Official Panasonic DMP-BD60/80 Owners Thread - Page 12

Originally Posted by Doug G

I was planning this same thing until I learned how difficult it can be to properly set up analog connections even with bass mgmt and delay settings in the player. Bass mgmt here is less than optimal (IMO) with a 100Hz rolloff. There are also LFE level issues using the analog connections that need to be accounted for in the receiver so setting the proper LFE level can be a challenge. I decided I could live with the full rate core DD/DTS (640k/1.5M respectively) until I upgrade my receiver to one with HDMI capability in a few more years. I can tell you from experience these core tracks are far superior to the bitrate limited ones offered on DVDs today (448k/768k respectively.) Direct impression from my screening of MIB alone (640k DD) was that the sound was vastly superior to anything on DVD. Also, there have been comments by many that the HD "lossless" soundtracks aren't all that much better in many cases, its really dependent on the mastering which can vary widely from title to title just as with video quality.

Originally Posted by Road Rash

Since the Amazon third party retailer was located only 70 miles from me (unkown to me when I ordered) my 3-5 day standard shipping only took 2 days. Instead of waiting until next for it to arrive week I'm now the proud owner of a BD80 this week.

My only other HD optical media experience is from my HD-DVD drive for my Xbox 360. My TV is a 52" 120hz Samsung LCD (LNT5271F). My initial impressions of the Panasonic...

1) I love the 1080p24. No more judder even with standard DVDs.

2) Upconversion seems good enough for me.

3) No hassle set up with my older D-link wireless router which is located very near my TV stand so it was basicly plug and play.

4) Firmware upgrade from 1.1 to 1.5 took about 10 minutes. I haven't tried BD Live yet.

5) Command response from the remote is a tad on the slow side. I can live with it.

I'll eventually get around to playing with the VieraCast and see how that is. I went with the BD80 for the analog outs so someday I'll have to fiddle with setting that up but for now I'm using the digital coax.

I'm going back to play with it some more. I love new toys.

Originally Posted by bancroft

I tried this and was very disappointed in the audio. Stereo doesn't cut it so I cancelled the service. Picture quality was great on their HD offerings but there were not enough of them to justify the cost.

I'll wait for a product that gives me better audio.

Originally Posted by NorCalG

Doug, so are you just using a TOSlink optical cable from the BD60 to get the core DD/DTS to your non-HDMI A/V receiver?

Originally Posted by bakerwi

I look forward to hearing more from you about your experience.

Originally Posted by Doug G

I was somewhat disappointed to have to give up my coax digital connection which is superior (timing recovery, jitter) to consumer grade TOSlink, but its still livable until I can get an HDMI capable receiver in a few more years...

...Setting up the analog connections properly can be difficult so I decided it wasn't worth the trouble and extra expense (for BD80 plus 7 decent cables.)

Originally Posted by benchmarkjoe

Bought Panasonic BD60 (dissapoint no DviX by my mistake, still have little 20 days to return)

Originally Posted by Road Rash

Would it have been worth about an extra $70 for the upgrade to a digital coax output on the BD80?

Originally Posted by vconqwst

Got my BD60 yesterday, really like it.

One issue I do have, I can't figure out how to change the color of the pillar boxing (in 4:3 video) from gray to black... it starts out black, but jumps to gray after less than a second and stays that way.

Am I missing something in the menus or am I stuck with this?(I don't want to stretch the image)

Thanx

Originally Posted by Doug G

Yes, luckily I still had a decent 1m optical cable lying around so I was able to connect it right up. I was somewhat disappointed to have to give up my coax digital connection which is superior (timing recovery, jitter) to consumer grade TOSlink, but its still livable until I can get an HDMI capable receiver in a few more years. (I had literally just spent $200 to add the 2ch matching amp to get the rear channels for full 7.1 EX/ES so I'm in no hurry to ditch this setup.) Like I said, I found the core DD sound on MIB to be far superior to normal DD and to me even sounded considerably better than the typical low bitrate DTS tracks on most DVDs. I only have one full rate DTS DVD (Dances with Wolves) I would say the sound from this one was most comparable, although these two soundtracks are vastly different so comparisons are somewhat difficult. There are only a handful of full rate DTS DVDs and most have been discontinued. (The studios now prefer to use the space for useless extras - boo, hiss.)

A friend with a dedicated theater who uses Meridian processors/amps (with SPDIF interfaces to his BD51) and Ariel/M&K speakers said that most of the HD soundtracks don't sound appreciably better than the high bitrate DD/DTS core tracks and his setup is high end enough to reveal the differences. I read an article recently which stated that the full rate DTS core was indistinguishable from the HD lossless formats in controlled listening tests and the core DD wasn't far behind. Based on all this I decided to core soundtracks would still be a considerable upgrade even with my legacy receiver and I've not been disappointed yet! Setting up the analog connections properly can be difficult so I decided it wasn't worth the trouble and extra expense (for BD80 plus 7 decent cables.)

Originally Posted by teachsac

Turn off the screen saver

S~

Originally Posted by Doug G

I didn't realize the BD60 only had an optical output when I bought it. It was a bit of an impulse purchase. I had gone to BB to pick up another XDE for $79 but they had none, nor did any of the closest stores. I needed something and decided I'd finally have to suck it up and go blu-ray (I had been holding out due to BD cost/availability and most importantly the poor upconversion in most players) so when I saw the stack of BD60s and knew the upconversion was decent and offered 24p for DVD I just grabbed it. At that point I had already resolved myself to the core soundtracks, so it wasn't a huge leap, actually.

They had no BD80s, but even if they did and I knew it had a coax (and the 60 didn't) there's no way I could have justified the extra $100 just to get a coax output.

I've been perfectly satisfied with the core sound over the TOSlink so far. Like I said, it sounds better than my old DVD player over coax. In 2-3 years I'll be upgrading my DTR-7.2 to something with HDMI, so its only temporary anyway.

Originally Posted by Category 5


Not sure what you mean about the rain. 24fps surely can capture rain, as can 12fps and even 1fps (ever seen a still photo with rain in it?). It's the shutter speed that will determine how much of it you see. Not the frame rate.

Originally Posted by Raymond42262

Is the lack of DIVX in the 60 model important?

If I can find one ...... I plan on hooking it up to my 42 inch Panny PZ 85U with HDMI cable. I don't have a home theater system. Is this the best way to go ?

How is it with the internet ? I have not seen much about that here.

Many thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by Ein

For a movie camera, isn't frame rate directly related to the shutter speed when it's recording? You can't change the shutter speed without changing the frame rate.

Ever tried to take a picture of rain at 1fps (that's a one second exposure)?

Originally Posted by Raymond42262

Also, if the BD60 only supports 5.1 will it diminish the output of a 7.1 theater system if I decide to get one in the future? Or is the DIVX and the 7.1 capacity worth the extra 100 bucks? BTW, it the DIVX feature worth it ? Or is it a gimmick?

Originally Posted by cpc

I wonder if the BD80 will do the rear surround duplicating that the BD55 did with 5.1 to 7.1 for DTS soundtracks when you are setup for 7.1.

Originally Posted by vconqwst

One issue I do have, I can't figure out how to change the color of the pillar boxing (in 4:3 video) from gray to black... it starts out black, but jumps to gray after less than a second and stays that way.

Originally Posted by Foxbat121

If you have to ask this question, DIVX is not important for you. DIVX is for ppl that aleady downloaded converted tons of movies in DIVX format. Not sure if BD80's DIVX capability supports HD DIVX or not (majority of the players don't support HD DIVX). But I suspect DIVX won't have much future in the living room. For home movies, AVCHD (which BD60 already support) is the way to go. For HD movie download, my friends already started doing mkv conversion to AVCHD.

Originally Posted by Doug G

How are you getting this pillar boxing for 4:3 content? I've tried several 4:3 DVDs and none properly pillar-box as the manual states. Did you upgrade the firmware to 1.5 or are you still running 1.1? Is this with a BD or DVD?

Originally Posted by Raymond42262

if the BD60 only supports 5.1 will it diminish the output of a 7.1 theater system if I decide to get one in the future?

Also, after reading numerous replies in here...am I correct to say that some people use optical cables instead of HDMI ? Or are they using optical cables in addition to the HDMI. I always thought that HDMI was the newest upgrade.

Originally Posted by boylan13

4:3 DVD content is supported properly on the BD60 and BD80. Make sure in TV /Device connection you set the display to 16:9 (not 16:9 full) and make sure you have not set any ZOOM settings in the sub-menu (Aspect Ratio should be set to "normal").

As long as you've done this, and assuming your TV is not set to any stretch mode, then you should be getting 4:3 DVDs with pillar-boxes. Have you tried all of the above and is this happening with all 4:3 DVDs?

-CB