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

yqw.

-cb

Oink wrote about the BD-35: "The player resets itself after being unplugged."

During my recent "Hairspray" adventure, when the disc wouldn't eject and I took it back to BB (where, of course, it ejected for the tech on the first try), I left it unplugged for 12 hours after trying and trying to eject the disc. Plugged it back in, still wouldn't eject. So, the player might reset itself in some ways, but it didn't in this way...

WOW, that sucks! I'm glad I jumped ship to the CC lifeboat. Perhaps you should do the same. I've been loving mine for weeks now.

The sound test maybe limited to the multichannel (5.1/7.1) analog audio outputs and not via the coax/optical audio out. You may need to use those and set the 55 to do the decoding for you.

Pretty strange considering that their page for the 55 today has it listed for Amazon as in stock.

Thanks Chris. Seems crazy I should have to go to that extent to connect especially since I really don't care if the player is always connected (really just interested in firmware updates rather than BD Live).

Thanks again,

Jay

Hi Peter,

When did you preorder your BD55?

I haven't received this email yet.

The Amazon web site currently lists the player as "In Stock".

Larry

I just updated my BD55 to the 1.5 FW successfully, but I had to hunt for it. It did not "announce" the new FW voluntarily even though I had selected "yes" to automatic updates. Not a biggie, but I wonder why?

I ordered mine from Amazon on Oct 22, fulfilled by Vanns and delivered Oct 28 double-boxed and in great shape, whew! Very pleased. I connected it via hdmi to my AVR, hdmi from AVR to tv. I'm sending PCM to the Onkyo 604. I compared the BD Incredible Hulk on the BD35 to my Sammy BDP-1000 and the Panny is definitely sending DTS HD to my Onkyo 604, sounds awesome! The sound alone over the Sammy was worth it. But the picture quality does seem a tad sharper on the BD35 with deeper color saturation. Everything looks as good as possible to me, I am very pleased. Haven't tried sd dvd yet. Will post results when I do.

FWIW, all I see on the Onkyo display for audio is 48k on HD audio tracks.
My HDA2 always shows 96k:3/2.1 MCH
BDP-1000 shows 48k 3/2.1 MCH
I have a 5.1 setup, not sure why the BD35 displays different?
Comments welcome, thanks!

Hi,

When you've had a chance to review a few discs will you please report your observations regarding any improvements?

Thanks.

Larry

Greetings,

When I powered the player up a message appeared onscreen indicating that a FW 1.5 was available and that I currently had 1.1 installed. I had the option of downloading it or not. Once the download completed it installed it automatically.


Regards,

I got mine in just 2 days from Panasonic through EPP. will post my observations in a day or 2.

Found answers to my own questions:

I had to set secondary audio to off. I really liked that in the setup menu it gave full descriptions of what the settings would do.

Attempting a firmware update via the internet connection said I was up to date, but someone posted http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/bd/index.html which shows a new firmware out today.

Watched Hulk followed by first half hour of iron man. Player performing nicely.

Hi Chris,

Just spoke to Panasonic. They said I need a router and should have had one anyway to protect myself rather than plugging my computer directly into the cable modem.

Yet another thing to buy and then try and figure out how to use.

Jay

Did you, by chance, change the option in the Setup menu for automatic firmware checks? Maybe you flipped the setting by accident when stumbling through the settings the first time? (It happens.) My BD35 prompted me as soon as I powered it on, asking if I wanted to proceed with the update.

I'll check that out.

Mine just switched over to "shipping soon" and still says its estimated ship date is Nov 3rd. And I only placed the order last week.

I don't think you will get DHCP without a router (DHCP server). You might be able to configure a PC to act as a DHCP server but that is beyond me.

Just a heads up to everyone. I was having a helluva time getting accurate calibration of my Sammy 67 at 0%(black) & 100%(white) using the ramps on DVE. I was told(wrong!) that the Yamaha RX-V663 clips BTB/WTW(it doesn't). I am running monoprice HDMI 1.3 cat2 cables from my BD35 to the 663, using the 663's HDMI video out to my sammy. The BD35 has its own set of adjustments for brightness(+7)/contrast(-2)and once I set these to the correct levels for my system(not all default settings are accurate btw), I could see ALL ramps including BTB and WTW. This allowed me to dial in the brightness/contrast almost perfectly using DVE HD BD.

HOWEVER, I did notice that switching from standard to movie mode RESETS the dynamic contrast/black to high even though it says off? Gonna be a real pain once I get my Harmony One sync'd up. Not sure how to reset it w/ a H1

Anybody else notice this? Will f/w v.1.5 fix this on the 35??? Anyone know what 1.5 does for the 35/55???
I just bought the 67 last week with f/w 1006.1 so it is the latest.

upconversion which one is better

BD55 or OPPO 970 ( i have both). I haven't got a chance to play BD55 yet.

I've been trying to decide between the Panny 55 and the Sony 550. Typically I'm a Sony guy (already own the BDP-S300), but after a ton of reading about the video and 7.1 analog audio quality of the Panasonic, I bit the bullet and got the Panny. Using the MS-Live search 25% coupon and 10% off on ebay purchases coupon, I got it for 352.05 minus 92.25 cash back! Booya!

Sure will do, it won't be until this weekend though.

Jay,

They aren't that difficult to setup. Just get a unit from Linksys or the like w/ a minimum of a 4 port setup. Simply take the output ethernet cable from the cable modem to the router and then connect the computer and Panny in one of the 4 ports. Really quite simple actually. you could call your ISP I bet they have them as well and will help you setup as well.

What do you mean, "...I had to hunt for it."?

Should be simple, right? I went out today and bought a Lynsky network switcher, which Chris says will work here in NYC with the default DHCP settings on the player. Nope, does not pass connection test. Panasonic says router, not switcher, but had me re-enter my settings from my computer ipconfig. Re-enter those settings, pass the connection test, still fails to connect to internet for update (same message about unable to check at this time). I'm pretty much done. I've been on the phone all afternoon with Panansonic and they have no clue what to do.

At this point, I'm thinking about just returning the player and forgetting blu ray for now.

Not trying to P.. you off, but... I updated my firmware today with the greatest of ease. One quick download, one quick CD burn, less than 5 minutes in the player. Does not matter to me that it was manual instead of auto. In fact, that is a preference. I will not even allow Vista to update without me making "human judgments."

I apologize up front for asking this but I've read the entire thread; in fact I have my system set up and I thought I was Ok but after reading the last 10 pages or so I'm uneasy.

My BD35 is connected to Denon 2308ci via HDMI via PCM as the BD35 needs to do the decoding. I have a 5.1 speaker system.

Should the secondary audio be set to On or OFF to obtain the best sound from my system?

Thanks and I won't bring this up again.

Dennis

From what I've observed and what the docs say, the only difference is that DD+/TrueHD will get cut back from 7.1 to 5.1 when Secondary Audio is enabled; the same doesn't happen for DTS-HD codecs. However, since you're using 5.1 LPCM instead of 6.1/7.1, that shouldn't matter to you - quality wise, I didn't notice it making any difference.

Yeah, thanks, but that's another thing I've never done and have little confidence that I'll figure out how to do.

BTW, none of the 3 panasonic techs I spoke to today had any idea there was an update for the players.

I suggested the router vs the switch that someone else suggested, then you shouldn't have had to manually add them. I would check to see if BV-Live works just make sure the cable and systems are functioning correctly. If the ISP, switch and cables are operating correctly then it must be a Panny issue they need to resolve. Even if I didn't have the immediate need I'd still suggest a router to offer another level of protection for any device connected to the internet. Since there is now a FW update I’ll try it tonight to see it it’ll work for me.

Before you take it back watch a movie...the PQ and SQ are worth the extra time and frustration of setup. I'm still tweaking mine for almost a week now, for now at least this is something we'll have to put up w/ to get the lastest and greatest technology. Perhaps I'm willing to put up w/ more since my old nonprogressive scan play that was failing needed to be replaced anyway.... Keep in mind these units haven't even been out a month yet and as people get them more answers will be forth coming.