Panasonic launches world's first portable Blu-Ray player

Today we were given a hands on demonstration of Panasonic's latest Blu-Ray creation, the DMP-B15.

Billed as the world's first portable Blu-Ray player, the 8.9" screen looked a little chunky to us at first; it certainly lacks the streamlined grace of the more recent portable DVD players hitting the current market.

However, on closer inspection, the reason for the unsightly chunkiness becomes apparent. The back of the unit features an extendable stand, which allows the player to be positioned upright and serves as a digital photo frame.

Of course, the photo frame function isn't the only thing we liked about the DMP-B15; there's the handy array of web connectivity on board, including BD Live (for film trailers, subtitles, and images online), DivX playback for reading movies downloaded off the internet and Panasonic's web addition, known as Viera Cast. This function gives you the ability to connect straight into YouTube and Picassa photo directories.

The YouTube functionality is impressive; the search bar (via on screen keyboard) is easy to use and the entire library of YouTube videos are available to browse, although Panasonic were a little more coy about the YouTube cache effect. There's also a SD/SDHC card slot for viewing your own photos on the player.

One has to wonder how effective Blu-Ray is on an 8.9" screen. Is it really that noticeable? We're also little concerned by the player's rather large $1,319 price tag.

As much as admire the ideas behind the unit, in a practical sense, we still feel Blu-Ray is limited in such a small screen environment.