Official Panasonic DMP-BDT 220/320/500 Owners Thread - Page 111

Thanks.
I went for the 220 and returned my Oppo as well.
IMO- SD dvd actually looks slightly better on the $109 Panasonic.
The Oppo machine looked impressive - with it's weight and nice trendy tote bag...And yes- CD's sound very nice, but at the end of the day it just didn't deliver as a $500 Blu ray player.

It looks like they changed it. When I looked before it showed a price and shipping in several weeks. Now it just asks if you want to be notified when it's available.

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMP-BDT230-Wi-Fi-Blu-Ray-Player/dp/B00AYB3OMG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362543818&sr=8-1&keywords=bdt230

My DMP-BDT220 constantly freezes and has several other issues when playing rented Blu Ray disks. Is anyone else having problems playing rentals? This happens with virtual every rental disk we try so I believe this is a player issue.

Panasonic "Customer Service" has been no help. We've followed their directions in re-setting it and so forth but no change. They maintain that it's a disk issue and refuse to do anything.

Thanks

I live in a small town so the rentals I get probably don't get used and abused as much as some might get in bigger towns. That said, I have only rented one blu ray disc that I had trouble playing and that was an older rental. That makes me wonder what condition the blu ray's are in that you rent. I also wonder if you have any trouble playing brand new blu ray discs.

I just don't see how a blu ray player manufacturer can be responsible for a player that is playing used discs when they have no way of knowing what condition they are in.

Al

Are you cleaning the discs before you play them? That should be the only difference between a rental disc and a new one. The rental disc might be dirty. I make sure every rental disc I use is clean before I stick it in any player. Some of them have been extremely dirty and I couldn't imagine sticking them in any of my BD players without being cleaned first.

I wipe them with Windex every time but it has made no difference. Most of these disks look pristine so I don't think it's the disks.

Thanks

Error correction might not be the greatest on some of these players.

I didn't know players had error correction. Is the error correction suppose to help with minor imperfections?
I have seen several post' where folks have problems with rentals and I've wondered if Panasonic has more of these problems than other brand players.

Al

Same equipment, same problem with the 220.
I switched the Pioneer output HDMI cable to input 2 on the AE-8000 and haven't the problem since.

Not sure if there is a problem with input 1 on the AE-8000 as it seemed to work on everything else,
but input 2 seems to handshake better with the Pioneer.

LM

Yes, even CD and DVD players had error correction and buffering of some sort or other to try and "fill in some of the minor gaps and glitches of the datastream," to allow the content to play through. Obviously, it wouldn't help media that was badly scratched or extremely dirty.

Blu-ray is far more susceptible to minor flaws, smudges, etc. since the pit size and density are so tightly packed.

Windex is not the best to clean discs with. Cleaners are strong bases and can eat away protective coatings. Use plain soft soap and warm water.

S~

Yeah, I can see how blu rays could be a problem. Maybe that's why they put that scratch resistant coating on them because any little scratch could cause problems on playback.

I can also see why, as teachsac replied, you shouldn't use Windex and other strong cleaners on blu rays. Not because it damages the content but because it damages the protective coating.

Now you guy's got me thinking! Oh' no!

I wonder if when people are cleaning these rental blu rays at home, with Windex and lighter fluid (lmao) and stuff, are they damaging these discs in a way that you can't really see the damage? Thus, problems with playback.

Al

FWIW, I've tried these rented disks on other players and they worked

Thanks for the tip on Windex

I have never had a playback problem with any rental disc on any of my players, Panasonic, Oppo, Sony, and even my Samsung. I get all of mine from NF. Now authoring errors is a different story all together.

S~

I assume most people around here know this already, but you never know. Clean the discs from the center outwards in a straight line. Don't clean them in a circular motion. That's for vinyl only.

I clean discs with a 50/50 mixture of water and isopropyl alcohol.

Now wait a minute, I thought that didn't apply to blu rays becuase of the protective coating on them?

Al

I have the same issue with my BDT500. I posted this in the dedicated BDT-500 thread the other day but have not received a reply:

"After agonizing between the Oppo -103 and the Panny BDT-500, I decided on the BDT-500. I have had the unit now for about a week and a half and have been extremely pleased until just the other day. For some reason I am having freezing problems with DVD disks, I am not having any problems with BD (except if Netflix), 3D or even streaming.. so far.

The DVD disks I have had issues with are; Gladiator and Master and Commander but not if I play BD. I'm also only having freezing problems and pixelization with Netflix including 3D, freezing and pixelizaton on Journey to the Edge of the Universe and Imax Hubble 3D (I'm on my second disk for Hubble as the first one would not play at all, disk showed 'disk not compatible'.

Does anyone have any ideas what could be causing this? I have the player connected directly to my Panny TC-P50ST30.


Thanks in advance".

Again, no problem at all playing blu ray disks that I own, beautiful picture, awesome color, and also no streaming issues yet. My 10 yr old Panny RP-82 player will play my older (but pristine) DVDs with no problem, but my DVDs and Netflick disks freeze up on my BDT500..

Golfgoofy,

I called Panasonic Customer Service late today and they recommended to reset my player also, and gave me the steps to reset (I believe the same steps shown in the manual) along with a Case number. Did Panasonic give you a case number by chance? Hopefully they did as it might help them track freezing complaints.

I will reset my player tonight and play a few disks that were freezing previoulsy and see if this remedies the problem. If there are no freezing issues after resetting I will go back into the video settings & make adjustments, and then play another disk or two. As I told the CS rep, if the resetting fixes the freezing problem that will fix the one problem, but would give me a new one ~ that I might not be able to adjust the player's video settings.


If the resetting does not fix the freezing problem with rentals and standard DVDs, then I will send the unit back (I have another week or so left on my 30 day return policy).

+1!

Ed

I've been cleaning discs since 1985 with just soap and water. I've never had any issue that way. I don't need to worry about wiping them in any direction because the discs don't get scratched as long as you use a soft cloth. It's always worked great with CDs, DVDs, HD DVDs, and BDs.

Is upscaling automatic or do you need to set it up?

If we play a video from a USB disk, does it upconvert automatically or is it as-is?

I have the same problem, 1080p MKVs cannot be streamed. But I have also other MKV-problems when streaming (network share) with 220 from my Buffalo LinkStation Live:

- big 720p MKV files (approx over 2GB in size) ALWAYS freeze the player on first play-attempt. The same files ALWAYS work on second attempt (after powering off the device). The file must be the same that originally freezed the player, otherwise playback is not possible and the player freezes again.
- all MKVs are very very slow to fast forward
- all MKVs sometimes freeze the player, powering off is the only option

I have had the same trouble since I purchased the player in September. Since firmware upgrades have not changed the situation at all it is unlikely these issues will ever be solved.

I picked up a WD Live TV to try out and so far it has satisfied my streaming needs, though I haven't had time to test a lot of different files/sources. If the WD continues to meet my expectations, the 220 will probably be relegated to just playing the occasional rented disc from NetFlix.

Your issues do sound like what I'm seeing, I called CS again yesterday and they said I would have to send it in for repair. Yes, CS did issue me a case #.

Well I have some good news.

After seeing aaronwt's post asking if you were cleaning the rental disks the first thing I did when I got home last night was to look at the 3D Hubble disk I have from Netflix (my second disk).
The disk had what appeared to be a film on the bottom side with what looked like small water spots or something. Looked a bit like if you were to wash a dvd disk with soap and water and let it air dry without rinsing completely.

I used a soft tissue and just a little water and cleaned the disk going from the recommended center to outer edge in a straight line. Then I put the disk it the player and to my amazement it played with no problems. I kept waiting for it to freeze up but it played flawlessly.

I would have played some other disks but I worked last last night so didn't have much time. Tonight I will clean and play some of the other disks that were freezing up and see what happens.

I own the Panasonic BDT-220 and am starting to use it sometimes for CD playback... Even though my DVD player is internet enabled...playlists from cd's never get populated.

Am I doing something wrong or does this DVD player not support that simple feature?