior to Black Friday in channel partner stores in many regions of the USA.

The BD30 is the first Blu-ray Disc player to incorporate Final Standard Profile 1.1 - a supplementary interactive function added to the Blu-ray Disc standard which opens the door to a variety of new functions such as Picture-in-Picture and audio mixing.

Panasonic worked closely with Hollywood film makers and to develop High Definition echnologies now available in the DMP-BD30 including "PHL Chroma Processing" for optimized Blu-ray Disc and DVD playback and an SD Memory Card slot. The SD Card slot allows BD30 owners to network between their High Definition products including playback of digital still images and High Definition video recorded in the AVCHD High Definition Camcorder format.

With an SRP of $499.95, the DMP-BD30 also features a slimmer profile while offering a myriad of technological advances, including Deep Color Compatibility, and HDMI 1.3B, that enhances step gradation from 8-bit 256 all the way up to 12- bit, 4,096 step gradation. To further enhance the viewing experience, the DMPBD30 also provides 1080/24p playback, so the consumer can enjoy the same 24-fps (frames per second) reproduction as the original movie. This eliminates the need to utilize 3.2 pull down, a process which converts 24-fps images to 60-fps,resulting in a smoother picture.