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Panasonic BD70V -- VHS and Blu-ray! - Page 3

post #61 of 91
3/13/11 at 11:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sea3 View Post
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.
Thanks for the input. I have a 42" Vizio HDTV, so while it is a larger screen than yours, it isn't that much bigger IMO. Anyway, I will have to back off from 1080p and try some other resolutions and see if that does anything.
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post #62 of 91
3/14/11 at 4:47am
I find VHS playback disappointing, but then again I find that on any machine after watching high quality DVDs. I don't think VHS playback is any better or worse on this machine.
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post #63 of 91
3/14/11 at 6:35am
Your experience is closer to mine then when it comes to VHS playback on the BD70V player.

What I don't get is why some have reported that their VHS tapes have never looked so good and that the upconverting for VHS is nothing short of fantastic. I of course never realistically expected VHS playback on this machine to rival Blue-Ray quality, but I was hoping that it would at least noticeably improve it and move it a bit towards standard definition DVD. Not one bit so far in my case.

I'll still try experimenting a bit with different resolutions to see if that does anything positive.
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post #64 of 91
3/14/11 at 8:07am
I didn't remember any problem with VHS quality so I went and played a couple of titles last night, an old Rumpole of the Bailey manufactured in '99 and a tape of Lady Bird Johnson that we picked up in Austin two years ago. To me, both looked as good as or better than my SD channels from DirecTV. I watched on a 26" Vizio at about 6-7 ft and had the resolution set to 1080i. Both tapes were commercial tapes. Neither was close to DVD quality but after a few minutes it was the story that grabbed my attention and I forgot about the eye candy.
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post #65 of 91
3/14/11 at 8:15am
I could use this if it played SVHS, and supported all the fuinctions of the modern Panasonic 3D Bluray players. I'd order up today even.
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post #66 of 91
3/14/11 at 8:35am
I believe it can play S-VHS, but can't speak with first hand experience. From the user manual:

You can use video cassettes with the VHS and S-VHS, but the unit is unable to make full use of the characteristics of S-VHS video cassettes.

http://service.us.panasonic.com/OPER...PBD70V-MUL.PDF
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post #67 of 91
3/14/11 at 3:13pm
It has quasi S-VHS playback. What that means is it will play a S-VHS tape but it will only be the quality of VHS
DECJ, what speed was your VHS tapes recorded in? If anything other than SP they will probably look pretty poor on a flat screen TV. It's not really the fault of the 70v but just the VHS source. Even SP VHS doesn't really compare to a good DVD.
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post #68 of 91
3/14/11 at 3:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff View Post

DECJ, what speed was your VHS tapes recorded in? If anything other than SP they will probably look pretty poor on a flat screen TV. It's not really the fault of the 70v but just the VHS source. Even SP VHS doesn't really compare to a good DVD.

I have only played SP speed commercial tapes in my BD70V unit (and although I haven't played any of my self recorded tapes yet, I always used SP with premium grade tapes when I did that).
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post #69 of 91
3/15/11 at 5:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DECJ View Post

Your experience is closer to mine then when it comes to VHS playback on the BD70V player.

What I don't get is why some have reported that their VHS tapes have never looked so good and that the upconverting for VHS is nothing short of fantastic. I of course never realistically expected VHS playback on this machine to rival Blue-Ray quality, but I was hoping that it would at least noticeably improve it and move it a bit towards standard definition DVD. Not one bit so far in my case.

I'll still try experimenting a bit with different resolutions to see if that does anything positive.

I think some may exaggerate a bit. Your results can only be as good as the source. Upconverting a tape that doesn't have the resolution to begin with, and degrades over time, is not going to result in DVD like quality.
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post #70 of 91
3/15/11 at 2:59pm
Again, I wasn't really expecting true DVD-like quality. But in my VHS playbacks on the BD70V (at 1080p), they looked worse to me than when I previously played them through our old 26" CRT TV using a standard VHS player (as best as I can remember).

Maybe what I need to do is haul that old VHS player out, and play some of the same tapes directly into our HDTV and see what relative quality I get. If they are worse than what I saw coming out of the BD70V, then I need to quit complaining. On the other hand, if they look better (or even equal), then it seems to me that says something not so good about the BD70V player (as far as the VHS section goes).

However, before I do that, I still need to experiment with some different resolutions on my BD70V to see if that does anything.
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post #71 of 91
3/15/11 at 3:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DECJ View Post

Again, I wasn't really expecting true DVD-like quality. But in my VHS playbacks on the BD70V (at 1080p), they looked worse to me than when I previously played them through our old 26" CRT TV using a standard VHS player (as best as I can remember).

Maybe what I need to do is haul that old VHS player out, and play some of the same tapes directly into our HDTV and see what relative quality I get. If they are worse than what I saw coming out of the BD70V, then I need to quit complaining. On the other hand, if they look better (or even equal), then it seems to me that says something not so good about the BD70V player (as far as the VHS section goes).

However, before I do that, I still need to experiment with some different resolutions on my BD70V to see if that does anything.

What made the VHS tapes look good was the CRT, fixed pixel displays and low res video are a bad combination.
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post #72 of 91
3/15/11 at 3:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by moxie1617 View Post

What made the VHS tapes look good was the CRT, fixed pixel displays and low res video are a bad combination.

OK, if that's the case (which I am not arguing by the way), why are some folks saying that their VHS tapes have never looked so good as played on their BD70V and HDTV's? Is it simply exaggeration as patruns suggested?
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post #73 of 91
3/15/11 at 3:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DECJ View Post

OK, if that's the case (which I am not arguing by the way), why are some folks saying that their VHS tapes have never looked so good as played on their BD70V and HDTV's? Is it simply exaggeration as patruns suggested?

Could be, I think for VHS they look good on the 70. I did some duping last month of shows recorded years ago from OTA sources. They really were poor but it's strange, after about five minutes of watching I forgot about how crappy the video was because the stories were so good.
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post #74 of 91
3/15/11 at 4:16pm
What's VHS?



Seriously - I was shocked when I saw this thread. I thought VHS had been dead for years.

Maybe Apple will release an iPager this year!
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post #75 of 91
3/15/11 at 4:22pm
Yeah ... yet another funny guy.

Look, some folks have extensive collections of VHS tapes, both commercial and personally taped material that they would like to be able to still play. If you're not interested in VHS you don't have to worry about it.
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post #76 of 91
3/15/11 at 5:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DECJ View Post

Yeah ... yet another funny guy.

Look, some folks have extensive collections of VHS tapes, both commercial and personally taped material that they would like to be able to still play. If you're not interested in VHS you don't have to worry about it.


Well said!
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post #77 of 91
3/16/11 at 4:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jkozlow3 View Post

What's VHS?



Seriously - I was shocked when I saw this thread. I thought VHS had been dead for years.

Maybe Apple will release an iPager this year!

Shocked? Really? Why are you here? Do you have a 70V? If so, why if you have no tapes?
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post #78 of 91
3/19/11 at 4:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jkozlow3 View Post

What's VHS?



Seriously - I was shocked when I saw this thread. I thought VHS had been dead for years.

Maybe Apple will release an iPager this year!

Here ya go, shock and awe over here.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1322722
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post #79 of 91
3/19/11 at 6:16am
Yeah, what a bunch of Neanderthals!
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post #80 of 91
12/7/11 at 8:55am
Here's a weird one.

I have 14 Warner Home Video Blu-Ray titles, 11 of which have no problems playing in my DMP-BD70V. However, the latest 3 titles I purchased through Amazon (Red Planet, Forbidden Planet, and The Neverending Story), all have the same audio problem. But it's a pretty strange audio problem.

Here's the deal. When I load the problem Blu-Rays, the initial program material audio (e.g., "Warner Home Video" logo, previews, and the background music for selecting "Play", "Languages", "Extras", etc.) is fine. However, when the movie actually starts, there is a high-pitched static type sound (almost like very fast Morse code, or satellite telemetry sounds) in the audio. Interestingly, if I go fast forward one notch (so you can still hear the slightly faster audio), the audio is crystal clear. I played around with my HDTV speakers and home theater amp/speakers, and I eliminated any possibility that the problem was associated with my audio equipment.

I then did a search on the Net and didn't come up with anything about people having problems with Warner Home Video Blu-Ray audio, so I don't know what the deal is. Does anyone have any ideas of what is happening, or do you think I just got a bad batch of Blu-Rays from Warner & Amazon?
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post #81 of 91
12/7/11 at 5:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DECJ View Post

Here's a weird one.

I have 14 Warner Home Video Blu-Ray titles, 11 of which have no problems playing in my DMP-BD70V. However, the latest 3 titles I purchased through Amazon (Red Planet, Forbidden Planet, and The Neverending Story), all have the same audio problem. But it's a pretty strange audio problem.

Here's the deal. When I load the problem Blu-Rays, the initial program material audio (e.g., "Warner Home Video" logo, previews, and the background music for selecting "Play", "Languages", "Extras", etc.) is fine. However, when the movie actually starts, there is a high-pitched static type sound (almost like very fast Morse code, or satellite telemetry sounds) in the audio. Interestingly, if I go fast forward one notch (so you can still hear the slightly faster audio), the audio is crystal clear. I played around with my HDTV speakers and home theater amp/speakers, and I eliminated any possibility that the problem was associated with my audio equipment.

I then did a search on the Net and didn't come up with anything about people having problems with Warner Home Video Blu-Ray audio, so I don't know what the deal is. Does anyone have any ideas of what is happening, or do you think I just got a bad batch of Blu-Rays from Warner & Amazon?

All the titles you listed are DTS 5.1 for the main movie audio. It sounds like your receiver doesn't decode DTS.
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post #82 of 91
12/7/11 at 5:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DECJ View Post

... when the movie actually starts, there is a high-pitched static type sound (almost like very fast Morse code, or satellite telemetry sounds) in the audio ...

I can't relate to your specific problem, but I had a different problem with the BD70V, and it went away after I updated the firmware. The current version is 2.5. If you have an older version, I'd recommend you do the upgrade.

N.B.: While I was typing my reply, someone who seems to actually know what they're talking about gave you a better answer. Hope you find a solution!
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post #83 of 91
12/7/11 at 10:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron-on-Mrng-Vsta View Post

I can't relate to your specific problem, but I had a different problem with the BD70V, and it went away after I updated the firmware. The current version is 2.5. If you have an older version, I'd recommend you do the upgrade.

I should have mentioned it, but I previously upgraded my player from the original version 1.9 firmware to 2.5 back in March. Not knowing what the latest version was beyond that, I temporarily hooked it up to the Internet as part of my trouble-shooting and it indicated that there were no newer versions.
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post #84 of 91
12/7/11 at 11:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by moxie1617 View Post

All the titles you listed are DTS 5.1 for the main movie audio. It sounds like your receiver doesn't decode DTS.

I appreciate the possibility, but of the 11 Warner Home Video Blu-Rays that play just fine and with no audio issues, 3 are DTS 5.1 ... Inception, The Book of Eli, and Clash of the Titans. The others are a mixture of Dolby True HD 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1.

Perhaps I should have better explained the audio issue. The movie audio is definitely there the whole time, but the high-pitched static type sound is layered on top of it, rather than it completely replacing the soundtrack. The really weird thing is that I can completely get rid of the high-pitched static type sound by just bumping the playback speed up one notch on fast forward.
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post #85 of 91
12/8/11 at 12:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Majestyk View Post

When are the SACD/8-Track players coming?

When Michael Moore gives you a comedian audition
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post #86 of 91
12/8/11 at 12:43am
Cant believe people thinking this will improve the VHS picture, hahaha, as the saying goes garbage in garbage out!
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post #87 of 91
12/8/11 at 2:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DECJ View Post

I appreciate the possibility, but of the 11 Warner Home Video Blu-Rays that play just fine and with no audio issues, 3 are DTS 5.1 ... Inception, The Book of Eli, and Clash of the Titans. The others are a mixture of Dolby True HD 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1.

Perhaps I should have better explained the audio issue. The movie audio is definitely there the whole time, but the high-pitched static type sound is layered on top of it, rather than it completely replacing the soundtrack. The really weird thing is that I can completely get rid of the high-pitched static type sound by just bumping the playback speed up one notch on fast forward.

these titles are 24 bit. could it be the bit rate that is causing your problem?

nevermind, book of eli is 24 bit also.
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post #88 of 91
12/8/11 at 11:37pm
Based on some suggestions elsewhere, I tried playing Red Planet & The Neverending Story again.

Since there are no other audio choices other than alternate languages, I played Red Planet in French, German, and Italian, and the offending sound interestingly went away. I also played The Neverending Story in a couple of other languages, and again, the offending sound went away. Going back to English unfortunately brought the offending sound back again.

I then set my audio out to PCM, but the offending sound was still there. I went in a layer deeper and changed everything from Bitstream to PCM, but the sound was still there. I also played with a couple of other audio functions, but nothing got rid of the offending sound in English DTS 5.1.

Anyway, I am getting a replacement Red Planet Blu-Ray from Amazon, so I am going to give that a shot when I receive it. Beyond that, it is still a mystery to me as to what is specifically causing this odd audio problem.
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post #89 of 91
5/23/12 at 9:51pm
I just checked my BD70V and fw 2.6 is available. I installed it but I don't notice any differences. Maybe it's some compatibility fixes.
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post #90 of 91
6/13/12 at 8:11pm
Thanks for the heads up...that kinda snuck up on us!
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