Panasonic DMP BDT500 - Page 23

Just got done watching the Incredible Hulk with Ed Norton,this movie will put your sub woofer to the test.

I just got my 500 today. I have been wondering whether or not to let my 500 do HD audio decoding and thereby send 5.1 - 7.1 LPCM to my AVR (Yamaha RX-V663). I do have HDMI sub v. off and the LED on the front panel indicates such. Your settings suggest that you are letting the player do the decoding rather than your AVR. Correct? Looks like the benefits of letting the player decode DTS HD MA and Dolby TruHD is that it can add selected effects like dialog enhancer and 7.1 ch. audio reformatting as well as other effects. My old AVR can't do those things if it is sent bitstream HD Audio. It goes into a 'straight jacket' mode. It won't let me do anything with the decoded signal other than the usual bass management and YPAO room EQ settings. Thanks for sharing your audio settings.

Chuckg1: Thanks so much for posting these settings. I'll be able to work on this subwoofer problem this weekend and will try them out. Just to clarify: does your analog receiver accept 7.1 or 5.1? If 7.1, would you suggest any adjustments for my 5.1 receiver?

mfrank1,yes I have a 7.1 system and I'm pretty sure setting your player for 7.1 won't present a problem.Do you have an home theater set up disc ? This would help facilitate your troubleshooting.

Star Hawk,

The main feature of this player is the upgraded audio section (burr brown dacs,better capacitors,and power supply),The only way to take advantage of this is through the analog outs,plus older receivers might not have the dtsma,dolby, truehd decoders. In that case the older receiver can take a pcm downconverted hdmi signal (not bitsream) to hear the newer formats.This player has an ambiguous setup menu,but once set up its performance is terrific.

Chuckg1: I don't have a setup disc, but it does seem like it would be a good investment.

I read that Disney Wow is a good one.I also have a radioshack analog spl meter to calibrate my system.Both are relatively inexpensive but indispensable for good sound ,

Hi everyone,

I am using the 500 in a 2 channel audio analog outs for music playback, and I was wondering which outputs are the correct ones to use? The 5.1 L/R output or the rear outputs that is next to the video output?

I appreciate any help,


Thanks,
Eric

Thanks mdavej! It works great with my DTV RC65 remote. I can even change sound and picture settings on the fly on my Panasonic 500 player. I don't need the 500's touch pad remote anymore. That remote is the only bad thing I can think of that's wrong with the 500.

The separate 7th/8th RCA outs are marked as "surround rear"

For analog stereo music playback on the 500 player, AFAIK there's only one set of L/R rear RCA outs to use for your front speakers.

What makes you think that there's a 2nd set of L/R rear RCA outs to use for your front speakers?

So no noticable improvements if using hdmi for audio?

The analog outs in theory should be better (player dacs vs receiver dacs). Does your receiver have the newer decoders ( DTSMA,DOLBY TRUEHD ), if not then i would definitely use the 500
analog outs.If your receiver has hdmi inputs, the player can decode the newer formats and send them by pcm downconvert..Also if your receiver has auto room correction that should be a consideration. I would try variations and use what sounds good to you.

Why even buy the 500 if you don't intend to use analog audio? Isn't it a huge waste of money to pay for the analog section and not use it?

I just picked up my 500 yesterday. When setting up for 7.1 ch analog audio out, I came up with an issue. When I do the surround speaker test I have the following issue. All speakers with the exclusion of the sub/lfe channel works properly. The SW channel is skipped over entirely without any output. I mean that the sw output icon never even gets highlighted as if it were never going to give a test sound. Again it just skips over that channel. I can add and remove channels in the setup as i wish, and they act accordingly. No matter what changes I do in setup the test sequence will always skip over the sub woofer channel. Called Pana, after 1st tier support, I asked for tier 2. More time spent and was told I could send it in for repair. I said no way on a new unit. Now I am asked to wait for an engineer to check for the possibilities for this issue. I am running this into a sony str-da 9000es reciever. Has anyone else had this issue?

For the dual HDMI outputs so that you can use a processor or receiver without HDMI 1.4 wtih a 3D display... Build quality appears to be significantly better as well...

The setup screen that shows the speakers and sub never sends a signal to the sub. Seems that this has been true for a very long time with *many* (all?) Panasonic blu-ray players of the last 3 years.

Doesn't say much for Panasonic's telephone support service.

But it's a pretty terrific blu-ray player with 7.1 analog out with very high sound quality, and now has a street price well south of $300.

Get a DVD test disc as any decent one will test at least 5 speakers as well as the sub. Or get a blu-ray test disc if you have 7 speakers and a sub.

And if, even with a test disc, you still don't get sound from the sub, this has already become a repetitive question in this thread with the whole sub-woofer thing. So if no sound from sub, even with a test disc, see posts 567 568 569 571 578 579 580 581 582 583 586 591 for ideas.

have you heard of the 500 when using the 7.1 analog speaker setup, not providing a test tone on the SW channel? Their setup screen shows this sw channel but just skips over it and does the remainder of the channels correctly.

I have a 350 that I am moving to my second floor av room. this was the unit that the 500 is replacing. the 350 did not have this issue.

I can add a small bit to this. Food for thought, so to speak.

1st I've not used HDMI sound from this player.

For blu-ray movie 5.1 discs and "sound only" 5.1 discs (few 5.1 movies actually have great sound, whereas "sound only" discs don't seem to be as problematic as movie discs), I have used only the rear 5.1 RCA analog outs: great sound!

For stereo playback of STEREO redbook sound (quality 16/44.1 rips from CD music discs, via .flac files on an external 2.5" USB HDD) I've so far used these 3 approaches, *all* *with* *great* *sound* but some interesting "minor" differences (still thinking about it):
1. Straight from the Panasonic 500 player using it's internal DAC(s) and rear RCA L/R outs: sweet; liquid; at times a bit too loose; nonetheless my favorite at this point.
2. Panasonic 500 player using it's rear S/PDIF output (single orange RCA on the back), into an older external Bel Canto DAC3; less loose but also less sweet.
3. Panasonic 500 player using it's rear S/PDIF output (single orange RCA on the back), into a top end Benchmark DAC1 HDR; much tougher call; in between that of the 500 player itself and the BC DAC3.

So count me as a fan of the Panasonic 500 player, even all by itself.

I concur !

Others have posted the same as I did.

Check the past 4 weeks of posting in this thread.

BTW, do you ever read prior posts in a thread?

But you can get all that in a sony 790 without paying an extra hundred bucks for the analog audio. It's not really important, but I still don't understand.

The Sony 790 on amazon.com is same price as Panny 500 I purchased from same place so why would I want to do that?

I have a Panasonic 65GT50 3D TV that it is connected to so I can point remote at TV instead of blu-ray player and it still works...

Build quality appears to go to the Panasonic as well. Also I just happen to like Panasonic, particularly the BDT-500, a great deal better than Sony, specifically the 790 - is that o.k.? :-)
Edited by tonydeluce - 7/12/12 at 5:00pm

This will be my main player for my gt30. I currently have a Onkyo 805 with a Panasonic 310 connected via hdmi for audio. I need to get a new player and from what I understand the 500 has improved picture quality over the 310. My 805 has 7.1 analog inputs, so if the 500's sound through analog is better than hdmi as well, I would rather get the 500 than a 220,320 etc. What do you think? Thanks!!
Edited by Mean Gene - 7/12/12 at 3:21pm

Hi,
Looking at the manual it shows video output to tv, and the analog outputs that are right next to it being used that way. I also tried hooking it up that way, as well as the 5.1 L/R outputs, and I was getting sound out of both. That's what made me wonder as to what was the best way to connect for stereo playback.

Thanks for the response by the way,

Cheers,

Eric

500 player analog sound being "better than hdmi" seems doubtful to me.

For one thing, the fact that the 220/320 share the same F/W update with the 500. Hence they share a lot of identical circuitry and identical chips.

Besides the 7.1 analog outs, the one other thing you get with the 500 (over 220/320) is the two HDMI outs.

And the build quality of the 500 is likely also better than that of the 220/320.

That I know of, that's the complete list of benefits of the 500 over the 220/320.

AVRs are cheap. Buy a better AVR and a 220/320?

Mean Gean , I think you'll love the 500,the $100.00 difference between these players is worth it to me.The 500 is not only fast to turn on and play discs but the picture quality is tops.The unit has an attractive form factor and appears to be built solidly.The ps3 use to be the blueray player others were measured against,especially for speed,this player smokes it.
I remember when good quality players from Denon and Sony es used to be $500. and up and forum members used to think nothing of purchasing them.After years of buying high end equipment ,I consider buying a device like this for a price below $300 a steal.

Interesting that there's sound both ways.

There's no reason for me to think it might be better, so I don't plan to try it, so count me as skeptical.

I've only used L/R front outs from the tightly bunched set of 6 rear RCA analog outs.

I suggest you do the same.

I'll grant that Panasonic's 500 player setup panels are at best very confusing.

Meaning lots of ways to screw things up.

Starting with the dumb choice of "2channel(mixdown)/5.1 vs 7.1"

Talk about confusing that's #1 on my list.

Myself I use 7.1 and the analog sound is great for both stereo and MC with my 5 speaker and sub setup.

The manual writeup is confusing at best.

The telephone support is questionable, which I've so far managed to avoid.

I hear a difference between hdmi and analog and in my subjective opinion,I prefer the analog outs.I run it into a Denon 4806 receiver which has a good amp section.I know my receiver is somewhat dated but it retailed for $3500.My receiver doesn't have the newer codecs ,so that is why the 500 with its upgraded analog section is the perfect fit.The biggest turn off is the remote and obscure menu setup.I expect the player to sound better as it ages, as with most audio gear.