Official Panasonic DMP-BD35/55 Owners Thread - Page 6

Just got my 55 today. Thanks for whoever first mentioned the AAA 8% discount coupon. I brought it to CC in New York City and they refunded me, then resold it to me with the discount. YES!! (there went the tax and the wait for a tax free unit from Crutchfield).

Anyway, not sure I have it set up right. My understanding is that it would show both SD DVD and blu-ray in original aspect ratio and would not fill the entire panel unless I chose a zoom either on the player or my panny 800. Both the SD DVD I tried (The Ultimate Gift) and Blu-Ray (Baby Mama) filled the entire screen (it was not distorted as if it had been zoomed). Not sure of the aspect ratio of the DVD, but the Blu-Ray Baby Mama says its widescreen (1.85:1). Shouldn't this have played with bars on the top and bottom? The choice in the setup for display said if you have a 16x9 display choose 16x9 (I didn't choose the 16x9 Full which streches) and if you have a 4x3 display choose one of the 4x3 options, so I chose 16x9.

Any ideas?

1.85:1 is so close to 16:9 (1.78:1) that it usually fills the screen depending on how much overscan your display has. It sounds like nothing is wrong.

2.35:1 is a common AR that you will find produces black bars top and bottom on a 16:9 display/screen.

I could go down to the local cc right now and pick up the '55(my panny10a bd capability died--other thread, other time). But I insist upon an extended warranty this time around. Problem is: all the financials are saying cc will go chapter 11 sooner rather than later. So that leaves me with bb, more or less. Anyone have a ballpark idea when the bb's will start stocking????

I just received my 55K today, but I have checked a couple of DVDs so far.

I give the 55K SD-DVD quality two thumbs up so far. My evaluation is in comparison to an OPPO 971H.

The 55K has the typical Panasonic DISPLAY image adjustments, including some nice noise reduction. I am leaving everything set to NORMAL for now, but FINE and CINEMA look good and there is a USER option for custom settings of all image controls.

The deinterlacing PROGRESSIVE setting should probably be left on AUTO, which provided perfect Star Wars open title text scroll.

I did notice some DVD previews exhibit video interlace artifacts, which suggest there might be some DVDs where setting the PROGRESSIVE setting to VIDEO might be needed. I will watch out for SD-DVD titles that require the manual VIDEO deinterlacing setting.

The player HDMI output resolution comes set to AUTO. My Sony HS51A had trouble hand shaking and forcing the 55K to drop down from 1080p and I needed to manually set the 55K to 1080i or lower. Obviously, selecting 720p is the better choice for the 51A's 720p panel.

I needed to turn on a few things to enable the SPDIF/Optical output for my older Yamaha DD 5.1 receiver. I will be experimenting with the 55K analog audio outputs, bypassing my DD 5.1 decoder.

I have also decided to put a external video processor back in the mix. I will soon have the DVDO Edge. I will post some comparisons of SD-DVD reproduction with the Edge in the mix with the 55K and some other DVD players.

I'm looking forward to seeing Blu-Ray in the HT for the 1st time.

I'd love to hear confirmation of the 35K and 55K sharing identical video processing.

Cheers
...

If you divide 16 by 9, you get 1.78:1, which is so close to 1.85:1 that any bars you get would be tiny. The top and bottom bars that the "I'll be in agony if every square inch of my screen isn't always filled" people complain about are on 2.35:1 films.

I am very interested in the noise of this unit. I hate how loud my ps3 gets. So any reports on the noise will be greatly appreciated.
I wish they had them in the stores in MA. If anyone knows a location selling these near Boston please shout.

Anyone have the same problem with the BD35 or BD55?

Thanks Cpcat and Robert.

Here's my initial feedback on the 55. This will be of little use to most as I have no blu ray player to compare it to and my DVD player is an older model with no upconversion. Also, I have a 10 year old, very high end 2 channel audio system that was built for audio reproduction, so I can only comment on 2 channel audio. I bought the 55 as my current DVD player is a California Audio Labs CL 20, which is also a very high end CD player(it is the CD player in my audio system). It has a very high end analog audio section which I used in DVD playback, so I wanted the better analog audio section (capacitors, etc.)in the 55.

First, the player was fairly easy to set up. The unit is dead silent. The front display can be dimmed, but not turned off. The blue light can be set in the Display to on, off, or SD inserted. Load time for an SD DVD was about the same as my DVD player. I first put the DVD The Ultimate Gift in my DVD player and watched a bit, then in the 55. The upconversion in the 55 gave somewhat better detail, but I wasn't wowed. The sound seemed a bit better on my CAL DVD player with a bit more extension and detail in the bottom.

I only have one Blu-Ray from Netflix here (Baby Mama). From the tray closing to the film's menu coming on took 48 seconds. Again, with no other HD to compare it to other than broadcast tv, the picture seemed just okay (I know, it's probably just this film). It seemed comparable to an average HD picture I have seen on broadcast tv, but I have seen some broadcasts both on network and cable HD such as HDNET that were far more detailed and with better color saturation. I set the player's output to 24 p and then set the panny 800 to 48hz, but the flicker was very noticeable and annoying. I had to set the panny back to 60hz. I didn't see any clear difference with the panny set to 48hz, but I didn't have it on for long or go back and forth several times to look as I just found the flickering too annoying. I also could not get the frame by frame advance to work correctly. I hit pause, then used used the arrow on the right of the okay button, which advanced the picture 3 or 4 frames, but then would only move a selection on a menu that came up from the bottom of the screen?? The manual (page20) gives the same instructions.

For those interested in the CD audio, I played a Diana Krall CD in the 55. While the sound was quite respectable, when I put the CD in my CAL, the CAL blew it away with more detail, transparency, greater soundstage, and better bass extension.

Okay, thanks. As long as it is an issue with one disc (one that I don't have), that is good.

My BD35 is super quiet even tray opening is pretty silent. The blu ray PQ is fantastic just finished watching Indiana Jones.

Sweet! I can't wait to get this player.

The "Iron Man" BD DRC flag is incorrectly set to on. Basically this is used for late night listening so as not to disturb others in the household. It normally is turned off in your player but the best place to check is in your Denon. Look for DRC or L Night or something similar and set it to off. Your sound will be much better. I have an Integra DTC-9.8 and it is very easy to toggle the DRC (Dynamic Range Compression).

Tony

It looks like in the setup menu (of the 55), DD is lumped with Dolby True HD as well as DTS with DTS-HD as far as selecting Bitstream or PCM. Therefore it appears that everytime I want to use the THX processing of my Marantz SR 9300(for SD DVDs), I'll have to go into the setup menu and change that group from PCM (7.1 Analogs) to bitstream, which seems odd.
The 10A had DD and TrueHD separated as well as DTS and DTSHD

Just received the 35.
Will compare alongside my BD30 tonite and will report.

Very interested in your comments especially on upscaling vs. the recent FW2.5 BD30. I am guessing that differences in PQ and SQ for BD's will be small if evident at all.

Can people who are lucky enough to have gotten their players already please confirm that there divx only on the 55 and not on the 35?

Thanks,
Ryan

DivX is only on the BD55, as I own the 35, and have read the manual for both.

In a quiet room...no sound detected at eight feet.

Best Buy will not be stocking. Bite the bullet and buy with a credit card that has an extended warranty.

Oh, and even if CC goes chapter 11, they will still be around, just less stores, so extended warranties will still exist.

So either way, you will be A-OK.

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS:

Much slimmer than the BD30 (which is already quite slim).
Same remote.
Disk tray in the middle of the unit, not on the left.
Drive unit a little louder when engaged.
Excellent video, but little different than the BD30 (after FW 2.5).
Possible slight red push.

SETUP:
BD35 1080/24p HDMI>Onkyo Pro 885 in THROUGH mode>Mits. DLP 73835
Movie: Constantine
Audio bitstreamed.

I must stress: this is an INITIAL IMPRESSION, and will be doing more testing over the next few days.

in terms of pcm, decoding can someone tell me the benefit of this 96khz re-encode thing is there actually a benefit or is it just a sales gimmic

Jeez, you guys are rough. Again, only the 55 has DIVX!! Yes, I can confirm in my owners manual and unit!

BB not going to carry these models? Any idea why?

Harmony has not updated their database for the remote control. I had to use the BD-30 codes.

?

My BD55 is also very quiet.

.

Awesome, thank you all.

Yes, the BD30 codes seem to work just fine with my BD35.

Cnet review did it for me...Just order mine tonight from CC, be here on Monday. Cant wait to get the HT set up:

Samsung 61A750 LED DLP
Yamaha RX-V663BL
Panasonic BD 35
Infinity speakers cc, fl, fr, rl, rr, rrl, rrr
JBL sub PSW1000 x 2!

F@#k, now I GOTTA get a Harmony