Official Panasonic DMP-BD60/80 Owners Thread - Page 60

That's great! Thanks for taking the initiative and contacting Image Burn. If indeed they can provide a fix that will make things a lot easier for Img Burn/BD60 owners, myself included. Keep us posted!


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I personally noticed a rather appreciable difference in SQ when going from optical on my previous blu-ray players, to the 7.1 analog on my BD80.
Having an older flagship Denon AVR 5803 receiver, using the 7.1 analog connections on the BD80 allowed me to achieve the best possible SQ without breaking the bank on a new HDMI flagship receiver. The lossless sound on blu-ray soundtracks and music may not be on the same par as high resolution DVD-A and SACD, but is a considerable upgrade from the standard fair DD and DTS on DVD, IMO.
I would think that the majority of people who don't use the 5.1/7.1 analog connections on the BD80, would just as well get the BD60 and use the optical or HDMI.

I've seen it said here and there that "getting a firmware update CD from Panasonic takes forever".

I received three "presents" today.


The two ethernet cables that I ordered were delivered (one 7 foot, one 50 foot)...

...and the Panasonic firmware update CD arrived in the mail (apparantly with 1.7 ; the label is stamped "Panasonic / Customer Call Center / Ideas for Life", "FWV17BD60", "DMPBD60"). I first ordered the CD from the Panasonic USA website / support, last friday via email. Thats only SIX DAYS, from the time that I ordered it, until I had it in my possession.

=====

I checked the Image Burn forum - no response to my offer of holding off.

The author of imageburn "kind of" implied that he would work on this (now that he had clues, apparantly he downloaded and burned BOTH 1.5 and 1.7 using * WinXP *, and compared that to an Image Burn burn (that sounds funny. BurnBurn)), a day or two ago (two days, depending on your viewpoint), said that " .. by the time he had it finished and ready to test it on someone, my problems would probably be sorted out".

I know that he has logged on several times after I responded with an offer to WAIT on upgrading the firmware. I realize that for him and the rest of the ImgBurn community (on THAT forum) that this is a low priority thing... about 4 years of Image Burn, and I think I am the only one that has posted in the * ImgBurn * forums on this.

No problem. I posted (a positive post) that I was going to go ahead and upgrade, but I asked him to please be aware that owners of a certain Blu-ray player (and probably other models) would be appreciative if the Img Burn problem was fixed.

Coffee. At least two cups.
Then I will upgrade.

(edit)
Upgraded from 1.1 to 1.7, courtesy of the CD mailed to me by Panasonic. I loaded movie 2 from the ONE Blu-ray title in my collection (so far, next to my mountain of DVDs), "The Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy". I played the "Liar's Dice" game with the scallywags - I imagine that is loaded with BD-Java, and if anything could make the firmware cough..... everything is working perfectly. I always lose the game - those mangy motherless dogs! Avast!

I have a 42" Panasonic G10 on the way, and am considering getting a Blu-Ray player (DMP-BD60) to play Blu-Rays and upconvert my DVDs. Anyone know what the quality difference will be either upconverting using ffdshow vs. the DMP-BD60? (both computer and Blu-Ray player will be connected with HDMI).

Thanks

Hi all,

I just received my Panasonic BD-60 last weekend and my son was patiently waiting (As patient as any 7 year old can) for me to hook it up so he could watch Bolt. Sadly I too had the menu freeze. Trailers and everything would work, but the menu would hang then the disk would stop and kick me back to the Panasonic menu.

Now I do have my player connected through a D-Link DAP-1522 Bridge to my D-Link DIR-655 router and I have an 8Gb SDHC card installed, so the player should work for BD-Live. All of my other BD-Live disks work, but all of my Disney disks (Bolt, Wall-E, Sleeping Beauty, A Bug's Life) would not. Bolt would hang and the other disks would just say that I didn't have a network connection at this time. I did notice that when loading a Disney disk, I never got the Panasonic pop-up message saying that Networking has been started. I'd get this on my other (non-Disney) BD-Live enabled disks. I tried connecting directly to the DIR-655 and then directly to my cable modem and still would get the you have no network connection message on the Disney disks (And no Network pop-up message either)

Unpluging the network cable did allow Bolt to play, but who wants to go through that? Also, how do I automate unplugging the network cable on my Harmony remote so the wife can load the disk for our son?

After looking back through these posts, I found this post:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...4#post16456104

that suggested a DNS issue and a possible router problem.

Well when I had my player connected directly to the internet I still had no connectivity to the Disney BD-Live site, so can't be the router there. So I went and set my router to access a different DNS source (As opposed to just using my ISP's DNS servers) and guess what? Bolt (And the other Disney disks) now work just fine. I was able to load Bolt and connect to the Disney Live site. I also now get my Network is starting pop-up while the disk is loading up.

So I guess the moral of my story (Other than to thank Mr. Boylan for his excellent suggestion) is that maybe your ISP's DNS servers just suck and don't resolve the Disney site correctly. If your ISP's DNS entries don't work, maybe somebody else's will, it did for me.

Just thought I'd share.

Did you take advantage of the rebate for a free BD60 with the purchase of a g10?

Well...I'm hoping to. I placed the order on the 12th, and the only rebate they offered at that time was for the camera (the BD60 offer started on the 14th). I will call Panasonic tomorrow and see if I can somehow "swap" rebates to get the $200 off the BD60 and return the camera to Amazon. Not sure if it will work, but it's worth a shot. Sad thing is, I only got the camera to eBay or sell to my friend, but I really want a Blu-Ray player...if only the deal had been sooner

This is probably the best post in the last 15 pages.

I did have some problems early on.. it was related to the HDMI cable that came with it. I was able to replace it and its been working fine ever since.
this is my second player from panasonic. they did a fine job with the updates for 30.
Jacob

lol some of these post make me smile..but congrats on your player!

As many of you know from trying, the free ImgBurn CD burning application so far has not able to successfully upgrade the BD60 firmware. (This app also burns DVDs and now, Blu-ray discs). I don't know a heck of a lot about this in general... I only tried ImgBurn for the firmware updates. But people say that it is a "stellar" application, very worthy of a download. It is compatible with WinVista, including WinVista 64.

I had installed it, and was dialoging on the ImgBurn forum w/ some ImgBurn experts, including the author of ImgBurn. I had been trying to upgrade from firmware version 1.1. Its *POSSIBLE* that the problem has been found, and a new (beta) version has been built (it is "with the beta team" now). Apparantly there is something "strange" about BD60 upgrade CDs (although apparantly Roxio and Nero Express can do it... but we are talking about FREE CD burning software... though you can make a donation to ImgBurn).

This would not only help new owners of the BD60, but ALL owners of the BD60 when Panasonic comes out with new firmware.

Unfortunately I had upgraded to 1.7 (via an official Panasonic CD) before ImgBurn's modification for "Mode 2 / Form 1" files could be tried. This might very well enable ImgBurn to successfully burn firmware CDs for the BD60. As you know, if the firmware in the player is equal to or higher than the firmware on the CD, then the update procedure doesn't even get invoked.

It would help out a LOT if someone with version 1.1 or 1.5 in their player could try upgrading with a new beta version of ImgBurn. (For 1.1, try to upgrade to 1.5 first. For 1.5, go to 1.7. This gives a little more "manuvering room" for testing).

I know what you are probably thinking. "NOT on MY player! No guinea pigs here!".

I experimented with 5+ ImgBurn CDs until my Panasonic 1.7 CD arrived, and I installed it. This morning I did two additional experiments for the ImgBurn forum - to see what happens when a 1.7 player attempts to upgrade to 1.7, both with an official Panasonic CD and an ImgBurn CD.

NOTHING bad has happened to my player. The player probably has a checksum system (more likely a CRC) that is smart enough to reject bad update files.

So... if you are a BD60 owner with version 1.1 or 1.5 firmware, AND an ImgBurn user (or you think you might like to try ImgBurn out for general purposes), then please consider going to the ImgBurn site.

Here is the thread reflecting my experiences; please read the entire thread (a little over 2 pages so far) for a complete understanding:

http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=10714

Hi. Do any of you guys/gals listen to audio CDs via your BD60. Even though I'm all HDMI connected to a Onkyo SR 507 and the DVD area communicates/plays well. I (A) get no sound even though my A/V reciever is on CD when a cd is popped in and the Pany begins to read the cd with a second count-down. And (B) it activates my Samsung B750 even though my Harmony remote specifies that when a CD is popped in the BD60 the A/V reciever switches to CD input (correctly) and the TV is off (but it turns it on) And as I said with a brand new audio (commercial) jazz CD; no sound. Thanks. Dennis

Have you tried using the DVD activity on your Harmony instead of the CD one? Since you are using HDMI from the player, you need to stay on the HDMI input on your receiver. I suspect the CD activity uses a different input on the receiver, one that isn't connected to your BD60.

Harmony needs to be told what devices to turn on and which inputs to use for each activity. In your case, CD is the same activity as DVD, except that it doesn't need to turn the TV on.

Wondering if anyone can say if there are ANY performance advantages with a 80 vs. a 60?

I know the analog outputs are an extra on the 80 but are there ANY audio or video hardware or software advantages to owning an 80 vs. a 60?

I have a Denon 4308 and plan on using HDMI but have noticed that a few audio CD's like the Beatles "Love" seems to sound better in analog out with my current Samsung 1400.

I hope the 80 is better than the 1400.
Thank you

Denon 4308
Samsung 1400 - "WANT TO PUT IN THE Panasonic 80"
Toshiba 42 Inch 1080P -
4 Canton CT 1000's FR, FL, RR, RL
2 Canton 603's SRL, SRR
1 Boston Acoustics 3 way - Center -
Sunfire Subwoofer TS EQ10
Denon i-POD Link
SONY HD HDMI Links for SONY HD Video Cameras

I have no problem playing CD through HDMI (other than you have to hit play button manauuly for CD). I suspect you didn' configured you AVR, TV and Harmony correctly. If you have Harmony remote, I suggest you turn off HDMI CEC control functions on all devices so that they won't interfer with remote functionality.

The only difference is that the BD80 has an info popup showing source material geek details. See earlier in this thread where it's been described.

When you say audio CDs sound better in analog out, what are you comparing? Are you saying the stereo analog output of the Samsung sounds better with CDs than the digital output of the Samsung?

The same is likely to be true of either the BD60 or the BD80. And, the stereo oiutputs of the BD80 are likely to be better than the ones in the BD60. The analog upgrades in the BD80 are not limited to the multichannel outputs.

btw, if you like the Love CD, you should listen to it on DVD-Audio. Perhaps an Oppo player would be the way to go.

Yes that is it although I'm not sure how to deactivate the TV from turning on. The audio CD worked well via the DVD player when I pressed "play DVD" on the Harmony 1 as opposed to "play CD". when the TV turns on (unwanted) it displays the CD playlist information. Any specific suggestions relative to programming that would not include the TV being activated. Much thanks. d

Each activity set-up includes options for which devices are used, whether they should be powered up when the activity starts and powered down when it stops, and what input on each device is being used. If you use the DVD activity for both video and audio discs, Harmony will always turn on the TV because you need it for video. So, you should modify the CD activity to use the same input on the AVR that you use for the DVD activity. Have you created an account at the Harmony website where you do all of the activity configurations?

Hi BIslander,

Thank you for writing back.

It was the DVD-Audio version I was talking about not the CD and it does sound wonderful. The seperation of the chanels is outstanding. You can hear the fly moving across the room in beautiful detail.

Going from the Samsung 1400 to the Panasonic 80, I hope the HDMI and analog output are better.

I looked at the Oppo and it just seemed too good to be true. The bugs I read about have kept me away. My passion is music and I'll miss the SACD option of the Oppo. Perhaps I should just get a good SACD player to compliment the Panasonic 80.

I ordered the Panasonic 80 last night and it's on the way. I hope I did the right thing.

Thank you again for writing.

Sorry, but the Samsung 1400 doesn't play DVD-Audio. Nor does the BD80. You are likely listening to the DVD-Video portion of the disc, which has DTS and DD 5.1 tracks. The only BDPs with DVD-Audio decoding are the Oppo and the new $3800 Denon.


Oppo is fixing the bugs, which is why the player is not out yet in general release. The company has a great track record.

Why are there so few reviews for the 60? Kris has good things to say but that seems the only credible review i'v found thus far...

I just bought the BD-601 and Final Fantasy VII on Bluray, it was absolutely stunning on my Panny plasma! What difference is the 601? a later version of the 60, or a budget version?

Warehouse club version of the 60. It's so you can't price match with the Best Buys and others. Also, comes with the HDMI cable.

hey friends,

does BD-60 = BD-60K? I want to get in on the panny rebate and best buy only offers the BD-60K even though the rebate states BD-60. help help!

I just bought the BD-601 It looks the same as 60. Not sure about the freeze issue yet

Rebate??? What rebate, my BB has not mentioned it. Please elaborate.

Same thing. 'K' means black color of player. ('S' for silver color but there is no BD-60S for US market).

Its the 605 that comes with the HDMI cable, mine did not have one.

Hm this is strange..The K simply means black I believe, you need to check if the rebate includes the "K"