Panasonic has just presented two new Blu-ray players, the DMP-BD60 and the DMP-BD80, which are mostly incremental updates to the existing Blu-ray players, with the biggest new feature being Viera Cast support. It looks like Panasonic finally mastered most of the basic Blu-ray functions, like BD-Live and high-resolution audio decoding.

The DMP-BD60 is Profile 2.0 compatible, has an Onboard Dolby TrueHD and DTS-Master Audio Essential decoding, a SD card slot and USB input, and access to Viera Cast Internet content, including Amazon Video On Demand.

The players support DTS-HD Master Audio Essential, rather than standard DTS-HD Master Audio. This new form of the DTS-HD audio codec is mostly the same, but it drops support for some of the more advanced DVD audio formats, such as DTS 96/24, DTS, ES, ES  Matrix and DTS NEO 6.

Unfortunately, the players do not support Netflix Instant streaming, which is quickly becoming the favorite value-added feature for a Blu-ray player. However, as previously mentioned, the IP service allows users with an Internet connection to access Amazon's VOD service, YouTube, Google's Picasa Web Album, Bloomberg and the Weather Channel. Thanks to the SD memory card slot as well as the USB slot, it is easy to play MP3s, JPEGs and Divx video through the device.

The DMP-BD80 present an interesting feature, an unique one actually, and that's the 7.1 channel analog out, which produces true 7.1 surround sound. Both the models are BD-Live capable and they will be available in the spring.

All three models, which are all BD-Live capable, will be available in the spring. It remains to be seen if Panasonic will manage to dominate the Blu-ray players' market this year too.