Official Panasonic DMP-BD60/80 Owners Thread - Page 120

Even though he's using two channel 2.1 the best sound would be to setup the analog right/left/sub. Then yes Dolby & DTS PCM and turn off secondary audio. At least this way he'll get the uncompressed signals. If you don't turn off secondary audio the player will send out low level Dolby and DTS. If he still has lip sync look for an adjustment in the Sony receiver.

sort of an update:
watched my 25th successful BR disc in a row without any freezes. (all of them Netflix rentals)
BD60, FW 1.5

"snappier" 2.0 has me tempted, although i am afraid to change anything.... :

I have a now dead-as-a-doornail BD30. I bought it in Nov 07 off panasonic direct. Didn't get it until almost '08, on my second disk it wouldn't play. The issue didn't go away after FWUG, so after fighting with Pan support, they finally agreed to do something about it (at first they said it was longer than 30 days, but that was because they didn't ship for 45 days). Sent it in and they replaced the transport according to the work report. Fast forward to June of this year and it is again dead, same issue.

I got some use out of it, but I think there is inherently something wrong with paying $400 for something that works a little over a year. Now, Pan support says we are SOL. Never-mind that it was basically DOA upon first receipt and they wouldn't send me a knew one instead temporarily fixed the issue.

All this is to say, I think you are right about the QC issues of the drives. I want a new BD player, but I am leary of spending much money for another POS. I have had zero issues with all 6 of my DVD players I've owned, many of which are almost 8 or 9 years old, so why can't a blu-ray live >1yr?

I only bought a BD player because I could get it at Costco(BD605) with the unconditional and unlimited return policy. The membership fee should be about the same as any extended warranty and well worth the peace of mind when buying into this bleeding edge technology.

However, I am happy with the frequency of firmware upgrades and the upscaled picture quality of standard DVD's. Needles to say, the Blu-ray video and audio are great.

Firstly, thanks for answering my post, I was getting pretty antsy.

Secondly, I don't even HAVE the analog audio output menu. I saw that it was supposed to be in there according to the manual, but it never showed up in my setup screen. I emailed Panny about it and have yet to hear from them.

Finally, I followed your steps and, well, I'm still getting a sync issue, but as the movie played on, it became less noticeable. If it helps, I was watching Watchmen and a very early scene in particular (Comedian watching a political talk show), had the audio lagging behind by several frames!

Could it just be that some Blu-Ray movies have audio issues? I find that hard to believe, though.

Take it up with Panasonic if you're unhappy but if you don't have anything relating to a BD60/BD80 you're just clogging up an already long thread with off topic info.

I wish I could help you with your audio problem but can't.

However, the reason you don't have an analog audio output menu is because the feature is only available on the BD80. It's not on the BD60 models.

Which is better to use? HDMI audio as bitsream or PCM?

Oh. Well, that explains that then, boy do I feel dumb. I must have missed some kind of note in the manual that says it's only available on the 80 model or something like that.

Well, I just watched my first Blu-Ray movie, Watchmen. I think I still have a little more tinkering left to do with my picture settings (seems to be a tad too dark, maybe adjusting the gamma will do the trick). Besides that, I was absolutely blown away by the quality of the picture. 24p mode works flawlessly on my setup and every detail demands attention.

The only knock, as you might surmise, is the audio. After watching the whole thing, though, sometimes it seemed to be in sync, and other times, not so much. Is a fluctuating discrepancy in the audio/video sync a common issue? I've set it up the most simplest and direct way I know how, HDMI sound and picture to the HDTV and a TOSLINK from the HDTV to the receiver. If I wanted to fix the sync issue, is my only hope really plunking down another $300 for a new receiver that handles the sync issue with a manual delay or something similar to that?

New member and just bought the BD60 a week ago. (Yes, I have the annoying intermittent freeze problem).

Is anyone able to confirm that the DMP-BD60K player will seek (fast forward, rewind) on BDMV, BDAV, or AVCHD formatted DVD+R DL discs? Currently, when I play an AVCHD DVD+R DL disc, it plays fine, pause/resume works but the chapter skip and seek fail. When you press one of those, the player will hang for maybe 30 secs and then start the movie over from 00:00:00.

I don't have any DVD-R DL discs to try and I wonder if it's the disc format. I am fairly certain the authoring is fine as it seems to work properly w/PowerDVD.

--ni

Everyone who is having freezing issues simply needs to send there unit into the service center, if Panasonic are aware of the issue (according to posts in this thread they are) then they will simply swap the faulty BR drive for a functioning one, it really is that simple.
Toshiba Had the same issues with there first gen HD DVD A1 players, no firmware would fix it you simply had to use the warranty to have them change the drive.

Fluctuating audio synch is not a common Blu-ray issue. I rented Watchmen and had not problem with synch. My receiver does have a synch/delay feature, and my audio/video go into the receiver via HDMI and then to the TV via HDMI.

You could try another hookup. If I were using the equipment you are using, I would connect the player to the receiver via toslink, and I would connect the TV to the player via HDMI as you are doing now. Maybe the synch issue would go away if the sound goes directly to the receiver instead of through the TV?

I really would start looking for a new receiver, though. I upgraded to an HDMI receiver before deciding on a Blu-ray player. I knew I wanted to hear the high-rez audio on Blu-rays. As my previous receiver was not HDMI, I would have had to get a player with analog outs. However, I use the receiver's analog ins for my SACD player, and there really is not an afordable 5.1 analog switcher, so I upgraded to a receiver with HDMI ins and one out. It has the analog inputs for my SACD as well.

Blu-ray is high-rez audio as well as video, and a lot of people miss out on half the enjoyment if they cannot access the sound. One of the reasons I was late getting into Blu-ray was that I wanted an affordable player and I knew I'd need a new receiver to really enjoy it.

There seems to be no particular time frame for players with the random freeze (I had my fourth one last night on one of the Braveheart extra features on disc 2). People with older players and newer ones seem to have the freeze. Why would a new drive help? Do they know a good drive from a faulty one? One may end up with an even worse drive if they swap it out.

If Panasonic ever says they've discovered the source of the problem and sending in the player for service will definitely fix it, then I'll send mine in (the way Pioneer did with the RSOD problems on some of their players). At this point, I'm not sure drive replacement would be anything other than a crap shoot.

If it is that simple, we'll have it fixed long time ago. Panasonic is aware of the problem but have not found any fix yet (other than replace it with older generation players which is probably not an option).

I realize that tihs is probably a silly question but.... does the BD 60 automatically upscale SD DVD? I can't see any settings related to upscaling in the setup menu.

Thank you in advance.

Allan

Know what you mean. My player is new, 1 week and came with 1.7. Upgraded right away to 1.9, now 2.0 and so far no problems.

Have you tried running the optical straight to the receiver?

Yes, but only over the HDMI output. Component outputs are limited to 480p max for copyrighted material. BDs will play HD resolution over component though!

Just checked the manual, all the relevant details are on pg. 34. Basically the player will upconvert to whatever formats you have selected in the HDMI and component outputs subject to the restriction I mentioned (which is also listed there.)

My tv is 720P so left the bd setting at 1080P for better picture rather than on auto. If you have HDMI try the different settings to see what looks best for you.

what Audio--->Sound Effects options are people that don't have a home theatre setup using?...Re-Master (1/2/3) or V.Surround (1/2/3)?

I've been running into this issue too. I have an older Yamaha 5.1 receiver (pre DTS). The BD-605K player is connected via HDMI to a Samsung HDTV and audio is connected to the receiver via Toslink. I was watching the Dead Pool and midway through the movie, the audio was out of sync, but then it corrected itself. I've noticed it on occasion in other movies, but this was the worst I've seen it. Again it's not a regular problem (kind of like the freeze). Needless to say, I've been shopping around for receivers as I think I'm due for an upgrade...

I have a Apple computer, can this be used to download and burn the updates to cd and then load to the dmp60. Has any body had any luck. Thought I would ask before trying.

Thanks

My receiver is an older non-hdmi receiver that is fed with toslink from the BD60 (HDMI into my plasma) and I am not experiencing any audio sync problems. Have you tried PCM instead of bitstream?

Yes. I use Stuffit Expander to unzip and then burn the firmware file to CD. No problems.

oh well, I'm in the freezer club now too. Experienced first freeze, confirmed by rewind and it not happening again.

Haven't kept a count on disks played, but it's between 15-30. This happened on 2nd disk since upgrade to firmware 2.0.

DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD will only be downgraded to DTS core and Dolby Digital companion track if the specific Blu-ray title has menu sound effects or if the BD-Secondary Audio track is active. Otherwise DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD will be maintained in full quality and extracted to PCM in the player, routed to the TV and passed through to the receiver in two-channel (again, this is how it *should* work, but this relies on the TV correctly identifying itself in the EDID/HDMI handshake as a two-channel device).

But yeah, it's always safer to set BD-Secondary Audio OFF so you won't have to worry about discs with menu sound effects forcing the lossy audio.

As to whether it would sound better for the player or the receiver to decode the extracted PCM to 2-channel audio, that's anyone's guess. Probably the Panasonic player's DAC would sound better, but using this is contributing toward a lip sync problem reported by the OP.

-CB

Sorry are you using a BD60 or a BD80? The analog set-up menu is only on the BD80 because it's only for adjusting the multi-channel analog outputs. It wouldn't make any sense to put it on the BD60 as it would have no effect.


Software variations can always contribute toward player/TV sync issues as the stream for every movie is different and how the player and decoders behave can vary based on the specific stream. Try alternate soundtracks on the disc to see if the lossy track is decoded differently (time-wise) than the lossless. Also, try a few more discs and see how it goes.

And then upgrade to an HDMI-equipped receiver.

-CB

Panasonic is aware of the issue, but this does not mean they understand the cause or have a solution. No one at Panasonic (at least no one that I've talked to) is thinking that it is a hardware issue so a swap won't help, nor will it likely even be authorized. You can play return roulette with the dealer you buy it from and hope that a player will behave differently (but there is no hard evidence to suggest that it will).

It's true that we had a BD80 for almost 3 months and never saw the freeze, but as this is a random problem that is impossible to consistently reproduce, we may have just gotten lucky during the review period. It doesn't prove that it's a hardware issue.

Best bet is to buy it, live with it and hope for a fix or simply buy a different brand player or wait for next year's Panasonic models. My best guess at this point is that it's a buffering problem, but I honestly have no idea whether it can be fixed in a firmware upgrade. But although I do sometimes speak *TO* Panasonic, I definitely do not speak *FOR* Panasonic, so take my opinion for what it is - an opinion.

-CB

The OP originally had the analog outputs of the BD60 connected to his receiver directly, and video connected via HDMI to the TV. Connecting it via HDMI to TV then fiberoptic out to the receiver was my idea, just to put the audio and video through the same processing path. The OP said it helped but didn't entirely eliminate the problem. Your suggested hook-up is equally valid (Toslink from player to receiver, HDMI video only from player to TV) and worth testing. Another option would be HDMI A/V to TV and then the TV's analog outputs into the receiver (but I would think the TV's DAC is not the best in this chain). At this point, it's looking like the TV may be the culprit here as others do not seem to have audio sync issues with this player even with analog hookups.

-CB

Selecting PCM using optical output will prevent you from getting discrete 5.1 sound. PCM over optical is limited to 2-channel. Since the OP has a 2-channel system, this is worth trying too but I think the guy you replied to does have a surround receiver so PCM is not his best bet. The best he could get would be matrixed pseudo-surround via PCM.

-CB