Official Panasonic DMP-BDT 220/320/500 Owners Thread - Page 45

It may be your disk and not the player. I have a BDP-320 and the Star Wars series contains several reference points that I typically throw at a system. I did not watch any extended portions of the disks but had no problems.

I'm perplexed, particularly since this is the only problem you have seen, especially since it does not occur at the same time on the disk.

Good luck!

Oh, gotcha. The Wii is a Slot drive and XBox is a disc drawer. Unless the 220's disc drawer is flimsy and breaks easily, it doesn't really make a difference to me. Again, this is my first Blu Ray player. I just want good PQ, good upconvert DVD, good 3D, and ability to stream Netflix. That's really about it. So, you would suggest a 220 for my needs, yes???

So far as I've ever been able to tell, the 320 offers no significant advantage over the 220. Primarily it has a different style enclosure, slot versus drawer drive and a touchpad remote. Also the "Smart Eco Sensor" which places the unit into a .1 watt standby mode until it senses someone moving around within 9 feet at which time it switches to a .3 watt "quick start" mode.

that answers my question well - think I'll go with the 220. OFF TOPIC question: I see your Screen Handle & figured I'd ask. I currently have a Linksys WRT54G router (about 4 years old). Would it be worthwhile in your opinion to upgrade to the Linksys E1200 which is getting good reviews & appears to be about 5 times faster than what I have now? It's only about $50, so I might be able to save for a couple of weeks and scrape it together if it will make a significant difference. Thanks again!

I would have concluded it was the disk. However, that doesn't add up if there are NO playback issues with my lower end, two year old Panasonic BDT100 Blu Ray player. I did this test using the exact same disk on the exact same HDMI cable into the exact same Receiver and TV as with the 320, only with my older 100 unit.

I called Panasonic Canada and was on hold several times for quite a while - the woman on the support line kept going to discuss it with someone. They would have flat out told me it was the disc, but the fact that it plays perfectly on their equipment from two years ago has them perplexed. She says the engineers will look into it. Apparently Episode IV of the Star Wars Blu Rays is well known by them as being a problematic Blu Ray, but the monkey wrench thrown in to this problem is the perfect play on the BDT 100 I was trying to replace.

I will try and swap the 320 for another 320 at the store to eliminate the possibility that I have a dud. But, mysteriously, every other Blu Ray I have thrown at it plays perfectly!

It's also concerning to hear that someone had judder from a Star Trek Nemisis DVD. Makes me wonder what is wrong with the 320s ability to process video!

Joel, I don't blame you for returning it, but it is extremely perplexing. I wish you luck, I hope the next unit is error free.

-10, yes.

S~

was planning to by a 220 soon but saw the bdt215 at costco is now down to 100!

Are any of you familiar with the 2012 Panasonics that know the major differences between the 220 and the 215?? I am concerned if the 215 and 220 differ on the tyoes of video files they can handle off an sd card.
Thanks for your help!

My Costco has the 220, not the 115 , but at the same price as Amazon.

No difference except 220/225 adds FLAC. Biggest difference is 215/210 stinks at Netflix streaming. You do realize panasonic supports very few video file types, right? You should really check out the list of supported files in the manual before buying.

I haven't been able to connect to Netflix with my 220 this week. After troubleshooting the network settings, I gave up and factory reset my player using the method described in the user manual. This worked and I was able to connect to Netflix again, although I had to completely redo all my player settings.

Has this happened to anyone else? Are there any other ways to fix this Netflix connection error that don't involve resetting the player?

I've had the 220 since early March, so I'm out of my return window. I haven't had any issues with physical media, but Netflix has been flaky and this latest problem doesn't fill me with confidence.

It's very important that you keep in mind what you've written about all your other sources.


It may very well be related to the disk, but not the way you think.


The copy protection via handshakes through the entire HDMI chain may be causing a problem with this particular disk. When a handshake is attempted and fails a retry happens. If there are enough retries then you may get the results you're seeing. Your BDT-100 most likely has a much more relaxed response to handshake request than your 2012 Panasonic 320.


I think it might be repeated requests to reverify handshakes.


I used to earn a living debugging errors. I think your conclusion about the 320 is correct.


As I said above, your Star Wars Blu Ray may have something in the Java code that's messing up handshake requests such that older equipment just keeps on sending while newer more complaint equipment tries to satisfy the crappy Java code on your disk.


I don't think any of that is relevant in your case.


Is there somewhere you can try the disk with other 2012 players, or even another 320/220?

HDMI connections can contribute to handshake problems. If you don't have one, try a 28AWG High Speed HDMI cable from some one like MonoPrice connected directly from your 320 to your display. If that works, then you'll know your normal HDMI chain may be part of the problem.

I'm suggesting a lite HDMI cable because the weight of stiff heavy gage HDMI cables can cause subtle connection problems that effect handshakes. In my opinion you can thank Hollywood for your problem and many problems that will continue to occur into the future.

In my world it does add up. See above.

By the way, I have an OPPO BDP-93 and all the installations I've done for our extended family have been with the HDMI cables I suggested. None of us have had handshake problems, but I've read about a lot of them in the OPPO threads. It's usually a disk problem and the manufacturer must release a new FW to fix the problem. In other cases it's something wrong like a marginal connection in the HDMI chain which must be perfect from the player to the display.

None of us have 2012 Blu-ray players. I don't have the new release of Star Wars but I also recall problems being reported.

Just ordered the Panasonic TC-P65VT50 Plasma which should be arriving in about two weeks. Also have the Onkyo TX-NR609 A/V Receiver, Panasonic DMP210 Blu-ray Disc Player, and a 7.1 surround system. Question: With the 2012 Panasonic upper tier Blu-ray Disc Players having better video processors (enhanced Uniphier processors), would you recommend that I upgrade to a 2012 player? And if so, which one? Plan on using the Pass-Through feature on the A/V Onkyo receiver to use the video processor in the Blu-ray player, and direct it to the VT50. That is why I ask whether I should upgrade in order to take advantage of the vp's in both the VT50 and any recommended Panasonic Blu-ray Disc player. This way I can avoid getting the 500 model with two HDMI outputs and save some money in the process. Thanks for any suggestions!

Your gear is pretty good the way it is now. If you plan to watch Bluray more than anything else, the new Uniphier chip on the 2012 models will probably make very little difference, if any. The streaming apps are improved but it depends if you are actually in these things or not. The 500 is a waste of money unless you need the double HDMI but the Onkyo will pass 3D just fine. If you really want to get something better, get the Oppo 93.

Which Sony is this, the S390? A subtitle button is a big plus. I just got a Panny 220 and I haven't messed with it a lot but what I've seen with regards to subtitles is discouraging. Turning them on/off is a PITA. I might be able to work things out with macros on my MX-700 remote. Might require some programmed pauses to get things working right, and might involve pretty annoying intrusions on the screen (i.e. the options screen displayed over the paused movie, WTF). It's hard for me to believe that Panasonic was so dense as to ignore the convenience of turning your preferred subtitle on/off with a dedicated button. I've only had my Panny 220 (from Amazon) a week, but I have to consider a return and purchase of a Sony instead because of this subtitle issue.

I'm the one who reported the problem with judder on the Star Trek: Nemesis DVD. However, I have the 220.

I have all of the older Star Trek DVDs including Star Trek: Insurrection. I'll test them out this weekend. I'm leaning towards the Nemesis disk being the issue or, as htwaits suggests, it could also be the forgiving nature of the older BD players and the not so forgiving nature of the newer BD players.

bdp s590

Which is just the S390 with 3D features, right?

All my HDMI cables are high-speed Monster cables (THX certified). Everything in my home theatre was purchased brand new last summer. Only the BDT100 and Pioneer VSX-33 were models from the previous year (new models were just coming out at the time I bought these units). I have verified everything supports the 1.4a HDMI standard. I even turned off any video processing on the receiver so it would just pass through the HDMI signal to the TV. Are you saying that heavier cables like the Monster cables could be causing the problem here?

If the 320 is tripping over itself in a hand shake frenzy, then I would imagine the Panasonic engineers can fix this with a firmware update. Certainly it sounded like Star Wars, and especially episode IV were well known at Panasonic for problems. And there are lots of reports online about various manufacturers solving problems with these Blu Rays through firmware updates.

Panasonic also mentioned that the 320 lense / laser is more sensitive to scratches / finger prints than the 100. This is disappointing - seems like a downgrade. The SW disc in question is clean with no scratches.

I have not contacted the store yet (will do that very soon) and as it is close to 30 days since buying the unit, I am not sure if they will exchange it. In the end, I may just have to buy a new HDMI cable and leave both the 100 and 320 connected. Use the 100 for Blu Rays (and maybe DVDs) and the 320 for just the extra file formats it can play from USB. Kind of a stupid end result of what I *thought* would be a great upgrade, but I would rather enjoy the movies I watch. With the 320, I am going to be scrutinizing the quality for a looooong time rather than just sitting back and enjoying my home theatre! I did mention every other Blu Ray played fine so far, but its a very small sample. Since purchasing the 320 I have not had a lot of time to watch a LOT of Blu Rays.

Reading the specs on the Sony S790 yesterday, at this point with all this frustration, if the store was willing, I might consider that swap! Although I have, until now, always had an affinity for Panasonic electronics.

My understanding is the brains of the 220 and 320 are identical. The 320 adds a sleeker design, the slot drive, and the (in my opinion useless) touch pad remote. But, anything to do with processing the video and sending it out over HDMI is identical (in Canada, the 320 does add DivX support). So I would conclude that if the 220 can't handle Nemesis, the 320 can't either. I have to find my Nemesis DVD this weekend and test it out. Do you remember what time index the problem happened?

Hi Muse, the S590 also has over the S390 ... a front display panel, an additional rear USB port and an Optical Audio Out port.

What does the S390 have in terms of getting 5.1 audio to my AV receiver? Is there nothing? My receiver will accept optical audio input. If there's no option to get 5.1 audio to my receiver with the S390, I guess I'll be looking at the S590. Thanks.

Edit: I suppose the S390 supports coaxial S/PDIF 5.1 audio out? I think I may be able to live with that. My AV receiver does not support HDMI, but does have optical and coaxial S/PDIF inputs.

Are you sure the S390 doesn't have optical audio? Here it says:

Coaxial, Optical - DTS / Dolby Digital / LPCM YES / YES / YES / YES
2ch / DTS Neo:6

It displays nothing on the front panel??

It has coax S/PDIF, but not optical. They are functionally equivalent if your AVR has a coax digital sound input.

There is no front display.

I have the Panny 220 and a Denon AVR-791 with hdmi connections. Do you think it matters to bitstream to the AVR or let the 220 do the processing? The Denon is one of their better units. Thanks for any input.

Doesn't even tell you how far you are into your movie, such as 1:37?

Yes they could be causing a problem. That's why I suggested a test cable from Monoprice that is lighter and more flexible. It's very important to reduce strain on any HDMI connection.


That's not what I wrote.

The 220/320 players, as 2012 models, are more than likely following licensing requirements from "Hollywood" that are more strict as far as handshakes are concerned. That would be true for any manufacturer. Also, If I understand correctly, the Star Wars disk causing the problem is a new release which means that it can have individual Java coding errors that trigger the problem.

Connecting the player directly to the TV as a test is a standard debugging procedure which removes as many variables as possible.


Very true, but none of them solved their individual problems over night.


I agree, but that's probably not the cause of your current problem, otherwise you would see the same problem on a lot of disks.


Disks that look clean can sometimes benefit wiping with a microfiber cloth, or even a bath with a mild detergent and drying with a microfiber cloth.


That seems to me to be an extreme solution based on a single disk. But, as you say, you keep expecting it to happen again.

I've suggested other explanations that can be tested, but you're the one who needs to get comfortable with your home theater entertainment. Best wishes.