Official Panasonic DMP-BD35/55 Owners Thread - Page 479

So, is there a new BD player that allows you to leave secondary audio on AND retain the lossless mix? I am not a big fan of having to go into the BD35's menu system and having to turn on and off secondary audio for certain BDs.

The PS3, the newer Sonys, all Samsungs. I think the LGs may as well, although I'm not sure about that. This only works with player decoding, of course. Bitstream will never include lossless unless players get lossless encoders.

This all of course only matters if you think you can even hear a difference in lossless. One of the guys that makes your Blu-rays thinks you can not.

So if I have a Bluray DVD (2001: A Space Odyssey) that has commentary features, and yet when I am playing it and I pres the PIP button on the remote it continues to display "PIP Off", what does that mean?

I have had no luck with the PIP or Secondary Audio buttons on my remote. I have to enable/disable Sec Aud in the Setup in order to turn these features on and off.

As for converting 5.1 to 7.1 for both Dolby and DTS, which of the new Panasonic models do this?

Are you watching a feature with PIP video? Most commentaries are just commentaries, the same kind you get on a DVD, where the extra video or audio is added in advance. The PIP and Secondary Audio remote buttons or configuration settings have no effect on those type of commentaries.

See p21 of the manual. It explains that Secondary Audio must be enabled in the player configuation. Presumably, if it's enabled in the set-up, you can turn in off using the remote button. But, I doubt the remote button has any effect on whether the player uses lossy tracks for decoding.

All Panasonic players do 7.1 expansion with DTS tracks on Blu-ray. The BD85 has the new option for 7.1 expansion of Dolby and PCM sources as well. I think the BD65 (which is the non-analog version of the BD85) also has that feature. I don't know about other players.

EDIT: the player's 7.1 expansion is fairly crude using simple channel duplication. Applying a DSP like PLIIx in your AVR will likely produce better 7.1.

Agreed. A group of home theater fellow from AVS in LA tried to AB this last year and ironically most chose the legacy audio as the superior lossless audio in blind testing.

I'll admit I attended and even my golden ears preferred the Legacy audio tracks - Dolby and DTS versions when asked which sounded more accurate.

FilmMixer's in studio gear puts anything I've seen to date to shame when it comes to accuracy.

The pretty lights on the display sure do look cool. Now perhaps our ears are too old because the 8 year olds visiting my theater tonight and watching Toy Story Three claim they can hear things in the opening set to DTS HD Master that they claim are not audiable on the legacy track.

Could still be a bad disc. Some play in one player and not another. You don't mention if other discs still play in the BD35.

Minority Report was fine on my '35. So, given your other info, I'd start with the bad disc theory and get a different copy. [Try cleaning it first if it has any signs of fingerprints or dust or dirt or whatever on it.]

I have the bd35 with a vsx84. I think but am not sure that the 84 is a year older than your 94. I have to use PCM audio out because mine cannot decode hd audio streams. I have not had any issues with this combo to date yet my newer players on my newer receivers are all finicky.

Anyway I added minority report to my netflix queue at the top. I will give it a try and post back. If I take a while pm me to remind me.

Hi all, I'm new of this forum and I appreciate your discussions very much.

I have a BD55 BD player with 1.8 european firmware, and I have a problem with the BD Avatar. .
The BD55 is connected for audio signal via HDMI with my TV, while the audio is connected to the digital audio output to a Kenwood amplifier receiver (with no HDMI input).
The secondary video in audio setup is switched off. Ather audio settings are 'bitstream'
While the prologue AVATAR part of the movie and everything is fine, but when I do 'OK' for the beginning of the movie the video is OK but no sound comes out. If I select fast forward (at minimum) the audio come out. If, however, the audio switches on HDMI the sound go through the TV but not through the kenwood amplifier.
Is there anyone who had this problem? Or anyone knows this problem only with avatar movie?

Sorry, but I find your description a bit confusing. Here's my understanding: You have the player connected to the TV with HDMI. That sends video and audio to the TV. You also have a non-HDMI digital audio connection to the Kenwood. (That would be optical or coax.) When you play Avatar, you get good audio on both the TV and through the receiver on the previews. But, when you play the movie, you get good sound on the TV, but not through the receiver.

If that's what's happening, I suspect the problem is DTS decoding by your receiver. Previews and such are encoded using DD or PCM and can be processed by pretty much any sound system. Avatar has a dts-MA soundtrack, which will be output as DTS over a non-HDMI digital connection. If your receiver lacks a DTS decoder or has a decoder that cannot handle the 1509 kbps bitrate used with DTS on Blu-ray, then you won't get usable sound when the movie starts playing.

Does this problem occur with other Blu-ray discs that have dts-MA soundtracks? What about discs with TrueHD encolding? If you switch your digital output from bitstream to PCM, do you get usable audio?

btw, there's no reason to turn secondary audio off when using a non-HDMI connection.

Has there been any firmware upgrade to allow some streaming like Netflix and Pandora for the BD 35 or is it never going to happen?

Never going to happen.

Thank you for your fast answer.

Yes, you understood everything well. The only difference, probably not very clear in my explanation, is that the BD55 can set the output audio over HDMI or analog output. "2ch (downmix) + 5.1ch"
But my receiver have not the HDMI input, so for listening from the sound system I set "2ch ...". If I set HDMI Audio Out the only way to listen is through the TV.

I think you are right. I checked the receiver specifications, and they tell the receiver can sound Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic and Dolby 3 Stereo. Than they talk about 6 channel output of DVD player, but no notice about DTS.

I didn't try disc with TrueHD encoding.

But changing Bitstream to PCM ... finally go on!

It's not the best "digital experience", but until I'll change the receiver I must be content.

I thank you very much. I hope I'll can do something for you.

None of that is related to your issue. But, for the sake of accuracy, it doesn't quite work that way. All audio outputs are active all the time with the BD55. Each type of output has its own settings and they usually do not affect the other types of audio outputs. In some cases, setting HDMI Audio to On will affect whether the digital output is stereo or multichannel. But you will still get audio from all outputs.


That 6 channel output of a DVD player opens a whole new audio dimension for you. You have a BD55, which has multichannel analog outputs, and that line in the receiver manual strongly suggests your AVR has 5.1 analog inputs. So, you should give them a try instead using optical or coax. Your player will decode the high resolution TrueHD and dts-MA tracks and do the digital to analog conversion. It no longer matters that your receiver lacks HDMI and a DTS decoder because the player will do all of that work. You'll get the best possible audio without needing to buy a new receiver. I use a multichannel analog hookup from a BD55 myself.

Analog connections are not simple plug and play. Here's a good description of how they work and how to get them set up:

http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/Ho..._And_Why.shtml

If you go this route, leave the player at the default 2ch + 5.1ch setting for the analog outputs and set Secondary Audio to Off. The PCM/Bitstream settings don't matter when using the analog outputs.


If you decide to stay with digital instead of analog, you'll want to set the Dolby outputs to Bitstream and the DTS outputs to PCM. Your player will send DD 5.1 on discs that have Dolby tracks and it will decode and downmix DTS tracks to stereo PCM, which your receiver can handle. You can improve the PCM output with two more tweaks: (1) Set the player downmix to Surround Encoded instead of Stereo and (2) apply ProLogic II in your receiver. The downmix setting folds a real center channel and a mono surround channel into the stereo mix. ProLogic extracts those two embedded channels. It's the best you can do with a receiver that can't decode DTS. But, again, multichannel analog is a much better way to go in your situation.

I read your post with big interest. And I read the article you suggested.

Today I applied the multichannel audio output, and WOW!!!

It's another experience. And I have no more problems with DTS, Dolby and other codes changing from different kinds of DVD or Blue Ray

Until now I thought was better the digital output, also because I hadn't understood the work that BD55 does with the multichannel output.

I'm happy of my BD55, it does more than I though.
But many thanks to you for suggestions.

Glad to help.

All audio on CDs, DVDs, and BDs is recorded digitally and must be converted to analog at some point in order to drive speakers and produce sound. Usually, the surround processor does the conversion. But, it can also happen in the player. It really doesn't matter where you do the conversion.

But, having said that, there are still reasons that using digital to a receiver may be better. There's lots of processing that needs to take place prior to the digital-analog conversion. Bass management, distance/timing adjustments, EQ for room correction, and the application of surround modes to modify the sound for personal preference all happen in the digital domain. The device doing the analog conversion handles those tasks. And, as a general rule, receivers have better processing tools than players. Bass management is fairly limited in players and very few players do any sort of room correction.

Of course, in the old DVD world, only a few players had multichannel analog outputs. Analog was limited to stereo. So, if you wanted discrete 5.1 audio, you had to use digital transmission to a receiver for decoding. It's not that the audio quality was better using digital. In fact, stereo PCM tracks are usually higher quality than DD 5.1 or DTS. (With DVD music concerts, I usually select the stereo track over the DD 5.1 or DTS versions because they sound better and the multichannel mixes often don't add much to the experience.) Rather, the advantage of digital with DVD players was discrete 5.1.

Welcome to the world of high resolution multichannel audio. I suggest buying the Blu-ray HD Music Sampler from AIX Records. It has some wonderful examples of genuine HD audio. Plus, it's an audio calibration disc that will help you get your system dialed in for the best possible audio quality.

Couldn't get the new Blu-ray disc of Alice in Wonderland (1951) to play last night. I am running the latest firmware (which was released last April). Anyone else having this problem?

By the way, the disc plays fine on my other Panasonic (the BD60), which seems to have newer firmware.

-R

Awesome. Wouldn't play on mine today either, I was hoping an update would fix it.

Having the same problem with my Panasonic DMP-BDT350 player that has the latest firmware installed.
After putting in the Blu-ray disc the first menu comes on the screen but when choosing "play movie" and after the "disc reading logo" goes off I get a blank screen. i.e. It doesn't play the Main Feature.

The Alice In Wonderland (1951) Blu-ray will play fine on my Panasonic SC-BTT750 (having the latest firmtware). Both the Panasonic BDT350 and BTT750 are the newer 3D capable players.

Paul

Hey Paul,

I think I responded to your note on the blu-ray forum earlier today! I guess that means that so far, it's only the two of us.

I didn't realize that the BDT350 was a newer 3D player. Panasonic is sure to release an update for that. I was worried that they were beginning to abandon their older players.

-R

Thanks for the response Reagan.

A solution was found through another forum that we both visit that will get you to play the "Alice In Wonderland (1951)" Blu-ray movie for both the Panasonic BD-35 and the Panasonic DMP-BDT 350.

It will play if you select on the Top Menu Screen - "Play" - and then if you choose "Disney View Mode" instead of the "Play Movie" selection. You will have to watch the movie with art designs in the margins instead of black margins, but at least you will be able to watch the movie until a firmware update is released.

For others: Panasonic has been notified in their tech dept. about this work-around discovery by some of those who have case #'s on the Alice In Wonderland (1951) Blu-ray problem..

Paul

Good to know. Thanks for the info!

I just validated that my VSX-84TXSi and BD35 with 2.2 firmware play Minority Report BD without issues.

FACTORY RESET WORKED! Awesome, thanks everyone for posting such good information.

For the 1951 Alice in Wonderland Blu-ray, on my BDP35, if I hit POP UP MENU when prompted (during the first upcoming preview), then go to PLAY MOVIE, the movie will start with normal pillar boxing (black bars on the side). The soundtrack defaults to Original Mono, not the Disney Enhanced DTS MA track, which might or might not be intended, but I can access the audio menu and change it to DTS MA, if that's what you want to listen to.

Any other loading permutations have resulted in a neverending black screen when I hit Play Movie. But by using the POP UP MENU button, the movie will start properly (without the Disney View pillar boxing).

I have the latest firmware (released long, long ago it seems), have a memory card, but am not hooked up to the internet.

Just for clarification and in case this ever happens to me. Which method did you use to get this working again? Reading this from my iPhone it seems you may have linked to it but the link is not working on my phone. Thanks.

It's in the manual. p38, "To reset this unit". Post was probably referring specifically to the third option, "To return to the factory preset (No setting)". You'd probably want to write down all your settings beforehand, just in case.