Panasonic DVD Firmware Updates (has even more)!!

[Sango]

The firmware can be obtained here

Note: There is two firmware discs which is available from the site. The older one is the only one which has contains the Denon 1600 firmware 068 and supports fewer models. The latest one supports units listed on the page and does not contain the Denon firmware.

[Jeff D]

Alright, I'll bite... so what are the "extras"? Just the confirmation of extra models supported?

[uzun]

I updated my XP50 with the disc a while ago, and it seemed to work fine. Why are the XP30/XP50 not listed there?

[Sango]

Hmm, this is why I suggest reading carefully. The answers is already in my start thread!! =)

The XP50 firmware is clearly listed from what I see.

Bascially there is firmware updates for more units.
The disc size is 140M compared to the 94M which was originally proided.

Sango

[PF]

I wasn't able to upgrade my XP50 using the previous firmware. Tried everything. Have high hopes for the new firmware. I'm hoping the player itself isn't the issue as it had a horrendous time with K19 the other night -- drop outs, freeze ups, etc.

[cpc]

I've downloaded the firmware linked to the above and its 94M. Do you mean its 140M once its Un-compressed and burned onto the CDR?

thanx

[doggiedog]

Stupid question but what improvements does flashing this new firmware do to an XP30?

[Sango]

cpc:
Yes, once it's uncompressed and burned to a CD-R, it will be about 140M.

doddiedog:
I'm assuming you don't have version 302, if you do the disc doesn't do anything and it basically invokes the recovery portion of the disc and resets your unit to factory settings.

It seems like the new disc solved some member's issue of not being able to update the applicable units from the disc which was originally released out.

Improvments going from the top of my head are the following:
Quicker layer change
Player responds quicker
Color rendering has been re-ramped
Better VCD/SVCD/MP3 playability
DVD+-R Playability (or improved)

Hope this answers your quesion.

Sango

[doggiedog]

Thanks.

I may have to do this flash.

[cpc]

Well. Its interesting. I may give it a try. My CV51 is listed so who knows.

[Sango]

Yes a lot more units are supposed and CV51 is one of them! =)

[Ricker]

I attempted an update to a Panasonic DVD-S35 player. I started the upgrade process and went to a black screen with "Close" on the DVD screen. It stayed in this state for 30+ minutes. At this point I powered the unit off. It will power on and the settings are back to factory default. It will play DVDs as well. If I check the firmware version, it says: F114771B273 . This doesn't seem to be the correct firmware for this player by the list above. If I stick the firmware CD in again, it goes immedaitely (after loading the disk) to the black screen with "Close" on the DVD player. I have left it in that state a very long time (> 1 hour) and it stays there. I have tried the ISO and the NRG images both burned with Nero 6 on two different CD media. Same behavior of both. Any suggestions what might be going on? I'm glad I didn't create a brick out of it though!

[Ein]

For those of you with a Mac, just mount the ISO image on the desktop and use Apple's OSX 10.3 Disk Utility to burn it on to a CDR.

Well, my CP-72 was updated to 302 ( the old firmware was 2xx something). Now, I'll try to see if there is any kind of improvement to a already good player.

[Sango]

Hmm it could get rid of the Y/C delay on the 72.
--

Hi Ricker:

The webpage is slightly typed incorrectly since Kevin T had a slightly different interpretation, but the firmware is in fact correct form what you typed out.

It's suppose to be written as 70B608/70H329/71B273

This is one of the typical problems which some of the units will expereince. After the unit upgrades, for some reason the completed screen never comes up as it displays the blank screen. If it stays like that for an extended peorid of time, just turn off and power it on again. Since you already did it, you now know what happend.

When put the disc in for the second time, bascially what happened is that the unit's firmware was checked and since the unit is already up-to-date, the recovery porton of the disc was invoked. This essentually is suppose to bring up the completed screen but once again you experienced a black screen.

Hope this solves your questions

Sango

[zaqqaz]

Hi Sango
hope you don't mind posting in your thread but has to do with an upgrade
ie
I upgraded my Panny RP-91 dvd player firmware that was hooked into The Sammy 61" DLP via component 2
after the upgrade finished i started getting this message on my DLP ie "NOT SUPPORTED MODE"
after messing around i found the dvd player worked on Component 1 which is 480i/480p
note component 2&3 are 480p, 720p and 1080i

I got my kids progressive scan cyberhome DVD player and used it's component outs and hooked it up to Component 2 and 3 and still got the same message

So are my DLP component 2 &3 dead somehow thru retrograde F/w activation of a dvd plyer
or is this normal behavior?

at least the TV is under warranty
thanks for any help

i posted here also has more people seem to read this thread and may get a similar problem
thanks

[Sango]

From reading, it looks like your TV has an issue. There would be no way a DVD player would of messed up the TV thou.

Did you try 480p on the component 2 and 3 on your TV using the RP91?

[zaqqaz]

thanks Sango for your reply
I got it to work finally
there is no progressive on/off in the menu which is where i first looked
but is rather on the player itelf in the form of a tiny button
the manual is long gone and have never had to mess with my initial settings as my whole system is on a UPS, but the f/w upgrade reset everything

anyway the upgrade went smoothly to help out others the upgrade proceeded with the yes/no prompt but even an hour later the player was still in play mode with blank screen
i just ejected the cd and turned player off and on and did the manual reset and everything was fine exept the above problem

thanks for the program

[Sango]

Good to hear.

Well in the instructions on the website, it does say to set back your user settings. Since I have a RP56, that one has a progressive button too as well.

BTW: You can go to the Panasonic site and view the manual on PDF so you can use it for reference.

Sango

[pixel8]

Despite the notes and warnings, has anyone used the update on region-free players? How about non-US players?

Was wondering if there's any damaging effects.

[Sango]

Hi Pixel:

The firmware can be used on the applicable players listed except for the RA61 Euro, so you can use it on non-US players as well. Kevin put the word US based players but I need to tell him to take that out.

One member has already gotten a side effect for using the RA61 on a Euro unit which turned it into a R1 unit and it's sending a NTSC signal instead of a PAL. He is trying to get out of it by obtaining a recovery disc for that particular model which may solve the problem.

Reguarding the firmware being used on region-free players, this question has already been answered on the other thread but I'll only mention it once here. You can't use it on a region-free player because the firmware will be rewritten to stock as it updates. The solution to this is to obtain the modified version of the firmware(which will have a number above the original to differentiate between them).

Sango

[hondo21]

Thanks. I burned the ISO image to a CD-R and successfully updated my RP-91 from firmware 250 to 262. Not sure what good it does yet, but it's nice to have the latest version for any improvements, such as faster layer changes, etc.

Before doing the upgrade I went into the menus and copied down all my settings, so I could set them back after update. Also have to repress the "progressive out" button on the unit since it defaults back to interlaced output.

[pixel8]

Originally posted by hondo21
Before doing the upgrade I went into the menus and copied down all my settings, so I could set them back after update. Also have to repress the "progressive out" button on the unit since it defaults back to interlaced output.

How do you view the technical menus/settings related to the upgrade?
Or are you referring to the normal menus accessible from the 'menu' button?

[HD_JUNKIE]

The download link is gone. The author claims he removed it until he receives enough donations to help offset hosting costs......

Lovely. Anyone willing to post so I can download?

[Omen]

Originally posted by HD_JUNKIE
The download link is gone. The author claims he removed it until he receives enough donations to help offset hosting costs......

Lovely. Anyone willing to post so I can download?

On 5/27, I posted the ISO of Sango's new firmware to alt.binaries.multimedia.utilities. Depending on your news server retention, it may still be available. Check out this post for more info.

[HD_JUNKIE]

My news server gets only a few things from 5/27 and this is NOT one of them. Could you re-post to the newsgroup please?

Thanks.

[Sango]

Additonal hosts are needed.

If you can make them available, I will edit the start thread to reflect that.

[crapstorm]

Hi Sango,

I read alot in this forum but I rarely post. I just try to follow the explanations. Thia is the first time I've ventured into the dvd forum and I wasn't aware of firmware upgrades. I have a 1600 that I'd like to upgrade to the current firmware but my original is too old. It's rev. 043. I guess that's why I couldn't watch some other dvd-r discs. Anyway, is there any chance that I could acquire what I need to upgrade my unit to the 068 that is required or am I doomed? Thx in advance.

Vince

[Sango]

Yes you can still obtain the disc. I have 2 copies at home and will make more accordingly when people would like to have one mailed.

$10(including shipping) is reasonable enough for me.

Just PM me and will see how to proceed from there.

[Kevin T]

Originally posted by Sango
The webpage is slightly typed incorrectly since Kevin T had a slightly different interpretation, but the firmware is in fact correct form what you typed out.

It's suppose to be written as 70B608/70H329/71B273

The list has been fixed.

[Omen]

HD_JUNKIE,

I've reposted the new firmware to alt.binaries.multimedia.utilities. Same name as before, but with REPOST: added to the subject.