Experiencing audio dropouts on Star Wars?

Are you experiencing audio dropouts and/or video glitches (freezing, pixelating) when watching any of the Star Wars Blu-ray discs?

Early reports around the forums point toward Episode II (Attack of the Clones) being the most likely to cause problems. Early reports also seem to indicate that certain Panasonic and PS3 players are more prone to have the problem.

If you are experiencing these issues, please use the poll to select your player and receiver brand. Please then post additional details as a comment in the thread. Please follow this format:

Player: Brand & Model
Receiver: Brand & Model
Episode(s) affected:
Player set to Bitstream or PCM:

Additional comments:

Mark

Player: Panasonic DMP-BD35
Receiver: Pioneer VSX-94TXH
Episode: II - Attack of the Clones
Player set to: Bitstream

Both my player and my receiver have the most recent firmware installed. I am experiencing both audio dropouts and video glitches (freezing and pixelated image) with Attack of the Clones. The Phantom Menace played without issues. I have not yet watched the remaining four episodes.

Mark

I wrote Panasonic about the Star Wars audio problem and I received the following reply:


Unfortunately, I already have a 2GB SD card installed in my BD35 so that suggestion is not going to fix the problem. But at least I've helped get it on Panasonic's radar.

In other news... I watched Episode III, Revenge of the Sith this evening and it lost audio and the image froze up for a few seconds in two places. When I fast reversed the playback and played the offending sections again they played fine.

I'm torn on whether these audio/video issues are being caused by mastering/replication or by players/receivers. Panasonic players are leading in the poll results while receiver brand is more evenly distributed. Hopefully Panasonic will take the reports seriously and issue a firmware update.

Mark

Am I the only one that is experiencing freezes/pauses in the video at the same time the audio drops out? Here's is what happens:

The audio disappears. A fraction of a second later the video freezes. 1-5 seconds later the video resumes (sometimes stuttering a bit before it resumes normally). Then 1-3 seconds after that the audio resumes.

If it was JUST the audio I'd be more inclined to suspect the receiver as part of the problem. But how does the receiver cause the video to pause/freeze? And sometimes the video gets pixelated. How does the receiver cause that?

Granted, my HDMI is routed through my receiver. Perhaps an appropriate test would be to route my player directly to the TV and then play known trouble spots?

I think I'll do that. When I watch Episode IV I'll try the skip to chapter 16 test that englishbob suggested. I'll try it a couple of times with the receiver in-line to confirm I'm having the issue. Then I'll try it by bypassing the receiver. Should make for an interesting test! (But it's important to note that, for me, immediately reversing (rewinding) the playback and playing a "problem" section over again seems to eliminate the problem for that section of the movie.)

If the problem goes away with the removal of the receiver I'll go back and watch the first half out of Attack of the Clones again (with receiver out of the loop).

BTW, englishbob, I can't add anymore options to the poll. The limit is 10 entries. When I created the poll I had not read any reports from Sony standalone player owners having the issue, just the PS3.

Lastly, I responded to Panasonic customer service to let them know I already have a 2GB SD card installed and to update them that I had two pause/freeze audio dropouts on Episode III. Here is their response:



When I created this poll I thought the results would mostly be limited to Panasonic players and maybe the PS3. But it's looking like every popular brand of player (except Samsung) has had problems. I think the Panasonic figures are higher simply because there are more people with Panasonic players on the forum. Ditto for Denon receivers.

My suspicion is switching to some sort of DTS authoring/mastering error on the discs themselves. I truly hope that is NOT the case. I don't envision Fox being in any kind of a hurry to replace defective discs.

Mark

Component connection directly to your TV or through your receiver?

Mark