Panasonic DMP-BD85K Blu-Ray player Official Master/Owner's thread - Page 6

Some keys are not in the Harmony database (Function key being one of them) and they have to be "learned" and really isn't that big of a deal. I'm controlling my BD85 with an older Harmony 676 and it works perfect.

Figured that was what I'd have to do, my 880 still has an older Panny DVD still on it that controls it using the setup button to get to the Function Key.

I'll teach the remote to get it tweaked.

Thanks for the reply.

I found that the setup for my old Panasonic 10a worked for the BD85 on the 880. Some features were missing, for example viercast but I worked around that by adding a vieracast button for my plasma, a 65S1, in the device menu, that brought up the vieracast menu from the player.

As pointed, using the learn command would be the best way to go.

Picked this up today and moved my Sony 550 to the bedroom. So far I am thrilled with this unit. I use the analog outs to a Denon Avr3806 and the tv is the Pioneer Kuro. I'm noticing a more punchy and dynamic sound right off the bat. Bear in mind I never complained about the sound from the Sony but this does seem to be an upgrade. With all settings left the same on the Pioneer I also find the colors to be a little richer and fleshtones more realistic. The image part could of course be all in my head but the sound is not. Wife also noticed the difference right away.
Very happy with the price vs. performance here. Kudos to Panasonic!

yes, I used the Learn command today and the remote works fine.

On another note, upgraded my DSL to 10 MBps and "Walled In" played full size today, last night it was skipping every other frame and was playing at half screen size, letterbox, but small. (Netflix)

I must say I've been happy with all three of my Pannys.

Thanks for the help on the remote.

Maybe I am confused. I have a vintage 1999 Yamaha RX-V2095 and have a BD85 connected via digital coax and the receiver auto detects the DTS signal (the front panel displays the type of audio). It may not be TrueHD, but I think it is still DTS

Yes, but it's still compressed audio. You should connect your BD player to the receiver with analog. AFAIK, there's analog 5.1 input on your receiver. That way, the audio will decode in the BD player, and you'll get lossless audio in Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio.

I guess I didn't realize that was an option and you are correct, my receiver does support that option. I haven't been keeping up with the technology, I was thinking of analog as the old left/right stereo connections, thanks for the info. Does anyone make a nice 6 wire cable set for this purpose?

If you click on the monoprice.com ad at the top of the page you'll find A/V cables there for very good prices. I buy all my cables from them. The audio cables are a little on the stiff side but are good quality. No six pack sets there so you'll have to buy seperate cables. A little cable management will keep them together.

I upgraded from a samsung 1400 to the BD85. Much cleaner sound, much sharper picture, faster loading of the disk. I am pleased.

They can be found from Acoustic Research, Monstor, Altona, etc. on Amazon if you search for "SACD Cables". However, you can build your own from monoprice for a lot less money.

Analog connections are not simple plug and play, though, especially with Yamaha receivers. With analog, the sub output needs to be boosted by 10-15dB in the AVR or at the sub itself. But, if you have other digital inputs, you need to do the boost just for the analog inputs. And, that's what can be difficult with Yamaha receivers, many of which lack separate level trims for different inputs.

Meanwhile, although the DTS and DD 5.1 outputs over coax are not lossless, the lossy tracks on Blu-ray are encoded at the maximum legacy bitrates and they sound great. You get much of the benefit of lossless even when using coax. I doubt you'd hear much improvement using analog.

btw, I have a BD55 connected both ways - analog and coax.

I just upgraded my panasonic bd30 to the panasonic bd85! I have a 52 inch sony xbr6 with 10 bit panel/processor.

I dont think there is much of a differance in terms of blu ray playback quality.

I was expecting the picture to be more color and better with the bd85.

Am i missing something? a setting maybe, or is it my 10 bit panel?

Any advice would be great!

You would probably need a set that supported 24p to see any difference.

Most of the reports at AVS are that there is little difference in Blu-Ray playback between players.

The sony xbr6 DOES support 24p.

Are panasonics processors better in bd85 vs bd30?

Maybe that is supposed to lend to better pic quality.

Better at DVD playback PQ. As stated above, most of the time you will not see a difference in Blu-ray playback PQ.

The processor shouldn't have to do too much lifting with a Blu-Ray disc, esp if it is sending 1080/24p. They improved the load times, maybe DVD upconversion and interlacing are improved, analog audio may be improved, but I doubt if Blu-Ray performance is improved.

How one can see this information on the status bar?I can't.(BD65)
Thanks.
P.S.I have tested some BD:Apocalypto,Casino Royale,Mr.& Mrs. Smith,Jennifer's Body,Course of the Golden Flower and i can say that PQ is much cleaner,sharper and smoother at the same time on my BD65 than on PS3(40Gb).On BD65 are all default settings,Picture normal,except detail clarity is 1.Besides it upconverting SD material on BD to 1080P and re-sampeling audio(BD PCM output to 96khz).Contrary DVD upconverting is way better on PS3.Sorry,I know this is BD85 Thread.

Sorry, I misspoke. It's not the status bar, but the playback information window. Press "display" and go to the video tab. It may only be present on the BD85, since that was the case on the last batch from Panasonic (only BD50 had that function).

Thahks Beastus,probably only on the BD85.

I experienced a strange problem yesterday. When playing Whip it, the playback information read the audio as "DTS-HD Master Audio 1.5 Mps", and according to my receiver, it received a standard DTS bitstream. According to reviews, the DT HD MA track is appr. 3.7 Mps, so for some reason, the BD85 only bitstreamed the DTS core.

I tried Old Dogs right afterwards, and that one was identified correctly, and bitstreamed as DTS HD MA, so it seems it's problem with the BD85 identifying (or outputting) correctly on some titles.

Another interesting thing about the BD85 (may not be that interesting, but it was new to me), is the ability to resume play. It's a disc thing, but I'm pretty sure my BD50was unable to do this.

After ejecting both Whip it and Old Dogs (in the middle of the end credits) I was able to resume where I left off. When pressing play on the top menu, I was asked if I wanted to resume where I left off last time.

Cool - I'm really enjoying mine. Great purchase as I've had no hiccups of any kind and pleasantly surprised at the noticeable diff. in DVD upconversion over my Panny 35.

If this really works with Java encoded BD's, then it IS a big thing. However, I suspect that the two BD's you tried it on are not Java BD's (i.e. BD-J's). All/most BD players are able to resume play for non-BD-J's (e.g. my BD30). Could you try it on one of the Pirates of the Carribean BD's (which are BD-J's) and see if resume still works? I suspect no.

I agree with krisjan. If you could test this with some Java discs and let us know it would be appreciated.

I had some titles like ID4 and sin city and some disney movies ask if I wanted to resume where I had left off. I could do that on my panasonic 80. I think its a disc thing.

Jacob

How's the load on this BD85 compared to the older BD60?

Seems like it's a disc thing. Some newer discs have this encoded (probably some information that's stored in the players/SD card's memory).

But I played another Fox disc yesterday, and once again the Panasonic only recognizes the DTS HD MA as 1.5 Mbs only. So there's definitely something going on between discs from Fox and the BD85. According to the playback info window, it reads the disc as "DTS HD MSTR 1.5 Mbs" and bitstreams it as standard DTS. This is something which should be addressed in the next firmware.

+1 - how do we let Panny know in the most effective way?