Official Panasonic DMP-BDT110/210/310 Owners Thread - Page 202

I have a dedicated theater and all I care about is the best PQ I can get for the money. I wish I could pick up the Oppo, but at the time, money is a tad tight.

Honestly, no better bang for the buck.

S~

I don't know the GT30 but if I guess then it tells the player that it's DD2.0 only so if you extract the sound from your TV then you probably only get DD2.0 in the AVR.

If that is the case you would get much better sound by connecting the player directly to your AVR since you would get 5.1 (and 7.1 if it supports the new HD formats or 7.1 via PCM).

I bought a bdp 210 about three weeks ago from Best Buy (canada), was I supposed to get an Avatar 3D with it?

Thanks,

atabea

Just filled out my Avatar redemption card tonight. About how long is it taking to get the copy? I thought I read ~4 weeks but can't remember if that was here.

thanks

Just checked my packageing, didn't find a "avatar redemtion card." Is this offer only in the US? Wouldn't surprise me it it was. But if anyone has knowledge of this, please let me know.

thanks

atabea

3-4 weeks for me. My rebate wasn't keyed in for several weeks and I called them at the number at the Panny rebate website. I faxed them copies I made of everything and perhaps my rebate request for Avatar was misplaced but they keyed in everything from my faxed copies. I got Avatar about a week later. MAKE COPIES OF EVERYTHING!!! from your UPC/Serial number on the box, to the rebate form and sales receipt. it came in handy for me! it doesn't take 8-14 weeks but if you don't see your rebate at the website after 3 weeks, call them. Hope this helps.

It has to be purchased in the US and you have to be a US resident.

Mine came in about 4.5 weeks from the day I mailed in the redemption card.

Got mine in about 5 weeks. Took a while for it to come up on the website as processed.

Interesting, I never played around enough to notice that. I disabled CEC relatively quickly anyway; it may be convenient in some respects, but my universal remote can handle most tasks, and I prefer having full manual control. CEC was also manipulating picture modes with my TV.


In my situation, my receiver is pre-HDMI, and since its optical input has a bug that blanks out audio too long during track changes, I connected it to the Panny's analog audio output. In such a case, I can't say it's good or bad based on the source material (lossy MP3) anyway.

With a digital connection, I assume it's a choice between whether the BDT or TV's DAC is better at decoding the material. Given the commonality of maker, I doubt there is much difference between them, either in theory, or in audible fidelity, but those better acquainted with the vagaries of digital audio configuration might clarify.

Hi and thanks, I have tried several cables and yes it is a long 5 or 7 metre cable....I haven't spent a lot of money on the cables because I don't want to be ripped by the plethora of "digital cable" scammers. I would be more than happy to spend money though if there is one that actually works and solvers my problem. Anyone know of any proven long HDMI cables that have guaranteed signal pass characteristics.
Thanks again, Steve

PS the 809 rocks...

I completely forgot to make a copy of the Avatar post card thing. I did make a copy of the upc/serial #.

Is there a website to check the status? If so can someone link me? Or if someone has a copy of the card and can blur out their personal info, I'd take that as well.

thanks.

Hello and Happy New Year everyone!

I'm looking for some help on getting my downloaded and ripped movies to play on my new Panasonic DMP-BDT215. After being led to this thread, I've read a lot and have tried most of the mkvmerge converts as described here, but with no success.

It recognizes .mkv files only, but it says it cant play them when I try to play the file.

I know I haven't offered much here, but based on what I've read, this shouldn't be this hard .. So the question is, what am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for any help!

There isn't any such thing of guaranteed signal pass. official HDMI spec only applies to cable length of no more than 15ft. Anything longer is off the spec and you will have to try for yourself. If you use an AVR, try replace the short cable first as it is cheap. Forum sponsor MonoPrice.com has my vote for decent cable without being ripped off.

The blank form can be downloaded here and the web address to check the rebate status is on the form.

Happy new years to you as well.

I'm afraid file playback on these players IS hard, as has been posted repeatedly here. But it's definitely possible, though some files easier than others. Whether it's worth it depends on each user. It works well enough for me, because I only play ota/cable recordings where I have control over how the files are created. Those with existing movie archives or downloading from internet often end up buying a dedicated media player instead.

For starters, I assume you're playing from USB or network drive since you're doing MKV. With these players, MPEG files can be played through DLNA alright, anything else it's best to convert into MKV and play through network drive (or USB).

Second, if you're playing from network drive, you want to eliminate network or sharing problems when testing file compatibility. Wired is better than wifi, USB even better - just until you know your files are working.

Run your files through MKVmerge as previously posted, making sure header removal is disabled under options (BEFORE you start adding files in MKVmerge). Read all the posts about MKVmerge you can find in this thread.

I've found the most compatible MKV files came from Haali. There is an optimization option that must be disabled, search for an earlier post I wrote about it. But it's not nearly as user friendly as MKVmerge.

Finally, if your Panny won't play your MKV files, even after being re-muxed by MKVmerge or Haali, it's because the actual encode is not compatible. (Haali and MKVmerge merely "repackage" in new MKV containers, they don't actually change the video or audio encodes. That's why they are fast and preserve the original quality).

In that case you have to re-encode using tools like DVDfab, AVC (Any Video Converter) or Handbrake. This will be much slower and also lose some video quality - but since the actual video and/or audio is encoded anew, you can basically make any file playable this way. Read posts by ktm911 for expert advice on this.

I don't think there is much more to say that hasn't already been covered extensively in this thread - particularly in posts from late October through early December. After hdmi/AVR connectivity and Netflix streaming, I think this must be one of the most covered topics in here.

So I'm trying to decide which is better for my needs. I currently have the Panny hooked up and the sony still in the box (recognizing a good 1st step would be to hook up the Sony)...

I am adding this player so I can improve netflix resolution over the wii (have watched 2 movies so far, and it is obviously much better), and to add DLNA, with the intention of viewing pictures and movies from a laptop / 2TB hard drive on my network. The laptop runs win7, so I was hoping to use that, but could not connect, so I am using Serviio for now. So far I've been able to look at pictures, but not movies. My camcoder makes a .mts file. I've seen .mkv mentioned (after looking at posts 140-155 or so as recommended, + some other reading), but don't know waht that is.

I have had some black screen issues w/netflix so far. It seems as if Panny is better for netflix, but sony for other stuff according to the reading? I have a sony in another room that seems OK for netflix, but also on a 20 y/o 25" tube tv, so hard to compare...

If the goals (in order) are:
1. Netflix
2. Pictures / video clip viewing from networked source
3. Blu Ray / DVD watching
4. Other random internet crap.

What would be the best move?

I would also consider a xbox or PS3 if I had to, but would rather not, I have no interest / time for another gaming system, and prefer not to have to deal w/bluetooth remote on PS3.

Side note - I would prefer not to have to reformat all video clips, if possible, i.e. straight from camcorder to hard drive to being viewable. Is this possible?

Anyone else compared the two?

You just need to hook up the sony and try it. Mine plays everything I've thrown at it via Serviio without any conversion. My panny is useless in that regard. With a lot of effort, you probably could get your mts files working on panny, but life is too short for that IMO. However, Netflix is much better on my panasonic.

As for the other random internet crap, sony has a lot more of that. Some of it is actually pretty good, like Crackle and Slacker. HERE's a good chart of the services each has.

I am very much not an expert on camcorders, so I'll leave that to others. But just briefly on some of your other questions:

1) These Panasonic players are generally not good as media players because they are very picky about what they can play. Surely you have seen posts about that.

2) I've found DLNA from Win7 to work very well and easy to set up - as long as you only play MPEG files. Anything else needs to be transcoded by the DLNA server before sent to the Panny, and results will be mediocre at best.

3) When I've said to read posts about file playback starting around page 145-150, I meant STARTING there. It was a discussion that evolved from late October and lasted for many weeks, probably into early December, where members spend time researching and testing exactly what files would play on the Pannys - and how to make these files. Before that, consensus here was that it was completely random which files would play and that the device basically didn't work as media player. At least now we know WHAT plays. And it's documented in that discussion.

I think whether to keep the Panny or the Sony depends on how important media playback is for you. The Panny is a great disc player and internet streamer, but not a good file player.

I use the maximum 60 post/page--this is page 101. Just FYI .

What speaker graphics display are you referring to? My receiver shows DD 5.1 when playing disks or streaming Netflix but not for Amazon.

The .mts file from your camcorder is known as AVCHD video which is one of the few formats Panny player supports natively. You don't have to covnert or put it into any container format (like mkv). You can play it back in many ways: directly from the SD card, burn an AVCHD DVD disc, or streaming from PC. The later requires your PC streaming server be able to recognize and support .mts files. Win7 natively supports it. So if you can properly configure your PC to let your player connect to it, you should have no problem play these files in all its HD glory.

Come on, Mike, give me a break now. I acknowledged your last comment about this already and responded (in several posts now) that the discussion I refer to starts in late October (around page 145 with the default page size - whatever that is).

The specific post that you quote this time was in response to waterskier's question, who himself referred to pages 145-150. I think he understood what I meant.

Hey--it was a joke! Didn't you see the "big grin" emoticon?

Yeah, I saw your smiley. OK, ok, then. I guess I just got a bit touchy because it was the second time in as many days that you called me out on this - and I'd made a point since your first call to mention the date range in my posts as well.

I suppose I'm too easy. No worries ;-)

Amazon doesn't stream 5.1 with the Panasonic, which was his mistake from his previous post. He has his receiver, as do I, set to PLII.

S~

Thanks, PLII is what I use also. Frustrating since two other devices I have will stream 5.1, but I like the Panasonic format better.

Hey Branden - Thanks for the response. I did try handbrake as well - I ended up with the same result as MKVmerge. I guess my sources, which I get from showrss/eztv aren't good enough.

Glad to know that the problem may not totally be me

I may just give up at this point since I'm not sure a ton of effort is worth getting this to work vs. just connecting my laptop to the TV and watching them this way. I thought when I purchased this player I'd be able to keep my laptop on my lap and watch movies at the same time.. I should have searched around before making the purchase..

Thanks again Branden! You are really a lot of help!

Looks like the offer in Canada was only for 3D displays and not also for the 3D BD Players like in the US and here in Sweden.

https://panasonic.ca/english/promoti...atar/index.asp