Official Panasonic DMP-BD60/80 Owners Thread - Page 54

If it is a plasma which I am guessing is the case, it is 768p not 720p. Set your player at 1080i/60 or you could try 1080p/24 depending on the model.

What is your TV model? Mine is Pioneer 5070. It accepts 1080p/24 eventhough the TV is 720p (actually 768). I set my Panasonic BD80 palyer to output 1080p and enabled 24 frames option. It plays marvelously and the TV displays it super fine. I am thrilled by the performance of the player plus TV. If your TV supports 1080p/24 then go for it. You will be amazed by the results.

I purchased a sony bdps301 from costco 13 months ago. It started freezing up on me after about 5 months. We (wife and I) figured that that's just the way BD was, the technology was still pretty new. 2 months ago, I was at the end of my rope. I put in a request for sony to mail me the latest firmware disc, and immediately called costco to see what my options were.

The girl that answered the phone put me on hold for a minute to check and see if the BD players were covered under the lifetime warranty for costco. She got back on the phone and told me that it was fine to return it, and just to bring in all accessories, receipt, and box. Cool right.... Yes

Before returning it, I wanted to try the latest firmware, which I installed. It worked fine for about 2 weeks, but then it started freezing on me.. with standard dvds now too!

I called costco back to double check that I could bring it back, by this time it was pretty much 12 months exactly from the time I purchased it. I didn't have my receipt, or the original box. Costco told me that neither would be a problem. They used my card to look up my purchase history and print out my receipt, and told me not to worry about the box. (i'm sure it helped that the player looked superb, no scratches or anything on it.)

The lady at costco (i'm guessing she worked directly in the electronics dept., the returns lady called her on a walkie and she came over to talk with me about the player), anywho, the lady at costco gave me one of those "yeah, this is a common problem" nods when I told her what the sony was doing. I had been reading about the panasonic 605b for a few days, and had decided on it. Without telling the lady that, she says "take a look at the panasonic players, they're really good".

So, here I am, I've had the 605b for a month now, and I absolutely love it! (knock on wood)

I should mention, I called costco a few times to double check on the return after a year, and not having a receipt. I just felt like a schmuck for returning something I had been using for so long. I even told the lady that, and you know what she says?? She said, "there are people who do abuse the return policy, but you're not one of those people!" Can you beat that? I was seriously feeling so uneasy about returning a player that didn't work, and she went the extra mile (in my eyes) to make me feel comfortable about doing it.

One other thing I should mention, I told the lady that I payed about $150 more for the sony, and I didn't feel good about making money off of the return, especially since I was getting a newer/better player. She told me that that is my benefit for being a member.

Talk about catching the right person on the right day!

I ended up paying $50 more for the player instore, vs costco.com. I figured it was the least I could do to kick some of the money back into the store...considering I didn't feel entitled to the extra coin anyway!

In an effort to divert this post from being a total costco commercial/smile fest, I am totally happy with my new panasonic, and I feel like I've picked a real winner!

Nothing like good customer service to keep you comming back. You should write a letter about that employee. They steered you right.

So I don't know whether or not to get this player. I'd love to save the $180 bucks or so over buying a PS3, but I really do want trouble free operation. I guess Steve Jobs wasn't entirely wrong when he said blu-ray was a bag of hurt...

Anyways, is my best bet for trouble free operation still a PS3? I really just want something to play blu-ray movies. Not really interested in the extra streaming features, or paying more for them.

Also, how fast do discs load up on the panasonic 60? On my PC there is barely any load time. I know I have occasionally seen a screen saying that the disc is loading, but I can't say I've ever really waited.

Agreed - we do that whenever we receive excellent customer service (or at least tell their manager before we leave). People get hammered for all kinds of stuff at work whether it is their fault or not, having a good recommendation is always a nice thing.

those with the freezing problems.. are you using the HDMI cable that came with the player? from costco or sam's club. I would suggest getting a replacement. I had one that had problems.. so i got a replacement. it works much better so far.

Jacob

Regarding freezing: can be an "overheating" related problem? Did someone tried to "rise up" a little the player in order to improve the air circulation?

(sorry for my english...)

Ciao!
Marco

At least in my case, no. My first two players were BD60s from Amazon, which don't come with an HDMI cable. I am using a cable that I purchased from monoprice.com. I had another device attached to it before I hooked up my BD60, and the other one never had any problems. The player that I have now is a BD605 from Sam's Club, but I am not using the cable that came with it.

I've played 12 BDs since buying the BD60 in April, and the only freeze issue I've encountered came this past weekend when I was playing the extras on Yes Man, and it froze for 3 seconds. I've been very pleased and have no regrets buying this player.

Has anybody tried the THX Optimizer in T2?

My BD60 doesn't play it.

I just got my DMP BD60 on Friday. So far, so good. One thing I am confused about is whether film mode (24Hz frame rate) can be made the default. I have it enabled in the Setup menu. On the discs, I have tried, playback starts at 60Hz and I have to go to the On Screen menu to turn film mode on. The TV goes blank for a few seconds and then playback resumes at 24Hz, as I can tell by pressing the info button on the TV's remote. I am using HDMI from BD player to AV receiver to HDTV. Is this the expected behavior or does it depend on the disc played? One other strangeness is that when I check the settings on my TV (a Samsung DLP HL50A650) film mode is grayed out in the Picture Options menu, although obviously it is supported.

I returned the BD60 to Best Buy yesterday. While a random pausing/freezing from time to time, I'd rather go with a player I've been also trying from another manufacturer that this isn't happening with at least not yet with those same discs. And the PQ is just as good for BDs and that is what I use the player the most for.

OK, I am a bit confused, I am interested in either the DMP-BD35 or DMP-BD60, I am confused as to which one will have better PQ. When I was first interested in a player a year or so ago, a salesman said that upcoversion players are not as good as true 1080p players. Am I missing something here?

Also, can someone tell me how the PQ would be compared to my BD-UP5000 that just crapped out on me?
Thanks,
Bruce

I have the BD60 as well, and it played the THX Optimizer in T2 fine.

24p should remain on at all times for Bluray playback. DVD however has to have the 24p feature turned on after the DVD loads.

It sticks on for BD but you have to enable it manually everytime you play a SD DVD.


film mode on your TV is only useful if your TV is receiving 1080i or 480i signal and need to de-interlace the signal. When de-interlacing, there are two signal types: 60i video and 24p telecined film. Normally, your TV can auto-detect the signal types. The film mode option let you over-ride this auto-detection if somehow the TV detects wrong signal type.
Since your player already send your TV 1080p (de-interlaced), there is no need for the TV to do anything. Hence it is grayed out.

BD35 is the older model. BD60 is the latest and greatest. Not much differences in PQ other than BD-Live support on BD60. The SD upconversion on BD60 may be a slight bit better than 35 but won't top the 5000's Reon. But it is very close.

Load times for BD discs on these pannys are actually slower than 5000 (exclude power on delay which pannys are faster)

Thanks. The 24Hz ability seems to be available for all discs. So I suppose you are supposed to know whether the original source was TV or movie in order to decide whether to turn it on or not. Are all movie DVDs best viewed at 24Hz? I must admit that with some, Apollo 13, for example, I can't tell the difference.

Actually, the difference is the addition of Viera Cast. The BD35 already had BD-Live support.

Same here.

Not sure if this is an issue related to the BD60, but has anybody noticed when watching BR that sometimes the picture gets a washed out, less contrast look to it? It's really degrades the experience during darker scenes. I noticed it more frequently when watching DVDs as well. This effect seems to happen less when I change it to 24p vs. 60. I'm going to try the 1.7 update to see if it helps.

Yup, you'll be able to tell right away if you select 24p for a video source program, it will get all jerky and be unwatchable. For film based content though, 24p is the way to go if your display supports it. Keep in mind that most of the new "double rate" (e.g. 120Hz, etc.) technology in LCDs actually re-interlaces 24p in most cases (there are a few exceptions) which completely defeats the purpose.

IMO the effectiveness of 24p is very largely, if not entirely dependent on screen size. Under 50" you're probably not going to notice the 3:2 judder. But play an interlaced source back on a screen over 100" (like I have for my RS1x) and it becomes very obvious, mainly in pans and zooms. But with 24p those same scenes become smooth as silk! 24p is a must have for large screens which is I why I decided to forgo better upconversion in other BD players that don't support 24p for SD DVDs

Oh, and I made a macro on my Pronto remote attached to a "24p" button that does the menu actions for me (pause, select 24p enabled from menu, wait 10s which is how long it takes the HDMI to re-sync to the new frame rate with my PJ, then un-pause.) I generally use it right as the opening credits are starting to roll. Its slightly annoying but I soon forget it and enjoy the movie.

Its gotten to be such a habit with DVDs now that last night I actually hit it while watching something over component (1080i) to my Pioneer Elite RPTV...DOH!

Just thought I would dump this, my 4th day of BD-601 had a 3 to 4 second freeze up while viewing Iron Man. Just the one and I finished rest of movie with no problems. This was on my 6th movie and 1st minor problem. Not a big deal as it is being returned anyway as I did order a BD-60 already here 63.00 cheaper from Amazon.

Earlier in thread somebody (forget who)was wondering if heat could be something that caused the freeze up problems. When new unit came I was watching a blu-ray disc and shut the BD-601 down and when I picked it up I noticed it was quite warm underneath unit. When unit is on flat surface I don't think there is more than 1/8 inch separating unit from table. Just for kicks I have raised the new unit so there is 5/16 to 1/2 inch airspace under unit. Probably has nothing to do with freeze ups but if it ain't gonna help it won't hurt anything.

Have no issue with it. What is your connection: HDMI or component? And what's your TV? Sounds like you have a mis-matched color space between player and TV. This could happen if your player is set to Normal RGB range (by default) but your TV is set to expanded RGB range (those typically for use with a PC). This will cause exactly the effect you just described. The player can be configured to output expanded RGB range and you can try it out. Or, ideally you should check your TV's setting to make sure it is configured to receive normal video range, not expanded PC range.

Does anyone else have any experience with this or have any ideas?

My Pioneer does the same thing. It is kind of annoying.

Don't know if this is related to firmware 1.7 update or not.

Over the weekend we watched the Aladdin platinum Disney DVD. It is the one remastered in 2004 I think. Anyway the trailers for new movies were streaking as if something was wrong with the de-interlacing algorithm. The main movie seems fine to my eyes though.

Instead of smooth motion, there were streaking artifacts in the video.

Can anyone who has this DVD confirm or deny this with firmware 1.7?

Have watched many DVDs in this player and have never seen anything like this before.

I am curious as to what is going on, if anything.

I just purchased a new BD60 and am having a couple of issues that I thought you guys might be able to help with. I have a 46" Panasonic Plasma to go along with the BD60. I watched Dark Knight last night and the results were fantastic.

First, I plugged my ethernet, which works with my Vieracast TV into the BD60 and could not get the BD60 to connect to the internet. My internet access in that room is through a netgear wireless bridge and I thought that this might be the problem except it works totally fine with the Panasonic TV. Do I need to do some sort of configuration on the BD60--- it wouldn't seem that I should have to, but it doesn't want to work.

The second issue is that I have a Onkyo HTS5100 home theatre which is not HDMI 1.3. I have the BD60 connected to the Onkyo via a optical audio cable. As best as I can tell, the signal is only relaying a 2.1 signal and from my reading online should be at least 5.1. I have turned off the accessory audio and such, but can't seem to figure this out.

Thanks for the help,
Nick

I own the aladdin 2004 2 disc set. I played the preview in front of it. I didn't notice any problems. I am going through my receiver the onkyo 605.

Jacob