Official Panasonic DMP-BD35/55 Owners Thread - Page 61

Don't know if this wil work with your particular setup, but try pressing "audio" while playing a disc. The soundtrack will display briefly. repeated pressing cycles through other soundtracks.

Not sure which post to quote since there are many of you addressing LFE issues with the 55.

I have a 55 running 5.1 analog to a Denon 5803. The Ext In on the Denon gives you the choice of DSP or Analog. If you choose DSP all your speaker management can be done in the Denon. If you choose Analog, you have to use the player to do all the management. Since the Denon offers more flexibility than the Panasonic, I went the DSP route. However, there's a separate setting for SW level in the Ext In screen. This is in addition to the master SW setting from the Set Up menu. It gives you a choice of 0,+5,+10, and +15db. The default is +15db. I've noticed that the LFE in any Blu-ray soundtracks that I play is extremely overpowering. I've since backed that setting down to +10db, and I'm going to see what that does tomorrow.

The way my levels were before the Blu-ray, I was running my sub about 7db hot over the rest of my speakers, and it all seemed to balance out.

Can anyone shed light on this subject? Separate LFE setting for analog inputs? Insane level of LFE on lossless tracks? What the hell?

I'd like to add that the LFE preout on the Denon is -3.0db. With that setting, the LFE is about 82db, while the other speakers are calibrated at 75db. Does that mean the Ext In is adding 10db to the master setting?

If the audio improvement is that good then I certainly do want the HD codecs. Whatever I can get without buying a new receiver is cool. So if I understand correctly the BD55 will give me this option using the analog outs. Would this be true HD audio going over analog? Not that it matters but I don't understand why digital can't carry it while analog can.
Also will this setup be a chore going between HD audio and standard dolby/dts? I do have a 6.1 setup. Thanks again for the reply.

Well I wrote customer service and they denied me at first. The denial wasn't due to it not applying to blu-ray players though - they said it was because they don't do the post-order price guarantee anymore. Clearly however, my order falls under the PRE-order price guarantee which they still have. I complained a second time explaining this and got the refund as a "one time exception" like was said before. They didn't even acknowledge the existence of the pre-order guarantee in their response, only discounting the post-order guarantee, which doesn't even apply to me. Doesn't make sense, but at least I got the refund.

I have the 55 set up to use the analog out as well as optical SPDIF. This allows me to use analog for the HD audio formats since my pre/pro does not have HDMI or the ability to decode HD audio. If I am watching a standard DVD with classic DD or dts, I just switch my pre/pro to use the optical bitstream. This player is PERFECT for that type of application. I am very happy with both the picture and the sound performance of the 55.

I beleive the optical digital does not have the bandwidth necessary to carry the new HD formats.

BTW, I have a full 7.1 setup and it is not a chore to switch between analog or digital....just select the input in your receiver.

The analog connection is made with 6 cables for 5.1, or 8 cables for 7.1. Lossless compression is not enough to get all that data down a single coaxial/optical cable.

I also have a receiver without HDMI, in a 5.1 setup. I connected the six analog cables and the digital coaxial cable. For Blu-ray I set the receiver to use the analog inputs, and for DVD I switch to the digital input.

The firmware download was not automatic, even though I had it set to auto, I had to initiate the download through the menu system. The manual download did work and fix a problem I was having, which is great!

What problem did it fix?

LFE is recorded 10dB low, and must be boosted in the receiver. Digital inputs expect this and handle it correctly, but analog inputs must be setup manually. See this post:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=748147
for more information on why this is the case.

+15 is used when bass management is done in the player, which drops the SW channel (LFE + redirected bass) another 5db. Since you are setting speakers to large in the player (yes?) and doing bass management in the Denon, +10 is more likely the correct amount of boost.

These settings always need to be fine tuned since no two receivers and players are set up the same way.

I would get a Rat Shack sound level meter and calibrate the audio. Subs are notoriously hard to set by ear.

I'm guessing that by using the DSP option, your Denon processor is increasing the LFE over what the panny has already increased to compensate for the track LFE reduction. So, you are getting your low frequencies boosted twice. I assume you are using analog out of the panny and not HDMI. You might try a comparrison by selecting analog in your Denon and see if that is more normal when it comes to bass reproduction. A SPL meter will allow you to make some relatively accurate measurments rather than relying on your ears or the room shaking.

I am purchasing this blu-ray tomorrow. Is it OK to just hook it directly to my Panasonic HDTV via HDMI cable? I don't have an A/V system yet and want my father to be able to see blu-ray in action.

Sure, but a surround system definitely completes the setup...

So far, I'm very impressed with the 55. I have it plugged into the 7.1 analogs of my B&K AVR307. I've managed to get the right balance from the 55's analog speaker settings to make my Magnepans and REL Storm III play very nicely together.

The front Maggie 1.6s are driven by a Bryston 4BST with my old KEF102s bringing up the rear. Needless to say, the BD audio has been outstanding. I also have a Toslink going out to another input on the B&K through which I'm streaming PCM rather than Bitstream just as a comparison to the HD codecs. So far, I tend to prefer the analog sound for playing my SD DVDs as well.

I am also delighted with the up conversion of SD DVDs on this 55, especially when I utilize the 24p setting. Even though I have 24p selected in the settings, I still have to go into the display and change it to 24 when playing a SD DVD, but the the result is worth the extra time.

I was wondering if anyone was able to figure out why the Ironman BD doesn't seem to be able to connect to BD Live. I, along with a few others, raised the issue a few pages back, but I haven't seen any comments/solutions in regard to it. I've installed the new firmware without a hitch, but the disk still takes over 2 minutes to load and when I attempt to access BD Live I get a message about network failure and to try again.

I have been able to sign on to BD Live with both The Hulk and John Mayer. The Hulk site is very sluggish to navigate though. I am using a hardwired linksys router that I also have my xbox 360 and my Sammy LN52A750 plugged into without any issues.

BTW, I'd like to thank so many of you on this forum who's input has been extremely helpful to me.

Assuming you are playing your SD DVDs on your blu ray player, I don't understand why you need to bother with having both analog and optical connections.
Can't you get both the HD codecs AND standard Dolby and DTS codecs over the analog?

It worked flawlessly for me with my DMP-BD35. Maybe your ISP is having routing issues to the BD-Live host servers for Iron Man, but not for The Incredible Hulk? You could just disable BD-Live Internet connectivity in the setup menu and see how that goes.

Iron Man Works OK for me. Did you set "allow (all)" in the BD-Live setting in the "Disc" menu (in the player's Set-Up menu)?

-CB

Mine worked fine with the BD35

[quote=JBRare;14984074]So far, I'm very impressed with the 55. I have it plugged into the 7.1 analogs of my B&K AVR307. I've managed to get the right balance from the 55's analog speaker settings to make my Magnepans and REL Storm III play very nicely together.

Sure hope the newer Magnepans can handle the dynamics. I bought a set of Maggies about 26 years ago and sold them 12 years ago when I bought a set of ProAcs. For those who aren't familiar, Magnepan speakers are panel speakers that, at least back then, have a membrane in the panel that handles lower to midrange frequencies and "wiring" on the membrane that handles the highs. While my Maggies sounded lovely, they had serious issues with handling dynamic high frequencies attacks at real world volumes. Despite being fuse protected, I blew out the "tweeters" (wires) two or three times and that was with music. While watching Hulk a few evenings ago, I got to remembering my Maggies the first time the Hulk smashed out a window, thinking my Maggies would never have survived even one of the Hulk's temper tantrums.

I only have analog connections. Dolby Digital and DTS work just as well over the analogs as the HD codecs do. You just don't have Dolby Digital or DTS to light up on your receiver.

bbar - Sorry, I did mean that I am only having these problems with Uncompressed PCM tracks over analog. And yes I have set the speakers to small and large, no difference.

Not having a receiver with HDMI was not a big deal with my 10A, sure I couldn't get DTS-HD MA but I did not have any LFE issues using the same 5.1 analog out set up. The PQ on the 55 is no doubt better and I like having the SD card reader, DTS-HD MA decoding and much faster load times but if I can't get a correction for this LFE issue I may return it. At the end of the day this is more of a deal killer than the other benefits (for me anyways).

Yes. But, there are several reasons I can see to use digital for DTS and DD sound tracks. Receivers have EQ and better bass/time management than most players. AVRs tend to have better DACs than mid-priced players. And, if you have a 7.1 system, you can apply PLIIx to a digital signal.

Is anyone else observing this problem - low LFE for PCM over HDMI?

That was definitely a bug with the BD30 when it was released. It wasn't fatal when speakers were set to large because the sub could be turned up 5db to compensate. But, with bass management, there was no way to get the sub right because LFE and redirected bass were mixed at different levels. As I recall, the BD30 bug affected PCM over HDMI, but not analog output.

It would be surprising to me if Panasonic released a new player with the old bug that's already been fixed. No one reported LFE problems on the BD50.

Just upgraded to my first Blu-Ray player, the Panasonic DMP-BD55, and could use a little expert help. Out of the box, the audio quality was clearly disappointing. I read the other posts about attenuating the sub, but I can't find a setting for this in my receiver. Here is what I have:

Panasonic TH-50PX25 Plasma - both the component and HDMI inputs are ISF-calibrated Max resolution is 1080i. BD55 is connected to the HDMI input. Picture was too bright, so changed Black Level to Dark and turned Contrast down to -6. PQ now looks very close to my calibrated JVC SD-DVD player in terms of color, brightness, and contrast. Compared SD DVD vs. Blu-Ray of Casino Royale for these adjustments. Very impressed with PQ of Blu-Ray even at 1080i.

Pioneer VSX-49TX Receiver - no HDMI inputs. BD55 is connected to the 7.1 analog inputs. Switched audio output in the BD55 to 7.1 analog, PCM, Secondary audio Off. Bass was very weak. Adjusted delay times and speaker levels with SPL meter which helped, but bass was still weak. Finally adjusted volume on back of the sub which clearly helped. Also had to turn up the receiver's master volume from where I normally listened to Dolby Digital on the JVC SD-DVD.

How would I determine if the sub volume is set properly, since the BD55 does not output a test tone to the sub? My receiver also has 2 choices for the Multi Channel In: direct and adjust. If I am reading the manual correctly, direct applies no processing while adjust applies the receiver's level/time/bass/EQ settings (the ones it uses for Dolby Digital). I tried both of these choices but don't hear any difference.

Besides not knowing if the sub is set properly, the BD55 sounds pretty good now that I have made the other adjustments. However, Dolby True HD and dts Master Audio have not impressed me as a huge step up from Dolby Digital. With a proper setup, how much better should the new formats sound? What should I be listening for? Thanks for your help.

Ok, I am almost too embarrassed to admit this but I had secondary audio set to on. I know I've read about this several times in the thread and I could have sworn I had it off but obviously not. I set it to off any just tested POTC 3, Kill Bill, The Descent, Live Free or Die Hard, Incredible Hulk, Sweeney Todd, and a few others so I could be sure that my results were based on a variety of TrueHD, DTS-HD MA, and Uncompressed PCM.

The results are everything sounds amazing! I really want to apologize to posters in this thread and anyone who may have been discouraged by my posts, which were obviously due to my own mistake.

I did set the sub to -10db in the setup and I have my HSU VTF-3 MK3 volume set to 10 o'clock which seems to sound right to my ears (ymmv).

Turning up the sub will do the trick. But, your digital sources will likely have too much bass when you do that and it's a pain to turn the sub up and down depending on what you are playing. Does your receiver allow you to adjust the output levels separately for each input? If so, you can boost the SW there w/o affecting your other sources.


That's not unusual with lossless sources.


Those choices don't apply to the analog inputs. Audio processing has to happen in the digital domain. Calibration discs have tones that can be used.


You will get all sorts of answers to that question. Some people say lossy DTS and DD only remove audio that we don't hear. Others swear it's much better.

Ok thanks RayJr. I was told that as long as you use HDMI to the receiver then the receiver would be decoding the BD surround formats. What I wasn't told that you would also have to set your 55 (or 35 as well I'm guessing) to "bitstream".

Haven't bought mine yet. Just researching at the moment.

Have a good weekend.

Does anyone have any feedback on upgrading the 55 firmware from 1.1 to 1.5 via CD-R? I have burned the download successfully, but I have no player issues, and wonder if I should go ahead and load it. Is it a flawless operation? Any risk involved?

JBRare - About maggies - I am on my 3rd pair (current: 3.6s) since 1988 - the newer ones will make you deaf before giving up. Even in the lower octaves. Really! I can get to absolutely crazy SPLs. I tested some Shostakovitch peak noises during concert-level playback and show 118 db for extremely short periods of time with no noticeable distortion or strain from amp or speakers. Of course I wouldn't try *that* with MMGs. The 3.6 and 20.1s are in a different class for loud/dynamic/bass than the rest of the Maggie family.

I am about to add the 35 to my system in the next few days here.....

Current system if anyone is curious:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr...vol&1173524971