Official Panasonic DMP-BD35/55 Owners Thread - Page 4

Originally Posted by Mikeb53

I just got my BD55 today and watched Ironman. I have a Panasonic 50" plasma PZ700U. Before the Blu-ray player I was using an Onkyo 405 DVD player, which does upconvert. Everything is hooked up with HDMI cables and goes thru a Onkyo 605 receiver. While watching Ironman I commented to all in the room "does this player, playback this movie stunningly better than what the Onkyo 405 did with other movies we have watched". The answer from all in the room..........NO. Now don't get me wrong, it's a very good picture and the receiver informed us that it was receiving in 5.1 audio and the TV was receiving the 1080P signal. But unless I don't have it hooked up correctly, it dosen't seem to be worth the $400.

Originally Posted by Mikeb53

I'm not giving up, and I know its only been one movie. I was told get Planet Earth for a good example of High-Def. I guess I was expecting something more as compared to an upconverted DVD. Like you say it depends on how the movie is made and copied to Blu-Ray.

Originally Posted by wanab

As I was reading this page,FedEx rang the doorbell. My 55 came one day early from CC. Wooppee ! ! Now to read the manual and hook her up. The new Indy movie should be here tomorrow for the first audition. Will let you know then. Bye unDTS-MA Pio 51. I have an old Denon AVR 3802 w/analog in. Mits HC 1000 on 92" Firehawk. Yum yum....

Originally Posted by hobbyinn

Yes, but mine does not work well. There is Frame-by-Frame (pg 20). However, after I pause, it only lets me advance 3 or 4 frames. There is also slow motion. After you pause, you can pick three or four different speeds. If you pick the first speed, you have time to hit pause before the next frame. Doing this you can get frame by frame. Do others have problems with the Frame-by-Frame feature?

Originally Posted by sourbeef

I just this second hooked up the 35 and put blu-ray Hairspray on. I hope I like it.

Originally Posted by caa100

It has already been posted in this thread that the DMP-BD35 will not play a PAL title.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...0#post14867390

Originally Posted by bibo01


Thanks Robert.
I may have to wait if it is true for PAL BD35/55 players as well...

Originally Posted by rkaz

I received the unit from CC yesterday. I played Mr & Mrs Smith to test the DTS-HD MA 7:1 analog output to my non HDMI receiver

Setup was very easy with the instructions provided. I use the HDMI video output to a 3-way HDMI switcher; and then to tv. I conected the 7:1 RCA analog cables from the BD to the external inputs on the bak of my Denon 8303 receiver. I followed the BD player on-screen setup menu for tv, video and audio settings. Put in the disk and Voila! The whole process was completed in 30 minutes. Everything worked! I was amazed how easy it was.

The soundtrack was outstanding compared to DTS-ES or Dolby Digital-EX.
The receiver would not allow any speaker or subwoofer adjustments when playing an EXT-IN audio source. However, the BD player does have the ability to adjust speaker settings before outputting analog audio. I was unable to try this last night; but will tonight.

I was nearly resigned to purchasing a HDMI capable AV receiver; in order to obtain lossless audio; but thus far; it appears that this BD player may have saved me $1,000. or more.


My system:
Panasonic DMP-BD55 BD player
Denon AVR-3803 receiver
Fujitsu PDP (1080i resolution)
Mirage Omnisat (v1) satellite speakers
Mirage Omnisat (v1) center channel speaker
Velodyne CT-120 subwoofer
Octava 3:1 HDMI Switch
Monoprice cables

Next up: Ironman (Dolby TrueHD)

Originally Posted by Tony Costanza

I'm totally convinced that it is now impossible to have an owner's thread.

Originally Posted by samhain1

Thanks, I am very interested in hearing what you say. What adjustments are available on the BD55 to help integrate the sound with an EXT in input

Originally Posted by TommyV

Also, can someone please refer to the manual for the BD55 and clear up if in the speaker setup for the analog outs, it includes: Small/Large setting, speakers level adjustment and distance adjustments. The BD10 and BD50 at least included these so I would think the BD55 is the same. Would be nice if they added an adjustable crossover so it can be set at 80 Hz instead of locked at 100.

Analog 7.1 Surround: The Final Frontier

If you use the 7.1 channel analog outputs, then you'll want to go into the TV / Device set-up screens to adjust the speaker levels, speaker size (large/small) and speaker delays. In a 7.1 channel system, it is ideal to have all speakers the same distance from the listener but reality and available placement options sometimes prevent that. The Analog Audio Output screen allows you to adjust these parameters (you get to it by clicking on the 5.1 or 7.1 output options in Analog Audio Output, under TV / Device Connection). Here you can selectively turn on or off any set of channels (and set the speaker to "small" or "large") just by clicking on the speakers in the set-up diagram. This allows you to set your system up in any configuration from two speakers to seven speakers with or without a subwoofer and the player will mix the soundtrack accordingly.

If you set the speakers to small, the crossover will send them only frequencies above 100 Hz. Set to large, the speakers get a full range signal. Speaker level adjustments are available in 1 dB increments from 0 to -6 db (front left/right) and 0 to -12 dB for the center and surrounds.

The center channel speaker delay can be adjusted from 0 to 5 milliseconds (ms) in .1 ms increments. The rear and side surrounds can be adjusted up to 15 milliseconds (also in .1 ms increments). The left and right speakers have no delay adjustment as these are the reference channels. Panasonic includes a handy reference table in the user manual that allows you to correlate distance to delay. For example, if the rear speakers are about 1.1 feet closer to you than the main left and right speakers then you should adjust the delay for the rears to 1.0 ms.

I connected the 7.1 channel analog outputs up to an Onkyo TX-SR605 receiver's multi-channel input, and used our trusty Radio Shack analog SPL meter to set levels using the player's built-in pink noise test tone. When doing the set-up I noticed that only the main left and right outputs were active. I disabled the player's HDMI audio output in the TV/Device connection set-up menu, tried again and found that all 7.1 outputs were live. A couple of odd things came up during level calibration, though. When you adjust levels on the individual channels, the adjustment is not done in real time - it sounds like your adjustments are doing nothing. However, when the test tone cycles around again to that channel, you will hear the results of the level change. This makes set-up a bit awkward, but you'll get the hang of it. Also, there is a button on the speaker set-up screen that says "Complete." You must hit this button when you're done calibrating levels to save your changes. I think it would be better for Panasonic to label this "Save Changes" as this would be consistent with most other applications. I quit out of the configuration screen at least once without hitting "Complete" and lost my changes.

Once configured, the sound from the Panasonic's on-board decoders was quite good. Listening to tracks from a DTS-HD Blu-ray sampler disc, as well as Blu-ray titles such as Forbidden Kingdom (DTS-HD MA 7.1), Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City (Dolby TrueHD 96/24 5.1) and Blade Runner: The Final Cut (Dolby TrueHD 5.1), the player created an immersive and enveloping soundstage with excellent dynamics and throbbing deep bass. If your receiver or preamp/processor lacks HDMI inputs but does have a 5.1 or 7.1-channel analog input, the BD55 provides a good solution for adding next generation high bit rate audio to your system.

Originally Posted by rkaz

I received the unit from CC yesterday. I played Mr & Mrs Smith to test the DTS-HD MA 7:1 analog output to my non HDMI receiver

Setup was very easy with the instructions provided. I use the HDMI video output to a 3-way HDMI switcher; and then to tv. I conected the 7:1 RCA analog cables from the BD to the external inputs on the bak of my Denon 8303 receiver. I followed the BD player on-screen setup menu for tv, video and audio settings. Put in the disk and Voila! The whole process was completed in 30 minutes. Everything worked! I was amazed how easy it was.

The soundtrack was outstanding compared to DTS-ES or Dolby Digital-EX.
The receiver would not allow any speaker or subwoofer adjustments when playing an EXT-IN audio source. However, the BD player does have the ability to adjust speaker settings before outputting analog audio. I was unable to try this last night; but will tonight.

I was nearly resigned to purchasing a HDMI capable AV receiver; in order to obtain lossless audio; but thus far; it appears that this BD player may have saved me $1,000. or more.


My system:
Panasonic DMP-BD55 BD player
Denon AVR-3803 receiver
Fujitsu PDP (1080i resolution)
Mirage Omnisat (v1) satellite speakers
Mirage Omnisat (v1) center channel speaker
Velodyne CT-120 subwoofer
Octava 3:1 HDMI Switch
Monoprice cables

Next up: Ironman (Dolby TrueHD)

Originally Posted by lujan

Do any owners have DVD RAM disks? I have a few movies on DVD RAM and am almost sure the Panasonic players will read them since Panasonic (I believe) created the format. Can someone check and make sure they read DVD RAM?

Originally Posted by wstanko

Tony, the problem is......(drum roll icon missing from list)...

only a handful of people have one. Mine is on order from Crutchfield with a delivery expectation of 11-????? So what am I going to write.

Originally Posted by tony costanza

there is another 35/55 thread for idle chatter. An owner's thread should be reserved for questions about operation, quirks, bugs etc. Idle chatter makes it difficult for a new owner to read the entire thread in hopes of picking up some pointers. For example why fill this thread with "ah the fedex truck will be here tomorrow".

Tony

For that 7.1 analog audio do you output pcm or bitstream from the bd 55?

Originally Posted by motobonsai

So I am going to use the analogs for the lossless sound too.
Do you put the bd 55 to pcm or bitstream to achieve this?
How is lossless? Can u tell the difference?