Official Panasonic BT-230/BT-330/BT-730 Owner's Thread

Hi guys,
I have the sc-bt 730 home cinema system.
Does any one know if and how the SC-bt 330/730 can be made region free for all blu-ray discs?


Cheers

Do not update the firmware of your BT730 to version 1.1.

I did it a couple of days ago. After a disk plays for about 45 minutes the unit will shut down.

Panasonic has not been forthcoming about this problem, but I suspected that it was the firmware as I tried to access the download on the internet and the link no longer works.

I called Customer Support and after about 20minutes was advised that there was a bug in the firmware and they were developing a later version.

I'm surprised that Panasonic does not mention this on their website and it took me a couple of days to figure it out.

thinking about this syste, (730).. can someone give me a review of it? how does it sound? i currently have an Onkyo system that pretty happy with, but just purchased the 50" G25 plasma tv and want to take advantage of VieraLink... help?

http://panasonic.jp/support/global/c.../bt230_na.html

As you can see they've disabled the download button - pity they don't explain why

UPDATE - 6-1-2010

New firmware

http://panasonic.jp/support/global/c...ica/index.html

Hi I'm new here and hope this is the right threat for my question.

I'm owning the BT-230, basically a nice and for me sufficient device. But it makes me crazy
- that MPEG2 files are only playable from DVD, but not from HD or SD or Memory Stick
- DivX files can be played from a Hd, but not from an USB Stick or SD-Card
- the AVCHDLite files from my panasonic camara can be played in original format from the SD, but after they were copied to a PC, I cannot transfer them again and play from a SDCard, HD or Stick....
=>what are the reasons for this stupid restrictions? Is there any solution?

Additionally, Fotos on a harddrive
- are shown in an endless list of pictures, no possibility to navigate through the directories on the HD where all my photos are on
- a diashow always starts at the first picture, I cannot choose a starting point, - Diashows cannot be interrupted or restarted (again only restart from picture 1)
- the music from Ipod that is played to the Diashow ALWAYS starts witht the first title....


These restrictions and stupid integrations drive me crazy...is there a device that does handle these things pragmatically and usable????
This device basically is a Linux PC, it could do things so much more userfriendly....

i just got this system (730) for our living room. looked to be a nice all in one simple system. didnt need anything fancy, as i already have all that in my basement setup so far im kinda "meh" on the whole thing. its got everything i need in terms of features, but it seems the sum of the parts dont quite come together nicely.

a few things that caught me off guard that i didnt know going in:
-sub is not powered. though im actually surprised at its output for not being powered. its decent.
-speaker hookups have proprietary connectors. DUMB. you're pretty much stuck using the provided 22-24 gauge speaker wire. the main unit also has no provision for bypassing the wireless surrounds and just plugging them in. appears the connectors are covered up and i didnt look closely to see if you could open those slots up.

I just got it sunday so ive not played with it extensively but so far i gotta say that its less than intuitive when it comes to getting the tv and bt730 on the proper inputs. and im even making use of the vieralink on my older panny plasma. it seems it tries to make it simple by changing inputs for you when you change the input on one or the other device but its often wrong. and if you try and throw the ipod mode in, you're stuck having to change the tv input manually. seems like the whole viera link should do the hard work especially since there really arent a whole lot of hookups to deal with. i mean its so simple, tv is hdmi 1 for all the bt730 functionality (bd, dvd, ipod, radio). the only time tv changes is for tv (cable dvr) and it moves to hdmi 2 and the bt730 goes to digital in2. its simple yet, the components cant do it themselves or do it wrong and i have to go correct it. i havent re-programmed my harmony for it yet but another thread here said there are no discreet codes for the inputs which sounds like a major bummer. i may be stuck using the bt730 remote and my cable co dvr remote.

I was facing similar issues, but I solved them by changing the settings in VERA link on my TV and on the BT230. Basically it's about the direction of control.

I set it in the way that the BT230 is not controling the TV when switched on or off, but the other way round it does. So switching on the TV also activates the BT230 (At least when it is playing bak the sound from the TV. That works pretty well.

For iPOD, if you wanna control it without having the TV on (what I preffer) you need to switch it to "ALL". So when switchin on your system, you change to iPOD, then using the STATUS button on the RC you switch between "MUSIC", "VIDEO" and "ALL".

For VIDEO and MUSIC you require the TV to be switched on to control it, cause only PANASONIC is mentioned on the iPOD display, but when on ALL, you can control it by the cursors of the RC on the iPOD acreen.

All in all, it makes sense to modify and play around with the VIERA liknk settings, to get a fitting "cooperation" of TV and BTx30...

Does anybody know if the USA version of SC-B230 can play divx/avi file...via usb?

Also does it support HDMI 1.4 or what version of HDMI does it support?

I've played around with it some more and I'm more happy with it now. I've figured out how to control everything with the panny TV remote. Not as intuitive as my harmony but it will get the job done. So for 500 I'm pretty happpy with the functionality and features. Again its not super awesome but for a secondary cheap setup it's pretty nice

ok, i thought i had it figured out as noted in my above post. i forgot to check the most important thing, the dvr. i can access the dvr controls i need except for the LIST. the one item that shows what ive recorded. doh. back to two remotes. my "single" remote solution also wasnt wife friendly. she was the one that pointed out she couldnt bring up the list to watch her next episode of Cake Boss too. lol. guess im off to logitech to see if they've added codes for this thing.

Do they update firmwire on these models that are yet unsold?
What if you don't have it connected to the internet?
Thanks.

Anyody help with using an iPhone with the BT230 ? Playing music works fine but when I want to watch videos that are on the iPhone it complains ....
I can hear the audio but no pictures, I have attached the supplied yellow ended jack cable from VIDEO out at the back to the V on the side of my Panasonic TX-L37S10B
tv..


"to watch video(s), please switch TV input mode to "video" (composite video).
Press OPTION to back to START menu"


Any ideas?

John

Completely new to this and after following the instructions with this unit I cannot get sound from the unit watching TV. Have have the optical audio hooked to my dish receiver and the blu ray and i have HDMI from my dish to my plasma tv. What else do i need or are my settings wrong if someone could walk me through this I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks

I bought the SC-BT230 after visiting the U.S. Panasonic website and seeing there that the system had a stereo mini-plug that would allow me to attach a MP3 player to the system. I noticed one customer review that said the info was incorrect and there was no mini-plug on the system. Wasn't sure whether the person had just missed it. I also saw a bunch of reviews online talking about the unit's DLNA features, so I figured I could stream to it if I couldn't mini-plug it. Streaming from my computer using something like XBMC would be terrific--I could stream MP3's, video, pictures, etc.

Well, the joke was on me. There is no mini-plug and the DLNA feature exists on the SC-BT230 everywhere in the world but the U.S., as far as I can tell. I contacted Panasonic, and they said there were no plans to add DLNA in the future and that using, say, the Australian firmware that has DLNA would damage the unit (though I have to wonder how). It's a terrific small unit--good sound, compact, Internet services, etc. But the absence of a way to do some simple things is a pain.

Has anyone succeeded in getting an MP3 player attached to the system? Anyone try the Aussie firmware with any success? I don't suppose there's any other way to introduce a stream? On the other hand, maybe I'm being overly ambitious--are there U.S. HTIB systems that allow streaming? May be something about our legal situation / media company power that keeps really useful tech out of our hands.

This is a very important factor for me. I was looking to get this HTIB for the living room where I have in-wall speakers pre-wired, so I would only using the front and perhaps the sub that come with the system. But, I need to be able to use the wire that has already been fished through the walls. Is there no way to use my pre-existing wire?

Could I cut the included wires, and splice in my wires, using the proprietary speaker plugs?

sc-bt730 , we love it, slim design, great sounding, and watched all of our dvd movies again with amazement.blue ray plays great,

A couple of days ago, netfix began having issues. It will load, but when I pick a program, it says that it is "not available at this time". My netflix account still works on our Wii and online. Anyone else have these issues or know a fix. I have the most current firmware update.

I recently purchased the scbt 730 system .. can you guys help me out ? I went through the forums and didn't find much... I am looking to unlock mine so that I can play my blu rays from France which are Region2/B ... I haven't updated the stock firmware yet.. anyone have or know which version is currently available and my unit is the north american version which is locked to Region A.

So we have a BT330. I recently updated to the 1.74 firmware, now it will not play a blu-ray at all. It will play dvds though. Anybody know if I can install an older firmware on this piece of junk?

Hi,

I am the proud owner of a BT-230 system but I also am the less than proud owner of a cat who likes nothing better than to chew through wires - speaker wires and low voltage PSU cables are her favourite Given that the connectors on the cables are Panasonic proprietary (I haven't seen them on the Maplin's or RS websites but I'd be happy to be corrected) does anyone know where I might lay my hands on a set of spare cables.

Also, she's had a pretty good go at the subwoofer cable and that is wired directly into the box with no obvious access mechanism. Does anyone know how to get into the box (it's out of warranty and I'm pretty OK with a soldering iron)?

I read on another post about adding lengths of cable into an exiting cable runs - what is the recommended joining method (e.g. solder and heatshrink, inline crimp, something else?). Would this have any adverse effect on the quality of the sound?

All (printable) suggestions welcome

Regards, MSJ

SA-BT730
Purchased in US. 2010 (Out of Warranty)
Now living in Japan on assignment. Not going back to US anytime soon.

Was trying WIFI firmware update, get's to the end, 'Firmware Update Failed'
Burned CD-R with Firmware Update (NA version) .
Started update, Disk ejected, display showed 'load disc'
I put in a Blu Ray and now the unit is in an endless cycle:
1: Displays 'Disc'
2: I load firmware disc
3: Tray closes and displays 'L Main'
4: Makes noise for 30-40 sec and displays 'UPD NG'
5: Tray ejects, Power Down

I contacted Panasonic, who first told me to do the hard reboot (+Vol, Eject, Power). It only angers the box and repeats the cycle, noted above.
Then Panasonic told me to send it in to Texas for service due to the Firmware update being interrupted.
I'm in Japan. This sounds like a common occurrence.
I don't want to send it to Texas. Does anyone have a solution I can do at home?

UPDATE: Burned another update CDR and the firmware update took. "Send it to Texas" they said.
Edited by 1fjr - 10/4/12 at 5:48am

Hello everyone, I am a proud owner of the Panasonic SC BT230 and I am looking for an alternative to the pricey DY WL10 Wireless LAN Adaptor. I don't want to waste my money on something that doesn't work so has anyone had any success with any alternatives? I hear that Netgear works for the televisions but I haven't heard any success stories with the blu ray/surround sound systems. Can anyone help? Please!

When I first got this system I used a netgear adaptor that connected to the SC BT730 through the lan port. It was always very iffy due to the separate power supply needed . I finally gave in a purchased the panasonic adaptor that connects via USB - never had a problem since then.