Panasonic DVD-S97 Firmware Thread - Page 72

Fotis_Greece,

Well, I tried installing your version of 366B but, as usual, my player just re-initialized. It looks like I am forever stuck with this firmware. Thanks for your help.

Brian

Hi,

Any new how to downgrade fro "B" version to original FW???

Is it possible nodody can help us, please????

I don't know how to contac the website where the FW was download (xperience....) to ask for downgrading. If anyone knows how to do it....

Hi. You can download it right from Panasonic Canada - Customer support - downloads.

Type "dvd" or "dmr" for the listing.

I plan to update mine from 541 very soon.

Regards.

I found 543 on the US website today while I was updating my Blu-ray firmware. You need to rename the file to DVDPUPDT.FRM before writing it to the CD (not in the instructions - arghh!) but it works and updates the player to 543. I think it's still the best standalone DVD player out there in terms of 480P performance.

The Link

Do you know what it fixes?

-t

Does anyone still have a modified firmware for this player that makes it region-free? Thanks in advance!

Yes I do have the Modified_Firmware_S97_366a_543a. Do you want it?

I am sure more people would like it including me.

On a seperate note my S97 seems to freeze a couple of times during a movie - sometimes is recover and contine after a 5-10 sec other times it ends up with "check disc". if you "bump" it it will continue..

Thanks a million! Will burn and try out later this week.

Be very very careful about getting updated Panny S97 firmware from off the Internet as many versions out there have been sabotaged (by a bitter troll named Tom) and will destroy your S97. Same with several Panny models also. However, I believe the version posted by Fotis_Greece is OK. There was also a 366B version available. Look back a page or two in this thread.

I also have the 336B version. That's what I use now. My Panny S97 is very precious to me for my 150 DVD-Audio titles and I will keep it forever.
But bear in mind it's only the 366B HW version, not the 543. So if your HW version is 543 it will not work.
When you do the firmware update tell me what version does your player show. If it shows 543 then you have 543A and that's the latest. If it shows 366 then you have 366A so then tell me to upload here the 366B to use it also.
P.S these are that guys Tom's modified firmware before starting being greedy and asking about 500 euros for further firmwares.

Thank you very much for the information and offer.

-t

I can now confirm the fw does NOT destroy your player :-) It took a few attempts to get it to take the codes, but i Finally got it. However none of my PAL discs plays anyway or rather before they showed NOPLAY, where now the display acts as the disc is playing, but there is no sound and no picture. I have tried in 480P and 720P. I have tried both region2 and regionfree. My codes are 1PN213 and the 543 version. The TV is a Pana 1080P plasma 2009 model.
Any ideas???

Should have read a little back. I attached the S97 to the Panasonic via composite and I now get sound and a distorted B/W picture, which either means the player does not process the PAL disc or it is sending out PAL to the TV and it only take NTSC. Question is what is it?? Again I have the 543 version of the HW, so this should work.

The S97 does NOT do PAL-to-NTSC conversion so if you want to play a PAL DVD you will need to have a PAL-capable TV. When you try to feed PAL into an NTSC-only TV you will get audio but the video will be all messed up (distorted, bars, noise, won't stabilize).

Fwiw, I have a bunch of PAL DVDs from the UK and they won't play properly in my S97 or S77 so I bought a Yamaha DVD player that can be made region free and has a PAL-to-NTSC converter. I think the Philips and Oppos do also.

Crap. cant believe my brand new 2009 TV doesnt take PAL input. I didnt even check as I was "sure" it would :-(

I can also confirm that Fotis's FW update file works fine. Region/RCE-free and UOP disabled now!

Hi Fortis, any chance that you could repost this file for the region free firmware on the S97, the rapidshare site is saying that the limit of ten downloads has been reached?

Yes, there you are. this will not have the download limit (I hope)

http://rapidshare.com/files/31074574..._366a_543a.zip

I have also uploaded the 366B version. This ofcourse applies to the devices with 366 hardware. So first use the modified firmware 366a-543a and then check to see what version does your player show. If it shows 543 then you have 543A and that's the latest. If it shows 366 then you have 366A so you can also apply the 366B.

http://rapidshare.com/files/31074634..._S086H366B.zip

And yes, US models cannot play PAL discs (although the hardware supports it) but European models can play both.

Just for history, all credits for these firmware go to that Tom guy who later ruined his reputation by asking 500 euros for more enhanced firmwares (which would also allow pal playback on US models).

With all this talk of bogus firmware, etc. it seems that Panasonic has made a firmware download available on their site. From what I'm reading, this wasn't the case a year or two ago. The firmware is here - http://www2.panasonic.com/consumer-e....DVD-S97S.D#ts.

Anyone know if this is the latest greatest firmware? Is it recommended? Will it work on all versions of the S97?

Sorry to bump this old thread but it's best to keep all the discussion here.

any idea:

- how to determine your current firmware version
- the date of the above firmware.

I updated mine a few years ago.

Press and hold on the player the buttons "PAUSE" + "OPEN" and press the "7" button on the remote. The full version will be displayed on the florescent read out and the last 3 numbers on the right is the version number.