Panasonic BD70V -- VHS and Blu-ray! - Page 2

The owners manual says it plays s-vhs but they may be noisy depending on the tape and it cannot support the full resolution of s-vhs tapes.

It sounds to me that you are using a stereo hook-up and having the RCA HT system run Dolby ProLogic II (turn stereo into "fake" surround). And that's fine, you said yourself you are no audiophile (neither am I truly, heh). With that being said, yes, if you ran stereo out of the DMP-BD70V and fed it into the RCA, or if you used a digital optical cable, you would be able to hear what you are currently hearing via your current DVD set-up. I would think you'd simply replace the DVD player with the DMP-BD70V so, yes, all will sound exactly as it does now if you did that.


As for lossless audio, a big feature of both HD DVD and Blu-ray is the ability now to have true lossless audio featured on the discs. Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master are just a few of the lossless choices nowadays. The sound on DVDs is inherently lossy by nature. But, again, you do not have the equipment to take advantage of these new audio codecs and, as you've said, you aren't an audiophile to begin with so no worries on that end at all. Just forget I ever mentioned it


Feel free to ask any other question you may have. That's what this board is here for.

Outstanding work Gar.

Yeah, audio is the one thing I never seem to feel like I need the best(which is probably obvious from my HT setup). I do admit to "stress" about getting top video performance. Then again, if I was truly a videophile, I probably would just get a projector with HDMI or even DVI.

The truth is I love my NEC LT240K(projector) and it has given me zero problems and/or reasons to send it packing. I also like it's ability to present 4:3 material in all it's glory without strectching or pillarboxing. Viewing widescreen material is not a problem as black bars on top and bottom never bothered me, especaiilly when the image is 100".

Hey, my man, what works for you is what works for you. I'm not a fan of anyone telling anyone else that they "need" this or that, heh. I'm glad the NEC LT240K is still working out for you. Believe me when you finally decide to upgrade, the stuff that's out there now will only be getting even better as the years go by so no rush at all. I'm sure Blu-rays at 1080i and DVDs at 480p via the DMP-BD70V will look wonderful via the NEC if you do indeed decide to pick-up the Panasonic player.

After Panasonic's announcement about Netflix support, I was hoping that Netflix support would be extended to some of the previous Panasonic players. Unfortunately, the article at http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/CE...-Players.shtml says that it will not happen. The reason about the chip-set requirements doesn't seem completely believable to me other than they might not want to apply the effort to support the chip-set. I am still hoping for Netflix support on the BD70V.

Amazon's Deal of the Day today for $140. At that price you'd be nuts not to buy it instead of a standard def combo unit if you wanted/needed one.

The website specs imply DivX support, but the manual doesn't mention it. Can anyone tell me if DivX support was added in a later firmware update?

No DivX support in this unit, and none added by firmware update. It is supported in the BD80 but not the BD60 or BD70V.

Today it was $139 at the big river... that's a decent price for a standalone BD player, let alone one with VHS upconversion added.

Right after the Mini Disc/Beta ones.

I haven't had a chance to test it thoroughly but at my first test BD part seems pretty good, almost up there with my BH200's scaler - but it could be down to particular DVDs so I need more time with it.

OTOH the VHS department is phenomenal! I thought my tapes will never look better than ****** YT videos on my Wii at best - but they DO look a LOT better, despite being heavily used, former Hollywood Video tapes from the 80s... some even matches 480p YT videos on the Wii which is a pretty huge thing considering their original resolution... nice job, Panasonic.

So does this mean we are all obsolete on this thread?

Anybody know if I can record FROM this unit, to a computer recorder or a stand alone dvd recorder? I would like to be 100% tape free and have 40 more VHS and some 8mm tapes to put on dvd. What is the quality when using the componants and dig audio outs?

I just received my Blu Ray player(a region free Panasonic DMV-DMP70) which is a Blu Ray/VHS combo player. I played several DVDs, both region 1 and 2, and VHS tapes no problems.
I then put in the only Blu Ray movie I have(the Heath Ledger and terry Gilliam new release) which I received from DeepDiscount DVD. When I put this disc in it had trouble reading it and eventually displayed an error message claiming wrong region. i thought there was a probelm with the unit but I siwthed it out with a Panny DMP-BD10 and it couldn't read the disc either.
The disc is suppose to be region A and B according to the case. I live in the U.S. and bought both players here, even the region free player, so I'm confused at what the problem could be.

Any thought or theories?

Thanks.

update firmware.

Has the DMP-BD70VK been discontinued? Fry's no longer carries them. I checked the Panasonic web site and they still list it but do not say if it is still in production. I have been putting off buying one but it looks like I might have waited to long.

They are still available thru Amazon Market Place but the prices are sky high.

can you guys imagine a BD80V or somn like that playing VHS in 3-D? lulz

My DMP-BD70V says that "The Waterhorse" is an incompatible disc. It is okay in another DVD player and in a computer DVD reader. The DVD is in good shape, so I don't think it is a problem with scratches or dirt. Has anyone heard of problems like this?

Before panasonic fixed the "freeze" issue, Waterhorse(the BD version) was a title that froze. Probably has nothing to do with your issue but I would make sure your firmware is current, if not, upgrade.

To see your firmware version , go to setup, display and then press the status button on the remote. The firmware version is in the lower right corner of the screen.

What is the newest version?

Thanks

The newest version is 2.4

I verified that I have 2.4. Thanks for the instructions for finding the firmware version. I'm asking Panasonic support for help. I will be pleasantly surprised if I get a response that is useful from Panasonic support.

My experience is that they will eventually respond but may take a while. I had an Oppo player and got spoiled - they would call/e-mail back within a day. I had a problem with a Blu-ray title that stalled at one of the warning screens and inquired about when the next firmware was going to be released. They actually called back but it took them so long I didn't remember what I had called about.

New firmware is available at the Global support site. It is supposed to increase Viera Cast stability and improve BD playability.

"DMP-BD70V (dual VHS/Blu-ray Disc player)" is listed in this press release for "NETFLIX GOES LIVE ON PANASONIC'S ...".

http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs...92010082420039

I don't see Netflix on mine yet, but maybe it takes awhile to rollout...or the DMP-BD70V was included in the press release by mistake

I'll take it if they do it but I think it's a misprint. Netflix has already been rolled out to the 2010 models and the 70 really is a 2009 model.

Looks like it was. I just checked the press release, and it doesn't list the BD70V. I checked Google's cache, and it shows that on Oct. 1, the BD70V was listed between the BD65 and the B500. It's not there now.

I've got a Panasonic DMP-BD70V player and I was interested in what you guys think of the VHS playback.

When I play Blu-Rays, everything is perfect. And even when I play my standard DVD's, the 1080p upscaling typically works great, and the image quality is quite good IMO. However, when I played several of my VHS tapes, the image quality was really crappy, and I even encountered some sound issues here and there.

On the other hand, based on his 3/9/10 post to this thread, T2k raved about his upscaled VHS tape playback, so I'm not sure what to make of that in relation to what I am experiencing.

I frankly got the DMP-BD70V player in part so we could occasionally play VHS tapes on one HDMI machine based on our extensive VHS collection, but I am now questioning this decision based on the really lackluster image quality I am seeing from the VHS section of this player.

If anyone has any insights and suggestions, or can share their upscaled VHS viewing exeriences, I would sure appreciate it.

Thanks in advance,
Don

VHS playback looks great on mine. However, I have a 37 in. screen and I'm doing 720p HDMI input. I can imagine that the perceived quality will go down as the screen size gets larger.

hopefully the HD-DVD/laserdisc/Betamax combo player is next!