One thing I have always admired about Panasonic is the fact that the company usually doesn’t tout its own horn as excessively as some other CE manufacturers. They will typically announce a new piece of hardware and bring it to stores virtually at the same time. Case in point – their latest line of Blu-Ray players. Originally unveiled about two weeks ago, these players are now available in stores, including Amazon.com.

One of the players that will probably get the most attention is their new DMP-BD60 model, a full-featured high end Blu-Ray Disc player that carries an affordable $299 price tag. The model is more power efficient than previous models using about 16% less energy while still offering a full high end Blu-Ray implementation with 4:4:4 color processing and high definition Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD audio support, as well as 96kHz upconversion capabilities for audio CDs.

In addition, all their new players feature an SD memory card slot and a USB connector making it perfect for viewing your photographs or even high definition video recorded with your camcorder. And to round it all out, the new players also feature Viera Cast, a feature that gives you full Internet access through the player so that you can browse the web, watch YouTube videos or do whatever else it is you might want to do on the web.

As mentioned before, the really cool thing about this info is that the DMP-BD60 is available now, so if you want to upgrade your current player, add one for the den or finally make that leap into Blu-Ray, this is clearly one of the best opportunities you will have.