Panasonic DPM-MST60:

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Panasonic has released a new "Streaming Media Player" to turn any TV into a Smart TV.

It costs less then the Roku-3, but seems to have all the same applications (Vudu included).

http://shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/DMP-MST60

I think this is in response to declining DVD/Bluray player sales.

[Grey Ghost]

Re: Panasonic DPM-MST60:

I think this is in response to declining DVD/Bluray player sales.

Depends on how you want to look at it, there is some saturation in the marketplace. A lot of companies have a streaming media player; Sony, Netgear, D-link, Roku, Western Digital, RCA, Funai, Vizio, LG. I think they are just filling out their product line.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: Panasonic DPM-MST60:

Depends on how you want to look at it, there is some saturation in the marketplace. A lot of companies have a streaming media player; Sony, Netgear, D-link, Roku, Western Digital, RCA, Funai, Vizio, LG. I think they are just filling out their product line.

I followed up on this.

1) Sony NSZ-GS7 (MSRP = $169)
http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/sto...52921666462151

2) Netgear NeoTV product line
http://www.netgear.com/home/products...s/default.aspx

3) D-Link MovieNite product line
http://www.dlink.com/us/en/home-solu.../media-players

4) WD TVLive product line
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330

5) RCA media player has been discontinued.

6) Funai TB600-FX2
http://funaiamerica.com/product/TB600FX2.php

7) Vizio Co-Star (MSRP = $99)
http://www.vizio.com/costar/overview

8) LG NA product line
http://www.lg.com/global/products/di.../LG-NA1000.jsp


It does seem as thought the CE Industry is ready for home entertainment to be from streaming providers. Those who prognosticate the end of packaged media in only a few years may be correct. At least there are enough products out there to make it a reality.

These are just boxes that will connect legacy TVs. Almost all TVs being sold now are internet ready with these same streaming applications built in.

Also, there are the PS-3/PS-4 and X-Box game consoles which are all but ubiquitous.

I guess you can say they are filling out their product line, but I still do see this as a move by Panasonic in response to declining DVD/Bluray player sales.

3-5 years from now, Panasonic will be selling a small fraction of Bluray players as compared to what they sold between 2005 and 2012. They are not going to walk away from the CE industry and instead are just outfitting their TVs with the Viera Software to go with the CE trend away from customers viewing entertainment in packaged media.

[Grey Ghost]

Re: Panasonic DPM-MST60:

FYI Newegg is having a weekend sale on the discontinued SONY SMP-N200 (refurb) for $35.00. This streams Hulu, Netflix, Vudu, Amazon and Cinemanow.

I
......... Almost all TVs being sold now are internet ready with these same streaming applications built in.

A report from last year puts it at 27% for internet connected televisions and 20% for "Smart" televisions, worldwide.

I am sure the number is much higher for enthusiasts, but overall in the US I would be surprised if the number was greater than 50%.


One more thing, right now the competition and co-promotion between digital media and packaged media is good for the consumer. If packaged media goes the way of VHS I am afraid of higher prices for streaming/digital media.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: Panasonic DPM-MST60:

Thank you.

I may have jumped the gun in respect to the ubiquitous proliferation of consumers accessing streaming content onto their TVs. It is just that literally, EVERYONE I know has one device or another.

AppleTV, Roku, PS3, XBox, iTV/SmartTV....

The only exception I can think of is my 77 year old mother who still watches TV via rabbit ears.

I think if there was a report of what percentage of people watched some form of streaming content on their TV, the numbers would be all but universal.

This was not the case just three years ago and it has to not be going unnoticed by the CE manufactures. They are accustom to responding quickly to the fickle and quickly changing demands of their consumers.

Just today, it was announced that PBS (Public Broadcast Station) will have a Roku channel. HBO is in the process of considering making their channel available to people without broadcast subscriptions from cable/satellite providers.

It just seems very clear to me the market is moving to streaming content delivery and these products just go to reinforce my suspicion.

...but again, I am known for mis-reading tea-leaves on occasion.

[Grey Ghost]

Re: Panasonic DPM-MST60:

The ownership of Smart TVs has roughly doubled over the last year, with 25 percent of broadband households owning at least one Smart TV, compared to 12 percent in 2011. Dedicated streaming devices on the other hand grew slower, inching up from 12 percent in 2011 to 14 percent in 2012.

From an article in Buisinessweek. Definitely a strong growth trend.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: Panasonic DPM-MST60:

From an article in Buisinessweek. Definitely a strong growth trend.

I do know this is most likely very close to accurate market data.

Now, add onto these numbers the people who view streamed content from other sources. I honestly know of no one who does not let their kids watch netflix via their Wii/Wii-U, view Hulu-Plus on a Roku, have Amazon Prime queued up on their iTV.... Really, no one I know does not do some form of streaming.

[Gnatevil]

Re: Panasonic DPM-MST60:

I stream and I've gotten my wife using it as well as my brother-in-law and my brothers. With that, I still like to have the packaged media. Having that on hand ensures I can watch what I want, when I want to even if I don't have an internet connection. It also ensures that I get the correct Aspect Ratio for the movies (until Vudu or UV fixes the messed up movies they have on the list)
I'm transitional old school here. Not quite ready to give up the media, yet loving the streaming. What would be nice is if the price for streaming would drop to something more reasonable. I just don't see paying "full" price for something streaming. Now all I need to do is build up more storage to hold all the HD available content that I can download for offline viewing.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: Panasonic DPM-MST60:

I stream and I've gotten my wife using it as well as my brother-in-law and my brothers. With that, I still like to have the packaged media. Having that on hand ensures I can watch what I want, when I want to even if I don't have an internet connection. It also ensures that I get the correct Aspect Ratio for the movies (until Vudu or UV fixes the messed up movies they have on the list)
I'm transitional old school here. Not quite ready to give up the media, yet loving the streaming. What would be nice is if the price for streaming would drop to something more reasonable. I just don't see paying "full" price for something streaming. Now all I need to do is build up more storage to hold all the HD available content that I can download for offline viewing.

Packaged media has more content. This is true. However, the convenience of having my library accessible from a remote is the elusive pie in the sky I have been wanting for so long.

For me, it started with digitizing my media and streaming via Windows Media Player onto a PS3. That took a lot of work. AppleTV<--> iTunes had a very slick method and I adopted that instead, but still it was a tremendous amount of work.

This was an investment of my personal time as well as money. I needed large hard disk storage for the media in digitized form. I also needed to spend the time to maintain the library.

The idea of giving someone $2 per title to do this for me and then to have the content accessible via a secured cloud service I saw instantly was exactly what I had been searching for. I knew it the first time I did a D2D conversion.

Instead of me burning personal time trying to get it right, for a nominal fee, I could pay an expert to do it into professional grade for me.

Meta data, codec optimization/playback, AV sync all are taken care of with expertise which I do not possess.

I have never looked back.

Now, my library is in the process of being digitized onto a vendor agnostic cloud service.

This gives me remote access to my titles as well as provides me "Future Proofing".

In the process, I take the time to up-tick my DVD titles into 1080p for an additional $3 per title. This is money I gladly pay in return for my free time being given back to me as well as not going to sleep worrying about waking to a crashed hard drive erasing months of work.

Instead, I sleep like a baby. Ahh!!

[tsken02]

Re: Panasonic DPM-MST60:

One difference is you can play your own digital copies when, where and how you choose. The cloud seems to have restrictions that pop up without sense or warning.

[E55KEV]

Re: Panasonic DPM-MST60:

Most of the streaming media players are coming from companies that don't make a BD Player or a Smart HDTV. Consumer Electronics companies, like Sony, LG, Samsung, Toshiba don't make media streamers anymore.

[Gnatevil]

Re: Panasonic DPM-MST60:

Packaged media has more content. This is true. However, the convenience of having my library accessible from a remote is the elusive pie in the sky I have been wanting for so long.

For me, it started with digitizing my media and streaming via Windows Media Player onto a PS3. That took a lot of work. AppleTV<--> iTunes had a very slick method and I adopted that instead, but still it was a tremendous amount of work.

This was an investment of my personal time as well as money. I needed large hard disk storage for the media in digitized form. I also needed to spend the time to maintain the library.

The idea of giving someone $2 per title to do this for me and then to have the content accessible via a secured cloud service I saw instantly was exactly what I had been searching for. I knew it the first time I did a D2D conversion.

Instead of me burning personal time trying to get it right, for a nominal fee, I could pay an expert to do it into professional grade for me.

Meta data, codec optimization/playback, AV sync all are taken care of with expertise which I do not possess.

I have never looked back.

Now, my library is in the process of being digitized onto a vendor agnostic cloud service.

This gives me remote access to my titles as well as provides me "Future Proofing".

In the process, I take the time to up-tick my DVD titles into 1080p for an additional $3 per title. This is money I gladly pay in return for my free time being given back to me as well as not going to sleep worrying about waking to a crashed hard drive erasing months of work.

Instead, I sleep like a baby. Ahh!!

I agree. I do love the ability to just pull out the remote and away we go. I just wish they would fix the minor issues they have. I never had the patience to rip my collection nor the expertise or computer power to do it efficiently. Downloading movies was always a risky business so I wouldn't do that. I do love the price point for converting Blus to digital. I've got 450+ done already. Would have 650+ if I could do Disney and TV shows. Still a bit on the cheap side when it comes to converting DVDs. I've got 1000+ of those and I would rather find them on Blu and then convert. I pass my DVDs down to my kids so they don't go to waste. My kids were the biggest reason I started using Vudu cause they can share my library of movies without having to borrow the discs. That helps because they are all out of the house.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: Panasonic DPM-MST60:

My kids were the biggest reason I started using Vudu cause they can share my library of movies without having to borrow the discs. That helps because they are all out of the house.

I too find the ability to "Share" my Vudu/UV library to be a wickedly cool feature.

My Brother-in-Law lives near the beach. We recently stayed at his house for his daughter's 1st communion. I activated his Roku connected to the family room plasma to my Vudu account.

My wife and son are returning to spend over a week at his house. She is a school teacher and is soon to be off for the summer and her brother and wife are going on a trip. She will be taking care of their household and enjoying some beach time while they are away.

My wife and my son will have their Vudu library available from the touch of a remote.

No hard drive / computer is necessary.

Just blissful, professional grade, 1080p.

Should he ever wish to activate his own Vudu account (which he is considering), we would switch to UV sharing between us.